Root Scottys noob friendly root guide-start to finish

bcliles91 · Oct 3, 2012

Scotty85 could you please point me in the right direction (guide) for "restoring my phone back to stock" if you would. My WiFi still is not working because I assume that my kernel is still off... I would like to try to install a few custom roms but to be quite honest I just want a stable running phone that connects to WiFi at this point. I really do not even care about root access anymore... How must I go about getting my updated to the newest "global" update on the Rezound and getting my WiFi going again? Whatever is wrong will not allow my WiFi (or Barnacle WiFI tether to work). At this point, all I want are my contents on the SD Card. I am OK with loosing all of my apps and personal data, etc.

Thanks
(Sorry I am not able to follow your guides as closely as I should at times, new questions keep popping up

)

I am running HBOOT version 2.25.0000 and I have Android 4.0.3 (3.14.605.12) currently installed with superuser and root access.
I have AmonRA recovery installed and it says "tampered."

scotty85 · Oct 3, 2012

thw guides in the secod post are somewhat outdated,as i didnt want to change them until i was sure 4.03.605.2 was the final OTA push(and then ive just been a bit busy :eek:

)

basically,you will just need to run an ruu. a .exe file does not exist yet,so assuming s-on unlocked you can do the following:

*charge phone to 100%

-downloAd the global ruu: Shipped ROMs
-transfer download to root of SD and rename to PH98IMG
-enable usb debugging,plug in,put in charge only mode
-open a cmd window as descriped in the guide,change to your adb/fastboot directory(cd c:\mini-adb_vigor if you used the guide to root)
-adb devices (should return serial number)
-adb reboot bootloader (will boot you to fastboot)
-fastboot devices (should return serial number)
-fastboot oem lock (will relock your hboot)
-if youre running a custom rom,the phone may give you a security warning. otherwise,it may simply reboot. if it reboots,you can let it boot,then adb reboot bootloader back to fastboot
-select bootloader from the menu in fastboot. this takes you to hboot.
-phone should find PH98IMG,unpack it,check it,and ask you to update. be aware this is a lengthly process,it could take over 20 minutes start to finish. very gently place the phone somewhere it will not fall to finish its update when its done,it will prompt you to push the power button to reboot.

after its done,you can unlock again with your original token,and follow steps 2 and 3 of the first post if you want to reinstall root access

jdm2008 · Oct 4, 2012

I've been flashing and I had a question. When I restore nandroid, do i have restore the boot.img(if switching between sense and something else for instance)? Or can I just restore and that's it.

scotty85 · Oct 4, 2012

jdm2008 said:
I've been flashing and I had a question. When I restore nandroid, do i have restore the boot.img(if switching between sense and something else for instance)? Or can I just restore and that's it.

if you fastboot boot your recovery,as described in this thread: http://androidforums.com/rezound-all-things-root/587430-s-want-flash-roms-read.html then you will be able to simply restore.

if you are s-on,and try and restore from a permantly installed recovery,the boot image will not change,leaving you with an unbooting phone if the kernel is not compatible between current rom and backup.

bcliles91 · Oct 15, 2012

@scotty85 thanks for the feedback. I have been so busy I am just now trying to do this procedure with my phone. I plugged my phone up to my PC and started running commands. I did the fastboot oem lock and successfully re-locked the bootloader. But my phone does not recognize the new PH98IMG,unpack it,check it,and ask to update it. I did put the new PH98IMG on the SD card and I made sure that it was renamed. Do you know what is going on? Now my photo automatically boots into the bootloader menu everytime... It doesn't even boot up normally and go into the Android OS anymore..?..

scotty85 said:
thw guides in the secod post are somewhat outdated,as i didnt want to change them until i was sure 4.03.605.2 was the final OTA push(and then ive just been a bit busy )

basically,you will just need to run an ruu. a .exe file does not exist yet,so assuming s-on unlocked you can do the following:

