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Root Help for a first time rooter??....thanks!!!

Ae111

Newbie
Sep 3, 2012
34
11
Ireland
Hi everyone,
I just joined up really but have been doin some reading on this site over the last few days. I have a HTC DesireHD with over a year now. It's my first smart phone and I think its very good. I never knew anything about rooting or that you could installnew ROM's until recently but now that I have the general idea I'd like to go ahead and root my DesireHD.

What I'd like to to is root my phone and install a stable ROM...something nice to get me started off with. I see that people recommend cynogenmod 7.2 on gingerbread which I have seen on YouTube and it looks very well. When I was also on YouTube I seem a review from Tech Junkie Reviews where he said he has cynogenmod9 with Icecream Sandwich on his DesireHD and that it is very very stable that the only thing he can find up with it is that it does'n record video in hd Hello there I'm new here and have been reading up on how to root my HTC DesireHD. I was reading jp_007 thread...so I did'n really want to start another thread being about the exact same thing...hope you don't think I'm been cheeky but is there any chance you could give me a fool proof step by step way...if you get me. It will be my first time rooting.. my phone is already sim unlocked...its on Android 2.3.5...Has HTC Sense 3 and the software number is 3.12.405.1
I'm just after something nice and basic to start me off to get the feel for Rom's and that...Any help will be greatly appreciated...thanks for reading. does'n really bother me. Have any of you guys on here had any experience with the cynogenmod9 ROM??? would you recommend??

So as this is my first time rooting any phone, what I'm really looking for is a Real STEP by STEP guide as how to go about it...how to uninstall drivers...where to downloaded the AAHK etc....basically a fool proof on how to root...up to a point anyway...I know if things go wrong its my own fault...better wrap things up now...

My phone details are
Android version 2.3.5
HTC Sense version 3
Software Number 3.12.405.1

I know ill have to downgrade just not exactly sure how to...

Any help or advice appreciated.
Kind Regards Ae111......
 
Hey Ae111 :)

Glad to see another person in the root crowd :) I'm sure you'll find lots of helpful information here at Android Forums :)

The main rooting tool that is used for Desire HD's is the Advanced Ace Hack Kit. This was made to give a complete one click rooting method that does everything for you, so that when it finishes you'll be rooted, have a custom recovery and are able to flash any ROM you like.

You can download the kit from here. It comes in a zip file and to start with you need to unzip the file, which will give you several different files inside. The first thing to do is to read the 'effen manual' (which is a .html document in the zip) which gives you a run down of what it will do and how to do it. I suggest to everyone who wants to root that they read this manual several times over, so that you are absolutely sure of what it will do and so you have a good idea of how to work it.

First, a couple of things to be wary about when using this -

- This will wipe your entire phone of all data, including apps, contacts, text messages, everything. However your SD card WILL NOT be wiped, so everything you have on there will be left as it is. You can back up your other data quite easily. SMS Backup & Restore will backup your texts to the SD card. You can choose to save all your contacts to your Google account, so when you sign back in on your phone they will automatically appear again. This should be the same for your apps, which should start downloading again when you sign in. (Note: use wifi for this!) If you would like to be extra careful though, you can use My Backup beforehand.

- If you are using Windows, you can occasionally run into some problems when running the hack kit. I'm not entirely sure what they are i'm afriad, as I used a Mac to do mine, but there are several people on here that have run it on Windows and i'm sure they can help :) If you do have access to either Mac OSX or a Linux distribution then it will make it a bit easier. There is a 'Windows Prep' section in the manual which will tell you what needs to be disabled etc before you run the hack kit.

