[Thunderbolt General] spursrchamps2007:
I'm going to start compiling a list of instructions all in one place for our new rooters out there who have questions. After surfing through tons of forum posts on the bamf roms and questions in Q&A there are a lot of people who still don't know how to necessarily wipe there devices correctly, install radios, the difference between .apk's being installed on your phone, versus a ROM or a patch to a rom that has to be installed in recovery. I think in the end this will make all our lives easier and when someone has a question about how do I install this radio or what is hboot we can just point them here. I'll probably start compiling instructions (and videos) during my morning break at work.

Im posting this here

1. as a place holder

2. do you think this should go into android development once it is completed and up and going. I think it should because that is where most people will look for it, but just want to get feedback from the community.

To all the developers out there thank you for your had work. I wish I understood the code writing so I could help you, so this is the best way I can think of giving back.

Disclaimer: This is here as a guide, I am not responsible for any damage that happens to your phone. If you have questions or run into any problems feel free to post in this thread of contact me. Thank you.

So Your Rooted, What do yo do next?

First if your TBOLT isn't rooted yet please go here (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=996616) and follow Jcases great instructions on how to get your device rooted.

Definition of Terms

Stock: When people referring going back to stock, they are referring to the default android operating system that is being pushed by Verizon and HTC. Think of stock as Verizon and HTC's ROM for the Thunderbolt.

Recovery: This is where you go to back up and install roms, as well as wipe your data.

Bloatware: Extra software that HTC and/or Verizon puts on your phone that slows it down, drains battery, and just overall makes your device not as good as it should be.

ROM: A custom version of android that our awesome developers have made for you. Roms have a number of benefits besides just looking pretty. Some of the major benefits of flashing a custom ROM include, no bloatware, faster processing, better reception (with custom radios) and most importantly better battery life.

Super User: An application that allows you to grant other applications access to the system properties on your phone.

HBoot: This is the white screen you boot your phone into when powering your phone on using the power and volume down combination. From here you can flash leaked radios, as well as enter CWR manually.

Radio: This is the software on your phone that tells your phone how to communicate with Verizon.

Files on the "root" of your sd card: These files need to be placed directly on your sd card, and not in a folder in your sd card.

Rom Manager/Clockwork Recovery

So the first thing I would highly recommend after rooting your device is go and download Rom Manager (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.koushikdutta.rommanager&feature=search_result). Rom Manager is going to allow you the easiest way to flash clockwork recovery on your device. Clockwork recovery is the most essential component you will need in order to backup your current ROM and install a new one.

In order to install Rom Manager follow the link above or just search for it from the android market from your phone and download it. After it installs and opens your going to get a pop up that says Super User at the top informing you that Rom Manager is asking for permissions. When this happens click on remember (if its not already checked) and allow. At this point you you will see a number of different options, but for now the top one will be the most important. The very first box will say "Flash Clockwork Recovery" check this box and if it asks for any confirmation or permissions say yes.

After this completes congratulations you now have recovery on your device.

Once Rom Manager is done flashing the first thing you will want to do is back up your current stock OS. One mistake I've noticed many people do is immediately wipe their data and flash a custom ROM. If for some reason the install is bad, its makes life a lot easier to know you have a backup you can restore, versus HAVING to get that install you just tried to work.

Backing up with Rom Manager/Clockwork Recovery

Ok so we are still sitting at our Rom Manager screen with a ton of different options (I have the paid donated version so the screens may appear some what differently if you don't.) The very first box is the "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" that we already did, right under that is the "reboot into recovery" option. This will be the method I will recommend but for now lets look at our other options.

The next section is titled Rom Management and for now we can skip that one and head towards backup and restore. Now Backing up and restoring your current ROM is as easy as as pressing one of those two options. When using these two options CWR (clock work recovery) runs a script that will do the following:

Auto(scripted) backup

If backing up your current ROM, CWR will turn your phone off and reboot it into a recovery screen. Once in the recovery screen the backup will automatically start, and once it finishes, it will once again turn your phone off and reboot it all the way back to your load screen, and just like that you have your first backup.

This method does work, and (if after I go through the steps to do the backup manually) you don't feel comfortable doing it manually this is a solid way to backup your OS. I personally, however, prefer to do all my backup and recoveries manually in CWR versus running the script.

Manual backup (through CWR)

Ok now to talk you through how to do your backup's manually (which is my preferred method). In Rom Manager the second option from the top of the screen is reboot into recovery. Press that and a pop up box will appear asking if you are sure you want to reboot into CWR, press ok.

If it is the first time doing this you may get another superuser prompt, once again click allow and remember. Your phone will now begin rebooting and you will end up with a orange screen that says ClockworkMod Revocery and then the version number.

Now if it is your first time in here take a minute to look at the number of options, for the most part your options are self explanitory

1. reboot system now

2. apply sdcard:update.zip

3. wipe data/factory reset

4. wipe cache partition

5. install zip from sdcard

6. backup and restore

7. mounts and storage

8. advanced

If when you start looking at these options and you see the wipe/data, don't freak out. It is nearly (if not impossible) to do a data wipe accidentally which you will see why later in the tutorial. For right now lets focus on the sixth option listed which is backup and restore. To maneuver around the options is fairly simple you do this by pressing your volume buttons. Volume up goes up and volume down well goes down. If you are at option number 1 you can press volume up to go all the way to the bottom. Using your volume keys go and highlight backup and restore. Once there you will select it by either pressing the "home" key.

