Hello,
I used to be more active on this forum while Windows powered phones were the only smartphones available. Now, personally I use iPhone, but last night, a friend of mine asked me for help flashing his Desire A8181 with a custom rom. Since I remember doing that for some friends couple of years back, I though it would be piece of cake. Oh boy, I was wrong, very wrong!
Looking at the posts here, instructions, you name it, everything looks like rocket science, even though I myself work as IT SysAdmin :cyclops:
I've downloaded one custom ROM, placed it on the SD card, but when I try to upgrade, the phone "boots" into black screen with the red triangle. Ok, I look further, some thread suggested that bootloader needs to be unlocked, tried that too, can't get the info out of the phone (Command error) while using fastboot oem... command. Checking too many threads leads me to insanity and it is impossible to follow. So, long story short, can someone please, write in plain English, step-by-step how to upgrade Desire with a custom ROM. If you use terms like goldcard or whatever else, please explain what does that mean. One thing I've notice in bootloader is S-OFF..
Well the fact that you are s-off should make things a lot easier. S-off is basically the ultimate unlocked state. You have more freedom than a normal unlocked bootloader.
Please post all of your bootloader details.
Sent using xda-developers app
Related
I have permerooted my DZ but now I seem to be having trouble understanding How to get S-Off and I can't do a nandroid backup unless I get S-off right.
Manarch101 said:
I have permerooted my DZ but now I seem to be having trouble understanding How to get S-Off and I can't do a nandroid backup unless I get S-off right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you following the guide in the wiki?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Manarch101 said:
I have permerooted my DZ but now I seem to be having trouble understanding How to get S-Off and I can't do a nandroid backup unless I get S-off right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, yes you need S-Off to do a nandriod back up.
Second, you do not have permroot if you do not have S-Off. To get S-off there are several ways but I recommend using Rage+gfree found Here: in sub section "Rooting the Vision (G2/DZ) and DHD" This by far is the safest way to root.
But to let you make an informed decision there is also Visionary, now people in properly using this method, has produced a lot of soft bricks, I my self rooted this way, but again I still recommend using Rage+Gfree. But if you wish to still give Visionary a shot, Heres a link on how to properly use Visionary, make sure you follow everything to the "T". Read everything I have written in the post, do everything I have written in the post, then follow the videos exactly. But just to be clear, I am still recommending using the Rage+Gfree method. Happy Rooting.
ok joemm I tried the rage directions that you told me and I am not sure if it worked is there a way of knowing if it worked or not
Edit: nvm I can now get into CWM area which I could not get into before thanxs for the help and info.
What!!?? I know for a fact that you don't need s-off to do a nandroid. In fact, the ONLY thing s-off does that's of any significance is allow you to write to the system while it's booted - that's it. It's not some magic thing you absolutely need, just like having an ENG hboot isn't necessary to do 99% of the modifying you'll ever do.
This is a technical forum not some fire and brimstone 'do it or you'll die' sermon. Let's not construe fact and fiction/personal opinion on here. Just dish the facts unless otherwise rerquested.
As for gaining s-off, follow the wiki, push the files and you can literally copy and paste the commands if you need to (I suggest that so you don't screw up and brick your phone).
KCRic said:
What!!?? I know for a fact that you don't need s-off to do a nandroid. In fact, the ONLY thing s-off does that's of any significance is allow you to write to the system while it's booted - that's it. It's not some magic thing you absolutely need, just like having an ENG hboot isn't necessary to do 99% of the modifying you'll ever do.
This is a technical forum not some fire and brimstone 'do it or you'll die' sermon. Let's not construe fact and fiction/personal opinion on here. Just dish the facts unless otherwise rerquested.
As for gaining s-off, follow the wiki, push the files and you can literally copy and paste the commands if you need to (I suggest that so you don't screw up and brick your phone).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL..........how does he flash a custom CWM recovery with out having a rooted phone? Remember he is using ClockWorkMod to do a back up?
KCRic said:
What!!?? I know for a fact that you don't need s-off to do a nandroid. In fact, the ONLY thing s-off does that's of any significance is allow you to write to the system while it's booted - that's it. It's not some magic thing you absolutely need, just like having an ENG hboot isn't necessary to do 99% of the modifying you'll ever do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S-OFF lets you flash unsigned images and overrides version checking ,it isn't just about writing to the system while booted. I think you may be confusing defeating the NAND write protection with the actual S-OFF.
As far as I know you need S-OFF to flash a custom recovery, and you need CWM recovery to do a nandroid backup. I have never tried flash_image but I would be suprised if that let you flash a custom recovery while S-ON, because flash_image is just a regular binary.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z
steviewevie said:
S-OFF lets you flash unsigned images and overrides version checking ,it isn't just about writing to the system while booted. I think you may be confusing defeating the NAND write protection with the actual S-OFF.
