Database Info

Simple Guide for Rooting (Tweaks Coming Soon)

I owe much credit to toastcfh, none of this would be possibly without his work on originally rooting the EVO.
Getting Root & Recovery Mode
(My version, dumbed down even more)
You have three options with rooting:
1) Toasts Rooted ROM - Missing Apps in Market
2) Rooted Stock ROM - No 4G Support
3) Unrevoked Root Patch - No system access in recovery (can't remove sprint apps, etc)
To get a rooted stock ROM, you have to start with Toasts, instructions below; you can find details after.
If you want the Unrevoked Root patch, install a file browser on your EVO and install this.
1. Copy this to the root folder of the SD card, you can do this by syncing the Evo as a disc and just copying in windows.
2. Shut off the Evo, and hold the "volume down" button while powering it on until you see a white screen. Every question it asks, just answer yes. DO NOT UNPLUG, let it finish at all costs, no matter how long it takes.
3. Rename the file you copied to the SD card. (to avoid accidental re-flash and save it for later)
4. Download this and unzip to anywhere of you liking on your desktop. Run the setup, if it asks to accept and install a bunch of stuff, hit cancel, you wont be needing most of it. Select available packages and it will show a repository url, the actual url is irrelevant and will be google's be default...we want to expand the list and select SDK Platform 2.1. Accept an install the selection.
What you just did is installed the Android SDK which includes adb, a shell connector for your phone that we need to operate in recovery mode.
5. Hold the Windows key and press "R", type CMD in the run box. (Run the task with Administrative privileges if there is an option)
Type "cd " in the CMD window, do not forget the trailing space, it is important and DO NOT HIT ENTER yet.
Now, with that CMD windows open, go to the folder you installed the android sdk. There will be a "tools" folder, drag the tools folder into the cmd window.
Press enter, this will set your working directory to the tools folder.
6. If you have not installed drivers for your Evo, there is a folder that comes of the sd card called "HTC-Sync", run the setup in there and it will install sufficient drivers automatically.
After drivers are setup sync the phone using the HTC Sync mode, this will ensure we can control the phone using adb.
Go to your CMD window and type "adb reboot recovery", you will see your phone reboot...it will show a red warning icon on the screen afterwards, this is perfectly normal and good to see such.
7. Your phone should not be in recovery mode, but the filesystem will be offline. Download this to setup the shell for us before we can mount the filesystem. Run "recovery-windows.bat", if you are using Vista or Win7, make to sure right click the file and "Run as Administrator"...you will see another CMD window popup and do some work, just leave it open. You should now have the shell setup in Recovery Mode on your Evo.
8. Go back to your original CMD window we setup, type "adb shell" and hit enter, this will set all commands to work right on the phone. You should see a line with just "#", that is what we want.
Now type "mount /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system" and hit enter.
You should now have your Evo in recovery mode with a shell setup and filesystem mounted. This is where we can begin making changes.
Now that this has all been setup, you may want to go back after making some changes.
Repeat steps 5-8 to re-enter recovery mode with the filesystem mounted.
If you want to continue and do the stock update, check here.
Basically, copy that file to the SD and do steps 5-7.
Then use the onscreen (on the EVO Recovery Mode) to "Flash from ZIP" and select the rooted stock rom update.
WARNING: You must clear user data if the update creates issue, you will know right away.

so this is a third way of rooting, if i used a different way how do i get rid of it and use yours, i'm so tired and confused.

Post Removed to maintain consistancy, see 1st post in thread.

root rom and activesync?
I'm a complete noob here but: By using this method do I still retain the ability to run ActiveSync/Exchange support? (Didn't think this was in the SDK Platform 2.1)
What about Sense?

What the crap is up with the title of this thread? How us this a tweak or an optimization?
Good noob friendly guide, kinda tldr, but what I did readlooked good!
Change ur title

Neotelos_com;
[B said:
You have two options with rooting:
1) Toasts Rooted ROM - Missing Apps in Market
2) Rooted Stock ROM - No 4G Support[/B]
....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any thought about the third option (i.e. unrevoked, new sticky, apk??) will it do the same things? i read users aren't losing full market, 4g etc.? Someone much smarter than me please weigh in.

adeyo said:
Any thought about the third option (i.e. unrevoked, new sticky, apk??) will it do the same things? i read users aren't losing full market, 4g etc.? Someone much smarter than me please weigh in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, adding in right now...just tested and it works well.
I need to check if it allows things to be changed in recovery mode (which is important for removing the Sprint bloatware)

johnsongrantr said:
What the crap is up with the title of this thread? How us this a tweak or an optimization?
Change ur title
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have plans for adding in tweaks, which will be delayed a bit...
Sorry for any inconvenience.

Neotelos_com said:
Yes, adding in right now...just tested and it works well.
I need to check if it allows things to be changed in recovery mode (which is important for removing the Sprint bloatware)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have root at all, and you have "rw" permissions for "system". You should be able to remove sprint apps when the phone is booted, assuming you dont have root while in recovery.
Is something different on the Evo that im missing?
can you not do this
adb shell
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cd /system/app
ls
Then remove the apps like so
rm NameOfApp.apk
rm NameOfApp.odex
Not saying this will all work.. But if you have root, shouldnt this work to remove sprint apps.

