THE ROAD TO FREEDOM FOR YOUR HERO

[Guest jutley]

(STEP 1 GOLDCARD)

Finaly i done it all phew i had a really long day learning yesterday from the start i was on the tmobile latest rom RUU_Hero_TMobile_UK_2.73.110.26_release_signed_NoDriver.exe

I figured out the goldcard soulotion http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=572683

Great video guide here http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/18/how-to-do...-can-be-rooted/

01. Download QMAT 5.06 here http://revskills.de/downloads/qmat_506.zip

It’s a demo version so will only run for 10 minutes.

02. Format your SD card to FAT32. Please keep in mind some brands of SD cards do not work. Note sd card must be in phone here

03. Use adb to run this command: adb shell cat /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:*/cid

04. Copy the SD card cid code displayed after the adb command.

05. Start Qmat and Click on Cyptoanalysis Tools > Crypto Toolbox.

06. Look at the bottom, there is a text box (beside the “Reverse String” button) enter the SD card cid code you got earlier.

Click on the “Reverse String” button, the result is reversed…

Example: 532600bd227d9c0347329407514d5402

07. Copy the reversed SD card cid code.

08. Go to QMAT goldcard site here http://revskills.de/pages/goldcard.html to generate your goldcard (yes it says for G1 but works for our Hero too).

09. Enter your email. For the correct SD card cid code, you need to replace the first 2 characters to 00.

Example: From “532600bd227d9c0347329407514d5402” to “002600bd227d9c0347329407514d5402”

10. Click Continue and you will receive the goldcard.img in .zip format in your email.

11. Go to your email, download the zip file and save it to a directory and unzip it to goldcard.img

12. Download HxD Hex Editor from here http://download.cnet.com/HxD-Hex-Editor/30....html?tag=mncol

13. Install and launch HxD Hex Editor program. Note SD Card has to be in your pc or reader here at this point NOTE ALSO (run the editor as administrator in order for it to appear)

14. Go to Extra tab > Open Disk. Under Physical disk, select Removable Disk (Must be your SD card), uncheck “Open as Readonly), click OK.

15. Go to Extra again, Open Disk Image, open up goldcard.img which you’ve saved/unzipped earlier.

Now, you should have two tabs, one is your removable disk, the other is goldcard.img. Press OK when prompted for “Sector Size” 512 (Hard disks/Floppy disks), click OK.

16. Click on goldcard.img tab. Go to Edit tab > Select All, edit tab again > copy.

17. Click on the “removable disk” tab. Select offset 00000000 till offset 00000170 (including the 00000170 line), click on Edit tab and then Paste Write.

18. Click on File > Save. now you can exit the program.

19. Reboot your phone with this SD Card (now GoldCard) inside

20. Use the Official HTC RUU to downgrade to 2.73.405.5 here ftp://xda:[email protected]/Hero...ed_NoDriver.exe

from which you can fastboot boot and/or root your phone with flashrec Here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=559613 (Please see below to follow this guide)

Done.

(STEP 2 recovery

You need to install this recovery first with flashrec instructions below

You can use flashrec to flash the patched recovery, from where you can do all the usual stuff (and even put the old hboot back on if you want!)

Notice:

flashrec is using an exploit that isn't patched yet in the current kernel used by HTC, however if/when HTC patches this, flashrec will stop working.

So for now it's ok but a next version might have patched this, so keep this in mind !

Quick Howto:

1. On your phone, goto Settings, Applications, and make sure Unknown source is checked ON.

2. On your phone, goto Settings, SD card and phone storage, and click Unmount SD card.

3. Then click Format SD card (it should automatically remount after this).

4. Plug the phone into the compuer via USB, then pull down the notification bar and click on the SD card notification. Then click mount.

5. Download this APK and recovery image and save it to your computer:

flashrec-20090815.apk

Cyanogen’s / Modaco Hero Recovery Image

Update: updated flashrec here

6. Extract the cm-hero-recovery.img out of the MoDaCoPatchedRecovery-1.0.zip and put it somewhere on your computer.

7. Save both the cm-hero-recovery.img and the flashrec-20090815.apk to your computer, then copy them both to your SD card

(do NOT put them inside any folders on the SD card, just put them in the root of the SD card itself).

8. Unplug the phone from the computer once they are downloaded to the SD card.

9. Goto the Market and download Linda File Manager or any file manager program if you do not already have one.

10. Open the file manager and goto SDCard and then find the flashrec-20090815.apk file and click on it.

If asked, tell it to use Package Installer to open it. It should automatically install the apk.

11. Open the FlashRec program and click on Backup Recovery Image and wait for it to finish.

12. Once done, click on the empty text box in the FlashRec program and type:

sdcard/cm-hero-recovery.img

Then click on the Flash Custom Recovery Image button and wait for it to finish.

13. Turn off the phone and turn it on into Recovery mode by holding down Home and Power to turn it on

(keep holding until the recovery screen comes up has a bunch of text on a black background).

As long as that screen comes up, you have done it correctly and can now go and load other ROM/hboot/whatever.

