[GUIDE] How To S-Off; Permanent Root; Custom Recovery

1. adb is part of the android SDK. You can download it here (OS X users must scroll down and download the OS X version). It does not need to be installed, just unzip it into its own folder. You can also download a zip that contain only adb and fastboot.
2. once you have adb, you'll need to download the drive for your M8, which can be had from HTC's driver page:
   http://www.htc.com/us/software/htc-sync-manager/.
   Then install it. It will install the driver necessary for adb to work. After the installation is finished, uninstall HTC Sync immediately (do this regardless of whether or not you need it; you can reinstall it later if you still want it). This will leave the driver package installed, but remove HTC sync.
3. Now, back to the phone. Disable all security you have on, including PINs, Pattern Locks, passwords, etc. If you have an exchange forced security policy, you will need to disable the account. You can readd it later.
4. Enable access to developer options. Jump into the Settings. Then you’re going to scroll down to the bottom and tap on ‘About’, next tap on ‘Software Information’. Now you’ll need to tap on ‘More’, which will give you a new menu. Now just tap on the build number 9 times and you’ll enable Developer options.
5. Go into developer options menu and enable USB Debugging.
6. Next, go to Security page and enable "Unknown sources".
7. Now install weaksauce from here:
   http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2699089
8. If you followed the directions correctly, you should have SuperSU installed and root access. (You can use superuser as well).
9. Plug in your phone into your computer. Its best to use the factory cable provided with the phone. Use a USB 2.0 type port if possible (USB3.0 ports typically have a blue tab; I have personally used a USB 3.0 Device on Windows 8.1u to perform this without any problems, but your mileage may vary).
10. Your phone will ask if you if you trust your computer (RSA). Choose "Always Allow".
11. Ensure adb is working by opening a command prompt (terminal on OS X), navigate to the adt-bundle-[XXXXX]/sdk/platform-tools and typing "adb devices" without quotes. Your phone should show up. Ensure the working directory is the directory that adb is in. Otherwise, transferring firewater may fail. On Windows, you can shift-right-click inside the folder adb is in and click open command prompt to open a cmd in that directory.
12. Now go download firewater from here:
    http://firewater-soff.com/instructions/ Make sure to use the weaksauce method (second method). Do NOT use the temproot method.
    The firewater file should be called "firewater" without any quotes or extensions (like .bin). Ensure your browser did not partially download or corrupt it.** Make sure its in the same folder as adb. Then follow directions on the firewater site. Be aware the yes/no prompt is case sensitive, so make sure to answer it with an uppercase Y as in "Yes" not "yes". During the process, you will need to enable adb shell to get root. Make sure your phone screen is on so you can see the root request. Grant it and the S-Off process will continue. Otherwise, it will hang there and eventually time out. Sometimes, the process will fail and the phone will reboot. This is okay. Just restart the process. It can sometimes take multiple tries.
13. When completely successfully, you now have S-OFF. Your phone's bootloader is also unlocked in the process; you do NOT need to perform any additional steps to unlock the bootloader. However, you do not have permanent root. The root that weaksuace provides goes away on reboot and must be reapplied again on startup.

1. Move the supersu zip onto your internal sdcard. It can be downloaded here:
   http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1538053
   You can use Superuser as well. Its your preference, but this guide uses SuperSU.
2. Uninstall weaksauce. It's no longer needed.
3. Uninstall SuperSU. It will be reinstalled when you flash the supersu zip. If you have SuperSU Pro installed, you can leave that in place, as that app only holds a key.
4. From adb, type:
   adb reboot bootloader
5. Flash a custom recovery. CWM and TWRP are available. Use the fastboot method. Follow the directions here:
   TWRP - http://teamw.in/project/twrp2/226
   CWM - http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2708520
6. Reboot into Recovery
7. Flash the supersu zip you downloaded.
8. Reboot and you're done. You have s-off and permanent root.

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Adham L. Alfy said:

Well, I'm not asking the wrong questions! if you check the thread you'll find I have written what I've done in detais and in order but you don't seem to read the while posts (You're still telling me "if I'm S-off") and my question is about my inability to S-off!! Anyways, I got what I wanted to know. But as I said earlier, you guys stopped being helpful the way you used to be.... All you could have said is firewater is no longer working!

---------- Post added at 06:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:07 PM ----------

This post is suposed to be a tutorial. So, you should expect questions from people who lack knowledge on the matter. Your duty as a decent forum members is to provide answers for such people instead of mocking them! Otherwise, you can simply disable replies in the thread!

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sfreemanoh said:

Yeah, nvm, it's fine now. When I first connected it via debugging, I didn't hit the "Always allow" option on my phone, so after the adb reboot it wasn't allowed to reconnect. Just had to disable debugging and re-enable it, it's all set now.

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blacknet101 said:

Im happy to see that s-off was achieved and Im going to unlock my phone right now

but quick question, I'm new to this s-off stuff so I don't know how it works entirely.
But once we unlock the bootloader

is there any way to lock it again in case we need to send the phone to HTC?

sorry for the noob question but just a question that popped into mind.

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nicholi2789 said:

So I don't quite understand. I am S-off with the Unofficial CMWR from InvisibleK and I flashed SuperSU zip v1.94. Do I need the system write access kernel module to write to system or no?
Great guide by the way. Thanks

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