Root Evo V 4G RUU Flashing guide / Unroot guide

[Brian706]

Oh, I took the update however I still have my old 4ext backup i made just before doing it, so will re-flashing that help? D:

Also I am s-on and about to sell my phone on ebay.. I'm hoping, if I can get it restored.

Restoring your backup unfortunately won't let you run the Ruu. The update upgraded your hboot which won't change back from restoring a backup. Probably the closest you could get at this point would be to flash a fresh copy of the stock rom and relock they bootloader. Though, the average user wouldn't even know it's unlocked. And anyone that cared would probably be happy to find it already done for them.
Plus you will get the RELOCKED SECURITY WARNING on the bootloader which looks worse than unlocked Imo.

 

[OverByter]

How are these RUU's leaked anyways?

They aren't, they're easily downloaded right from HTC themselves.
OB

 

[Palmetto Fellow]

Basically if you are s-off, you can always run the Ruu. Doesn't matter if you are unlocked and doesn't matter if you are trying to downgrade.

S-on has to lock bootloader before running the Ruu. Unfortunately there is only one version of the ruu. The original release... So after the November update, the main version got updated and people couldn't run the Ruu because of the main version check. The ruu won't let you downgrade. Ramjet73 put together a flashable zip that will lower your main version thus allowing you to run the Ruu.

Now with the March update, the bootloader got updated as well. The ruu also checks the hboot before running and will not allow you to downgrade. Naturally if you are s-off it will just run. No security checks are being done. But for s-on users, they are stuck without an ruu unless they get s-off or someone gets a hold of the ruu from htc.

This may be that one thing I was referring to:

If you have taken the November update, you need to flash a zip through recovery before you can run the Ruu.

So you're saying I can ignore that? Also, with S-OFF are you saying I just run the RUU, or are you saying with S-OFF I can change my HBOOT back to 1.57, then run the RUU?

Can I simply run the RUU right now without taking any additional steps at all? No relocking bootloader, not hboot changing? No none of that?

 

[Snake X]

They aren't, they're easily downloaded right from HTC themselves.
OB

How then am I able to obtain a RUU that would work in my case? o:

 

[OverByter]

How then am I able to obtain a RUU that would work in my case? o:

You don't, that's why s-on users were warned that they shouldn't take the latest ota, until/if/when HTC releases an updated RUU you're stuck with it.
OB

 

[Snake X]

You don't, that's why s-on users were warned that they shouldn't take the latest ota, until/if/when HTC releases an updated RUU you're stuck with it.
OB

I think I'll release a flashable nandroid based (well, directly from) off the RUU's contents (system/recovery/data/etc)

edit: worked (closest to stock ill ever get )

 

[Brian706]

So you're saying I can ignore that?
Yes
Also, with S-OFF are you saying I just run the RUU, or are you saying with S-OFF I can change my HBOOT back to 1.57, then run the RUU?
The RUU returns you to the stock bootloader. You should just be able to run the ruu anytime without doing anything. (Though note that I have always used a stock bootloader so maybe it won't work if you are on a custom bootloader.. I think it will work though, it would likely just return an error if it couldn't)

Can I simply run the RUU right now without taking any additional steps at all? No relocking bootloader, not hboot changing? No none of that?

Yep. Except I'm not 100% sure on the bootloader (see above)

 

[ramjet73]

They aren't, they're easily downloaded right from HTC themselves.
OB

Where?

Most of the ones I've seen were leaked by football on XDA but he's stopped doing that. The only one for the Evo 3D/V I've seen posted on HTC's websites is an old Sprint GB version that was provided to fix a problem users were having doing the HTC unlock after updating with an OTA.

ramjet73

 

[ramjet73]

I think I'll release a flashable nandroid based (well, directly from) off the RUU's contents (system/recovery/data/etc)

edit: worked (closest to stock ill ever get )

Flashable zip files of the 2.95 stock ROM with all the OTA updates included were provided by negamann303 in this thread.

ramjet73

 

[Snake X]

Flashable zip files of the 2.95 stock ROM with all the OTA updates included were provided by negamann303 in this thread.

ramjet73

Good lol cuz I think i screwed over my wifi module somehow (it gets stuck on obtaining ip address and shows the router's speed at "-1 MBs") which prevents me from usin 4ext since i flashed the stock recovery and i wouldn't be able to re-access it without this haha. Thanks

edit: I guess that would be the case unless there's some way to convert it to make it work on TWRP which is quite possible, but this should work just as well as another method that I'll try first.

 

[hiashole]

Help this is driving me crazy. I downloaded all the files but I cant open the ruu. when I extracted the ruu zip there is no ruu.exe file, just a bunch of .img files. I downloaded the ruu zip from a couple of different places with the same results am i doing something wrong.

 

[Palmetto Fellow]

Help this is driving me crazy. I downloaded all the files but I cant open the ruu. when I extracted the ruu zip there is no ruu.exe file, just a bunch of .img files. I downloaded the ruu zip from a couple of different places with the same results am i doing something wrong.

Doesn't the ruu.zip get renamed PG86IMG.zip then flashed off the SD card? If you have the .exe version, I think you run that from windows as an executable.

There are two ways to do it, and it almost sounds like you're combining the methods. One of the Guides should be chiming in shortly to get you straightened out.

 

[ramjet73]

There are two ways to do it, and it almost sounds like you're combining the methods. One of the Guides should be chiming in shortly to get you straightened out.

