[GUIDE] Marvellous Guide ! Full tutorial for every step of unlocking, flashing, etc.

Hello Wildfire S users !

Here is the guide of the Marvellous Team, the ultimate guide that describes everything you need o play with your phone. There are many tutorials on the web about how to unlock, how to install a recovery or a rom, but none of them explains all these operations. So here, you'll learn first a few things about how Android works, you'll learn a few words of vocabulary, how to unlock, how to choose the best recovery and how to flash it, how to choose the rom you'll prefer and how to ask questions and report errors.

I just say, sorry if this tutorial lacks vocabulary and is not grammatically correct : I'm not English, I'm French, and I'm not really good in English

SUMMARY

Post #1 : Explanations, disclaimer, summary
Post #2 : Unlocking process
Post #3 : Choosing and installing your recovery
Post #4 : Choosing and installing your ROM
Post #5 : Good rules when using the forum, how to help the developer

DISCLAIMER

I am not responsible for anything that can happen to you or your phone. Everything that I say in this tutorial worked for me, and if you do everything as I say, there is no reason for you to brick your phone.
If something happens to your phone, do not even try to blame me, cause I will redirect you to this disclaimer and laugh at you


SOME EXPLANATIONS ABOUT ANDROID

Okay, let' start unlocking your phone. But do you know exactly what unlocking your phone means ?
Here are some explanations about how Android works.

First, when you power on your device, it will start the bootloader. This is like the BIOS for a PC : it checks the processor, the RAM (memory),, and it launches the system. You don't see anything at the screen when it boots, because it is quite fast. You can boot into bootloader without going to the system next by pressing Power + Volume Down (you'll maybe have to remove and replug the battery before doing that).
What's the point of booting into bootloader ? You can go then into fastboot and recovery. Fastboot is a tool that will allow you to flash some things on the unlocked phone, like another recovery, or another kernel.
The recovery is the tool you'll use the most when playing with your phone : it is like a micro-system that can modify the real Android system. For example, it is the tool you'll use when flashing roms : you can't modify the system when you're already into the system ; if you delete all Windows system files to replace them with other files, your system will crash and your PC will not boot
I spoke about the kernel. The kernel is launched by the bootloader ; it will load all the modules that are necessary for Android to work, for example the touchscreen driver, the RAM allocator, and alll. You can see when the kernel is working at boot because you have HTC written in green over a white background.

You'll need to know that for the next steps of the tutorial.

CREDITS

• The Marvellous Team : djolivier, thehacka1, Kevinjoa, Mazer.one
• simonsimons'34
• All the Wildfire S devs, and especially benjamingwynn, dudeman, OliverG96...
• And many more I forgot !

This tutorial has taken quite a long time to write, so please press thanks if you think I deserve it


SUPPORT

As you may have heard, the Marvellous Team is about to end. thehacka1 and djolivier already have new devices. Mazer.one, Kevinjoa and I will probably get new devices soon (maybe in few months for me, I still hesitate between Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy Mega).
I will however still maintain this thread, reading the answers, modifying what needs to be modified, etc. If you see I do not reply, don't worry, I'm certainly overwhelmed by work (I entered the French equivalent of college this year and I must work a lot) I will surely read your question and answer it, even if it isn't immediately. Moreover, other people of the forums will certainly answer you too

Now, you have your recovery... Let's speak about ROMs !

WHERE TO FIND YOUR ROMS

All the ROMs for the Wildfire S are here. You'll see, there are loads of ROMs for our phone

HOW TO CHOOSE THEM

Ah, which ROM is the best... An endless debate in XDA forums !
By the way, many "noobs" post threads to know which ROM is the best, and it annoys a lot the Senior users. Here I will list the existing kinds of ROMs and what they are made for, so that you won't have to spam the forum anymore

Stock rom
There are a lot of modded stock roms. The most advanced is by @Kevinjoa, and it can be found here. Moreover, it is a Marvellous rom !!!
Advantages : Very, very fast and an excellent battery life. Easily moddable and themable.
Drawbacks : Old Android version (2.3.5 ).

