How to root, S-OFF and upgrade HTC Sensation XL

I just had my hands on an HTC Sensation XL and boy it is really hard to root. After a lot of hard work, I finally brought it down to a few simple steps. Here's a tutorial for those needing to root the device. Briefly, it consists of these steps:

1. Unlock bootloader from htcdev.com
2. Install recovery
3. Root
4. S-OFF

1. How to unlock HTC Sensation XL bootloader:
This is the simplest step. It is very easily guided by the HTC's official development website, htcdev.com. Simply go to the website and it will guide you through the entire process. If you have any trouble, ask me.

2. Install recovery:
Once you have unlocked the bootloader, it's time to install the recovery. Download the latest touch recovery from clockworkmod.com/rommanager for "Runnymede". Once downloaded, flash it using the fastboot tools. For example, if the recovery is named runnymede.img, the file has to be placed in the tools folder, the phone should be in fastboot mode and your command should be:

• fastboot flash recovery runnymede.img

This will install the recovery

3. How to root HTC Sensation XL
To root the device, download this file, extract it and run runme.

4. How to S-OFF HTC Sensation XL
To enable S-OFF, you need to download this file and place the hboot file in the adb tools folder. Then, use the following commands to enable S-OFF:

• adb push hboot_7230ddr2_Runnymede_6.28.6666.nb0 /data/local/tmp/hboot_7230ddr2_Runnymede_6.28.6666.nb0
• adb shell
• dd if=/data/local/tmp/hboot_7230ddr2_Runnymede_6.28.6666.nb0 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p18
• exit
• adb reboot bootloader

Once this is done, install any compatible ICS RUU from androidruu.com to get hboot 1.28. This hboot is compatible for most custom ROMs.

Congratulations, you're all set to install any custom ROM on your HTC Sensation XL with S-OFF!

How to install a new ROM (for all except S-ON HTC devices)

People always ask me how to install a new Android ROM onto their devices. This is very simple and I'll try my best to make it simpler. This tutorial assumes that your devices is rooted and you have a custom recovery (like Clockworkmod, TWRP or 4ext recovery) installed.

Before we get started, here are a few things you need to know.

1. Installing a new ROM requires a factory reset of your device. This deletes everything except user data files. Things you lose include user apps, contacts, messages, call log and saved WiFi passwords. On the other hand Gallery, Music, Downloaded items and files you can see in your file manager are not lost.
2. If you are installing an upgrade of your previously installed ROM, data wipe is not mandatory, unless the developer says so. Nevertheless, a data wipe is always recommended.
3. To backup data, you can use different apps. The simplest one you can use is Super Backup. For advanced users, I'd recommend Titanium Backup. This data can be restored after installing the app once the ROM has installed.
4. AOSP ROMs (Cyanogenmod, Android Open Kang Project and Paranoid Android) mostly do not have Google Apps included due to copyright issues. Google Apps or gapps are therefore separately downloaded and installed as a zip. You can downloaded the latest gapps for you ROM from here.

Here is what you need:

1. A custom ROM zip (and gapps, if required).
2. A rooted device with a custom recovery installed. This includes all devices except S-ON HTC devices. S-OFF HTC devices can use this method. For S-ON devices or to check which one are you, click here.

Here is how you install a new ROM:

1. Transfer the ROM to your internal memory. Internal memory is preferred because it is safer than an SD card because of a risk of corruption.
2. Boot your phone into recovery. Every device has its own way to boot into recovery which you can easily find out by googling it. If you can't find it, ask me.
3. Once in recovery, select factory reset and confirm. Then wipe cache. Then go to advanced and wipe dalvik cache. This completes the wiping process.
4. Go back and select install zip. Select and install the custom ROM zip.
4a. Install the gapps zip, if applicable.
5. Reboot your device.

Congratulations, your new ROM is ready to use!

Applicable to (but not limited to):
1. All Samsung Galaxy S devices.
2. All Samsung Galaxy Note devices.
3. Virtually all Samsung Galaxy devices.
4. HTC Sensation (if S-OFF).
5. All Nexus devices.

How to root Samsung Galaxy S T959 (Vibrant)

Today I had the chance to root and upgrade a Samsung Vibrant, which is the T-Mobile version of the Samsung Galaxy S. It originally runs 2.1 Eclair but can be upgraded to 2.2 Froyo via Kies.

The trouble with Vibrant is that it cannot be rooted if it is running Froyo. First, it has to be downgraded to Eclair via Odin, and then can you apply the root update file. I wasn't even able to root it via the universal root tutorial.

For the sake of others, I will now list the steps of rooting the Samsung Vibrant in case it is running 2.2 Froyo.

