[HowTo] Unlock Bootloader And Root 2.3.5 HBOOT 2.18

XenonV

XenonV

Senior Member
Jul 13, 2012
106
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Jul 14, 2012 at 5:34 AM
*Disclaimer*
First i would like to say that this is not my guide, i dont want any credit for it, i just wish to share it with those that need help rooting their EVO's.
This was very easy to do (just read thru it once or twice to be safe before starting the process). You are 100% responsible for anything that goes wrong. it is not my fault, XDA's fault, or anybody else' fault if your phone bricks/explodes/causes world war 3/your dog to explode/or a nuclear wave.​


Here’s how to root your HTC Evo 4G on HBOOT 2.18 with S-OFF!​



Step 1. Check the Software number on your HTC Evo 4G. If you have 4.67.651.3 or later, this method will work. If you have an older version, try the easier root method, don’t need to do this. (((easier method -> http://htcevohacks.com/htc-evo-hacks/root-for-htc-evo-4g-gingerbread-is-here/)))


Step 2. Take the battery out and back in. Then boot into bootloader by holding down Volume Down and Power button together.


Step 3. You should see that your phone says “LOCKED (OOW)”, HBOOT 2.18 or later.


Step 4. Hit the Power button to enter Fastboot mode.


Step 5. Connect a micro-USB cable from your phone to your computer. It should now say “FASTBOOT USB”.


Step 6. Download http://downloadandroidrom.com/file/HTCEvo4G/rooting/RootEvo4GNew.zip and unzip: (This file has EVERYTHING you need to root your phone.)


Step 7. For Windows, make sure you have correct USB drivers installed, there should be something like “HTC Bootloader” or “ADB Interface” in Device Manager. If you don’t simply run the HTCDriver3.0.0.007.exe to install drivers. No drivers are needed for Mac and Linux.


Step 8. Open up a command prompt and type:

cd Downloads (or wherever you saved the download, if its on your desktop then cd Desktoop)

cd RootEvo4GNew

fastboot oem get_identifier_token

For Mac, replace “fastboot” with “./fastboot-mac”
For Linux, replace “fastboot” with “./fastboot-linux”

Copy everything starting from <<<< to >>>> as shown below to your clipboard.


IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE WITH ID TOKEN READ THIS THREAD http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1860952
Step 9. Go to HTCDev.com and sign in. If you don’t have an account, simply sign up and log in. Then choose “Unlock Bootloader”.


Step 10. Next choose “All Other Supported Models” and click on “Begin Unlock Bootloader”.


Step 11. Click on “Yes”.


Step 12. Check the legal terms and click on “Proceed to Unlock instructions”.


Step 13. Scroll down and click on “Proceed to Step 5″.


Step 14. Scroll down and click on “Proceed to Step 8″.


Step 15. Scroll down and paste your token you copied earlier.


Step 16. Hit the “Submit” button and you should see “Token Submitted Successfully” message.


Step 17. Check your e-mail inbox and you should have received an e-mail from HTC with a file called “Unlock_code.bin”.


Step 18. Simply download Unlock_code.bin and move the file to the RootEvo4GNew directory.


Step 19. Type:

fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin


Step 20. Go to your phone, you should now see an “Unlock bootloader?” screen, choose “Yes” using Volume buttons and hit the Power button. Your phone will reboot.


Step 21. Take the battery out and back in while it’s booting. Then enter the bootloader again by holding down Volume Down and the Power button together.


Step 22. Choose “FASTBOOT” and hit the Power button. Notice that now your phone says “*** UNLOCKED ***” at the top.


Step 23. Connect a micro-USB cable from your Evo 4G to your computer and it should say “FASTBOOT USB”.


Step 24. Type:

fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-supersonic-v2.3.img

This will flash the recovery on your Evo 4G, which let’s you flash zip files.


Step 25. Go back to your phone and choose “BOOTLOADER” and hit the Power button.


Step 26. Choose “RECOVERY” and hit the Power button.


Step 27. In Recovery, choose “USB-MS toggle” and hit the Power button.


Step 28. Copy the file CWM-SuperSU-v0.87.zip to your Evo 4G SD card.


Step 29. Choose “Flash zip from sdcard”.


