[GUIDE] How to root, un-root and rom your Droid Incredible.

[Brett]

Welcome everybody. This thread will be my attempt at explaining how to root, un-root and customize your DInc (Droid Incredible). This will be very detail oriented and I will try to make it as simple as possible for all of you guys. I hope you all enjoy this little guide and I also hope that you enjoy your soon to be rooted and rommed DInc.


Index for easy access to information:

0 - Index
1 - What is root and what can I do with it?l
2 - How to Root your DInc
3 - How to Un-Root your DInc
4 - How to flash custom roms (the better way)

To be continued (Larry and I intend to add more)

 

[Brett]

Here are a few thing I would like to get out of the way before I go into explaining how to root your device. They go as follows:

1- Please do not ask what rooting is. I am sorry for those who are new to rooting and would like to understand what it actually does but we already have 2 great links for you guys to check out and to read up on that will answer almost all of you questions regarding what it is/does.

Here are the 2 links (same info) for an explanation about root-access. They both contain the same article that was written by our very talented (moderator and AC writer) Jerry Hildenbrand, most of you know him as 'gbhil'. The first link is from Android Central's main site and the second link is from our forum where you can ask questions and discuss with others.
LINK TO SITE
LINK TO FORUM

2- Please make sure that you understand and are willing to fully accept the risks with rooting before you do so. The members of this forum (including myself) are not responsible for any problems that may occur. Rooting can open your phone to so many great things that a stock device is not able to do. There are also many risks that go along with giving your device root access (ex. bricking your device past the point of no return). This will also void your warranty. I will say it again. THIS WILL ALSO VOID YOUR WARRANTY. There are ways to unroot your device which can potentially set it back to factory settings so that your Carrier/Manufacturer will not be able to tell that you previously rooted your device. Even though it is possible to to un-root your device, only continue with this guide if you are willing to accept the possibility of not being able to un-root and void your warranty completely. Also, please read over this thread written by the one and only Cory Streater (Forum Admin) which goes explains why you should only download apps (that require root access) from secure/safe sources and that have a great reputation from many other users.
Link: Clear Text Passwords in Database Files

3- Last but not least, please make sure that you follow the instructions as they are written. If you choose not to follow them in the order in which they are written then you may experience major/minor problems which may due permanent damage to you device (ex. bricking it).


Ok guys are you ready? Here we go.

I am going to explain the process for rooting your device using the 'unrevoked' software. These are the files that you will need to download in order to root your device.

UnrEVOked 3 (version 3.32) files: (Please pick one that is designed for the OS running on your computer)
WINDOWS VERSION
LINUX VERSION
MAC OS VERSION

UnrEVOked Forever file: LINK TO FILE DIRECTLY
LINK TO THEIR SITE - explains all about what UnrEVOked Forever does as well as a whole lot of great information about it as well. It will also explain what S-Off is and why it is so important. Please read this because it is important.

HBOOT Drivers (only if you are doing this with a computer running Windrows):
LINK (with instructions on how to install).


Now for the steps to root your Incredible.

Step 0-
If you are running Windows please install the HBoot driver from the link I provided above. That page will show you step by step how to install the drivers in order to have this work. If you do not install this then your device will not register with unrEVOked.

Step 1-
As a precautionary measure, take out your micro sd card if you have one in your device. If you don't then you run the risk of having all of your data on it being erased. If you are running this on a computer running Windows (if your computer is running Linux or Mac OS you can skip this step and move to step 2), please make sure you do not have HTC Sync installed on it.If you are not sure, go to the Start button at the bottom left of your computer screen (has the windows emblem or says start if it's windows XP or older) and you should see a text box to search for programs and files. Type HTC Sync in that box and see if anything comes up. If nothing shows, go to the step 2. If you do have HTC Sync on your computer you should see it in the search results. Go to My Computer and select 'Uninstall or change a program' and look for HTC Sync in the list of installed applications that are displayed. Uninstall HTC Sync and then you are good to move on to the next step.

Step 2-
Connect your phone device to your computer using a micro USB chord. You should see a pop up menu on your device that displays 4 options to choose from. The options will be 'charge only', 'HTC Sync', 'disk drive' and 'USB Tethering'. Make sure that you select 'CHARGE ONLY'.
IMPORTANT: Do not unplug your device while you are rooting your device with the unrEVOked software. If you unplug your device while your device is being rooted or while the custom recovery is being flashed, you WILL most likely cause permenent damage to you device. This may be irreversible damage as well.

Step 3-
Put your device into debugging mode (If it is already then you can move on to the next step. If not or you aren't sure, please continue reading step 3). To set your device into debugging mode this is what you need to do. Go to your device's Settings => Applications => Development. Now you should see 3 options that say 'USB Debugging', 'Stay Awake' and 'Allow Mock Locations'. Make sure that 'USB Debugging' is on. If it isn't on then select it to turn it on.