After you select it you will see "nandroid" in white letters at the top left of the screen and only three options.

1. Backup

2. Restore

3. Advanced restore

All you need to do now is select backup (it should be selected by default) and press your home key, and the backup process will start. This can take a while depending on the number of apps that you have on your phone. During the process you will see 6 categories that have been backup-ed or or are in the process of. The categories are:

Boot image

recovery image

system

data

.android-secure

cache

During each section being backup-ed you will see a yellow status bar showing the percentage of the backup that has been completed. Realize that this is for each section, not for the entire backup. After the "backing up cache" completes you will see a message "no sd-ext found. skipping backup of sd-ext" this is normal don't freak out. Next you will see a "generating md5 sum" followed by backup complete. Once the backup completes you will be at the initial screen of CWR, reboot system now is selected by default, for now press the home key and let your phone reboot.

Renaming backups

After it reboots I would recommend going to your app tray and opening up Rom Manager one more time. Under the section "Backup and restore" click on the manage and restore backups button. In here you will find all the backups that you have on your phone. If you just did your first backup you will see it listed as a time stamp (yyyy-mm-dd.xx.xx.xx.xx) if you press this once a window will appear with three options:

restore, rename and delete. If you accidentally press restore or delete dont panic, a second pop up window will appear asking you to confirm the operation, just hit cancel and all is good with the world again. If you press the rename button, however, a pop up box will appear and you have the option of renaming the backup from the time stamp name to whatever you would like it. My first backup on my phone is simply called stock_no_bloat. Rename them whatever you would like, but I would advise changing them from the time stamp format.

Congratulations your first CWR backup is complete.

Restoring a backup

Warnings

First and foremost before you go any further in this guide MAKE sure you have a CWR backup on your phone. Any steps you follow from this point on without one, will make it a lot more difficult to get your phone working again then it has to be.

Also never leave a PG05IMG.zip file on the root of your sd card (we will go over what this file is and does later in the guide). If this file is on the root of your sdcard you will need to either have a sd card reader, or another phone you can use to move the file if your phone is not booting.

Manually booting into CWR

So before I go into how to install a custom ROM, I want to first address how easy it is to restore a backup. Many people will freak out because they get stuck into some sort of boot loop or their phone will freeze after a bad install. This is EXTREMELY easy to remedy if you just have some patience.

So for the sake of a hypothetical lets say you just installed your first custom ROM, and something has gone screwy on your phone. You turn it on it starts to boot and either restarts or just hangs. Don't freak out that handy backup you have sitting in your phone is about to save the day.

I would like to point out that you could also restore a backup just because you like an old rom better, or the current one you have is just to buggy for you. If you have a working phone that boots you can enter recovery as we did earlier by using Rom Manager and selecting "reboot into recovery" However, If you are reading this guide for instructional purposes I would recommend you read the following instructions as well,so you know what to do in a worst case situation.

1. if you are stuck in a boot loop or your phone is frozen, pop the back off of the phone and pull the battery.

2. put the battery back in your phone and turn your phone on by holding the power key and volume down button.

3. if for some reason you had a PG05IMG.zip file on the root of your sdcard, your phone will automatically begin loading this file. Eventually

it will give you the option of (volume up installing update) (volume down canceling update) press your volume down key and after that

do a battery pull (once again assuming you cannot get your phone to boot). Once your battery is pulled you will either need a sd card

reader or another phone you can put your sd card in and move the PG05IMG.zip file of of your root directory.

4. If you didn't have a PG05IMG.zip file on the root of your sd card HBOOT will load as normal, and you will see the following options

Fastboot

Recovery

Factory Reset

Simlock

Hboot USB

System INFO

Image CRC

5. using your volume down button select recovery, press power, and then your phone will booth into CWR.

Do not proceed with the actual steps unless you have a current working backup. The following steps will delete all the data from your phone

6. Once in CWR the first thing we are going to want to do is wipe all the data off your phone, so we can do a clean restore. Using the vol keys highlight wipe data/factory reset and press the home key. On the next screen use the vol keys again and select Yes and press home, CWR will no begin to wipe all the data on your phone.

7. Do this 2 more times for a total of 3 data wipes.

8 (I prefer to do this also) Now manually go to wipe cache partition (it is wiped during the factory reset but it wont hurt) verify you want to wipe the data and do this three times as well.

9. After you are done wiping the cache go down to advance and select it. Then highlight and select wipe davlik cache and do that three times.

10. Once all your data wipes are complete go to backup and restore and select it. Next select restore (not advanced restore) and on the next screen select the backup you want to restore. At this point your phone will begin restoring your backup and it will take roughly the same amount of time it took to do the backup initially. After the backup is complete reboot your phone and all should be well with the world again.