[Q] Unroot Desire Z (Regarding Recovery Image)

djfoo000 · Jan 12, 2011

Hi I plan to unroot my phone for warranty purposes.

I'm using a Desire Z with

baseband: 12.28b.60.140eU_26.03.02.26_M
build: 1.34.707.5 CL273326 release-keys
I've rooted the phone using gfree method.

This is what I plan to do:

1) Restore back to stock ROM (done)

2) Restore stock recovery.
- i have extracted the recovery.img from this RUU:
RUU_Vision_HTC_WWE_1.34.405.5_Radio_12.28b.60.140e _26.03.02.26_M_release_155556_signed.exe

- Will be flashing using this guide:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=902493&highlight=flash_image

-Yet to flash that .img

3) S-on.
- Using this guide:
http://xdaforums.com/wiki/index.php?title=HTC_Vision#Turning_S-On

4) Restore factory settings.

I have extracted the .img from the RUU i mentioned. My question is whether that .img is flashable on all Desire Zs because it is the same RUU that was featured in the rooting procedure for build 1.72.

I understand that there has been a lot of unrooting threads, but none seem to deal specifically with the compatibility of the recovery image.

Any help is much appreciated.

I'm not sure that if I just skip to S-on then the custom recovery (CWM in this case) will not show up. Does it?

djfoo000 · Jan 12, 2011

Can anyone help?

I just need to know whether recovery images from different Vision RUUs (except TMOUS ones) are identical and flashable on any Desire Z.

As mentioned I already have a stock recovery.img from a 1.34 RUU, but the location ID might not be the same. Are stock recovery images dependent on location IDs?

keinengel · Jan 12, 2011

The recovery should be completely independent from the CID. If the partitioning scheme is the same (and you can check that by verifying if the sizes of the images that make up your original ROM and those of the RUU are identical) you should be fine.

djfoo000 · Jan 12, 2011

Cool. I went ahead with flashing the stock recovery and sure enough my phone isn't bricked and when I boot into recovery, it is of a red triangle.

Weirdly enough ROM Manager still tells me I have CWM 2.5.1.3 though...

Guess ppl can start using that recovery.img as a stock recovery.

Thanks a thousand times!

EDIT:
I tried to S-On using the guide on the Wiki but it did not work.

So i tried using terminal emulator to do the following:

# cd /data/local
# chmod 777 gfree
# ./gfree -s on

sure enough when i booted into (trackpad + power button) i see it say s-on.

Am i officially 'unrooted' now?

There was supposed to be a 'sync' command after './gfree -s on', but I forgot to do it. Am I still good to go?

keinengel · Jan 12, 2011

You're okay. The sync command makes sure the caches are written to disk, but since you are S-ON it means they were written.

djfoo000 · Jan 12, 2011

so if it so happened this phone gets returned to me after warranty claims, so I just

# cd /data/local
# chmod 777 gfree
# ./gfree -s off

to turn it s-off again? Or do I need to go through running rage again?

UPDATE: Got my phone back. Had to re-root the phone all the way from running rage.

djfoo000 · Jan 12, 2011

weirdly enough, although the bootloader screen shows S-on, I am still able to use shootme? This means I'm still rooted, am I right?

keinengel · Jan 12, 2011

Yup. Remove the Superuser app and it at least shouldn't be as obvious that you're rooted

djfoo000 · Jan 12, 2011

hrmm superuser doesn't seem to be removable by conventional means... I don't remember installing it either. When I push it to the phone, I pushed it to the sdcard. Now i booted the phone without the sdcard, but superuser is still there...

Do I restore factory settings instead?

EDIT: nvm, Factory reset-ed. Everything looked factory. Wish me luck.

joemm · Jan 12, 2011

Nice, glad everything worked out...

testerman123 · Jan 14, 2011

djfoo000, glad it all worked out for you.

I have a Bell Desire Z, like yours and wanted to do something similar. While your steps are clear, i just wanted to confirm a few points:
1. In your very first post, when you said "Restore back to stock ROM (done)" i am guessing (99% sure) you meant that you restored back the ROM which you had backed up right after you installed ClockworkMod? Or did you use some other ROM image?
2. So even after you used gfree to turn back S-ON, you still had root privileges because of Superuser. How about after you did the factory reset, which presumably removed Superuser - did you still have root privileges?
3. Would it be possible for you to upload the stock recovery img file somewhere? If not, its okay as well.