If you are S-OFF you can follow this guide to flash the RUU. The link for the RUU download goes to jmz's website that has both the .exe and .zip versions.

For S-ON users the bootloader will need to be locked with the "fastboot oem lock" command and then you can flash the RUU using either method as long as you are still on the 1.13 (original) build. There's a zip that can be flashed to allow S-ON users on the 1.14 build to flash the RUU but no way to do it at this point on the 2.95 build.

ramjet73

 

[Snake X]

Though, the average user wouldn't even know it's unlocked.

I'm a tad worried though about the part where the end user won't be able to do anymore OTA updating though I can probably just put that in the ebay description.

 

[Brian706]

I'm a tad worried though about the part where the end user won't be able to do anymore OTA updating though I can probably just put that in the ebay description.

We have fond that if you are stock and have the stock recovery, that you don't need to lock the bootloader to take the OTA... But if you felt better about it, you can always lock it with a simple fastboot command:
fastboot oem lock

 

[Palmetto Fellow]

I am psyching myself up to RUU and get current with my firmware. Starting at page 1 and reading up to here, I have a question. The page one links don't work, and I saw where RamJet linked to the RUU, but the name had sprint in it. Does the EVO V and EVO 3D share the same RUU, or do they just both have Sprint in the name?

Also, is this my workflow (I am s-off)

1. Obtain and run the RUU
2. Take both OTAs
3. install 4EXT
4. restore NAND or flash another ROM

Do I need to concern myself with SU? Being S-OFF implies to me that I can just install 4EXT (which I've forgotten how I installed it the first time around, but I recall it was pretty easy )

Actually, installing 4EXT requires SU and BusyBox right? I seem to recall installing 4EXT as a .apk. I also recall that I wasn't able to install 4EXT as my first recovery. I had to use TWRP first, or at least, I thought I did.

Will I have to go through all that again?

 

[Brian706]

I have to say I didn't read through your whole post but you really don't need to ruu to update your firmware. You're s-off so you can just flash it through the bootloader.

 

[Snake X]

Actually, installing 4EXT requires SU and BusyBox right? I seem to recall installing 4EXT as a .apk. I also recall that I wasn't able to install 4EXT as my first recovery. I had to use TWRP first, or at least, I thought I did.

Will I have to go through all that again?

Luckily what I "discovered" is if you've used 4ext and you still have the data on your SD card, it saves the recovery.img in the downloads folder. You may be able to see if you still have a 4ext full backup and extract recovery.img from there and try to flash that. Otherwise, yep.

 

[Palmetto Fellow]

I have to say I didn't read through your whole post but you really don't need to ruu to update your firmware. You're s-off so you can just flash it through the bootloader.

Well, something ramjet said about how its always best to update via the ruu is what prompted all of this.

 

[Brian706]

You can flash 4ext through fastboot just like you would twrp, if you snag the recovery.img from your sd card. The flash it through the app though, you need su already installed.

 

[ramjet73]

Well, something ramjet said about how its always best to update via the ruu is what prompted all of this.

Yea, that's generally true but it depends on how much you've been flashing firmware bits (radios, PRI, etc.) as that seems to be what causes booting problems and other issues. I have firmware only zips for the March OTA's here for the Evo V and on XDA for the Evo 3D so I'd be a hypocrite to say never flash the firmware zip files, and that's effectively what the OTA does when it installs the standard way.

But if you have any sort of booting or other weird problems starting fresh with the RUU and then updating the firmware will generally resolve them. We've already had examples of that on XDA for a few users that updated with the March firmware only zip file, but most have been OK.

ramjet73

 

[Palmetto Fellow]

Luckily what I "discovered" is if you've used 4ext and you still have the data on your SD card, it saves the recovery.img in the downloads folder. You may be able to see if you still have a 4ext full backup and extract recovery.img from there and try to flash that. Otherwise, yep.

I'm not seeing that file. Do I need to create it while in 4ext? Also, does it go into the download sub folder of 4ext?

 

[Brian706]

I'm not seeing that file. Do I need to create it while in 4ext? Also, does it go into the download sub folder of 4ext?

It's in a zip file that gets put in the download (not downloads) folder on the sd card. When you use the app to flash a new recovery version it first downloads it to that location and then installs automatically.

 

[Palmetto Fellow]

Well, I did it. I did the RUU and updated the OTAs. Then I got myself back to where I started, and am now on BluROM r-74.

It took me like 2 hours to get it done, much longer than anticipated. I had trouble running the RUU.exe. It kept failing. I tried to extract the .zip as instructed, but couldn't find it. I'm sure it was related to the .exe failing to run. I saw the temp folder being created, but the .exe would always fail to run, and I never saw any ROM.zip files. I even rebooted my PC and that didn't help.

The last thing I tried before it worked was to run the .exe as myself. Go figure. Even though i was logged in as the admin, I chose the second option, selected my user account from the drop down, entered my password, and it ran just fine. I can't figure out how this helped as I was already logged in as admin.

Anyway, I am now up to date, and I'm going to spend the next hour configuring r-74 (I did a clean install)

 

[sneaky_1]

Oh, I took the update however I still have my old 4ext backup i made just before doing it, so will re-flashing that help? D:

Also I am s-on and about to sell my phone on ebay.. I'm hoping, if I can get it restored.

Lulz, I wonder if I bought your Evo.