How 2 - ADB, Rooting(reflash), Unrooting, Nandroid, Remove/Install App, roms, kernels

So far, this is going to be a guide for noobs. Please read through this, and ask any questions that you have. This has been compiled from different guides around XDA, and information has been stripped that does not relate to our phones. More will be put up here when I find it, and all credit will be provided. This will be from 'duh' to 'didn't know that'. The idea is to provide a beginning to end explanation: Stock Incredible to Rooted with custom Rom.

Topics so far - ADB, Rooting (reflash), Unrooting, Nandroid, Remove/Install Apps, roms, kernels...

I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU BRICK YOUR PHONE DOING ANY OF THIS.... REGARDLESS OF WHY. Yadda, yadda, yadda...

**********At this point, I'm going to ask that you uninstall HTC Sync. Also, please uninstall HTC Driver... (whatever it's called) Nobody likes them (really though, it will mess up a lot of things. You can install them later when all this is done).**********

1) Setting up ADB
ADB stands for Android Development Bridge. It is used by Android developers for programming. For us, it is used to hack into our phones . For our purposes, just know that it is like the cmd (command prompt) that allows us to send commands to our phone. This is extremely useful when we're in the custom recovery

Download the Android SDK from Google: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Unzip to your desktop
Take the "android-sdk-_**-windows" folder and move it to the root of your hard drive (C:\)
** will change, it is revision of SDK, like "r6"

****The below is not necessary, but is useful sometimes if you just want to run "adb shell" from anywhere without going into the sdk directory****
Right click on My Computer and click properties
Select the Advanced Tab or Advanced System Setting (Vista/Windows 7)
Select Environment Variables...
Press New

For Variable Name type: adb
For Variable Value type: C:\android-sdk-_**-windows\tools
****End of the "This is not necessary thing****


Now, we get USB drivers to work. Some use HTC Sync for drivers, however HTC Sync does not like to play nice with the reflash tool (later on this), so we will use the generic google USB drivers.

1. Run SDK Setup.exe
2. If it gives you any error go to settings and click on "Force http//....."
3. Select usb driver package, let it download and install
4. Some say the below step is not needed, but I did this so I'm posting it
Go to tools folder, and edit "android_winusb.inf" (you can do this by opening it via wordpad). Add the following at the end of the [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64] blocks:
;HTC Incredible
%SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0C9E
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0C9E&MI_01
%SingleBootLoaderInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0C94
Save the file and exit.

5). Plug your phone into PC, when windows asks to install drivers for new found hardware, point the New Hardware Found wizaed to android_winusb.inf that you just edited.

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2) Preparing your phone for ADB

Go to Settings on your phone
Select Applications
Select Development
Make sure 'USB Debugging' is checked


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3) Check if your phone is detected by ADB

Open up Command Prompt (Go to run, type in cmd, press enter)
Type in:

cd C:\**your sdk name**\tools (Press Enter)
adb devices (Enter) You should see your device listed
adb shell (Enter) you should see $ in the next line
**After you obtain root**
su (Enter) you should see # in the next line if you are already rooted
**you may need to allow adb shell to run as root. Look at the phone and see if Superuser.apk is asking for your permission to allow adb root access. Click on "Remeber my selection" and select yes.
Now you are all set to run adb commands as root or as a regular user

**Note: for a list of commands that you can type using adb type "adb" in cmd

All Credit for Topics 1 - 3 go to user XDA member nephron. I mostly copied all of his guide, but updated some information on it to make sense for our phones. Also, removed some stuff I didn't see necessary. Please go to the original thread for the G1: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=532719&highlight=nandroid+guide for a list of further Credits, and for information I've left out. If you like this thread, please donate to HIM

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4) Rooting your phone - READ THIS WHOLE SECTION BEFORE GOING TO ANY EXTERNAL LINKS PLEASE. At this point, running the UnrEVOked reflash3 tool will root your phone and install a custom recovery. To try to make it really easy to understand, recovery allows you to access your phone to make PERMANENT changes (something we can't do while booted yet), flash custom roms, and save your sorry little @$$ if you do something that you weren't supposed to