Jus10o said:
If you have root at all, and you have "rw" permissions for "system". You should be able to remove sprint apps when the phone is booted, assuming you dont have root while in recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can make changes like that but it will not actually save to the NAND.
So...you can remove, but it will come back after reboot.

Neotelos_com said:
You can make changes like that but it will not actually save to the NAND.
So...you can remove, but it will come back after reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well thats all kinds of dumb..
I give it a week and there will be something better working.

Nice write up. The only problem is, I don't have the sync software on my sd card because the best buy employee knew about the evo's sd card problem and formatted it, erasing everything on the card. I checked htc's site and they had the drivers for download, but it keeps giving me an error saying it's not compatible. I'm using windows 7 64bit. Any ideas guys?

Jus10o said:
If you have root at all, and you have "rw" permissions for "system". You should be able to remove sprint apps when the phone is booted, assuming you dont have root while in recovery.
Is something different on the Evo that im missing?
can you not do this
adb shell
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cd /system/app
ls
Then remove the apps like so
rm NameOfApp.apk
rm NameOfApp.odex
Not saying this will all work.. But if you have root, shouldnt this work to remove sprint apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you CAN remove apps like that, using toast's custom recovery. if you do your shell, and mount, in recovery, using adb, you can go to /system/app and rm whatever you want (be careful not to remove anything important, probably wise to pull whatever first, in case you need to push it back)
i had problems when i did an rm on a file, but that is because apparently i forgot to rm it's info in /data/data too. word to the wise

HTC Sync Torrent
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5609530
PLEASE SEED AFTER DOWNLOAD!

New android user here!
So to me it seems like all three have something they're not able to do. Seems best to wait for a root release that your able to take full advantage of, right?
I'm a former WM flasher , I need to learn android still. I want the free hot spot/tethering, more battery life as I need 2 batteries to make it through the day -.- (I kill apps constantly, 4g turned on rarely,ect, ect)
Any feedback is appreciated,
Sean

can someone point me in the right direction to do this using a mac not new to android just the mac os i did pretty much everything but im stuck on the htc sync part HELPPP PLZ thanks

kingcliff00 said:
can someone point me in the right direction to do this using a mac not new to android just the mac os i did pretty much everything but im stuck on the htc sync part HELPPP PLZ thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try going to Settings -> Applications on the evo and enable usb debugging...if that5 gives you adb access that's all you need

confirmed working with unrevoked root method. It can tether 3G or 4G, depends on how you connected to the Sprint network. 3G was 0.80Mbps DL, 4G was 2.63Mbps DL.
Before using unrevoked root method, I had applied the sdcard patch already. so it doesn't matter if you applied the sdcard patch or not (OTA updated).

You really shouldn't kill tasks. Just cycle the battery a couple of times and turn your antennas off and on when u need them. Especially if u are in spotty 3g coverage. There already one or two official write ups that say task killing is bad I use to do it and got forceloses and errors all the time. Its not about how many tasks you have running I.e. memory, items about cpu and antenna signal that kills you're battery I'll find the link if I can. My battery life is pretty good and I'm a heavy user.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

i cannot get recovery bat file to work. I am at the red exclamation point screen on my evo and i run the bat file as amdmin. it pops up for a second then closes and nothing happens.
Edit: NVM I figured it out. on to the next step.

For extreme noobs like myself info reg rooting & clockwork recovery

About a day ago I didn't know anything about rooting and what it was but now I know to a degree from many hours of reading.
These are the steps I did.
You have to make sure that you choose the correct one click root method for the DI07 patch. Obviously you need to put the epic in debugging mode and click on the appropriate run.bat command and let the batch run. That part wasn't to hard for me, pretty much self explanatory.
Also to check for "root", to make sure your epic is rooted, download titanium backup from the android market and if it launches your epic is rooted and plus it will say root status "ok"..
The part I had issues with was with the one click clockwork recovery. Especially when people started talking about typing in commands in the dos prompt. I'm ok with doing that but it wasn't explained in full detail regarding what to do.
So first thing that I had to figure out was what they meant by c:/android-sdk-windows/tools and where was this located. I didn't have this file on my cpu on the c: drive and i was lost at this point being that I didn't know where to get it. I later found out and if im wrong please tell me you had to create your own folder on your c: drive so you can point to it from the c: prompt in dos. So I went ahead and did that.
In the tools folder from android-sdk-windows folder you would go ahead and place the contents of the clockwork recovery files in the tools folder. So wahla I now have a folder I can point to in the dos prompt. At this point I still didn't know if this is going to work or not but I felt like I was close.
Next step was to follow "open up command prompt and redirect it to your C:/android-sdk-windows/tools folder and then run the following code."
adb devices
adb shell
su
remount rw
exit
exit
first you need to type cd C:/android-sdk-windows/tools and press enter to point to that folder. And run subsequent commands from there.
If when you type in adb devices and a device does not pull up that means that the usb drivers are not installed properly for the epic phone and you need to look into that first.
After you run those commands now you can go ahead and run the run.bat file for the clock works recovery. But also make sure your still in debugging mode.
This might take a few tries but it will eventually work and if it does not work after trying to flash the recovery and the epic reboots pull the battery (reinstall battery) and then try to go into recovery by pressing the vol down--camera--and power button at the same time and you should see a green recovery screen.
I wish someone had typed something like this sooner so I wouldn't of had issues.
I hope this helps at-least one person.

