[Guide] How to Root, Unroot, S-OFF, and Flash ROMs your G2!

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ijoshv2

ijoshv2

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2010
192
45
Reno, NV
I've been getting a lot of requests from people, simply asking how I went about Rooting and Flashing new ROMs to my lovely G2 Vision. Well, I'm gonna make a guide with step by step instructions on how to do so. This Guide will teach you how to Root, Unroot, S-OFF (security off, to enable development), and how to Flash a new ROM to your G2.

NOTE!: I am NOT a developer, and i will only accept thanks for putting this information together, I did not create these instructions. Thank the individual developers/posters for their information!

WARNING!!: These procedures are not only dangerous if you don't follow them to the point, but also void the warranty on your phone!! Following these steps incorrectly can brick or otherwise damage your phone!! XDA-DEVELOPERS as well as MYSELF accept NO RESPONSIBILITY to what happens to your phone!!

Just in case you didn't get the message.. WE AREN'T RESPONSIBLE. HACK AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

I will do my best to help anyone along their way, but you've been warned. We aren't here to take the blame for a mistake, we're here to help you do what you're seeking to do.

Got it? Let's proceed, shall we? :)


First off? The Rooting!

ROOTING: Allowing the phone and it's softwares to have access to the "Root", or complete control, of the phone itself.

This procedure includes two major steps. Temporary Root and Permanent Root. The rooting process for the Temp Root will revoke itself after a reboot. The Perm Root method will not. The rooting process is not complete until the Perm Root process has been finished and the Root is still active after a reboot!

Temp Root the G2:
1. On your phone, go to Settings > Applications > Development > and make sure USB Debugging is ON (it MUST be ON) and make sure Fastboot is checked OFF (it MUST be OFF).
2. Visionary was removed from the Market, please download it from Here instead. Save it to your phone's memory card, then simply open it on your phone with any file manager app. (like Linda File Manager for free from the Market, for example) Find the visionary .apk file in the file manager and click it and follow the prompts to install it.
3. Install Visionary from Modaco.
4. Once installed, open Visionary and check ON Temp Root After Reboot, and check ON System R/W After Root. Then click TempRoot Now, and wait for it to finish. DO NOT CLICK ATTEMPT PERMROOT NOW! We'll get to that momentarily.
5. Once it is done, you have temp root and can use rooted apps without rebooting, OR continue to the next procedure to gain persistent root access.

Perm Root & S-OFF the G2:
An explanation of what S-OFF is and why you might want it - S Off means security off for your HBoot mode (aka Bootloader). The bootloader is what allows you to flash updates and write to the file system of your phone. By turning the Security OFF, we can flash any updates/ROMs we want without the phone checking to see if it is an official update or not.

Let's continue.
1. Download the rooting files: Right here.
2. Extract the files somewhere to your computer.
3. Plug your phone in via USB cable and mount the SD card so we can transfer files to it.
4. Copy the .ko and .img files from inside the extracted folder from step 2 to the root of your sd card on your phone (NOT in any folders, just on the SD card itself).
5. Unplug the phone.
6. Go to the Market on your phone and download/install Android Terminal Emulator (free).
7. Open the Terminal Emulator app and type the following with hitting enter at the end of each line (to get the touch screen keyboard to come up hit the menu button then toggle soft keyboard):
Code: 
su
cd /sdcard
insmod /sdcard/wpthis.ko

*After typing the last line, you should see an error saying failed: 
(function not implemented). If you DO see that, you have done it correctly 
and can continue.
8. Now, type the following line in the terminal emulator hitting enter at the end of the line.
Code: 
dd if=/sdcard/hboot-eng.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p18

[the last part is mmcblk(zero)p(one)(eight)]
9. After you have typed the dd line for your specific phone, it should say something was written etc. Now, type the following into the command prompt with hitting enter at the end of each line:
Code: 
sync
10. After that is done, reboot the phone. When it boots back up, turn it off and back on holding down Volume Down and Power until the HBoot screen comes up. Confirm it says S-OFF at the top. If so, you have S-OFF.
11. Now, to get permanent root, turn the phone back on to get to the normal home screen.
12. Open Visionary and Uncheck TempRoot on Boot and click Temproot Now.
13. Then select Attempt Perm Root Now and the phone should reboot.
14. Once the phone reboots, open Terminal Emulator on the phone and type su and hit enter. If you get the # symbol, you have permanent root access and S-OFF!


