A crash course on the Rezound and modding

There seems to be a lot of confusion about what things are or how they work together so I'm gonna try and build a post to explain some things. If i get any of this wrong, feel free to call me out and I'll correct it. I can generally be relied upon to make mistakes.

First let's start with the various things that you're gonna be hearing about or messing with on your phone.

Hboot or bootloader
This is pretty much the lowest level thing you're gonna mess with. This is what makes the phone boot up, and where you can flash all sorts of things like new hboots, kernels, and whole roms depending on how they are packaged. You can get here by either powering off your phone then powering on with volume down + power, or by selecting "reboot to bootloader" in most custom roms. If you've entered your hboot from a powered off state, you'll start in hboot, also known as the bootloader. The bootloader is where you will load ph98img.zip files, factory reset, boot to recovery, or enter fastboot. Fastboot is the section of the bootloader that will allow you to run fastboot commands from your PC/mac/whatever to load things like boot images, recovery images, return your phone to an s-on state, etc. It's a very powerful interface. From here you have menu options which will allow you to reboot, power off, or return to the bootloader.

If you've entered hboot from the adb reboot bootloader command or your custom rom, you will start in fastboot, and can enter the bootloader from here.

When entering the bootloader using either method, the first thing the phone will do is look for a PH98IMG.zip file. If it finds one, it will want to install it. You'll have the option of installing it, or rebooting. That's it. This is why you want to get rid of the ph98img.zip files from the root of your sd card once you've used them - if you pooch your rom, you're not getting into recovery or fastboot until you remove that file. If you can't boot your phone, you better hope you have another SD card or a micro sd card reader kicking around somewhere. You can boot into fastboot by powering off the phone, then powering it on by holding power and volume down keys at the same time.

A word of warning - this is one of the few places you can actually "brick" your phone. Don't mess around with installing hboots unless you are absolutely certain that you a) have a need and b) have an md5 checksum of the file and have verified that checksum on your own gear. Generally speaking, the only time you need to flash the hboot is when you are upgrading in some way, for example when going from GB to ICS.

Quick note - when people refer to the "SD card patch" they are referring to a patch that allows you to use the GB firmware with ICS roms. This is largely unneeded at this time, since the main purpose was for folks who wanted to run ICS roms without upgrading their hboot - there's no going backward with hboot unless you have s-off.

Radio files
this is how your phone works with the radio. you can brick your phone here, too, so always check md5 before installing, and ask yourself if you really need to be installing it. new radio versions are generally given the credit for things like increased signal strength, faster 3g/4g, better power consumption, etc. these are often paired with a kernel, as well.

Recovery
This is a software layer that you can flash to your phone that allows you to boot the phone into a utility state where you can install roms, flash things like patches or modifications, backup your rom/kernel, etc. When people refer to a nandroid backup, they are referring to a backup made here. It's a snapshot of your phone that lets you mess with things and restore back to that point in time should you screw something up. You pretty much can't brick your phone at this level - it's all just files and filesystems. You can also mount your SD card to reader mode for connection to a computer, do a factory reset of data, and a few other fun things like root your rom here. You should only root your rom if it is a stock rom that has not been rooted yet. Rooting a rooted rom will usually unroot your root so you don't have root.

There are a couple of different recoveries. The rezound community seems to use primarily amon-ra, which is what i use, but there is also clockwork recovery as well. Recovery is usually installed by booting your phone into fastboot and running the "fastboot flash recovery <recovery file>" command. Recovery can also be installed via the flash_image binary found in the RomManager package (ex: flash_image recovery amonra.img). This eliminates the need for fastboot altogether. Just need a terminal, root, and the flash_image binary.

Kernel
This is basically the primary component of an OS. The kernel is where a lot of the functionality of the phone are made or broken. the setting that prevents use of setcpu to change the way the CPU is governed is here. The thing that prevents bluetooth from working right on sense 4 roms? Kernel. Everyone is waiting eagerly for the ICS kernel source to be released so custom kernels can be made that resolve these issues and more. You can flash a kernel via recovery if you've done s-off to your phone, or via a ph98img.zip file in the bootloader. With s-off, kernels can also be backed up in recovery. The kernel is often given much of the credit or blame for the performance of your phone, overheating, etc.

