• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root [How To] Return To Gingerbread And S-on

I have 2 questions:

1 - My phone is having the reboot issue and I'm going to bring it back to the store for (hopefully) a replacement phone. I'm worried that my phone will reboot during the flash process to un-root (PB31IMG.zip). If the flash process gets interupted like this - what would / could happen?

2 - I have a few nand backups that I'm happy with and are mostly recent. If I get a replacement Dinc, can I just run unrevoked, and then restore my latest nand backup? Will everything be the way it was? If not, what would be different? I also have Titanium backups, but I think the nand b/u would be better.

Many thanks in advance!
 
Upvote 0
Nice quick response!

My phone is getting to the point of rebooting after doing anything more than simply checking email, and maybe starting an app or two. Under any type of heavy use, it most certainly will reboot.

It's the eternal - what if - that keeps me from unrooting so I can have it serviced. Back in my head, I know the longer I wait, the worse it's going to get. I need to do something this weekend about it. Will it brick the phone if it reboots while flashing?

[UPDATE:] phone never rebooted during flash.. thank god. But it did start to reboot endlessly after it fully cycled on in normal start up.
 
Upvote 0
Will a factory reset change S-OFF back to S-ON? I was rooted, returned to 2.2 but forgot to run she S-On update first. Now the S-On update won't work and for some reason I can't get the forever3 to work from this PC, and the phone is wiped from the PB31IMB.zip so I won't loose anything. Will that fix it or will it be a waste of time?
 
Upvote 0
I have now tried reflash.exe on two different Windows XP computers. So far I have not been able to root from either of these PC's. I did a search on Clockwork and got Clockworkmod but it sounds like you must be rooted to install that. If I can use Clockworkmod where can I download it from? I just want a simple fix to root, remove S-On and unroot. Is there any other way to root without using the reflash.exe whick I can't get to work? According to my Device Manager the USB drivers are loaded and showing but reflash will not find my phone and do the root. Thanks for any help.
 
Upvote 0
I have now tried reflash.exe on two different Windows XP computers. So far I have not been able to root from either of these PC's. I did a search on Clockwork and got Clockworkmod but it sounds like you must be rooted to install that. If I can use Clockworkmod where can I download it from? I just want a simple fix to root, remove S-On and unroot. Is there any other way to root without using the reflash.exe whick I can't get to work? According to my Device Manager the USB drivers are loaded and showing but reflash will not find my phone and do the root. Thanks for any help.

public:forever [RootWiki]

There's a link for CWM on this page along with the S-on zip. Recovery can be flashed from the SD card just like when you unrooted. You can do this because you are still S-off. Not sure how current the file is, but it should work. Then do S-on (flash like a Rom using CWM), then unroot a final time.

Make sure there's only 1 PB31IMG on your card at any time.
 
Upvote 0
Update: The files linked below have been updated to include stock 2.2 plus the 'November OTA' contents.

There have already been several requests for information on how to downgrade back to the official 2.2. The following process will remove root. Whether you need to return a phone or you just want to clean the slate and go back to stock, here is how to get there:

Note: Your SD card MUST be formatted to FAT32 before proceeding. The file will not be recognized otherwise. If you have yet to format, remember that formatting wipes the card. Be sure to copy/move your SD contents to a safe place (PC desktop) and replace after the formatting process. I will not go into the procedure in this thread as it is easily found with a Google search.

1.) Need to return a phone and currently have S-Off? (aka Unrevoked Forever) If so, please visit public:forever [RootWiki] where you can download the latest S-On tool and the process to load to your phone. If you want to keep S-Off and just return to the official 2.2, skip to step 2.

2.) Download the 2.2 PB31IMG.zip (extracted from the official 2.2 RUU)

Mirror 1 (Credit and thanks to Doug Piston for hosting)
Mirror 2

Once downloaded, rename the file to PB31IMG

Note the file size (172 MB) and the MD5 (31BB1611A0FA8197D447C0438426717E) to ensure a successful download and file integrity. If you have questions about how to verify MD5, please see post #2 of this thread.

3.) Attach phone to PC with USB debugging on and in disk drive mode.

4.) Access the SD storage and drag the PB31IMG zip file (still fully zipped) from the desktop onto the root of the SD card (any open area, do not place into a folder).

5.) Swipe down notification bar on phone and change to charge only.

6.) Unplug phone from PC and turn off phone.

7.) Hold volume down while pressing power button to enter hboot.

8.) PB31IMG.zip should be automatically recognized in hboot. Press volume up to continue with update. Do NOT interrupt.

9.) When finished, reboot to stock 2.2 and verify the following information at Menu > Settings > About Phone:

Android Version: 2.2
Baseband Version: 2.15.00.07.28
Software Number: 3.26.605.1


10.) Remove the PB31IMG.zip from the SD card to avoid an inadvertant reload in the future. You are now unrooted and on stock 2.2

_______________________________________________________________________________

Also adding the RUU option for those that are interested. Thanks again to Doug for the upload/host. For those new to RUU, download to a PC and run from there:

http://dougpiston.com/files/RUU/RUU...4k_NV_1.70_PRL58006_release_152016_signed.exe

Note for RUU:
You may wish to install HTC Sync (at least temporarily) if you haven't had prior root dealings on your current PC as it will auto-install the necessary driver for phone recognition.

_______________________________________________________________________________

can i just use a different sd card and format it to fat32 then put my other one back in after i'm "unrooted"?
 
Upvote 0
Hey all, read through this sticky and gotta say, what an incredibly helpful bunch of folks!

I would like to ask what may seem like a noob question (probably because i am a noob!).

I've been running CM6.1 for a while now, with root removed manually by deleting superuser.apk and Su.apk, in order to get GOOD for enterprise working. Well, recently, GOOD "updated" and is now looking at "something else" to determine if the phone is out of compliance and now won't run. I need to get it running again so I want to revert to full stock but using the most recent OTA. I'm assuming that's what this is, right?

Ok, that assessed, my current environment is:
s-ON (recently done via the unrevoked s-on tool)
2.2.1 version
2.15.00.09.01 radio
2.6.32.17 CM 6.1 kernel
FRG83 build

Can I use the image file in this sticky to revert to both stock ROM *and* the stock recovery, in one fell swoop, or do I have to reflash recovery separately somehow?

Also, do I need to temporarly re-root with unrevoked, before running this image wipe?

Thanks all!
 
Upvote 0
Hey all, read through this sticky and gotta say, what an incredibly helpful bunch of folks!

I would like to ask what may seem like a noob question (probably because i am a noob!).

I've been running CM6.1 for a while now, with root removed manually by deleting superuser.apk and Su.apk, in order to get GOOD for enterprise working. Well, recently, GOOD "updated" and is now looking at "something else" to determine if the phone is out of compliance and now won't run. I need to get it running again so I want to revert to full stock but using the most recent OTA. I'm assuming that's what this is, right?

Ok, that assessed, my current environment is:
s-ON (recently done via the unrevoked s-on tool)
2.2.1 version
2.15.00.09.01 radio
2.6.32.17 CM 6.1 kernel
FRG83 build

Can I use the image file in this sticky to revert to both stock ROM *and* the stock recovery, in one fell swoop, or do I have to reflash recovery separately somehow?

Also, do I need to temporarly re-root with unrevoked, before running this image wipe?

Thanks all!

Yeah the file in the OP will put you back to full stock. No need to root again, just put the file on a fat32 formatted SD card and follow the instructs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ashmostro
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones