Develop Bugs

The Dangers of Tool Kits and One Click Root Methods + Mini Rant

I don't create threads on xda very often and 95% of my posts are me trying to help people out, but this is something I wanted to get off my chest.
It seems like everyday in this forum there are about 5 new threads of people "stuck in a bootloop" or "stuck on Google screen." The majority of these people don't know the difference between adb and fastboot or bootloader and recovery.
I bought the G1 on launch and there weren't tool kits. We had to use telnet and command prompt to do everything manually. I knew nothing about linux or coding, but I followed instructions and learned what was happening when I entered these commands. Through owning the G1 and then moving on to the Nexus One I don't remember seeing so many threads about people "soft bricking" their device. I think the reason for this is the tool kits and other scripts that make it almost too easy to unlock and root your phone. While I respect the people who write these scripts (and I think they do serve a purpose in some situations) I think it's causing more harm than good.
The people who are using these scripts aren't learning what is actually happening when they press 1 on their keyboard. Boom, their phone is unlocked, su-binaries and cwm recovery installed. Then, they flash a rom without creating a nandroid. What happens if something goes wrong and they didn't place any safety nets to help them? They post a thread saying their phone is bricked. People take time out of their day to help these people out, but since the user doesn't understand what the helper is talking about, they can't fix it.
Just last weekend I spent 30 minutes replying to a PM with step by step instructions how to flash stock images and including links to files and resources. The person replied back. Instead of fixing his phone himself, he said he "claimed his phone as stolen and will be getting sent a new one lol". WTF?! Not only is that morally wrong, it's also insurance fraud. And we wonder why carriers and OEM's are trying as hard as they can to lock down non-nexus phones.
Please, take the time to learn how to get yourself out of a mess before you are in a mess.
Weigh in with your thoughts, criticisms or tl;dr comments.
Thanks.
EDIT 8/9/12: Link to efrant's Android Galaxy Nexus 101 guide. All the info you need to know. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1812959
EDIT 11/14/12 My Thank you & Goodbye post.

I agree that it's lack of research that causes the problems. But don't knock the toolkits, they're designed for ease and they work perfectly with an understanding of what's going on. I can go thru adb and unlock and root because I researched the absolute **** out of it and know how to use adb but I used a toolkit. Like I said, if they don't want to research then bad on them. Gotta learn somehow be it by mistake or research. But the toolkits aren't the enemy.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

There's always a bigger fish. Like little man syndrome , be careful before you develop big man syndrome. " I'm taller than you "
PS even with research, " you can't fix stupid " so just let it go. A poor craftsman blames his tools. Simple as that.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Leaving good enough alone.
It's getting pretty comical when you see a "help me" post and before you even start reading the post you can correctly predict that the post will start something like this: "so I flashed *****'s custom ROM and now my phone's f****d".

This thread is so full of #winning. The easy way is not always the best way.

I used the manual methods for my Atrix so now after getting a good feel for Fastboot and ADB, the GNex Toolkit was really painless to use.
I understand what you're saying though. I guess some people just want easy routes to get what they want, completely scrolling past the giant red text that tells them exactly what could (and most likely will) happen.

phaze one said:
I agree that it's lack of research that causes the problems. But don't knock the toolkits, they're designed for ease and they work perfectly with an understanding of what's going on. I can go thru adb and unlock and root because I researched the absolute **** out of it and know how to use adb but I used a toolkit. Like I said, if they don't want to research then bad on them. Gotta learn somehow be it by mistake or research. But the toolkits aren't the enemy.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to second this, as long as the toolkits are well documented (showing what they did where, and why it was done) they can save people time typing the commands and looking them up if they forget them.
It's very similar to creating a GUI front end for a program. If done properly they're nothing but useful and time saving.

Im guilty of using the wugfresh kit. I could have easily done everything myself, but it contained everything I needed.
I agree with pretty much everything you said though. I see people offering money for them to root their phone over team viewer, etc. Those are the same people that warranty their phone that they, themselves messed up.

Thanks for your feedback everyone.
I just wanted to clarify I'm not ripping toolkits. They are a great way to get where you want to go quickly. If you know what you are doing by all means use it. But, to me it seems like they are just the cheat sheet to the test. Yeah, you aced the **** out of the test, but when asked to apply what you should have learned from that test in a real life situation; you are screwed.

How to unlock, root, and be done with it.
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot reboot
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (clockwork)
fastboot reboot
adb reboot recovery
flash rom
reboot
profit
Not hard at all.

adrynalyne said:
How to unlock, root, and be done with it.
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot reboot
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (clockwork)
fastboot reboot
adb reboot recovery
flash rom
reboot
profit
Not hard at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
Wouldn't it be sweet if there was actually "profit" and the phone started spitting out money?
You're a dev. See what you can cook up.

