Root I think I somehow unrooted my Evo

[TFlo]

I rooted my Evo in October using Unrevoked. All went well and have been rooted since. I flashed the Myn's Warm twopointwo ROM shortly thereafter and loved it. Last Friday I went to Rom Manager and checked for a ROM update and there was one, so, through Rom Manager, I did a backup and then downloaded and flashed the update. Everything worked great. Loved the update.

Well, last night I was going to flash an add-on to Warm, a font package, and while I was doing that, the phone rebooted, or tried to, a couple times, and then when it finally came back on, it was stock. I mean, like right out of the box stock.

I then downloaded Rom Manager again, but I doesn't work, I assume because of the root issue. I also downloaded Titanium Backup from the market, which I have used since I rooted, and it says I don't have root rights.

Please help guide me in the right direction, guys. Should I reroot using some process and then try to do a recovery or what can I do.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

Interesting... is S off or on?

 

[TFlo]

S is Off.

Thanks.

 

[Xtremedays]

Can you boot into recovery? Tried to restore a nandroid?

 

[TFlo]

I can boot into recovery, but I only get a screen with a picture of a phone with a red triangle on it with an exclamation point. I don't know what that mean -- though I'm guessing not a good thing -- and I have to do a battery pull to get out of it. Well, at least I couldn't figure out how to get out of it.

I thought maybe I didn't do it right so I tried to do it again with the same results.

 

[mdizzle99]

If you just want to check if you are rooted, you can download terminal emulator and then type "su" (without quotes).

If you get a # you are rooted. If you get a $ you are not rooted.

I doubt you "lost" root, however. You didn't happen to accept an OTA update or anything, did you? Sounds like you may have a broken recovery. Before I make an attempt at helping you further (because I wont have much time to follow up), I'll probably let someone else take the lead on this one.

 

[TFlo]

Thanks, mdizzle99! I'll do the terminal emulator right now, but I wanted to let you know that I did not accept an OTA update, at least that I know of. One wasn't offered to me, is what I mean.

Thanks, and I'll post what I find out with terminal emulator.

 

[TFlo]

Okay, just downloaded terminal emulator and typed su and then enter and got a #.

Guess I'm still rooted, but why will none of the root programs work and where the heck is my backup I just did Friday???

keep the great advice coming, please.

Thanks.

 

[frenchy714]

Okay, just downloaded terminal emulator and typed su and then enter and got a #.

Guess I'm still rooted, but why will none of the root programs work and where the heck is my backup I just did Friday???

keep the great advice coming, please.

Thanks.

It sounds like you have a broken recovery image. What version of CW were you running (2.5, 2.6, 3.0)? Go here, choose the version of CW you were running, and flash. Let us know what happens after that.

 

[akazabam]

1) Is the phone *completely* stock, or does it look like something you may have had in the past before flashing a ROM (wouldn't account for missing recovery or superuser; just curious). I *might* be able to understand an older nandroid backup getting restored somehow, but that wouldn't have removed recovery.
2) Go to menu->settings->about phone->software information, and list what you see there.
3) Go to the app drawer, and see if you can find the Superuser app. I'm guessing it's missing (which would account for nothing but the terminal emulator working).
4) What recovery/version did you have before?
5) Go here, find whatever recovery/version you had before, and follow the directions to follow it. If you don't remember what you had, CW 2.6.0.1 is a good choice (I know you had CW of some version or another, as you were using ROM manager).
6) On a hunch, do you have a PC36IMG.zip file on the root of your card? Here's my guess as to what happened - you, at some point or another, put a PC36IMG.zip of a stock ROM on the root of your card. During some reboot or another (guessing you hadn't in a while?), it made its way to hboot before recovery, and flashed that file. What you're seeing is *exactly* what would happen if you flashed a PC36IMG.zip file with the contents of a RUU. You'd get a stock ROM and no recovery. The weird part is that you still have a rooted ROM. That shouldn't happen with that. In any case, let me know if you've got a PC36IMG.zip file on the root of the card. If you do, we can figure out what it is, and why it did what it did.

 

[Xtremedays]

I seem to remember something in the process of rooting mine that there was a PC36IMG file that needed to be renamed after rooting. Would that be the original RUU for the phone? Possible he still had that on his card and somehow unrevoked kept s-off?

 

[akazabam]

Oh, he most certainly kept S-OFF due to unrevoked - no question. You can't lose unrevoked's S-OFF unless you flash the S-ON tool. Period. This looks *almost* exactly like what would happen if a RUU PC36IMG.zip file was flashed. Just not sure about the ROM still being rooted, yet.

 

[TFlo]

^^^ 1) Is the phone *completely* stock, or does it look like something you may have had in the past before flashing a ROM (wouldn't account for missing recovery or superuser; just curious). I *might* be able to understand an older nandroid backup getting restored somehow, but that wouldn't have removed recovery.

I think it's completely stock. When I first came up, it made me go through all the setup stuff just like when it came out of the box. It was not a previous rom I flashed or anything.

^^^ 2) Go to menu->settings->about phone->software information, and list what you see there.

Firmware version: 2.1-update1
Baseband version: 1.39.00.04.26
Kernal version: 2.6.29-a2443432 htc-kernel@and18-2 #1
Build number: 1.32.651.1 CL171253 test-keys
Software number, 1.32.651.1
Browser version: WebKit 3.1
PRI Version: 1.90-003
PRL Version: 60675

^^^^ 3) Go to the app drawer, and see if you can find the Superuser app. I'm guessing it's missing (which would account for nothing but the terminal emulator working).

No Superuser app.

^^^^ 4) What recovery/version did you have before?

I used ROM Manager/Clockworkmod but I'm really not sure what version I had and don't know how to check.

^^^^ 5) Go here, find whatever recovery/version you had before, and follow the directions to follow it. If you don't remember what you had, CW 2.6.0.1 is a good choice (I know you had CW of some version or another, as you were using ROM manager).

Will do this next.

^^^^ 6) On a hunch, do you have a PC36IMG.zip file on the root of your card? Here's my guess as to what happened - you, at some point or another, put a PC36IMG.zip of a stock ROM on the root of your card. During some reboot or another (guessing you hadn't in a while?), it made its way to hboot before recovery, and flashed that file. What you're seeing is *exactly* what would happen if you flashed a PC36IMG.zip file with the contents of a RUU. You'd get a stock ROM and no recovery. The weird part is that you still have a rooted ROM. That shouldn't happen with that. In any case, let me know if you've got a PC36IMG.zip file on the root of the card. If you do, we can figure out what it is, and why it did what it did.

Yes, I do have a PC36IMG.zip in the root of my SD card.

 

[akazabam]

Got it. So, you must have ended up going to hboot at some point and flashing that PC36IMG.zip.

1) If you remember, what was your software version when you rooted.
2) What RLS of myn's warm did you have?
3) If you remember, what was your radio version before this happened?
4) Copy the PC36IMG.zip file to your computer (for sake of ease), open it, and list the names of all the files inside.
5) Do you remember why you put that PC36IMG.zip file there?

 

[TFlo]

1) If you remember, what was your software version when you rooted.

I'm sorry, I don't remember.

2) What RLS of myn's warm did you have?

I flashed RLS 5 on Friday, but before that I think it was RLS 2

3) If you remember, what was your radio version before this happened?

Sorry, I don't know

4) Copy the PC36IMG.zip file to your computer (for sake of ease), open it, and list the names of all the files inside.

I moved it to my desktop but I can't open it. It says the zipped folder is invalid or corrupted. Sorry I'm not much help here!!

5) Do you remember why you put that PC36IMG.zip file there?

I think I thought I was supposed to when I first rooted many months ago and probably missed a step of renaming or removing or something. nOOb!!!

 

[akazabam]

Did you use the actual unrevoked reflash_package, or did you use some other method that uses unrevoked-forever (flashed from recovery, ultimately)? If you used unrevoked, you shouldn't have needed a PC36IMG.zip file, especially one that old. As for the file being corrupted, supposedly, try copying it again. Maybe it didn't copy correctly. Or, just use any file explorer on the phone to open it. Maybe that's a better idea. I just want to verify that's exactly what happened.

In any case, here's the deal - I'm guessing you have a nandroid backup. You could restore that backup once you reflash recovery (according to the links above), BUT because you flashed an old PC36IMG.zip file, your radios are far out of date. One thing nandroid backup doesn't touch is radio versions, so restoring it will be unstable at best, and might not even boot. It doesn't mean we can't fix it; it just means we'll have to get your radios up to date. The reason I asked was because if you need to get back to your last nandroid backup, first, then we'll need to get the correct radio version. If you don't care about that, and want to go straight to RLS5, you'll need the latest radios. That being said, do you have some other form of backup (titanium backup, for example)? If you do, and you don't care to go back to your previous nandroid, I will recommend you do one of two things:

a) Go to the Rooting for Dummies guide, and follow the instructions in Section 6 under after rooting to update radios manually, then flash RLS5. I recommend you not use ROM manager. You can see what happens when it tries to automate things, and PC36IMG.zip files get in the way .

b) Since you've got nothing to save on the current older ROM you're on, you can do an all-in-one radio/latest ROM update via the Sprint Lovers ROM found here. There is a PC36IMG.zip file found there, which will do everything. In your particular case, I recommend you do this, then flash RLS5 right after. If you're unsure of how to flash ROMs manually after flashing this, the Rooting for Dummies sticky has instructions. In any case, if you do this, please save the current PC36IMG.zip file, as I still would like to know what's in it (I'm 99% sure, but I'd like to verify anyway). My guess is it's a rooted stock ROM from some older root method, used in the process to gain full root.

Also, before you do any of that, can you tell me what your hboot version is?

 

[TFlo]

First off, akazabam, thank you so much for all your help!! I truly appreciate it!!

My hboot version says 0.79.0000

Next, I don't really care about anything other than maybe getting back some of my stuff, you know, apps, wireless tether, keyboards, maybe. I really don't care how I have to get there or whatever. This is a learning experience and if I have to start all over, then so be it, but I would rather be able to get back to whole if I can.

Now, whatever is easiest for you and the others to get me there is fine with me.

By the way, I used unrevoked to root but I had read so many things about rooting that I don't know if I did it directly with unrevoked or a process that included unrevoked.

I'm definitely going to start writing this crap down when I do it!!

 

[akazabam]

No problem . So, you have a pretty old hboot. Question - have you ever updated your radios, to your knowledge? You started out with an hboot that is pre-froyo, so I have to wonder if you ever updated your radios at all. That being said, you do have a nandroid backup of your latest setup (RLS2), correct? Assuming you do, let's give it a shot. Go ahead and restore it (assuming you've got Clockwork recovery back), and let's see if it boots up. If it does, great. Go ahead and use titanium backup to save whatever apps you want to backup. You can use SMS Backup & Restore (from the market) to save text messages, if you want. From there, I'd then recommend you go the Sprint Lovers -> RLS5 route (option "b" above). If it doesn't boot, then you need to go to the Rooting for Dummies guide, and follow the directions to flash radios. Here's how it will have to work:

1) Download this and this. That is the radio and pri that would have been used in RLS2 (or at least the OTA it's based off of).
2) Copy those two zip files (don't unzip them) to the root of your sdcard.
3) Reboot into recovery, then wipe cache/dalvik/data (just for good measure).
4) While in recovery, select the option to flash (install) a zip. Select the radio update. The phone should reboot and go to a black screen for a few minutes, then reboot back into recovery. Do the exact same thing for the pri update.
5) Once that is done, do not boot up, but stay in the same recovery session. Go to the nandroid backup option, and restore the RLS2 backup. Assuming it didn't boot up before, it should now. The above *might* not be necessary if you were using a custom kernel.

Once that is done, follow the same procedure from there to backup whatever you want (using titanium), then go ahead and just use Sprint Lovers -> RLS5. Normally, I'd recommend using the radio combo update, but you're kind of jumping from major change to major change, so may as well do as many things at once as we can.

Let me know if you run into any issues with this.

 

[TFlo]

Well, guys, I'm good now! It took forever and had to do all of the things you suggested, but little by little it all worked out. Your advice was all spot-on and I truly appreciate it.

You guys are the best!!

 

[akazabam]

Great . Thanks for the update.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

You guys are fantasic. Filing this away for future reference.