Good and EVOTutorials

Running a Linux live CD for use with S-OFF on HTC EVO 4G LTE and other root methods

2013 01 18 14.59.27 - for some reason we don't have an alt tag here

There are a lot of root methods for the HTC EVO 4G LTE right now that require you to execute them on either Windows 7 32-bit, or Linux 32-bit platforms. As the majority of computers that have come out recently use the 64-bit platforms, a lot of you may have been stuck without a root method platform, as you don’t want to mess your computer up.

Luckily there are several flavors of Linux that come with live CD functionality. For purposes of this piece, a live CD can be thought of as an operating system that only runs on the CD and will not touch your hard drive or mess with your installed operating system.

For this demonstration, we’re going to use Ubuntu and assume you’re currently running some flavor of Windows. Go ahead and download Ubuntu Desktop 32-bit. You do not need to pay to download, but if you like it, please come back and toss the developers something for their time and development.

You should now have an ISO file in your downloads folder named ubuntu-12.10-desktop-i386.iso or similar. You’re going to need to burn that file to a DVD, as it’s just a bit too large for CDs. If you do not currently have a program to write an ISO, I suggest getting the free software ISOBurn. It does one thing – it burns ISOs to disk.

Run ISOBurn (or your software), put in a DVD, select the ISO to burn, and then let it happen. At the end, you should have a DVD that’s capable of booting. If you’re doing this in Windows, a new-disk inserted message may pop up, but just ignore it. It’s rather important to note that if you have other disc burning software, it must burn the ISO as an image, as when it burns there are thousands of files and directory structures created. Do it wrong, and you will have a DVD with one file sitting on it that your computer will not know what to do with it.

After you’ve created your DVD, it’s time to play with it. Grab another computer if you have one, or shut the one you’re using down. Put the DVD in, and reboot the computer. If you have a boot options menu, select that and then select that DVD. Most computers should pick up that the DVD is bootable and not cause you too much headache.

If you’re using Ubuntu, like we hope you are here, you’ll be presented with two options – try Ubuntu, and install Ubuntu. As we do not want to mess with your computer, so select the option to try it.

In a minute, you’ll be presented with a desktop that’s not too terribly different from Windows. In the top right, you should see wireless network connections if you’re on a laptop, or if you’re on a desktop the internet will probably just work. There will be a FireFox browser preinstalled, and it will look like you’re running a complete operating system, but it will never touch your hard drive or operating system.

For me, at this point, I downloaded my root exploit using FireFox, I opened it with the default application, which read it fine. It asked me where I wanted to save my rootkit files, and I selected and created a directory /tmp/rootkit . Then, as per instructions with my rootkit, I had to chmod (change the mode) of some files. I opened up a terminal by selecting Ubuntu home, using the search bar, and typing “terminal.” I then selected one of the three terminal applications installed, and followed directions.

After my rooting deed was done, I selected the option to shut down Ubuntu from the top right cog icon, removed the DVD from the drive, rebooted my computer, and was back in Windows 7-64 bit – a phone S-OFFed, an OS untouched, and everything in order with the world.

What’s really great about a live CD is the ability to play with an OS, tweak it however you want, learn destructively, and when you’re done with it, reboot and you’re either back in your native OS or back to a fresh version of the live CD.

Andreas also wrote an article that includes other options for a live CD, such as using a USB stick as opposed to burning to disc. Should you want to get fancy and take it to the next level, check his Yumi multi-boot USB article.

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Paul E King

Paul King started with GoodAndEVO in 2011, which merged with Pocketables, and as of 2018 he's evidently the owner. He lives in Nashville, works at a film production company, is married with two kids. Facebook | Twitter | Donate | More posts by Paul | Subscribe to Paul's posts

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