The hardest part is just those drivers, not that I call it hard, just Windows can be a pita.
Once that part is working then using adb and fastboot comands I think is fairly straightforward and don't need the toolkit.

Im hardly experienced with Android or Linux. Ive used both for the past year or so only, and did take time to learn what abd commands there are etc. but also will use the toolkits to save time and headaches.
Anyways, its always like this. iOS hacking forums are similar.
Also, if you can get into recovery why do a nandroid? On SGS I was told by devs its not really needed as long as you dont mix up kernels. Do that, and what help is the nandroid? Cant flash it if you cant get into download mode. If you can, thats what stock images are for? I sync everything I really care about to cloud/PC.

El Daddy said:
Exactly.
Wouldn't it be sweet if there was actually "profit" and the phone started spitting out money?
You're a dev. See what you can cook up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL...I wouldn't be here if I could

Toolkits for the nexus is kinda unnecessary because it is so easy to unlock, but there are devices that one the 1%(?) could unlock without a toolkit.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA App

I
adrynalyne said:
How to unlock, root, and be done with it.
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot reboot
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (clockwork)
fastboot reboot
adb reboot recovery
flash rom
reboot
profit
Not hard at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One-click rooting on my Fascinate:
I used z4root to root my phone before I flashed my first ROM (back then I just used ROM Manager for everything and didn't even bother looking at the ROM threads on XDA until the late DJ05/DL09 days when I got used to flashing manually in Clockwork Recovery). With z4root I didn't even need to use my PC to root, but it didn't always work when I had to go back to stock.
One-click Odin pitfalls:
My first experience with Odin was using a one-click version to flash a stock Froyo leak on my Captivate when they had just started making custom ROMs for Froyo. I had a bad experience using one-click Odin so I soon learned how to manually use Odin to do much more than simply flash a Froyo leak with one click. I soon discovered that Odin could be used to do much more than simply going back to stock - I could flash different versions of Clockwork Recovery, different Captivate and Fascinate modems, etc.
Learning adb for myself:
When I got my Gnex I used the exact method adrynalyne posted, and I found it more gratifying than any one-click root (I got my Gnex before there even was a 1-click, and I had long gotten used to adb. There's actually a lot more you can do with adb than simply rooting. If you only use it for rooting it's like going to a four-star restaurant and always ordering the hot dog from the kids menu - you're barely scratching the surface of what adb can do. I highly recommend reading up on adb and learning the different commands you can use. For example, it got me out of a bootloop more than once on my Fascinate when I was running AOSP MTD ROMs (long before jt1134 made 3-button recovery work on them).
The tl;dr:
One-click methods actually hinder you from exploring your phone's full potential, and often do more harm than good. Learning to do things manually for yourself lets you discover other possibilities you never would have found with the one-clicks.
Terminators run on Android

skynet11 said:
One-click methods actually hinder you from exploring your phone's full potential, and often do more harm than good. Learning to do things manually for yourself lets you discover other possibilities you never would have found with the one-clicks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly my sentiment.

android01 said:
There's always a bigger fish. Like little man syndrome , be careful before you develop big man syndrome. " I'm taller than you "
PS even with research, " you can't fix stupid " so just let it go. A poor craftsman blames his tools. Simple as that.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just used 5 rhetorical sayings that make very little sense, in the context of this topic. Be helpful or don't post, maybe?
OP, I couldn't agree more. Too many people post here (and other places) about being stuck in a bootloop even though they should already know how to fix it, if they knew anything about the process they had gone through. It's utterly insane that people are making heavy modifications to a device that costs $650+ without knowing *what* they're doing.
It's like someone going outside to change the oil on their car without knowing a thing about it and following the most basic instructions from some random person on the internet, then freaking out when someone tells them they poured the oil into the power steering reservoir.

No-ones forcing you to help people who have screwed up their phone so I don't see the need to be all holier than thou about it. Why should people have to understand everything that goes on when they use a one-click method? People should just make sure they read the instructions so they don't screw things up. That's the problem, not the tools they use.

As has been stated before in this thread.. you can't stop the stupid, or protect people from their own stupidity.
After far too many years helping out "stupid" users (here and on other forums), unfortunately, I find it far better to pick and choose who I want to help these days. Then, if I get frustrated, I only have myself to blame.. for even responding in the first place.

[Q] FB Mode question

Fastboot Mode
PRODUCT NAME - tuna
VARIANT - maguro 16gb
HV VERSION - 9
BOOTLOADER VERSION - PRIMELC03
BASEBAND VERSION - I9230XXLH1
CARRIER INFO - NONE
SERIAL NUMBER - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
SIGNING - production
LOCK STATE - unlocked
When it says unlocked, is it talking about my SIM or my bootloader?
Do Nexus's come bootloader unlocked, I mean; they are dev friendly.
Don't make fun of me, I'm only curious and trying to start learning about android and maybe even develop things considering I do know alot about graphics.
Thanks in advance.
Edit: I forgot it meant bootloader (blonde moment?), but is this regular for nexus devices?