As far as I know you need S-OFF to flash a custom recovery, and you need CWM recovery to do a nandroid backup. I have never tried flash_image but I would be suprised if that let you flash a custom recovery while S-ON, because flash_image is just a regular binary.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True you can't flash a custom recovery and have it stick after a reboot but you can package it into an update.zip and flash it when you get into recovery. Aside from that you're phone performs the same. That's how we did everything on the MT slide before some one found a method to gain s-off. Of course there were no custom MTD partitions and we couldn't change the splash but that falls into the 1% of things the average 'rooter' will not attempt. The only reason we needed the ENG hboot was so that adb would catch our phone in recovery every time without running a loop.bat and praying to god. As far as NAND write protection, normally when a dev manages to break s-on they also break the write protection. At least that's what I've seen in phones with s-off. Are there any not like that?
Hopefully I didn't come off as an ass earlier, didn't mean it. I got 3 hours of sleep and I'm pulling a 13 hour day with a foot of fresh snow outside
I think you might be drawing too much comparison with earlier phones. The DZ and DHD have much stronger security than earlier phones. People familiar with experience of older HTC Android phones have often made incorrect assumptions about how things work on the DZ, some things are quite different (and typically much more complicated to unlock)
Sent from my HTC Desire Z
steviewevie said:
People familiar with experience of older HTC Android phones have often made incorrect assumptions...
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Click to collapse
Hell yes! And I'm one of them!
Last night I put some Cyanogen 6.1 flavoured ROM on my Magic/Sapphire. It was so easy: like 2 years ago or so I flashed some S-OFF ENG hboot, put some nice custom recovery on the phone and there I went, peacefully since ever. Reason for flashing the 6.1 CM was me giving the fone to my GF so that I can pick up a brand new Desire Z.
I came here, wanted to quickly crack that thing to play around with it and I find some gFree, Visionary, adb push stuff blah blah blah (I know my way around adb, that's not the point), it seems to have become alot more difficult than back in the days, as pointed out by steviewevie.
So, anyone willing to *quickly* summarize what has changed in the last 12 months regarding "rooting", "cracking" and ROM-customizing HTC devices for me...? I'm still, uhm... well, I'm shocked and overwhelmed. In the store I thought: cool, 7pm, device mine, home by 7:30, rooted by 8, Gingerbread-flavour on it by 8:30-9pm, ROM customization (settings and such) from 9-10, sleepy time by 10:30pm. Nah, it's past 10:30 and I'm still trying to figure out what's what with the new devices...
schaggo said:
Hell yes! And I'm one of them!
Last night I put some Cyanogen 6.1 flavoured ROM on my Magic/Sapphire. It was so easy: like 2 years ago or so I flashed some S-OFF ENG hboot, put some nice custom recovery on the phone and there I went, peacefully since ever. Reason for flashing the 6.1 CM was me giving the fone to my GF so that I can pick up a brand new Desire Z.
I came here, wanted to quickly crack that thing to play around with it and I find some gFree, Visionary, adb push stuff blah blah blah (I know my way around adb, that's not the point), it seems to have become alot more difficult than back in the days, as pointed out by steviewevie.
So, anyone willing to *quickly* summarize what has changed in the last 12 months regarding "rooting", "cracking" and ROM-customizing HTC devices for me...? I'm still, uhm... well, I'm shocked and overwhelmed. In the store I thought: cool, 7pm, device mine, home by 7:30, rooted by 8, Gingerbread-flavour on it by 8:30-9pm, ROM customization (settings and such) from 9-10, sleepy time by 10:30pm. Nah, it's past 10:30 and I'm still trying to figure out what's what with the new devices...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its become more difficult because device manufacturers have made it more difficult. The "official" means to root the Vision is posted on the Vision wiki page here at XDA.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Thanks for the answer. I got the thing cracked in the meantime. The device feels so much smoother without Sense... and Gingerbread is good for one's soul
Hi,
This is a silly question, I want to install ADR HD ROM so I think I need the DZ HBOOT.
I saw this guide : http://www.virtuousrom.com/2011/06/t-mobile-g2-users-migrating-to-desirez.html
BUT, my stupid question is I am not a T-mobile user, my phone was Bell.. Doesn't matter?
And also, I read the steps and I have question in the step 10 and 11. It said execute adb reboot recovery, can I use the "adb" when I am on the HTC screen ? (I cant use when I am on bootloader, error: devide not found)
Thanks!
You can flash the T-mobile radio and see if it works, but do not be surprised if it does not. You always have the option to flash a new radio over the T-mobile one if it does not work. Alternatively, you can replace the radio.img file in the PC10IMG.zip you downloaded from the virtuous website. Be warned this will change the md5sum of the file, so in step 5 of the guide you will return a different result.