Step 30. Choose “Choose zip from sdcard”.


Step 31. Choose the file “CWM-SuperSU-v0.87.zip”. This will actually root your phone.


Step 32. When that’s done, reboot.


Step 33. Reboot your phone and you will fine SuperSU app, which means your Evo 4G has been fully rooted.

You can stop at Step 33, if you are not going to flash custom ROMs often.
Click to expand...
Code: 
Step 34. If you want S-OFF, do the following to allow RUU flashing back to 651.1.

First, make sure USB Debugging is checked ON under Settings->Applications->Development.

Step 35. Go back to command prompt and type:

adb push flashimage /sdcard/.
adb push mtd-eng.img /sdcard/.

adb shell
su
cat /sdcard/flashimage > /data/flashimage
chmod 755 /data/flashimage
/data/flashimage misc /sdcard/mtd-eng.img
exit 

For Mac, replace “adb” with “./adb-mac”.
For Linux, replace “adb” with “./adb-linux”.

Step 36. Next connect your Evo 4G to your computer as a disk drive and copy the PC36IMG.zip file to the root directory of your Evo 4G’s SD card.

Step 37. Type:

adb reboot bootloader

Step 38. Your phone should now say “LOCKED (OOW)”.  And should check for the PC36IMG.zip file.  If it doesn’t (which happened to me), try using another micro-SD card or format your micro-SD card and repeat from Step 36.

Step 39. Hit the Volume Up button to start the update process.  This will get you back to software version 651.1, which allows you to use Revolutionary to get S-OFF.  You can also flash an older version too if you want but that’s outside the limits of this tutorial.

Step 40. Your phone should reboot once, just let it do its thing.

Step 41. When everything is done, you will get an option to reboot your phone, hit Volume Up to reboot.

Step 42. You should now be back on sfotware 651.1.  Let’s go root it using Revolutionary root method.  Make sure USB Debugging is checked ON under Settings->Applications->Development.

You can also see original step-by-step instructions for rooting using Revolutionary here.

Step 43. Go to command prompt and type “revolutionary.exe” and copy the serial number.

Step 44. Go to the website Revolutionary.io and click on “Download for Windows”.

Step 45. Choose “Windows”, HTC Evo 4G, 2.16.0001, and paste your serial number.  Click on “Generate key”.

Step 46. Copy the beta key.

Step 47. Go back to command prompt and paste your beta key and hit Enter.  Your phone should now become S-OFF after couple reboots.  Just let it do its thing.

Step 48. Your phone should say “Revolutionary” with “S-OFF” and HBOOT 6.16.

Step 49. You can stop here if you are going to flash a new custom ROM anyways.

You will be on 651.1 OTA plus root plus S-OFF.

(If you want latest 651.3 OTA rooted, keep going)

If you want to be rooted on latest 651.3 OTA plus root, copy the file 4.67.651.3.zip to the SD card of your phone.

Step 50. And delete PC36IMG.zip file as it will interfere.

Step 51. Reboot into bootloader by holding down Volume Down and Power button.  You know the drill by now.  And choose “FASTBOOT”.

Step 52. Go to command prompt and type this again to re-flash recovery as it has been wiped out during OTA 651.1 zip install.

fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-supersonic-v2.3.img

Step 53. Choose “RECOVERY” to enter recovery.

Step 54. Choose “Flash zip from sdcard”.

Step 55. Choose “Choose zip from sdcard”.

Step 56. Choose the file “4.67.651.3.zip”

Step 57. When that’s done installing, go ahead and install the file “CWM-SuperSU-v0.87.zip”.  This will give you root (again) on 651.3.

Step 58. Reboot and you will find yourself with the latest Software 651.3 (just like you started) with root and S-OFF.

Time to get all this done = around an hour.

Having the latest OTA, rooted with S-OFF so you can go flashing new ROMs on the bus or the plane = Priceless.

Enjoy!

Q&A
Q: Why do I need S-OFF?
A: If you want to install new custom ROMs without a computer.
Q: Can I flash a new custom ROM with S-OFF?
A: Yes you can but you must boot recovery from fastboot, get your phone into fastboot USB mode, then the command is:
fastboot boot recovery-RA-supersonic-v2.3.img
You must do this everytime you want to flash a new ROM if you are on S-ON.

