Root new world phone capabilities

[scotty85]

those of you that wish to travel outside the us may find this of interest:

[Update: Global Confirmed] Big Verizon HTC Rezound 4.03.605.1 OTA Update Rolling Out, Bringing Global Capabilities [Installation Instructions]

 

[Aveamantium]

those of you that wish to travel outside the us may find this of interest:

[Update: Global Confirmed] Big Verizon HTC Rezound 4.03.605.1 OTA Update Rolling Out, Bringing Global Capabilities [Installation Instructions]

Scotty,

Are you seeing any reason to flash this to get the new radios for use here in the US? I'm S-Off so I could probably just wait until the radios become available and flash them in recovery but I'd prefer to flash the ruu and then go back to Nils Sense 4 just to make sure I'm fully up to date.

Love'n Nils Sense 4 by the way!! :smokingsomb:

 

[scotty85]

Scotty,

Are you seeing any reason to flash this to get the new radios for use here in the US? I'm S-Off so I could probably just wait until the radios become available and flash them in recovery but I'd prefer to flash the ruu and then go back to Nils Sense 4 just to make sure I'm fully up to date.

Love'n Nils Sense 4 by the way!! :smokingsomb:

im not 100% sure the radios will work without the rest of the rom... i flashed the firmware portion of the update earlier and my phone ceased to boot

ive got the OTA running now,so ill try and see if there are any percievable differences,then ill try and flash a rom later tonite or tomoro and make sure there are no firmware incompatibilities. it could have been just a wierd concidence that the not booting occured after the firmware flashing

if your s-off,go ahead and flash the firmware inside OTAPkg. just have an ruu handy if you have trouble

id prolly advise the s-on crowd to give it a few days.

 

[scotty85]

doh! *smacks forehead*

ok,i didnt notice the firmware contained a new boot image. no wonder it wouldnt boot

since youre s-off,you can prolly flash this one without any issue(make a backup just i case,tho. i havent flashed it yet,im still running the whole rom):
PH98IMG-firmware-4.03.605.1.zip

md5: PH98IMG-firmware-4.03.605.1.zip f7389cf5f04fff969c7726c4c818b832

this one has the boot image and stock recovery removed.

 

[Aveamantium]

I might wait to see if there are any tangible benefits to flashing the firmware.zip file... Let us know if you see any benefits (outside of the global radio)!!

 

[obscuro]

Please let us know if you notice anything significant about the phone. The only time I have ever been out of the country was last year to Aruba for my honeymoon, and my phone worked OK there (through some sort of workaround). Don't plan to go out of the US anytime soon so I'm not in a rush just to flash for world phone capabilities.

Ok, I know you said it is possible to flash firmware while S-On...but can you also flash radios while S-on and if so, do you do PH98IMG or custom recovery?

 

[scotty85]

as far as the rom goes,the only thing i notice visually is a slightly nicer keyboard. as far as the firmware, i watched my signal widget most of the day and it didnt seem much different,but its hard to say. there could be "under the hood" benefits that make data more stable,stronger,etc. maybe even run cooler


i didnt have my usual amount of voice calls,but i had prolly more than the normal amount of pestering,so the screen was on alot,and i stll managed to get over 10 hours on the battery. this is way better than ive ever had with any stock 3.6 rom,ever! its actually still not dead-got about 9% left

i dont know where the refinements are,rom,firmware,or both,but something is better with this build than previous.

so here are my thots:
-if youre stock rooted,i think you want to do this update. to me it seems better.
-id encourage anyone whose s-off to go ahead and give the firmware a try,especially if you haveing any sort of data/signal/heat issue.
-if your s-on and a flash-o-holic,then the choice is a lil tougher. the newer firmware is prolly better and worth having. there is a very slim change that the s-off method wont work anymore,but i doubt it. im fairly certain youre safe in that aspect,but anythings possible.

this isnt a leak,so i think yall are ok to go ahead and update it.

if you just want firmware:
s-off
-flash the file i linked above
s-on
-extract firmware. put it in mini-adb_vigor folder
-fastboot boot amon. make a backup
-adb reboot bootloader
-fastboot erase cache
-fastboot oem rebootRUU
-fastboot flash zip firmware.zip
(it will fail for with pre-update flush again immediately error).
-fastboot flash zip firmware.zip
(it will finish)
when its done:
-fastboot reboot-bootloader
-fastboot boot amon
-restore backup
-reboot

doing it that way will put your kernel back,so the phone will boot(the prollem i had was the incompatible kernel it installed)

alternately,could fastboot flash the boot image from the rom youre running after the firmware flash. . that would work too or even just use amon to restore the 'boot' partition may work also

the jist of this transfer of information is that youll need to replace the boot image after the firmware flash.

