[Verizon HTC One (M7)] xenacick:
Hey everyone, sorry to be a month in posting the update to this, but unfortnately I've not gotten anywhere.

Shortly after my last post, (I was going to try to run both Firewater and RumRunner with my computer connected directly to the modem, prior to attempting to do so with an Linux boot disc) my computer, which is running Windows 7 home pre. decided to have one of it's boot system files that I couldn't boot normally into windows. So I couldn't boot up normally, it would send me to this Lenovo One-Key Recovery thing, which I had THOUGHT I uninstalled when I first purchased the machine.

I thought I had been very thorough removing all the bloatware; apparently Lenovo completely HIDES, no matter what admin settings you have enabled to show every file on the entire hard disk, a partition which contains this Lenovo One-Key Recovery thing, which is basically a factory boot disc but on the HD instead. It also includes a backup/restore feature, but as a user, who thought I had uninstalled the entire program, not knowing a thing about this completely hidden partition, you can't backup anything, so it's basically useless in this case. The program is so damn persistent it takes over completely the second your machine doesn't initialize properly, so we are talking NO ACCESS TO: F2 - set-up, ANY - BIOS Commands including Command Prompt, no F8 or F11 Depending on the BIOS V. for Advanced system settings for boot, AND lastly my favorite NO F12 - change the boot sequence. As far as tech goes it was the most frustrating 36 hours of my life!!! It literally took me 2 days to JUST break in and get around this stupid program to get into a normal BIOS mode, so that I could then take a normal Windows 7 install disc and boot from that to do a system repair (as the Lenovo thing would only do a factory resent!) So.....36 hours later....long story short, not willing to lose 2 months worth of data (the last time I did a backup), I was finally able to get back into Windows in Safe mode, get rid of the partition, and verify all the boot files were once again in all kinds of happy working order again.

The POINT of me sharing all this?

In the process of getting rid of the separate partition on the HD it did something to my installation of Android SDK and no matter what I did (uninstall, reinstall, re-boot, clean reg files, pretty much every single thing I could think of) I couldn't get it it work! The error I kept getting, even when it was freshly installed on my computer and I hadn't opened it once, would be the program was running already and couldn't open another window!

Knowing I wasn't going to get anywhere with getting my phone to S-off and Unlock without working SDK, I decided, fine FU*#($*&^ computer be that way, and did a data backup manually, in the hopes that I didn't catch any of the system files associated with the SDK program were grabbed with a normal backup, and ended up doing a complete HD wipe, not factory reset, but WIPE. I booted into BIOS, and went into advanced, and wiped the entire HD by reformatting it (also in hopes that if ANY of that stupid One-Key crap was still lingering it would RID me of it too), repartition it, and do an entirely NEW and FRESH installation of Windows. However, this took me a few days due to not being able to sit and reinstall everything, re-do settings, etc. all in one go as I had to do things like work!

:D

I am just finally (well as of last week) at the point where I am ready to attempt to work on all this again. I am almost afraid to start this time becuase if it keeps failing again I may just throw my phone into the canal by my house, and I can't get a new one until next Sept.! lol

I am convinced however, that a BIG part of the problem PERIOD with the HTC ONE M7, whether its just a Verizon thing or not, just doesn't get along and play nicely with Kit Kat. When it was released it caused sound issues to happen on my husbands phone, which is the same exact variant, just a different color (i got the BB blue one, his is the Silver). A few months later when I decided to go for it, it basically broke my sound immediately. We both got replacements. I wasn't able to root that replacement as it was a refurbished phone as was already updated to KK. It made me really sad, but it also helped convince me why KK and the HTC One M7 vzw systems don't play well together, as I continued to have problem after problem after problem. I couldn't get sense to work properly and it seemed like once every other week randomly without any input from me what-so-ever, my home-screens would revert to factory settings and I would have to re-customize everything all over again. Over the course of 4 months these problems just escalated to become literally a day to day nuisance, to the point where, as of last month, I gave up even attempting to make any changes or personalization to the phone as I knew they were going to revert to factory within 12-24 hours. The last straw was over night (at 3:33 am no less) the phone took it upon itself to install Sense 6, which I had been declining to even download for a long time. But usually got the prompt to do so at 1am.

The next day I brought it back in (literally 3 days before our one year warranty was going to be up) and said send me a NEW one or else.....lol. And they did! Which is how I ended up with a factory phone on OG Android, running JB, sense 5, and opened the door (or so I thought) to finally getting my precious root back and never having to deal with KK while still owning this phone if I could help it!

But then all this trouble started to occur. AND that brings us back to starting this thread in the first place. Now due to the computer issues, I didn't ever try to run the programs with a direct connection. So my plan is to start there, since that is where I left off.

But I know that Firewater is doing SOMETHING because it changes something in the system files of the phone that it will show a tampered flag after failing in the bootloader screen. I have to flash a signed RUU to get it taken away (thanks for that BTW) and then retry running the exploit again.

TO respond to another inquiry on this thread recently, I understand that Sunshine is working wonderfully for many, many people. However, since I am running such an old version of Android AND quite honestly just can't afford the risk of it not working right now, paying for the exploit will be a last resort. I know that the exploits I am using are worth their weight in GOLD, because the Dev's who spent hours working on them and creating them used their own personal time to do so, which I am soooooo grateful for, and I am NOT saying I am again Sunshine at ALL!!! I am totally for it, for new phones, running the newer versions of Android, which are becoming all that more difficult to find and achieve root on.

Once I have exhausted all efforts through asking for assistance this way, and playing out every single play in the book this way, I will likely then contact one of them privately just to get some kind of reassurance about using it to resolve my situation. I'm sure there aren't too many out there with phones which are truly full stock locked, not re-locked to this version, but never been tampered with in any way, never have taken any kind of OTA, never have had any kind of anything touch them since they came from the hands of HTC and Verizon. I may be wrong, but I can't image there are too many of us out there.

So that's whats up. I will update with results with the direct connect in the next couple of days (hopefully sooner), and we shall go from there!

Thanks again everyone!!!