I'm almost certain it's talking about your bootloader but to be certain reboot your device. If you see an unlocked padlock under Google when you turn on your device your bootloader is unlocked.

063_XOBX said:
I'm almost certain it's talking about your bootloader but to be certain reboot your device. If you see an unlocked padlock under Google when you turn on your device your bootloader is unlocked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it is, I know that; i edited my post after realizing that.
But what I'm asking is; Is it typical for nexus devices to come with unlocked bootloaders or not?
I got my from i wireless and I believe it is a imported device.

It's not. Probably was returned/refurbished.

Haaah.
What are the chances that it's rooted and how can I check?
I traded in my One S and got this phone as a replacement.
Strange that it came in the original boxing with everything.
Thanks man.

If it doesn't have superuser then it isn't rooted.

Thanks.
I'm gonna be a noob and ask one more question.
Is it easy to brick your phone from rooting?

Or SuperSU. Try rootchecker. "Is it easy to brick your phone from rooting?" Not from rooting but perhaps flashing if you tend to jump into things..

brainfart moments can give you a softbrick pretty easily, but with fastboot and (we arent quite fans of this like the fascinate people were) ODIN you would have to realllllly screw up and probably try to completely brick it. make sure you have fastboot set up and working correctly before doing anything questionable. it will save your ass lol
edit: speaking of fastboot, i would probably use it to format and reflash all partitions with the latest stock image before messing around since it sounds like your phone has been screwed with before you got it (you never know what other people did to it). theres a really good guide about resetting to stock in either the general or q/a section here. dont worry about relocking the bootloader, there isnt really a way to unlock it wrong... it either works or doesnt. since you sound pretty tech savvy, please dont use toolkits, learn fastboot. it seems like toolkits are a one click problem, not a one click fix lol.

electro` said:
Thanks.
I'm gonna be a noob and ask one more question.
Is it easy to brick your phone from rooting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Practically impossible. You'd have to not read anything and then willfully do something to ruin your device. And even then it's almost certainly recoverable so not bricked.

It seems nearly impossible to brick your device. x.x
I installed ParanoidAndroid last nigh but for some reason I tried installing a mod and I lost the status bar and home buttons.
I was so pissed off, I had to unroot my device and reflash the stock rom.
I'm going to try using CyanogenMod 10.1 and see where it gets me. It will probably be better considering you can make alot more customizations to your device ui and such.
Thanks 063_XOBX.

How do I root this thing (Arc S)

Yea sorry, I know there are tons of threads on rooting this stupid thing but I've been trying out so many different ways today and failed that I'm sick of and tired of this stupid piece of crap.
This is my brother's phone, and it's run out of internal memory (seriously 300 mb?), anyway he has like 10 apps installed on the internal memory, these plus all the updates have filled it up. So now I'm trying to root it so I can swap the SD cards (already got him a 32 gig microSD for that).
And oh boy am I sick of this thing, so far I've tried multiple options and none work, and some are too complicated with poor instructions for me to figure out.
Rooting my Galaxy W was so easy and this thing here just makes me hate everything.
Stuff I've tried:
Sony Xperia Flasher
ERoot
Flash tool
bootloader
I'm at the end of my wits here, completely frustrated and yea, if this where my phone I would have already smashed it with a hammer.
I really don't have time for this sh*t since I have to study for a big test, so I would appreciate something super simple and fast, like with the Galaxy W.
Again, sorry for sounding like a **** and creating yet another thread, but I'm desperate.
Thanks for any help.

dial *#*#7378423#*#* on your phone then go to service info then to configuration & at the bottom what does it say regarding your bootloader ?

Bootloader unlock allowed: Yes

Dead Metal said:
Bootloader unlock allowed: Yes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is good,what version of android do you have ?

It says Android Version 2.3.4
But build number 4.02.A0.69

Dead Metal said:
It says Android Version 2.3.4
But build number 4.02.A0.69
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok i used this app to root my phone (google it or search this forum for it,easy to find):
DooMLoRD_v4_ROOT-zergRush-busybox-su
& i used this video to unlock bootloader:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-crbhMFSuaQ

Thanks , I'll try that tomorrow, right now I'm just too tiered.

Dead Metal said:
Thanks , I'll try that tomorrow, right now I'm just too tiered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you need help send me PM & i will reply back in this thread. take care

If you want you can unlock the bootloader (loosing your warranty, of course), and then install a newer version of android up to 4.2.2, which is much more smoother than 2.3.4 and has much more features...