Step 4-
If you have not downloaded and installed the UnrEVOked 3 file yet, please do so now. Once it is installed please open the application. There should now be a small window that says 'evo 3' (this is the reflash application). Double click the box with 'evo 3' to open the rooting part of the application.

Step 5-
If everything was done properly up to this point it should say that it has found and your device (Incredible). Click okay. Now unrEVOked will do all of the work. It will root your device then flash a custom recovery (Clockwork Recovery) and then it will reboot your phone. DO NOT UNPLUG THE USB CHORD FROM YOUR DEVICE AND COMPUTER.

Step 6-
Your phone should reboot to the hboot screen which looks like this:

(I found this image by searching on google images)

Once you are at the hboot screen (with the usb chord still plugged in) scroll down using the volume rocker (located on the left side of your device) until you have 'hboot USB' selected. Once selected press the power button (located at the top of the device). UnrEVOked will take over again and do it's thing. Your phone should reboot again (if everything has been done correctly). Once it has rebooted and the message on the unrEVOked software says that is is done you can now unplug your phone (DO NOT UNPLUG YOUR PHONE PRIOR TO UNREVOKED TELLING YOU THAT IS DONE OR ELSE THERE MAY BE ISSUES THAT OCCUR).

Step 7-
If you have followed all of these directions you should now be rooted. To check go into your app drawer and look for the 'Super User' app. It is the app that will say "Super User" under the icon. Do you see it? Great. Everyone please take a bow, you have earned it . Ok now onto the next part, setting your device to S-Off. What? You thought you were finish? Nope, but you are getting really close.

Step 8-
You can now put your micro sd card back in your device. Once it is in and loaded, take the UnrEVOked Forever file that you downloaded and place it on the root of your SD card (root of your sd card means that it is on the base of the card itself, it is not in any of the folder).

Step 9-
Once you have placed the file on the root of your SD card, reboot your device into the recovery. This is how you reboot into recovery (manually. There are other ways and apps but I will not be going into that):

-Power off your phone and wait until it is off
-Press and hold the bottom half of the volume rocker (the part that would
normally lower the volume if you were listening to music) and the power
button. Keep holding them down until a black screen with green writing
appears (this is the clockwork recovery).

Step 10-
Now use the optical track pad on your device to scroll down to "install zip from sdcard. Once selected, press the optical track pad and you will be brought to a new menu. Select "choose zip from sdcard" and then you should see all of the files on your sdcard. Go to the UnrEVOked Forever zip file and select it. You should be brought to a screen where is says "No" multiple times with 1 "Yes" located approx in the middle. Scroll down to "yes" and select it to install the file.

Step 11-
Once it is finished installing press the power button 1 time to take you back to the main menu in the Clockwork Recovery. Now select "reboot system now". Once your DInc has rebooted you are finished. You now have root access and have S-off. Great job guys.

Here is where I would like to thank all of the great developers out there. Without them we would still be using stock devices with a whole lot of bloatware. Thank you again guys/girls

Also a special thanks to the UnrEVOked team for their amazing software that gives our devices root access. All of the files I linked to were either created by these people or provided by them.
Official UnrEVOked site
The UnrEVOked Wiki

 

[mclarryjr]

Here is a simple guide to take your rooted phone back to stock, S-on, and stock recovery.

Before you start make sure you have a rooted Droid Incredible with clockworkmod recovery and have your sdcard formatted to fat32.
To format your card an easy way is to connect your Incredible with sdcard to your windows computer. On your device select disk drive, then using your computer open my computer and right click on your sdcard and select format fat32. Just like rooting, unrooting will remove all your third party app's and wipe your device.

How to tell if your s-on or s-off
1. Reboot into HBOOT and in the upper right it will tell you if your security is on or off by displaying s-on or s-off. To reboot hit the power button once, then using your volume key down select recovery and then hit the power button again. In recovery make sure reboot is highlighted and press down on your optical joystick.

Please note if your using 2.15.00.09.01 radio unrevoked s-on tool will not work. You will need to download this and flash that PB31IMG before you continue.

If your s-off then you need to download http://downloads.unrevoked.com/forever/current/unrevoked-forever-son.zip to turn s-on.
1. Place the downloaded file on the root of your sdcard.
2. Reboot into recovery using any method.
-Using Rom Manager just open and select Reboot into Recovery
-Pull the battery for a few seconds, then put battery back in and power on while holding down the volume down key, once in HBOOT hit the power key once then use your volume down key to highlight “recovery” and hit the power button to select.
3. In recovery menu (use your volume keys or joystick to navigate through the menu) select “install zip from sdcard” and press on the optical joystick to select.
4. Then select “choose zip from sdcard”.
5. Find and select the file "unrevoked-forever-son.zip" you downloaded and placed on your sdcard.
6. Select “yes install unrevoked-forever-son.zip”.
7. Now your s-on - continue to the following directions to remove root and go back to your stock recovery.

