How to Root HTC One X (Windows/Linux/MAC)

If you have an HTC One X and want to root it, here is a simple guide that will guide you how to do it. Rooting your Android device has its own advantages: you can install apps with root access and flash custom ROMs. Please be noted that rooting voids the warranty of your device and if the procedure not followed carefully, might even brick it. However, you can later reclaim the warranty by unrooting it.

The present rooting tutorial applies for Windows, Linux, and MAC. While the things you will do with the device is the same, you will have to follow different steps according to the OS of your computer, so choose the steps accordingly.

Unlocking the Bootloader on HTC One X

Before you can root your HTC One X, you will have to unlock its bootloader. To do this, visit www.htcdev.com and do as follows:

• If you are already registered to HTC Dev, click on “Unlock Bootloader> Get Started”. If you do not have an account, create a new one.
• This will take you another page where you will be asked to “Select Your Device”. Click on the scroll bar and go to the last option in the list and select “All Other Supported Models”. Then click on “Begin Unlock Bootloader”.
• A pop-up window will ask you if you are sure to continue. Select “Yes”.
• Then check on the Legal Terms and click on “Proceed to Unlock Instructions” and follow the instructions given there.

Preparations:

Here are a few preparatory steps that you will need to take before proceeding to root your HTC One X.

• Charge your device to at least 70% battery life.
• Backup the all-important data present on your device. There are hundreds of free app on the Play Store that can back up your call log, contacts, messages, apps and settings.
• Turn on USB Debugging on your device. Open Settings> Developer Options> USB Debugging> check it.
• Install the latest HTC USB drivers on your computer.
• Download r1-recovery-clockwork-touch-endeavoru.img (insecure kernel)
• Download CWM-SuperSU-v0.92.zip or the latest from here.
• (Optional) You can also download the original Secure Kernel file for unrooting your device (using the same method) later to get OTA update.
• You will also have to install Android SDK, or at least download Fastboot on your computer.

Steps to Root HTC One X

1. If you have installed the Android SDK, copy the “r1-recovery-clockwork-touch-endeavoru.img” file to the following path: C:\Android\platform–tools\fastboot. If you do not find the “fastboot” folder, create one.
2. Or, if you have downloaded “Fastboot.zip“, extract it. Inside the extracted folder, you will find four files. Copy the “r1-recovery-clockwork-touch-endeavoru.img” file to the “Fastboot” folder. So you will now have 5 files in the folder: 
3. While the folder is in open state (when you can see the 5 files as shown above), press and hold the Shift key on your Windows PC. Then right click on your mouse while the mouse pointer is at a blank white space inside the folder. In the Options pop-up, select “Open command window here“. Now will see a command prompt window with the location of the fastboot folder.
4. Having launched the command prompt, turn off your device.
5. Now enter the fastboot mode. Boot your device into the bootloader mode first. Press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys simultaneously. When you enter the bootloader mode, use the volume up and down keys to navigate and power key to select. Go to Fastboot option and select it by pressing the Power button.
6. Now connect your device to the computer via a USB cable.
7. Launch the command prompt as told in Step 3, and type “fastboost devices” (without quotes) and press Enter. You will a string of numbers and alphabet appear on the cmd window that represents that it has found your device. If it doesn’t happen, the reasons might be one of these: USB driver not installed properly, or ADB is not installed on your computer. ADB should have been installed during unlocking the bootloader.
8. If you see your device (or number) listed in the cmd, you can proceed to install the insecure kernel with CWM Recovery.
9. To do this you will have to type or copy-paste the following command line in the cmd prompt window:  flash recovery r1-recovery-clockwork-touch-endeavoru.img
10. Hit Enter and the ClockWorkMod Recovery will be flashed to your device in a few seconds.
11. When it is finished, type fastboot reboot to reboot your device.

Your HTC One X with CWM Recovery installed will reboot and will be ready to flash the SuperUser app and then flash custom ROMs to your device. Just be patient, you device has not been rooted yet. So now we shall move on to install the SuperUser app on the One X. Just follow the steps given below.

Installing  SuperUser on One X:

1. Copy the “CWM-SuperSU-v0.92.zip” to your device’s SD Card.
2. Now press and hold the Power key on your device and select HBOOT> Recovery to boot into CWM Recovery mode.
3. You will have use volume and power keys to navigate and select options.
4. Just when the device is in the recovery mode, select “install zip from sdcard> choose zip from sdcard”. (select the memory where you have copied the CWM-SuperSU-v0.92.zip in Step 1.
5. Then browse to the same and confirm your choice by selecting “yes”.
6. Finally, select “go back” and “reboot system now”. The device will reboot and it will be rooted.

Congrats! you have successfully rooted your HTC One X. You can now install custom ROMs on it.

How to Install a Custom ROM on HTC One X:

1. Download the ROM and GApps (if provided) in .zip format (do not extract).
2. Copy the files to the root of your device’s SD Card.
3. Turn off the device and press-hold the Power key on your device and select HBOOT> Recovery to boot into CWM Recovery mode.
4. Create a backup of your current ROM, so that you can restore it later if anything goes wrong, or if you wish to return back to it later.
5. Wipe Data/Factory Reset and Cache Partition.
6. Go to Advanced option and wipe Dalvik Cache.
7. Select: “install zip from sdcard>choose zip from sdcard” and install the ROM file.
8. When it is installed, come back to the main menu.
9. (Optional) Now flash the GApps. To do this, select ” install zip from sdcard>choose zip from sdcard” again.
10. After installation, go back to the main menu and select “reboot system now”.

Bingo! If you have any question regarding the topic, let me know by dropping a comment.

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