[Thunderbolt General] jeremy1080:
**NOTE** Make sure to goto setting>applications>development and turn on debug mode and stay awake!

Hello everyone!

This morning I spent a great deal of time trying to root my Thunderbolt looking across many different forums so I decided to post my path to success here to help anyone else out that was in my situation :D

So the first problem I ran into was I was on the newer .9 firmware. Multiple people told me either 1. You CANT root or 2. You have to downgrade and lose all of your stuff. Heck no was I doing that!

So I was searching through the depths of cyberspace and I came across this:

thunderboltforums[.]com/forum/htc-thunderbolt-development/7743-tool-bypass-downgrade-get-s-off-no-data-wipe.html (It wont let me post a real link :(

Which is a tool to root without downgrading! I thought "Wow! This is perfect, 5 minutes and I'll be done!" Wrong.

I had much trial and error but I finally got it working so here is what I did.

I extracted the entire DowngradeBypass.zip into its own folder.

Then I ran the RUN-ME.bat and it asked me "If I had the fastboot drivers installed?" I miss read it as "Do you want the fastboot drivers installed?" And I clicked yes out of stupidity. Since I had not tried anything before I did NOT have them installed so the next time I entered "n" and hit enter.

My next problem was that the driver installation of the fastboot drivers failed. The reason being because my phone was plugged in. So either 1. Dont have it plugged in when you start :P or 2. Unplug it and go to the support_files folder and double click Driver.exe

Once that was installed it said to press enter to continue, this is where I plugged my phone back in and I made sure it was in charge only mode.

Then it took some time (2 mins aprox.) and then It brought up a new window, the revolutionary window, READ what the little box has to say! I then scrolled down to the bottom of the Web Browser it had opened up (On my computer) and click Download for Windows, then you click cancel. And then I entered in my OS, My phone, my HBOOT (Which for me was 1.05) and then my serial number (It says it in the DOS window that is titled revolutionary. After that click Ok and then copy the beta code it gives you. Then right click on the DOS window (The top bar) and go down to Edit and click paste.

Then you hit enter and it does some more stuff (Like 1.5 mins) and then it will ask you if you want to install clockwork recovery mod. Click Y, and hit enter. You want clockwork if you're a noob like me.

Then once it was done the program suddenly closed and I felt abandoned! I really would of loved the Microsoft word paper clip coming up saying "Looks like you're trying to root your phone! Want some help?"

Anyways, on my phone it said revolutionary at the top and FASTBOOT USB a little lower, so I hit the down volume button a couple times until it finally responded. Then I highlighted recovery and hit the power button. Once it was in the recovery window I went to install ZIP from SD-Card and selected Select from SD-Card and then I scrolled ALL the way down where my su.zip should of been. It wasn't.

So I went back through the menus clicking go back until I got to reboot, I rebooted my phone. When it came back on I put it into disk mode, and I went into support_files on my computer in the DowngradeBypass folder and I copied su.zip to the root of my SD-Card. Then I turned off my phone (And unplugged it) and held the power button down WHILE holding the volume down. I then went through the same process as I mentioned above, this time my su.zip WAS there :D I selected it and then scrolled down to Confirm and it installed!

Then I went back and rebooted my phone and went it came on I went to the market place and downloaded barnicle (Wifi tether, needs root ;) And despite all my set backs, It worked!!!!

So that was my experience everyone :) I hope it was helpful to at least someone!