[GUIDE] Root, flash a custom recovery and/or S-OFF your Desire HD the "easy" way!

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PLEASE DO NOT HOST MY FILES ELSEWHERE ALSO REPORT ERRORS ABOUT IT HERE AND NOT IN ANY OTHER THREADS!

UPDATE: Uploaded a new version with a temporary fix for if not working properly on the latest OTA?

!!!WARNING!!!

ONLY flash the bootloader (HBOOT) aka "S-OFF" if you understand what it is, what it does, what it can do and how it can brick your phone if flashing it fails.

I can not be held responsible if your phone bricks, makes nukes drop from the sky and/or makes your wife pregnant.

Assuming you have the Android SDK (adb) in working order, some basic knowledge of how to use it and experience using the console for those cases something does go tits up.

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Requirements: Android Terminal Emulator (from market), the archive attached to this post and a way to extract it to your SD card (file manager, PC, etc).

VISIONairy+ r12 (or higher) is as of v0.5 ONLY needed for rooting your phone, if you already have root you can skip this!

Download and extract the archive to the root of your SD card and read the included instructions (RTFM.txt).

If the first and second MD5 sums match, HBOOT is flashed correctly.
If the first and third MD5 sums match, HBOOT is not flashed at all and your phone still works like nothing happened.
If the first does not match second or third, something went wrong and you should NOT reboot your phone but seek help on the forums here!

In the last case, you could first try the hboot script again if that doesn't work something went awfully wrong and you should report back here ASAP but whatever you do ... DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR PHONE

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Credits goto all who made this possible: Scotty, tmzt (eMMC write), Paul (MoDaCo) (VISIONairy+ root) and adwinp (first working S-OFF post).
(If I left some person out of it just sent me a message and I will correct it)

CHANGELOG (new to old):

Revised scripts.
Failproof way of making kernel module.
Added check to see if the kernel module actually loaded correctly.
Reworked the scripts, more fail and fool proof
Updated the check script to check the kernel module first.
Added scripts to flash/restore recovery.
Got rid of not found errors for good?
Reflected the error message from loading the module is actually ok, polished the first post and RTFM.
Changed the way md5sum is invoked, now trough busybox and this should work for people who had problems with "md5sum: not found".
Fixed a major typo.
Updated with versioning, corrected some textual output and added some extra info to RTFM.
Cleaned up the first post.
Changed hboot script to reflect the original MD5 sum.
Removed recovery, get it yourself.
Revised scripts to be more fail proof.


TODO:

Polish textual output properly.
Proper check to see if kernel module loaded or is loaded already.

Good morning

What recovery.img are you flashing in the process btw?! care to let us know?

since you take a backup of the original bootloader, maybe it would be handy to create a "revert" script also, where you flash back the original recovery and original bootloader in the event that we may need to you know...

the script would then go like this

dd if=/sdcard/DHD/hboot_orig.bin of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p18
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p18 of=/sdcard/DHD/hboot_check.nb0

dd if=/sdcard/DHD/recovery_orig.bin of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p21

md5sum /sdcard/DHD/hboot_orig.bin
md5sum /sdcard/DHD/hboot_check.nb0

at least thats what i think... unless the file .nb0 and .bin matters in the if=-- of--- command

EDIT**

Read and check everything at least 4 times, ask before you reboot your DHD if unsure about absolutely anything. This process worked for me after some stupidity on my part.

Again, this works but CHECK everything step of the way.

Originally Posted by afrcom15

FFS guys, read this carefully and double check everything you do B4 you reboot.
I've ended up with a 450 quid paperweight.
Dunno what I can do, probably nothing

did that happen using this guys script? or another way?

im holding off flashing hboot till things are a bit more settled. its hard to resist though.

i have modified the script used by sfjuocekr (so that it doesnt flash the recovery, as I see no point in that at the moment) and would rather flash from fastboot

and the script works and I can confirm s-off success

I think it's safer doing it via the VISIONary method. That's how I.did mine, and zero issues. I don't like how this says don't reboot if the checksums don't match. That's just asking for trouble.

Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Originally Posted by afrcom15

FFS guys, read this carefully and double check everything you do B4 you reboot.
I've ended up with a 450 quid paperweight.
Dunno what I can do, probably nothing

Yeah too many people rush into dangerous stuff like flashing to hboot without understanding the risks properly. I was one of those people. I am very lucky that my flash went smoothly. Feel for you.

Originally Posted by madindehead

I think it's safer doing it via the VISIONary method. That's how I.did mine, and zero issues. I don't like how this says don't reboot if the checksums don't match. That's just asking for trouble.

Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

actually, thats BS, excuse my french.

The checksum is an extra security measure implemented to verify that the data flashed and the data that should have been flashed remain integrity. this way, you can verify in 2 steps:

1. The file you downloaded is not currupted in any way
2. The file (bootloader) flashed has flashed correctly, prior to reboot.

so actually, it is something ON TOP of the usual scripts seen here to ensure you dont brick. I need to side with the creator here.

Originally Posted by afrcom15

FFS guys, read this carefully and double check everything you do B4 you reboot.
I've ended up with a 450 quid paperweight.
Dunno what I can do, probably nothing

Take it back to the shop saying it died and get a replacement :3?