For those on S-OFF, just flash normally from recovery.
 
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lbbooga

Member
Aug 19, 2011
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Jul 14, 2012 at 6:22 AM
Just wanted to add, this took me forever to figure out, but you must be on a gingerbread rom to use the flashimage commands. If you have ics, make a nandroid and flash a gingerbread rom like classic
 
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XenonV

XenonV

Senior Member
Jul 13, 2012
106
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Jul 15, 2012 at 5:14 AM
lbbooga said:
Just wanted to add, this took me forever to figure out, but you must be on a gingerbread rom to use the flashimage commands. If you have ics, make a nandroid and flash a gingerbread rom like classic
Click to expand...
yes. only thing is htc evo 4g cant run stock ICS, so what are you saying lol :laugh: (not being harsh)
 
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lbbooga

Member
Aug 19, 2011
47
8
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Jul 15, 2012 at 7:09 AM
XenonV said:
yes. only thing is htc evo 4g cant run stock ICS, so what are you saying lol :laugh: (not being harsh)
Click to expand...
This guide is for those that have already unlocked on 2.18. that is what the flashimage commands do, they relock 2.18

i was running jmz's unofficial cm9
 
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ocnbrze

Senior Member
Jul 11, 2010
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los angeles
Jul 15, 2012 at 8:49 AM
ok the only thing that i disagree with is the last few statements. you do not have to do the recovery image each time you flash a rom. once you have recovery, you have recovery. all you have to do is flash like any normal rooted phone would be. also once you have recovery, you can flash roms on your phone. you do not need a pc to do this. initially yes to get recovery, but after that you are good to go.

other then that it is a nice guide.
 
OneDeep

OneDeep

Senior Member
Jan 2, 2011
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Jul 15, 2012 at 2:20 PM
I want to say I followed this video a couple weeks ago to get root on my replacement and that video took forever. I was getting tired with all the steps he took he even messed up a few times so had to take steps to fixed the mistakes. It did work but I miss the old way to root before HTC locked down the phone. It should be an easier way to root well I hope with my next phone (whenever I get one ) that rooting is quicker! Just my 2 cents. Thanks for posting this guide video guides is better

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2
 
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XenonV

XenonV

Senior Member
Jul 13, 2012
106
39
0
Jul 15, 2012 at 2:32 PM
Glad you are happily rooted :D i would have made a video showing all the steps and what not, but it was the last thing on my mind (considering the fact that i didnt wanna brick my only phone) and i was babysitting at the same time...if i get my hands on another phone i will for sure make a guide and my own tutorial. thanks
 
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SGxVENOM

Member
Feb 14, 2011
20
2
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Jul 27, 2012 at 7:07 PM
hboot

i am stuck at obtaining the identifier token, I have my phone connected and in fastboot usb mode. The command prompt says < waiting for device > and has been there for a half an hour, any help would be greatly appreciated
 
Aok-knight

Aok-knight

Member
Jul 15, 2008
5
0
0
Sep 18, 2012 at 10:16 PM
recovery problem

Hi,
I got to the step 48. Everything worked flawlessly. But now when I go to the recovery option I get the phone with a little triangle on it. My wifi isn't working and giving me an error. That's the reason for my rooting so I can reinstall a diff rom. What am I doing wrong. I am very new at this. Please help. Can I start from step one again? If I can where do I stop? Do you know any solution for the wifi error? Can't take the phone back as it's no longer an option for me.
 
JM-PDA

JM-PDA

Senior Member
Nov 11, 2008
479
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Sacramento, CA
Sep 27, 2012 at 8:20 AM
garylgray said:
So im having trouble pushing the "flashimage". When I type the command into my prompt, it doesn't do anything. Please help. I'm pulling my hair out. lol
Click to expand...
Hi,
I just got a replacement Evo today and followed these instructions perfectly.

Regarding your question, none of the "flashimage" commands in STEP-35 provide any feedback like "flash completed successfully".
I wondered the same thing, but just kept following the instructions to the letter.

Worked perfectly!

Thank you so much to the developer that put the words and pictures together for this!!!!!
 
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