Madness, if you can't figure it out you're either not reading enough or just being lazy. There's about 4 or 5 links in my guide with how to root, add to that the amount of other threads there is, starting a new one means your lazy, because you've read nothing whilst signing up and just want to be spoon fed. Luck for you, there's some willing to do it.
Sent from Myushi

Rooting Tools
you can root using doomlord root script.
I have rooted several times after flashing few roms and the script works great.
Hope this helps..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1321582

XperienceD said:
Madness, if you can't figure it out you're either not reading enough or just being lazy. There's about 4 or 5 links in my guide with how to root, add to that the amount of other threads there is, starting a new one means your lazy, because you've read nothing whilst signing up and just want to be spoon fed. Luck for you, there's some willing to do it.
Sent from Myushi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had you taken a look at my join date and post count you may have noticed how I did not sign up to be spoon fed to root this device. And had you read my post you may have noticed how I stated that I've already rooted the Galaxy W, which is my phone, which was also real easy and straight forward.
I signed up to be able to hit the thanks button for Sir Arco's CM10 ROM, and give feedback should I notice bugs or other problems with it.
All I wanted was to root it without flashing a new ROM, since all my brother wants is more space on his phone, I don't think he'll want to check the forums constantly to check if there's a new version of a ROM out so he can flash it, so unlocking the bootloader and flashing a new ROM would be pretty pointless.

you can try to use the doomlord process, but you will always install a new rom, in that case will upgrade de phone to 4.0.3 and then you will be able to root the phone with de .bat file inside :good:

Dead Metal said:
Had you taken a look at my join date and post count you may have noticed how I did not sign up to be spoon fed to root this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But you still clearly hadn't read anything whilst signing up, otherwise you wouldn't have started a new thread on something as common as "how do I root". I assume you will have managed it by now?

XperienceD said:
But you still clearly hadn't read anything whilst signing up, otherwise you wouldn't have started a new thread on something as common as "how do I root". I assume you will have managed it by now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did, which is why I apologized for posting another thread like it, there where also no I do I root this in this forum, since apparently I'm the only one who had trouble with the options that are posted in the guide threads.
And no, the doom script did not work, it did say it was successful but the phone remained unrooted. So after a couple more tries (and rectifying the "drivers out of date" error message) I unlocked the bootloader, tried again a couple of times still to no effect. So I want ahead and flashed a new ROM and Kernel. At first my brother wasn't too happy about that but he's starting to like the new ROM.
Man, it was easier flashing android onto the bloody HP Touchpad than this phone.

Rooting without exploding the device? Have not had an HTC in a long time.

Just ordered my HTC 10, excited...and nervous as I've not had a new device (like long term) in... like over 1.5 years. :S I'm mainly hoping the microSD card slot likes my 128GB U1 x633 card so I can finally have enough space for all my vinyl rips, and then I hope the DAC is as good as they say.
So anyway, I've been reading all of this stuff about rooting and loosing the radio connection and something about the data encryption breaking everything O.O!!! Holy crap. I just wanna root it, find a good rom and dev to support and enjoy it. This is what I do on my current daily driver, my old OPO. I've been trying to look around, search, and read to make sure that I avoid all of these issues mentioned but so far I've not found a concrete explanation of why said issues happen. Not new to rooting/flashing at all, but HTC devices always seemed to of been touchy when it came to custom stuff, and I don't want to explode this thing. My main problem is that I've been away from HTC for.... well since early 2014.
My current knowledge of android stuffz tells me to:
1) Unlock Bootloader via ADB
2) Flash TWRP/Other Customer Recovery
3) Find sweet rom, flash and spend hours customizing
4) Flash xposed and go crazy with modules until the phone explodes and then scale it back to a realistic level
5) Enjoy Phone
6) Cake
HOWEVER... I remember HTC devices having a bit more complication due to things like... RUU and firmware.. I don't even remember what RUU means lol... But I remember when I had my M8 I was always fighting these dang firmware issues. While I ended up with a fantastic experience, I remember fighting for almost 2 months or so to get it to behave. Battery was out of control, phone was crashing, camera exploding. Oh man it sucked, but finally someone really cool was like... "Yo dude I had these issues, this is what you have to do with HTC stuff" , and after a full hour of flashing shiz I had the phone running smoothly and behaving correctly. Something about... you had to flash each level of the firmware and then reboot and...something. Like you couldn't just skip to the latest firmware? I don't remember exactly.
So anyway, the main question I have is. Could someone either
A.) Point me in the direction of a post or something to study to understand what to do and not do. I've searched but not really found anything solid. Something for folks who've been off the HTC scene for a while.
B.) If there isn't really a single post on this, perhaps if someone doesn't mind explaining this (even pm is fine) to me so I don't explord this expensive mofo and cry.
C.) Give me a hug, because I am nervous about having a new device O.O , it's been so long and I'm so used to Cm13 and xposed and all that jazz. I is be scared.
I would be grateful to any and all help/support.
Anyway, thanks in advanced guys and gals. :3