Roms
Your phone's OS, sometimes incorrectly referred to as firmware. It's not - the firmware is the stuff we've already covered that can brick your phone. Think of your phone more as a tiny computer, with the rom being the distribution that you're using. This is pretty apt since it's basically linux, and just like linux, the actual OS is just files and partitions. Because the radio interface layer requires sense, the bulk of our roms are all based on sense roms, and all the functional ones are. Developers modify them to add features, remove bloat or sense components, or take sense roms from other phones and adapt them for our own. You install a rom through recovery.

Never claim to have "bricked" your phone when installing a rom. You can't, and doing so only points out that you don't really know how your phone works. This is embarrassing and best avoided when possible so jerks like me do not tell you what a n00b you are, and to go read threads like this one. Since you're here, we can assume that you've bothered to research things before asking stupid questions, so bravo! In all seriousness, you can no more brick your phone by messing up the rom than you'd brick your PC by screwing up your windows install. You can always start again from the beginning and reinstall. You might lose apps and settings, but this is the nature of the beast. Always nandroid before messing about, and you'll be fine. Nandroid is covered further later on.

RUUs
Strictly speaking, the things that we refer to as RUUs aren't. Everyone calls them that anyway, and I don't see it going away anytime soon. Technically, however, an RUU is HTC's Rom Updater Utility, and it's an executable that gets run on your PC, not something you load to SD card and flash in your bootloader. That said, RUU has come to mean factory signed software/firmware packages that are released by the manufacturer or leaked. They come in the form of a ph98img.zip file that can install pretty much anything - hboot, radio, kernel, rom, etc. What is installed varies from package to package.

Installing an ruu can only be accomplished on a phone that is currently not in an htc dev unlocked state, or a phone that has s-off. when installing one of these that includes an hboot, you'll need to reinstall recovery as well - installing a new hboot via RUU will always require this as the custom recovery is overwritten with the stock recovery.

If your phone has not yet had the s-off procedure done and you intend to do so, make sure the RUU you are about to install does not break the s-off exploit. Doing so will lock you into that RUU until the dev updates the exploit to work with the new hboot (if included in the RUU) or another RUU is released.

HTCdev
This is the method HTC gives us to unlock our phones. it allows us to install recoveries and roms, but not a lot else. you cannot downgrade your hboot or radio files with this, for example. you can install kernels via ph98img.zip file, but not through recovery. basically, it's HTC's way of letting us mess with our phones but without (hopefully) giving us enough control to brick them. this is considered better than nothing, but much less than ideal since you still don't have total control over what your phone does and how. doing this does essentially void your warranty, though to date there have been no confirmed reports of this affecting a return via either warranty or insurance.

With your phone in a stock state, you can apply only factory signed RUUs. Roms and kernels are closed to you, and you can move only forward with your radio and hboot, never backward.

With your phone in an HTCdev unlocked state, you can apply unsigned RUUs that contain a boot, system, and recovery image - all components must be present.

To get your phone into this state, visit HTCdev.com.

S-Off
This sets your security flag on the phone to off.Stock, your phone comes with this flag set to on. Our s-off method does it at the radio layer, and at this time is thought to be irreversible by update. It isn't, though - it's just unlikely because there are legitimate s-off phones out there. Still, it's always a good idea to wait to see if that shiny new RUU is gonna make your phone boring again before you install it. To be safe, wait for an RUU that has the hboot removed and just applies kernel, radio, and system files. You can turn it back on with fastboot should you wish, however. Htcdev unlocking, a bit of wire or a paperclip, and a decent set of timing is required for this. In my opinion it is best to do this once you are sure your phone does not have problems that require a warranty return, but it should be done before upgrading to new, untested OTAs/RUUs. There's always the chance that HTC will block the exploit that gives us this, at which point you're stuck until the devs figure out another way or someone comes up with some crazy method like the evo 3d guys. Many are nervous about this process, and for good reason. While the devs have done everything they can to make this bulletproof, it is best to enter into this mod with as much knowledge as possible, just like any other mod. It's also best to be relaxed, have an internet connection other than your phone, and not have anywhere you have to be right away in case things go like you don't expect. Should things go wrong, don't freak out. Ask questions. Many "bricked" phones have been restored with simple application of knowledge.

