I started with a fully patched HTC Evo Shift 4G running Android 2.3.4 (no modifications, just the standard stuff Sprint gave you) and with several forum posts including this one cobbled together a route to get to Android 2.3.3 permanently rooted.
Note that there's a lot of info out there that won't work on the updated Android 2.3 version of the Shift - in particular, all the easy stuff like ShiftRR, Visionary, and other simplified tools fails.
Generally:
1. Install the necessary pieces onto a Windows machine (HTC Sync, Android SDK, Clockwork Recovery Image, hboot, replacement ROM)
2. Prep phone (USB debugging)
3. Temp Root Android 2.3 with fre3vo
4. Unlock the bootloader (hboot)
5. Push Clockwork recovery
6. Restart into recovery
7. Prep phone from Clockwork Mod
8. Use Clockwork to install the new ROM
Download and Install onto a Windows machine
First, the list of things you need to install - most posts skip this because they're written by experienced modders with a lot of this already installed, but a first timer needs this info:
HTC Sync (click Download underneath HTC Sync for Evo). The software isn't specific to the regular Evo or Shift:
http://www.htc.com/us/support/evo-sprint/downloads/
That's going to help the Windows machine talk to the phone over USB. Once it's done installing you may need to restart. Connect the phone to the machine over USB and let Windows complete the installation by "searching for drivers" for a while. You can move on to the next step while it does so.
Android SDK:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Currently the link says "installer_r16-windows.exe" - generally click the Windows Installer one. Make a note of where you installed the SDK to - for example, I installed mine to:
"C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk". If you missed the path while installing, after install you can right-click the SDK Manager and the path will be there (ending in SDK-Manager.exe).
Once it's done installing, you'll need to run the SDK Manager as Administrator (right-click the shortcut in Start Menu and click Run as Administrator) and Accept the first 2 items (Platform SDK and Platform Tools) and Reject all other items (not clicking Reject will just take longer - it will install a lot of other SDK components you don't need, and that's going to take a long time).
Click Install and wait for it to download and install the 2 items. Click Close. You can then close both the SDK window and the command prompt window that started it.
Open the SDK folder in Windows Explorer and open the platform-tools folder inside (on my machine that's "C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools"). We're going to dump a bunch of stuff in here to make the next steps easier.
The fre3vo file:
http://tinyw.in/1lI
Both files here:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=14927732#post14927732
The unlocked bootloader ("Eng HBoot") - unzip the file and dump the 2 files inside into platform-tools:
http://cmw.22aaf3.com/speedy/hboot/speedy.hboot-0.93.2001.zip
The Clockwork Mod Recovery Image:
http://download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-3.2.0.1-speedy.img
Download the Evo Shift Fresh ROM - currently 4.1.1 but there may be a newer version, feel free to dig around on the site:
http://geekfor.me/shift/s23/fresh-shift-411/
There are a lot of ROMs out there, but for a first-time user like me, it would have helped to have someone just point me to a working one. The Fresh ROM approach allows you to use basically the same phone, but rooted - no crazy experimental stuff to crash it, and a little bit of crap is removed (nascar, CarrierIQ spyware, etc). Apologies to the many other ROM makers here for not making yours part of this guide.
Prep the phone
Turn USB Debugging on on your Shift by going Home, tap Menu, Settings, Applications, Development, USB Debugging.
Temp Root with Fre3vo
(I've cleaned up the instructions from here:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1185243
and here:
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/HTC_Evo_Shift_4G:_Full_Update_Guide#Flashing_the_Engineering_HBoot)
Hold left shift, and right-click the platform-tools folder, then click "Open command window here."
