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How To Permanently Root Telus HTC Desire HD

Root Telus Desire HDWhile we have already shown you how to root HTC Desire HD, that method somehow doesn’t seem to work for the Telus Desire HD so if you are a Telus subscriber and want root access on your Android phone, read on for the complete guide.

This rooting method is brought to us by XDA-Developers forum member AlexDP and it lets you easily root your Telus Desire HD. While it is not as simple and straightforward as the method for other versions of HTC Desire HD, it has been tested to work successfully by many users.

We have personally tried to make following this guide simpler for you by changing the method a bit and eliminating a few steps from AlexDP’s original guide involving copying the downloaded files across folders multiple times. We have done this for you ourselves and have decided to call the resulting files the ‘Telus Desire HD Rooting Toolkit’.

Note: This guide is intended for the Telus branded HTC Desire DD only and will NOT work for any other HTC Desire HD so if yours  isn’t by Telus, see our guide on how to root HTC Desire HD.

Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable if your device gets damaged or bricked during the process.

Requirements:

  • The latest version of HTC Sync installed (required for the phone’s drivers).
  • The PD98IMG Stock ROM (Do NOT extract this zip file’s contents or rename it).
  • (https://addictivetips.com/app/uploads/2011/02/Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit.zip) Telus Desire HD Rooting Toolkit (Extract the contents of this zip file to your computer).
  • A Gold Card for your phone. See our guide on how to make a Gold Card for HTC Desire HD.
  • Backup any data on your phone’s memory that you want to save. This includes contacts, SMS/MMS messages, apps, data from apps etc. You can install Titanium Backup from Android Market for this. Data on your SD card should be safe, though backing that up to your PC is a good idea as well.

Procedure:

Step 1 – Downgrading to a Rootable Stock ROM

  1. Connect your phone to your computer via USB and mount its drive to transfer files to it.
  2. Copy the PD98IMG.zip file to your SD card’s root (not in any folder).
  3. Now set the USB connection type to ‘charge only’ from your phone and enable USB debugging by going into Settings > Applications > Development.
  4. Go to the locatoin of the extracted Telus Desire HD Rooting Toolkit and double-click ‘Start Here’.
  5. In the Command Prompt window that appears, enter the following commands one by one: 
    adb push psneuter /data/local/tmp
adb push misc_version /data/local/tmp
adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/psneuter
adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/misc_version
adb shell /data/local/tmp/psneuter
adb shell
  6. You should now see the # prompt instead of $. Continue by entering these commands: 
    /data/local/tmp/misc_version -s 1.31.405.3
exit
adb reboot bootloader
  7. Your phone should boot into its bootloader now. Once you see the white bootloader screen, press the power button once to automatically enter the bootloader and detect the PD98IMG.zip file.
  8. You will see a blue progress bar while the file is being examined. Once the progress is complete, press the ‘volume up’ button to confirm that you want to install it.
  9. Wait patiently while this stock ROM is installed and if some items are bypassed, don’t worry about it.
  10. Once the installation is complete, press the ‘power’ button to restart your phone back into Android.

Your phone has now been downgraded to a rootable stock ROM and you can proceed further.

Step 2 – Gaining Temporary Root

  1. Enable USB Debugging again on your phone from Settings > Applications > Development.
  2. In the Command Prompt window, enter these commands (If you have closed the window, open it again by double-clicking ‘Start Here’ from the Telus Desire HD Rooting Toolkit folder). 
    adb push su /sdcard/su
adb push Superuser.apk /sdcard/Superuser.apk
adb push rage /data/local/tmp/rage
adb push busybox /data/local/tmp/busybox
adb push root /data/local/tmp/root
adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/tmp/*
  3. Install Terminal Emulator on your phone from Android Market. (Note that your SIM card must be in the phone while accessing Android Market, or you will get an error.)
  4. Launch Terminal Emulator on your phone and enter this command on it: 
    /data/local/tmp/rage
  5. Wait till you see a message saying “Forked #### childs” and press Menu > ‘Reset Term’.
  6. Launch Terminal Emulator again. It will crash with a ‘Force Close’ error. Launch it yet again and this time, it should launch with root access i.e. # prompt instead of $.

Your device is now temporarily rooted. Now lets proceed to getting permanent root access.

Step 3 – Gaining Permanent Root

  1. In the Command Prompt window, enter these commands (If you have closed the window, open it again by double-clicking ‘Start Here’ from the Telus Desire HD Rooting Toolkit folder). 
    adb push gfree /data/local
adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/gfree
  2. Now launch Terminal Emulator on your phone and enter these commands on it: 
    /data/local/gfree -f
sync
/data/local/tmp/root
sync

    If you get an error saying ‘mkdir: /system/xbin already exists, just ignore it.

  3. Wait till the permanent rooting process is finished and once it is complete, reboot your phone.

There you go – you should now have permanent root access on your Telus Desire HD and this should enable you to install and use thousands of apps on your phone that require root access. In case you come across any trouble with this procedure, please visit the XDA-Developers link given below and post your problem over there.