Locklear308 said:
Just ordered my HTC 10, excited...and nervous as I've not had a new device (like long term) in... like over 1.5 years. :S I'm mainly hoping the microSD card slot likes my 128GB U1 x633 card so I can finally have enough space for all my vinyl rips, and then I hope the DAC is as good as they say.
So anyway, I've been reading all of this stuff about rooting and loosing the radio connection and something about the data encryption breaking everything O.O!!! Holy crap. I just wanna root it, find a good rom and dev to support and enjoy it. This is what I do on my current daily driver, my old OPO. I've been trying to look around, search, and read to make sure that I avoid all of these issues mentioned but so far I've not found a concrete explanation of why said issues happen. Not new to rooting/flashing at all, but HTC devices always seemed to of been touchy when it came to custom stuff, and I don't want to explode this thing. My main problem is that I've been away from HTC for.... well since early 2014.
My current knowledge of android stuffz tells me to:
1) Unlock Bootloader via ADB
2) Flash TWRP/Other Customer Recovery
3) Find sweet rom, flash and spend hours customizing
4) Flash xposed and go crazy with modules until the phone explodes and then scale it back to a realistic level
5) Enjoy Phone
6) Cake
HOWEVER... I remember HTC devices having a bit more complication due to things like... RUU and firmware.. I don't even remember what RUU means lol... But I remember when I had my M8 I was always fighting these dang firmware issues. While I ended up with a fantastic experience, I remember fighting for almost 2 months or so to get it to behave. Battery was out of control, phone was crashing, camera exploding. Oh man it sucked, but finally someone really cool was like... "Yo dude I had these issues, this is what you have to do with HTC stuff" , and after a full hour of flashing shiz I had the phone running smoothly and behaving correctly. Something about... you had to flash each level of the firmware and then reboot and...something. Like you couldn't just skip to the latest firmware? I don't remember exactly.
So anyway, the main question I have is. Could someone either
A.) Point me in the direction of a post or something to study to understand what to do and not do. I've searched but not really found anything solid. Something for folks who've been off the HTC scene for a while.
B.) If there isn't really a single post on this, perhaps if someone doesn't mind explaining this (even pm is fine) to me so I don't explord this expensive mofo and cry.
C.) Give me a hug, because I am nervous about having a new device O.O , it's been so long and I'm so used to Cm13 and xposed and all that jazz. I is be scared.
I would be grateful to any and all help/support.
Anyway, thanks in advanced guys and gals. :3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in the same boat haven't owed an HTC since the Fuze running Windows lol and have been a loyal Samsung user since the S1 so the whole adb fastboot thing was a little overwhelming. I followed the guide in the forum and had a few hiccups but overall went pretty smooth. Adb is definitely not as user friendly as Odin on a Sammy device but not to difficult. My only tips would be make sure you have all the latest drivers, twrp, and adb installed. It seems pretty hard to permanently brick a device these days from my experience so I wouldn't worry to much. As far as the radio not working, as long as you keep your device encrypted you won't lose your radio. I'm sure the devs will find a fix for this soon enough. Enjoy your new 10!
Edit: I'm using a lexar 128gb 633x U1 micro sd and all is well. Worked with adoptable storage also but felt a little sluggish so I went back to using it as external storage.

AndroiderM said:
I was in the same boat haven't owed an HTC since the Fuze running Windows lol and have been a loyal Samsung user since the S1 so the whole adb fastboot thing was a little overwhelming. I followed the guide in the forum and had a few hiccups but overall went pretty smooth. Adb is definitely not as user friendly as Odin on a Sammy device but not to difficult. My only tips would be make sure you have all the latest drivers, twrp, and adb installed. It seems pretty hard to permanently brick a device these days from my experience so I wouldn't worry to much. As far as the radio not working, as long as you keep your device encrypted you won't lose your radio. I'm sure the devs will find a fix for this soon enough. Enjoy your new 10!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I am comfortable in adb :3 so that's not a worry. So un-enecrypting it is just an option, and I should just avoid it for now? What is the advantage of un-encrypting it?
What guide did you use? Also, what about all this firmware and ruu stuff?
Sorry for so many questions... Lol this thing wasn't cheap and I am nervous , BTW what setup do you have? Root? ROM?
Thanks for replying :3

