State of the HTC EVO root world: October 2013
HTC EVO root world: October 2013
HTC EVO root world: October 2013It’s been a while since the last State of Root, and that’s mainly because the basics have not changed for rooting in the HTC EVO world although the ways to get S-OFF are still a moving target, and also because I had a baby and she’s been taking up some time in the past few months.
Since January’s installment, as far as I can tell there’s been next to no changes in the original HTC EVO 4G and HTC EVO 3D root and S-OFF methods. If I’m outdated and wrong, feel free to let me know. I’d rather have the right information up than be hopelessly outdated.
Every month, the internet becomes a dumping ground for more and more outdated, obsolete, and potentially damaging information about root methods and ROMs for the EVO line of phones – this isn’t done maliciously; it’s just easier to leave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 – October 11, 2013 – everything you’ll find below should work. If several months have gone by and you’re reading this, a newer State of Root entry should be online, or on the way shortly. And if something below is wrong, please let me know and I’ll update it as quickly as possible.
I do not own an EVO Shift, EVO View 4G, EVO V 4G, or EVO Design 4G. As such, I do not know if any of these these will work for those devices or be at all useful. You’re welcome to post a link to guides that work for them, and I’ll incorporate them in the main post.
Unlocking Bootloader
In all EVOs, the bootloader can be unlocked at HTCDev.com. There are applications for individual devices that can simplify the process, but the basics are install an adb toolkit, go to htcdev.com, follow instructions.
Gaining S-OFF
With S-OFF you can flash anything to any partition. This means you can update radios on the fly, flash kernels properly, and otherwise rock. I haven’t needed to S-OFF in a while, so if these are no longer working properly, let me know what the new working ones are.
EVO 4G: Revolutionary
EVO 3D: Unlimited.IO
EVO 4G LTE: Moonshine.IO | Facepalm
Recovery
A recovery is used to flash ROMs and .zips, create nandroid backups, restore nandroids, and so on. It’s called a recovery because it sits at a level of the phone where if everything else breaks, you can use it to recover the phone.
As time has progressed to the point where the old Amon Ra recoveries are having issues with newer ROMs, and as 4EXT seems to have been abandoned, there are now no recoveries that the EVO series uses that are specific to any one.
Your choices at the moment are Team Win’s Recovery Project, or ClockworkMod.
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
A superuser interface is generally required on unlocked phones to give root access to programs. You will generally be required, if rooting your own stock ROM, to flash a binary file from recovery, then install the superuser app from the market or an apk.
There are three at the moment that I know of, but Koush’s Superuser is currently the most open (the only open source one,) and transparent.
ROM Update Utility
A ROM update utility (RUU) is an executable program that runs on your computer and connects to your phone and is used to restore the phone to stock, or upgrade radio or firmware. These generally only run on a PC or a virtual PC under Mac.
They are the easiest way to return your phone to stock, although your bootloader may require being locked before they will run.
AndroidRUU.com is the current location for all known RUUs for the HTC EVO series. Keep in mind that if you update the firmware over the air and you’re S-ON, the latest available RUU probably will not work for your phone. Without S-OFF you can not flash down a level.
ADB
EVO 4G/EVO 3D/EVO 4G LTE: G&E’s ADB basics
EVO 4G/EVO 3D/EVO 4G LTE: ADB/Fastboot mini toolkit – this may be outdated for Jelly Bean ROMs. If it is, download the Android SDK here.
Kernels
These change so fast and are useless so quickly, it’s not worth putting in a guide that will be up for three months.
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 the forums.
OG EVO/EVO 3D/EVO LTE: Create a Nandroid backup
Create and use a Live-CD for use with several rooting methods
EVO 3D: Root with HBOOT 1.58
EVO 3D: Root with HBOOT 1.50
OG 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
OG EVO 4G: Root with Revolutionary
OG EVO 4G: Root with HTCDev
OG EVO 4G/EVO 3D: Join the root world if you’re on a Mac (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 EVO 4G or EVO 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
EVO 4G LTE: Update radios/firmware on S-ON devices without losing all your stuff see also How to update Profile, PRL, radio firmware and retain everything on rooted HTC EVO 4G LTEs
ROMs
A ROM is an operating system install with application that you flash to your phone. There are many ROMs, many bugs, and many features. I used to list a few custom ROMs that you could flash, but as I’m writing less about custom ROMs these days and more about root features, here’s some links to recently updated or maintained ROMs on the xda-developers website where you can find most of the ROMs out there.
HTC EVO 3D GSM/CMDA/Virgin Mobile
A good alternate that is not hyped too much is the Evervolv ROM suites. It’s not EVO specific, but most of the EVOs are covered by it.
So I’ve got root. Now what?
See this piece, and let me know if you find any good new root-requiring applications.
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 EVO line is so fast that a two-day-old ROM or tool looks ancient compared to the slew of new things out today. There are also now seven base EVOs out there on several carriers. I lose track.
If I missed something, or you think something needs to be added, expanded, or replaced, please drop a note in the comments. I’ll either update the State of Root, or readers will see that it’s been posted and is important to you. It’ll also be reflected going forward in the next State of Root.
Check out the rest of our Android coverage, including app reviews, Nexus news, and more at pocketables.com/android.
