[HTC Incredible S] 072665995:
Hey XDA :D,

I have only been here for a couple of weeks (2-3 weeks :) ) and I must say, this place has a fantastic community. Everyone is always very nice and respectful. :highfive:

However, I have looked through this place and sometimes, some guides may be outdated (new ROMs, recovery, HBOOTs etc.) so I want to create this thread and hopefully maintain it to my best abilities. I will try and come back here at least once everyday to help anyone :D

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU SCREW UP YOUR PHONE IN ANYWAY FOLLOWING THIS GUIDE I AM NOT TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE!!! Please understand this!!!

CREDITS: I take absolutely no credit for anything that I write here. I took it from other people's threads and from here, here, and here.

Your phone should be HBOOT 2.02.0002 or HBOOT 2.03.0000 with official ICS 4.0.4 with HTC Sense 3.6.

This method will also work if you have Gingerbread but you may still have HBOOT that is not 1.13.0000

Throughout this guide I will give u (hopefully) working links that will give you everything you need, Backup your data, Unlock your bootloader, Flashrecovery, Install Superuser, Backup Stock ROM, Downgrade your HBOOT, Use revolutionary to gain S-OFF, flash custom ROM, and (optional) install Blackrose 2.03.0000.

Just a few suggestions and little information here:

Be aware that this could take quite a bit of time and everything might not go through as planned. If it does not go as planned, then try googling it, search XDA for an answer, or ask people on XDA. Everyone on XDA is very nice and is always willing to help (as long as it coems within forum rules).

Secondly, I suggest u remove your SIM card from the phone so you will not be receiving any phone calls or messages or whatnot that could possibly mess the process up (optional. I did it just in case).

Thirdly, make sure to have a full battery charge even though you will have your phone connected to the computer from time to time.

1. Download and Set Everything up

On your C: drive, create an "android" folder. I will be referring to this throughout the guide.

This next part is really optional but it will help you be more tidy and orderly.

In C:/android create a "Blackrose" folder

In C:/android create a "Revolutionary" folder

In C:/android create a "Downgrade" folder

In C:/android/Downgrade, create a "Downgradekit" folder and an "RUU" folder.

Get HTC Sync here

Get IncS_MVDTKv3.4.1.zip and the RUU here. For the RUU, download the Typical IncS one unless you are with Sasktel or Bell in Canada or a South American user.

Get ClockworkMod Recovery here. Scroll to HTC Incredible S. At time of writing, the latest version was 5.0.2.0.

***You are also more than welcome to try ClockworkMod Recovery v6.0.2.7 If you would like the link, here it is. However this is not an official release but remains pretty much bugless. You may also choose to flash 4ext (touch) recovery, though you better read up on how to flash it cause it is slightly different (although more automated and simple). I will NOT help you if you choose to flash 4ext (cause if you screw it up, then you better stop right there... This is not joke, thats how simple it is)

Get SuperUser here here

Get CyanogenMod ROM here

Get Blackrose here

Install HTC Sync, then uninstall it. We only need the drivers so the actual application is uneeded. (In the control panel, make sure you only select the one with the icon!)

Extract the files from the IncS_MVDTKv3.4.1.zip into the C:/android/Downgrade/Downgradekit. In the downgradekit folder, you should now have the "runme.cmd" and the "files" folder

Put the clockworkmod recovery on the root of C:/android (no folders or anything)

Put Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip on the root of your SD card on the Incredible S. DO NOT EXTRACT ANY FILES

Put CyanogenMod ROM on the root of your SD card. DO NOT EXTRACT ANY FILES

Take note of your devices serial number. It is either under the phone's battery or in the settings>About Phone. I forget the exact location of the serial number in the About Phone section of the settings but it should not take too long to find it. It started off with "HT......."

Enable USB Debugging on your phone. On Gingerbread this can be found under Settings>Applications> Enable Unknown Sources> Development and check USB Debugging. On ICS 4.0.4, it is found under Settings>Developer Options>Check Android Debugging

2. Backup your data

This step is completely optional and I will not post any apps whatsoever here. Google Play Store will help you here. I did not back up any thing on my phone (I do not have anything important so I did not really care).

3. Unlock Bootloader

Go to htcdev.com/bootloader. Create a free account and unlock the Bootloader. The steps are very simple and you should not run into any trouble. At some point during this process, you will receive confirmation on your phone that will ask you If you want to Unlock your Bootloader. Click Volume up and Power (these are hardware buttons on the side and top, just in case) to click yes.

