Root HELP!! Rooting Desire with Mac OS X

[sunraider]

Hi all,

I am quite stuck with rooting my Desire using Unrevoked3. I keep getting messages like "Error: failed to get root. Is your firmware too new?"

I am struggling to find guides that will help me root my phone as most of the tools are based on a PC rather than Mac OS X.

Can i follow this guide by Mattb81, and are there tools i have to replace to suit Mac OS X? Tools like Revolutionary etc do not have a Mac version.

http://androidforums.com/desire-all...ry-windows-published-4th-november-2011-a.html

http://androidforums.com/desire-all...ked-windows-updated-20th-december-2012-a.html

Thankyou!!

 

[EarlyMon]

You can get an unlocked bootloader, install a custom recovery and root your phone but without Windows you're still going to have encrypted signature security in effect, aka, s-on.

Here's how to do it with instructions for another HTC model on a Mac -

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-lte-all-things-root/572162-how-get-full-root-mac.html

HOWEVER don't follow the instructions precisely.

First, say at HTCdev.com that you're using a Desire.

Second, do NOT go for the custom recovery that I identify for that phone - use the one identified for yours, probably ext4 if I'm not mistaken. Once you have the correct file, look at the "fastboot flash recovery" instructions, they're the same, just a difference in the actual recovery file name.

Third, do NOT try to install a non-Desire rom. Ignore my rom recommendations.

When installing roms, you'll have to flash the kernel separately because you're s-on. To do that, get the rom to your Mac in the sdk-tools folder (if you go with my instructions), unzip it, and then in fastboot mode -

fastboot flash boot boot.img

After the rom installation.

You might want to give this a day in case anyone else has a better way.

Fwiw, Revolutionary worked on my Mac when running Windows from a virtual machine for my 2011 model HTC. If you can get Windows XP you can probably go that route.

Don't use a USB 3 port on your Mac.

Hope this helps, I'll check back tomorrow for you.

Welcome to the forums!

PS - in your first link, I linked to the thread that's being maintained. Follow that, check in with Hadron for further advice.

 

[nicka3200]

I have no idea about using a Mac. However don't rush into unlocking your bootloader as this will seriously restrict your options on the Desire.

Hadron is the Desire root expert & he is fully conversant with Macs. I'm sure he will be able to offer some advice.

 

[sunraider]

Thanks so much EarlyMon and nicka3200!! I don't have time tomorrow but i will probably give it a go on the weekend. I'll try to touch base with Hadron for further info and help! Much appreciative of your replies and assistance

 

[nicka3200]

To amplify me previous comment, an unlocked bootlader will allow you to flash a custom recovery (4ext recommended for the Desire), gain root access & flash a custom ROM. You can then partition your sd & make use of the apps2sd scripts in many ROMs.

However, you can't gain S-Off from an unlocked bootloader. If you subsequently relock it this is done by updating your hboot. S-Off tools don't work with that hboot version.

The choice is yours but I recommend waiting for Hadron's advice.

 

[Hadron]

Sorry, been a busy week and I've been away from AF for a few days (probably going to be intermittent for a little longer).

First question: what is your current software version (and HBOOT version)? Unrevoked will work on a Mac - I rooted my Desire that way - but it may be that your software is too recent: the title of the Unrevoked thread is "2.2.1 or lower" for a reason.

If so, your best bet is Revolutionary. However, there's no Mac version of that, only Windows or Linux. In which case, if you've not got access to a Windows PC, the simplest way of running Revolutionary would be to create a Linux virtual machine and run Revolutionary within that. VirtualBox is a free download which you can use to create VMs from any Linux distro: just download the live CD .iso for your distro of choice and create a new VirtualBox VM using that iso. Once you have that working you should be able to talk to the phone from the VM over USB, and hence download the Linux version of Revolutionary and use that.

You'll only need to do the Revolutionary bit using Linux - you can do the recovery flashing via fastboot using the Mac. Installing fastboot on the Mac is IMO less hassle than on a PC, because there are no drivers to worry about. There is a download link at HTCDev.com here (from a quick web search on "fastboot mac htc").

 

[EarlyMon]

Or our Mini-SDK and get adb too while you're at it.

http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?p=5389081

 

[Hadron]

Forgot that was multi-platform.

 

[fairphone]

Hi all, I wonder if sunraider succeeded with this? I got here through google because I have quite the same issues.

