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First time rooting in years, need some answers

Okay guys, I just have a couple of quick (I hope) questions in regards to rooting an HTC One M7 on Verizon Wireless.
I've done a lot of research and I am genuinely confused about everything and really just need a few questions answered. I've done my research and done my googling but I still need some help.
I haven't rooted a phone in probably well over 2-3 years. The last phone I rooted was a HTC Evo on Sprint which was a breeze. I've had my HTC One for a little over a year now I believe. I'm getting kind of bored of it and I saw that CyanogenMod has come a long way since I last used it. Through my research I have found that the Verizon HTC One M7 is kind of difficult and complicated to root and I apparently need to S-OFF as well, which I have no experience with. My phone has been kept up-to-date (I know that's a bad thing in this case) and I'm running Android 4.4.3, software number 5.28.605.2, baseband version 1.13.41.0702. I'm not sure what out of that information is relevant but there you have it.
What I'm wanting to do is unlock/root/whatever my phone, install CWM recovery, and CM11. Now from the research I have done it appears that if I purchase SunShine S-Off (which looks like my only option) it will s-off, root, and unlock everything that is necessary to install the custom recovery and ROM.
So my questions are this:
I'm terrified of freezing/boot-loops because this is the first phone I'd be rooting without the ability of popping the battery out for a hard restart. Is it safe to modify this phone? Are there usually any issues?
Will SunShine do everything that I need to go from a stock Verizon HTC One to being able to flash CWM and CM11?
Are there any good tutorials on doing this with the latest updated Verizon HTC One M7? A lot of the tutorials I find seem to be outdated.
If the answer to the second question is yes, then all I need to do is purchase SunShine, follow install instructions for CWM, and follow install instructions for CM11, correct?
Thanks for your time and putting up with my stupid questions.

sector2112 said:
Okay guys, I just have a couple of quick (I hope) questions in regards to rooting an HTC One M7 on Verizon Wireless.
I've done a lot of research and I am genuinely confused about everything and really just need a few questions answered. I've done my research and done my googling but I still need some help.
I haven't rooted a phone in probably well over 2-3 years. The last phone I rooted was a HTC Evo on Sprint which was a breeze. I've had my HTC One for a little over a year now I believe. I'm getting kind of bored of it and I saw that CyanogenMod has come a long way since I last used it. Through my research I have found that the Verizon HTC One M7 is kind of difficult and complicated to root and I apparently need to S-OFF as well, which I have no experience with. My phone has been kept up-to-date (I know that's a bad thing in this case) and I'm running Android 4.4.3, software number 5.28.605.2, baseband version 1.13.41.0702. I'm not sure what out of that information is relevant but there you have it.
What I'm wanting to do is unlock/root/whatever my phone, install CWM recovery, and CM11. Now from the research I have done it appears that if I purchase SunShine S-Off (which looks like my only option) it will s-off, root, and unlock everything that is necessary to install the custom recovery and ROM.
So my questions are this:
I'm terrified of freezing/boot-loops because this is the first phone I'd be rooting without the ability of popping the battery out for a hard restart. Is it safe to modify this phone? Are there usually any issues?
Will SunShine do everything that I need to go from a stock Verizon HTC One to being able to flash CWM and CM11?
Are there any good tutorials on doing this with the latest updated Verizon HTC One M7? A lot of the tutorials I find seem to be outdated.
If the answer to the second question is yes, then all I need to do is purchase SunShine, follow install instructions for CWM, and follow install instructions for CM11, correct?
Thanks for your time and putting up with my stupid questions.
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Click to collapse
Sunshine will unlock boot loader and gain S_off. I used it on my Vzw m7, best investment I ever made. After using sunshine all u have to do is flash custom recovery and then SuperSu

xxxxxxx
bdizzle1686 said:
Sunshine will unlock boot loader and gain S_off. I used it on my Vzw m7, best investment I ever made. After using sunshine all u have to do is flash custom recovery and then SuperSu
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how do i flash custom recovery? any instruction / link ? tks

**subscribed**as I'm in the almost exact same scenario as OP.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2416431
Adb reboot bootloader.
Fastboot flash recovery *name-of-image*.img
Fastboot reboot (or select recovery to be in twrp from bootloader menu and press power button)
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using XDA Free mobile app

