The HTC One S is one of the few smartphones that was announced at the Mobile World Congress this year.  The phone features a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor that uses the minute 28 nm Snapdragon chipset.  While some are looking forward to the phone’s worldwide release in April, MoDaCo’s Paul O’Brien has already rooted the phone.

O’Brien provided a boot.img (Superboot) that roots the HTC One S and installs su binaries and the Superuser app on the phone the first time it is booted after the new boot.img has been flashed to the phone.  The method O’Brien provides is easy to follow and does not require any command-line twiddling with ADB commands.

According to the developer, the boot.img is also unsecure, which means you’ll be able to use “adb remount” if needed and you can have full root access through ADB.

Read the rest of this guide for instructions on flashing Superboot to your HTC One S and root your phone.

Caution

Rooting your phone will void your manufacturer’s warranty. We will not be held liable for any damage that may occur on your device. Use these instructions at your own risk.

Requirements

• HTC One S
• Fully charged battery or at least 70% battery left.
• Enable USB Debugging on your phone by heading to Settings > Applications > Development  > USB Debugging. Make sure that there is a check mark beside that option.
• Temporarily disable all antivirus applications and firewall tools on your computer as they tend to interrupt the rooting process.

Instructions

1. Download the Superboot r1 package from here (r1-ville-superboot.zip, md5sum: 5232e9915e73e827e83a0b9816871702) and save it to your PC.
2. Extract the contents of the ZIP file using any extraction software such as WinZIP or 7-zip. Place the extracted files in a single folder without renaming or modifying any of the files.
3. Switch off your HTC One S.
4. Reboot the phone into bootloader mode. You can do this by pressing and holding down the Volume Down and Power buttons until you get to the bootloader (HBOOT) screen.
5. Connect your HTC One S to your computer via USB cable.
6. Depending on your PC’s operating system follow the appropriate instructions.
   • Mac users
     • Launch a terminal window and go to the directory that contains the extracted files.
     • Enter this command at the terminal  (without the quotes): “./install-superboot-mac.sh”
   • Linux users
     • Launch a terminal window and go to the directory that contains the extracted  files.
     • Enter this command at the terminal  (without the quotes): “./install-superboot-linux.sh”
   • Windows Users
     • Double-click on install-superboot-windows.bat to run the installation script.
7. Disconnect your phone from your PC after the script is finished rooting  your phone.

Congratulations! You have successfully rooted your HTC One S using the Superboot method. Enjoy the many benefits of having a rooted device.  You can now flash custom ROMs, scripts, and kernels, as well as install applications that require root access.