[HTC One S] mattunderwood:
So this is what I did. First, I followed these instructions to the letter:

Ok it won't let me post links ummmm....

I will copy and paste.

Step 1. Go to Settings->Power and make sure “Fast boot” is checked OFF. <------------------- I actually skilled this step because there was no fast boot option there. Did I **** myself?

Step 2. Power off your HTC One M8 then hold down Volume Down and Power buttons for about 3 seconds until you see the bootloader menu like shown below:

Step 3. Hit the Power button once and you should now be in FASTBOOT mode.

Step 4. Connect a micro-USB cable from your HTC One M8 to your computer.

Step 5. Download fastboot.zip and unzip the file, you should get a folder called “fastboot” in your Downloads directory.

Download fastboot.zip

Step 6. Next, go to the CWM/TWRP recoveries section of HTCOneRoot.com and download the appropriate CWM or TWRP recovery for your HTC One M8 model.

Step 7. Copy the downloaded CWM or TWRP recovery image (file ending in .img) to the fastboot folder you unzipped earlier.

Step 8. If using Mac or Linux, you can skip this step as no drivers are needed. If using Windows, open Device Manager (If you don’t know how to open Device Manager, please Google it!) and check that you have “My HTC” or “Android ADB”. If you don’t, you need to install HTC drivers, download HTC One M8 Drivers and run it then come back to this step.

Step 9. Open a command prompt or terminal. For Windows, simply type “cmd” in the search bar.

For Windows:

fastboot oem get_identifier_token

For Mac:

./fastboot-mac oem get_identifier_token

For Linux:

sudo ./fastboot-linux oem get_identifier_token

Step 10. Copy the identifier token to your clipboard. If you don’t know how to do this, see my video tutorial.

Step 11. Next, go to HTCDev.com and choose “Unlock Bootloader” and hit “Get Started”. You will need to register for the site first if this is the first time using the site.

Then choose “HTC One (M8)” and click on “Begin Unlock Bootloader”.

Step 12. Agree to the terms and click on “Proceed to Unlock Instructions”.

Step 13. Scroll all the way down and click on “Proceed To Step 5”.

Step 14. Scroll down and paste your identifier token you copied earlier in the box where is says, “My Device Identifier Token”.

Step 15. You should get a message like below if it was successful. If not, try Step 10 again and watch my video tutorial that shows you how to copy it exactly.

Step 16. Check your e-mail inbox and you should have gotten an e-mail from HTC with an unlock code file. Download this file and copy it to your fastboot folder.

Step 17. Next type in command prompt/terminal:

For Windows, type:

fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin

For Mac, type:

./fastboot-mac flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin

For Linux, type:

sudo ./fastboot-linux flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin

Step 18. Go to your HTC One M8 screen then use Volume key to choose “Yes” then hit the Power button. Your HTC One M8 should reboot in couple seconds.

Step 19. Once rebooted, sign in to your HTC One M8.

Step 20. Repeat Step 1,go to Settings->Power and make sure “Fast boot” is checked OFF.

Step 21. Connect your HTC One M8 to your computer and copy over the SuperSU zip file.

Download SuperSU zip file

Step 22. Repeat Step 2 thru 4 and reboot your HTC One M8 into fastboot mode.

Step 23. Next, type:

Windows:

fastboot flash recovery PutImageFileHere.img

Replace “PutImageFileHere.img” with the image file you downloaded earlier in Step 6 and 7.

Then Type:

fastboot erase cache

For Mac, replace “fastboot” with “./fastboot-mac”.

For Linux, replace “fastboot” with “sudo ./fastboot-linux”.

Step 24. Choose HBOOT and select Power button on your HTC One M8’s screen.

Step 25. Choose “RECOVERY” and hit the Power button.

Step 26. You should now be in CWM or TWRP Recovery. For CWM Recovery, choose “install from zip” and for TWRP, choose “Install” then find the SuperSU zip file and install it.

Step 27. Once rebooted, you should find SuperSU app in your app drawer. Congratulations, you’ve successfully rooted your HTC One M8!

After doing so I got hang at the white HTC screen with green text.

I then read a bunch of ****. I can not even recall now what I read! But, I did this.

I tried to install this firmware using these instructions:

2.16.654.4 OTA firmware.zip

CD to the Install Package map.

Code:

fastboot oem rebootRUU

Code:

fastboot flash zip firmware.zip

It gives an error, do it again!

FAILED (remote: 90 hboot pre-update! please flush image again immediately)

finished. total time: 5.291s

Code:

fastboot flash zip firmware.zip

But I kept getting the error "FAILED (remote: 99 unknown fail)"

I know I am supposed to do it multiple times but it never worked! That's when I finally started reading about this s-on s-off thing.

Currently my phone says unlocked and s-on.

Is this what I want?

I noticed that when I'm in the PhilZ Touch 6.26.6 menu thing (purple stuff) it says at the top "Root access is missing/broken."

I am a bit over my head and feeling overwhelmed at the moment. I'm new to this stuff but I'm usually quite savvy. Probably just tired. Anyway, I hope someone here knows what I'm talking about. I'd appreciate all the help you can give me! Thanks so much.

Matt