1. Download Odin, this PIT file and this tar of the Stock 2.1 Eclair.
2. Put the phone into download mode. The best way to do that is to turn off the phone and reinsert the battery. Then press both volume up and down and connect the USB cable while holding them.
3. Let all the drivers install. This won't work till all the drivers are automatically installed.
4. Open Odin. You should see a COM port connected and colored yellow.
5. Select the PIT file, and put the tar file in PDA.
6. Re-partition will be checked and that's okay.
7. Click start.
8. Ideally, it should start and complete in about 5 minutes. (If it hangs or gets stuck at setting up connection, try again with different ports. For me, it didn't work for quite some time. Then I tried to restart the phone but it showed the triangle of death [a phone and a computer with a yellow triangle in between]. But when I tried it again with that screen, Odin worked the first time.)
9. When booted into Eclair, enable USB debugging from Applications> Development.
10. Copy this update.zip to the INTERNAL MEMORY. This file will root the phone and install Superuser and BusyBox.
11. Also copy this update.zip to the INTERNAL MEMORY. This file will install Clockworkmod Recovery. Obviously both files should be applied separately because at a time only one file named update.zip can be placed.
12. To install an update, boot into the recovery. To do that, turn off your phone and then turn it on by holding the volume down and power buttons. In the stock recovery, select "reinstall packages".
13. Repeat above step with Clockworkmod Recovery update.zip

Congratulations, you now have a rooted Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant T959! Feel free to flash new ROMs!

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The universal root tutorial

If you've read our Root page, you should be convinced that all Android devices should be rooted. Once you've decided that, it's time root. There are multiple methods, most of them involving a root toolkit. Today, I'll teach you how to manually root an Android device, developer style.

The reason for this tutorial is that there are often rare Android devices which do not get much (if any) attention from the developers. These include Korean devices and other small companies. This method is universal and really handy. REMEMBER: Though really simple and harmless, I don't take any responsibility for your device not working, not dancing (or dancing for that matter) or if turns into an AK-47 and kills you.

What you need:

• An Android device
• Android SDK
• These files

SDK is a developers' tool provided by Google. You just need to install it in your C drive. It looks really complicated but don't worry, you won't have to use it directly; rather from the command prompt.

When you have downloaded and extracted the ZIP given above, you should have the su-v3, busybox, Superuser.apk, psneuter, and GingerBreak files. Rename su-v3 to su and place all the files in C:\SDK\platform-tools.

Next, you need to have the proper drivers. Enable the USB debugging mode from Settings>Developer options and connect your device to your PC. Most probably it will detect the ADB interface and automatically install it from the internet. But if it doesn't work, Google ADB drivers for your particular device and install them like a program. Remember, the process will not work unless your Windows detects and installs the ADB interface.

The rooting process:
Now is the fun part. It might appear difficult but it's really simple if you follow the instructions and commands carefully. I did it right the first time.
Open command prompt. (Ctrl+R "cmd" or Start>All programs>Accessories)
Navigate to the SDK folder. If you don't know how to navigate in command prompt, Google it. Briefly, type cd\ to go one step up and cd foldername to navigate into a folder. (cd means for change directory but you just have to type cd)
You should be in C:\SDK\platform-tools>

Step 1: Entering the shell
This command will leave you with a shell prompt in the platform-tools directory. From here, you can run the commands that will actually root your phone. Be sure to run these commands exactly as they are written. The commands with an "$" or "#" will only run after the "adb shell" command.
First, here are the commands that run the psneuter exploit and gain a root shell.

• adb devices
• adb push psneuter /data/local/tmp
• adb shell
• $ cd /data/local/tmp
• $ chmod 777 psneuter
• $ ./psneuter

Step 2: Restart ADB server
At this point, the exploit will run and close the shell. You will need to run these commands to restart the ADB server.

• adb kill-server
• adb devices

Step 3: Confirm root
Now comes the moment of truth. Use the

• adb shell

command to open a shell. If you see a "#" sign, you have root access, so go ahead and continue to the next part of this tutorial. If not, you can go back and try the previous steps again, or ask for help in the comments.

Step 4: Make root permanent
We now need to make this root permanent. From the root shell you just opened, type the following commands.

• # mount -o remount,rw -t rfs /dev/block/st19 /system
• # exit
• adb push busybox /system/bin
• adb push su /system/bin
• adb install Superuser.apk
• adb shell
• # chmod 4755 /system/bin/busybox
• # chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
• # mount -o remount,ro -t rfs /dev/block/st19 /system
• # exit
• adb reboot

Step 5: Confirm root from device
At this point, your device should reboot. You can check for the Superuser icon in the app drawer, and then try a root only app like Titanium Backup. If that works, congratulations. You have successfully rooted your Android device. Prepare to enjoy all the benefits of root.

If you face any kind of trouble, leave a comment and we will try our best to respond quickly.

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