[Q] Unlocking Questions from new VZW HTC One owner

Hi,
I just got a new Verizon HTC One off contract from Best Buy when they were clearing them out for $200 off contract. I'm coming from a Droid 4 running CM 11, so this will be a major speed update for me.
The device is in the original factory state (with the version 10.1.605.8 software) and I have a few questions. I've done some browsing of the forums, but I'm not sure entirely of the current state of things (since a lot of the posts are quite dated at this point).
1. Are there any working method to unlock the bootloader and get S-OFF other than sunshine? This keeping in mine that I'm on the original firmware the phone shipped with and I can basically go up to whatever version I need to. (When I set my wife's phone up, it did every update pushed by Verizon/HTC in order of release until it was current.) I figured I needed to find this out before I did any updates just in case.
2. Are there any potential downsides to obtaining unlocked bootloader and S-OFF other than warranty issues with Verizon (which I won't have any way)?
3. If I do achieve an unlocked bootloader, would I be able to install/run the "HTC One Developer/Unlocked Edition" rom from the HTC website?
4. And would all the component firmwares (HBOOT, radio, etc) be updated auto-magically by running a newer rom? Or would I have to manually update all those myself?
5. Is there any other currently working method of gaining root other than unlocking the bootloader and flashing?
Also, any other suggestions you have would be welcome.
Thanks!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2875695
Rumrunner will work for you. There is more common questions answered there.
You can ruu and "lock" the bootloader and turn s-on for warranty purposes.
Your warranty is valid for one year with HTC as you bought it brand new. HTC advantage also covers one broken screen for the first 6 months of owning the device.
After you s-off, run the exe ruu for the latest update and you will be on the latest firmware and radio.
Edit: our phone has different mount points so you cannot flash an ruu for a different device (dev edition as well).
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using XDA Free mobile app

Do I Really Need S-OFF???

Sorry im a bit of a Noob and was wondering what benefit i would get from being S-Off
To be honest 25 for sunshine to get S-Off is a bit extreme but thats why im asking the question, im not here to start moaning about the cost, if i find that s-off is worth it i will get it.
Thanks

What may be worth doing is rooting the phone and purchasing sunshine if and when soff is needed to restore the tamper flag in the bootloader for warranty purposes. If you dont need to send it back dont bother paying for soff. Obviously if you want soff for other reasons then its worth it but only you would know this. Personally were both **** out of luck as its the only method to gain soff on the latest m8's. I will more than likely be getting it as i want root only but to have son bl locked and tamper flags removed whilst retaining root. For this reason alone its worth it to me but i hear ya. Still not to happy about paying it but theres no other choice atm unfortunately.
Im still not happy the bootloader has to be unlocked just to gain root. Ive always rooted my phones whilst keeping everything else stock, but again its tough **** until devs find an exploit, if they are even searching for one, who knows.

bornnslippy said:
Sorry im a bit of a Noob and was wondering what benefit i would get from being S-Off
To be honest 25 for sunshine to get S-Off is a bit extreme but thats why im asking the question, im not here to start moaning about the cost, if i find that s-off is worth it i will get it.
Thanks
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The best part of S-Off for me is that I can always be running the newest firmware, and therefore the newest ROMs. I never have to wait for my carrier to update (for example AT&T just got Lollipop a few weeks ago but S-Off users updated in January with WWE firmware)

This ^^^^
I got s-off in the beginning. So I've never had to worry about official updates, or finding firmware for my exact model (which is Telus... So harder to find). I did SuperCID, so I can flash firmware anytime, even downgrade firmware. I can use new roms, or old roms... Covert to GPE if I wanted... Etc.
Do you need it to fully enjoy the phone? No. But if you like having total control... Then yes you do.
$25 wasn't a big deal for me, for complete freedom. :good:

It depends where you live, what carrier your on, & if you want to tinker with your phone. I'm in the US, on Verizon, & want to stay up to date on firmwire & the latest android. Finally, I want full access to my device, so that's why I paid $25 no question !!!!!