The Desire I have is
Bravo PVT4 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-0.93.0001

Unrevoked3 did not work on Mac after a message like "running root..." I Unrevoked ends with "Error: failed to get root. Is your firmware too new?"

So then I tried Revolutionary inside Ubuntu running on a VirtualBox VM to get S-OFF first, but that gets stuck waiting for fastboot.

Zerging Root... this might take a minute or so.. Root acquired!
Sending in Caroline...
Cleaning up...
Rebooting to fastboot...
When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!

Waiting for fastboot...

Somewhere else I read that I should turn off fastboot under settings/applications before running Revolutionary but the option is not available on the phone.

If I understand correctly this last? fastboot step could be run on the mac instead, but I could use some tips on how to proceed.

Thanks in advance!

 

[fairphone]

I also tried alpharev.iso in VirtualBox but that was not working either:

Waiting for your deuice... FOUND!
Identifying your phone
cat: can

 

[EarlyMon]

Fastboot is usually under Power settings, not Apps.

Do these methods support virtual machine use?

What Linux are you running inside VirtualBox?

 

[fairphone]

Thank you for your reply.

I don’t have any Power settings or I can’t find them any where.

I’m not sure if these methods work in VM but it seems that others have succeeded this way.

I tried Revolutionary with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

 

[Hadron]

Remember there are 2 "fastboot"s: the utility for flashing partitions when the phone is in the bootloader, and the" fast boot" options to restart the shell without shutting down the phone. I can't remember when that one was introduced to the Desire, but if your software has it you definitely need it disabled. I think however that it only came later (so only Desires with custom ROMs had it).

Did your phone reboot into the bootloader when the VM was waiting? If not that was the problem. You could try installing the fastboot command (from the mini SD above) and check that works from Ubuntu: boot the phone while pressing the back button to get into fastboot mode, connect via USB, try the command "fastboot devices" on the VM - if you can get that working then fastboot is ok.

Alphabet only works on rooted phones, so no chance there.

Do not use the official HTC bootloader unlock - you'll never be able to get S-Off if you do.

 

[nicka3200]

Remember there are 2 "fastboot"s: the utility for flashing partitions when the phone is in the bootloader, and the" fast boot" options to restart the shell without shutting down the phone. I can't remember when that one was introduced to the Desire, but if your software has it you definitely need it disabled. I think however that it only came later (so only Desires with custom ROMs had it).

The fast boot option first appeared on stock software with the official 2.3 update. If in doubt pulling the battery out will ensure the phone is fully depowered before booting into the bootloader.

 

[fairphone]

Remember there are 2 "fastboot"s: the utility for flashing partitions when the phone is in the bootloader, and the" fast boot" options to restart the shell without shutting down the phone. I can't remember when that one was introduced to the Desire, but if your software has it you definitely need it disabled. I think however that it only came later (so only Desires with custom ROMs had it).

Thank you I don

 

[Hadron]

Fastboot USB on the screen means the phone is in the right mode. Have you tried a different USB port or cable? Sometimes it's as simple as that.

 

[fairphone]

Ok thanks that is good to know.

I

 

[fairphone]

Success! I turned off USB 2 support in the Virtual Box settings leaving USB 1 support. Now I didn

 

[nicka3200]

If you are now S-Off you don't need to run unrevoked. Just fastboot flash your chosen recovery (4ext is the recommended one these days) then you can install superuser via recovery & you'll be good to go.

 

[fairphone]

Ok good to know that because unrevoked didn’t work now either, learning by doing…

I see that installing 4ext recovery is not very easy either. Or is it possible to put a zip file on the SD-card and flash to 4ext recovery the way discribed here Latest 4eXT Recovery Touch v1.0.0.6_RC1 as PG88IMG - Page 2 - xda-developers ?

 

[nicka3200]

Unrevoked will not work after you have used Revolutionary because Revolutionary changes your hboot version to achieve S-Off. You could have run Unrevoked first provided you had a suitable hboot (HTC Android 2.2.1 or lower) which would have given you a custom recovery and root , followed by running Revolutionary to gain S-Off.

Flashing a Recovery is very straight forward. Follow steps 6 & 7 from this guide http://androidforums.com/desire-all...ff-root-htc-desire-revolutionary-updated.html to complete the rooting process.

You can get a copy of the 4ext recovery image here http://www.4ext.net/ddl/bravo/recovery.zip

You will need to extract the recovery image from the zip file then fastboot flash it but the guide I linked to above tells you how.

 

[fairphone]

Thanks, it worked!