Note: they tell you to download some thing like Android SDK. Put it all in your C:/android folder

Congrats. You just unlocked your bootloader.

4. Flash a recovery

Switch off your phone and go into bootloader. You will now see, highlighted in pink, UNLOCKED. Tog et into the bootloader, power down, then hold Volume Down and press Power button at the same time.

Plug your phone to the computer via USB cable, highlight fasboot and press power button to confirm. On your PC go to C:/android. Press Shift and right click. Press "Open Command Window here"

then type "fastboot devices". Your devices serial number should show up.

Then type in fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-vivo.img (assuming you did not change the name of the recovery image. If you did change it, type what you changed it too and do not forget the .img at the end

After a few seconds, the recovery should have been flashed to your phone.

5. Install Superuser and Test Root Access

From the fastboot menu, click volume down and press power button. This should bring you back to the bootloader screen.

Press volume down once to highlight RECOVERY and press power button. The HTC Splash screen should come up for a few seconds, the you will see the ClockworkMod interface. To navigate through this, use the volume up and down buttons to scroll and press the power button to confirm something.

Select "Install zip from sdcard"

Select "Choose zip from sdcard"

Select the Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip (this should be on the root of your sd card)

Select yes in the field of no's (lool i know XD)

Once it is done installing, reboot your phone. In the app drawer, you will notice that a new app called Superuser or SuperSU has showed up.

You should have root access but lets just be sure anyways. Go to C:/android and Shift, right click to Open Command Window here.

Type in adb.exe shell and press enter

You should get $ meaning adb has connected to your phone.

Next, type in su. If you obtain #, this means you have root access. Hooray :D

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO STOP GUIDE HERE. LIKE REALLY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At this point you will be able to flash most ROMs. The exceptions are the one that require S-OFF (the ROM requirements in the thread will state so). Also you will have to flash the boot.img manually

To do this download your select ROM. Extract the boot.img to where you have the fastboot.exe, adb.exe, and AdbWinApi.dll (you should have gotten these 3 files when you unlocked the bootloader). Then open the command window (shift, right click, open command window here) and type:

fastboot flash boot boot.img

the boot.img can be renamed to whatever you would like. I keep all my boot images and the fastboot.exe, adb.exe, and AdbWinApi.dll in 1 folder because i download a lot of ROMs. If you do rename the boot.img, i suggest renaming it to the name of the ROM its for. When you type in the fastboot command, just remember to put the .img at the end. This is necessary or it will not work.

If you want to gain S-OFF continue through the guide.

6. Backup Stock Rom

(optional but highly advised just in case something does not work right, then you have something to fall back on)

Go back to ClockworkMod Recovery (reboot into bootloader>select recovery)

Scroll to Backup and Restore

Then press Backup.

7. Run Nonverbose's script

***IF YOU HAVE HBOOT 1.13.0000 THEN YOU DO NOT DO THIS STEP***

Plug your phone into PC if it is not already. Select Charge Only, enable USB Debugging, and make sure fastboot is OFF (Settings>Power)

In C:/android/downgrade/downgradekit, launch runme.cmd

This part should be relatively simple. Just answer the questions honestly, and the script will do its stuff. If i recall correctly, the first question was are you running official ICS unlocked bootloader. I typed n.

Are you rooted?-n

Do you want to create a goldcard?- answer "y" or else you will get a customer ID error (which I believe is either Error 130 or Error 131) while running the downgrade RUU

Are you running HTC bootloader unlocked (or something similar to that)?-y (unless your version main comes out as something other than 2.00000000... in which case, type "n")

Note: Use this second method ONLY if the script did not work.

This script has worked for a lot of people, but it did not seem to work for me. So i typed in the command prompt

Navigate to the downgradekit folder or alternatively, shift right click within the folder to opwen command window here

adb push misc_version /data/local/tmp <------ copies the file to the device

adb.exe shell <------ you will get $ prompt

su <------ gain root access

chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/misc_version <------ changing permissions of the file to execute

/data/local/tmp/misc_version -s 1.00.000.0 <------ you are faking the device to run the RUU installler to "upgrade" to Gingerbread

reboot bootloader <------ self-explanatory

In the bootloader>fastboot, check to see if the misc_version worked, type:

fastboot getvar version-main

If it returns

version-main: 1.00.000.01

then you are good to go

8. Run the RUU

***IF YOU HAVE HBOOT 1.13.0000 THEN YOU DO NOT DO THIS STEP***

After you run Nonverbose's script, reboot into the bootloader>fastboot and launch the RUU file from the C:/android/Downgrade/RUU

This process takes about 10 minutes so be patient. At the end of that, reboot to bootloader and the you should read somewhere

HBOOT-1.13.0000

This indicates you successfully downgraded the HBOOT.

