Disclaimer: YOU are responsible for everything you do to your phone. I will not be held accountable if your house explodes, your cat eats your bird or if your phone starts a nuclear war and destroys all of humanity. Etc. THIS IS ALL AT YOUR OWN RISK!
This post will guide you through rooting your HTC Evo V 4g from Virgin Mobile. You will be installing the android SDK and using fastboot to obtain root. This more time consuming than the gingerbreak that all you Optimus V owners are used to but you will be fine as long as you follow the directions closely.
So let's get going!
THIS WILL WIPE EVERYTHING
Please make any/all necessary backups before proceeding.
1. Installing the Android SDK
First, you need to download a lot of software. So here are the download links:
1) HTC Sync
This is to get the proper drivers to connect your Evo V to your computer
2) Mini-SDK is a small part of the full Android SDK but is a much smaller download and easier to set up. Just download sdk-tools.zip and extract it to C:\sdk-tools.
If you want to install the full SDK follow the guide here
2. Picking the recovery, ROM, and kernel you want to use.
Download the following items:
TeamWin Recovery Project (TWRP) version 1.1.1 - Recovery
Superuser-3.0.7-efghi-signed.zip - SuperUser patch for the stock ROM (I will refer to it as the 'SU patch' from here on out)
For the sake of this tutorial, we will be getting the fastboot (called img) version of TWRP 1.1.1. So let's begin:
First, go into Control Panel for Windows. Go to Folder Options. Go to the View tab. Now uncheck the box that says "Hide extensions for known file types". This will make things so less confusing in the long run. If you know what file extensions are and don't feel the need to do this, fine. Just know that all file names that I will list here will assume that file extensions are shown.
Second, download TWRP and the SU Patch. You can also substitute any ROM for the SU Patch, this process is the same, regardless.
NOTE: MANY ROMS ARE UNTESTED AT THIS TIME USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, ALL CMDA ROMS SHOULD WORK IN THEORY BUT THIS IS NOT YET CONFIRMED
Next, move the ROM/SU Patch to your SD card. You can do this by enabling the phone in Disk Mode or any other method. Now make a subfolder called 'ROMs'.
Now, rename the file 'recovery-twrp-shooter-1.1.1.img' to 'recovery.img'. You don't have to do this, but it's just easier if you do. Place this file in your sdk-tools folder.
3. Opening up the command prompt and getting ready for fastboot.
Now, click Start and either open Run, or click in the text box in your start menu. Then type 'cmd'. You get a command prompt. Now we need to go to the Mini SDK folder. If you installed it in the same directory I did, you can copy (or type):
Now go back into your command prompt and right click on it. Click paste and then push enter. You should now be in the mini SDK directory. If you have Windows 7, you can go to your mini SDK folder and right click on the folder and click "Open command window here" as an alternative means than copying and pasting . To check that you are in the right folder, you can type 'fastboot' then enter, you should get this:
4. Unlocking with HTC Dev
Time to unlock with HTCdev
Step 1) Getting into fastboot.
First, let's turn off one of HTC's defaulted on features. So let's turn off the very frustratingly named 'Fast Boot' in Settings > Power. No, this is not 'fastboot' in the Android SDK. This is a feature that is like Hibernate in Windows but for HTC devices. I really hate how HTC calls it this, but that's what they decided to call it.
Next, go to Settings > Applications > Development and check USB Debugging. You'll need this enabled for the adb reboot command. Plus a number of rooting apps require it. Give the computer a few minutes to recognize your phone, install drivers, and so on.
Connect your phone to your computer. From now until you're done flashing your ROM, you will not disconnect the USB cable. So just don't do it!
Quick tip: Do NOT connect to a USB 3.0 port. For some reason, fastboot has issues with USB 3.0 and will not detect your device if you're connected through a USB 3.0 port. If you're unsure if you have a USB 3.0 port, don't worry about it unless your fastboot commands say that they're waiting for device when the device is hooked up.