As for your problem with adb, you should use the recovery command when on the HTC screen. Were you able to get the phone to reboot into recovery in step 6?
Your experience sounds a little different than mine, but then again I didn't follow the instructions in the link exactly.
First I downloaded the PC10IMG.zip file to my sdcard, making sure it wasn't in another folder. Then I turned off my phone, then turned it back on, holding volume down + power until the bootloader opened. at that point it found the .zip, installed, and then proceeded to reboot and hang on the second reboot. At this point, I removed battery, took out microsd, put it into a microsd reader on a computer, you can delete it or rename it as i did, in case I want it later, named it "DZPC10IMG.zip" ejected the microsd, put it back in the g2, turned on. From there I forgot exactly what happened, I think it goes back to recovery perhaps, if not then turn off again, use volume + power to boot into bootloader, choose recovery, depending on the image i believe it installs CWM for you, from there I wiped everything again, then installed new ROM.
Personally, I've used that ROM and while it was awesome, I'm using Virtuous Affinity now cause I think it runs a little easier, and it's also Sense 3.5. It ran a lot better once I activated swap and supercharger. Let me know if you want help getting those going
Stockz said:
=
BUT, my stupid question is I am not a T-mobile user, my phone was Bell.. Doesn't matter?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your phone was purchased directly from Canada Bell, its a Desire Z, not a T-Mobile G2. In that case, it already has the Desire Z HBoot, and you don't need to flash the DZ Hboot.
I've read some of your other posts. With all respect, it seems like you need to do more reading and research before modding your phone. You're asking some very basic questions about concepts that should already be understood BEFORE messing with ADB, flashing ROMs, and Hboot. Just take a breather for a few hours, and read up on all the guides, Wiki, etc. Otherwise, I have a feeling you are going to brick your phone very soon.
In particular, I think that messing with Hboot without knowing what you are doing (and don't even need to) is a very bad idea. Screwing it up can prevent you from getting into recovery, and may making recovering very difficult.
redpoint73 said:
If your phone was purchased directly from Canada Bell, its a Desire Z, not a T-Mobile G2. In that case, it already has the Desire Z HBoot, and you don't need to flash the DZ Hboot.
I've read some of your other posts. With all respect, it seems like you need to do more reading and research before modding your phone. You're asking some very basic questions about concepts that should already be understood BEFORE messing with ADB, flashing ROMs, and Hboot. Just take a breather for a few hours, and read up on all the guides, Wiki, etc. Otherwise, I have a feeling you are going to brick your phone very soon.
In particular, I think that messing with Hboot without knowing what you are doing (and don't even need to) is a very bad idea. Screwing it up can prevent you from getting into recovery, and may making recovering very difficult.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer,
I know that I have been asked very basic questions, because I am really new in Android (just buy this phone last wednesday) and some times I want to be sure that I understood from guides are fine (I am not english native).
I have been reading a lot, I spent the first two days reading every guide that I found.. but I know is not enough, I will keep reading.
Thanks you for your advice.
I have the HBOOT-0.84.2000
Radio-26.03-02.26_M
That should be work?
Stockz said:
Thanks for your answer,
I know that I have been asked very basic questions, because I am really new in Android (just buy this phone last wednesday) and some times I want to be sure that I understood from guides are fine (I am not english native).
I have been reading a lot, I spent the first two days reading every guide that I found.. but I know is not enough, I will keep reading.
Thanks you for your advice.
I have the HBOOT-0.84.2000
Radio-26.03-02.26_M
That should be work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's the DZ Hboot.
Stockz said:
Thanks for your answer,
I know that I have been asked very basic questions, because I am really new in Android (just buy this phone last wednesday) and some times I want to be sure that I understood from guides are fine (I am not english native).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything you can possibly think of is here, if you look hard enough. And asking questions if fine, if you can't find it or don't understand something.
The important thing is to completely understand what you are doing, before you do it. If you start doing stuff without understanding it, you can really get yourself into trouble.
I know it can be a steep learning curve, but stick with it. Be careful and good luck!
It is a shame to say that I still use Android 2.2 with Kernel 2.6.32.21, Taiwan version since I bought the phone a year ago.
(Not until recently, I have decided to move on to Gingerbread because
I wanna use the the latest features in the NDK to write some C++ programs for Android.)
Without getting into trouble during/after rooting,
I tried an official OTA upgrade but it doesn't work.
I tried to ask HTC but they said they still don't have any official upgrade for my phone.
I am a newbie here in this forum,
Could anybody please kindly offer your help please?
It will be GREATLY APPRECIATED! I wanna make my App!!!
swimd
If there is no official Gingerbread for your phone (which seems odd ?) then you can flash a different official GB ROM onto your phone. But normally your phone isn't going to let you do this, because it will fail the signature checks.
