Help PM Repost And Assistance From Other Rezound'ers

[Bohlareon]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on the forum. The post might get lengthy but I'm going to do my best to shorten it. The attempted short version:

I got my Rezound in March coming from the original Droid 1 from Motorola. My 2 years were up and I wanted a 4G phone. After doing my research on what I wanted, the Rezound and all it offered seemed like the best deal. Phone's been nothing short of amazing but during the beginning of Summer through August I heard ICS was dropping and each week I anxiously awaited it to come to my phone. I've checked for the update on my phone each week yet I still hold at Android Version 2.3.4, HTC Sense 3.5.

That being said, I was trying to hold off on rooting my phone until after I had it a year, but if I'm not getting updates correctly, I figure I do it myself. I followed the HTC Dev directions to unlock bootloader, but even they were a bit vague at points. Doing a search, I found Scotty's amazing guides:

scottys-noob-friendly-root-guide-start-finish

and

htc-rezound-all-things-root-guide-updated-2-12-2012

*EDIT* New to forums can't post links, so I just abbreviated the names above.

Unfortunately I still got stuck at a few points and I reached out to him via PM. Scotty was kind enough to reply back but let me know it'd be better to post it on the forum so he could not only respond to me, but others could see it as well. I'm reposting my questions to him and my answers, trimming as much of what would be redundant out. Afterwards, I'm going to counter back with more questions. I'm determined to do this and feel comfortable through and through. Thank you all for your patience reading this and on with the show:

<Edited intro to Scotty and everything mentioned in my initial above post>

I took your advice and didn't flash the boot image, but did the temporary recovery with the "recovery.img" image. It's where I get to #3 in your guide that I'm kind of stumped. I know it was a bit lengthy but I wanted to lay out my situation before hitting you with questions, so here they are:

1 - Is it possible to root my stock ROM, just to have it rooted and remove all the bloatware? yes. flashing superSU roots your stock rom. you can freeze or delete bloat,and modify other system files that you would not normally have access to

What's the recommendation for flashing superSU? The noob friendly guide in Step 3, I got to backing up my stock unrooted phone, but not quite sure where or what to flash superSU with. I'd like to root my phone and clean it up as my own, then back it up as how I want it before applying new ROMs etc.

2 - Does it mean I won't receive ICS if I still continue to wait for it? you should have allready recieved it. the offical ICS update was to build number 3.14.605.12. we have had a second update,since then,taking ICS to build number 4.03.605.2,wich also added "world phone"(gsm) capabilities

It bums me out that I haven't gotten it pushed out to me yet when folks like Scotty have not only got it, but have had it updated. Is there something I'm not doing right with my phone? Is going through the phone for the update not advised? Can Verizon do anything to push out the update from their store, etc?

3 - Does installing a different ROM that's already Rooted "root" my phone? yup.

4 - S-OFF and Rooted are synonymous, correct? not really. s-off just means that the secure flag is off,disabling the phone from doing security checks that would normally:
-prevent the install of files not signed by htc
-prevent various partitions from being modified(example,install a custom recovery or splash screen)
-flash older software build numbers(you can normally only flash the same software youre on,or newer)

being rooted simply means having access to system files that are normally inaccessible. phones can be rooted,but s-on,or s-off and not rooted.

The instructions thereafter make me very cautious about pulling the trigger on any of this until I get a little more explanation.

I looked at a couple other posts of yours and you recommended NEWTs. When I found it, there's like 6 different things to download, I'm looking to download the most current ICS image, is NeWts-OnE-XxX-S4-RC3-Signed- it? im not sure about this. its actually been quite some time since ive run newts rom. there are roms to chose from based on the most current software(4.03.605.2) but youll need the firmware as well to have global capabilities.

It looks I need to get my stuff updated before proceeding forth, any help you guys/gals can provide to get me up to par would be greatly appreciated.

 

[acejavelin]

So what is the end result you want? To be on the latest OTA, the latest RUU leak, or a custom ROM?

If you want to root just to get rid of bloatware, that is not needed in ICS, you can disable almost all embedded applications although there a few things that root can still give you (htclinkifydispatcher remover and other stuff).

 

[Bohlareon]

So what is the end result you want? To be on the latest OTA, the latest RUU leak, or a custom ROM?

If you want to root just to get rid of bloatware, that is not needed in ICS, you can disable almost all embedded applications although there a few things that root can still give you (htclinkifydispatcher remover and other stuff).

Hi Ace and thanks for the reply. End result is to be on the latest OTA (which if I'm correct on my acronyms means the official carrier release's latest update for a particular phone), which in my case would be ICS 4.03.605.2.