Sense 3.5 rom
These roms are based on the same Android version as stock rom, but with the latest Sense version (for Android 2.3). The fastest rom for the Wildfire S is EQDKP 5.2. There is also Marvellous Sense 3.5, and many other roms.
Advantages : Very fast, and good battery life. A very beautiful UI.
Drawbacks : one or two bugs. Old Android version (2.3.5).

CyanogenMod 7.2
CyanogenMod (cm) is the ultimate rom for all phones. It is based on pure Android (AOSP) and has a few more good features.
Advantages : very fast and an excellent battery life. Some mods that makes you forget that you have an old Android version : notification swipe-to-clear, flac support. Very themable : a lot of versions exist in the forum, modded to look like Sense 4, and all.
Drawbacks : a few bugs. Old Android version (2.3.7)

CyanogenMod 9.1
This is the Android 4.0.4 version of CyanogenMod. It is an excellent rom.
Advantages : Android 4 ICS. Very themable and moddable.
Drawbacks : it slows down the phone and has some bugs.

CyanogenMod 10
This is the Android 4.1.2 version of CyanogenMod, and is also a very good rom. Many versions exist in the forum, with a lot of mods and some derivated os.
Advantages : Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Very themable and moddable, with many derivated versions.
Drawbacks : few space in /system, so you can't install full Google apps (see later in the tutorial). It feels slow sometimes. It has some bugs.

CyanogenMod 10.1
The 4.2.2 version of CyanogenMod.
Advantages : supported by OWL team. Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Very themable too.
Drawbacks : very few space in /system. Also it is definitely slow. And it has bugs.

CyanogenMod 10.2
The 4.3.1 version of CyanogenMod.
Advantages : supported by Team Simplicit. Android 4.3.1 Jelly Bean. Very themable too.
Drawbacks : Well, there are very few features compared to CyanogenMod 10.1 And very few space in /system. Also it is definitely slow. And it has bugs, mostly sensors and camera.

CyanogenMod 11
The 4.4.2 version of CyanogenMod.
Advantages : supported by Team Simplicit. Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Very themable and has few bugs. It is faster than than previous versions thanks to Android optimization.
Drawbacks : There is few space in /system, and camera doesn't work.

Paranoid Android
Paranoid Android is a rom based also on pure Android but without cyanogenmod modificactions. We have two versions : Android 4.1 and 4.2. Both have bugs. The interesting features are in the per-app personnalisation feature : you can choose the size of each app, apply some statusbar colors per-ap, etc. Paranoid Android 3+ (Android 4.2) also has Pie feature and Halo.
Advantages : per-app functionnalities. Halo and Pie.
Drawbacks : bugs. Less features than CyanogenMod. few space in /system

MIUI
If you're a nostalgic of Sense, MIUI is for you. We have MIUI based on Android 2.3, 4.0 and 4.1. It is Android modded to be more beautiful.
Advantages : very beautiful UI.
Drawbacks : slow, and only in English.

AOKP
AOKP is based on pure Android and offers some new features like CyanogenMod. We have AOKP 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2.
Advantages : good personnalisation features.
Drawbacks : bugs and few space in /system.

AOSP
AOSP is the very pure Android with no bonus features.
Advantages : The one we have, by @thehacka1, is very fast.
Drawbacks : few space in /system, no CyanogenMod features.

PAC-man
PAC-man is the ultimate rom for people who want loads of features, or basically for those who do not know which to choose between CyanogenMod, AOKP and AOSPA (Paranoid Android). It offers features from all these three roms.
Advantages : so many features ! Android 4.2
Drawbacks : No camera. For me, extremely fast battery drain.

OmniROM
A modded AOSP 4.4.2 KitKat.
Advantages : supported by Team Simplicit. Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Has a lot of nice features. It is faster than than previous versions thanks to Android optimization.
Drawbacks : There is few space in /system, and camera doesn't work.


