http://www.droidforums.net/forum/incredible-rooted-help/

[doug piston]

ROOT: What is it and what does it mean to you. A great thread on this can be seen at the link provided directly below. I suggest you read it all the way through.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-hacks/632-what-root-means-stop-asking.html

Thanks to the Unrevoked team rooting this device is incredibly easy. Rooting tool can be found here

unrevoked <---This is for Incredible only.

If on Windows you will have to install the Hboot drivers that came with the tool

The Hboot drivers can be found here with instrustions

public:windows_hboot_driver_install [RootWiki]

Also another side note if you have HTC sync installed on your pc it is best to uninstall it. Seems to not play nice with the tool.

Now all you have to do is run the tool.

Open the .exe, it will ask you to plug in phone and enable usb debugging. Usb debugging can be enabled by going to the settings menu>applications>development>USB deugging.

Once the tool has completed you should now be rooted, with Koush’s Clockwork recovery and sitting on a screen that is black with green typing on it. Next step would be to back up everything you have now. Scroll down to nandroid with either the vol+,- key or the optical trackball. Then click the optical ball on backup. Clockwork will then back up your phone so you will always have a known working ROM on your SD card. This would be useful if you load a custom ROM that fails to boot up or just plain does not work the way you like.

Updating the recovery .img
If you have s-off which is discussed below, you can now flash the newest recovery via the Rom manager app by koush. If you don't have s-off then the only way to upgrade the recovery is through the unrevoked tool. Chose the recovery for your device from the link below. Open the tool, click on the file tab and chose custom recovery. Then navigate to where you dl'd that file from and select it. Then plug in phone and enable USB debugging. The program will go through the same process as it did when you rooted.

My Brain Hurts: ROM Manager and Clockwork Recovery Image

Make sure you choose the Incredible.


Unlocked Bootloader/S-off/Nand Unlocked/Holy grail

This is full unlock. I'll the developers explain it as they do it best. Read the whole thing through before beginning. READ THE WHOLE THING THROUGH. Understand what is you are doing. As it is right now this is irreversible, but they are working on s-on.

http://unrevoked.com/rootwiki/doku.php/public/forever

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you brick or hurt you phone in this process. If your phone tries to kill you, this again is not my fault. If your alarm doesn't go off and you miss work and get fired , again not my fault.

 

[doug piston]

ROMs

Koush’s Clockwork Recovery:

Now that your rooted and have a recovery this is where your party begins. Recovery makes it so that if you load a ROM that will not work or does not please you, you have the ability to go back to either a previous setup you liked or just recover your phone when you think it will never boot again.

In recovery you will see multiple options. I don’t use all of them though so we will go through the ones you will use.

First the action buttons. To switch through the menu use the vol + and – or the optical trackball. To select a section use the optical trackball by clicking down on it. And the power button works as a back button.
Now on to the options available in recovery.

1. Reboot system now. Self explanatory. Phone will reboot.

2. Apply sdcard:update.zip We don’t really use this anymore

3. Wipe Data/facatory reset. You use this option before you flash a new rom. Very important.

4. Wip cache partition. You also use this on flashing of a new rom.
a. 3 and 4 are important. Roms like to have a clean slate to work correctly.

5. Install zip from SD card. You most likely use this one the most while in recovery. From here you can look for the ROM you just put on your SD card. Select choose zip from SD card. Then you can search through your SD card till you find the ROM of your choice.

6. Nandroid. This where you can back up a current setup or reflash a setup you had before. Go to this section to find your first backup you made.

7. Partitions menu. This is where you can mount any part of the /system or SD card. You can also format other partitions but you probably won’t use that. Also from this menu you can mount the usb mass storage. This will allow you to mount the SD card while plugged in to the computer even in recovery and have the ability to transfer files from the computer to the SD card.

8. Advanced. From here the only tool I use in it is to wipe the battery stats. The other options I haven’t used and I doubt if you are reading this "how-to" you will need to either.

 

[doug piston]

Roms

Roms: Currently there are a limited number of roms available, but more and more are coming each day. You can find them at..

Droid Incredible Roms - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

Droid Incredible Android Development - xda-developers

Roms | Droid Fiend

Before installing any Rom make sure you backup your current setup before hand. To backup you go into recovery select Nandroid>backup.

To install these simply download the file>transfer to SD card>reboot into recovery>install from SDcard>select rom.

You can also get Roms from the Rom Manager app written by koush from the market.

Wireless tether: For wireless tether you need the app called "Wireless tether for root users". It can also be found here

android-wifi-tether - Project Hosting on Google Code

After that is installed use your favorite file manager to make a file called "android.tether" on the root of your SD card. But the .bin file below into it and start tethering

fw_bcm4329.bin


Radios: Alot of the roms coming out now require the leaked OTA radio to work correctly. Upating the radio can seem complicated and a little bit scary at first. If you just follow the directions and take your time you should be fine.

There is a great how-to on xda. It really does cover it all.

Install pre 2.2 OTA with 100% working root 2.0 radio/720p video - xda-developers

Basically you are going to unroot and get stock recovery back then apply the radio in update.zip form then reroot. We have to do this cause unlike the Moto Droid, we don't have Nand unlocked and Clockwork can not flash radios.