Ok, at this point, I'm going to ASSUME that you don't have HTC SYNC installed (or uninstalled it), and that you have the Google USB drivers installed (i.e. you read at least some of this post). The first thing we're going to do is:

1) Read this: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=6875912&postcount=1
2) If you read #1, you already went here: http://www.unrevoked.com/rootwiki/doku.php?id=public:windows_hboot_driver_install
and downloaded the MODIFIED (i.e. changed, not the same, DON'T SKIP THIS STEP) driver and installed it
3) If you read #1, you already downloaded the reflash tool executable
4) If you read #1, you've already done #2, and 3, and this is just a worthless step of me explaining how important it is that you did #1
5) Lets do this. #1,2,3 and 4 were "get ready" steps. By now, you installed the modified driver, went to the webpage and downloaded the UnrEVOked3 reflash tool. HTC sync is also uninstalled. Plug in your phone (normally booted) to your pc and select "Charge Only" when asked how to connect to PC, and click on "remember my selection". Click Done.
6) Unplug Phone from PC.
6a) If you have double twist installed, at this time open the task manager on your pc, and kill doubletwist.devicehelpder....
7) Run the "reflash_package" executable that you just downloaded. Notice the path that it lists and click "install". This will unzip "reflash.exe" and a bunch of other stuff that is needed to the directory that you just noted. Go to this directory (usually the same one where the executable you just ran is) and run "reflash.exe"
8) Plug in your phone.
9) When the program is finished, you should see koush's clockworkmod recovery on your phone's screen and reflash will say that it's done. Congrats, you have root and a new recovery.
If something went wrong, and you're not on koush's recovery and reflash says it's done, don't worry, just re-run reflash. You can run it as many times as necessary. It will not hurt anything AT THIS TIME (this may change later)
10) Koush's recover works a little differently:
a) Vol+ and - scroll up / down
b) the Power button work as a "Back" button, and will turn off screen if you're at the root of the menu. If your screen goes blank, don't read, just hit Power again
c) To make a selection, click the optical trackpad
11) Reboot your phone by highlighting the selection and choosing it

For the most part, these instructions were written from memory, but all credit goes to UnrEVOked, Shadowmite, and anyone that they've given credit to in original links.

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5) Unrooting - I didn't want to re-invent the wheel, so I'm posting an external link:

http://androidforums.com/all-things...ideo-howto-unroot-incredible-downgrading.html

Just follow the instructions. Credit goes to the OP. If this link ever goes to a 404, pm me and I will find another link with instructions and update this. Also, if you don't understand something, just ask in this thread, someone will answer (maybe even me ).


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6) Whats is a Nandroid Backup?
**Using Koush Recovery:
Power takes you "bacK" in menu's. On root of the menu, it will turn on/off screen. Hit Power again to turn it back on.
Vol+/Vol- lets you scroll up/down through menus
Pushing optical trackpad in makes your selection

Nandroid Backup is a tool allowing your Incredible that has koush ClokworkMod Recovery to create a full system backup and restore it, which, when flashing and testing different roms can be very useful.

A) Creating a Backup using Nandroid

Boot up your phone in recovery (Turn off, then turn on while holding Vol- and Power. Press Vol- once to highlight recovery, hit Power once to go into it)
You will now see your new koush recovery
Scroll down (Vol -) to "nandroid" and select it (press the optical button in)
"Backup" will be highlighted. select it
Let it work, it might take a while for a full system backup
Once its done, your backup is complete and is saved on your sdcard in the "clockworkmod" folder. Normally it's stored in the "nandroid" folder, however our Recovery does things a little differently.

B) Recovering to Your Nandroid Backup

Make sure u made a backup and its in the clockworkmod folder on your sdcard
Boot up your phone in recovery (Explained Above)
Go into "nandroid" in the recovery (also explained above)
Select "restore backup" and select from the backups you have (if you have multiple) that you want to restore; this will do a simple, "restore all" of your latest nandroid backup
:OR:
Select "Advanced Restore", choose from the backups that you have on your SD card, and then what you want to restore. You can individually restore "system", "data", "cache", etc....
In "Advanced Restore", i have not seen a way to restore multiple options (cashe AND system, etc...) Koush, am I missing something?
Let it work
Once its done, restore more options through the Advanced Restore menu, or reboot your phone and your selections will now be restored!