Locklear308 said:
Well I am comfortable in adb :3 so that's not a worry. So un-enecrypting it is just an option, and I should just avoid it for now? What is the advantage of un-encrypting it?
What guide did you use? Also, what about all this firmware and ruu stuff?
Sorry for so many questions... Lol this thing wasn't cheap and I am nervous , BTW what setup do you have? Root? ROM?
Thanks for replying :3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-10/how-to/guide-root-optionally-s-off-radio-t3373025
From what I understand unencrypting breaks the radio. With it unencrypted you would get slightly better performance and boot times I think. I would definitely avoid it for now. I'm currently using twrp with Viper 10 rom. I've also used leedroid and still trying to find which one I prefer. I've only had my 10 for 3 days lol so I haven't found my sweet setup just yet. I left s-on for now as I don't really need it off.
No idea about the firmware and ruu stuff. I made a backup of stock rom before I started flashing. I'm pretty sure there is or will be a repo with factory firmware, radios, etc. I don't know what ruu stands for either lol.
---------- Post added at 06:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 AM ----------
Did you get carrier or unlocked version

AndroiderM said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-10/how-to/guide-root-optionally-s-off-radio-t3373025
From what I understand unencrypting breaks the radio. With it unencrypted you would get slightly better performance and boot times I think. I would definitely avoid it for now. I'm currently using twrp with Viper 10 rom. I've also used leedroid and still trying to find which one I prefer. I've only had my 10 for 3 days lol so I haven't found my sweet setup just yet. I left s-on for now as I don't really need it off.
No idea about the firmware and ruu stuff. I made a backup of stock rom before I started flashing. I'm pretty sure there is or will be a repo with factory firmware, radios, etc. I don't know what ruu stands for either lol.
---------- Post added at 06:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 AM ----------
Did you get carrier or unlocked version
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unlocked, at least that's what the guy on Swappa marked it as. *fingers crossed*
Got it for 510. One scratch on the metal
Alright so I will back things up and avoid the radio breaking stuff. I will check that link, thanks man

Locklear308 said:
Unlocked, at least that's what the guy on Swappa marked it as. *fingers crossed*
Got it for 510. One scratch on the metal
Alright so I will back things up and avoid the radio breaking stuff. I will check that link, thanks man
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No problem, mine has two scratches on metal too lol but guy gave me $200 and unlocked htc 10 w uh oh protection and original receipt for my s7e at&t branded locked bootloader ?. Was a no brainer for me

Locklear308 said:
Just ordered my HTC 10, excited...and nervous as I've not had a new device (like long term) in... like over 1.5 years. :S I'm mainly hoping the microSD card slot likes my 128GB U1 x633 card so I can finally have enough space for all my vinyl rips, and then I hope the DAC is as good as they say.
So anyway, I've been reading all of this stuff about rooting and loosing the radio connection and something about the data encryption breaking everything O.O!!! Holy crap. I just wanna root it, find a good rom and dev to support and enjoy it. This is what I do on my current daily driver, my old OPO. I've been trying to look around, search, and read to make sure that I avoid all of these issues mentioned but so far I've not found a concrete explanation of why said issues happen. Not new to rooting/flashing at all, but HTC devices always seemed to of been touchy when it came to custom stuff, and I don't want to explode this thing. My main problem is that I've been away from HTC for.... well since early 2014.
My current knowledge of android stuffz tells me to:
1) Unlock Bootloader via ADB
2) Flash TWRP/Other Customer Recovery
3) Find sweet rom, flash and spend hours customizing
4) Flash xposed and go crazy with modules until the phone explodes and then scale it back to a realistic level
5) Enjoy Phone
6) Cake
HOWEVER... I remember HTC devices having a bit more complication due to things like... RUU and firmware.. I don't even remember what RUU means lol... But I remember when I had my M8 I was always fighting these dang firmware issues. While I ended up with a fantastic experience, I remember fighting for almost 2 months or so to get it to behave. Battery was out of control, phone was crashing, camera exploding. Oh man it sucked, but finally someone really cool was like... "Yo dude I had these issues, this is what you have to do with HTC stuff" , and after a full hour of flashing shiz I had the phone running smoothly and behaving correctly. Something about... you had to flash each level of the firmware and then reboot and...something. Like you couldn't just skip to the latest firmware? I don't remember exactly.
So anyway, the main question I have is. Could someone either
A.) Point me in the direction of a post or something to study to understand what to do and not do. I've searched but not really found anything solid. Something for folks who've been off the HTC scene for a while.
B.) If there isn't really a single post on this, perhaps if someone doesn't mind explaining this (even pm is fine) to me so I don't explord this expensive mofo and cry.
C.) Give me a hug, because I am nervous about having a new device O.O , it's been so long and I'm so used to Cm13 and xposed and all that jazz. I is be scared.
I would be grateful to any and all help/support.
Anyway, thanks in advanced guys and gals. :3
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I'm on my third htc10. Exploded last two after rooting haha. Really not hard mate. Just read the guides provided and ask any questions you need. Most ppl on XDA will be helpful, and some will reply like me lol.
BTW, simple answer, unlock phone via HTC Dev, then flash Viper. Done.

purple patch said:
I'm on my third htc10. Exploded last two after rooting haha. Really not hard mate. Just read the guides provided and ask any questions you need. Most ppl on XDA will be helpful, and some will reply like me lol.
BTW, simple answer, unlock phone via HTC Dev, then flash Viper. Done.
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Alright neato, so do I need to ensure I let it download any and all OTA's for the firmware before doing anything? Is s-off safe to get as well in regards to the issues I referred to in my OP above?
And his is this viper? Does it allow things like settings similar to cm and also allow for xposed?
Thanks for replying man, I feel more comfortable now as it sounds like there isn't anything crazy required to safely root this thing . Phew!!

