[HTC EVO 3D] digitaltoast:
Just spent 3 days trawling through guides and totally stuck.

I am on a stock HTC EVO 3D SHOOTERU purchased from ASDA in the UK with current details as follows:

VERSION.RELEASE: 4.0.3
BRAND: htc_europe
DEVICE: shooteru
MODEL: HTC EVO 3D X515m
OS.VERSION: 3.0.16-ge733189
BOOTLOADER: 1.53.0007
HARDWARE: shooteru
FINGERPRINT: htc_europe/htc_shooteru/shooteru:4.0.3/IML74K/385730.1:user/release-keys
ID: IML74K
TAGS: release-keys
USER: unknown
PRODUCT: htc_shooteru
RADIO: 11.77.3504.00U_11.25.3504.06_M
Rooted: false
May 22 2012, 01:06:07

I want to put KitKat on it, so I decided on Cyanogenmod 11 which requires:

My radio is 11.77.3504.00U_11.25.3504.06_M however some people say P and U are both OK. For example, LiquidSmooth, apparently based on CM, says either are OK.

NEXT: S-OFF:

https://www.facebook.com/CyanogenMod/posts/10152887971775425

http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/about_unlock_process

OK, so do I REALLY need S-OFF for CM11?

Next: 4ext recovery:

www.4ext.net/status_update.php

I also looked at CWM and TWRP and TWRP wins hands down everytime someone asks "which to use". But I need to get that HBOOT down to 1.49 version.

Incidentally, http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_shooteru says:

And sure enough http://unrevoked.com/rootwiki/doku.php/public/revolutionary says:

and below in the changelog:

But the unlimitied.io hboot downloads, which seem to be the only way, have a ZIP file which is called but inside the zip file the filename is

hboot_SHR_U_1.49.0009_20110718_signedbyaa.nb0

but although I'm not too hot on binary, inside that file is 1.49.9999.

So how fussy is that version number, really?

I'm aware of the thread here:

how downgrade evo 3d hboot from 1.53.0007 to 1.49.0008

< No explanation of what this is or where to get it.

Elsewhere I found

http://www.androidruu.com/?developer=Shooter and the closest I get is:

RUU_SHOOTER_U_ICS_35_S_HTC_Europe_3.28.401.1_Radio_11.77.3504.00U_11.25.3504.06_M_release_262714_signed.zip

But that still looks way off.

It's a broken link, so I come to a grinding halt there, too.

Plus I'm not entirely keen on following guides which require deliberate bricking, if I can avoid it.

So, my plan was:

1: UNLOCK - easy if following official HTCDEV site. DONE.

If only everything was as clear as their instructions...

2: Downgrade HBOOT from http://unlimited.io/jbhboots.[quote]htm

Instructions say:

Put your phone in fastboot mode
Type the following cmds into terminal:

sudo ./fastboot erase cache
sudo ./fastboot oem rebootRUU
sudo ./fastboot flash zip [/quote]jb_hboot.zip
sudo ./fastboot reboot

(OK, I'm using Windows so I didn't type in the sudo part, obviously!)

But all that happens is:

D:\HTC>fastboot.exe flash zip jb_hboot_shooteru_14999.zip
sending 'zip' (379 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.246s]
writing 'zip'...
(bootloader) zip header checking...
(bootloader) zip info parsing...
FAILED (remote: 99 unknown fail)
finished. total time: 2.994s

My phone can reboot OK,.

Elsewhere on the site, it says:

Could this be the problem? I've looked for hours, but this phone is 3 years old - chances are it went in the trash ages ago.

Is there something special about the original cable? Could that be preventing it?

It seems that once I've cracked this HBOOT version problem I can use Revolutionary, as unlimited.io says:

Which would save me messing around with shorting connections with paperclips (aka "the wire trick"). But yet again, I'm not on the "supported" HBOOT.

Feels like I've spent almost all free time of the last week watching grainy, shaky videos which don't explain clearly and would be far, far better condensed to 4 lines of text and a couple of images.

Right now I am so utterly confused - I have followed so many guides only to find that, for example, the tool at stage number 3 no longer available from 4shared, I have spent hours reading the xda forums, but again, almost all the posts assume you've got the older HBOOT. I've got 7 sides of dense A4 notes, acronyms, links, guides etc and there's a thread with 2,680 posts over at http://www.hotukdeals.com/ask/htc-evo-3d-owners-thread-1151797 but agai but again, it ALL seems to rely entirely on the HBOOT version being lower, and this seems to be a complete sticking point.

This is about the clearest video I've watched, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3B9d_DraE, but again, he has HBOOT at the "correct" ie: 1.49xxx version.

Any help greatly appreciated.