The best way to choose your rom is to test all of them. But you certainly don't have time for that.
If you want performance, choose Sense 2.1/3.5 or cm7.
If you want a good UI, choose Sense 2.1/3.5 or MIUI.
If yu want the latest Android, choose cm10.1 or AOKP 4.2
If you want a lot of features, choose PAC-man

And remember : you never need to flash any kernel except if the rom developer tells you so ! The rom already contains the good one

GOOGLE APPS

When you've downloaded a rom, you'll also need to download google apps if they are not installed. They are installed in Sense and MIUI roms, but not always in other roms (the hread usuallly says it).
You can find the gapps package for your Android version at goo.im/gapps - only for Android < 4.1. For Android 4.1 use these lite gapps, and Android 4.2 use these ones. Sometimes, a link to gapps is provided in the rom thread. Use this link instead of mine.


HOW TO FLASH

Just put the rom zip and the gapps zip in your sdcard, boot into recovery, make a backup, wipe data, cache, dalvik cache, system and sd-ext (if you can) and select install zip from sdcard then go to your rom zip and flash. After that flash your gapps zip without any wipe.
Yoou can then reboot. Be careful, it can take some time.

INCREASE INTERNAL MEMORY

As you may have seen, the stock rom has very few space for apps. You can increase it with Int2Ext
First you must partition your sd card. You can use a tool like gparted. Reduce the size of the existing fat32 partition and create a new partition in ext4 format. Note : make sure you've done a backup of your sd card data ! This will erase all data on your sd card.
Then you can go to this page and choose the script that is made for you. Flash it right after gapps without any wipe.
In my mind, Int2ExtV2+ is the best. But it needs 150 MB of storage for 500 Mb of ext4 partition. Int2Ext or Int2Ext4 do not need that, but will slow down the phone a lot, even if you have a good sd card.

ABOUT BRICKING YOUR PHONE

A lot of people, when they start playing with their phone, are afraid to brick it, meaning that it doesn't work anymore and can go straight to trash. That is normal, I was thinking that too But the risks are very low. If you are not S-OFF, it is difficult to brick your phone. I flashed more than 150 roms, installed kernels that didn't work, change 10 times of recovery and I never experienced a brick.
There are two kinds of bricks : softbrick and hardbrick. If your phone is softbricked, you can still go into recovery, wipe everything and install a new rom. If your phone is hardbricked, hmmm... there are very few chances of recovery, because it doesn't boot anymore

So, let's unlock your phone !
Unlocking your phone allows you to bypass the protection on the recovery and system partitions that HTC put. With an unlocked phone, you can use fastboot to flash a recovery (because the original recovery doesn't allow the user to flash anything).
Be careful ! Unlocking doesn't give you access to everything ! You can't modify the bootloader, the radio (part of the system that manages communications with network) and all the important thins of the phone. To modify these, you need to get S-OFF, and that's another problem

WHAT IS YOUR MODEL ?

There are several models of Wildfire S. The most common are marvel and marvelc. To know if you are marvel, just go intoo About phone section, you should find your model name. If it is A510e, it is marvel. If it is A510c, it is marvelc. This part of the guide is made for marvel, do not try to do these steps with a marvelc ! But the part with the choice of your rom and how to report bugs is okay for both models.
If you have a marvel, you maybe have a 2012 model. You can know that with your serial number, that should be also in the about phone section. You should have something that begins with two letters and then you should have a digit. If this is 2, you have a 2012 model and may have some problems with the unlocking process. Go directly to the part HTC Official Unlock.

INSTALL HTC DRIVERS

To unock your phone, you'll need your computer to recognize it. The best way is to install HTC Sync which automatically provides HTC drivers.
You can find HTC Sync here.
You can also download only the drivers, for example the Win7/8 64 bits version with this tutorial.

UNLOCKING WITH SIMON'S HTC UTILITY v4

So, if you have a marvel, AND NOT A 2012 MODEL, I propose you to unlock it using simon's HTC Utility (it should work too with marvelc, but I didn't test). This tool can be found here. This is pretty easy to use, even if you'll need the .NET framework to launch the program. If you do not have a marvelc, use only the unlocking feature !!!


HTC OFFICIAL UNLOCK

If you have a 2012 model, or if HTC Utility doesn't work for you, you can always try HTC Unlock method. It will work 100% but you will lose your warranty AND all your data. So, before doing anything, download SMS Backup & Restore and Super Backup and make a backup of everything.
Then go to this page, select your device and start the procedure.

