Rooting the Evo 4G

NOTE/DISCLAIMER 1: 
If reading this entry causes you to break your phone, it's not my fault.
  - If you aren't careful, playing around with the inner workings of your phone may break it.
 - Rooting will generally void the warranty on your phone.

On a positive note, the procedures outlined are completely legal!

NOTE/DISCLAIMER 2:
Geeky post.



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Most Android devices are highly customizable.  The following types of apps are great ways to make your phone better:

• Launchers
• Folder Organizers
• Text Messengers
• Dialers

It's even easier to change background image, ringtones, notification sounds, simply by changing the settings on your phone.


There are a few things, however, that you can't do with your phone out of the box.

• Use your phone as a wireless access point (for free)
• Remove bloatware
• Remove spyware 

I wanted to do all of these things, and I like to tinker with stuff, so I decided to root my phone.  Rooting basically means gaining full access to the software installed on your phone, giving you permission to add and remove whatever software you like.

Below, I'll walk through the steps I took, just to give you an idea of what's involved.  This is not intended to be a complete tutorial. 

• Complete Evo 4G Root Tutorial can be found here
• Info on hacking just about any kind of phone at the XDA Developer forums

And, here we go.


Data Back-Up and Restore
Most of my data (email, calendar, contacts) already lives in the cloud; on a Google server.  I don't really need to worry about backing it up.

To back up my call log, SMS history, and downloaded apps, I used:

Mobile Backup II -  Restore SMS history, call log, and calendar data.




AppBrain - Restore apps purchased on the Android Market.

Just to be safe, I also made a copy of my Android's SD card. Use your favorite archiving software to back everything up.  If you have a Unix command prompt, you can use the tar command:

 tar -cvzf android_sd_backup.tar.gz /media/yourdevice

I also updated my PRL (Sprint's list of cell towers that my phone can connect to).  Depending on what version of Android you decide to install, doing this after the fact can be a pain.

Gaining Root (Superuser) Access

There are several relatively pain-free tools that can unlock the Evo 4G.  According to most online tutorials, revolutionary.io should do the trick.  However, I found I had to run Unrevoked Forever before Revolutionary could succeed.

Back Up the Stock ROM

ClockworkMod Recovery is a simple program you can load during startup.  Luckily, the programs that rooted my phone also installed ClockworkMod Recovery automatically.  To start using it, all I had to do was reboot my phone while holding the down volume button during startup.

ClockworkMod Recovery gives you a few options, the first important step is to back up the current settings, so I could restore my phone if something went wrong.


I chose:
 - backup and restore
 - Backup


The backup files were saved to my SD card in the ClockworkMod folder.  I kept them on my phone, but it's possible to copy them to a computer and delete them from the device to clear up space.

Load a New ROM
When it comes to choosing a ROM, there are lots of choices.  I used CyanogenMod, but you can get a good idea of the latest and greatest by searching the xda-dev forums.

To load the new ROM, I went through a few steps...

• Phone: ClockworkMod Recovery Shell
• Choose "Storage and Mounts > mount USB"
• Computer
• Copy the ROMs to the SD card
• CyanogenMod
• Google Apps
• Eject the USB drive from the computer
•  Phone: ClockworkMod Recovery Shell
• Unmount
• Wipe data/factory reset
• Wipe cache partition
• Install zip from sdcard
• Reboot

Success! It booted into a fresh Android installation!

Restore Data
It's a miracle! No bloatware! But, um, all my other apps are gone too.  To get them back, I did a few things:

• Sync with Google, which automatically restores:
• Contacts
• Email
• Calendar
• Install Mobile Backup II, and restore:
• Call Log
• SMS Messages
• Install AppBrain, and restore:
• Apps installed through the Android Market
• Install Amazon Apps, which allowed me to restore:
• Apps installed through Amazon

Wrap Up
At this point, I was pretty much finished, but there were a few quirks.

• My voicemail didn't work, and every time someone left me a VM, I got an annoying text message. (fix)
• GPS was not reliable. (fix)
• PRL Updates
• You need to revert to your old phone to do this.  I've done it monthly.
• Reboot to Recovery
• Make a backup
• Restore stock from backup
• Start up your old Sprint system, and do the PRL update
• Reboot to Recovery
• Restore back to your new system

I hope my experiences were helpful or interesting to some of you!  If you have any questions, leave some comments!

France's Hut

Sara and I decided to give each other an adventure for Christmas this year, and decided on France's Hut near Breckenridge, CO.  Luckily, I made a New Year's resolution to blog more, so you get a little more detail than the usual story told through Facebook pictures and comments.

Day 1: To France's Hut

I downloaded our route to the hut on my GPS before we left, and it showed our path just south of the road before veering north on the trail towards the hut.  Luckily, there was a trail just south of the parking lot.

"OK! Let's get going!" I said.  And we were off.

OK! Let's get going!

Less than a mile later, I checked our progress on the GPS, and we were WAY off (see the southern spur on our Day 1 GPS tracks).

Wait, this can't be right.

I blame the USGS map, which did not show the trail we were on.  It turns out USGS maps are great for topology, but generally up to date for trails (created 1970, photorevised 1987).  Thankfully, Sara was a good sport, and didn't complain that I had led us astray. 

We retraced our steps back to the parking lot before the 1.6 mi trip to the hut, about 1000 ft elevation change.  At the hut, I met someone with a National Geographic map that was much more up-to-date with trail information.  I drew in some of the trails for use later in the trip. 

Later that evening, we were treated to a great sunset.

From right to left: Peak 10, Crystal, Fr. Dyer.

