Unlocking and install a custom ROM on the HTC Evo 4G (Sprint) and most other HTC Android phones

Last Modified: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 01:44:40 +0000 ; Created: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 01:44:40 +0000

Just some rough notes. I wanted an official way versus using hacks and exploits to avoid viruses and what not.

I skip rooting your existing ROM since I assume you will be overwritting it with a custom ROM anyway. Rooting would just involve installing the SU and Superuser.apk anyway.

Pre-requistes

  1. HTC Phone with SD Card and 300MB free space
  2. Okay with wiping all data and settings from the device!
  3. Android SDK
    • You just need the fastboot command and not the platform-tools or anything else really
  4. HTC Sync if you are using Windows since you'll need the drivers
  5. A Recovery Image
    • ClockworkMod
    • For HTC Evo 4G just pick the one for "HTC Evo"
    • Look in the second column for the download link
  6. A custom ROM
  7. An HTCDev.com account - free and home of the official HTC developers

Unlocking

  1. Download your custom rom zip and store it on your phone's sdcard in the root of the sdcard
  2. Download and include the gapps zip if you want it
  3. Power off your phone
  4. Remove the battery (or disable fastboot in the OEM firmware: home screen, menu, settings, Power, Fastboot or settings, Applications, Fastboot)
  5. Hold down the Volume Down button and Power button until the phone turns on
  6. Ensure your USB cable is connected
  7. Follow the instructions at HTCDev
    • For the HTC Evo 4G use "All Other Supported Models"
  8. Once unlocked don't reboot, continue to next section

Booting custom recovery and flashing the custom rom

  1. fastboot boot customrecovery.img
    • Where customrecovery.img is the name of the local image on your computer
  2. Use the custom recovery to flash the zip custom rom copy on your sdcard to your device
  3. Make sure to wipe all data and cache with the custom recovery you booted otherwise you will probably get an endless boot error
  4. You don't have to flash the custom recovery image if you don't want too. I did so after I booted my custom ROM as that was easier.
  5. Reboot and enjoy

Troubleshooting

  1. If you get errors with fastboot not finding your device try running it with administrator privelege

References