9. Use Revolutionary to gain S-OFF

Put phone in normal charge mode, USB debug ON, fastboot off

Go to revolutionary.io

Scroll down to Downloads. Click download from Windows

Fill out the Beta Key form:

Your Operating System- Windows

Your Device- HTC Incredible S

HBOOT version- 1.13.0000

Serial number- Enter your serial number

Click Generate Key. Copy and Paste the Key to notepad or something.

Now I, for some reason could not get Revolutionary to work just by opening the exe file..... Since pictures are worth a thousand words, i have decided to post a Youtube clip which gives you verbal and graphical instructions on how to run Revolutionary.

The clip is right here. It is really simple the way the person describes the process. Just follow exactly how he does it and you will be fine.

If you reboot your phone into bootloader after running revolutionary, you will see **REVOLUTIONARY** where it once said **UNLOCKED**

After you have successfully run Revolutionary, check for root access by repeating step 5. If you get # at the end you are good to go :D If you do not have root, then re-flash the superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip in ClockworkMod Recovery.

**Please keep in mind that during the revolutionary, it asks you whether you want to flash a recovery. This flashes, (if i remember correctly) version 4.XXXXXX.... of ClockworkMod. You can choose to select yes to this, but i would suggest saying "no" because its an older version. After you successfully run revolutionary, reboot into bootloader>fastboot and do step 4 again where you flash CWM 5.0.2.0. **

At step 5, i mentioned the command line fastboot flash boot boot.img. This is now unnecessary if you gain S-OFF. Now you can flash any ROM you want on the go.

10. Flash a Custom ROM

Here is a nice index of ROMs, Kernels, Radios etc. This is updated once a month by the OP and has everything you need to get started.

I did request that you download CyanogenMod 7.2 so let's just use that for now.

Go back to ClockworkMod Recovery and make another backup. Keep in mind that this should be done everytime you decide to flash a new ROM to your phone.

Once you are done, go back and select Wipe data/factory reset, Wipe Cache Partition, and under advanced, wipe dalvik cache.

Go back to main recovery menu, select Install Zip from sd card.

Choose the CM7 zip (cm-7.2.0-vivo.zip if you did not rename it to something else)

Wait for it to be installed to your phone. When it is finished, reboot your phone and voila! You are running your first ROM. :D

11. Install Blackrose 2.03.0000

This eleventh step is optional as most ROMs do not require Blackrose HBOOT. However, if you have blackrose HBOOT and you flash a ROM that has just S-OFF as a requirement, nothing should go wrong. The ROM should still work perfectly fine. :D

To install BlackRose 2.03.0000

Plug your phone, charge only, USB debug on

In your C:/android/blackrose, run BlackRose_IS.exe

If it tells you, you need HTC Sync, just reinstall it, not that hard.

After that, wait for it the Blackrose.exe to finish executing

If everything ran correctly, turn off your phone, then back in bootloader mode.

Where it said **REVOLUTIONARY**, it should now say **BLACKROSE** Your HBOOT will also change from 1.13.0000 to HBOOT-2.03.0000

Some people have stated that they get stuck on the HTC splash screen. If so, just reinstall CyanogenMod 7 ROM like you did in step 10 and reboot.

After this you should now have BlackRose HBOOT, S-OFF, and a CM7 ROM flashed to your phone. Congratulations!!!

***Do not ask why Blackrose is not running unless you are sure you are running a rooted ROM (just use CM7, like cmon, its known to work so just use it to have less headaches)

Hey guys. Heres a great edition to this guide that can supplement or pretty much replace this section of Blackrose installation. This guide was made Sandeep_Jagtap. Give thanks to him :good:

If you would like to try a different ROM go to the index and select a ROM.

:D Happy Hunting :D

Note: Never compare ROMs. That means no: which ROM is best for this or that or what ROM is smoothest or anything like that.

You don't compare ROMs because:

1. Developers spend a lot of time making their respective ROMs.

2. Its disrespectful and rude to the developers.

3. XDA is not a competition ground for who can make the best ROM. Its here to give us the ability to discuss how we do so and so or whatever, just not comparing things with another.

In essence, the only comments going up about ROMs should be "Great ROM but I had so and so problem" (assuming so and so problem existed of course)