r4 HTC Desire Easy Rooting Guide with Tiny Core Linux

[Guest craigcrawford1988]

Intro

Since people are having so much trouble with the with rooting using the r4 method on Windows, I decided to package the root process with Tiny Core Linux to make it easier for people to get it working.

Credits

Paul - Rooting method, rooting tool, rooting software, etc

adb, android, etc - Android dev team

Tiny Core Linux - Tiny Core Linux dev team

And last but not least! The Open Source Community!

Prereqisites

The information here.

Guide

BEFORE YOU START! Please be aware of the risks involved! You use these files at your own risk!

1. Download the Tiny Core Linux with MoDaCo Desire R4 root (read note 1 at the bottom of this post before deciding).
   • For a bootloader of 0.75.* or lower AND a current ROM of 1.15.* or lower
     Download (MD5: a6dc64b8c3c988096d3cb36b3f21c7a8).
     
   • For a bootloader of 0.80.* or lower AND a current ROM of 1.21.* or lower
     Download (MD5: 11561acb77df1f4fe5b37c6ffb9c3fc3).
     

[*]Burn the iso (or use UNetbootin to make a USB flash device if you know how to).

[*]Put the disc (or USB flash device) into the computer you wish to use for updating the HTC Desire and turn the HTC Desire off.

[*]Goldcard step only: Insert the goldcard into the phone.

[*]Start the HTC Desire in bootloader by holding back and turning it on by the power button.

[*]Connect the USB cable to the phone and PC and boot the Tiny Core Linux CD (or USB flash).

[*]Open a terminal by clicking the icon that looks like a monitor at the bottom on Tiny Core Linux and type the following commands:

sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom

sudo mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

cd /mnt/cdrom/desire

[*]Now type the following and wait until the phone restarts back into the white bootloader screen:

sudo ./step1.sh

[*]Goldcard step only: Turn the phone off via the bootloader menu (or pull the battery and USB cable) and remove the goldcard. Put a non-goldcard SD into the phone or reformat the goldcard and put it into the phone. Put the phone back into bootloader mode (back and power button). [*]Select the BOOTLOADER option and wait until the blue text HBOOT changes to HBOOT USB PLUG. Then select the RECOVERY option, wait for the phone to go to a black screen with a phone icon and red exclamation mark. [*]In terminal type the following command:

sudo ./step2.sh

[*]Once the phone has finished, you will see a screen with lots of green text. Use the optical tracker to navigate the menu to select Wipe and then press Wipe data/factory reset. [*]Once complete you should be back in the main menu. Now select the option to apply an update from a .zip archive. Choose rootedupdate.zip. [*]Once back in the main menu, restart the phone - the rooting process is now finished!

sudo ./recovery.sh

Notes

[*]Do not use the file for 0.80.* bootloader or lower if you have a 0.75.* bootloader or lower and wish to go back to the stock ROM at a later date.

Edited June 3, 2010 by craigcrawford1988

[Guest craigcrawford1988]

No comments? :)

[Guest Lyall3s1]

No comments? :)

What is the benefit to rooting with TinyCoreLinux? Other than that it is a very well set out guide and very organised.

[Guest craigcrawford1988]

What is the benefit to rooting with TinyCoreLinux? Other than that it is a very well set out guide and very organised.

It tends to work better. Windows has problems with the drivers not pushing the files to the phone properly - Linux doesn't have this problem.

Also because TinyCoreLinux is, well so tiny it is very stable, fast and safe!

Imagine if you were rooting with Windows and a bluescreen popped up! :)

Edited May 14, 2010 by craigcrawford1988

[Guest Corex]

Imagine if you were rooting with Windows and a bluescreen popped up! :)

Not very hard to imagine and very probable lol...

Can't wait until i get my phone back to give it another shot and pray to god it doesn't get bootlocked again =/

Nice, clean guide, thx for this.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Corex

[Guest Kali-]

Imagine if you were rooting with Windows and a bluescreen popped up! :)

this is a real problem?

many rooting method would be more confusing than helpful

Edited May 14, 2010 by Kali-

[Guest Inquitus]

I have a simfree unbranded HTC Desire, does that mean I can give the Goldcard malarkey a miss? Is there any way to double check this? and are there any potential pitfalls to doing it without a goldcard and being wrong? aside from it not working?