If your s-on and on Froyo you need to download this file PB31IMG.zip
If your s-on and on Ginger Bread you need to download this file Gingerbread-Stock-recovery_PB31IMG.zip
1. Check your sdcard for any file named PB31IMG.zip and remove it before moving to the next step
2. Rename the file you downloaded above to “PB31IMG.zip” without the quotes and place it on the root of your sdcard.
3. Boot into HBOOT by pulling your battery then power on while holding the volume down key.
4. Your phone should find the PB31IMG.zip file and start the update and may reboot a couple of times.
5. Reboot your phone and you should be back to stock

 

[mclarryjr]

Here is guide to return to stock if your having problems using the guide above.

First you MUST be using a Windows computer to use this guide.

1. You need to install HTC Sync on your computer which you will find here. https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...Fwww.htc.com%2Fus%2Fsupport%2F&token=K865XzYt

2. Install the RUU file here.

3. Run the RUU file on your computer and it will guide you through the process and DO NOT disconnect your phone until your instructed to. Note in the RUU file there is a readme file with directions and FAQ to help you.

Using this method like any other you are taking a chance of bricking your phone.

 

[Brett]

Rom Manager is one of the must have/most used applications for rooted users. You can flash recoveries, download roms, create nandroid backups, partition your SD card and a whole lot of other things all within the application itself. It simplifies a lot of steps and has a lot of great features to take advantage of. The best thing about this app is that it can basically do all of the work for you when flashing a rom/kernel/zip/etc..

The problem with Rom Manager doing all of the work for you is that many people rely and depend on it to do all of the work for them. Why do it manually when you can have everything done in just a few quick clicks on screen, right? If you rely on it to do everything for you without attempting to understand what it is doing then you may never know how to fix a problem with your device until it is too late. It is highly recommended that you know (or even have an idea) what your device is doing when you flash a new rom or file. This is important for many reason. Rom Manager's auto flashing feature lacks the ability to wipe the Dalvik cache (affecting the JIT compiler). Sometimes the data may not be wiped thoroughly, causing a brand new rom to not function the way it should.

One of the biggest issues with relying on Rom Manager to load all of the files for you is that it takes away any reason for you take initiative in regards to learning all of the features in your device's recovery. Here is an important question. What if you are not able to access Rom Manager? Let's say you flash a new rom but now you are stuck in a boot loop and can't access your home screens. What do you do?

The purpose of this thread is to explain the process of manually flashing files through the Clockwork Recovery. I will go through the same steps that I follow when flashing a new rom. I hope you guys are read, because here we go:

PLEASE READ GUIDE FULLY BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO GO

THROUGH THE PROCESSES​

REQUIREMENTS:

-Your device must be rooted with Nand unlocked. Please refer to your devices specific hacking section in the forum for help with this if you do not have it unlocked.
-Koush's Clockwork Recovery. These instructions may not be of any use if the recovery is designed differently than CWM so please be do the research if you are debating on doing it on though other recoveries.
-Rom Manager (free or paid)

Market Link: Rom Manager (free)
Market Link: Rom Manager (premium)​

-Access to the internet (through your computer or phone) to download the rom you want to flash.
-Last but not least, the understanding that you are following this guide at your own risk. Nobody is at fault if you there is any harm done to your phone. Flashing through the recovery is very simple but if not done correctly it may lead to problems with your device. Always do your homework before flashing. Continue on if (and only if) you fully accept responsibility for your device and any problems that may occur with your device.​

HOW TO FLASH A ROM USING CW RECOVERY:

Step 1-
Find the rom that you want to flash and then download it. You can download it through Rom Manager (it will download directly to your sd card) or you can download it from the internet and then put it on your SD card.

Step 2-
Go to Rom Manager and select 'Flash ClockworkMod Recovery'. Follow the short instruction to select your device and then flash the recovery. This will flash the latest Clockwork Recovery that you will be using. It is recommended that you are connected to wifi because the recovery is a pretty big file but it is up to you.