Here is a guide written by @Uksus17 and translated by @niks255 :
0. Check your bootloader version in fastboot:
- If you have HBOOT 0.90.0000 - start with step 1.1.
- If you have HBOOT 1.09.0000, 1.08.0000 (or 1.03.0000) -
download and flash PG76IMG.zip via fastboot.
- If you have HBOOT 1.09.0099 - start with step 3.
1.1. Download this zip and put it to your SD card. (http://d-h.st/QwN)
1.2. Reboot your phone into bootloader (VolDown+Power) and when the checking is done press VolUp to install. After installation you must remove this file from your SD card before you continue.
2.1. Do steps 1.1 and 1.2 again with this second zip (it has the same name as the previous, but it's a different one) PG76IMG.zip. After all these steps you must have HBOOT 1.08(9).0099, which can be unlocked. (http://d-h.st/kGN)
3. Download and unpack Android.zip to your C:\ drive.
4. Make sure "USB Debugging" is checked. If it is, connect your phone to PC via USB and run Unlock.bat from Android folder on your C:\ drive.
5.1. Your phone will reboot into fastboot.
5.2. Now you will have htcdev.com opened in your browser. Now you need to register there. (Do not close command line!)
5.3. Confirm your email.
5.4. After you done step 5.3, go back to htcdev.com and log in.
6. Then go back to command line and press Enter. You must select the token the way it is selected on the picture below and copy to clipboard. DO NOT CLOSE COMMAND LINE!

7. Go back to your browser, scroll to step 10 and paste your token in form, then click submit.
8. After a while you should recieve Unlock_code.bin on your email. Save it to C:\Android.
9. Go back to command line and press Enter.
10. Now choose yes using volume buttons and power button. CAREFUL ! this operation wipes all data on internal memory, for the second time pleaase make sure you made a backup !!! (it doesn't wipe the sd card).

Good. Now, your bootloader should print *UNLOCKED*
Now let's do he real part of the job, what this tutorial has been made for.

CHOOSE YOUR RECOVERY

The choice of the recovery is very important. For the Wildfire S A510e, there are a lot of available recoveries :
ClockWorkMod 5, 6 and 6 Touch Version
TWRP 2.2.2.0 and 2.3.3.0
OWL-mod 0.1.2 (based on ClockWorkMod).

These recoveries usually are also available for non-marvel models, you can find a link to the other versions in the thread. But DO NOT TRY TO FLASH ON YOUR DEVICE A RECOVERY THAT ISN'T MADE FOR IT ! Meaning, if you want to try ClowkWorkMod 6 Touch Version, but you have a marvelc, do not flash the marvel version. Look for the marvelc version of the Internet. You could brick your device doing this

So, every recovery has a lot of advantages and also a lot of drawbacks. I will list them here.
CWM 5
It can be found here.Take the Wildfire S CDMA version for marvelc.
It is a good recovery, usually the one that everybody use. It is not a touch recovery, so you'll need to use it with volume keys and power button.
It doesn't have amazing features, but is official and working.

CWM 6
This is the newest version of ClockWorkMod recovery. It is better than CWM 5 : support of incremental backups, lighter and faster backups, new interface, etc.
You can find it here.
This one is pretty well working too, although it is not a touch recovery and even if it is not official.

CWM 6 Touch version
Like CWM 6, but using the touchscreen : better for the power button which is not made for a huge use.
The problem is that this one isn't very stable : some features do not work, the screen is strangely sized. Use it only if you want to try, but not if you just want stability.
You can find it here.

TWRP 2.2.2.0
It is another touch recovery, open source and absolutely different. It is less used and is perfectly stable. It has many more features than CWM, especially a file manager (very, very handy when you want to mod some system things without your PC).
I love it, but there is just one problem with the backups and restores : they take (for me at least) 5 more time than CWM ones. If you do not often backup/restore, that is OK, else you'll quickly get bored of waiting 30 minutes before flashing your rom.
TWRP 2.2.2.0 can be downloaded here.