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7) Remove Apps
**Using Koush Recovery:
Power takes you "bacK" in menu's. On root of the menu, it will turn on/off screen. Hit Power again to turn it back on.
Vol+/Vol- lets you scroll up/down through menus
Pushing optical trackpad in makes your selection

1) Go into Clockworkmod Recovery (With phone turned off, Vol - + Power, then Vol - to select recovery, then hit Power)
2) Select "partitions" from menu, then select "mount sytem" You can also "mount sdcard" if you want to back apps up to sdcard
3) Connect Phone to PC
3a) Open a command prompt and navigate to your sdk\tools directory
3b) Type: adb remount (it shoud return successful)
4) Open Adb Shell on your pc (Type: adb shell)
It should automatically show #, otherwise type "su"
Type:
cd /system/app (enter)
5)Type ls (this will show you all of the stuff in the /system/app directory)
6) To "delete" apps, type the following:
/system/bin/mv Your_APP.apk Your_APP.apk.bak (i.e. CityID.apk CityID.apk.bak). If you want to clear up space on your internal storage for whatever reason, you can replace Your_APP.apk.bak with /sdcard/Your_APP.apk.bak (this will move the app to the root of your SD Card instead of just change it's name)
If you don't get errors, you're done.
*This does not delete apps, but changes their file type so they will not show up as an app, in case you want to get them back at any time later you still have them and don't have to frantically post threads on XDA asking for them.

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8) Install Apps to /system/app
**Using Koush Recovery:
Power takes you "bacK" in menu's. On root of the menu, it will turn on/off screen. Hit Power again to turn it back on.
Vol+/Vol- lets you scroll up/down through menus
Pushing optical trackpad in makes your selection

1) Place your app you want to install into the root of your sd card (this is easiest)
2) Go into Clockworkmod Recovery (Explained in 7)
3) Mount system and sdcard under partitions (Explained in 7)
4) Connect Phone to PC
4a) adb remount in command prompt (should sow successful) (again, in 7)
5) Open Adb Shell on your PC
6)
IF NOT at #, type "su" to go from $ to #.
Type:
/system/bin/mv /sdcard/Your_App_Name.apk /system/app/Your_App_Name.apk
7) If you don't get errors, you're done. You can unplug phone, and reboot

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9) Flashing Custom Roms

Download a ROM that you want to try. One of the roms from here are a good starting point: http://inc.sodpit.com/. They are mostly stable might get a few random reboots.
Steps:

1. Download Rom of your choice
1a. Right now, there might be two ROM types, a nandroid backup and an update.zip type file. For right now, I recommend sticking with the update.zip kind. These instructions are meant for it, but I just want you to make sure you know which type it is before you try to flash it.
2. Copy and Paste the downloaded file onto sdcard. Make sure it is not in any directory's of SD card, just on the sdcard (the "root" of it).
3. Verify it's there using Astro or some other File Manager just to be safe.
4. Download and Run Titanium Backup from the Market if you haven't already. (If you don't have it, get it, it's must have for root users.)
a. Select Menu, Batch, Backup user apps. (in Titanium Backup)
b. let it run, this will take some time.
5. When that's done open your command prompt, navigate to your sdk\tools directory, and type "adb reboot recovery" (Not within adb shell, but in command prompt in that directory. I'm not going to explain how to do this because it's already explained above. Also, if you're flashing roms then you're already familiar with it, or maybe you shouldn't be flashing roms ).
6. Do "Wipe data/factory reset" and "wipe cache partition" in Recovery **This WILL WIPE your phone**
7. Select "install zip from sdcard", then select "choose zip from sdcard", then select the name of the zip you want to install.
8. When that's done reboot your phone, once your done setting up all the settings, download titanium backup from the market again, and set that up.
9. In Titanium, Select Menu, Batch, Restore User apps.