Now, what should happen is that you run the file specified in the manual, and it will come up with the cmd window with a list of options. The first option, 1) Hack Ace will do everything. Once you press this, DO NOT touch the phone, unplug it, press any buttons etc until it finishes. In the cmd you will see everything that it is doing as it performs the commands, so you can follow it as it goes. If everything is going well, it will downgrade the firmware to a version that is rootable, root the device, and then restore the version you had before. The phone will start rebooting itself several times - this is normal, and don't panic :) Eventually it will reboot and then turn on, which means it has worked :)

If everything has gone correctly, once the phone is on, you will find an app called 'Superuser' on your phone (this app grants root permissions to apps) and there will also be 'Clockworkmod Recovery' installed as your recovery (this is accessed by turning off the phone, then holding vol- down and the power button). This is used to backup your ROM, wipe data, flash new ROMs etc. But we can get to that later.

That's all I can think about at the moment, and I think I have to go out for a bit but I will be back! This should get you started off, and then you can decide what ROM is good for you. I actually don't own the device anymore so i'm not sure about the newer ROMs, but you have a choice between Gingerbread ROMs such as Cyanogenmod 7, Android Revolution, Virtuous Affinity and many others. There are Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs such as IceColdSandwich, MIUI, Blackout, Virtuous Infinity. Then there are a few Jelly Bean ROMs (which is the newest Android Version), which I believe are quite stable now but someone else will have to let you know about those :) The go-to place for ROMs is XDA-Developers, and any ROM from this forum is ok to use. Have a look through and see what you like :)
 
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Hey Ae111 :)

Glad to see another person in the root crowd :) I'm sure you'll find lots of helpful information here at Android Forums :)

The main rooting tool that is used for Desire HD's is the Advanced Ace Hack Kit. This was made to give a complete one click rooting method that does everything for you, so that when it finishes you'll be rooted, have a custom recovery and are able to flash any ROM you like.

You can download the kit from here. It comes in a zip file and to start with you need to unzip the file, which will give you several different files inside. The first thing to do is to read the 'effen manual' (which is a .html document in the zip) which gives you a run down of what it will do and how to do it. I suggest to everyone who wants to root that they read this manual several times over, so that you are absolutely sure of what it will do and so you have a good idea of how to work it.

First, a couple of things to be wary about when using this -

- This will wipe your entire phone of all data, including apps, contacts, text messages, everything. However your SD card WILL NOT be wiped, so everything you have on there will be left as it is. You can back up your other data quite easily. SMS Backup & Restore will backup your texts to the SD card. You can choose to save all your contacts to your Google account, so when you sign back in on your phone they will automatically appear again. This should be the same for your apps, which should start downloading again when you sign in. (Note: use wifi for this!) If you would like to be extra careful though, you can use My Backup beforehand.

- If you are using Windows, you can occasionally run into some problems when running the hack kit. I'm not entirely sure what they are i'm afriad, as I used a Mac to do mine, but there are several people on here that have run it on Windows and i'm sure they can help :) If you do have access to either Mac OSX or a Linux distribution then it will make it a bit easier. There is a 'Windows Prep' section in the manual which will tell you what needs to be disabled etc before you run the hack kit.

Now, what should happen is that you run the file specified in the manual, and it will come up with the cmd window with a list of options. The first option, 1) Hack Ace will do everything. Once you press this, DO NOT touch the phone, unplug it, press any buttons etc until it finishes. In the cmd you will see everything that it is doing as it performs the commands, so you can follow it as it goes. If everything is going well, it will downgrade the firmware to a version that is rootable, root the device, and then restore the version you had before. The phone will start rebooting itself several times - this is normal, and don't panic :) Eventually it will reboot and then turn on, which means it has worked :)

If everything has gone correctly, once the phone is on, you will find an app called 'Superuser' on your phone (this app grants root permissions to apps) and there will also be 'Clockworkmod Recovery' installed as your recovery (this is accessed by turning off the phone, then holding vol- down and the power button). This is used to backup your ROM, wipe data, flash new ROMs etc. But we can get to that later.