Last thing does s-off void your warranty
Thanks

bornnslippy said:
Last thing does s-off void your warranty
Thanks
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Click to collapse
Not exactly. But unlocking your bootloader technically does. But with s-off, you can reverse everything you've done, including the red tampered banner, and return your device to its stock state.

sjpritch25 said:
It depends where you live, what carrier your on, & if you want to tinker with your phone.
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Click to collapse
And specifically what you want to tinker with. But otherwise I agree.
If you own a version that gets relatively quickly updated (GPE, Dev Edition, many WWE versions) its probably not that necessary. But on AT&T for instance, we had to wait a few months (after other variants) to get the "official" 4.4.4 and 5.0 firmwares (hboot, radio, etc.). Meaning we couldn't properly run most custom ROMs for a while without s-off.
I did s-off when I got the phone about a year ago. So I've fortunately never had such limitations. I've been running LP since January, where folks on AT&T with s-on had to wait until April for the proper firmware.
Plus, with s-off you can flash modified hboots, manually flash different radios, and "fully convert" to other versions (other CIDs, of Google Play Edition).

Why are there no free s-off solutions on the m9?

Hi, I currently own an m7 and used rumrunner to s-off, though there were other alternatives. Anyhow, I was looking into getting an m9 since I have the purple camera defect and HTC won't fix it because I unlocked bootloader(i know, irrelevant but they're being dicks) . I was looking to check if s-off has been achieved and only found sunshine which would cost like 30 bucks cad and a post on these forums saying to report any free s-offs so they can be deleted. I just want to understand what's going on.
Also, if I am forced to buy it, does it at least let me unlock bootloader without going on htcdev?
Thank you

I don't know what kind of methods existed/exist on the M7 but some of the free methods on the One S were able to hardbrick you phone if you made a mistake during the process. I think the "report free s-off methods" thread is only made for preventing the average user of bricking his/her phone since most of those methods aren't very safe.
I noticed that many new M9 users are coming from samsung devices and many of them never had an htc device before. Some are already overburden with getting back to stock. (I do not want to insult anybody. I know that the beginning of the learning curve with htc devices is steep since I had to learn all that stuff some years ago, too.) Imagine what would happen if a s-off method like facepalm would exist for the M9: hardbricks everywhere. That wouldn't help anybody.
beaups and jcase have created several s-off methods during the last years. Sunshine (their latest method) is so well programmed that there is actually no risk of bricking since the app verifies whether your device could get bricked during the process before it starts flashing. The "price" is actually just a "donation" or a "refinancing". Explanations can befound here, here and here.
Nevertheless you should not forget that s-off is nothing you need to use your phone. It works perfectly without s-off. So there is actually no one forcing you to pay anything. Besides you can always use a java card like people with verizon M9s do since verizon blocks the htcdev unlock. But buying a java card is much more expensive than "donating" to team sunshine. Or you send your phone to someone who owns a java card and let him/her s-off your phone. But be honest, would you send a new phone that costs around 700 € to someone you do not know?
And no, using sunshine without htcdev unlock is not possible. You need a rooted phone for using sunshine and getting root can only be achieved on the M9 with an unlocked bootloader.
I hope that clarifies most of your questions.

Thanks for your comment. Hehe, I do come from Samsung phones (S1, S4, S4 Zoom, S5), though I've had the LG G2 and G3, HTC Magic, HTC One M7, Oppo Find 7a, among others, and the M7 and M9 are the most confusing for me. I was wondering also if there's a free way to do it but it looks like there isn't. The only reason why I need S-Off is to go back to full stock from a custom rom (I bought the phone like that) to get OTA, or at least make it dev edition.

Actually there is no need to S-OFF for getting back to stock. If available you just need to flash a RUU with your current or a newer firmware version. If there is no correct RUU available you need to look for a stock, read-only TWRP backup. What is your current firmware version? It's stated in the line beginning with "OS" when you boot to download mode.

Nothing here prohibits free s-off, we dont stop it. We as XDA mods, and we as sunshines developers.
The warning exists because of some jerk posting fake s-off solutions recently, that were fake, and dangerous, they would soft brick your device.

The better way to have S-OFF , sim unlock or another things is the XTC 2 Clip.. Works perfectly and very simple.
but for free is unfortunately no longer available ..