France's hut sleeps 16, but we only reserved two spots, so we got to stay and talk with other adventurers.  One of our hut-mates, Blake, told us about his trip to Peak 10 and Crystal Peak earlier that day. He said we could do the same hike he did, and probably even make it from Crystal Peak to Fr. Dyer.  Three 13000+ ft peaks in one day.  "Wow," we thought, "sweet!"



After dinner, we sat in the sauna with three CSU PhD students, who were drinking enough for all of us, and very curious how hot the sauna could get.  We thought they did a great job of stoking the fire, and at around 11PM, the sauna got to over 140 degrees, which was very relaxing.  We slept well.

Day 2: Peak 10 Summit

Leaving the hut on snowshoes, around 10AM.

In the morning, we ate a leisurely breakfast of oatmeal and granola.  It was getting late to summit all three peaks, but we decided to see how far we could get.  Just before we left, our friends from CSU shuffled out of bed.  Tired, hungover, and out of booze, they decided to cut their trip short and head back to Fort Collins a day early.  However, their trip was still a success - after Sara and I went to bed, they raised the sauna temperature to 194 degrees!  I don't think they slept for long though.

It was pretty windy on the ridge, but there was a great view.

We made it to the eastern ridge of Peak 10 around 11:30AM, started to eat the sushi we made for lunch with a stunning backdrop of Breckenridge and the surrounding valley.

Mmmm

The Peak 10 summit seemed so close, we started celebrating early!

Peak 10 (our first goal) is above and to the right of Sara. Crystal Peak (our second goal) is behind, to the left.

Sara, tempting fate on Peak 10.

We made our way along the ridge of Peak 10, and had to change from boots to snowshoes, and back again, several times due to the patchy snow.  The final 100 meters or so was especially nerve-wracking.  The northern side of the ridge dropped off hundreds of feet at a scary steep grade.  My heart was pounding as we made the final steps towards the peak, but we finally made it.

View from Peak 10, with Crystal Peak on the left.

After pictures at the top my watch said 1:40, and we probably should have turned around right then the way we'd come.  However, with dreams of glory, we set a course for Crystal Peak.  As we decended along the ridge below Peak 10, Blake's bootprints from the day before were clearly visible.  He had apparently walked fearlessly, in rigid alpine ski boots, only a few feet from a steep drop to right of the ridge.

Sara and I were not so bold, and hugged the left side of the ridge, which, though steep, seemed less deadly.  The wobbly rocks scattered along the snowy ridge, and strong winds testing our balance brought us literally to a crawl.  I'm glad our frame of mind at the time didn't allow us to take many pictures of our pathetic mountaineering.

About halfway to the saddle (lowest point on the ridge between two peaks), we'd had enough, and started making our way down the steep rock field back into the valley.  We moved slowly, spending a good deal of time plotting our next few steps down the loose rocks.  Later, when I looked at the statistics on the GPS, we had spent 3.5 hours of the 6.5 hour trip "at rest". Finally, we made it to a trail, which took us much more quickly back to the valley floor. We made it safely to the hut shortly after the sun had dropped below the high valley walls.

The rest of the evening was very relaxing.  Our delicious dinner was even better after the exertion of the hike.  After dinner, we set an ambitious goal to stay up until at least 8:30pm, and to stay awake, we played Gin.  It was a nail-biter, but I won.

Day 3: Back to the Car

We woke up to the sunrise, which seemed to last forever.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We decided to take the scenic route through the southern adjacent valley on our way out.  For better or worse, the day wasn't nearly as exciting (terrifying) as yesterday.  I guess people didn't make it to this area much.  Despite not having snow for at least a week, we had to break trail on our way to the lake we had chosen for lunch. I was Mr. Navigator.  Fortunately, I remembered most of my orienteering skills from my days backpacking with the Boy Scouts, and we didn't get lost... much.  Overall, the trip back to the car was pleasant and low-stress. 

Looking back, this was our greatest outdoor adventure since moving to CO.  With any luck, they'll just keep getting better!  Thanks for reading!

Setting the Stage

I've always wanted to be part of the blogging world.  That's why I set up this blog years ago.  I had just done something worthwhile - traveled to Guatemala to do volunteer work at a mission connected to my parents' church.  I learned a lot, and wanted to blog about it, and maybe one day I will.

My motivation for posting now is the same as it first was when I created this postless blog years ago.  I want to experience, observe, share, and get feedback from my friends and the world.

I start blogging about day-to-day experiences, let me set the stage.

This summer, after five years in Madison, I left my job to live in the mountains.  I've taken so many vacations here that I got tired of making the drive.  I'm thankful that my partner Sara was supportive, and pushed me leave my job and follow my dream of living near the mountains.  Sometimes it takes a little push to overcome the inertia of a comfortable life to set out for the unknown. 

Speaking of the unknown, I hadn't figured out everything about what would happen when I moved, but I had a few options in mind:

• Consulting
• Entrepreneurship
• Career Job with an Established Company

I applied for two career jobs, and was disappointed to be turned down for the first.  It would have been a great place to work, and I still haven't ruled out the possibility of reapplying.

Meanwhile, I had ideas for marketable software projects, and I'm still working on those gradually.  Since the payoff for a brand new product still in the R&D phase is still a ways off, I started looking for short-term consulting positions to keep my healthcare IT skills fresh, and make money. 

Meanwhile second career job interviews went smoothly, and eventually, I was offered a job. The offer forced me to decide whether I wanted to hold out for a consulting opportunity, and I decided I did.

So here I am, supported by my wife's income until I find a paying contract, and with time to work on my own projects and chase my dreams.

Here you'll find anything I care to write about publicly.  Heavily represented will probably be technology, outdoor adventures, and a few philosophic and political meanderings.  I hope I can stick with it and keep your attention.