Thanks

djfoo000 · Jan 14, 2011

1) Yes. That stock ROM i mentioned was of a nandroid backup that restored everything prior to flashing a ROM that restored everything including apps and an unfinished Angry Birds (haha), instead of a clean one.

2) Yeah weirdly enough ShootMe still snaps screenshots. My guess is that root access is needed to install shootme as a system app and is not required beyond that. So even after s-on, shootme continues to operate due to it already being in the system app folder.

After I factory reset-ed, superuser and terminal emulator was gone. Since I was in a hurry to return the phone to the dealer I did not bother to download terminal emulator to input the 'su' command to check for root privileges. Sorry if it did not answer your question regarding root after factory reset.

3) Here's the file I extracted:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K8DVSNLX

I'm not 100% sure if it'll work on other Desire Zs since mine was not a carrier branded Desire Z.

Best of luck!

testerman123 · Jan 14, 2011

Excellent. Thanks djfoo000.

Couple of more questions -
1. do you know of any way for me to backup my existing recovery? I still havent installed CwM or other recovery image on my Desire Z (still stock).
Fastboot has commands to erase the recovery or flash a new one, but nothing that i could find to backup current recovery.

2. Also, would having S-ON and CID as 111111111 have any impact on doing a factory reset through stock recovery on the stock ROM? I dont think it will turn S-OFF and even more unlikely that it will change the CID, but will it do anything else? like go into a boot loop or some other weird thing?

djfoo000 · Jan 15, 2011

lol i'm a noob user just like you. I just happen to gather enough info to do what I wanted to do.

1) I have no idea of a way to backup the stock recovery. Maybe searching the phone for a recovery.img (if there ever is one in the phone) and pull that?

2) I dunno anything about CIDs...

Might need help from other senior users from the forums.

steviewevie · Jan 15, 2011

testerman123 said:
1. do you know of any way for me to backup my existing recovery? I still havent installed CwM or other recovery image on my Desire Z (still stock).
Fastboot has commands to erase the recovery or flash a new one, but nothing that i could find to backup current recovery.

2. Also, would having S-ON and CID as 111111111 have any impact on doing a factory reset through stock recovery on the stock ROM? I dont think it will turn S-OFF and even more unlikely that it will change the CID, but will it do anything else? like go into a boot loop or some other weird thing?

1. There may well be a stock ROM/RUU image that you can pull that stock recovery from, as you've mentioned above. Or if not, you could always "dd" the recovery partition to back it up, though I double that will be necessary.

2. Did you mean S-OFF ? No, it won't have any impact, the factory reset won't touch the radio config partition, which is where S-OFF, SuperCID etc are stored.

testerman123 · Jan 16, 2011

Thanks djfoo000 for trying - you have been helpful.

Steviewevie, thanks for responding.
I think dd would be the answer as well, now the only question is where is the recovery located? like the "if=" parameter.

After that off to the races with CwM (and a nandroid backup of my existing firmware, of course), and a custom ROM! Steviewevie and djfoo000 - didnt notice a mention of any custom roms you guys were using. any suggestions?

Edit:
Looked around a little bit to see what the if parameter would be.
when i did
$ su
# cat /proc/mtd
under adb shell and terminal emulator, i did not get a list of partitions.

testerman123 · Jan 19, 2011

BUMP!! anyone?

ianmcquinn · Jan 19, 2011

testerman123 said:
Looked around a little bit to see what the if parameter would be.
when i did
$ su
# cat /proc/mtd
under adb shell and terminal emulator, i did not get a list of partitions.

The G2 does not use raw flash, so partitions will not show up as mtd devices. You should be able to do a
# cat /proc/emmc
if you are just trying to see the partition map...

testerman123 · Jan 19, 2011

Thanks ianmcquinn! That worked great.
Got my hboot, recovery and boot backed up just in case.
The curious thing, though, is that the stock unbranded recovery from 1.34.405.5 RUU that djfoo uploaded is only 3.85MB, while my backed up recovery is 8.5MB. whats up with that?

djfoo000 · Jan 20, 2011

i can confirm that when I flash the recovery.img i uploaded, the unrooting works fine. And it is 3.85MB as mentioned.

[Q] Unroot Desire Z (Regarding Recovery Image)

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