Boot image flasher Windows application released for S-ON HTC EVO 4G LTE
If you rooted your HTC EVO 4G LTE but haven’t or couldn’t feed the panda, you’re unlocked but in an S-ON state. If you change your kernel, or something changes your kernel for you such as an automatic update script, you could be stuck in a never ending boot loop until you manage to flash a compatible kernel. Viperboy has released a program for Windows-based computers that will flash a stock or custom kernel and modules for you in the event you’re crashed and can’t use something like Flash Image GUI.
If you require it, the program will install all needed drivers on a standard windows machine in order to allow adb/fastboot communication. It ships with a stock 2.13.651.1 kernel for the EVO 4G LTE, but theoretically can be changed to any kernel for any S-ON HTC device. That just takes some modding, and we’ll probably see that popping up soon enough.
If you want to replace the stock kernel it flashes with something else, there’s an advanced tab which gives you instructions on where to place files and libraries of the new kernel in the proper folders to be flashed.
With more ROMs shipping with custom kernels and Android-mode S-ON installers, there will probably come a time soon enough when people start getting bad kernels (or just kernels that don’t like their phone), shipped with their ROM’s OTA updates. This will be an incredibly useful tool then for people not comfortable fastboot flashing a kernel module by themselves.
The fact that the installer includes everything required to install driver software and run it on any computer is a major plus if you’re not wanting to jump through the hoops of both configuring your computer and installing phone repair software. I hope the practice of shipping all required software in one easy to use executable becomes common practice for root tools in the future. Sure it makes them a bit bigger but it’s a lot easier to ship what’s needed than instruct someone who had possibly been using their phone as an internet source on how to collect all needed files and applications from around the net.
The only complaint I have about this software is the choice to use red on black color scheme for text, which I know work for Viperboy’s other projects, but for this it just looks terrible on dimmer monitors, or for the somewhat colorblind. Other than that, it’s an application and a method for which the time has more than come.
[xda-developers]
