State of the HTC EVO 4G and EVO 3D root world: March 2012

It's been about four months since our last State of Root post, and in that time several ROMs and developers have come and gone, new and interesting things have appeared, and some methods have changed. That's enough to warrant a new piece.

Every month, the internet increasingly becomes the dumping ground for more and more outdated and obsolete information about root on the HTC EVO 4G and HTC EVO 3D. So many sites are dead ends due to developer apathy/life/death. Old information is left up because it's easier to leave it up than clean it up, and people just forget and move on to newer and better things, leaving a wasteland of useless data and how-to guides behind that no longer work.

As of today, March 16, 2012 everything you'll find below works (or at least it should). If six months have gone by and you're reading this, look for a newer one on right here on G&E; we regularly update the site (but not necessarily the old pages) with new information.

My goal here is to provide most of the basics for the 3D/4G. I can't include every tool, method, etc., but if you see something missing or wrong or that needs to be added, just let me know and I will correct it. Also feel free to make recommendations in the comments section.

Unlocking NAND/S-OFF

Note: "old" means a working method for phones that haven't been updated, not a dead link.

EVO 4G: Unrevoked (old) | Revolutionary (old) | HTCDev (new)
EVO 3D: Revolutionary (old) | HTCDev (new) | 1.5 S-OFF (complex/expert)

You can get full root benefits with either phone and any HBOOT level. As of 3/15/12 you can downgrade HBOOTs on either the 4G or 3D to obtain S-OFF.

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

Additional steps required to have a fully-functional recovery with HTC EVO 3D HBOOT 1.50/S-ON: Hard way | Easy way

Nandroid backups

See this:

Guide to Nandroids

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: AndroidSU | SuperSU

How to unroot

EVO 4G: Unroot (Unrevoked/Revolutionary)
EVO 3D: Unroot (Revolutionary) | Unroot (HTCDev/return to stock) 

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)

ADB

EVO 4G/EVO 3D: G&E's ADB basics
EVO 4G/EVO 3D: ADB/Fastboot mini toolkit

Kernels

EVO 4G/EVO 3D: Tiamat 
EVO 3D: Anthrax | Freeza's StockMOD

Maintained or recently updated ROMs

There are tons out there and development is going strong on both phones still, but these are good starters.

EVO 4G: CyanogenMod (AOSP) | MIUI (AOSP) | AOKP (Ice Cream Sandwich test)
EVO 4G: Smooth 'N' Sexy (Sense) | Swagged Out Stock (Sense)  | MikG (Sense)
EVO 3D: CyanogenMod (AOSP) | MIUI (AOSP)  | InfectedROM Eternity (Sense)
EVO 3D: Warm TwoPointThree (Sense) | MikG (Sense)

Tools

3D/4G: HTC Supertool 
3D/4G: QPST | QPST/Diag drivers for windows

How-to guides

3D/4G: Create a Nandroid backup
3D: Root with HBOOT 1.50 
4G: Unroot your EVO 4G rooted with Unrevoked 
3D: Unroot your EVO 3D rooted with Revolutionary 
3D: Unroot your EVO 3D rooted with HTCDev 
4G: Root with Revolutionary 
4G: Root with HTCDev 
4G/3D: Join the root world if you're on a Mac (little dated, you'll use the HTCdev method)
3D: Recover your ROM's kernel from the install package (if you flashed a kernel and it's bad) 
3D: How to recover your bricked rooted HTC EVO 4G or 3D
3D: Flash from recovery mode EVO 3D 1.50 / S-ON