*charge phone to 100%

-downloAd the global ruu: Shipped ROMs
-transfer download to root of SD and rename to PH98IMG
-enable usb debugging,plug in,put in charge only mode
-open a cmd window as descriped in the guide,change to your adb/fastboot directory(cd c:\mini-adb_vigor if you used the guide to root)
-adb devices (should return serial number)
-adb reboot bootloader (will boot you to fastboot)
-fastboot devices (should return serial number)
-fastboot oem lock (will relock your hboot)
-if youre running a custom rom,the phone may give you a security warning. otherwise,it may simply reboot. if it reboots,you can let it boot,then adb reboot bootloader back to fastboot
-select bootloader from the menu in fastboot. this takes you to hboot.
-phone should find PH98IMG,unpack it,check it,and ask you to update. be aware this is a lengthly process,it could take over 20 minutes start to finish. very gently place the phone somewhere it will not fall to finish its update when its done,it will prompt you to push the power button to reboot.

after its done,you can unlock again with your original token,and follow steps 2 and 3 of the first post if you want to reinstall root access

bcliles91 · Oct 15, 2012

Also when I run fastboot boot PH98IMG it says, "cannot load 'PH98IMG' " and then when I run fastboot flash PH98IMG it says, "unknown partition 'PH98IMG' error: cannot determine image filename for 'PH98IMG' "

Now my phone is basically unusable at the moment b/c I am unable to leave the bootloader menu, it wont even do a factory reset.

What have I done? Your immediate feedback would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks
-bcliles91

scotty85 · Oct 15, 2012

bcliles91 said:
@scotty85 thanks for the feedback. I have been so busy I am just now trying to do this procedure with my phone. I plugged my phone up to my PC and started running commands. I did the fastboot oem lock and successfully re-locked the bootloader. But my phone does not recognize the new PH98IMG,unpack it,check it,and ask to update it. I did put the new PH98IMG on the SD card and I made sure that it was renamed. Do you know what is going on? Now my photo automatically boots into the bootloader menu everytime... It doesn't even boot up normally and go into the Android OS anymore..?..

the phone is not seeing PH98IMG becasue of one of the following:
1)sd card MUST be FAT32
2)the file is NOT on the root of the sd. you may have put it inside a folder,or on the phones internal storage
3)file is not correctly named .phone must see PH98IMG.zip,but renaming with winodws,wich usually adds and hide the ext,usually is correct to name "PH98IMG". if you typed in the .zip,try removing it(the file may be named PH98IMG.z9p.zip) or if you didnt type in the .zip try adding it
4)problem with the file. if youre using the global ruu i recomended,it may have become corrupt during download. if youre using something else,it may not be a signed by htc official file,and as such failing the signiture check

you aRE stuck in hboot with a security warning becasue you locked the bootloader with custom software in place. if you cannot get ph98img to run,you can jiust re-unlock with your original token... this will let the phone boot into whatever you were running before.

scotty85 · Oct 15, 2012

bcliles91 said:
Also when I run fastboot boot PH98IMG it says, "cannot load 'PH98IMG' " and then when I run fastboot flash PH98IMG it says, "unknown partition 'PH98IMG' error: cannot determine image filename for 'PH98IMG' "

Now my phone is basically unusable at the moment b/c I am unable to leave the bootloader menu, it wont even do a factory reset.

What have I done? Your immediate feedback would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks
-bcliles91

if youre trying to use fastboot to flash PH98IMG,those are not the correct commands. you cant flash a zip file with fastboot flash or boot,those commands are for flashing .img files(hence the errors youre getting).

if you want to try and run ph98img from fastboot,place it in your mini-adb_vigor folder(make sure its still zipped)

make sure the phone is in fastboot

then you can do the follwing in a cmd window:

cd c:\mini-adb_vigor (or whatever your adb/fastboot folder is called)

fastboot devices

fastboot erase cache

fastboot oem rebootRUU

fastboot flash zip filename.zip

if it fails with a pre-update,wait for the phone to reboot back to ruu mode,dont power it off or mess with it,or send the command before youre back to ruu mode. once your back at the black screen,silver letters,enter the above again( fastboot flash zip filename.zip ) this time it will finish. once all partitions have flashed and it tells you "ok... finished" then:

fastboot reboot-bootloader (this will show you hboot 2.27 and the newest baseband)

then

fastboot reboot to reboot the phone

hope that helps

bcliles91 · Oct 16, 2012

Thank you so much for your patience and support. I finally have gotten my phone updated to the latest Rezound "global" RUU. I also have working WiFi!!!! Couldn't be happier. Thanks again!

