[How To] Flash ICS ROMs with S-ON Unlocked

Thoughts from A Noob

First and foremost, thanks for these instructions. Since my 4GS is my only phone, I didn't want to risk trying the S-Off method and cooking my SD card. It seems to be almost risk free but I wasn't going to push my luck. Now running CM9, Alpha5 and loving it.

As a relative noob to rooting phones, I'd like to make a suggestion. I've read every post in this thread and if I missed it somewhere, my apologies.

I rooted my phone close to a month ago so I'm doing this from memory:

After extracting boot.img and placing it in the folder with the fastboot file, I ran the "fastboot flash boot boot.img" command and received an error stating something to the effect of needing some adb files. Like I said, I'm relatively new to rooting so I got stumped. I did some research and found out that I needed the Android SDK to get the missing adb files.

I already had SDK downloaded so I searched through the folder after extracting the files and again, no luck. Ran SDK, found that it needed to be updated which I did and voila, there were the adb files I was told were missing when I ran the fastboot command. I'm not sure which update needed to be run to get these files so I just did all of them. If my memory serves me right, the adb files were in the tools folder. Once I located the files, I moved them into the same folder where I had placed fastboot and boot.img, ran the command again and everything worked like what's described in your instructions.

I'm no stranger to computers so figuring out this needed to be done took some research and a bit of jumping around XDA threads before I put all the pieces together. For those other noobs who may not be as computer savvy, I can see this causing quite a bit of confusion. Unless I missed it, I have only seen one post that makes any mention of the adb files, which ones are needed, and including them in the same directory as fastboot and boot.img, and I didn't see anything in reference to needing the Android SDK (in this thread). Perhaps adding this info into your instructions would help to eliminate some questions and confusion and make it easier for others to flash the custom ROM of their choice if they don't want to try to S-Off method.

Again, thanks for these instructions.

:good:This worked like a charm!!!! Great work

usual errror

So i have CWM on the phone but anything i do it the recoveries cwm completely freezes and i cant s-off ethier tried reflashing cwm and it still does the samething any one has any idea will be greatly apreciated

littlecarlos said:

So i have CWM on the phone but anything i do it the recoveries cwm completely freezes and i cant s-off ethier tried reflashing cwm and it still does the samething any one has any idea will be greatly apreciated

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And also I cant use this tool if clockwork mod isnt working


Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using xda premium

I found out that the regular clockwork mod doesn't work so installed the touch screen version and everything is working properly

Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using xda premium

i did this to flash ICS rom but now when i restore to stock from recovery it doesnt boot? how will i do that?

jdmboy1188 said:

i did this to flash ICS rom but now when i restore to stock from recovery it doesnt boot? how will i do that?

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My understanding is that you will have to pull the original kernel image and "adb fastboot flash boot boot.img" and then go into recovery and restore the nandroid that was created with CWM on top of your kernel. Of course you'll want to flush cache/ dalvik & user data first from there too.

---------- Post added at 02:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:08 PM ----------

littlecarlos said:

I found out that the regular clockwork mod doesn't work so installed the touch screen version and everything is working properly

Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using xda premium

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I'm glad things went well but if you will read the very top of the CWM 6 thread, the developer has recommended that it not be used just yet as there are some issues on some phones. I'd suggest going back to CWM 5027 or 5504 for now. At least until XMC gives the 'go ahead' again for the CWM Touchscreen version.

Just a suggestion though......

I used this twice (for Viruous Inquisition and CM9). Before the flashing boot.img i did a wipe, but still in both cases I got stuck on the boot animation until i did a wipe AFTER the fastboot flash command (see http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=29083050&postcount=1562 seems im not the only one)

So Id recommend changing the OP point 9 to say the following or similar "9.) Now, reboot your phone into Recovery. Wipe all data. Then flash your ROM by flashing the zip file". That helped me although i dont know if it will help others

How do I check what my hboot is?

Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

1) Turn off phone.
2) Press and hold Volume-Down button. Or Volume-Up. I forget which. Down I think.
3) While holding Volume button, hold Power button.
Phone will now enter bootloader. At the top of the screen will be some information, among the info is HBOOT and version number.