Next? The ROM Flashing!

Alright, guys. If you've made it this far, You're golden. Grade A directions taker, In my opinion. Let's get to the last step, yeah?

Getting Recovery:
1. Once you have done the above to procedures, open the Market on your phone and search for ROM Manager (Free).
2. Install it.
3. Open the ROM Manager app and click Menu, then Settings and turn ON Delete Recovery.
4. Click Back and then select Flash Recovery.
5. Choose your phone model and then let it flash the recovery.
6. Click Reboot Recovery and you should be put into the custom recovery image screen. If so, you are all set.

Now, to Flash a Custom ROM:
1. Head over to theunlockr.com's ROM page here and choose your preferred ROM. Download it and save it to your computer.
2. Once it is saved, plug in your phone via USB cable and mount the SD card so we can save files to the sd card.
3. Copy the ROM's .zip file over to the root of the sd card (NOT in any folders on the sd card, just on the root of the card) (do NOT extract it, leave it as a .zip).
4. In the custom recovery screen, Backup/Restore and backup your current ROM.
5. Then select Wipe Data.
6. Then select Apply .zip from sd card and choose the ROM you downloaded earlier.
7. Once it is done flashing, click reboot system. Once it reboots, you are all set!


Congrats! You've flashed a new ROM to your G2! :) Hopefully..

There are some known issues out there, that prevent mostly the Rooting process. I'll touch on one of them real quickly.
The main issue I experienced was that I accepted and flashed the update that T-Mobile released to prevent Rooting. I've found an article on how to downgrade your firmware to pre-OTA, so that you can Root. Try this if you have severe issues trying to complete the Rooting process. Thanks to Apache14 for this info!

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=831398

There's now also a process to UNROOT your phone! Here's the link. Thanks to David Cogen from theunlockr for all this information!! :)

http://theunlockr.com/2010/12/01/how-to-unroot-the-t-mobile-g2-htc-vision/


Thanks for reading, XDA friendlies, and Happy Rooting!! :)
 
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steviewevie

steviewevie

Retired Forum Moderator
Oct 28, 2009
5,333
616
UK
Thanks for the effort. But I'm not sure what this is achieving other than duplicating the existing rooting guides in the dev forum.

Also this isn't a very up-to-date guide, it only seems to use one version of "wpthis.ko" and it isn't clear if this is for pre-OTA or post-OTA G2s. And it doesn't cover the DZ either, so it's not a "Vision" guide, just a G2 one.

The existing wpthis.ko was found by scotty not really to work properly anyway, and the newer gfree method of rooting (fully documented in the Wiki) is more reliable (though still does not work with all kernels). And you know Visionary hasn't been updated for months now, right ?

Sorry if this seems like I'm just trashing your guide, but I don't see how posting old information is going to help people ? :confused:
 
ijoshv2

ijoshv2

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2010
192
45
Reno, NV
steviewevie said:
Thanks for the effort. But I'm not sure what this is achieving other than duplicating the existing rooting guides in the dev forum.

Also this isn't a very up-to-date guide, it only seems to use one version of "wpthis.ko" and it isn't clear if this is for pre-OTA or post-OTA G2s. And it doesn't cover the DZ either, so it's not a "Vision" guide, just a G2 one.

The existing wpthis.ko was found by scotty not really to work properly anyway, and the newer gfree method of rooting (fully documented in the Wiki) is more reliable (though still does not work with all kernels). And you know Visionary hasn't been updated for months now, right ?

