State of the HTC EVO 4G, 3D, 4G LTE root world: June 2012
It’s been three months since our last State of Root post, and in that time we’ve had several breakthroughs in the HTC EVO 3D world, some fascinating ROM developments to add to the original EVO 4G’s catalog of greatness, and an entirely new EVO phone to add to the already impressive lineup.
Every month the internet becomes a dumping ground for more and more outdated, obsolete, and potentially damaging information about root methods and ROMs for the HTC EVO 4G, the HTC EVO 3D, and soon enough for the HTC EVO 4G LTE. This isn’t done maliciously; it’s just easier to leave up old information than it is to go back and update things.
As of today, June 21, 2012, everything you’ll find below should work. If several months have gone by and you’re reading this, look for a newer EVO ROOT entry on Pocketables/G&E, and if something is wrong please let me know.
My goal here is to provide the basics for the 3D/4G/4G LTE. I can’t include every tool, method, or ROM, but my hope is to have a couple of ROMs that are decent, tools that currently work, and methods that should not cause problems. Please keep in mind that I’m dealing with the basics. If your favorite ROM, tool, or team has been overlooked, drop a note and feel free to use the comments section to point them out to me and other readers.
I do not own an EVO Shift, View, or Design 4G. As such I do not know if any of these these will work for those devices or be at all useful.
It bears stressing here that as of June 2012 you can completely root, flash custom ROMs, and have the whole root experience on all EVO devices via unlocking the bootloader at HTCDev.com and still get warranty repairs. S-OFF is not required to root and flash ROMs on a phone; however, on the EVO 3D you may have to jump through one more hoop to flash a kernel.
Unlocking Bootloader/NAND/S-OFF
Note: “Old” means a working method for phones that haven’t been updated, not a dead link.
An unlocked boot.img/bootloader is required to flash Recovery, which allows you to install custom ROMs and patches.
EVO 4G: Unrevoked (old) | Revolutionary (old) | HTCDev (new)
EVO 3D: Revolutionary (old) | HTCDev (new) | 1.5 S-OFF (complex/expert) | Unlimited.IO 1.5 S-OFF with the wire trick (advanced)
EVO 4G LTE: HTCDev | RegawMOD (automatic) | Non-destructive local root
Recovery
Recovery is used to flash ROMs and .zips, create Nandroid backups, restore Nandroids, and so on.
EVO 4G: Amon Ra | TeamWin | ClockworkMOD
EVO 3D: TeamWIN | ClockworkMOD | Amon Ra | 4EXT
EVO 4G LTE: TeamWin
Nandroid backups
See this:
Why we root our phones
See this:
Why I rooted my phone (and why you might want to root yours too)
Superuser
Superuser is required on NAND-unlocked phones to give root access to programs.
EVO 4G/EVO 3D/EVO 4G LTE: AndroidSU | SuperSU
How to unroot
EVO 4G: Unroot (Unrevoked/Revolutionary)
EVO 3D: Unroot (Revolutionary) | Unroot (HTCDev/return to stock)
EVO 4G LTE: Unroot
Radios/HBOOT
Just in case you need to update or roll back.
EVO 4G: Caulkin’s thread
EVO 3D: XDA | Football’s shipped ROM collection (RUUs)
EVO 4G LTE: Captain Throwback’s S-ON flashable radios
ADB
EVO 4G/EVO 3D/EVO 4G LTE: G&E’s ADB basics
EVO 4G/EVO 3D/EVO 4G LTE: ADB/Fastboot mini toolkit
Kernels
Discontinuing this section at the moment as kernel pages seem to go down shortly after I post links to them.
Maintained or recently updated ROMs
There are, at my last count, over 80 ROMs in active development. I’m going to list just a few here. If you want to advertise another ROM just put it in the comments section with a link where to download it.
EVO 4G: ParanoidAndroid | The Classic | Deck’s ReLoaded | DigitalKarma
EVO 3D: Cool ICS v6 | Swagged Out Stock | ZR3DX
EVO 4G LTE: OMJ’s HTC ELTE | ViperRom |Fresh
Tools
EVO 4G/EVO 3D: HTC Supertool
EVO 4G/EVO 3D: QPST | QPST/Diag drivers for windows
How-to guides
Note: Posting comments or questions in any of these guides will only been seen by people reading the guide. In other words, if you’re looking for help, post in this thread or in the forums.
EVO 3D/EVO 4G/EVO LTE: Create a Nandroid backup
EVO 3D: Root with HBOOT 1.50
EVO 4G: Unroot your EVO 4G rooted with Unrevoked
EVO 3D: Unroot your EVO 3D rooted with Revolutionary
EVO 3D: Unroot your EVO 3D rooted with HTCDev
EVO 4G: Root with Revolutionary
EVO 4G: Root with HTCDev
EVO 4G/EVO 3D: Join the root world if you’re on a Mac (little dated; you’ll use the HTCdev method)
EVO 3D: Recover your ROM’s kernel from the install package (if you flashed a kernel and it’s bad)
EVO 3D: How to recover your bricked rooted HTC EVO 4G or 3D
EVO 3D: Flash from recovery mode EVO 3D 1.50 / S-ON
EVO 4G LTE: How to unlock/root and still keep your stuff
EVO 4G LTE: Clear your Wallet settings when Wallet is locked down
What all these things mean
Glossary of commonly used phone terms
Good places to discuss and ask questions
GoodandEVO forums
Vaelek’s forums
TincAndroid
TheRootofAllEVO
Did I miss something?
While I keep up with as much of the HTC EVO line as I can, lots of times something can get overlooked because development on the EVOs is so fast that a two-day-old ROM or tool looks ancient compared to the slew of new things out today.
If I missed something, please drop a note in the comments and I’ll either update the State of Root, or readers will see that it’s been posted and is important to you.