Good idea except it's already been done :-\
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=786305

Whosdaman said:
Good idea except it's already been done :-\
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=786305
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know I was trying to follow that but there was parts missing that I didn't understand for ex. the part where I had to create the actual folder it never stated to create a folder but it wanted you to point to it in the dos prompt. And yes that tutorial did help out tremendously but i was still a little lost. My explanation fills in the missing gaps or parts. But thank you for pointing that out.

Maybe with noobnl latest version of the clockwork installer (version 32 with mount rw included in the script) you no longer need to go into adb?

jimmyz said:
Maybe with noobnl latest version of the clockwork installer (version 32 with mount rw included in the script) you no longer need to go into adb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is correct. Version 32 is truly one-click.

mattallica76 said:
That is correct. Version 32 is truly one-click.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats true

I'm not quite as noobish as the OP but I'm a complete noob to Android and -nix os's in general (besides a tiny bit of unix experience and a non-fear of command-line interfaces). Still, I have enough fear of the process to wait until Epic ROMs are a little further along and more refined to the degree that that's possible. If I weren't quite so noobish I'd dive right in.

[GUIDE][10/5/10]Comprehensive Guide to Rooting, Flashing, and Android Basics!

1.0 – WELCOME AND DISCLAIMER
So, it seems like a lot of people are having problems with their new Samsung Epic 4G. I thought I'd take a minute and throw together a little comprehensive guide on, well, everything. I'll be updating this periodically, so be sure to check it out.
I'll also be working on formatting it to improve readability... I'm not so good with this markup language that forums make you use, so bear with me. If I can figure out some basic tricks, we'll be in business.
And, just so you know, this is just a guide. As long as you follow it and do research, everything should go fine. That being said, I am not responsible for what happens to your phone. This is all elective and I am not forcing you to do any of this. You brick your phone, you own up to it. I'm only trying make it as easy as possible for your to avoid that.
2.0 – GETTING STARTED
New to Android? Need to root? Just got your phone? Not totally clear on everything? Start here. Even if you have experience with Android, had your Epic since day one, or whatever, you'll still want to check this section out.
2.1 – TERMINOLOGY
First of all, you need to familiarize yourself with the terminology. This is vital to understanding what you are doing, so I'll outline as many as I can.
Brick – Not a term that should be thrown around as much as it is. If you have a bricked device, it is worthless. Like, completely. It is literally as useful as a brick. You CANNOT fix a brick. Everything else is just just breakage.
Root – a)This term comes from Linux/UNIX. To obtain root access means that you have elevated privileges. Look at this like administrator rights in Windows. It's what allows you to run custom software and access administrator setting in Android.
b)The uppermost folder. Such as “/”, “C:\” , et cetera.
Rooting – Gaining elevated root admin access.
Kernel – A kernel is the base of an operating system. For Android, it's where all the drivers and system information resides. A custom kernel can contain undervolting instructions, overclocking instructions, and many other battery-saving, power-giving, phone-enhancing features. There are several options, so make sure you do your research and choose the kernel that offers what you are looking for.
Shell – The shell is the part that you see. It's the interface that interacts and allows you to interact with the kernel.
ROM – A ROM is the combination of a kernel and a shell. Think of this like an operating system.
Dev – Dev is short for developer. These are the people who spend their days and nights writing code and bug testing to bring you the ROMs you love. These guys are the reason you're here, so show your appreciation!
Chef – Chefs and devs are essentially the same thing.
Recovery – A system that allows basic phone function. You can flash from this, clear data, and do very basic debugging. As long as you can boot to this, your phone is NOT bricked.
Flashing – The act of installing a ROM or fix to your phone through recovery.
Wiping – The act of performing a factory reset or cache clear from recovery. Your settings are gone, your apps are gone, your phone is as it was when you you got (to an extent). Formats /system/. This is not reversible.
CPU – Central Processing Unit. The brain of the phone. All data travels through this at some point.
Overclocking – Pushing your CPU to its limits. The CPU has a stock clock speed (1GHz for the Epic), and overclocking is pushing it past that.
Undervolting – Making the phone use less power. This saves battery.
AOSP – Android Open Source Project. Frequently referred to as “Vanilla”. The actual people who make Android. Go here for more information.
Theme – A cosmetic change to the user interface.
One-Click – A script or program that does everything for you.
Busybox – A collection of scripts that allow deeper editing of the system while it is running.
Remount – An easy method of mounting /system/ for writing.
Stock – Samsung-released, no editing, as-is stuff. Basically, how the phone came.
OTA – Over the air. Updates that automatically come to your phone, through your service.
adb – “Android Debug Bridge” A debug program for accessing your phone.
deODEX – Combining the ODEX file and the APK files for all the items in the /system/ folder. Allows for easier theming and customizing.
FC/Force Close – When a program or app crashes.
2.2 – WHY SHOULD I ROOT MY PHONE?
Rooting offers several great things including, but certainly not limited to, access to hidden features, total customization, better battery life, and overclocking. It gives you control over the device that you paid money for in the first place. The devs here are great at finding features that the manufacturers left out or disabled and making them work.
It also is a great hobby. Even if you aren't a developer yourself, flashing ROMs and trying out new features can be a lot of fun and definitely kill boredom. And who knows? Maybe you'll end up learning something and start coding yourself.
2.3 – ROOTING
Great! Now you know some words! So, what next? Well, we need to achieve root access on your phone. There are a few ways to accomplish this on the Epic. Please note that the one-click methods are hit and miss and are affected by several factors, including computer speed, cable, USB ports, and, for all intents and purposes, random chance. I HIGHLY recommend you open the .bat files and run every command in adb manually. I'll update this guide, eventually, with how to do this.