Even looking it up online, RUU still confuses me as to what it exactly is. Back in my OG Droid days, it would have been something like ROM Manager right? From reading Scotty's guide, you can still use it, but it doesn't look like it's that great for the Rezound phone (I could be wrong though). Is there a preferred RUU for the Rezound?

I do want to eventually get to a custom ROM, but I wanted to take baby steps and root my stock ROM phone, wipe out the bloatware, then

1 - Make a backup of my phone bloatware free on stock rooted ROM
2 - Upgrade to ICS' latest version on my phone so it's an ICS bloatware free phone.

I think I'm saying everything right here, please feel free to advise and correct.

Thanks again!

 

[acejavelin]

Hi Ace and thanks for the reply. End result is to be on the latest OTA (which if I'm correct on my acronyms means the official carrier release's latest update for a particular phone), which in my case would be ICS 4.03.605.2.

Even looking it up online, RUU still confuses me as to what it exactly is. Back in my OG Droid days, it would have been something like ROM Manager right? From reading Scotty's guide, you can still use it, but it doesn't look like it's that great for the Rezound phone (I could be wrong though). Is there a preferred RUU for the Rezound?

I do want to eventually get to a custom ROM, but I wanted to take baby steps and root my stock ROM phone, wipe out the bloatware, then

1 - Make a backup of my phone bloatware free on stock rooted ROM
2 - Upgrade to ICS' latest version on my phone so it's an ICS bloatware free phone.

I think I'm saying everything right here, please feel free to advise and correct.

Thanks again!

The latest official release for the Rezound is 3.14.605.12, the "Global Mode Leak" (4.3.605.2) is not official and likely will not receive further OTA updates from Verizon, but it is more stable and has lots of bug fixes over the official release... however an official OTA update is expected "soon".

An "RUU" is actually a misnomer (it is actually an executable image that is run from your PC to update your phone, but we haven't seen one for the Rezound for some time), but it is the commonly used for a ZIP file that is a complete firmware image released/leaked by HTC. When you load one it completely reflashes the phone to that release and returns it to a default state, including removing all rooting, S-OFF, unlocking, or custom bootloader. It contains radios, hboot, firmware, and everything else for the phone, it essential gives the phone a clean slate to start from. It is not bad in itself, you just need to be aware that if wipes absolutely everything, it is actually a pretty good way to go if you are not familiar with Amon Ra and flashing stuff like kernels, radios, hboot and stuff individually.

Currently the preferred "RUU" (factory firmware image) is split about 50/50 among people who manually update with some using the official one for the ability to receive future OTA update, or the global link for specific needs, fixes, or just to be the latest. Personally I have one on 3.14.605.12 and one on 4.3.605.2, I honestly don't see much of a difference, perhaps a little better battery life and runs somewhat cooler on the 4.3 version.

In ICS you can Disable just about any application that is in the firmware, it is an embedded feature of ICS... I would actually recommend NOT uninstalling any of the bloatware or other stuff in the phone as it might cause future OTA updates to fail, but it should be fine if they are just disabled.

As far as a real backip, there are lots tools to do this but almost all require root access, which is fairly simple on the Rezound and there are lots of guides to do it, basically you just unlock via the HTCdev website, flash in Amon Ra or TWRP, and flash in SuperSU and it's a done deal. From this point many custom ROMs are pretty easy as they include Amon Ra installer scripts which automate most of the process for you.

From here there is one more step you can do, going S-OFF, which essentially removes any security checks the phone has to stop you from bricking it at all.

One word of advice though, if you are unlocked, NOT S-OFF, and are not using a stock bootloader (hboot), you can potentially brick your phone by installing an RUU... so if you unlock, do not S-OFF, install a custom bootloader, and want to go back to a full stock RUU for some reason, you must manually relock first (lots of tutorials out there, it is a simple process).

Anyway, doing stuff like this is not difficult on the Rezound, but it is very different than the Motorola or Samsung...

Hope this helps some and doesn't make things more confusing for you.

 

[Bohlareon]

The latest official release for the Rezound is 3.14.605.12, the "Global Mode Leak" (4.3.605.2) is not official and likely will not receive further OTA updates from Verizon, but it is more stable and has lots of bug fixes over the official release... however an official OTA update is expected "soon".

What's the best way to get the official release if it won't pull it via the manual update on the phone itself?

