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Root [TUTORIAL] IDIOT-PROOF Root Guide!

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TheBiles

Android Enthusiast
Jan 22, 2010
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Atlanta, GA
OK GUYS: Full guide is up on xda! Get it while it's hot! I will be posting it here in a new topic later on because I will have to cut it up to separate posts due to limitations here.

After the positive response I got from my Swype guide, I decided to do one for root too. I have found that Toast's guide goes way over the head of a lot of new users (Using adb to copy and rename files? C'm on, Toast!), and I want to simplify things down for them.

In this guide, I will provide a way for you to backup your phone in case you have any vital programs, and I will take you all the way through getting back to the rooted stock image and restoring your apps (from there, you will be on your own!). This DOES work with Sprint's latest OTA (ends in .6).

Please let me know if there are any errors or any omissions (something like Titanium Backup not working with unrEVOked; I haven't tested this). Also, if someone wants to take some screenshots of the recovery stuff or just has images of the steps, just let me know, and I can add them.

1. First things first, if you don't want to backup your apps, skip to step #14.

SECTION I: BACKING UP YOUR APPS

2. Go to the settings menu, and select Applications.

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3. Check the box next to "Unknown Applications" and accept the warning.

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4. Go to your web browser and navigate to unrevoked .

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5. Click the logo to download the file, as it says.

6. Once the file is done downloading, click it.

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7. Click the install button, and hit "open" when it is done installing.

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8. Click Start!

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9. When you get the "Done." message, navigate to the Market and find Titanium Backup. I HIGHLY recommend the donate version, but you need to donate to the dev via PayPal to get a license file, and it could take him up to a day to email it to you.

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10. Click "open" after it is done installing and click the "Problems?" tab at the bottom.

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11. Click "yes" to install BusyBox.

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12. When Titanium Backup restarts, press Menu and select "Batch."

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13. Backup all of your apps here.

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SECTION II: ROOTING FOR THE FIRST TIME

14. Plug in your phone's USB cable and connect it to your computer. You should get a prompt in the notification bar that the phone is connected. Open the notification bar and select where it says "charge only."

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15. Change the type to "disk drive" and select "Done."

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16. Download this file, and save it to your desktop.

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17. Since your phone is connected as a disk drive, navigate to My Computer and you will see it as "Removable Disk." Drag and drop the file you just downloaded to the icon.

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18. At this point, we are about to flash the debug image. YOUR DATA WILL ALL BE WIPED AFTER THIS POINT!

19. Hold down "power" to bring up the following menu. Select "Power off."

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20. Select "Ok."

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21. At this point, I don't have any screen shots, but I will post toast's exact words that you should follow to the letter:

- Hold volume down while powering the phone on. continue to hold volume down until you see the WHITE bootloader screen.
- After a few seconds it will begin to checking for files, and find PC36IMG.zip. while its doing this it will show a blue progress bar while its checking. (this takes 30 - 60 seconds to finish)
- It will then list all the images in the zip and ask you if want to flash. SAY YES
- When its finished it will ask you if you would like to reboot. AGAIN... SAY YES
- At this point it will boot into a rooted rom.
Essentially, you just have to hold the volume down button as you press the power button, and the phone will do the rest. Just accept any prompts you get.

22. You are now rooted! Congratulations! However, this debug ROM will not show protected apps in the Market, so we're going to install a rooted version of the stock ROM now.

23. After everything is booted, reconnect your USB cable and enter disk drive mode as described before.

24. Navigate to the PC36IMG.zip file and rename it however you want. This prevents it from running when ever you reboot. After this file is renamed, disable "disk mode" the same way you enabled it.

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SECTION III: INSTALLING A CUSTOM RECOVERY

NOTE: Steps 25 - 28 may not work for you! You may just want to skip them and go straight to step #29, which contains the fix if these steps do not work. Some users have reported different results, so if these steps do or don't work for you, please let me know!

25. Go to the Market and download ROM Manager free (or donate if you want!). Open it.

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26. Select Flash ClockworkMod Recovery.

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27. Select your device.

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28. Confirm that it downloads successfully. If you get a force close the first time or two, just ignore them and try again. Same goes for download errors. Sometimes his servers can be slow.

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29. If ROM Manager just won't work for you, download this file, rename it to "update.zip," and copy it to the root of your SD card just like we did with the debug image before.

SECTION IV: INSTALLING A CUSTOM ROM

30. At this time, we will download the rooted stock ROM. Get it here and save it to your desktop. Also note, you can replace this stock ROM with any custom ROM that you please, but I am just using the stock for demonstration purposes. Follow the exact same steps but with any ROM you want.

