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Note: I'm hoping this is the correct place for this thread, hopefully others with this same phone would benefit from it, as this sub-forum seems barren of any guides on what I am looking for
After Christmas, I decided to get my first smart phone, the D2G. I ordered it through Newegg and had it linked to a family account on Verizon.
So what I currently have now is Android 2.2, System Version 2.4.330.A956.Verizon.en.us, and tons of Verizon branded bloat.
My goal is that I would like to install a vanilla version of gingerbread. Being my first smartphone, and my first time on these forums, I'm greatly lacking in knowledge of these phones and how to get from where I am at to where I want to be. What I do have, however, is an understanding of operating system architecture, UNIX experience and good technical knowledge of PCs. I understand what rooting means, what apps are, what a bootstrap does, however I know nothing of how to get or use these things on this phone, nor any idea where to look for this information. Because this phone is on contract (and thus only paid $150 for it), I'm hoping to minimize the risk of bricking it, or otherwise costing me more money.
What I am looking for: any information/guides/links that will help me to get me from Android 2.2 to a vanilla version of gingerbread on the D2G. From what I have gathered from other threads is that I need to root it (by installing z4root I read), boot in recovery mode, then install ROMs. None of those things I know how to do right now. I suppose helping me learn how to do those would be a great start.
tl;dr I need a layman's guide to get gingerbread on D2G
Thanks in advance for any help
To begin you won't be able to get Gingerbread until Motorola releases an update. The Droid 2 (and D2 Global) have a locked bootloader which means the kernel can't be changed except by Motorola. Without a kernel upgrade Gingerbread will remain out of reach.
You can, however, grab some things that have been backported from Gingerbread like the keyboard and theme. As time goes by more and more external things from Gingerbread will become available for non-GB users, but certain things that rely on the GB kernel will be elusive.
Now as for FroYo, there currently isn't a completely working AOSP (Android Open Source Project) ROM yet. Fission and GummyJAR strip away as much Blur as possible and work towards AOSP. Unleashed, Ultimate Droid, and Tanzanite are all AOSP ROMs in development but are lacking full functionality at the moment. Basically you've got to pick your poison: AOSP-like that works or AOSP that's not quite done.
Given that you have a D2 Global I'd personally hold off on changing ROMs at the moment. The D2G SBF (System Boot File) hasn't been leaked yet so if anything were to go wrong while changing ROMs your phone would be bricked until the SBF is released. A SBF allows you to revert your phone back to its out-of-the-box state should anything go wrong; your phone can be in a boot loop but you can turn it on in a way that will allow you to get things back to square one at least. Without the SBF you're really taking a gamble.
Alright, so I take it I just got too new of a phone then ~_~
thanks
Don't be too upset that your phone is too new yet...
Just be very careful with what you try for now.
It is just over a year since I got my first Droid and while there were plenty of hacks and roms for that back then, few were really STABLE. It didn't take long before not only were stable roms available, they were far better and included features that were not supposed to be on the phone.
Including overclocking it to twice the stock speed.
The D2G is in a similar place right now but the whole "eFuse" thing makes hacking a lot trickier. Its much easier to brick a D2/DX than an original Droid.
BUt progress is being made and there is little doubt in my mind that all the devs out there will make this phone what it should be just like they did with the Droid.
Gingerbread will get to us eventually, but for now Fission rom has already improved my D2G 100% over stock.
rogerdugans said:
Gingerbread will get to us eventually, but for now Fission rom has already improved my D2G 100% over stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interested in Fission, but as I have previously stated, I'm quite clueless for the time being
Is this something that is safe?
Kenshin- said:
Interested in Fission, but as I have previously stated, I'm quite clueless for the time being
Is this something that is safe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want 100% safe- leave your phone exactly as you received it.
Seriously.
There is risk in doing this stuff, even when we are simply taking advantage of the very risky work done by devs to figure out HOW to modify our phones.
Generally speaking, the longer you wait the less risky it is, but the fact is that there is never ZERO danger to it. Even if all the mods and hacks you use are time tested and there has not been a single bug found by anyone- flashing a rom can go wrong and leave a device bricked.
Even flashing a manufacturer provided BIOS on a computer has risk.
All of that said, if you want to minimize risk, wait just a little while for the bugs to be worked out more thoroughly.
I just saw that there is now an SBF for the D2G last night- that helps provide a buffer for accidents (disaster recovery!) but I don't know how well tested it is. We should know fairly soon- quite a few folks with bricked phones have been waiting for it!
I would say that right now the D2G has risk in the "moderate" range- new phone, not that much dev time, etc.
The only other phone I have personal experience with is the original Droid- risk on that is "minimal." Hard to kill those things.