 

[al23]

Hi Scotty: so if i follow this correctly, I can install the firmware and restore Nils business sense. I would then have the custom rom I want with global roaming capabilities.

The s-off instructions are so easy I am tempted to go s-off. I haven't made the plunge as I liked the security of not truly having the ability to screw up my phone

 

[scotty85]

Hi Scotty: so if i follow this correctly, I can install the firmware and restore Nils business sense. I would then have the custom rom I want with global roaming capabilities.

The s-off instructions are so easy I am tempted to go s-off. I haven't made the plunge as I liked the security of not truly having the ability to screw up my phone

nope,no global capilities until nils adds them to his rom. its a combo of the software and fimrware that allow it to work-simply installing the rom,or the firmware,without the other doesnt get you gobal capabilities.

 

[al23]

Thanks for clarifying.

 

[obscuro]

Appreciate the instructions. I thought I was going to have to run the full ruu...Im staying on neomax, but im going to try the new firmware out with it. Appreciate ya scotty!

 

[scotty85]

Appreciate the instructions. I thought I was going to have to run the full ruu...Im staying on neomax, but im going to try the new firmware out with it. Appreciate ya scotty!

no prollem. let us know how it works out

 

[obscuro]

Note to others, you have to re-name the firmware download Scotty linked to above to firmware.zip before flashing, otherwise it will give a FAIL message.

EDIT: I thought I had it working, but I was actually flashing an old firmware.zip. Here's what I get when I try to to the fastboot flash zip firmware.zip Comparing the zip info between this and an older firmware.zip, the only difference is the mainver...do I need to flash setmainverlow?

EDIT2: I tried flashing setmainverlow before flashing firmware, same result. I have fastboot on in Settings.app, do I need to turn that off or does it matter? I just restored my backup for now until I get further advice from you, Scotty. Amon Ra was giving me some weird errors, like can't find recovery log, /dev/*** file already exists. Kinda made me nervous

MD5 (firmware.zip) = f7389cf5f04fff969c7726c4c818b832

sending 'zip' (24607 KB)...
OKAY [ 3.297s]
writing 'zip'...
(bootloader) zip header checking...
(bootloader) zip info parsing...
FAILED (remote: 99 unknown fail)
finished. total time: 4.921s

 

[scotty85]

Are you trying to flash the one from post 4? If so,that's the cause of your failed error.

You need to unzip otapkg and use firmware.zip that's inside

 

[scotty85]

You'll also need to be relocked(I.forgot that part )

 

[obscuro]

Are you trying to flash the one from post 4? If so,that's the cause of your failed error.

You need to unzip otapkg and use firmware.zip that's inside

*Kicks self -- you are not S-OFF, duh! *

You'll also need to be relocked(I.forgot that part )

** mumble mumble ** now you tell me, Scotty... **grumble grumble **

Note to self: You re-lock by doing 'fastboot oem lock.'

EDIT: Ok, so here's the revised instructions to flash the new firmware for S-On folks who want to keep their ROM. I can confirm that these work. Make sure you use the firmware.zip that's found inside OTApkg.zip (new world phone update). And make sure you backup /boot, /system, /data and /cache for your current ROM. You may lose some data on the internal SD card by locking and unlocking your phone for this process.

s-on
-extract firmware. put it in mini-adb_vigor folder
-fastboot boot amon. make a backup
-adb reboot bootloader
-fastboot erase cache
-fastboot oem lock
-fastboot oem rebootRUU
-fastboot flash zip firmware.zip
(it will fail for with pre-update flush again immediately error). So do it again -->
-fastboot flash zip firmware.zip
(it will finish)
when its done:
-fastboot reboot-bootloader
-fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
-pull the battery and replace. Hold down volume down button plus power button to boot into hboot, then fastboot mode.
-fastboot boot amon ra
-restore full backup
-reboot
-Thank Scotty85

 

[scotty85]

*Kicks self -- you are not S-OFF, duh! *



** mumble mumble ** now you tell me, Scotty... **grumble grumble **

sorry

Note to self: You re-lock by doing 'fastboot oem lock.'

EDIT: Ok, so here's the revised instructions to flash the new firmware for S-On folks who want to keep their ROM. I can confirm that these work. Make sure you use the firmware.zip that's found inside OTApkg.zip (new world phone update). And make sure you backup /boot, /system, /data and /cache for your current ROM. You may lose some data on the internal SD card by locking and unlocking your phone for this process.

s-on
-extract firmware. put it in mini-adb_vigor folder
-fastboot boot amon. make a backup
-adb reboot bootloader
-fastboot erase cache
-fastboot oem lock
-fastboot oem rebootRUU
-fastboot flash zip firmware.zip
(it will fail for with pre-update flush again immediately error). So do it again -->
-fastboot flash zip firmware.zip
(it will finish)
when its done:
-fastboot reboot-bootloader
-fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
-pull the battery and replace. Hold down volume down button plus power button to boot into hboot, then fastboot mode.
-fastboot boot amon ra
-restore full backup
-reboot
-Thank Scotty85

awsome sauce! couldnt have said it better

i wish there was a more elegant way to get from re-unlocking to bootloader,but i cannot think of one. just make sure youre giving it enuff time to be booting,and not unlocking,if that makes sense.