Now, in the command prompt, type (or copy and paste):
You should now be in your bootloader. It should say "FASTBOOT USB" in red highlight. If so, this is good! If not, make sure HBOOT in the menu is highlighted and push the power button. This will change it to FASTBOOT and it'll detect that it's connected to USB and change in a few seconds. Now type (or copy):
Step 2) Getting the device identifier token and then flashing unlock_code.bin
Type the following command in the command prompt:
A long text boxes will come up. Right mouse button click on the screen and click mark. Then highlight the token from > to >, like shown:
pics credit jerofld
Do not highlight info or bootloader or any extra spaces or text. Once you have done that, right click again and hit copy.
Now go to HTCdev - Unlock Bootloader and fill out the forms and paste the code into the device identifier token box and submit. You'll get an email (check your spam folder) with your unlock_code.bin. Once your receive it, transfer that file into your C:\sdk-tools\ folder. Now go back to your command window and type:
The unlock token should reboot the phone for you (so that you'll be back in Android). If it doesn't you can do it manually by reinserting the battery and then holding Vol down + power. You should now see UNLOCKED displayed at the top. If so, congratulations, you are now unlocked!
5. Install and boot into recovery!
Now we need to get back into the bootloader. Here's how to do it, if you don't remember how to do it (and so you don't have to go back to a previous step):
You should now be in your bootloader. It should say "FASTBOOT USB" in red highlight. If so, this is good! If not, make sure HBOOT in the menu is highlighted and push the power button. This will change it to FASTBOOT and it'll detect that it's connected to USB and change in a few seconds.
Now type (or copy):
This now flashes TWRP 1.1.1 that we downloaded earlier. A vertical green progress bar will be displayed on the right. If it returns a command like 'file not found'. Make sure you renamed the recovery-twrp-shooter-1.1.1.img to recovery.img. If it still doesn't work, make sure the recovery file is in the C:\sdk-tools\ folder. Can you just change the command to read "fastboot flash recovery recovery-twrp-shooter-1.1.1.img"? Yes, but it makes the next command tougher to type every time you want to flash something. So renaming it once before you flash is easier than typing it every single time you want to access the recovery through fastboot.
Now type (or copy/paste):
6. MAKE A BACKUP!
Now that we have TWRP 1.1.1 installed, we should make a back up. This is done by using the volume keys and pushing power as enter. Now you have a few options. You can back up as much or as little as you want. But I'd recommend that you backup:
System
Data
Boot
Wimax
Everything else is optional, but probably good to backup anyway.
7. Flashing SU Patch/ROM
TWRP 1.1.1 has capacitive buttons that work, so hit the back button. To flash SU/ROM/Kernel, do the following:
1) Go to Wipe Menu
A) Wipe Cache
B) Wipe Dalvik Cache
OPTIONAL) Wipe Everything (Data Factory Reset) - This is useful if you have problems with flashing certain ROMS. Some ROMs require this before flashing. For the stock ROM, this isn't necessary. But, you did a factory reset with HTCdev anyways, so it can't hurt.
2) Go back and now go to Install Zip.
A) Choose Zip
B) Go to the folder ROMs/
C) Select the SU patch or ROM you want to flash
D) If you're flashing another kernel, you would find your kernel and by selecting Choose Zip and finding the kernel file. The kernel must be selected AFTER the ROM is selected, or else the kernel built into the ROM will overwrite the kernel you want to flash.
E) Check 'Reboot After Successful Flash' - this is just a nice feature of TWRP that makes it so you don't have to pay attention to the flashing process.
F) Flash Zips Now
3) Sit back and relax. The flash is going to take 3 or so minutes. Then it'll reboot. The reboot will take 5 minutes or so and will always take 5 minutes or so every time you clear out the cache and dalvik cache. It is normal. So let it do it's thing. If 10 minutes goes by, check for bootlooping. Most boot animations have a start animation and then a repeat animation. If you see the start animation a second time in a boot cycle, you may have a bootloop problem. The stock VM boot animation has a chime when it starts booting, if you hear that more than once, you're probably bootlooping. If so, pull out the battery (or push vol up + down + power) then push vol down + power to get into the bootloader. Your USB cable should be connected still, so make sure it shows 'FASTBOOT USB' again. If so, type 'fastboot boot recovery.img' in the command prompt to go back into recovery. Wipe everything again (data, dalvik and cache) and try a reflash.