What you need to do is to de-brand your phone so that it doesn't do these checks any more. I will see if I can dig out a link to a guide and edit it into my post, unless someone else beats me to it.
Sent from my Desire Z running CM7.
Steviewevie,
Thank you for your help in advance!
I can't copy and paste the link right now, but use the Search function in the Android Dev forum to find the thread called "Debranding Bell Desire Z" (it doesn't only apply to Bell phones).
Sent from my Desire Z running CM7.
Thank you for the help!
I have found that thread!
BTW, after a quick look of the thread, it seems that S-off is recommended...
Do I need to get "root" in order to do so?
Should I do that to prevent future trouble?
Always recomend rooting phones right away, if you have a custom recovery and an enginering bootloader you can save tons of headaches in the future when problems arise (as they often do) this of course is outside the fact that a rooted phone is a happy phone and certainly not an apple
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
As demkantor said, getting S-OFF is a lot better because it gives you a lot more options for the future, even if you don't use those options straight away.
IMHO the only reason to use the goldcard method and not full S-OFF is if you are really worried about voiding your warranty or the S-OFF process yourself. But there's no need to worry really, since (a) you can easily reverse the process if you need to, and (b) lots of people here can help you through getting S-OFF (the XDA Wiki explains it very well, though it can look daunting at first).
Sent from my Desire Z running CM7.
+1 to the notion of just rooting the phone. Especially since if are software developer, I would think that you would want full control over your device. And if you have these type of skill, rooting will be easy.
As mentioned, root, S-Off etc. can be removed for warranty purposes, if that is the concern.
The Wiki method is generally accepted as the safest:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=HTC_Vision#Rooting_the_Vision_.28G2.2FDZ.29_and_DHD
demkantor and all,
Thanks!!! ok, I am least I will go for S-OFF!
But, I need to be able to fully recover my OS and Apps,
I need to do some research on stock recovery and/or custom recovery...
Well, I think there is an official update to Gingerbread thou.. But I think dont think that version is in English as it is a Hongkong version.
Hi, I tried posting this in the ' Upgrading, Modifying Sticky Roll-Up Thread **Check this thread BEFORE posting** ' thread yesterday before posting here, but it would appear it's not being answered anymore...
Anyway, I've just spent the last few days attempting to root my phone - most of it has been dead-ends, but I've made an amount of progress that actually surprises me! But I've come to this forum in an attempt to jump (hopefully) my last hurdle.
My phone is a HTC Sensation XE (Beats Audio), Android version 4.0.3, HBoot version 1.27.0000.
I bought it a little over a year ago from AmazonUK, with the SIM already unlocked. But other than that, I believe it was completely stock.
Now, over the past few days my primary goal was to root my phone, so far I've managed to unlock the bootloader with HTCDev, S-Off using the wire trick and (I think) perform a successful flash recovery with the clockwork recovery .img file - not sure if the recovery did work or not though, because it didn't actually install anything on boot-up... which I think it was meant to, wasn't it? I need some enlightening on this please :angel:
Anyway, these processes I've done have come from all different sources on the web, purely because nowhere has a solid system that completely works for me! either something is the wrong version, or its out of date, or it doesn't work with my phone for some obscure reason. However, I've made it this far and am now stuck with getting my phone finally rooted! I'm not sure if it's to do with a failed recovery or something, but could someone point me in the right direction or at least some sort of direction so I can say if I've already tried it or if it actually works, please!
Thank you!!
So after absolutely no help from Cyanogen mod and their forum I thought I'd come here.
I have an HTC One M7 from Verizon with 4.4.2 and I'm just getting really "bored" of the Sense 5 feel. I used to like it at first with my DNA, and thought I'd like the M7 more, but I don't...it's just "dull" and I feel like it's meant for the average user.
Enough about that, here's what I'm trying to do..I want to put a new "skin" on my phone, but have never rooted or done anything like this to a phone before. After doing some research into the M7 for Verizon, it seems that Verizon puts a lot of blocks on their phones to prevent this.
Does anyone have a detailed guide on how to do this safely? Like I said, I'm new to this, and need a thorough explanation since a lot of the terminology I don't understand 100%.
I've been looped around at Cyanogen mod about S-Off and Bootloader, been told different things about what each one does and people just made it very confusing.
Root can be found in the original development section. The thread is called weaksauce. Root is essentially a binary file that allows you access to the "root" files of your phone and its system.
S-off is a boot loader or hboot (similar to the bios on a pc) that has its security unlocked...allowing you to truly customize your phone. In order to s-off after gaining root. See the link in the weaksauce thread for fire water.
Once done you will flash a new recovery (controls the makings of your system). Then you will finally flash a new Rom CM11 if that's what you want.
I suggest doing a bit of reading in this forum before proceeding. Good luck.
Sent from my Lunar Ecliptic One.