 

[obscuro]

sorry

awsome sauce! couldnt have said it better

i wish there was a more elegant way to get from re-unlocking to bootloader,but i cannot think of one. just make sure youre giving it enuff time to be booting,and not unlocking,if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does. It was actually kinda fun: you gave me the roadmap, I got stuck a few times, but that's how you learn.

One thing that's important for anyone who tries this S-On is to restore a full nandroid after unlocking. Just restoring the /boot part won't cut it. Your Rom will be there but your data won't be. I bootlooped because I exited neomax setup and it doesn't have Rosie launcher so I was stuck with just a notification bat LOL.

I also lost a lot of my family pictures, which I thought were safe on the sdcard but got deleted in relocking/unlocking. Only about half of them were manually backed up.

You better believe I turned on google+ auto picture syncing after that! Never again I hope.

 

[scotty85]

great info for s-on updating. :smokingsomb:

sorry you lost your pictures... were the ones you lost accidentally saved to internal storage instead of the sd? the sd definately should be safe... ive never lost anything from it.

 

[obscuro]

They were *definitely* on /sdcard/ext_sd/DCIM. I had a couple hundred pics and some HD vids so there's no way they were on phone storage.

I did notice there is a 600+ MB file in a directory called LOST.DIR...sometimes I accidentally unplug my phone from USB cable without ejecting device from the desktop. I know that's a no-no but it happens.

I've never lost pics from a camera sdcard by unplugging too soon, but I wonder if my pics got moved to LOST.DIR? Can u help me research whether it is possible to browse/extract/hack those files? I searched google play just now and got nothing. I would really like those pics back, some of them were from my sister's wedding...

Thanks in advance!

 

[scotty85]

They were *definitely* on /sdcard/ext_sd/DCIM. I had a couple hundred pics and some HD vids so there's no way they were on phone storage.

I did notice there is a 600+ MB file in a directory called LOST.DIR...sometimes I accidentally unplug my phone from USB cable without ejecting device from the desktop. I know that's a no-no but it happens.

I've never lost pics from a camera sdcard by unplugging too soon, but I wonder if my pics got moved to LOST.DIR? Can u help me research whether it is possible to browse/extract/hack those files? I searched google play just now and got nothing. I would really like those pics back, some of them were from my sister's wedding...

Thanks in advance!

hmm,now this is interesting... your external sd is /sdcard2

i navigated to /sdcard/ext_sd and found all the same stuff there

sdcard is the internal storage,so is ext_sd populating itself from sdcard2?

have you navigated to /sdcard2/DCIM and looked to see if your pics and videos are maybe there?

 

[obscuro]

hmm,now this is interesting... your external sd is /sdcard2

i navigated to /sdcard/ext_sd and found all the same stuff there

sdcard is the internal storage,so is ext_sd populating itself from sdcard2?

have you navigated to /sdcard2/DCIM and looked to see if your pics and videos are maybe there?

Good news! One of the side-effects of me being so click-happy when software asks me if I want to import/export something, is that I had recently imported my photos and videos into iPhoto!!!

But definitely a word of caution to anyone who flashes roms a lot. A lot of times when I unplug without ejecting, it's because I have the sdcard mounted in custom recovery, so it isn't always obvious/apparent to me that I've still got it mounted. Plus, like I said, I unplug my camera without ejecting every now and then and I've never had pictures corrupted.

The Android sdcard is a little more prone to corruption. I did some basic homework and found out that some people have had success just browsing the LOST.DIR files in windows explorer or Mac finder, or using a data recovery tool. But I'm glad I didn't have to go there.

 

[scotty85]

Awesome! Glad you got them back. So your issue was unplugging without ejecting first? Hopefully this Info helps some others

 

[Crankster64]

Quick question. I'm S-off runing the OTA version from Adnroid police. If I flash this will it take my phone back to stock with no apps like the ICS flash did. Sort of painfull installing and setting up my apps all the time.

Thanks!

 

[obscuro]

Two options:

1) Make a nandroid app before you flash, flash the new firmware then restore just the /data partition of your nandroid

2) use titanium backup to backup all user apps before flashing. Make sure the backup location is on /sdcard2. Flash the new firmware, restore your user apps plus data using titanium backup's batch mode.