If it is successful, congratulations! You flashed a recovery and SU/ROM by using fastboot!
You now have control of your phone!
To Flash a new rom:
Let's say you want to flash a new ROM. Here's how to do it:
If you're starting in Android, connect your USB cable. Then click Start and either open Run, or click in the text box in your start menu. Then type 'cmd'. You get a command prompt. Now what you type or copy/paste will depend on your version of Windows and where you installed the Android SDK.
Then type:
When the bootloader appears, type:
You're now in recovery. Make a backup if you wish, then:
1) Go to Wipe Menu
A) Wipe Cache
B) Wipe Dalvik Cache
OPTIONAL) Wipe Everything (Data Factory Reset) - This is useful if you have problems with flashing certain ROMS. Some ROMs require this before flashing. For the stock ROM, this isn't necessary. But if you're on HBOOT 1.5 and used HTC Dev, you did a factory reset anyways, so it can't hurt.
2) Go back and now go to Install Zip.
A) Choose Zip
B) Go to the folder ROMs/
C) Select the ROM you want to flash (Shooter_S_Sprint_WWE_2.17.651.5_odex.zip for example)
D) If you're flashing another kernel, you would find your kernel and by selecting Choose Zip and finding the kernel file. The kernel must be selected AFTER the ROM is selected, or else the kernel built into the ROM will overwrite the kernel you want to flash.
E) Check 'Reboot After Successful Flash' - this is just a nice feature of TWRP that makes it so you don't have to pay attention to the flashing process.
F) Flash Zips Now
3) Sit back and relax. The flash is going to take 3 or so minutes. Then it'll reboot. The reboot will take 5 minutes or so and will always take 5 minutes or so every time you clear out the cache and dalvik cache. It is normal. So let it do it's thing. If 10 minutes goes by, check for bootlooping. Every boot animation has a start animation and then a repeat animation. If you see the start animation a second time in a boot cycle, you may have a bootloop problem. If so, pull out the battery (or push vol up + down + power) then push vol down + power to get into the bootloader. Your USB cable should be connected still, so make sure it shows 'FASTBOOT USB' again. If so, type 'fastboot boot recovery.img' in the command prompt to go back into recovery. Wipe everything again (data, dalvik and cache) and try a reflash.
If successful, congratulations! Enjoy your new ROM/Kernel!
-Optional Getting S-Off
What is S-OFF?
S-OFF means that bootloader security is off. This allows you to flash images to the /boot partition. Simply put: It lets you flash whatever you want without using fastboot or specially enabled recoveries. It makes things much easier to do but it also takes away the security that keeps you from bricking your device. If you do S-OFF (it is recommended), remember to check everything that you're about to flash and make sure it's for the Evo V.
[S-OFF] Juopunutbear S-OFF -Beta Release - S-OFF while staying on HBOOT 1.5. Requires you do a 'wire trick' to ground out a signal at a certain point. This is easier than temporarily bricking your device.
Credits: This is based of jerofld's guide on Android Forums here. I only changed a few minor things so all credit goes to him.
This post will guide you through rooting your HTC Evo V 4g from Virgin Mobile. You will be installing the android SDK and using fastboot to obtain root. This more time consuming than the gingerbreak that all you Optimus V owners are used to but you will be fine as long as you follow the directions closely.
So let's get going!
THIS WILL WIPE EVERYTHING
Please make any/all necessary backups before proceeding.
1. Installing the Android SDK
First, you need to download a lot of software. So here are the download links:
1) HTC Sync
This is to get the proper drivers to connect your Evo V to your computer
2) Mini-SDK is a small part of the full Android SDK but is a much smaller download and easier to set up. Just download sdk-tools.zip and extract it to C:\sdk-tools.