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31. Copy it to your SD card exactly like we did before with the first ROM. Make sure you re-enable disk mode so you can copy files again.

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32. Now I also don't have pictures for this part, but I will give you the exact words from Koush on how to boot into recovery:

When you want to launch the recovery image

* Turn on your device with 'volume down' pressed and select 'Recovery'
* When the exclamation mark appears, press and hold 'volume up' then press 'power'
* Select the second option, 'Apply sdcard:update.zip
* That's it, ClockworkMod recovery should launch!
Just like before, we turn off the phone and hold the volume down key as we power on the device. However, this time we will select "Recovery" from the menu (move down with the volume button and select it with the power button). Now you will see a screen with an exclamation mark. Press and hold the volume up button and press the power button. Select the "apply update.zip" option, and you will be in recovery mode.

33. First, wipe the cache partition and the user data by selecting their respective menu options. From here, select "install zip from sdcard." Now select "choose zip from sdcard" and navigate to the stock ROM .zip file that we downloaded.

The full recovery menu will read as follows:

-reboot system now
-apply sdcard: update.zip
-wipe data/factory reset
-wipe cache partition
-install zip from sdcard
-nandroid
-partitions menu
-advanced
- *****Go Back*****
Select the bolded in the items in the order in which they appear. After all is wiped, select -install zip from sdcard then pick -choose zip from sdcard and finally navigate to the zipped ROM that you want to install.

34. After the ROM is done installing, pick "reboot system now" from the menu.

35. Congratulations again! You are now running a rooted version of the stock ROM. You can restore your apps with Titanium Backup or you can get another custom ROM and flash it exactly the same way that you flashed the stock ROM. I highly recommend Fresh ROM, which can be found in this topic. In fact, ANY custom ROM can be flashed in the same manner that is described in steps 30-34.


That's all, folks! I hope you enjoy your root!

Here are some important links with relevant discussions:
Original root guide.
Fake-flash recovery guide.
Stock RUU topic with discussion.
Stock OTA topic with discussion.
How to fix QuickBoot and ROM Manager's rebooting functions on some ROMs.
ADB guide for when you're ready to take the next step.
Original guide on xda if you want to see their discussion.
 
What is the point of the steps after the first rooting method. I did that then flashed clockwork right after with no problem....

Which steps would those be? After you flash the custom recovery I show you how to install custom ROMs, which are fairly important since the debug ROM used to root doesn't show protected apps in the Market.
-------------
Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.
 
Upvote 0
i need help!! i did this and have been sucessful up until step 32-33 when i go to the reboot screen and i have to do the -reboot system now
-apply sdcard: update.zip
-wipe data/factory reset
-wipe cache partition
-install zip from sdcard

-nandroid
-partitions menu
-advanced
- *****Go Back*****
i only have down to the wipe cache option nothing else...and i run the apply sdcard: update.zip and i get nothing just a abort fail message stating there is no such file or directory????
 
Upvote 0
i need help!! i did this and have been sucessful up until step 32-33 when i go to the reboot screen and i have to do the -reboot system now
-apply sdcard: update.zip
-wipe data/factory reset
-wipe cache partition
-install zip from sdcard

-nandroid
-partitions menu
-advanced
- *****Go Back*****
i only have down to the wipe cache option nothing else...and i run the apply sdcard: update.zip and i get nothing just a abort fail message stating there is no such file or directory????
Did you download this file http://www.droidaftermarket.com/koush/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-1.8.1.7-supersonic.zip and rename it to update.zip? Once you do that, you have to copy it to the root of the SD card. At least that worked for me.
 
Upvote 0
Wow.... off topic, but Bill is alive on this forum agajn
Well, still alive and kicking anyway! I found this tutorial very helpful for overcoming a problem with the ROM Manager.

Edit: htc, which ROM are you using now? I have one last problem... I'm using RvU_1.3.2.zip and now the camera doesn't work, but it was supposed to with that ROM.
 
Upvote 0
Well, still alive and kicking anyway! I found this tutorial very helpful for overcoming a problem with the ROM Manager.

Edit: htc, which ROM are you using now? I have one last problem... I'm using RvU_1.3.2.zip and now the camera doesn't work, but it was supposed to with that ROM.

Was on rvu (camera worked for me though)... everthing was working but i wanted to try fresh rom... apparently fresh rom isnt allowing me to watch flash videos on _
 
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