If you read our article How To Root your HTC Thunderbolt a few days ago you know the HTC Thunderbolt has been rooted as soon as it has been available on Verizon. The rooting procedure is quite complex and dbzfanatic @ XDA released a Windows program which makes it easy to root the HTC Thunderbolt.
Note that we will not be responsible if you end up bricking your device, rooting or customizing your device can be risky. If you follow the instructions carefully you will be fine!
dbzfanatic made it easy for all of us and did even provide a version of his rooting software that does not require adb to be set up. This program can root HTC Thunderbolt devices running a firmware lower than 1.12.605.9.
To root / jailbreak your HTC Thunderbolt easily, simply download the Thunderbolt Root archive file @ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1005292 and follow the instructions on your computer screen. Note that the files are quite big (857 Mb) so be patient while it downloads.
If you’re interested in how jailbreaking the HTC Thunderbolt works, here is an explanation from dbzfanatic:
Push busybox, psneuter,and misc.img to /data/local/
Push PG05IMG_downgrade.zip to /sdcard and rename to PG05IMG.zip
chmod psneuter and busybox
execute psneuter
check the md5 hash of misc.img
flash misc.img to /dev/block/mmcblk0p17 if the hash is c88dd947eb3b36eec90503a3525ae0de
reboot into the bootloader
press power to enter bootloader and flash PG05IMG.zip (done by user)
once back in android:
remove PG05IMG.zip
push busybox, psneuter, and wpthis to /data/local
chmod all 3 files
run psneuter
run wpthis
push the engineering hboot(hbooteng.nb0) to /data/local/
check the md5 of the hboot file (it should be 6991368ee2deaf182048a3ed9d3c0fcb)
if it is flash hbooteng.nb0 to /dev/block/mmcblk0p18
push the PG05IMG.zip file to /sdcard
reboot into the bootloader
again press power and flash PG05IMG.zip (done by user)
push su, busybox, and psneuter to /data/local
chmod psneuter and busybox
run psneuter
mount /system as read/write (rw)
copy su to /system/xbin/su
chown and chmod su
install superuser and RomManager
If you run into issues or would like to get more information, go to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1005292.
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook Fan page to stay updated.