If you want to install the full SDK follow the guide here
2. Picking the recovery, ROM, and kernel you want to use.
Download the following items:
TeamWin Recovery Project (TWRP) version 1.1.1 - Recovery
Superuser-3.0.7-efghi-signed.zip - SuperUser patch for the stock ROM (I will refer to it as the 'SU patch' from here on out)
For the sake of this tutorial, we will be getting the fastboot (called img) version of TWRP 1.1.1. So let's begin:
First, go into Control Panel for Windows. Go to Folder Options. Go to the View tab. Now uncheck the box that says "Hide extensions for known file types". This will make things so less confusing in the long run. If you know what file extensions are and don't feel the need to do this, fine. Just know that all file names that I will list here will assume that file extensions are shown.
Second, download TWRP and the SU Patch. You can also substitute any ROM for the SU Patch, this process is the same, regardless.
NOTE: MANY ROMS ARE UNTESTED AT THIS TIME USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, ALL CMDA ROMS SHOULD WORK IN THEORY BUT THIS IS NOT YET CONFIRMED
Next, move the ROM/SU Patch to your SD card. You can do this by enabling the phone in Disk Mode or any other method. Now make a subfolder called 'ROMs'.
Now, rename the file 'recovery-twrp-shooter-1.1.1.img' to 'recovery.img'. You don't have to do this, but it's just easier if you do. Place this file in your sdk-tools folder.
3. Opening up the command prompt and getting ready for fastboot.
Now, click Start and either open Run, or click in the text box in your start menu. Then type 'cmd'. You get a command prompt. Now we need to go to the Mini SDK folder. If you installed it in the same directory I did, you can copy (or type):
Code
cd C:\sdk-tools
Now go back into your command prompt and right click on it. Click paste and then push enter. You should now be in the mini SDK directory. If you have Windows 7, you can go to your mini SDK folder and right click on the folder and click "Open command window here" as an alternative means than copying and pasting . To check that you are in the right folder, you can type 'fastboot' then enter, you should get this:
Code
C:\sdk-tools>fastboot
usage: fastboot [ ]
commands:
update reflash device from update.zip
flashall flash boot + recovery + system
flash [ ] write a file to a flash partition
erase erase a flash partition
getvar display a bootloader variable
boot [ ] download and boot kernel
flash:raw boot [ ] create bootimage and flash it
devices list all connected devices
continue continue with autoboot
reboot reboot device normally
reboot-bootloader reboot device into bootloader
help show this help message
options:
-w erase userdata and cache
-s specify device serial number
-p specify product name
-c override kernel commandline
-i specify a custom USB vendor id
-b specify a custom kernel base address
-n specify the nand page size. default:
2048
C:\sdk-tools>
4. Unlocking with HTC Dev
Time to unlock with HTCdev
Step 1) Getting into fastboot.
First, let's turn off one of HTC's defaulted on features. So let's turn off the very frustratingly named 'Fast Boot' in Settings > Power. No, this is not 'fastboot' in the Android SDK. This is a feature that is like Hibernate in Windows but for HTC devices. I really hate how HTC calls it this, but that's what they decided to call it.
Next, go to Settings > Applications > Development and check USB Debugging. You'll need this enabled for the adb reboot command. Plus a number of rooting apps require it. Give the computer a few minutes to recognize your phone, install drivers, and so on.
Connect your phone to your computer. From now until you're done flashing your ROM, you will not disconnect the USB cable. So just don't do it!
Quick tip: Do NOT connect to a USB 3.0 port. For some reason, fastboot has issues with USB 3.0 and will not detect your device if you're connected through a USB 3.0 port. If you're unsure if you have a USB 3.0 port, don't worry about it unless your fastboot commands say that they're waiting for device when the device is hooked up.
Now, in the command prompt, type (or copy and paste):
Code
adb reboot bootloader
You should now be in your bootloader. It should say "FASTBOOT USB" in red highlight. If so, this is good! If not, make sure HBOOT in the menu is highlighted and push the power button. This will change it to FASTBOOT and it'll detect that it's connected to USB and change in a few seconds. Now type (or copy):
Step 2) Getting the device identifier token and then flashing unlock_code.bin
Type the following command in the command prompt:
Code
fastboot oem get_identifier_token
A long text boxes will come up. Right mouse button click on the screen and click mark. Then highlight the token from > to >, like shown:
pics credit jerofld
Do not highlight info or bootloader or any extra spaces or text. Once you have done that, right click again and hit copy.
