How To Permanently Root Telus HTC Desire HD

While 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).
• 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.