Step 3-
When your devices finishes downloading the recovery you can now select 'Reboot into Recovery'. This will restart your device but instead of going to your home screen after rebooting, you will be taken to the recovery screen/menu. This is what it should look like:​

The method to move the selection box varies by device. For example, you would use the volume toggle buttons to go up/down and the camera button to make your selection. The Droid Incredible has an optical track pad that you can use to go up/down and click it in to make your selection. Normally the Power button on your device is the universal back-up button that will take you to the previous menu screen. Make sure you check to see what your device uses for it's controls.​

Step 4-
Now you want to make a Nandroid Backup. What this will essentially do is create a backup of your current setup (your current rom) as well as all of your files and settings that on your device (this excludes your sd card). To do this you need to select the option 'backup and restore'. Now you have 2 options, 'make a backup' and 'restore backup'. You want to make a backup so highlight that one and select it. Your device is now creating a copy of its current software state.​

Side Note: If you want to revert back to the previous state (prior to flashing a new rom) then you would select restore backup and then choose which backup to revert to.​

Step 5-
Once the backup finishes you are going to now wipe your device. There are only 3 things that you should be wiping. You will be wiping the data (all of your user and app data), cache (accumulated junk files) and the Dalvik cache (related to you JIT compiler, if you are running 2.2 and above). From the main menu of your Clockwork Recovery screen you will need to select "Wipe Data/Factory Reset" to wipe all of you data. Next go to "Wipe Cache Partition" to wipe your device's cache. Last but not least, you will need to go to "advanced" and then to to "Wipe Dalvik Cache".​

This is an image from version 2.5.0.1 which is older than the most recent version. The menu might look a little different but all you need to look for is "Wipe Dalvik Cache". This is what the menu screen look like after you select "advanced".

NOTE: You might see an error message on the bottome half of your screen when you wipe the Dalvik Cache. This message will say something like 'E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p2
(File exists)'. Do not worry,his is not a problem. It just means that your SD card isn't partitioned. You are still able to wipe the Dalvik.​

Step 5-
Now you are ready to install the rom that you downloaded. Go back to the main screen of your recovery (back out of the advanced menu) and select "install zip from sd card" and then select "choose zip from sd card". Now you need to find the Rom file on your SD card. If you downloaded it through Rom Manager then it will be in your Clockwork folder. If you downloaded it through a browser and put it on your SD card then it will be where you placed it. It is important to make sure that you select the correct file.

Step 6-
After you select the rom of your choice you will be brought a new screen. It should resemble the screens when you wiped your data and caches. You want to select "yes" to flash the rom. Now your device is flashing the rom file so you can set it down and wait for it to finish. Once it finishes (you be brought to a menu), back out to the main menu and then select reboot device.

Step 7-
You have now flashed a custom on your device. Wait for your device to boot up to the google login screen and sign it. Now you can enjoy your device and it's new custom rom.​

Congratulations everybody. Pat yourself on the shoulder because you guys/girls deserve it.


-The ClockworkMod Recovery images posted were found using google images. They are not pictures that I took.

This is a screen cap I took of my current set-up to give you guys/girls an idea as to what flashing a custom rom can do for you:

My DInc running on CM7:

 

[PvilleComp]

Thanks guys! This is much needed and VERY well done!

 

[Brett]

We are happy you like it.

If anybody has requests for instructions let us know them and we will see what we can do. No guarantees but all I can say is that we will try. Also make sure your requests are DInc related because if they are general then they belong in the General hacking section.

 

[toll]

GREAT WORK!!! thanks for this!

 

[Brett]

No problem. Larry and I put a good amount of work into this so it is nice to see people enjoying it.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[RoadRunner64]

HELP! I keep getting the white htc Incredible screen not the black with green letter showing clockwork mod recovery. I'm I doing something wrong?

 

[Brett]

Did you follow all of the steps without skipping any? Like putting unrevoked forever on the root of your as card?

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[RoadRunner64]

Yes I put on the sd card.

 

[Brett]

What step did you get stuck at? During or after unrevoked rooted the device?

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[siouxpernatural]

Rooting is well worth the risks involved and you'd have to b an idiot to mess it up...

 

[Brett]

Rooting is well worth the risks involved and you'd have to b an idiot to mess it up...

That's not true at all. There are multiple things that could go wrong but for the most part they don't. A dev could host a bad file for one.

Please do not criticize others negatively because it is unneeded. If you don't have anything nice to say, dont say anything.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[ejb1013]

Hello,

Just tried to root my Incredible for the 1rst time and got this message:

Error: failed to get root. Is your firmware too new?

Im not sure if it is or if its not. wondering if anyone has any info or advice I can use.

Thanks in advance

 

[Upstreammiami]

Make sure this is the file you downloaded http://www.fourty.net/~berzerker/stockstuff/PB31IMG_3.26.605.1_RUU.zip

 

[ejb1013]

Thanks for the link but, just so im clear, which file am I using this one in place of?

 

[ejb1013]

Scratch the last question and thanks to everyone involved. My Incredible is now fully rooted and ready for CM7!!

 

[RoadRunner64]

Phone is rooted but can't load cmd 7 on it. doesn't boot just stays stuck in the HTC Incredible white screen and have to pull the battery so that it reboots.