After that's done you'll have all your apps that you had before, data included, with a fresh new rom to try out. Hope this helps!!

All credit for these instructions goes to tcbert2010, they were suggested to me, and I liked them. I modified them a BIT, so they make more sense to me and hopefully to you. See post #2 in Original Thread = http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=6953608#post6953608

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10) Installing custom kernels
I'm only mentioning Hydra's kernels. I'm running the Undervolted, NOT overclocked kernel with wireless N to preserve my battery to get more life out of it

**Taken from website's FAQ**
Q: So how do I install the kernel?

A: First step is to either download the kernel zip file straight to your phone, or download it onto your computer and put it on the sdcard of your phone. Next you turn the phone off hold volume down and power at the same time. When the phone is in HBOOT wait a few seconds for it to initialize then hit volume down once and then power to boot into Clockwork recovery. Once in clockwork recovery you want to select "Install zip from sdcard", then "Choose zip from sdcard". You will now see a listing of files on your sdcard select the kernel zip you downloaded, or if you downloaded strait to your phone go to the Downloads folder and select the kernel zip file. The kernel will now install to the phone and once it's done it will say install complete. Now you can hit the power button once to return to main menu and select "reboot system now" . Your phone will now reboot with the new kernel.
***

Go to: http://hydrakernel.net/ to download the kernels
Please read: http://hydrakernel.net/faq.htm to educate yourself. It's worth it.

Credit to EJHEART for the wonderful kernels! Where are my 2.2 kernels EJ ?

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Again, if you have suggestions, requests, or whatever please post or PM me.
PM Me if I missed giving someone credit. PLEASE!!!

I've just downloaded all updates for the SDK, and this needs to be updated:

"The adb tool has moved to platform-tools/

If you don't see this directory in your SDK,
launch the SDK and AVD Manager (execute the android tool)
and install "Android SDK Platform-tools"

Please also update your PATH environment variable to
include the platform-tools/ directory, so you can
execute adb from any location."

Update

emkorial,

2 things:

1) This was written in June of 2010, at which point in time, all of the information *was* relevant and correct. Calling it completely worthless over a year down the road is a little bit overly judgmental, isn't it?

2) I apologize to everyone. Guys, I've long moved on from an Incredible, and probably haven't updated this post in close to a year. That said, I'm sure that the information in this thread is pretty outdated now. If anyone want's to grab the info here and update it, keep it current, what be... please do! If you keep some of this though, please make sure to keep the original credits in the posts as well.

I honestly forgot I wrote this, until I got a PM from someone.....

Just shoot me a PM if you wanna do something with this thread... be it kill it or grow it

emkorial said:

let me just say, this guide, so far, is close to completely worthless.

Nothing is where the guide says it is
ADB doesn't see my device.
I have no idea what to do with the recovery thing I downloaded, it does nothing that the guide says it should. It doesn't unzip anything, I just get a big white window on my laptop, no idea what to do next.

I ended upgetting root by runnig unrevoked3, but I have no idea what parts of the guide I needed to follow or not, the "uninstall apps" section is worthless, really this thing reads like it was writen by a hyperactive 13 year old who forgot to take thier Ritalin. Can soone write a READABLE guide on how to get root and unintall apps?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

jago25_98 said:

One thing that isn't clear in the guide is what a nandroid backup actually covers.

My nandroid restore isn't working. I thought nandroid covers everything.

But what if I'm accidently running a different ROM, kernel or CWM? Maybe those need to be the same as the backup? This needs to be in the OP

p.s. the OP is the #1 google link for nandroid restore so it would be great to help everyone by updating some info in the thread... or even just the second post which has been reserved

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

The nandroid backup is an image of everything. It won't matter what ROM you had on it before it. Some things do occasionally get jacked up when you recover but clearing the data of the apps will usually fix the problem. You'll see this happen a lot with the Gmail app. It'll work but the syncing is messed up. Clearing the data of the app fixes the problem.

It's possible the backup didn't take, which on a rare occasion will happen. In that event you'll have to use an older backup or start fresh.