Also, if you want to install a custom recovery or flash custom ROMs on your phone, you must set it to S-OFF as well, in addition to having permanent root access. To do that, see our guide on how to gain S-OFF on Telus Desire HD.

[via XDA-Developers]
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Haroon Q Raja
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44 Comments

  1. Telus rooting i’am learning. didn’t brick my phone but it did not work. It came up a lot with adb out dated. Don’t know if that matters? Don’t know how to update it if it does.

  3. I always get $ sign instead of #. I think it’s Gold Card Problem. Can you provide more detailed instruction how to prepare a GOOD GoldCard

  4. does the Gold Card need to be in the phone perminately or can i replace with my normal SD card after roots been completed

  6. even those ive got a successful run on the commands i didnt get the # prompt i always end up in $ prompt
    E:\backup\laptop_backup\installer\rooting\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telus
    Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe
    Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
    (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

    E:\backup\laptop_backup\installer\rooting\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telus
    Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb push psneuter /data/local/tmp
    adb server is out of date. killing…
    * daemon started successfully *
    1025 KB/s (0 bytes in 557962.000s)

    E:\backup\laptop_backup\installer\rooting\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telus
    Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb push misc_version /data/local/tmp
    adb server is out of date. killing…
    * daemon started successfully *
    989 KB/s (0 bytes in 15837.000s)

    E:\backup\laptop_backup\installer\rooting\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telus
    Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/psneuter
    adb server is out of date. killing…
    * daemon started successfully *

    E:\backup\laptop_backup\installer\rooting\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telus
    Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/misc_version
    adb server is out of date. killing…
    * daemon started successfully *

    E:\backup\laptop_backup\installer\rooting\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telus
    Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb shell /data/local/tmp/psneuter
    adb server is out of date. killing…
    * daemon started successfully *
    Failed to set prot mask (Inappropriate ioctl for device)

    E:\backup\laptop_backup\installer\rooting\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telus
    Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb shell
    adb server is out of date. killing…
    * daemon started successfully *
    $ /data/local/tmp/misc_version -s 1.31.405.3
    /data/local/tmp/misc_version -s 1.31.405.3
    –set_version set. VERSION will be changed to: 1.31.405.3
    Patching and backing up partition 17…
    Error opening input file.
    $

    please advice ive tried repeating the steps im still getting the same prompt

  7. hi there,

    im upgraded to gingerbread, so i changed psneuter to gingerbreak, and it appears to be hanging at:

    [**] Gingerbreak/Honeybomb — android 2.[2,3], 3.0 softbreak
    [**] (C) 2010-2011 The Android Exploid Crew. All rights reserved.
    [**] Kudos to jenzi, the #brownpants-party, the Open Source folks,
    [**] Zynamics for ARM skills and Onkel Budi

    [**] donate to 7-4-3-C@web.de if you like
    [**] Exploit may take a while!

    [+] Plain Gingerbread mode!
    [+] Found PT_DYNAMIC of size 232 (29 entries)
    [+] Found GOT: 0x00014360
    [+] Using device /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.0
    [*] vold: 0000 GOT start: 0x00014360 GOT end: 0x000143a0

    Its been sitting here for 10 minutes now, anyone have any ideas?

    Cheers!

  8. does not work. tried everything. multiple sites. never worked. most files either dont work, wont download, or wont be found. maybe the original by AlexDP would work, but how to find? thanks for the help i guess…

  9. step 1 command: adb shell /data/local/tmp/psneuter
    failed to set prot mask (inappropriate ioctl for device)

    HELP

  11. hello,

    I got all the way to the final step of perm root “Wait till the permanent rooting process is finished and once it is complete, reboot your phone.”……….. how long should this process take, seems to never end!!?

  13. does anybody have any idea of how to do this on a mac? or where i could find a guide

  14. When Iget to step 3 nothing happened so I restarted the phone but I don’t have the permanent root, even though the superuser.ask is there, when I click it nothing happens and inthe terminal I have the regular prompt back. What am I doing wrong?

  15. at step 2, in the command prompt, it says error: device not found. i’ve completed everything up to this point without issue, including gold card. its in charge only mode with debugging turned on, my computer reconizes the device, but the command prompt doesnt….any tips??

  16. i got it all working till the last part where i have to enter in the command in terminal emulator /data/local/tmp/root however when i do this, it says cp:not found cp: not found mount: not found what am i doing wrong?