Enter the following commands (you can copy each line and right-click the command prompt window to Paste).
adb push hboot_eng.nb0 /data/local
adb push fre3vo /data/local/tmp/
adb shell
chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/fre3vo
/data/local/tmp/fre3vo -debug -start fbb58a00 -end FFFFFFFF
adb push Superuser3-beta1.apk /data/app/
adb push su-3.0-alpha7 /data/local/tmp
adb shell
cd /data/local/tmp
chmod 777 su-3.0-alpha7
./su-3.0-alpha7
cd /
mount -o remount,rw -t rootfs rootfs /
rm vendor
mkdir vendor
mkdir vendor/bin
cat /data/local/tmp/su-3.0-alpha7 > /vendor/bin/su
chmod 4755 /vendor/bin/su
Leave the command window open for the upcoming bootloader step.
Now on your phone, clear all notifications (this gets rid of the notification that "su binary is out of date," which is the phone trying to undo the hack you just made).
You now have temporary root on your phone - don't turn it off!
Unlock the bootloader (push eng hboot)
Now in the command prompt run:
su
dd if=/data/local/hboot_eng.nb0 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p18
exit
exit
Unlock Recovery (push Clockword Mod Recovery)
In the command prompt run:
adb reboot bootloader
Note that this didn't work for me. You can get the same result by just shutting down the phone (yes, it's OK now), pulling the battery, putting it back in, holding Volume Down, then holding the Power button for 3 seconds. Let go of both buttons once the phone boots - it should boot into Bootloader mode.
Either way, once you're there, it will freeze for a bit, scan some files, then be ready for user input. Use Volume Up and Volume Down to move up and down the menus and Power to select things. Move to the Fastboot option and select it with Power. Then back on your computer in the command prompt type:
fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-3.2.0.1-speedy.img
It should run briefly then say success (if it says error you may not have fastboot open on your phone - you need to be in the Fastboot menu, not the Hboot menu).
Use Clockwork Mod Recovery to prep the phone for Fresh ROM
Fresh ROM uses "apps2sd," which automatically pushes parts of installed apps to the SD card to keep the phone's internal storage as open as possible. It isn't optional and requires some steps for it to work - if you don't set this part up, nothing will install from the Market (the phone will reset) and you won't be able to connect to the phone via USB (the phone will reset).
On your phone, switch back to Hboot, choose Recovery, and press Power to select it. Wait for Clockwork Recovery to start up. If it crashes, you didn't flash Clockwork Recovery properly - go back to the hboot and clockwork steps.
You're about to wipe your SD card. You can copy anything you need from it before the next step by plugging your phone in over USB, going to the Mount option in Clockwork and choosing the last option, Mount USB Storage. While you leave this menu open you'll be able to copy things off of your SD card.
Choose Advanced then Partition SD. Choose a size (1024M is recommended), and wait.
Your SD card is now wiped, and part of it is now a Linux partition for storing the parts of apps that can be stored on the SD. The rest is still available to Windows (but empty).
Use Clockwork Mod Recovery to install Fresh ROM
Plug your phone in over USB if you haven't already and choose Storage then Mount USB Storage so you can dump things to the SD Card. Copy the Evo Shift Fresh ROM zip file (don't unzip it! Copy the zip file itself) over to the root of the SD Card.
Once that completes, Unmount USB Storage and go back to the main menu.
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe cache partition
Install zip from sdcard
It will take a moment to perform the 2 wipe operations. Yes, you HAVE to do the Wipe data/factory reset. If you don't, when you install the rom you'll end up with an Android OS that is both configured for a Google user with some installed apps, and at the same time not configured for a Google user with no installed apps. This confusion will cause the phone to freak out, not show a lot of installed apps in the apps menu, not sync properly, and crash repeatedly.
Once you choose to install a zip, choose the freshrom zip (alllll the way at the bottom) and say Yes to installing it. It will take a while to install, then it will return to the Clockwork Recovery menu. At this point you can go back through the menu to Reboot.
I'm excited to finally be free of Nascar, the NFL app, Sprint's Navigation app, Sprint TV, and worst of all, HTC's Spyware app that continuously chewed away at my battery. Prior to this change, I was stuck with only a few MB available on internal storage. Now because I can delete the gunk, I've got 257MB used, 173MB free.
I spent 4 days getting this all to work, so I hope I didn't forget any steps! I hope this helps, if others here try these steps and get stuck just ask.