You can also update the radio without root. Thanks jkhonea and his thread with discussion about it is here

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...dio-newest-version-does-not-require-root.html

If you feel the need to go back to the stock radio, you will find all the info you need to do so here.

http://androidforums.com/all-things-root-incredible/123816-how-revert-back-earlier-version-hboot.html

Huge disclaimer: DO NOT RUN THE DINC_OTA TWICE. You will brick your phone. Do not interupt the phone will flashing the radio. During the radio flashing process the phone will seem like it reboots multiple times. 3-4 in fact. You will see green arrows in a circular shape. Just be patient DO NOT PULL THE BATTERY. With this said if you are at all uncomfortable with any of the steps in the link above it is probably best you just leave it alone.

 

[doug piston]

Its alot of info. If there is something I've missed or am just flat out wrong about please let me know and I will change it ASAP.

Remeber the best wat to thank these developers is to donate to them. They do great work that allows us to do this.

Over the next couple of days i will try to add screen shots. I enjoy them when trying to learn something new so i will assume others will to.

 

[nerdkill]

do i need to do this?
Basic Android sdk installation and set-up:
You will need to download the following files before you start:

android_sdk_r05-linux_86.tgz [1]

and do i need to do the ubuntu?

or do i only need the android sdk? i can't believe how involved this is... whatever happened to one click root?

 

[nerdkill]

anyone out there? i'm not understanding this. having a hard time with the sdk instructions.

 

[CrazyJek]

Excellent walk-through!!!! I, amongst many others, really appreciate all the work you have done of gathering all this info and making one thread with it all. I will be rooting either tonight if I feel up to it, or tomorrow during the day. This will make my life much easier and keep me at ease knowing that I can turn here if I screw something up.

Thanks again.

 

[nerdkill]

I hope I didn't come off as complaining about your walkthrough. Its really well done and informative. I just downloaded the ask and driver didn't do any installing and ran the root program and it went through perfectly. I used a windows vista computer if that makes any difference.

The issue I'm running into now is with wireless tether. It connects but no internet access. I'm using the latest version from the market. Any ideas?

 

[doug piston]

You didn't come off as complaining. Tether instrustions added to the Roms section.

 

[shortbus99]

i dont understand what the sdk is for...i rooted my phone without doing the sdk thing b/c all the sdk walkthrough's arent (tech-noob) friendly

...i was able to root my dinc by simply following the hboot walkthough that comes in the folder when u dl the unrevoked root/reflash, then turning on my phone, turning on debugging and running the reflash

 

[Crypt92]

nice job should deff do vid tutorials for this.

 

[doug piston]

i dont understand what the sdk is for...i rooted my phone without doing the sdk thing b/c all the sdk walkthrough's arent (tech-noob) friendly

...i was able to root my dinc by simply following the hboot walkthough that comes in the folder when u dl the unrevoked root/reflash, then turning on my phone, turning on debugging and running the reflash

Thanks for this. I was stunned by this idea so i asked unrevoked and you are correct. You do not need the SDk. You did when root first came out on this device and I guess i was just stuck on the idea you needed it.

This makes it look a ton easier. Appreciate it.

Edit: As for nerdkill I apologize for the confusion this might have caused you yesterday.

 

[shortbus99]

i dont understand what the sdk is for...i rooted my phone without doing the sdk thing b/c all the sdk walkthrough's arent (tech-noob) friendly

...i was able to root my dinc by simply following the hboot walkthough that comes in the folder when u dl the unrevoked root/reflash, then turning on my phone, turning on debugging and running the reflash

Thanks for this. I was stunned by this idea so i asked unrevoked and you are correct. You do not need the SDk. You did when root first came out on this device and I guess i was just stuck on the idea you needed it.

This makes it look a ton easier. Appreciate it.

...i appreciate the quick response, im sweating bullets over here trying to google the situation, thinking my phone is seriously fk'd without the sdk files

...and yes much much easier i almost gave up on rooting my phone trying to find a walkthrough about sdk that was noob-friendly...then i just said fk it and installed the hboot,reflashed, and to my suprise, success!

 

[nerdkill]

Haha! No worries at all! Stuff like this is what I love and why we're here as a community to find solutions together. Thanks for all of your help. I wish I had an incredible so I could play and help more.

Just out of curiosity what is that bin file for wireless tethering. Is it due to HTC sense? If I tried it with the froyo rom would I still need it? I would have done it on my own to not be such a pest if I had one. I think I'm going to trade my wife's d1 for a dinc. I'm getting an x so I can have the best of all three world's.

 

[doug piston]

Haha! No worries at all! Stuff like this is what I love and why we're here as a community to find solutions together. Thanks for all of your help. I wish I had an incredible so I could play and help more.

Just out of curiosity what is that bin file for wireless tethering. Is it due to HTC sense? If I tried it with the froyo rom would I still need it? I would have done it on my own to not be such a pest if I had one. I think I'm going to trade my wife's d1 for a dinc. I'm getting an x so I can have the best of all three world's.

You will atleast need that bin file. Ive heard that another version of wireless tether is needed to on some roms. I only use CM so I'm going to update my radio again and try others to see what may or may not be needed.