TWRP 2.3.3.0
This was the latest version of TWRP available for the Wildfire S. You can download it on this website.
It is better than TWRP 2.2.2.0 but has a major problem : it cannot flash some old files. That's quite annoying when you want to try a rom and you see you can't because the rom zip file is too old :/

TWRP 2.7.0.0
This is the latest version of TWRP, built by @Olivier for our phone. It is definitely pretty cool, has loads of features and nearly no bugs. You can find it here : http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2692158.
Like TWRP 2.3.3.0, it cannot flash some old files :/

OWL-mod 0.1.2
This recovery has been made especially for the Wildfire S. For now, it is pretty like CWM 6, with a few mods. But the next version looks very interesting
Here is the thread.

PhilZ recovery 6.0.2.8
Here is PhilZ recovery, a recovery which looks very much like CWM 6.0.2.8 but has some nice features. Here is the non-touch version : http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2605331.

Then, I let you choose, try some of them and see by yourself

FLASH YOUR RECOVERY

That's easy if your bootloader is unlocked.
Download Android SDK here. Extract everything, and open cmd (Start menu - Execute - cmd). Then, in cmd, navigate to the repository you extracted everything (cd path\to\directory). Then, in this directory, go to sdk\plaform-tools.
In this folder, place the recovery file you downloaded.
Now, reboot your device in bootloader mode. Then go into fastboot. If the device is recognized you should see USB Plug on the screen.
You can now type and voila ! You should see a loading bar on the screen, and you can reboot into recovery

THE BEST FLASHING TOOL

@Uksus17 made a pretty nice tool to help you install a recovery : just make sure USB debugging is enabled in your phone's settings, then connect it to the computer (of course, with the drivers installed - see before) and just run the .bat
You can find the script here : https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nuf2pq3ay9eu7xk/7gtYOs07EN

WINDOWS 8.1

On Windows 8.1 the fastboot drivers do not work. Thus you have to use another way to install the recovery : PG76IMG. The recovery will be downloaded as a zip file that you will put at the root of your sd card. Then just reboot into bootloader (vol down + Power) and it will flash it automagically @niks255 made PG76IMG for TWRP 2.2, 2.7 and CWM 6.0.4.8. You can find it here : 2.2, 2.7, 6.0.4.8

Let's talk about support now !

WHERE TO POST A QUESTION

It is easy : when you have a problem with a rom, post it right in the rom thread. Do not create a thread in General section with your problem. If you can't post in the rom thread, or if your problem is very specific, or just if nobody answered you in the rom thread, then post in Q&A section. NEVER IN GENERAL ! general sections is for threads that are not about a mod, a rom, a kernel, a recovery, an accessory or a question. For example, this guide
When you have a problem, people will often ask you to give them a logcat. But what is it ?

HOW TO LOGCAT

The logcat is the command that gives you all the informations about the system in real time, errors, warnings, or just debug info. When you have a problem and if you create a post or a thread about it, try to provide a logcat. This is easy !
In cmd, navigate to the repertory where fastboot.exe was. Plug your device to your computer. Usually Android debug is activated by default, you can verify in your phone's parameters. It depends on the Android version, but for Android >= 4.0 it is in Develper tools and for Android < 4.0 it is in the app menu, in the development section.
Now type : you should see a lot of text. Don't worry if you understand nothing ! Just give everything to the people who ask you for the logcat. Then follow their instructions

Advice by @csoulr666 :
For a better and cleaner logcat you can do
And if you want to put it in a text file
Then just upload the file It is easier to read and doesn't spam the thread (very difficult to scroll when you're on your phone ). Moreover with that you do not get into troubles with the character limit.

Just a precision about Android >= 4.2. You can't logcat on first boot, because of a new thief-protection feature. You'll need to boot, to plug the phone to the computer, make sure you have the latest adb installed (adb version - it must be 0.1.31 or more) and when you try to connect to the device, a popup will appear and prompt for adb access. Reply yes, and check the remember box, and now here you are, yu can logcat with this rom !
If you still want to logcat on first boot, you can use this guide (thanks to @thehacka1 !).

RESPECT THE DEVELOPER

A rom developer is a human being He has the right to sleep and to work and to have fun ! Do not ask for updates of the rom everytime, and don't bame him if he disappears from the thread for a few days... The more you ask for updates, the less he wants to make them
Do not forget to press thanks button when you think the dev deserves it ! Do not just post "thanks"