Things s-off does: Allows you to flash kernels from recovery, allows you to flash any hboot and radio you want. Lets you install any "ruu" you want with any combination of boot image, system, and recovery, rather than the entire package. Makes rom installation easier on devs due to kernel installation in recovery.

Many have scoffed at s-off, claiming it does nothing that unlocking doesn't do already. This isn't really the case, as we've all seen how important the ability to downgrade firmware and radios can be. Personally, I think of a phone with s-on in much the same way I think of eating steak through a trash bag. If you have the option not to, what the hell are you doing?

Things s-off does not do: magically turn your phone into an open platform to which devs will instantly flock to give you the aosp roms you believe yourself entitled to. What will do that? Glad you asked.

RIL - radio interface layer
Basically, the RIL is a driver for the radio - it lets the radio interface with the software running on the phone. This is a new problem that effects 4g phones. It sucks. Basically, your manufacturers (also verizon, but you can assume they don't want you to do anything other than pay them.) don't want you touching their precious radio chipset with your grubby little paws. We don't have source code, and they're not talking. Of course we already have software on our phone that has the RIL stuff we need, right? Yes... sort of. For any sense roms we want to use. This is why we don't have aosp. For aosp, one of three things needs to happen:

1) Manufacturers grow a soul and give us source in the form of a leak or they go mad and just release it. This is pretty much as likely as Verizon deciding that they are doing away with early termination fees.
2) Someone reverse engineers our RIL and makes their own RIL software. This is as likely as my wife developing new roms for her Incredible 2. The one she blames for her school's ****ty email server and wants to trade in for an iphone.
3) Someone develops an interim layer that translates aosp to sense and back again. This was done on the thunderbolt, but it was wonky. Certain individuals are confident that this will be easier done on ICS and are working on it. Some AOSP action would be pretty damn awesome, but don't expect it, demand it, or hold your breath for it. It's hard, and is going to require a very intense combination of skill, knowledge, and tenacity.

Now i know what you're thinking - the Nexus is a CDMA 4g phone and they can do whatever the hell they want. Do they have an open RIL? The answer is no. They have an aosp (Android Open Source Project) RIL though, which amounts to basically the same thing. If it is any consolation they can't have sense roms as a result. Those poor bastards, right? This is why many are torn between the Nexus and the Rezound. The Nexus is open and a dev's paradise - CM9, AOKP, MIUI, ****ty roms that some kid slapped a godawful theme on - it's all there. The Rezound has better radios, better screen, and better build quality (subjective) but no aosp. If you're reading this you've already chosen or had the choice made for you by verizon's $50 sale.

Fast Boot
But Derek, you say, you already talked about fastboot in the bootloader section. We get it. Nay nay. This is fast boot. Note the space. Basically, HTC roms include a tech that puts the phone into a hibernation state rather than powering off. You'll find it in the power menu. When this box is checked, your phone will go from powered off to your home screen in a very short period of time - 15 seconds on my phone, vs the normal 45 second boot time. If you pull the battery, you will have a normal boot time. Personally, I could take or leave this feature. I almost never shut my phone off, and when I do, I want it to actually shut off because i'm shutting it down because I need a cold boot. It's up to you how useful this feature is to you.

Perflock, CPU Frequency, and Governers
Many people have had poor experiences running the ICS leaks due to the CPU maxing out. The stock HTC kernel uses perflock, which constantly resets the frequency and scaling of your CPU. This means that the use of programs like setcpu or system tuner to change the min/max frequencies or governer of your CPU will cause it to essentially run in a state where it is either using the max frequency, or the minimum, without scaling up and down according to need. Some CPU monitoring apps will cause a similar reaction. The best way to avoid all this unpleasantness and get the best battery life out of your phone is to simply leave it be and let it do it's thing, because quite frankly you can't stop it anyway. If you absolutely must see what your CPU is doing, I have had good results with CPU Monitor by Coconuts. I still don't recommend keeping this active full time as I suspect it still impacts performance and battery life, but many do without any obvious adverse results. As a side note, the HTC kernel uses the On Demand governer, which steps up the CPU frequency quickly when needed and scales it back down slowly. Clearly, HTC's focus was on performance rather than battery life, here. Once kernel source for ICS is released, devs can build custom kernels which do not include perflock, and add other nice features as well like full power usb charging. Once this occurs, we will be free to use setcpu to scale our CPUs up or down to our hearts content and use whatever governer we like. Until then the best advice is simply to leave it alone.