Sorry if this seems like I'm just trashing your guide, but I don't see how posting old information is going to help people ? :confused:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be old, but I had yet to see a collective guide on xda developers' website about rooting, s-off, and flashing the 'G2' vision. In which I clearly stated this was for the G2. Not the Desire Z. This is the only method I knew about, and this guide was for a few select friends, and whomever else felt the need to use it. Its okay if you don't agree this post was helpful. But come on. This was the surefire way I used to root my G2, so I'm spreading the knowledge. Let not hate.
:)
 
Last edited:
steviewevie

steviewevie

Retired Forum Moderator
Oct 28, 2009
5,333
616
UK
ijoshv2 said:
It may be old, but I had yet to see a collective guide on xda developers' website about rooting, s-off, and flashing the 'G2' vision. In which I clearly stated this was for the G2. Not the Desire Z. This is the only method I knew about, and this guide was for a few select friends, and whomever else felt the need to use it. Its okay if you don't agree this post was helpful. But come on. This was the surefire way I used to root my G2, so I'm spreading the knowledge. Let not hate.
:)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Exactly, it's old. If you're writing a new guide, why use very old, out-of-date info, when you could easily provide the latest info (e.g. from the Wiki).

Yes, it's a collective guide, but one with old info in, so I don't see how that's helpful.

Your guide uses wpthis.ko, but makes no reference to G2s that might be running the original shipped ROM, or the OTA update. So this will only work on some of those phones.

Your article talks about something that T-Mobile did "to prevent rooting". I don't know where you got that information from, but it's not correct. T-Mobile did nothing to prevent rooting, because the OTA came out before root was fully achieved. It's just that the way of disabling NAND write protection needed to be done differently on the OTA (more as an accident than anything that T-Mobile did).

You refer to Visionary as a "sure-fire" way of rooting. Are you sure ? Have you seen how many phones have ended up stuck in a boot loop after using Visionary ?

Also, I find it kind of weird/interesting how your guide points people to another website to choose their list of custom ROMs. Why not point them to the dev forum on this site ?

Sorry but your guide is full of mistakes and out of date. You haven't even posted it in the right forum, this is the Q&A forum.
 
ijoshv2

ijoshv2

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2010
192
45
Reno, NV
It worked for me. Bottom line, That's because i did it step by step and actually followed directions.

Old or not, IT WORKS.

If you want to make something better, then do so. Otherwise, silence your lout. Thank you.
 
K

krisko24

Member
Jan 2, 2011
7
0
Thank you for this write up. I was having problems getting my root to stick even though it was showing s-off but I followed your steps

10. After that is done, reboot the phone. When it boots back up, turn it off and back on holding down Volume Down and Power until the HBoot screen comes up. Confirm it says S-OFF at the top. If so, you have S-OFF.
11. Now, to get permanent root, turn the phone back on to get to the normal home screen.
12. Open Visionary and Uncheck TempRoot on Boot and click Temproot Now.
13. Then select Attempt Perm Root Now and the phone should reboot.
14. Once the phone reboots, open Terminal Emulator on the phone and type su and hit enter. If you get the # symbol, you have permanent root access and S-OFF


AND IT WORKS!!!!
 
ijoshv2

ijoshv2

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2010
192
45
Reno, NV
You're welcome, fellow G2 owner. :)

Why don't you join my group, for those who love their G2? :D just check my groups in my profile, hopefully we can get a good set of owners together. You never kno what a mass of similar thinking people could accomplish! :)

Plus, i'm going to start posting some cool guide on how to further customize / enhance your device! Good stuff to kno. :cool:
 
ijoshv2

ijoshv2

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2010
192
45
Reno, NV
Dimitri1992 said:
Can i use this tutorial for HTC Desire Z?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse


This tutorial was create for THE G2. I would NOT recommend you trying this method. Go around and search google for a tutorial MADE FOR YOUR PHONE. Although the phones are almost exactly alike, they don't necessarily mean they are exactly the same.

Find a different method.
 
J

Jordan779

New member
Apr 26, 2011
1
0
Need help

This is not working for me. I temprooted my phone using visionary but when i try to use terminal to permroot, whenever i type "su" it say permission denied. Please help. I've been trying to do this all night and have been unsuccessful.
 
lainvalenajr

lainvalenajr

Senior Member
Dec 12, 2010
1,363
46
Chula Vista
steviewevie said:
Exactly, it's old. If you're writing a new guide, why use very old, out-of-date info, when you could easily provide the latest info (e.g. from the Wiki).

Yes, it's a collective guide, but one with old info in, so I don't see how that's helpful.

Your guide uses wpthis.ko, but makes no reference to G2s that might be running the original shipped ROM, or the OTA update. So this will only work on some of those phones.