  17. Got the same problem as Ethan. At step to, i get to the part when it says “Forked #### childs” and press Menu > ‘Reset Term’.
    after a ‘Force Close’ error I launch it yet again nothing happens, the operating system just becomes slow. I have to reboot and redo /data/local/tmp/rage
    so far i tried rebooting,and tried /data/local/tmp/rage same issue
    i reinstalled terminal emulator, since there are 2 in the market, “Terminal Emulator” and “Android Terminal Emulator” i tried both of them.
    “Terminal Emulator” constantly gives force close error
    “Android Terminal Emulator” says force close once and then doesnt start

    Please help

    • Starting again from scratch and retrying might help. If you got through the critical step of downgrading using Gold Card, retrying the rest will be your best bet. If it still doesn’t work, please follow the XDA-Developers link at the end of the article and post your problem there, so that the original developers of this method can look into it.

  18. ignore my last message.in step 2, when your supposed to reset the term, it comes up saying force close, and then wont open again

    • The method has worked like a charm for many, judging from the response to the original XDA-Developers forum thread but then, some have experienced issues as well. Many of those reporting issues have been helped by the developer of the method and other members of the community at the forum thread. Your best bet will be to give it a couple more tries from scratch and if you still can’t get it to work, just visit the forum thread and browse through the user response there. Most likely, someone else has reported the issue and has been helped. If your issue hasn’t been reported there, make a post and the developer or some community member will be able to better assist you.

  19. got past the “rage” part.. got to step 3 terminal emulator part and the two commands :data/local/gfree -f
    and
    /data/local/tmp/root
    both had errors at the end. the commands ‘sync’ did nothing at all..

    • The commands ‘sync’ will not give any particular output. That doesn’t mean they don’t do anything at all – they are performing the necessary synchronization in the background.

  20. Just finished the whole process, including making a goldcard, and S-Off – and now I have no sound and my mobile internet doesn’t work! Anyone out there have a solution for this?

    • They might have a solution to that in the XDA-Developers forum where the method was originally posted. Please follow the link given at the end of the article and go through the posts there, or post your problem there if you can’t find the solution there in the existing posts.

  21. Also, when i go on the terminal emulator, it ells me acces is denied when i type the command

  22. When I enter the command ” adb push rage /data/local/tmp/rage”
    on my command prompt, it says “cannot sat ‘rage’ : no such file or directory”
    this makes it also so i cannot access the step using the terminal emulator, am I forgetting something?

  23. Doh. Format the card as a physical disk, not a logical disk and the problem is solved…

  24. I have the same issue john, i think it has to do with the goldcard not being set-up correctly. I have tried 4 different Micro SD cards, same results.

  25. I have tried several times to use this method to root my Telus HTC Desire HD. Each time it is in the bootloader I get a blue progress bar and when that finishes a gold progress bar begins and when that finishes I get:
    Model ID incorrect!
    Update Fail!
    Press to reboot
    How do I resolve this so that I can root my phone. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.
    Thanks
    John
    Here is my phone specific info:
    ACE PVT SHIP S-ON RL
    HBOOT-0.85.0019
    MICROP-0138
    RADIO-26.06.03.24_M2
    eMMC-boot
    Dec 27 2010, 14:47:30

    • Richard’s solution given below in his comment should work for you too, John.

    • im getting the same message, model id incorrect! update fail! how did you fix this? i redid the whole process a few times. keep gettin this message

    • Yes, you will be able to do that using another ROM. Though if that ROM isn’t already rooted or is the same that you downgraded from (which doesn’t allow you to root at all), you will obviously lose root access. If you go through this trouble of downgrading and rooting, I wouldn’t recommend reverting back to an official upgrade if you still want root access. A custom ROM that’s already rooted will be a better idea.

    • I keep getting one of three errors… First it might say the error at the bottom of this sequence:

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe
      Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
      (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb push psneuter /data/local/tmp
      * daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
      * daemon started successfully *
      error: device not found

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb push misc_version /data/local/tmp
      error: device not found

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/psneuter
      error: device not found

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb push psneuter /data/local/tmp
      adb server is out of date. killing…
      * daemon started successfully *
      1585 KB/s (0 bytes in 557962.000s)

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb push misc_version /data/local/tmp
      adb server is out of date. killing…
      * daemon started successfully *
      989 KB/s (0 bytes in 15837.000s)

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/psneuter
      adb server is out of date. killing…
      * daemon started successfully *

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/misc_version
      adb server is out of date. killing…
      * daemon started successfully *

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb shell /data/local/tmp/psneuter
      adb server is out of date. killing…
      * daemon started successfully *
      Failed to set prot mask (Inappropriate ioctl for device)

      C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\Desktop\phone\Telus-Desire-HD-Rooting-Toolkit\Telu
      s Desire HD Rooting Toolkit>adb shell
      adb server is out of date. killing…
      * daemon started successfully *
      $ /data/local/tmp/misc_version -s 1.31.405.3
      /data/local/tmp/misc_version -s 1.31.405.3
      –set_version set. VERSION will be changed to: 1.31.405.3
      Patching and backing up partition 17…
      Error opening input file.
      $

      or I get to the blue bar, then gold bar and the file is no good

      or I choose the boot loader and it just flashes quickly to say that there is no image/wrong image..

      Help?

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