I will be updating this and adding to it constantly. I'm not an expert, just an average user who is trying to put some useful info in the same place. Please shoot me a PM with suggestions/things I got wrong and I will update this post and credit you.

Contributors who have helped make this more accurate
scotty1223, esheesle

Section for General Education Type Things

Titanium Backup
Quite possibly the most useful software you will use on your rooted android device. Well worth buying. This software will allow you to backup pretty much everything on your phone to your sd-card, dropbox, box account, etc. It even lets you pull data from nandroid backups. This is the best way I know of to backup your apps and restore them when switching to a new rom. Not only do you not need to go digging through the my apps section of the play store to reinstall every damn app, you can restore with the data from the time of the backup. That means config for a lot of apps, game saves, etc. Note that most SMS apps and launchers will require you to use the backup included in their software, as Ti Backup doesn't grab these things. Forgot to backup your apps and data but made a nandroid backup? No problem. It can read your nandroid backup and pull those things right out of it.

It can also screw up your rom install to the point where you might as well factory reset, if you use it wrong. Basically, you never ever want to use it for anything other than apps you've installed from the app store and their data. Restoring system apps, unless you know what you're doing, is a bad idea. Restoring system data, no matter how tempting, is an even worse idea. It's very likely to screw you up. There are circumstances in which it may not do so, but if you are reading this and this is new info, you don't know them. Stay away. Most devs will outright tell you not to use it with their rom since people will inevitably ignore the warnings and do it anyway. It makes switching roms an absolute breeze though - I can switch roms and have my software setup exactly how it was before in less time than it takes to download a rom from Android Police. Granted, that's a good hour, but you get what I'm saying. It's a huge time saver. Backup your user apps and data, but touch system apps or data at your own peril.

What to do if you think you're bricked
Step 1: Chill out and slow down. Seriously. Unless your phone isn't doing anything at all when powered up, it's probably recoverable. Double check your MD5 sums before pushing things like hboots and radios, and you should be OK. If you've screwed up the s-off process, make a post describing exactly what you've done and how, then wait for responses. Do not demand them. You can also join #juopunutbear on freenode, where the devs hang out. They're not always right there, but I've seen them help dozens of people out of some sticky places, and they'll help you if they can. They really know their stuff.

For general Rezound problems, you can join #rezound on andirc.net. There's usually some knowledgable guys hanging out there, willing to help. Remember, the very best thing you can do is take the time to gather enough knowledge to be confident that the steps you are going to take to fix the phone are the right ones, and why. Flipping out about your "bricked" phone and throwing anything you can at it is much more likely to make things worse, and annoy the people trying to help you. For example, if you are s-on and in a state where you need to reinstall a stock RUU package, you only have as many chances to get it right as there are newer RUUs than what is on your phone already. If you don't know enough about things to know what is wrong and why, you're not terribly likely to know the best way to fix it. Keep calm and carry on.

What will installing this ______ do to my phone? What do I need to do to install them?
Now that we have s-off and all these new ICS leaks, we've all gotten a bit flash happy. This has led many to ask what they can install, how, and what needs to be done. I'll try and address as much of this as I can by talking about the different states your phone might be in.

Totally stock - You have only one choice. You can install the full RUU, or not. That means you're getting whatever radio, hboot, kernel, and rom come with that RUU. Once you've installed that RUU, you can't install anything but a newer RUU after that. Remember that with RUUs, you need to reboot twice - there are two installation steps in hboot that require a reboot in between. Note that some RUUs will wipe your SD card. Nice of them, isn't it?

HTCDev unlocked - You can install kernels via hboot, a custom recovery via fastboot or hboot if packaged, and custom roms. If you want to install new radio files or an hboot, then you'll want to make a nandroid backup in recovery, relock your phone, and install the RUU via hboot. You cannot install the RUU without relocking first. You can then unlock your phone via HTCdev again, flash recovery, and restore from your nandroid backup. Like a totally stock phone, you can only go forward with hboot and radios, never backward. You have more options than the stock guys, but are still limited. But you also can't brick your phone. Again, some RUUs will wipe your SD card.