Locklear308 said:
Alright neato, so do I need to ensure I let it download any and all OTA's for the firmware before doing anything? Is s-off safe to get as well in regards to the issues I referred to in my OP above?
And his is this viper? Does it allow things like settings similar to cm and also allow for xposed?
Thanks for replying man, I feel more comfortable now as it sounds like there isn't anything crazy required to safely root this thing . Phew!!
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I got an M9 for my wife not that long ago and just had my 10 show up today and gonna root. Just do like the other dude said. Find a guide that says how to use HTC dev to unlock the bootloader. You can't just enter a command in adb like "unlock bootloader" and have it work. Go to the HTC dev website, make an account, pick your device and it walks you through the steps of unlocking the bootloader. That's really the only semi-difficult part IMO. Then proceed as normal. Download twrp, make a stock nand, download ROM, su binaries, kernel, etc. etc. go to recovery and flash. I'm sure there's a couple other steps in their but that's the basics.
As for Viper, it tends to come with so many mods built in, I'd personally be kind of reluctant to use xposed with it to to much modifying. It's a great ROM, but so is leedroid You can try each and see what you like, but if you want to more safely use xposed I'd personally go with leedroid.

DroidIt! said:
I got an M9 for my wife not that long ago and just had my 10 show up today and gonna root. Just do like the other dude said. Find a guide that says how to use HTC dev to unlock the bootloader. You can't just enter a command in adb like "unlock bootloader" and have it work. Go to the HTC dev website, make an account, pick your device and it walks you through the steps of unlocking the bootloader. That's really the only semi-difficult part IMO. Then proceed as normal. Download twrp, make a stock nand, download ROM, su binaries, kernel, etc. etc. go to recovery and flash. I'm sure there's a couple other steps in their but that's the basics.
As for Viper, it tends to come with so many mods built in, I'd personally be kind of reluctant to use xposed with it to to much modifying. It's a great ROM, but so is leedroid You can try each and see what you like, but if you want to more safely use xposed I'd personally go with leedroid.
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Oh right, I do remember about the whole HTC dev website thing. I was mainly just concerned with the firmware issues and stuff that I had before.
Is there any kind of limitations for reasons not to upgrade to the highest available firmware? Something like, maybe the highest one can't be rooted yet or something like that. I just want to make sure that I don't shoot myself in the foot haha.
Thank you all for your help

Locklear308 said:
Oh right, I do remember about the whole HTC dev website thing. I was mainly just concerned with the firmware issues and stuff that I had before.
Is there any kind of limitations for reasons not to upgrade to the highest available firmware? Something like, maybe the highest one can't be rooted yet or something like that. I just want to make sure that I don't shoot myself in the foot haha.
Thank you all for your help
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Hey, I'm not sure about firmware not being able to be rooted but the best way to go about it (what I did anyway) is to unlock the phone via htcdev.com, flash a custom recovery (Latest TWRP which has also worked around the encryption stuff?) and then back up everything other than the data partition. That way, no matter what you do, you always have something to revert back to. The reason for not backing up data is due to the encryption. From my understanding, restoring an encrypted data partition would break things. Once you have the phone unlocked and recovery sorted, you are free to flash viper etc. and root the phone using SuperSU. I'm sure you are aware unlocked devices are quite easy to root so whatever you flash will most likely be on latest firmware, already rooted.
As for installing OTAs etc., you need unmodified system and recovery which is where the backups kick in. Simply back up your data on an SD card (pictures etc. not the actual partition) and restore the system-image and recovery. This should reset the phone although I'm not sure if it'll wipe anything and allow you to do OTA updates. Alternatively, get the latest firmware for your device from htcdev (again, not sure if they have firmware on there) and use that instead.
If any of the information above is incorrect or missing steps, someone feel free to correct me.

