Droid Hype

Although the Nexus S has been available on the market now for over a year, it’s actually a bit confusing for first time users to unlock and root the device. Give it a try, do a search and try and find the right adb and fastboot drivers for Windows 7 64-bit. I’m willing to bet it’s not as easy as everyone claims it to be. For some reason, fastboot drivers give 64-bit users a world of trouble in terms of acquiring and installing.

Since I went back to using my Nexus S on T-Mobile, I decided to post a quick how-to on getting this done.

Download the following zips before beginning:

  Android ADB and Fastboot tools (13.2 MiB, 80 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file.

  Nexus S 9020T Drivers and Touch Recovery (15.1 MiB, 14 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file.

Since I have the I-9020T model for T-Mobile, this guide will support only that version. This most likely will not work for the I-9023 LCD version or the D720 (Sprint 4g version), however, it should work for the I-9020A (ATT version).

Let’s begin…

Read more »

For some HTC Evo 3d users with HBOOT version at 1.5, flashing custom kernels is pretty much impossible with your standard recovery install. Due to updating the HBOOT to 1.5, you are forced to use HTC”s bootloader unlock method which opens up custom rom installs, but locks down the any boot partition modification. In layman’s terms, this prohibits all kernel installs.

However, there is a way to get around this. The below steps will assume you have ADB and Fastboot tools installed and ready to go. If you do not, please download it at the bottom of this post. This also assumes you know a little on how to use ADB and can follow basic command line directions.

I used the below method to flash Android Revolution successfully on a CDMA Evo 3d with HBOOT 1.5 — rom and kernel.

Note: this should be fairly painless, but problems always have a chance of occuring. You are on your own if you brick your device.

1. Set up ADB/Fastboot tools and make sure the command adb devices shows your device. If this is your first time, grab and install the fastboot drivers from here.
2. Ensure your Evo 3d is on HBOOT 1.5 (volume down + power from a powered off phone) and has been unlocked via HTC’s unlock method.
3. Time to flash your desired recovery. I prefer TWRP, which can be downloaded below. Place this recovery.img within the directory that ADB and fastboot tools reside in.
4. Boot your phone into the bootloader (volume down + power).
5. Select fastboot.
6. Connect your USB and issue the command fastboot flash recovery recovery.img. This will flash the TWRP recovery onto your phone. Do not reboot or exit out of the fastboot screen.
7. We will now fastboot into the recovery instead of using the two finger salute. HTC will give write permissions thru the recovery to write to the boot partition via fastboot. Issue the command fastboot boot recovery.img. This will boot your Evo 3D into the TWRP recovery.
8. With your favorite rom or kernel on your sdcard, you can now successfully flash them thru TWRP.

  Android ADB and Fastboot tools (13.2 MiB, 80 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file.

  TWRP Recovery for CDMA Evo 3D (4.9 MiB, 39 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file.

There is a new recovery available from madmaxx82 called 4Ext that incorporates many features and options that every crackflasher needs. Did you ever want to queue up .zip files for flashing with backup, cache wiping, and numerous other options? This recovery and it’s associated control app has it all.

My normal routine is usually wipe cache, wipe dalvick, flash rom, flash kernel (if available), fix permissions, and then reboot. You can imagine how many volume and power button presses it takes to accomplish all that. With the 4Ext Recovery app, I can queue all this up with a few taps and let it do it’s thing. There’s even md5 checking involved if you need to verify, super handy.

Since purchasing the app and using the recovery (free), I started diving into making themes for it. After a few hours of tinkering, I managed to make a couple for testing.

The images below are my Super Paper Mario and Honeycomb Blue theme. After downloading (click the screenshot), you can install it via the control app. Or you can boot into recovery and flash the .zip.