scotty85 · Oct 16, 2012

awsome! :smokingsomb:

glad you are sorted

wiskit · Oct 20, 2012

I've got as far as step 3 with no problem, but now I'm stuck. Clearly I'm being a noob. Step 3 says:

there is not much to explain with this one. if booted to recovery from above,use the recovery menu on your phone to:
-make a backup of your stock,unrooted rom. completely optional,but a very good idea,IMO.
-wipe cache
-wipe dalvik cache
-install zip from sd card(chose your superuser file)
-reboot

*congratulations,youre rooted

After I reboot with the temporary image, the phone seems to boot up and look and act completely normally. So I can't figure out how to wipe cache, or davlik cache, or install the ZIP file which I've copied to my SD card. Can anyone help?

I followed the link for the SuperSU download and it suggested just installing from Google Play. I tried that too, and when it tries to run SuperSU just gives an error saying there is no SU binary and it can't run, then it bombs out.

Any pointers greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Matt

scotty85 · Oct 20, 2012

I've got as far as step 3 with no problem, but now I'm stuck. Clearly I'm being a noob. Step 3 says:

there is not much to explain with this one. if booted to recovery from above,use the recovery menu on your phone to:
-make a backup of your stock,unrooted rom. completely optional,but a very good idea,IMO.
-wipe cache
-wipe dalvik cache
-install zip from sd card(chose your superuser file)
-reboot

*congratulations,youre rooted

After I reboot with the temporary image, the phone seems to boot up and look and act completely normally. So I can't figure out how to wipe cache, or davlik cache, or install the ZIP file which I've copied to my SD card. Can anyone help?
if you did step 2 correctly,you should be in amon ra recovery menu. do not reboot from recovery- the menu options listed above are amon,not in the booted operating system.

I followed the link for the SuperSU download and it suggested just installing from Google Play. I tried that too, and when it tries to run SuperSU just gives an error saying there is no SU binary and it can't run, then it bombs out.
you cannot install it from the market,if you are not rooted. the market is not able to access /system/bin to install the binary(wich is needed,and hence your error). you will need to download the .zip file and flash it in amon recovery. if you did the temp recovery,youll have to repeat those steps(step 2) to re-launch it to install supersu from the sd card. a common error here is to accidentally put superSU on the internal storage,and then not be able to find it on the sd to flash it

i dont want to direct link the attachment link on the page,as it will be broken when he updates it. the link you want to download from,is the one that is labled CWM-SuperSU-v0.96.zip

Any pointers greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Matt

hope that helps. i will add a note to the OP about the superSU link,to hopefully avoid further confusion(youre not the first!)

wiskit · Oct 20, 2012

Thanks, it all seems to be done now, and Battery Calibration (the whole reason I started off down this road!) is also now working without complaining that my phone isn't rooted!
Thanks again

scotty85 · Oct 20, 2012

awsome! glad its working

esmith818 · Oct 30, 2012

scotty85 said:
the phone is not seeing PH98IMG becasue of one of the following:
1)sd card MUST be FAT32
2)the file is NOT on the root of the sd. you may have put it inside a folder,or on the phones internal storage
3)file is not correctly named .phone must see PH98IMG.zip,but renaming with winodws,wich usually adds and hide the ext,usually is correct to name "PH98IMG". if you typed in the .zip,try removing it(the file may be named PH98IMG.z9p.zip) or if you didnt type in the .zip try adding it
4)problem with the file. if youre using the global ruu i recomended,it may have become corrupt during download. if youre using something else,it may not be a signed by htc official file,and as such failing the signiture check

1) How can I determine the format of the card?
2) When using Root Explorer, I am placing "PH98IMG.zip" in \sdcard. Is that correct? My only other realistic option would be \sdcard2.
3) If file name in Root Explorer is "PH98IMG.zip", is not not correct?