Now go to HTCdev - Unlock Bootloader and fill out the forms and paste the code into the device identifier token box and submit. You'll get an email (check your spam folder) with your unlock_code.bin. Once your receive it, transfer that file into your C:\sdk-tools\ folder. Now go back to your command window and type:
Code
fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
The unlock token should reboot the phone for you (so that you'll be back in Android). If it doesn't you can do it manually by reinserting the battery and then holding Vol down + power. You should now see UNLOCKED displayed at the top. If so, congratulations, you are now unlocked!
5. Install and boot into recovery!
Now we need to get back into the bootloader. Here's how to do it, if you don't remember how to do it (and so you don't have to go back to a previous step):
Show
We need to turn off one of HTC's defaulted on features. It is the very frustratingly named 'Fast Boot' in Settings > Power. No, this is not 'fastboot' in the Android SDK. This is a feature that is like Hibernate in Windows but for HTC devices. I really hate how HTC calls it this, but that's what they decided to call it.
Next, go to Settings > Applications > Development and check USB Debugging. You'll need this enabled for the adb reboot command. Plus a number of rooting apps require it. Give the computer a few minutes to recognize your phone, install drivers, and so on, if it needs to.
Connect your phone to your computer. From now until you're done flashing your ROM, you will not disconnect the USB cable. So don't even think about it!
Quick tip: Do NOT connect to a USB 3.0 port. For some reason, fastboot will not detect your device if you're connected through a USB 3.0 port. If you're unsure if you have a USB 3.0 port, don't worry about it unless your fastboot commands say that they're waiting for device when the device is hooked up.
Now, in the command prompt, type (or copy and paste):
Code
adb reboot bootloader
You should now be in your bootloader. It should say "FASTBOOT USB" in red highlight. If so, this is good! If not, make sure HBOOT in the menu is highlighted and push the power button. This will change it to FASTBOOT and it'll detect that it's connected to USB and change in a few seconds.
Now type (or copy):
Code
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
This now flashes TWRP 1.1.1 that we downloaded earlier. A vertical green progress bar will be displayed on the right. If it returns a command like 'file not found'. Make sure you renamed the recovery-twrp-shooter-1.1.1.img to recovery.img. If it still doesn't work, make sure the recovery file is in the C:\sdk-tools\ folder. Can you just change the command to read "fastboot flash recovery recovery-twrp-shooter-1.1.1.img"? Yes, but it makes the next command tougher to type every time you want to flash something. So renaming it once before you flash is easier than typing it every single time you want to access the recovery through fastboot.
Now type (or copy/paste):
Code
fastboot boot recovery.img
6. MAKE A BACKUP!
Now that we have TWRP 1.1.1 installed, we should make a back up. This is done by using the volume keys and pushing power as enter. Now you have a few options. You can back up as much or as little as you want. But I'd recommend that you backup:
System
Data
Boot
Wimax
Everything else is optional, but probably good to backup anyway.
7. Flashing SU Patch/ROM
TWRP 1.1.1 has capacitive buttons that work, so hit the back button. To flash SU/ROM/Kernel, do the following:
1) Go to Wipe Menu
A) Wipe Cache
B) Wipe Dalvik Cache
OPTIONAL) Wipe Everything (Data Factory Reset) - This is useful if you have problems with flashing certain ROMS. Some ROMs require this before flashing. For the stock ROM, this isn't necessary. But, you did a factory reset with HTCdev anyways, so it can't hurt.
2) Go back and now go to Install Zip.
A) Choose Zip
B) Go to the folder ROMs/
C) Select the SU patch or ROM you want to flash
D) If you're flashing another kernel, you would find your kernel and by selecting Choose Zip and finding the kernel file. The kernel must be selected AFTER the ROM is selected, or else the kernel built into the ROM will overwrite the kernel you want to flash.
E) Check 'Reboot After Successful Flash' - this is just a nice feature of TWRP that makes it so you don't have to pay attention to the flashing process.