re-exploring rooting, flashing, and so on

Just wanted to make a post about re-exploring the whole rooting and custom ROM nature of Android.
I used to be fairly active when I was using my Desire HD back in the day (which remains one of my all time favorite devices). I was making splash screens, boot animations, discovering my own tweaks and stuff, which are probably around here in the Desire HD section somewhere, inclusing a bootloader, splash flash, radio flasher and all sorts.
And then it seemed to me that most of the reasons people were rooting for, were starting to becoming irrelevant, as more of those features were being built in etc. For my phones after the HD, I used a custom recovery at most, but never bothered to root, or install a different rom. Not to mention one of the more important banking apps I used refuses to work with root. Even now, I find my self exploring, tweaking, and then removing root. It seems to leave things as I set them whilst letting me run the phone normally.
I've been on the HTC10 for a few weeks now and a few issues with it have forced me to consider alternative ROMS as a way of fixing these or getting more out of the phone than is already possible. I unlocked the bootloader fine, but I dont think I will bother with S-OFF.
Last time I tried to install a custom rom to a phone with S-ON, you had to install the ROM first, and then go back into the bootloader and flash the roms boot.img seperatley. Apparently that step isnt necessary anymore, it takes care of it all during the installation process.
I'm glad I started to get into it all again, and I will be keeping an eye on new or interesting roms and seeing what becomes of them. Open to suggestions too

S-off isn't as much of a necessity as it used to be with some of the older HTC phones. It still has its usefulness, though. As far as ROM flashing goes, you can flash a ROM on the 10 without having to flash the boot.img separately, as you stated.
Sent from my HTC 10

The process is how I remember it on my old Desire HD, which I dug out recently. For whatever reason it cannot be changed to ENG-HBOOT or S-OFF (I think the bootloader is too recent or it was when HTC decided to start locking bootloaders, or something along those lines) it is bootloader unlocked, but S-ON RL (not sure what the RL means ... re-locked?) I updated the recovery to 4EXT since apparently no one seems to like CWM/Rom Manager these days, and I reflashed a more stable rom to it, which needed the boot.img flashed in fastboot.
S-OFF and ENG-HBOOT was fun for things like custom splash screens and so on, buts its nice that it isnt necessary for ROM flashing.

I was debating whether to bother with S-OFF, but in the end I'm glad I did if only to have the latest radio firmware. A bit terrifying to be a big step closer to bricking, though.
Everyone seems to be using TWRP recovery now, by the way.
Also, might want to give LeeDroid ROM a shot. Have been very impressed with how many kinks he's worked out.
The only finance app I know of that won't run on a rooted device is Android Pay. There's a workaround for this, though: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/mod-magisk-v1-universal-systemless-t3432382 Can't imagine not having root!

pixelvisions said:
I was debating whether to bother with S-OFF, but in the end I'm glad I did if only to have the latest radio firmware. A bit terrifying to be a big step closer to bricking, though.
Everyone seems to be using TWRP recovery now, by the way.
Also, might want to give LeeDroid ROM a shot. Have been very impressed with how many kinks he's worked out.
The only finance app I know of that won't run on a rooted device is Android Pay. There's a workaround for this, though: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/mod-magisk-v1-universal-systemless-t3432382 Can't imagine not having root!
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Click to collapse
Yeah I know it's opens up a lot of avenues for things, the app is Barclays, I'm in the UK so it may differ from what you have if you're elsewhere. They did ALOT of work to make it pretty unusable if you're rooted, and it won't even load at all with xposed and root cloak installed. A few do work, such as Nationwide.
I am on Maximus HD (LlabTooFeRs ROM), which is easier because OTA updates etc. I used to use LeeDroid a lot back on my Desire HD. I'll try a variety of roms when I can find the time.
HTC10 is pretty stable for now though. My main problem (just for fun really) is figuring out how to radio s-off and eng s-off my old desire HD. The cid is ORANG001, but the phone itself accepts any sim as it's been unlocked. Beyond that, I cannot downgrade the bootloader, the phone is rooted, bootloader unlocked, the sd card for it is a gold card, although I may try another. It just seems to not want to do anything.

silegeek said:
Yeah I know it's opens up a lot of avenues for things, the app is Barclays, I'm in the UK so it may differ from what you have if you're elsewhere.
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Ah, I see -- a lot of frustration with that app on these forums!

pixelvisions said:
Ah, I see -- a lot of frustration with that app on these forums!
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Yeah I noticed that! :laugh:

silegeek said:
Yeah I noticed that! :laugh:
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Hey there. Just something to try out, if you want a bunch of tweaks build into the ROM, would be Viper10. It's really amazing and comes with OTA updates as well.
S-OFF would be needed in case you'll leave your HTC 10 on a custom ROM instead of reverting to stock, to be able to flash the latest no wipe firmware zips if need occurs as a result of incompatibility with your Custom ROM's base.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA Labs