Your article talks about something that T-Mobile did "to prevent rooting". I don't know where you got that information from, but it's not correct. T-Mobile did nothing to prevent rooting, because the OTA came out before root was fully achieved. It's just that the way of disabling NAND write protection needed to be done differently on the OTA (more as an accident than anything that T-Mobile did).

You refer to Visionary as a "sure-fire" way of rooting. Are you sure ? Have you seen how many phones have ended up stuck in a boot loop after using Visionary ?

Also, I find it kind of weird/interesting how your guide points people to another website to choose their list of custom ROMs. Why not point them to the dev forum on this site ?

Sorry but your guide is full of mistakes and out of date. You haven't even posted it in the right forum, this is the Q&A forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Hmm...It is true that it is out of date but for me it works fine. I didn't use the wiki way cause it was to confusing for me and Unfrogivens method was working fine on me. Not saying this method is better or anything and I know this method is unsafe "if" you do not fallow what it says. Like always people try Gfree method 1st before trying this one...(Only for G2)

Sent from my HTC Desire Z/G2 Using XDA Premium App
 
silverwind

silverwind

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2010
862
101
Neverending Land
lainvalenajr said:
Hmm...It is true that it is out of date but for me it works fine. I didn't use the wiki way cause it was to confusing for me and Unfrogivens method was working fine on me. Not saying this method is better or anything and I know this method is unsafe "if" you do not fallow what it says. Like always people try Gfree method 1st before trying this one...(Only for G2)

Sent from my HTC Desire Z/G2 Using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

When I rooted my DZ, I combined all referrences and guides ;)
It was very hard at the beginning to understand the instruction, but after read and tried, it become easier to understand.. and I finally could root my DZ...

Cheers
 
R

Roggles77

New member
Jul 7, 2011
1
0
Hello

Hello all totally new to android and was trying to root my g2. I followed instructions thourghly ( so i thought at least) and the s is still on after i exit the emulator and reboot. The last part about typing sync threw me off, how many times am i supposed to type sync while hitting enter after each line? Which lines, im sure overanaylzing something but didnt seem to work and tried multiple times. Thanks for your time..
 
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    ijoshv2
    ijoshv2
    I've been getting a lot of requests from people, simply asking how I went about Rooting and Flashing new ROMs to my lovely G2 Vision. Well, I'm gonna make a guide with step by step instructions on how to do so. This Guide will teach you how to Root, Unroot, S-OFF (security off, to enable development), and how to Flash a new ROM to your G2.

    NOTE!: I am NOT a developer, and i will only accept thanks for putting this information together, I did not create these instructions. Thank the individual developers/posters for their information!

    WARNING!!: These procedures are not only dangerous if you don't follow them to the point, but also void the warranty on your phone!! Following these steps incorrectly can brick or otherwise damage your phone!! XDA-DEVELOPERS as well as MYSELF accept NO RESPONSIBILITY to what happens to your phone!!

    Just in case you didn't get the message.. WE AREN'T RESPONSIBLE. HACK AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

    I will do my best to help anyone along their way, but you've been warned. We aren't here to take the blame for a mistake, we're here to help you do what you're seeking to do.

    Got it? Let's proceed, shall we? :)


    First off? The Rooting!

    ROOTING: Allowing the phone and it's softwares to have access to the "Root", or complete control, of the phone itself.

    This procedure includes two major steps. Temporary Root and Permanent Root. The rooting process for the Temp Root will revoke itself after a reboot. The Perm Root method will not. The rooting process is not complete until the Perm Root process has been finished and the Root is still active after a reboot!

    Temp Root the G2:
    1. On your phone, go to Settings > Applications > Development > and make sure USB Debugging is ON (it MUST be ON) and make sure Fastboot is checked OFF (it MUST be OFF).
    2. Visionary was removed from the Market, please download it from Here instead. Save it to your phone's memory card, then simply open it on your phone with any file manager app. (like Linda File Manager for free from the Market, for example) Find the visionary .apk file in the file manager and click it and follow the prompts to install it.
    3. Install Visionary from Modaco.
    4. Once installed, open Visionary and check ON Temp Root After Reboot, and check ON System R/W After Root. Then click TempRoot Now, and wait for it to finish. DO NOT CLICK ATTEMPT PERMROOT NOW! We'll get to that momentarily.
    5. Once it is done, you have temp root and can use rooted apps without rebooting, OR continue to the next procedure to gain persistent root access.