That's all I can think about at the moment, and I think I have to go out for a bit but I will be back! This should get you started off, and then you can decide what ROM is good for you. I actually don't own the device anymore so i'm not sure about the newer ROMs, but you have a choice between Gingerbread ROMs such as Cyanogenmod 7, Android Revolution, Virtuous Affinity and many others. There are Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs such as IceColdSandwich, MIUI, Blackout, Virtuous Infinity. Then there are a few Jelly Bean ROMs (which is the newest Android Version), which I believe are quite stable now but someone else will have to let you know about those :) The go-to place for ROMs is XDA-Developers, and any ROM from this forum is ok to use. Have a look through and see what you like :)

Thanks again for your help..what I'll do is download the AAHK when I get home this evenin and read the 'effen manual' as you suggested...and I'll be back then with a better knowledge then hopefully...probly more questions to ha. thanks again
 
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Hi....ok tonight I went ahead and rooted my phone...all straigt forward enough...once you read vie effen manual over n over ha...the slowst part was vie downgrading process...the super user app and another one called busy box were then installed on vie phone but the one thing I can't seem to do is get the phone into recovery mode to check if the clockworkmod recovery is these....can someone give box help on this?? I have tried turning off my phone then holding down the minus volume key and vie power button....but noting happens and once I let go of either button the phone just turns it self on...hope that's makes sense.....cheers and thanks again especially too....CDPlant....genuinely very helpful....
 
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Thanks ral...unselecting the fast boot worked and I was to enter the clockworkmod recovery. So all is well with my phone now and its definitely ROOTED....so now that I'm half way there, the next thing for me is guess is finding a new ROM and flashing it onto my phone....Could someone guide me through that step by step process....thanks again to everyone who helped so far...
 
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No problem ral.

What I now want to do is flash a new ROM...

The ROM I want is is IceColdsandwich 8.6.1

Can someone please give me a step by step guide from downloading the ROM to my computer and where to move it to on my SD card....

I'm ready to go now so any help greatly appreciated...cheers
 
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ICS 8.6.1 is a excellent choice I think. It is stable and has very few issues. The ROM you want is here at this link.

1. Download the ROM (assuming you have not done so yet). This ROM already contains Google apps so you do not need anything else other than the ROM.

2. Check the md5sum after you download the ROM to make sure that the file downloaded is not corrupted. I am on a Mac so I use a program called Hash Drop to do this.

3. If you use Titanium Backup or other backup utility you may want to backup your apps, SMS and other data,

4. Place the zip file in the root of your SD card. Basically, just copy the file the SDcard, not in a folder or anything. Leave it in zip format.

5. Check the md5sum again after transferring it to your SDCard. I use Root Explorer to do this. You can probably also do it using CWM once in recovery.

6. Reboot into recovery.

OKAY... I use 4Ext but it is similar to CWM.

7. Create a Nandroid back-up. This will act as a back-up. Anything goes wrong with the flash and you can restore the back-up. The goal is to install ICS, but the Nandroid back-up serves as a known stable environment you can go back to if needed.

In recovery, select backup or create backup.

8. When the back-up is done lets do a full wipe. Using CWM

- Wipe Data/factory reset
- Wipe Cache
- Wipe Dalvik

9. After that, select the Install From Zip file option and select the ROM you downloaded.

10. One install is done reboot.

Will be online watching this thread.
 
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No problem ral.

What I now want to do is flash a new ROM...

The ROM I want is is IceColdsandwich 8.6.1

Can someone please give me a step by step guide from downloading the ROM to my computer and where to move it to on my SD card....

I'm ready to go now so any help greatly appreciated...cheers

Right here goes mate, first you need to set the rom downloading from here [ROM]31-08-2012 | IceColdSandwich - 8.6.1 - AOKP | THE RESURRECTION BEFORE DEATH ED. - xda-developers. Whilst that is downloading, reboot into clockworkmod and scroll down to backup and restore, select that and then go ahead and choose backup. When that has finished, reboot your phone and copy the downloaded rom zip to the root of your SD card (not in any folders), making sure that the md5 sums match up. After that, reboot into clockworkmod, scroll down to wipe data/factory reset after that choose wipe cache partition, after that scroll down to advanced and choose that, and then wipe the dalvik cache. Now go back to the main menu, and scroll down to install zip from SD card, then choose zip from SD card and find the rom zip you copied across, and then select it. Then reboot the phone. When installing a "fresh" rom, boot up times may take longer than you're used to, so be patient mate. Could take up to ten mins.
Think that's it, if i have missed anything, someone please add to it.
Any trouble mate, just post back. :)
 