An "RUU" is actually a misnomer (it is actually an executable image that is run from your PC to update your phone, but we haven't seen one for the Rezound for some time), but it is the commonly used for a ZIP file that is a complete firmware image released/leaked by HTC. When you load one it completely reflashes the phone to that release and returns it to a default state, including removing all rooting, S-OFF, unlocking, or custom bootloader. It contains radios, hboot, firmware, and everything else for the phone, it essential gives the phone a clean slate to start from. It is not bad in itself, you just need to be aware that if wipes absolutely everything, it is actually a pretty good way to go if you are not familiar with Amon Ra and flashing stuff like kernels, radios, hboot and stuff individually.

Currently the preferred "RUU" (factory firmware image) is split about 50/50 among people who manually update with some using the official one for the ability to receive future OTA update, or the global link for specific needs, fixes, or just to be the latest. Personally I have one on 3.14.605.12 and one on 4.3.605.2, I honestly don't see much of a difference, perhaps a little better battery life and runs somewhat cooler on the 4.3 version.

I believe I'm using the official RUU per Scotty's guide, so I can still receive OTA updates (although it feels like I'm not getting official OTA pushes out to my phone)

In ICS you can Disable just about any application that is in the firmware, it is an embedded feature of ICS... I would actually recommend NOT uninstalling any of the bloatware or other stuff in the phone as it might cause future OTA updates to fail, but it should be fine if they are just disabled.

Noted, I was looking to get rid of games preinstalled on the phone mostly, I don't plan on playing "Let's Play Golf" or "Need for Speed", figure I could free up the memory that way.

As far as a real backip, there are lots tools to do this but almost all require root access, which is fairly simple on the Rezound and there are lots of guides to do it, basically you just unlock via the HTCdev website, flash in Amon Ra or TWRP, and flash in SuperSU and it's a done deal. From this point many custom ROMs are pretty easy as they include Amon Ra installer scripts which automate most of the process for you.

From here there is one more step you can do, going S-OFF, which essentially removes any security checks the phone has to stop you from bricking it at all.

One word of advice though, if you are unlocked, NOT S-OFF, and are not using a stock bootloader (hboot), you can potentially brick your phone by installing an RUU... so if you unlock, do not S-OFF, install a custom bootloader, and want to go back to a full stock RUU for some reason, you must manually relock first (lots of tutorials out there, it is a simple process).

Anyway, doing stuff like this is not difficult on the Rezound, but it is very different than the Motorola or Samsung...

Hope this helps some and doesn't make things more confusing for you.

It didn't confuse me more, all of this was pretty well explained, it's just all still very new to me and I'm soaking in all the different terminology. Going from here, I need to figure out a way to get the OTA ICS on my phone. Should I flash the OTA release or ask Verizon about it or is the rollout still going on?

 

[acejavelin]

This is the "official" release in full RUU ZIP format: [Exclusive Download] HTC Rezound Ice Cream Sandwich RUU For Final OTA (3.14.605.12)

The official rollout should be complete, or at least 99.99% complete... What does your phone say if you try to the OTA update via the Settings-Software Update-Check new menu? Does it return a response of "Finish - No new software update available" or does it just do nothing? In the Settings-Software Information menu, what is your current Software Number?

Actually removing Let's Golf, Need for Speed and other applications from the firmware won't actually free up anything you can use, that space in the phone is reserved for the firmware so if you remove the apps, you still don't gain anything you can actually use for something else.

 

[Bohlareon]

This is the "official" release in full RUU ZIP format: [Exclusive Download] HTC Rezound Ice Cream Sandwich RUU For Final OTA (3.14.605.12)

I've gone to the link and at the bottom, I see the disclaimer that it won't work if I unlocked my bootloader, which I have. Should I set it back to being locked, do this update then unlock it?

The official rollout should be complete, or at least 99.99% complete... What does your phone say if you try to the OTA update via the Settings-Software Update-Check new menu? Does it return a response of "Finish - No new software update available" or does it just do nothing? In the Settings-Software Information menu, what is your current Software Number?

When I "Check Now", my 4G kicks in (if I'm wifi, or just connects if i'm out of wifi), it looks like it communicates for a second, then puts me back at the "Status/Check Now" screen. I don't get any "No new software update available" message.

My Software Number = 1.02.605.6

Actually removing Let's Golf, Need for Speed and other applications from the firmware won't actually free up anything you can use, that space in the phone is reserved for the firmware so if you remove the apps, you still don't gain anything you can actually use for something else.

Well...gah...good to know, I guess it's time to get my Rezound all ICS'ed out. Thanks again for your prompt reply above and your help.

 

[acejavelin]

I've gone to the link and at the bottom, I see the disclaimer that it won't work if I unlocked my bootloader, which I have. Should I set it back to being locked, do this update then unlock it?

