ALL credit for this goes to zikronix at XDA in this thread: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
ROOTING YOUR PHONE WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY – YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU DO TO YOUR PHONE. YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR DATA.
(If you want to backup your apps and app data you can temporarily root with z4root version 1.3 and then install Titanium Backup from the market and backup your apps & data!)
Rooting the EVO for 3.7 Software
What will this do? This process will force a custom recovery on to your phone, at which point Unrevoked-Forever will be flashed to the phone, this will toggle the phones security verification to OFF (otherwise known as NAND unlock or S-OFF) by toggling a security bit in the phone’s radio, after that you’re free to install any ROM you want, here we’ll install the latest Sprint Lovers ROM because it comes included in the file set needed to root your phone and has the latest radios, after that point though you can go to any ROM you’d like.
First you’ll need to get some software together:
1) HTC Sync: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (Pro tip: install this first before you start downloading other files, it may need to reboot your PC!)
2) An UnZipping utility (built in to Windows or WinRAR or WinZip)
3) MD5 Checker (you can grab this on Google, any free one will do)
4) The root files: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (when this file downloads, verify its MD5 checksum using the MD5 checker you got from Google, use this code: 27eb4a36ba01078193975fc93723dd60 if the checksums do not match you MUST re-download the file!)
While you’re waiting for these files to download and to install HTC Sync, charge your phone!
1. Factory reset your phone (from the home screen: menu > settings > SD & phone storage > Factory data reset) (when it reboots, skip all the setup stuff so you just get right to a home screen)
2. Connect your phone to your computer via USB, Windows will install some drivers from the HTC Sync installation. LEAVE YOUR PHONE AS CHARGE ONLY!
3. Enable application installation from unknown sources (from the home screen, menu > settings > applications > unknown sources) & Enable USB debugging (just hit the back button, select development and check the usb debugging check box)
4. Extract the hboot_2.xx_soff-VX.zip that you downloaded earlier, put it in an easy to use place like C:evoroot
Make sure you have all the files and folders extracted, you should have these folders: pc36img, recovery, root and these files: adb, AdbWinApi.dll, AdbWinUsbApi.dll.
5. Open a command prompt (In windows XP & Vista go to start > run > type “cmd” > enter and type “cd c:evoroot” – for windows 7 users open windows explorer and browse to c:, press the left shift key and right click on “evoroot”, select “open command window here”)
6. Copy & paste the below commands, line by line in to command prompt (copy them here and right click in the command window and select paste – cltrl+v will not work). This will push over the required files to your phone’s sdcard. Press Enter after each line, some files will take some time to transfer – DO NOT DO ANYTHING WITH YOUR PHONE AT THIS POINT!
Quote:
adb push root/unrevoked-forever.zip /sdcard/
adb push root/mtd-eng.img /sdcard/
adb push pc36img/PC36IMG-ENG.zip /sdcard/PC36IMG.zip
adb push pc36img/PC36IMG-MR.zip /sdcard/PC36IMG-MR.zip
adb push root/flash_image /data/local/
*I combined a few steps in this screen shot for sanity reasons
7. Still in command prompt the following commands will install and start z4root: (hit Enter after each line)
Quote:
adb -d install -r root/z4root.apk
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.z4mod.z4root/com.z4mod.z4root.z4root
After the second line your phone will have z4root on it, choose “Temporary Root” and wait a few seconds while the software gains access.
8. In command prompt type: (hit enter after each line, after you hit SU, you must hit “allow” on your phone)
Quote:
adb shell
su
9. Backup your 4G RSA keys (in command prompt, at the #) – The following three commands will create this directory: nandroid/RSA-PR-BACKUP on your sdcard, inside of that directory will be this file: wimax.img, that file is a digital image of the partition on your phone which holds your 4G keys.
Quote:
mkdir /sdcard/nandroid
mkdir /sdcard/nandroid/RSA-PR-BACKUP
cat /dev/mtd/mtd0 > /sdcard/nandroid/RSA-PR-BACKUP/wimax.img
10. Create a text backup of your keys (still in command prompt, at the #). This will create a file: rsa_OEM.key in the root of your sdcard which will also hold your 4G keys.
Quote:
busybox sed -n '/BEGIN CERTIFICATE/,$p' /dev/mtd/mtd0 > /sdcard/rsa_OEM.key
11. Change permissions and flash some system version information: (this is still done in the command window, at the #, press Enter after each line)
Quote:
chmod 0755 /data/local/flash_image
./data/local/flash_image misc /sdcard/mtd-eng.img
sync
12. Now reboot the phone directly in to bootloader: (In the command window, at the #)
Quote:
reboot bootloader
13. When the phone reboots use the volume keys and power button to select Bootloader from the menu, hit the power button to select this choice. The phone will scan the PC36IMG.zip file we pushed on the sdcard earlier (this is the engineering software release for the EVO), after the scan is complete, the phone will ask if you want to apply the update, press volume up for yes. (Some selections will be skipped, this is normal and will take a few minutes to run) When the update is done the phone will ask if you want to reboot, use the volume down key and select No.
14. Move the selector to “Recovery” using the volume keys and press the power button to select it. Your phone will reboot to a screen with a red triangle on it, this is normal. (If you get stuck here at the white HTC screen, this is OK, just pull the battery then power on the phone by holding the volume down and power buttons at the same time. When the bootloader loads it will re-scan the PC36IMG.zip, select No to apply the update, then No to reboot device, from the menu select Recovery)
15. In the command prompt (press enter after each line)
Quote:
adb push recovery /
adb shell busybox --install /sbin
adb shell nohup /sbin/recovery &
16. Your phone will now have a green recovery menu.
17. Select enable USB-MS toggle using the volume keys and power button, this will open your sdcard up on your computer. Rename the file “PC36IMG.zip” to “PC36IMG-ENG.zip” then rename “PC36IMG-MR.zip” to “PC36IMG.zip” (you don’t need to enter the .zip part in windows because it’s hidden as a file extension). Disable USB-MS on your phone.
18. Select Flash zip from the recovery menu and choose “unrevoked-forever.zip”, after installation is complete, select Power Off.
19. Power on the phone, it will boot in to the HTC engineering software for the Evo. When the phone loads just leave it alone
20. In the command window type:
Quote:
adb reboot bootloader
21. Select Bootloader from the menu with the power button, it will scan the renamed PC36IMG.zip file on the sdcard (Sprint Lover’s ROM), select Yes and apply the update, then select Yes to reboot when it’s done.
You’re now in Sprint Lovers rom which you can read more about here: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] this is a pretty solid, very stock rom that included all the latest radio updates and a wifi hotspot app. If you like this ROM I would suggest setting it up properly with all of your information and then downloading ROM Manager from the market and creating a backup, this way you always have a way to “come home.”
To entirely reverse this process and go 100% back to stock, follow this guide here: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