If you're running Windows, you're going to need the drivers for this phone. Install them BEFORE connecting your phone to your computer. You can get them here:
32-bit: Click here
64-bit: Click here
You'll also need to put your phone into debug mode. After you turn this on, you can just leave it on. To do this, go to settings, and then to applications, then to development, and then tick the “USB debugging” check box.
I also recommend using a cable other than Samsung's cable that came with the phone. Really, that cable is hardly good for anything more than charging. It's low quality and has caused a lot of users more than a headache. If you are unable to get another cable for whatever reason, run each command individually from adb. Check the section about adb and the Android SDK later in the guide for more information on how to do that.
2.3.1 – The Jokeyrim temporary root with noobnl's one-click script method – DO FIRST
Let it be known that I don't recommend relying on this method. It's janky and can cause problems once you get deeper into Android modification. Use it to get your remount scripts and then quickly do the kernel mods in the steps in 2.3.2.
Go here and download the .zip file. Extract the .zip contents to your desktop. Open the folder, run “run.bat” and let it go.
NOTE: This is just root, this is temporary, and this DOES NOT give you access to a recovery. All this will allow you to do is run applications that require root or busybox and adds the remount script.
2.3.2 – The rooted kernel and recovery method method – DO SECOND
I do recommend that you use this method. This gives you true, permanent root.
There are a couple of ways to do this. I actually suggest you follow both guides, too. This will help prevent you ever getting to Samsung's stock recovery, which is worthless for your purpose.
The first is noobnl's recovery method, and definitely the one you should do first. You can find it here. Download the .zip file and extract its contents to your desktop. There is an issue with this .bat file, so you're going to have to do some extra steps. With adb (go to the section about the Android SDK and adb further in the guide if you do not know what this is) and type:
Code:
adb shell
su
remount rw
exit
exit
(the two 'exits' is not a typo)
After running those commands, open your extracted folder and run the run.bat file. Should be smooth sailing.
The second is koush's method. koush's thread is here, but I that's a complicated method. After you do noobnl's method above, go to this thread and download the .zip from that. Put that .zip on the root of your SD card. Boot into the Clockwork recovery by turning the phone off, holding down the camera button, the volume down button, and pressing the power button until the phone turns on. Once in there, do this:
1. BACK UP YOUR PHONE. I cannot emphasize this enough. Backups are sooo important in your Android modding quest. Backup and do it often. (Backup and restore → Backup).
2. Go to “Flash zip from SD card”
3. Choose zip from sd card
4. Select the zip we put there earlier
5. Click “Yes”
6. Let it do its thing
Once you've done this, you need to boot into the phone, go to the market, and download “ROM Manager”. From that, click “Flash recovery” (the top option) and select the Epic. This will take a minute. From this point on, you can use ROM Manager to boot into the Clockwork Recovery.
2.3 – FLASHING ROMS/KERNELS/FIXES
This is the fun stuff. This is why you're here. Now that you have root and a recovery, we can get some work done. First, you have to select a ROM that you want. Always pick a ROM that is designed for the Epic. ROMs designed from other phones can and will brick your phone!
You can find ROMs for the Epic in the Epic 4G Android Development section of XDA. Do some research to each ROM to make sure it's what you want. If you want a kernel, make sure your ROM supports other kernels and that the kernel supports your ROM.
Once you've picked your ROM, put it on the root of your sd card and then boot into Clockwork Recovery using your method of choice, then:
1. BACKUP. I seriously cannot stress this enough.
2. Wipe everything. Factory reset and clear cache.
3. Go to “Flash zip from SD card”
4. Choose zip
5. Choose “Yes”
6. Let it run
7. -OPTIONAL- To ensure it worked, repeat steps 2-6. This is just to make sure everything worked. Problems with this can be intermittent and this helps to avoid them.
8. Reboot.
3.0 – ERRORS
Stuff goes wrong. You have to understand, EVERYTHING in this is experimental. The devs here do not have access to EVERYTHING that is required to make these phones work and have to guess at some things and, basically, just do their best (And their best is pretty damn good!).
Basically, just be sure you have backups that you can restore from, and this will all be fine.
3.1 – BLACK SCREEN
Oh no! I flashed ROM X and now my phone won't boot and I hate everything!!!
Worry not! As long as you can boot in to recovery, you have nothing to fear. Just restore the backup that I told you to make and you're back in business. Easy fix.
3.2 – CONSTANT FORCE CLOSES
You boot up your phone and are immediately greeted with force closes. Chances are that you didn't wipe OR that the ROM you're using isn't ready for show time. Again, just restore your backup from Clockwork.
3.2 – CAN'T GET TO RECOVERY, CAN GET TO DOWNLOAD MODE
Well, looks like you'll be returning your phone to stock using Odin. Read later on in the guide how to use Odin in the section about Odin.
3.4 – PHONE WON'T TURN ON AT ALL
Welcome to bricksville, population you. Sorry, but you're phone is a $500 paperweight... Probably shouldn't have flashed that GSM ROM, huh? Not even Odin can save you at this point...
4.0 – THE ANDROID SDK AND ADB
The Android SDK (Standard Developer Kit) is a tool freely available to everyone. You can find it here and it is available for Linux, Mac, and Windows.
4.1 – INSTALLING THE SDK
So, the first step is going to be how to install the SDK on your system. I have experience with Linux and Windows, so that's what I have for now. If someone with a Mac can help write the set up instructions for that, I'd be very appreciative.
4.1.1 – Windows
First, download android-sdk_r07-windows.zip from here to your Desktop. Once it has downloaded, double-click the file and extract it to the root of your C:\ drive (this is optional, but it will make things a lot easier in the future). Rename the extracted folder “android-sdk-windows” to just “android” to make your life easier.
Open the new folder, then run the SDK Manager. If you run into an error about Java, go to java.com and get the latest version of the Java JRE (pretty much just click whatever the biggest “download” button is that you first see).
Once you have the SDK open, it will ask you to install packages. Just tick the “Accept All” radio button on the bottom right and press install. Depending on your internet connection, this can take a long time. Just be patient. Once they are all installed, you're good to go.
How you use adb is simple. Open a command prompt (press the Windows key + r and type “cmd” in the box that shows up, or go to Start → All Programs → Accessories → Command Prompt) and type in “cd C:\android\tools\” and type your commands (list of common commands at the end of this section.
-OPTIONAL- This step is optional, but HIGHLY recommended. Now that we have the SDK set up, we're going to adb to the Windows paths so that you can use adb from anywhere you can open a command prompt.
First, click the start menu and then right-click “My Computer” (Just “Computer” in Vista and 7. You'll also need to click the “Advanced System Setting” on the left side of the window that appears.). Click “Properties” and the Properties window appears. Now, click on the “Advanced” tab and the the “Environment Variables” button. A new window appears with two scrollable boxes. In the lower box, scroll until you find a “path” option and select it. Click “Edit” underneath the box. Move your cursor to the very end (Press END on your keyboard, just to be safe) and type “;C:\android\tools\”” (That leading semi-colon is important and may already be there. Check to be sure).
And you're done! Open a command prompt and type “adb devices” and see what comes up. If a list of devices (phones; will be empty if your phone isn't connected in debug mode) comes up, you've succeeded! Congrats.
4.1.2 – Linux
I use Ubuntu personally, but most of this information should be universal. If anyone running anything else sees anything missing or wrong with other distributions, let me know and I'll update or fix it.
First, you need to acquire the SDK. The file is android-sdk_r07-linux_x86.tgz from this site. Once downloaded, extract the contained folder to your home folder (/home/*USERNAME*, using your username) and rename the folder “android' for later ease of use.
Use terminal and cd to the android folder your created. Use the command “tools/android update sdk” to make the SDK updater come up. Just tick “Accept all” in the bottom right and then click install. This can take a while depending on your internet connection.
Once you have all of the files installed, you're ready to use adb. Using terminal, navigate to /home/user/android/tools and type (For Ubuntu):
Code:
sudo chmod 777 adb
This will allow the adb file to be read as an executable. Note that this only has to be done once. Then, use this code:
Code:
sudo ./adb start-server
(replace 'sudo' for 'su' for distros other than Ubuntu)
This is necessary every time you use adb (in Ubuntu, at least). You only have to do it once per session, but if the adb process is ever killed during your session, you must do it again. I've just gotten into the habit of doing it every time I log into my computer. You could also create a boot script that does this for you... which I've been meaning to get around to. After you have the process running, you won't have to use su/sudo or ./ to use adb.
Note that one-click scripts written for Windows will have to be opened and run manually. There are scripts for Linux floating around, but I can't seem to find the thread.
-OPTIONAL- This isn't a needed step, but you'll probably want to do it. Here we're going to add adb to the paths folder so that after you have started the process as an administrator, you can run it from any folder.
Open terminal and use these commands:
Code:
echo $PATH (should return the directories associated with $PATH)
export PATH=$PATH:/home/user/android/tools (replace with path to your tools directory, you may need to add 'sudo' or 'su' to the beginning of this cmd)
echo $PATH (you should now see your tools directory added to the end of the $PATH variable)
Once done, you're set. Once you have the process started, you can run adb commands from any terminal window.
4.1.3 – Mac OS
-I don't own a Mac, never have, and I have zero experience with Mac and Android... If someone else can help with this section, I'd appreciate it -
4.2 ADB COMMANDS
This isn't a complete list, but it should be enough to get you by for your purpose.
adb shell – opens a terminal on your phone. Terminal is like the command prompt of Linux.
adb push – pushes a file to the phone. The syntax is ”abd push *file location on your PC* *Location you want it on your phone*”
adb pull – pulls a file from your phone. The syntax is “adb pull *file location on the phone* *location to be placed on your PC*
adb shell rm – deletes a file from your phone. The syntax is “adb shell rm *location and name of the file to be deleted*. NOTE: adb shell rm -r is a recursive deletion and can cause damage to your ROM and phone. Make sure you know what you are doing if told to do an rm -r.
adb devices – lists all connected Android phones.​
5.0 - ODIN
(I don't have a ton of experience with Odin, so if someone can refine this section, let me know and I'll update it)
Odin is a tool that was created for previous Samsung phones. It is a powerful tool and very useful for saving your phone from many malfunctions. As long as you can boot your phone into download mode (Hold down the “1” key on the slide-out keyboard while powering the phone on) you can almost always save your phone.
That said, Odin is also fairly experimental in its implementation on the Epic. There have been several reports of failed flashes and intermittent errors. This guide will hopefully help prevent that from happening.
5.1 – SETTING IT UP
If you haven't already, you need to get the drivers for the phone. Install them BEFORE Odin and before connecting your phone to your computer. You can get them here:
32-bit: Click here
64-bit: Click here
After that, you're going to need to get Odin. You can find that, as well as a basic guide and the stock files from noobnl, here (External link to SDX). Odin is the .rar file from the first link fo the post.
5.2 - USING ODIN
After you have it downloaded, extract the files somewhere (I recommend a folder on your desktop). From the extracted files, double-click “Odin3_v1.0.exe” and the Odin window opens. Have it completely ready to go before connecting your phone. Put all your files in the spots they belong (refer to the post where you got the Odin files for instructions on that... it seems to vary a lot depending on the purpose). Make sure that no other check boxes are ticked besides “Debug En.” and “Auto-reboot”. All the others can have very negative effects.
Before connecting your phone, put it into download mode by holding down the “1” key on your slide-out keyboard while powering the phone up. Once it is in download mode, connect the phone. The first box in Odin should come up as something akin to “COM4”. If it doesn't say exactly that, don't worry. Make sure all your files are placed correctly, and then click “Start”. It should take up to a few minutes, so be patient. Cutting this process off early can have negative effects. When it is finished, the phone should reboot.
6.0 – CLOSURE
I hope this guide helped you. If you have any questions, you can contact me, but I can't guarantee I can help you. Most devs are willing to help, too, so you can shoot them a PM and they'll try to get back to you.
Good luck and happy flashing!!

[Update Log]
*10-5-2010 - Added sections for Odin and adb/Android SDK. Updated sections, fixed typos and mistakes, reorganized a little. Fixed links.

None of those links are working for me. I get sent to a page with a message saying "Sorry, we can't find "xn--http-fb7a". We suggest that you check the spelling of the web address or search above."

Thanks a bunch, this was a very useful tutorial on the basics and for me helped out greatly with understanding where and what you need to do to be getting the best out of these awsome phones!
blasted across the interwebs by the Epic 4g!

Lonewuhf said:
None of those links are working for me. I get sent to a page with a message saying "Sorry, we can't find "xn--http-fb7a". We suggest that you check the spelling qof the web address or search above."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weird. I just went through and checked them all and everything is working on my end. All the URLs are correct. Maybe try clearing your browser cache?

DevinXtreme said:
Weird. I just went through and checked them all and everything is working on my end. All the URLs are correct. Maybe try clearing your browser cache?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None of them work for me either. The urls all start: http://xn--http-fb7a//forum.xda-developers.com/

dwyw42 said:
None of them work for me either. The urls all start: http://xn--http-fb7a//forum.xda-developers.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is so weird... It's showing up like that for me now, too. I've checked the source, and it stills is showing the right links in my post.... It's something on XDA's end right now... I'll look into getting it to work a little later.

Good work! This should be a sticky!
Sent from my Epic 4G

dwyw42 said:
None of them work for me either. The urls all start: http://xn--http-fb7a//forum.xda-developers.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah same here, i just cleared everything before "forum" from address bar and page loaded.

You might wanna ad that you need done battery life when flashing a kernal. If your phone dies during the flash your phone will be a useless brick.
You might also wanna adds the odin steps for flashing back to stock
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

mysteryemotionz said:
You might wanna ad that you need done battery life when flashing a kernal. If your phone dies during the flash your phone will be a useless brick.
You might also wanna adds the odin steps for flashing back to stock
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless whatever you're flashing messes with the recovery partition, an incomplete flash shouldn't cause a brick. As long as you can boot to recovery or download mode, you can save your phone.
And I'm working on an Odin section for my next update to this. A lot of things will be added next time I update the main post.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

i've got the first part of your guide done by completing noobnl's method but i cant get koush's method down. you say to hold down the volume, camera, and power buttons to boot into clockwork recovery, but it seems like it goes into the stock samsung recovery? how do i get the clockwork recovery?

The link for noobnl's easy method always takes me to Koush page not noobnl's might want to check your links there.
but very great idea and should be sticked on the front page.

dsummey30 said:
The link for noobnl's easy method always takes me to Koush page not noobnl's might want to check your links there.
but very great idea and should be sticked on the front page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=770388
for the proper thread

^^^ I have the same problem he did: I followed the instructions to root, but when I tried to restart with the "Epic 3-finger salute", it went into what appeared to be the stock bootloader, not clockwork.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

bitbang3r said:
^^^ I have the same problem he did: I followed the instructions to root, but when I tried to restart with the "Epic 3-finger salute", it went into what appeared to be the stock bootloader, not clockwork.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same with me. I selected "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" and after a number of tries it was successful. Yet when I boot with the 3 buttons it still goes into the stock recovery.

you might wanna add how to set adb

Spunkzz said:
i've got the first part of your guide done by completing noobnl's method but i cant get koush's method down. you say to hold down the volume, camera, and power buttons to boot into clockwork recovery, but it seems like it goes into the stock samsung recovery? how do i get the clockwork recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bitbang3r said:
^^^ I have the same problem he did: I followed the instructions to root, but when I tried to restart with the "Epic 3-finger salute", it went into what appeared to be the stock bootloader, not clockwork.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Vanquish46 said:
Same with me. I selected "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" and after a number of tries it was successful. Yet when I boot with the 3 buttons it still goes into the stock recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I know the issue here. It's that /system/ isn't being mounted as rw. Run the jokeyrim root method and then go into adb and type this:
Code:
adb shell
su
remount rw
exit
exit
If you don't know how to use adb, just wait until a little later tomorrow. I've got a whole section about it to add to the guide, but I don't have it completed yet (did some work on my laptop in the middle of writing it, forgot to reconnect my WLAN card and was baffled for most of the day...)
dsummey30 said:
The link for noobnl's easy method always takes me to Koush page not noobnl's might want to check your links there.
but very great idea and should be sticked on the front page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about that. Should be fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out
mysteryemotionz said:
you might wanna add how to set adb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All in the works I expect to have the guide updated early tomorrow, if not tonight.

Updated the guide with a lot of new info. Two new sections for adb/the SDK and Odin as well as a general update to the whole thing. Some of the sections changed (HARD and EASY mode are now both required, unfortunately...) and some things got a little moved around.
Also, all of the links should now work correctly. Something about the way XDA was handling quotations... So I just stripped them all from the forum code stuff...
If anyone has any experience with Mac, I could use your help for the adb/SDK section, and I could also use some help from someone more experience with Odin for that part.
Thanks, guys! I really hope this guide helps some people.

not to be a pain Devin but the two links for noobnl's programs goes to the same page for the easy and hard method don't know if that's right or not but wanted to point it out to you.
Thanks again for the great guide.
David

Phone won't finish boot process, need urgent help

Alright so looks like I did something completely stupid and now my phone won't finish the boot process. I was looking at some remappings for the recent key to the menu option and from a post in the development section I found a thread in the International One X development forum that had re-odexed files so that the recent key stayed as the recent key and holding the home button became the menu key. Since they were re-odexed and I had root access I figured I would just manually replace them on my phone with Root Explorer...bad idea. The files were:
System/Framework/android.policy.odex
System/Usr/keylayout/qwerty.kl
After I moved them and reset permissions I rebooted my phone and now it goes through the first couple of boot animations but gets stuck on screen that displays beats audio at the bottom.
I really need to know what to do to fix this. When I plug my phone into my computer it recognizes it as a new \drive, but I don't have access to any of it (still says I need to mount). I also have the android SDk and adb installed if thats of any help. I would really like to not lose any data so hopefully thats possible.
Please help me with this if you have any knowledge of what to do.

Just one little quick update. Even though my computer won't let me access my One X as a drive, when I use command prompt and adb to check for adb devices my One X is listed.

Run the at&t ruu exe file, located in the Dev section.

tanman21 said:
Run the at&t ruu exe file, located in the Dev section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright I'm downloading that now.
In the meantime, how do I get root access with adb/give it permission to overwrite read only files? I pulled the two files that caused this messed and pulled my backups, but when I push them back to the phone it tells me I can't because their read only. I'd rather do it this way since I will be changing only the files that caused the problem.
EDIT: Is the RUU really going to delete all the information on my device? If thats the case I would really appreciate figuring out how to get adb to push my backuped files to the /system directory instead

ErikWithNoC said:
Alright I'm downloading that now.
In the meantime, how do I get root access with adb/give it permission to overwrite read only files? I pulled the two files that caused this messed and pulled my backups, but when I push them back to the phone it tells me I can't because their read only. I'd rather do it this way since I will be changing only the files that caused the problem.
EDIT: Is the RUU really going to delete all the information on my device? If thats the case I would really appreciate figuring out how to get adb to push my backuped files to the /system directory instead
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the RUU returns your phone to factory (but doesn't touch your personal files)
EDIT: Also, just pulling this off the top of my head so take it with a grain of salt...
adb devices
adb shell
su
*grant the su request on your device*
adb push <from> <to>

stnguyen09 said:
Yeah, the RUU returns your phone to factory (but doesn't touch your personal files)
EDIT: Also, just pulling this off the top of my head so take it with a grain of salt...
adb devices
adb shell
su
*grant the su request on your device*
adb push <from> <to>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your comment. I used the RUU and it kept my personal data so its not a big lose. Had to reinstall a few apps, but for most of them (games at least) my saved data was still there.
I tried a lot using adb and just couldn't get it to work. I don't the phone got far enough through the boot process for root access to be allowed. I was able to run the one click root tool while it was in its stuck boot phase, but it still wouldn't give me permission to modify the /system portion of the phone to be read/write.
All in all though this was a great learning experience. Prior to this happening I knew nothing about adb and now I know commands for pulling, pushing, remounting, shell commands, and other things. I also learned how to fix a softbrick (first one) and what RUU is.