My Software Number = 1.02.605.6

WOW!!!! That is pretty old software, I am not sure if this was actually an official release either, the last official GB release was 2.1.605.11 so without being on that release that is why you don't get the update.

EDIT: Did a little checking, the version you have is one full major release prior to the last GB release, it is an official release but somehow you didn't get the 2.1 update, thus you can't get to ICS via OTA updates.

Yes, you will need to relock the bootloader or you can permanently brick your device, do not attempt to load an RUU without being S-OFF or having a locked bootloader with the "fastboot oem lock" using the fastboot.exe program that came from HTCdev site when you unlocked the phone (not necessarily the same exact copy, just that tool).

 

[Bohlareon]

WOW!!!! That is pretty old software, I am not sure if this was actually an official release either, the last official GB release was 2.1.605.11 so without being on that release that is why you don't get the update.

EDIT: Did a little checking, the version you have is one full major release prior to the last GB release, it is an official release but somehow you didn't get the 2.1 update, thus you can't get to ICS via OTA updates.

Yes, you will need to relock the bootloader or you can permanently brick your device, do not attempt to load an RUU without being S-OFF or having a locked bootloader with the "fastboot oem lock" using the fastboot.exe program that came from HTCdev site when you unlocked the phone (not necessarily the same exact copy, just that tool).

Alright, following your command, when I reboot into the bootloader, it says "Relocked", does that mean I'm good to install the ICS image? It looks like it's working on the install right now, I'm just trying to ensure I'm not going to brick my phone Thanks for the pointers!

 

[acejavelin]

Alright, following your command, when I reboot into the bootloader, it says "Relocked", does that mean I'm good to install the ICS image? It looks like it's working on the install right now, I'm just trying to ensure I'm not going to brick my phone Thanks for the pointers!

Yup... should be good to go!

Just download the RUU zip file, rename to PH98IMG.zip and put on the root of your microSD card, then verify the MD5 of the file matches the MD5 listed on Android Police (very important imho), then power off, pull the battery, reinsert battery and power up holding VOL DOWN+POWER and watch the magic happen!

Then one of two things will happen... it will finish the process and prompt you to reboot (awesome!) or it will run for a while and just seem to get stuck, if after 45 minutes it still hasn't prompted you to reboot, pull the battery and do it again (its ok, happens sometimes). Once you can reboot successfully and get to the setup screen, don't go through it... wait about 2 minutes then power down, pull the battery and do the flash procedure a second time (don't ask, just trust me!). This one should go through with no issues, then prompt you to reboot to the setup screen, go through the setup and do what ever you need to do. Once everything is in good shape, remove the PH98IMG.zip from the sd card (or move it to sub directory) to keep an accidental flash from happening.

Enjoy the Ice Creamy goodness!!!

 

[Bohlareon]

Yup... should be good to go!

Just download the RUU zip file, rename to PH98IMG.zip and put on the root of your microSD card, then verify the MD5 of the file matches the MD5 listed on Android Police (very important imho), then power off, pull the battery, reinsert battery and power up holding VOL DOWN+POWER and watch the magic happen!

Then one of two things will happen... it will finish the process and prompt you to reboot (awesome!) or it will run for a while and just seem to get stuck, if after 45 minutes it still hasn't prompted you to reboot, pull the battery and do it again (its ok, happens sometimes). Once you can reboot successfully and get to the setup screen, don't go through it... wait about 2 minutes then power down, pull the battery and do the flash procedure a second time (don't ask, just trust me!). This one should go through with no issues, then prompt you to reboot to the setup screen, go through the setup and do what ever you need to do. Once everything is in good shape, remove the PH98IMG.zip from the sd card (or move it to sub directory) to keep an accidental flash from happening.

Enjoy the Ice Creamy goodness!!!

Thank you so much! I followed your steps and didn't run into any issues. I'm now rocking Android 4.0.3, HTC Sense 3.6, with software 3.14.605.12 710RD. I tested the "Check For Update" and am now getting the "There are no updates to be found" message, which should mean I'll get the next OTA down the pipeline when it's released. I'm looking forward to the next release and thank you again for your patience and all your help!

 

[acejavelin]

Thank you so much! I followed your steps and didn't run into any issues. I'm now rocking Android 4.0.3, HTC Sense 3.6, with software 3.14.605.12 710RD. I tested the "Check For Update" and am now getting the "There are no updates to be found" message, which should mean I'll get the next OTA down the pipeline when it's released. I'm looking forward to the next release and thank you again for your patience and all your help!

No problem, glad I could help out!