Despite my earlier (new) thread, I am taking a slight detour to try to go back to stock, rooted in an attempt to take the S-OFF plunge. I was following your post to this thread on 10/3 thinking it was the quickest way back to rooted stock.

esmith818 · Oct 30, 2012

So impatience led me to try the fastboot method. Now I'm sitting around with a terminal session that seems to be sitting still. I'm wondering how long I leave it before giving up, and what the repercussions will be if I CTRL-C the command?

My recent commands look like this:

Code:

laptop:platform-tools cg138$ ./adb reboot bootloader
laptop:platform-tools cg138$ ./fastboot devices
HT19VS999999	fastboot
laptop:platform-tools cg138$ ./fastboot erase cache
erasing 'cache'... OKAY
laptop:platform-tools cg138$ ./fastboot oem rebootRUU
... INFOStart Verify: 3
INFOStart Verify: 3
INFOerase sector 130560 ~ 131071 (512)
OKAY
laptop:platform-tools cg138$ ./fastboot flash zip PH98IMG.zip
sending 'zip' (630590 KB)... ERROR: usb_write failed with status e00002be
FAILED (data transfer failure (No such file or directory))
laptop:platform-tools cg138$ ./fastboot flash zip PH98IMG.zip
sending 'zip' (630590 KB)... INFOstart check_usb: usb_ep0: type=128, request=6

INFOstart check_usb: usb_ep0: type=2, request=1

[]

The "[]" denotes where the cursor is sitting, giving the effect of nothing happening. Commands are prefaced with "./" because I am working from a Mac.

Is the zip file uploading? How long do I play the patience card? The phone is just sitting at the black screen with silver letters. If I force the command to stop, will I be able to reboot back to my last good ROM (or can I boot into recovery to restore an old ROM)? This is the first time in a long time that I am a bit nervous that I have bricked my phone...

HELP! :eek:

scotty85 · Oct 30, 2012

as long as things are not flashing on the screen,you should be fine to stop it.

fastboot reboot-bootloader will get you out of ruu mode. it does take quite a long time for the zip to send and check.

i also dont see where youve relocked,wich you will need to do to run the ruu.

if you are relocked,you can re-unlock with your original token,and you should be able to boot back to wherever you were,assuming it was a working rom.

esmith818 · Oct 30, 2012

esmith818 said:
Is the zip file uploading? How long do I play the patience card?

Like the wise owl in the old Tootsie Pop commercials: '1...2...3...crunch! The world may never know.' (I gave up and pulled the battery.)

esmith818 said:
The phone is just sitting at the black screen with silver letters. If I force the command to stop, will I be able to reboot back to my last good ROM (or can I boot into recovery to restore an old ROM)?

After pulling the battery, I was able to reboot and then get back into temp AmonRa recovery to restore the custom ROM I had this morning.

Guess S-OFF and global firmware are off the menu for now. I spent all day and got nowhere. This stuff sure was easier with both the OG Droid and the Galaxy Nexus. :rolleyes:

scotty85 · Oct 30, 2012

well,if you s-off,stuff is easy like the OG droid and gnex

what firmware are you on now? they say the "wire trick" is a lil easier on GB,if you happen to be on that still,id encourage you to s-off prior to runing the global ruu

esmith818 · Oct 30, 2012

scotty85 said:
It does take quite a long time for the zip to send and check.

I let it go for about 45 minutes, but without any kind of update on the screen, I was uncertain whether it was doing anything. I guess I'm spoiled by AmonRa throwing dots up on the phone's screen while it is doing something.

scotty85 said:
I also dont see where youve relocked,wich you will need to do to run the ruu

The steps above for flashing a zip from the command line didn't mention re-locking. I guess after locking and unlocking several times tonight, I forgot which state I was in. Going back through my commands, it looks like I was unlocked when I tried most recently.