If the power button simply turns on the phone, rather quickly, regardless of which Volume button you hold down, you have fastboot enabled. To disable:
1) Settings, Power, Fast boot (uncheck it).

Cheers

cj chitwood said:

1) Turn off phone.
2) Press and hold Volume-Down button. Or Volume-Up. I forget which. Down I think.
3) While holding Volume button, hold Power button.
Phone will now enter bootloader. At the top of the screen will be some information, among the info is HBOOT and version number.

If the power button simply turns on the phone, rather quickly, regardless of which Volume button you hold down, you have fastboot enabled. To disable:
1) Settings, Power, Fast boot (uncheck it).

Cheers

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

It's volume down and power.

Hastily spouted for your befuddlement

This ia great! Thanks.

However, the above did not always work for me (see http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=36032065#post36032065). I need to:

1. Extract the "boot.img" file from the zip file on my PC
2. Reboot the phone into Recovery
3. Perform a nandroid backup
4. Wipe data/factory reset
5. Format system,data, and cache (my machine does not have dalvik. Also, I think data and cache were already done by the previous wipes)
6. Boot the phone into fastboot mode and connect it to the PC
7. Run fastboot flash boot boot.img
8. Reboot the phone into Recovery
9. Flash the zip file
10. Reboot the phone.

Isn't that how it's been recommended to flash it all this time? You have to do everything everyone else does for a flash, with the added step of fastboot flash boot boot.img at some point since we're S-ON.

Or did I miss something you were saying?

--
Sent from my Leader Impression i10 sportin' a newly flashed, more functional, Ice Cream Sammitch...

Yeah pretty sure you need to flash rom first then kernel, if you do it the otherway it would get overwritten

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using xda premium

OH thank GOD!!!

I thought my phone was screwed i am not S-OFF but i have an unlocked bootloader thank you for showing this method to the world!

its waiting for device continuesly....plz help me

dipusmart said:

its waiting for device continuesly....plz help me

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http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2277112

Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Limewirelord said:

This only really applies to those with S-ON Unlocked, HBOOT 1.45.0013. Once we figure out how to get S-OFF on all phones, this guide will become unneeded! In the meantime, this is here for those of us that are S-ON but want to play with ICS.

THIS TUTORIAL ALSO APPLIES TO ANY CUSTOM ROMS THAT REQUIRE A CUSTOM KERNEL.

If you're S-ON LOCKED, go HERE and UNLOCK your phone!

I'm assuming you have

• Fastboot set up as a PATH, or copied to the folder you are extracting boot.img to

• HTC Drivers installed

• Clockwork Recovery

1.) Grab your ROM of choice.
2.) Open up your ROM in 7zip or another file compression program.
3.) Extract the "boot.img" file that's inside to a folder.
4.) Open the command prompt and go to the folder you extracted the "boot.img" file too.

"cd" in the command prompt stands for "change directory", so you will need to type that before the path to where your boot.img file is located.

5.) Reboot your phone into fastboot mode. To do this, turn off your phone by holding down the "Volume down" and "Power" buttons until the fastboot screen arrives. There should be three Androids on skateboards on the bottom.
6.) Press the power button once on the "fastboot" option. Your phone should now connect to the computer and it should say "fastboot usb" on your phone.
7.) In the command prompt, type the following command:

Code:

fastboot flash boot boot.img

8.) Assuming you've done everything properly, this will overwrite the existing kernel on your phone with the kernel that comes with your ROM.
9.) Now, reboot your phone into Recovery. At this point, flash your ROM by flashing the zip file.
10.) Reboot and enjoy your new ROM!

Thanks to Blue6IX for telling me how to do this and to yogi2010 for making me realize I forgot to tell people to actually flash the ROM itself. Figured I'd make a guide for those that didn't know about it since it's probably hidden somewhere underneath pages and pages of comments on other ROMs.

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Something really amazing! I was stucked at Mytouch 4G logo. I make this proces and my device boots again. THANKS TOO MUCH!!!