S-off - You can do anything you want. Flash any radio or hboot you want. Flash any kernel you like. If a new RUU comes out and you want to try it, just install it. You'll need to reinstall recovery, but that's it. Want to use the new leak's radio and kernel but not the rom itself? Flash 'em. But for the love of god, check the MD5 checksum before you flash. Apps like root explorer will let you see the MD5 of a file right from your phone's SD card. Flashing a bad radio or hboot can brick your phone. With great power comes great responsibility. Flashing hboot, kernels, and radio files do not require you to factory reset your device, nor will they do so. It is advisable to clear your cache and dalvik cache in recovery after installing a new kernel, but that will not affect the data on your device.

So let's say you've got s-off, and you're running a rom you like, but you want that new radio, hboot, and kernel. First, don't touch the hboot unless you have a reason to. That's a risk that you don't need to take most of the time. To flash the radio, find someone who has extracted the radio and repackaged it into a PH98IMG.zip that contains just the radio. Copy it to your SD card, check the MD5, and flash via hboot. To install the kernel, either grab it from someone who has packaged it, or pull the boot.img from the RUU zip. Check your md5, boot your phone to fastboot, and run:

fastboot flash boot <path to boot.img file>

You need fastboot on your PC, of course. Also, bear in mind that with a new kernel on an older rom, you may need to apply patches to make everything work properly, like wifi. Devs will generally release these patches and post them. Simply copy them to your SD card and install in recovery.

Where are all these files?
The Dev section. Go in there, and poke around. It doesn't take long after a leak is released to see that leak taken apart, rooted, deodexed, stripped of its kernel and radio files, etc. Read what people are saying, and asking. Generally, the first post will be updated to have everything you need, but the thread may have what you're looking for as well. What you don't want to do is ask where things are when the same question has been asked several times over already, often three pages back. Sometimes things can be hard to find, but it's good to make the effort. The community will be better for it.

What's a rooted rom? Deodexed? Busybox? Zipalign?
Rooted is fairly self explanatory. It's the process of packaging a superuser app with a rom that will allow you to operate your phone with root access. You'll need this for the good stuff like removing bloat, installing most wireless tethering apps, ad blockers, titanium backup, etc. Verizon wishes you wouldn't do this, so you know it's awesome.

Deodexing basically removes an optimization, called odexing, that basically takes bits of an apk and puts them elsewhere for optimization purposes. Deodexing packages everything back into the apk so you can use different apks without fear of conflicting code, etc. This is what makes a lot of mods possible.

Busybox provides several stripped down versions of unix tools in a single package. A lot of things like titanium backup depend on this. Generally when someone roots a rom they also busybox it.

A zipaligned rom is a rom that has had its application packages optimized for quick access by aligning them on 4 byte boundaries. This allows android to access resources without having to explicitly read them. You don't necessarily need to understand this one - just think of it as being optimized.

tspderek said:

I literally meant the phrase "suggestions sent." i would prefer PMs or cleaned up posts after suggestions are included in the original post for cleanliness' sake and to keep down redundant info.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

so,in other words,youd like your posts,followed by no posts,or "thanks" posts,with no real discussion.

my only issue with that,is simply any of us are capable of sending suggestions that are not correct,or that are correct but an opinion. are you filtering somehow what you add? or just adding everything everyone sends?

its your thread,ill accept your request,but i personally would like to see everyones personal contributions and how you incorporate them.

readers should be smart enuff to seperate the first 3 information posts from the rest of the discussions. my 2 cents

Contributions are appreciated and will be credited in the main post. In the interest of keeping this thread clean without a million different versions of the OP, please edit your post down to a basic "suggestions added" or something similar once I've noted your additions. That way things stay readable and don't confuse the readers. Ideally, a PM would be best, leaving the comments free for questions and the like. My goal is to jam as much knowledge in this thread as I can, and I'll continue working on it as I see new questions that commonly pop up.

my personal feeling is that i like my phone to have s-off, so i can use the radio that works best for me and have full control of my phone. if i've already voided the warranty with htcdev, then why not? it's not a difficult process if you research and prepare everything ahead of time. know the steps, have your tools ready, and you'll be fine. took me one try on my phone.

it's really up to you, though. it's your phone. there is a risk of bricking that isn't there with htcdev. it's low unless you make poor decisions or skip steps, but it does exist - that's what s-off does. it opens the door for you to help or hurt yourself.