If you can tell me how to confirm the format of my SD card (to make sure it's FAT32) I *might* try one more time tonight. If not, I can live awhile longer with NeoMAX 2.0.

scotty85 said:
What firmware are you on now? they say the "wire trick" is a lil easier on GB,if you happen to be on that still,id encourage you to s-off prior to runing the global ruu

NeoMax 2.0 is ICS but pre-global. It seems like newer ROMs are global based which is why I was trying to get to that firmware originally. But then I decided S-OFF would be the ultimate solution despite my nervousness about messing with hardware. Not sure which direction to go now...

scotty85 · Oct 30, 2012

yup,it doesnt take 45 minutes :eek:

easiest way to check sd format is to mount it as a disk drive so you can transfer files to it. right click the drive that is the sd,and the click properties.

esmith818 · Oct 30, 2012

scotty85 said:
-downloAd the global ruu: Shipped ROMs
-transfer download to root of SD and rename to PH98IMG
-enable usb debugging,plug in,put in charge only mode
-open a cmd window as descriped in the guide,change to your adb/fastboot directory(cd c:\mini-adb_vigor if you used the guide to root)
-adb devices (should return serial number)
-adb reboot bootloader (will boot you to fastboot)
-fastboot devices (should return serial number)
-fastboot oem lock (will relock your hboot)
-if youre running a custom rom,the phone may give you a security warning. otherwise,it may simply reboot. if it reboots,you can let it boot,then adb reboot bootloader back to fastboot
-select bootloader from the menu in fastboot. this takes you to hboot.
-phone should find PH98IMG,unpack it,check it,and ask you to update. be aware this is a lengthly process,it could take over 20 minutes start to finish. very gently place the phone somewhere it will not fall to finish its update when its done,it will prompt you to push the power button to reboot.

after its done,you can unlock again with your original token,and follow steps 2 and 3 of the first post if you want to reinstall root access

3rd time must be the charm! I confirmed SD card was FAT32 by mounting on laptop and checking properties, then I confirmed the "/SDCARD2" is the actual SD location by matching available size of directory in RootExplorer against listed space in Settings. This time when I followed scotty85's instructions, everything worked exactly as described and zip file was recognized/installed.

I installed the pre-global RUU partly because I thought it might work better with the S-OFF process, but mostly because I already had it sitting in my /Downloads directory.

Scotty85 is absolutely indispensable and I am very grateful that he checks this forum fairly regularly.

esmith818 · Oct 31, 2012

scotty85 said:
well,if you s-off,stuff is easy like the OG droid and gnex

Well, it took me until 3 AM and there were two times I was certain I had bricked my phone (one involving a black screen with a red triangle and exclamation point just after tampering with the hardware!). But in the end, I am S-OFF and running Neo's Adrenalized CM9! And aside from the long night worried I screwed something bad, it's like old times flashing ROMs and custom kernels from recovery again.

scotty85 said:
what firmware are you on now? they say the "wire trick" is a lil easier on GB,if you happen to be on that still,id encourage you to s-off prior to runing the global ruu

I originally installed the latest pre-global RUU from shipped-roms.com but that was not compatible with the S-OFF software so I had to track down a RUU for 3.14.605.5 ICS. It then took a few tries and 3 different paper clips to finally make contact followed by some IRC chat sessions and a manual flash of the custom 2.25 h-boot file.

The help to be found on the various forums if excellent, but you certainly have to read a LOT and typically you must piecemeal together different threads to the get the answers for your specific scenario. Still worth it though! Thanks again for your assistance and encouragement.

scotty85 · Nov 1, 2012

welcome to the gang. s-off is way better :smokingsomb:

DFA1 · Nov 6, 2012

I'm unrooting my phone now since I've been having issues loading roms, I plan on rerooting it and trying from scratch.

While unrooting I noticed in below instructions
****************
-check main version
fastboot getvar all

-if your main version is now 1.00.000.0 then procede:
******************

when I did fastboot getvar all, my return was 1.00.000.1 ;(
ohwell, I'm going forward hoping it'll work anyway.

UPDATE:
.exe installer from PC updated successfully. Rebooted phone. Stuck on HTC logo (metalic one). Did a battery pull. Booted into bootloader, went to recovery, no more Amon-ra, just showed the phone with "!", phone rebooted on it's own, now back to stock

Now to try the rooting again.

I remember the Inc2 rooted/s-off was so much easier dealing with this Rezound s-on.

Root Scottys noob friendly root guide-start to finish

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