    Perm Root & S-OFF the G2:
    An explanation of what S-OFF is and why you might want it - S Off means security off for your HBoot mode (aka Bootloader). The bootloader is what allows you to flash updates and write to the file system of your phone. By turning the Security OFF, we can flash any updates/ROMs we want without the phone checking to see if it is an official update or not.

    Let's continue.
    1. Download the rooting files: Right here.
    2. Extract the files somewhere to your computer.
    3. Plug your phone in via USB cable and mount the SD card so we can transfer files to it.
    4. Copy the .ko and .img files from inside the extracted folder from step 2 to the root of your sd card on your phone (NOT in any folders, just on the SD card itself).
    5. Unplug the phone.
    6. Go to the Market on your phone and download/install Android Terminal Emulator (free).
    7. Open the Terminal Emulator app and type the following with hitting enter at the end of each line (to get the touch screen keyboard to come up hit the menu button then toggle soft keyboard):
    Code: 
    su
cd /sdcard
insmod /sdcard/wpthis.ko

*After typing the last line, you should see an error saying failed: 
(function not implemented). If you DO see that, you have done it correctly 
and can continue.
    8. Now, type the following line in the terminal emulator hitting enter at the end of the line.
    Code: 
    dd if=/sdcard/hboot-eng.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p18

[the last part is mmcblk(zero)p(one)(eight)]
    9. After you have typed the dd line for your specific phone, it should say something was written etc. Now, type the following into the command prompt with hitting enter at the end of each line:
    Code: 
    sync
    10. After that is done, reboot the phone. When it boots back up, turn it off and back on holding down Volume Down and Power until the HBoot screen comes up. Confirm it says S-OFF at the top. If so, you have S-OFF.
    11. Now, to get permanent root, turn the phone back on to get to the normal home screen.
    12. Open Visionary and Uncheck TempRoot on Boot and click Temproot Now.
    13. Then select Attempt Perm Root Now and the phone should reboot.
    14. Once the phone reboots, open Terminal Emulator on the phone and type su and hit enter. If you get the # symbol, you have permanent root access and S-OFF!


    Next? The ROM Flashing!

    Alright, guys. If you've made it this far, You're golden. Grade A directions taker, In my opinion. Let's get to the last step, yeah?

    Getting Recovery:
    1. Once you have done the above to procedures, open the Market on your phone and search for ROM Manager (Free).
    2. Install it.
    3. Open the ROM Manager app and click Menu, then Settings and turn ON Delete Recovery.
    4. Click Back and then select Flash Recovery.
    5. Choose your phone model and then let it flash the recovery.
    6. Click Reboot Recovery and you should be put into the custom recovery image screen. If so, you are all set.

    Now, to Flash a Custom ROM:
    1. Head over to theunlockr.com's ROM page here and choose your preferred ROM. Download it and save it to your computer.
    2. Once it is saved, plug in your phone via USB cable and mount the SD card so we can save files to the sd card.
    3. Copy the ROM's .zip file over to the root of the sd card (NOT in any folders on the sd card, just on the root of the card) (do NOT extract it, leave it as a .zip).
    4. In the custom recovery screen, Backup/Restore and backup your current ROM.
    5. Then select Wipe Data.
    6. Then select Apply .zip from sd card and choose the ROM you downloaded earlier.
    7. Once it is done flashing, click reboot system. Once it reboots, you are all set!


    Congrats! You've flashed a new ROM to your G2! :) Hopefully..

    There are some known issues out there, that prevent mostly the Rooting process. I'll touch on one of them real quickly.
    The main issue I experienced was that I accepted and flashed the update that T-Mobile released to prevent Rooting. I've found an article on how to downgrade your firmware to pre-OTA, so that you can Root. Try this if you have severe issues trying to complete the Rooting process. Thanks to Apache14 for this info!

    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=831398

    There's now also a process to UNROOT your phone! Here's the link. Thanks to David Cogen from theunlockr for all this information!! :)

    http://theunlockr.com/2010/12/01/how-to-unroot-the-t-mobile-g2-htc-vision/


    Thanks for reading, XDA friendlies, and Happy Rooting!! :)
    View

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