F) Flash Zips Now
3) Sit back and relax. The flash is going to take 3 or so minutes. Then it'll reboot. The reboot will take 5 minutes or so and will always take 5 minutes or so every time you clear out the cache and dalvik cache. It is normal. So let it do it's thing. If 10 minutes goes by, check for bootlooping. Most boot animations have a start animation and then a repeat animation. If you see the start animation a second time in a boot cycle, you may have a bootloop problem. The stock VM boot animation has a chime when it starts booting, if you hear that more than once, you're probably bootlooping. If so, pull out the battery (or push vol up + down + power) then push vol down + power to get into the bootloader. Your USB cable should be connected still, so make sure it shows 'FASTBOOT USB' again. If so, type 'fastboot boot recovery.img' in the command prompt to go back into recovery. Wipe everything again (data, dalvik and cache) and try a reflash.
If it is successful, congratulations! You flashed a recovery and SU/ROM by using fastboot!
You now have control of your phone!
To Flash a new rom:
Let's say you want to flash a new ROM. Here's how to do it:
If you're starting in Android, connect your USB cable. Then click Start and either open Run, or click in the text box in your start menu. Then type 'cmd'. You get a command prompt. Now what you type or copy/paste will depend on your version of Windows and where you installed the Android SDK.
Code
Code:
cd C:\sdk-tools
Then type:
Code
adb reboot bootloader
When the bootloader appears, type:
Code
fastboot boot recovery.img
You're now in recovery. Make a backup if you wish, then:
1) Go to Wipe Menu
A) Wipe Cache
B) Wipe Dalvik Cache
OPTIONAL) Wipe Everything (Data Factory Reset) - This is useful if you have problems with flashing certain ROMS. Some ROMs require this before flashing. For the stock ROM, this isn't necessary. But if you're on HBOOT 1.5 and used HTC Dev, you did a factory reset anyways, so it can't hurt.
2) Go back and now go to Install Zip.
A) Choose Zip
B) Go to the folder ROMs/
C) Select the ROM you want to flash (Shooter_S_Sprint_WWE_2.17.651.5_odex.zip for example)
D) If you're flashing another kernel, you would find your kernel and by selecting Choose Zip and finding the kernel file. The kernel must be selected AFTER the ROM is selected, or else the kernel built into the ROM will overwrite the kernel you want to flash.
E) Check 'Reboot After Successful Flash' - this is just a nice feature of TWRP that makes it so you don't have to pay attention to the flashing process.
F) Flash Zips Now
3) Sit back and relax. The flash is going to take 3 or so minutes. Then it'll reboot. The reboot will take 5 minutes or so and will always take 5 minutes or so every time you clear out the cache and dalvik cache. It is normal. So let it do it's thing. If 10 minutes goes by, check for bootlooping. Every boot animation has a start animation and then a repeat animation. If you see the start animation a second time in a boot cycle, you may have a bootloop problem. If so, pull out the battery (or push vol up + down + power) then push vol down + power to get into the bootloader. Your USB cable should be connected still, so make sure it shows 'FASTBOOT USB' again. If so, type 'fastboot boot recovery.img' in the command prompt to go back into recovery. Wipe everything again (data, dalvik and cache) and try a reflash.
If successful, congratulations! Enjoy your new ROM/Kernel!
-Optional Getting S-Off
What is S-OFF?
S-OFF means that bootloader security is off. This allows you to flash images to the /boot partition. Simply put: It lets you flash whatever you want without using fastboot or specially enabled recoveries. It makes things much easier to do but it also takes away the security that keeps you from bricking your device. If you do S-OFF (it is recommended), remember to check everything that you're about to flash and make sure it's for the Evo V.
[S-OFF] Juopunutbear S-OFF -Beta Release - S-OFF while staying on HBOOT 1.5. Requires you do a 'wire trick' to ground out a signal at a certain point. This is easier than temporarily bricking your device.
Credits: This is based of jerofld's guide on Android Forums here. I only changed a few minor things so all credit goes to him.
Last edited:
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