Also given 2.2 is out next week, is it worth holding off? will Paul or others be able to cook a 2.2 ROM up pretty fast? or will we most likely have to wait on HTC's whim?

Edited May 14, 2010 by Inquitus

[Guest craigcrawford1988]

I have a simfree unbranded HTC Desire, does that mean I can give the Goldcard malarkey a miss? Is there any way to double check this? and are there any potential pitfalls to doing it without a goldcard and being wrong? aside from it not working?

Also given 2.2 is out next week, is it worth holding off? will Paul or others be able to cook a 2.2 ROM up pretty fast? or will we most likely have to wait on HTC's whim?

You'll know if you need a goldcard if you get error 42 while doing step 1.

[Guest afiorillo]

[never mind...]

Edited May 14, 2010 by afiorillo

[Guest afiorillo]

[never mind...]

Edited May 14, 2010 by afiorillo

[Guest potter97]

Really nice wright up, but really not needed m8 lol.

If people would just use search, then we would not have to flood the forums with multipul guides.

[Guest Corex]

Really nice wright up, but really not needed m8 lol.

If people would just use search, then we would not have to flood the forums with multipul guides.

Huh? Strangly i've searched and haven't found multiple guides...

[Guest potter97]

Huh? Strangly i've searched and haven't found multiple guides...

Lol, i guess its NOT your fault you have not found search yet!!

All the instructions are here in more detail...

But i guess reading through 88 pages is a bit daunting.

But like i said the Guide here is VERY well written so +10 to craigcrawford1988.

[Guest hakan42]

Thank you for this well-written guide and especially for the TinyLinux ISO image.

My Windows box would not write to the Desire as soon as it appeared as a "Android 1.0" device on the USB bus, I was nearly tearing my hairs out... But then, your setup came to the rescue :)

[Guest Lethalfriend]

Guys, Is there any way to get into custom recovery without using any computer???

[Guest afiorillo]

Guys, Is there any way to get into custom recovery without using any computer???

Unfortunately, no.

[Guest nobodyelse]

Nice and clear guide, I will try it tomorrow.

Only thing I am missing is the MD5 sum of the files..

I get the following on mine, but please verify this:

7306f8e22d8ef9cab9f3fc885c82d588 - tinycore_211_desire_r4.rar (the download)

161ae381923904eed16a28302a064c96 - tinycore_211_desire_r4.iso (the iso inside rar)

[Guest craigcrawford1988]

Nice and clear guide, I will try it tomorrow.

Only thing I am missing is the MD5 sum of the files..

I get the following on mine, but please verify this:

7306f8e22d8ef9cab9f3fc885c82d588 - tinycore_211_desire_r4.rar (the download)

161ae381923904eed16a28302a064c96 - tinycore_211_desire_r4.iso (the iso inside rar)

Just hashed the original file I have:

ISO: 161ae381923904eed16a28302a064c96

RAR: 7306f8e22d8ef9cab9f3fc885c82d588

[Guest w0mbat]

Just hashed the original file I have:

ISO: 161ae381923904eed16a28302a064c96

RAR: 7306f8e22d8ef9cab9f3fc885c82d588

Nice simple guide thanks.

May give this a go tonight :)

[Guest EddyOS]

Anyone got a mirror to a decent site, this keeps ending download after 20MB

[Guest bibib]

Bookmarked.

Thanks, really good guide!

[Guest lambda]

thank you craigcrawford,

your method worked great after my win7 x64 attempt failed. I have created the tinycorelinux on a usb-stick with unetbootin. Because of the USB connection I had to modify step 6. to

sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom

sudo mount /dev/sd1 /mnt/cdrom

cd /mnt/cdrom/desire

I have also used a goldcard because of my branded t-mobile DE device and it's working without removing the goldcard or formating it. Thank you very much

Edited May 17, 2010 by lambda

[Guest EddyOS]

Can someone upload this to Megaupload or something as this constantly drops the download at 20-odd MB

[Guest craigcrawford1988]

Can someone upload this to Megaupload or something as this constantly drops the download at 20-odd MB

Uploading to Megaupload now, but I'm going out in a sec so I'll post the link when I get back.

Edited May 18, 2010 by craigcrawford1988

[Guest EddyOS]

Nice one my friend! Have been using r3 TinyCore method but there's no recovery command included so been having to use the recovery-windows.bat which just gets annoying!!