THIS IS OPTIONAL RECOVERY BELOW BETTER OPTIONS BUT YOU NEED THE ABOVE RECOVERY FIRST

I then flashed the new recovery-RA-HERO-v1.2.3 Great Video guide here http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/15/how-to-fl...already-rooted/

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=561124

There are several ways to install a custom recovery, choose the one that suits you most

via adb -> Requires a custom recovery (with test-keys) like Cyanogen's v1.4 or my previous recovery

Code:

Copy recovery-RA-HERO-v1.2.3.img to the root of your sdcard

Boot into your current custom recovery (boot while holding HOME)

Connect your Hero via usb to your pc/mac/...

adb shell

$su (not required if you have root already)

#mount -a

#flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery-RA-HERO-v1.2.3.img

(STEP 3 INSTALL CUSTOM ROM)

Then i installed the cool modaco custom rom v2.8 to my phone http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero...com/292018/xda/

Great Video Guide here http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/27/how-to-lo...-your-htc-hero/

Also dont forget to upgrade your radio here http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero...ate-zip-format/

Download the latest one normally on the top to install rename the zip to Update put on root of SD card and boot into recovery and install update.zip option easy as that.

(STEP 4 PARTITION SD CARD)

Then finaly i partioned my sd card using the recovery imiage with thease commands directly from the phone in recovery.

I ran the following commands in this order from recvoery mode

- Wipe data + cache (factory reset)

- Wipe ext partition on SD-card

- Wipe Dalvik-cache on SD-card (NOT on /data !) DOESN@T ALWAYS WORK

- Partition SD-card : 500MB Ext2, 32MB Swap, remaining Fat32

- Convert ext2 to ext3

- Installed ROM

ANOTHER GREAT GUIDE HERE FOR WINDOWS TERMINAL USERS http://androidandme.com/2009/08/news/how-t...ndroid-apps2sd/

what a nice day and now i have a super hero

PS ANY QUESTIONS I WOULD BE GLAD TO HELP WITH ANY PROBLEMS THATS WHAT I AM HERE FOR THANKS.

Mods if you think this is usefull for noobs then you may sticky if you want thanks to all.

Edited October 24, 2009 by jutley

[Guest targetal]

hey Jutley,

I did an upgrade on my Hero just yesterday, and me too spent a great deal of time reading. I did quite a few wild guesses as well...anyway

I had exactly the same route to the Super Hero (as You called it :)) as You.

perhaps if You could clean Your post a bit, make more comments, some bold text here and there, and perhaps a message to the moderators about making this a noobie guide sticky topic.....

hm?

ps: and fix the grammatical errors :(

Edited October 19, 2009 by targetal

[Guest shokka9]

perhaps if You could clean Your post a bit, make more comments, some bold text here and there, and perhaps a message to the moderators about making this a noobie guide sticky topic.....

hm?

ps: and fix the grammatical errors :)

Little bit picky aren't we??

Geez, the guy is trying to help people; not write a dissertation on the correct (or incorrect) uses of the English language.

;)

I am just amazed at such a reply. :(

Edited October 19, 2009 by shokka9

[Guest targetal]

no, no, no - what I really meant were typos :( after all - it's suppose to be a guide, huh ? :)

thanks man! there's finally one, comprehensive guide.

[Guest jutley]

If anyone wants to add anything or finds something wrong with the guide please let me know so i can edit it thanks to all that made this possible.

Edited October 24, 2009 by jutley

[Guest .i.]

Fantastic guide dude.

Here's what I've found during my rooting experience:

Phone used: HTC Hero SEA (Purchased in Singpaore)

Shipped ROM Version: 2.73.707.9

FlashRec is blocked on this ROM. Hence, the ROM must first be downgraded to HTC Generic 2.73.405.5 before proceeding to ROOT / Update to a custom ROM.

Downgrade procedure includes making a Gold Card. Here are a few links that'll help:

1. http://hexrev.soaa.me/ -> a online utility that saves the time from downloading any hex string reverser

Editing the HEX of the drive has a few issues with Windows 7. I had to fall back and do the overwriting first few sectors on a Windows XP machine.

Note: If an edit is successful, the card will be read successfully by the phone. If the phone asks you to format the card, the gold card is not done properly. Go back to formating and preparing the card again.

In HxD, when you select disk (the sd card), select the sd card under Physical Disks and NOT drives.

If the gold card is done well, the rest of the steps are very smooth!

Enjoy...

Conclusion: Contrary to many posts I've read, 2.73.707.9 (or any 2.73 Hero) can be successfully rooted using to the gold card method.

.i.

[Guest]

Hi all. after I create the gold card, see link http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...87#post5036187, I RUU my Htc Hero from Hong Kong with SEA: (South East Asia)

RUU_Hero_HTC_Asia_SEA_WWE_2.73.728.5_release_signe d_NoDriver.exe and I'd seen there is no GPS, Market and 3G, than I'd applied another RUU RUU_Hero_HTC_WWE_2.73.405.66_WWE_test_signed_NoDri ver.exe and this time I have Market, but still no GPS and 3G. I tried different RUU from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=559622, but no one working, not even the previous two. I tried to use flashrec-20090815.apk in order to flash, but no working. even the new version of flashrec not working. I tried to put in recovery mode holding POWER + HOME button, but after boot is showing a triangle with exclamation mark in the middle. Same is happening if I try to go in recovery mode from ADB (command adb shell reboot recovery). Is somebody so kind to explain me what to do in order to restore my phone at least how it was before, please? My skills in android development are 0. thanks

[Guest]

Desperately, I need help!!!

[Guest stevenz]

Desperately, I need help!!!

With anything in particular, or just help in general?

[Guest Paul]

Is the goldcard needed? Couldn't you just use InstantRoot.apk to give you root, then use flash_image to flash the patched recovery? Pretty sure this is what I did on a 2.73 device.

P

[Guest Subslider]

i flashed a virgin hero from a frend of mine, with the latest official update.

It worked just fine skipping the goldcard procedure and just starting straight away with flashrec..