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Hey guys sorry only get back to ye now. I followed yer advice and everything went fine, in fact it was real easy. I actually did make sure that I had a full battery before I started to be on the safe side but it only took 10mins at most which I was delighted with. So the end result is that I'm now running IceColdSandwich and have t say that so far it is very good...its like having a new phone to be honest..I'm very happy I'm rooted and now with a new rom aswell. So I just want to say thanks again to everyone who helped me out. I could not of done it without yer advice which was spot on.....cheers. One more little question,hope its not a stupid one.....but what happens if I want to change my memory in the future....is it straight forward or.....I'm just a little paranoid to go near anything really.

Thanks again.
 
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Thanks for posting your status. We love to know how things went.

One more little question,hope its not a stupid one.....but what happens if I want to change my memory in the future

I assume by memory your are referring to the SDCard, and your concern is that you will loose the Gold Card which unlocked your phone?

Let me look it up and see what I can dig up when I get back later. Interested to know the answer mysel.

With luck someone will drop by and tell us :D
 
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not much more to add,other than toss out an app to use for md5 summing on the phone. scary aliens android file verifier is a great app to use for this,and was created by our very own moderator scary alien. he is an awsome developer and always goes the extra mile to help folks here on the forum. definately check out the app (shameless plug over :D)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsInNhLmFmdiJd

Ae111 welcome to the wonderful world of root and flashing roms :smokingsomb:
 
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Yes ral memory card is what I meant and yes the gold card thing is what I was on about...if I remove the memory card for whatever reason ie..a different one I have an 8gb one at the moment but in time I want to change this for a bigger memory card what will happen??? Thanks for the welcome Scotty85 and hopefully all my rom adventures from now on will be ad smooth sailing as this my first experience was.

Cheers guys (",)
 
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Yes ral memory card is what I meant and yes the gold card thing is what I was on about...if I remove the memory card for whatever reason ie..a different one I have an 8gb one at the moment but in time I want to change this for a bigger memory card what will happen??? Thanks for the welcome Scotty85 and hopefully all my rom adventures from now on will be ad smooth sailing as this my first experience was.

Cheers guys (",)

I am still on my 8GB card too. Problem with rooting with AAHK, is it automates the process so much that I did not appreciate the significance of a lot of what I was doing. Let's see if I can figure out his issue.
 
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I am still on my 8GB card too. Problem with rooting with AAHK, is it automates the process so much that I did not appreciate the significance of a lot of what I was doing. Let's see if I can figure out his issue.


Oops,I missed the gold card question this morning,sorry guys... :eek:

The.function of.a.gold.card is to bypass the CID checks that would normally prevent the flashing of a different carriers ruu. It's needed for the branded DHDs to flash the unbranded downgrade firmware.

After the root process the phone is.superCIDed,so removing the gold card is.perfectly acceptable.

You are free to swap out your sd/gold card at any time for a bigger one. My goldcard is a small 1 gb sd... I only use it for rooting purposes and.then put.the phones real.sd back in :)
 
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Oops,I missed the gold card question this morning,sorry guys... :eek:

The.function of.a.gold.card is to bypass the CID checks that would normally prevent the flashing of a different carriers ruu. It's needed for the branded DHDs to flash the unbranded downgrade firmware.

After the root process the phone is.superCIDed,so removing the gold card is.perfectly acceptable.

You are free to swap out your sd/gold card at any time for a bigger one. My goldcard is a small 1 gb sd... I only use it for rooting purposes and.then put.the phones real.sd back in :)

Much better explanation! Cheers Scotty!! :)
 
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