Updating question

Ok, I start this off with the fact that this is my first phone with the whole slot A&B thing. I've done a ton of reading but it's still very confusing to me. I'm very confused on what exactly to do when it comes to updates. I'm stock rooted with TWRP installed on slot A. I'm also on the December build. I would like to update but I don't know what the easiest way to go about it is to be honest. I feel like an idiot but I guess that's because I'm really old school when it comes to this stuff. My rooting/roming goes back to the Samsung Captivate and countless other phones up until it got to be too much of a hassle to get a phone from a carrier that could be messed with. Now that I have rambled on, I thought it would be different getting a Pixel but this whole slot thing has me all confused. I basically want to stay stock rooted for now and possibly try a kernel down the line but I'm very happy with stock for now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

pside15 said:
Ok, I start this off with the fact that this is my first phone with the whole slot A&B thing. I've done a ton of reading but it's still very confusing to me. I'm very confused on what exactly to do when it comes to updates. I'm stock rooted with TWRP installed on slot A. I'm also on the December build. I would like to update but I don't know what the easiest way to go about it is to be honest. I feel like an idiot but I guess that's because I'm really old school when it comes to this stuff. My rooting/roming goes back to the Samsung Captivate and countless other phones up until it got to be too much of a hassle to get a phone from a carrier that could be messed with. Now that I have rambled on, I thought it would be different getting a Pixel but this whole slot thing has me all confused. I basically want to stay stock rooted for now and possibly try a kernel down the line but I'm very happy with stock for now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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@Homeboy76 will get you squared away :good:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/pi...-android-9-0-pie-unlock-t3857195/post77944292

Badger50 said:
@Homeboy76 will get you squared away :good:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/pi...-android-9-0-pie-unlock-t3857195/post77944292
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Thanks for the reply. I've read throughout that thread numerous times and I still can't determine the easiest way to update my phone and the necessary steps to take to get there. I just want to be stock rooted like I am now but don't know what steps to take to get there. Like do I need to unroot first, relock bootloader? I'm sure all those answers are in that thread but I'm probably just too dense to see them. I haven't really had a solid rooted phone in like 3 years so I'm used to things being done way different. Some times I miss my old HTC Inspire/Desire HD. There was so much development for that phone and it was all very straightforward.

pside15 said:
Thanks for the reply. I've read throughout that thread numerous times and I still can't determine the easiest way to update my phone and the necessary steps to take to get there. I just want to be stock rooted like I am now but don't know what steps to take to get there. Like do I need to unroot first, relock bootloader? I'm sure all those answers are in that thread but I'm probably just too dense to see them. I haven't really had a solid rooted phone in like 3 years so I'm used to things being done way different. Some times I miss my old HTC Inspire/Desire HD. There was so much development for that phone and it was all very straightforward.
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This guide is how I update the monthly security patches. It is predicated on the notion that you have the latest platform-tools (28.0.1) and that your computer and phone are communicating well. It doesn't not require you to switch slots, and it will not wipe your data, and, you do not have to unroot before you begin. Happy flashing, and good luck
And never ever ever relock the bootloader! :crying:

Badger50 said:
This guide is how I update the monthly security patches. It is predicated on the notion that you have the latest platform-tools (28.0.1) and that your computer and phone are communicating well. It doesn't not require you to switch slots, and it will not wipe your data, and, you do not have to unroot before you begin. Happy flashing, and good luck
And never ever ever relock the bootloader! :crying:
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Awesome, thank you very much for that. Yeah, I figured that about the bootloader. Does it matter if I have TWRP installed? That's the one main confusing thing to me. How you can have TWRP installed or not installed. I'm used to absolutely having to have TWRP or some other kind of custom recovery installed. But like I said it's been quite a while since I was really able to root/ROM a phone. I was basically forced to move to AT&T and opted for the Active line of Galaxy phones since I have little kids plus even the phones that were rootable and such seemed like more of a hassle than it was worth. The last phone I had that had some good development was probably the LG G3 on T-MOBILE. For some reason the T-MOBILE version had an unlocked bootloader or could be unlocked, don't remember exactly. But then a coworker got a Pixel 2XL and I got the itch again, not knowing how much had really changed though. Ok, I think I've rambled on enough now. Thanks again for the help.

pside15 said:
Awesome, thank you very much for that. Yeah, I figured that about the bootloader. Does it matter if I have TWRP installed? That's the one main confusing thing to me. How you can have TWRP installed or not installed. I'm used to absolutely having to have TWRP or some other kind of custom recovery installed. But like I said it's been quite a while since I was really able to root/ROM a phone. I was basically forced to move to AT&T and opted for the Active line of Galaxy phones since I have little kids plus even the phones that were rootable and such seemed like more of a hassle than it was worth. The last phone I had that had some good development was probably the LG G3 on T-MOBILE. For some reason the T-MOBILE version had an unlocked bootloader or could be unlocked, don't remember exactly. But then a coworker got a Pixel 2XL and I got the itch again, not knowing how much had really changed though. Ok, I think I've rambled on enough now. Thanks again for the help.
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Doesn't matter if you have twrp installed or not. When you fastboot the update, it'll wipe it out anyway :good: