in order to gain access to /system and be rooted,one needs to sneek a couple of files onto then phone: a "superuser" app into /system/app and a matching su binary file into /system/bin(or /system/xbin on newer sense versions). typically "busybox" will be added to /system/bin or /system/xbin as well.
there are basically 2 ways to do it:
1)thru the operating system thru the use of apps like z4root or universal androot,or thru pushing files via adb. this was fairly easy on older versions of android,but exploits have been patched over time. the "gingerbreak exlpoit"(if you care enuff you can google it) being the most recent,was a pretty major security issue,so needless to say it has been patched in googles source code,and is now gone as well. unfortunately,in GB all known doors are closed to getting the files in this way. again,this is fixed in googles source code-its not the ploy of HTC or any other phone maker to stop us from rooting.the evo guys have had GB for a few months now,and have been unable to come up with a new exploit. are there more exploits to be found? maybe. no one can say for sure on that,tho i wouldnt hold my breath for it.
2)via a custom recovery(clockwork or amon). there are a couple of ways to get a custom recovery onto your phone. thru some hackery of the operating system(how rom manager installs clockwork),wich is impossible without a rooted OS. the second way is to install it thru the bootloader,wich is what the hboot discussions are revolving around. unfortunately,the s-on bootloader will not let you do this. s-on means "security on" and is specifically designed to only allow you to install firmware that is aproved by HTC. their security checks will not let you install older,rooteable firmware,nor will it let you change only parts of the phone,so you cant swap out the recovery for clockwork,or even do something innocent like change only the radio. because of the way electronic files are signed,it is virtually impossible to trick the s-on hboot into installing something HTC doenst want us installing,like an RUU with a custom recovery and allready rooted OS
so what does this mean? in a nutshell,until someone finds a new exploit that will let us sneek in the root files within the running OS,the only way to root will be as follows:
1)change the secure flag in the radio to "s-off" so there are no longer security checks(or intall a hard patched hboot that ignores an "s-on" radio)
2)install a custom recovery
3)flash a zip file in recovery that adds the root files.
number 1 isnt as easy as it sounds. the s-on hboot does security checks,so obviously they dont want us simply turning the radio to s-off
there are legitimate reasons for test phones(especially pre-release devices) to have the radio purposely turned to s-off for easy software manipulation and testing,so it is possible.
the "xtc clip" is a small device that creates a "gold card" wich basically turns of the secure flag off,like it would be done at the factory. the prollem here is they are expenzive. with a variety of cables and sim card adapters,they are around $80 shipped from ebay,up to 3 times that if you buy them other places. you can prolly scounge and find one cheaper,but at any rate,most folks are not going to spend the $$ on one of these guys to root one phone,one time.
alternatively,alpharevX has joined up with unrevoked and come up with a method that turnes the radio secure flag off on some phones,and replaces the s-on hboot with a hard patched s-off hboot on others. i wont go into the differences here between true "radio s-off" and fake "hboot s-off" since they provide the same results. we will just leave it at the new method roots your device as i listed above:
1)turn hboot to s-off
2)installs custom recovery
3)leaves it up to the user to flash the superuser .zip in recovery if they want to be rooted.
again,unfortunately,the original incredible is not supported.
now that the OTA has hit,there may be enuff demand that they will add support.
you can read about "revolutionary" and watch the supported devices list for the incredible to pop up here:
Revolutionary
anyway,hope that has helped clear up some of the confusion as to whats going on for some of the self proclaimed "n00bs"
this is the kind of discussion i truly love about any of my phones,feel free to post up if you have any questions,or some of that doesnt make sense