[Q] Won't turn on properly after installing custom boot animation

I installed a custom boot animation and now my phone won't boot up properly. The animation won't show during boot and basically after the galaxy sIII screen, nothing is shown. The phone seems to be started okay, I hear sounds and vibration when I press buttons, but the screen just is not showing anymore.
I'm trying to boot to recovery and use adp to either delete the bootanimation.zip or push a different version, but I get the device not found error.
PLEASE HELP!!!

ned4spd8874 said:
I installed a custom boot animation and now my phone won't boot up properly. The animation won't show during boot and basically after the galaxy sIII screen, nothing is shown. The phone seems to be started okay, I hear sounds and vibration when I press buttons, but the screen just is not showing anymore.
I'm trying to boot to recovery and use adp to either delete the bootanimation.zip or push a different version, but I get the device not found error.
PLEASE HELP!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How'd you install it? Do you have a link to what you flashed?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

ajrty33 said:
How'd you install it? Do you have a link to what you flashed?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I finally got it figured out. Scarred the crap out of me for a minute there though!
I was able to run "adb push bootanimation.zip /system/media" and it works after reboot. I couldn't get it working in recovery, but was able to with the phone started like "normal".
Not sure what was wrong with the other version of the bootanimation to totally killed the screen though. The only thing I can think of is there was zip compression on. But I would have thought that wouldn't kill the entire screen like that! Dunno.

I am have execet same issue please help
ned4spd8874 said:
Thanks, but I finally got it figured out. Scarred the crap out of me for a minute there though!
I was able to run "adb push bootanimation.zip /system/media" and it works after reboot. I couldn't get it working in recovery, but was able to with the phone started like "normal".
Not sure what was wrong with the other version of the bootanimation to totally killed the screen though. The only thing I can think of is there was zip compression on. But I would have thought that wouldn't kill the entire screen like that! Dunno.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I am experiencing same issue I can please be little be more detailed how you pushed the bootanimation. except command. please i am panicking i know there is a solution but i just cant seem to make it work. You help would be much appreciated. thank you!

MyMymusicIsSoHard said:
So I am experiencing same issue I can please be little be more detailed how you pushed the bootanimation. except command. please i am panicking i know there is a solution but i just cant seem to make it work. You help would be much appreciated. thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, it's been so long I can barely remember this! I think what I did was pretty much as I described. I booted the phone up, waited for a little bit to make sure it was all the way started since I couldn't see the screen. And then plugged in the cable and performed the push command. It was pretty straight forward as long as you can ignore the fact that the screen wasn't displaying anything.

Had to flash the fireware
ned4spd8874 said:
Sorry, it's been so long I can barely remember this! I think what I did was pretty much as I described. I booted the phone up, waited for a little bit to make sure it was all the way started since I couldn't see the screen. And then plugged in the cable and performed the push command. It was pretty straight forward as long as you can ignore the fact that the screen wasn't displaying anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So my Debugging mode was off so I could not use adb push command, I had to do a complete firmware flash, that got my phone to work but lost all my data on the phone. but still a happy camper.
Thank you for prompt response, all your help it's much appreciated.

I had the same problem but with an ASUS memo pad hd7. I downloaded a bootanimation.zip that was the wrong orientation, so I unzipped it, rotated all the pictures rezipped and placed it back in /system/media/. Mistake! After that the device would not boot! At least that's what I thought until a quick google search led me here, thanks for your help! My situation was a little different, i'll explain my journey below in case it helps others with similar situations.
Installed minimal ADB and Fastboot from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=42407269 . I already had the device drivers installed on my computer so I skipped that step. Luckily I had USB debugging selected, however, I had never used ADB and had not given it SU permissions on the tablet. I input the following code into adb:
adb shell
cd /system/media/
ls
This verified that the offending bootanimation.zip was in there. I then tried to remove the offending bootanimation.zip with this command
rm bootanimation.zip
It failed because system was mounted as Read Only and I could not change it because I did not have SU permissions so I hit the power button on my tablet to wake it up, blindly swiped to get through the lock screen, and typed this into ADB to request Super User permissions
su
I then blindly tapped near the middle of my screen. After a few tries I successfully hit the right spot at the right time and granted SU to ADB
Once that was done I remounted system as read write and deleted the offending file with this code:
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock0 /system
rm bootanimation.zip
ls
After verifying that bootanimation.zip was gone, I rebooted the tablet and was greeted with success in the form of some generic Android boot animation.

Same thing with my Panasonic p11 and I have a password for SuperSU so I am stuck pls help

I would suggest flashing a backup from before the custom boot animation. Then taking more cautious steps the next time you try.

To avoid this kind of unpleasantness, whether for changing the boot animation or anything else, here's a few tips:
always root your phone
It's your phone, you should have access to everything, shouldn't you? That's like buying a new car and the dealer won't give you a key for the trunk.
always use a custom ROM
Stock ROMs are usually bloated with apps you don't need and can't uninstall. Also, stock ROMs often disable features and access either "for your own good" or to keep the interface simpler. Case in point, neither of the stock ROMs that came with my Galaxy S4 or my Atrtix HD allowed me to customize the LED notification light. Whatever defaults they picked, that's what I got. A flashing green light meant I received "something" (text or email). There are a variety of 3rd party ROMs out there ready to flash for a specific device, find one that you like.