All that said, I have accepted the risk and did so before the sbf was out. I have had no problems at all so far.
IF you choose to do so, I highly recommend following instructions exactly and making sure you know what you are doing and why.
I don't mean to talk you or anyone else out of improving their smart phone, but I do believe that realistic risk assessment is a wise thing to do before starting.
I used the SBF to flash my phone 2 days ago, with no issues.
rogerdugans said:
Generally speaking, the longer you wait the less risky it is, but the fact is that there is never ZERO danger to it.
...
All of that said, if you want to minimize risk, wait just a little while for the bugs to be worked out more thoroughly.
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Click to collapse
I have a D2 and I got it pretty new a few months ago it was my first Android phone but I watched the forums and learned as things became available how to do it all. I watched as the device everyone thought wasn't even going to get root access got it, then the ROMs came; it wasn't easy and they aren't like the ROMs that came for previous devices because of the locks Moto put on the phone. But, we were happy with it and I've been pleasantly surprised at what the devs have come up with and have been running custom ROMs so long I don't remember what stock was even like. I just know it wasn't as cool as the custom stuff I'm running.
So hang in there and read all you can about your device or similar devices (D2, DX, DPro) so that when something comes along that you want to try you know what to do to make it work and what to do if it doesn't go as planned.
Never even heard of it until the guy at the store pointed it out. I figured I was still in my return policy so why the heck not... So I get it home and turn it on and I gotta say... WOW! Even with a stock image from the store, this thing makes the atrix look like an old man. Moto did something with that phone that made it laughable! It couldnt even produce the color yellow...
Anyway...
Is this phone as hard to ROM as it appears? I was checking the dev section and I gotta say.. it looked a little crazy. Captivate was pretty straight forward - root, download CMW, flash rom. Is this that difficult or am I just making more of it than it really is? I couldnt figure out what a gold card was lol..
Thanks
Did the same thing
Just brought my Atrix back as well and got the Inspire.. I liked the front camera and HDMI port but they arent dealbreakers. Fingerprint thing was cool but IM not James Bond so I didn't care.
If I wanted a locked down phone I'd by an iPhone. Motorola is total joke. You can't remove that ridiculously bloated Motoblur and having my Facebook contacts lumped in with my regular contacts drove me insane. Resolution was amazing but its a wash cause the colors are atrocious. On top of the scam that the dual core processor only works on the laptop dock....sorry Motorola, try again some other day.
Atrix= Epic Fail
PSUfan5 (5 isn't for LJ is it? lol),
I have both the atrix and inspire and i have to agree with you that even though spec wise the atrix is superior, but in terms of useablitiy and functionality the inspire and HTC sense is king... plus if your a flash-a-holic like myself then you've found a new home...
that being said, although the rooting of the inspire looks ruff, if you take your time and follow attn1 instructions step by step you should be good to go, plus there are youtube videos showing you visually how to as well... and the user community is pretty helpful... also u can use irc to get real time help...
the dev support is up there with the best, i mean with in the first few days we have had custom roms, kernels that enable overclocking, teathering (wifi and usb), clockwork for easy flashing, cm7 support so you have gbread right of the bat, and sound fixes/performance fixes to jazz up your phone...
even though is "only" a 1 ghz processor as opposed the the dual core, I find the second generation snapdragons pretty zippy and no lag, which is weird because i actually experienced some with my atrix and its dual core (maybe its just moto blur)... oh and the upload/download speed are not as capped as the atrix, my inspire gets 3.5 down and 1.6 up, where as my atrix got 3.1 down but 0.4 up
Just my two cents
Welcome to the HTC Inspire "4g" <--- not really 4g
If you have any questions feel free to ask
psufan5 said:
Never even heard of it until the guy at the store pointed it out. I figured I was still in my return policy so why the heck not... So I get it home and turn it on and I gotta say... WOW! Even with a stock image from the store, this thing makes the atrix look like an old man. Moto did something with that phone that made it laughable! It couldnt even produce the color yellow...
Anyway...
Is this phone as hard to ROM as it appears? I was checking the dev section and I gotta say.. it looked a little crazy. Captivate was pretty straight forward - root, download CMW, flash rom. Is this that difficult or am I just making more of it than it really is? I couldnt figure out what a gold card was lol..
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same process - it's just obtaining root is a little more difficult. There is a hack kit in the dev section that will walk you through the process, and a "1 click" GUI has also recently been released in the Dev section
Flash has been acting up for me... it plays then gets garbled etc... it was playing fine and fast before - now its choppy and ugly. wonder what happened... hmm.
Welcome and good choice! Rooting and timing isn't that bad
psufan5 said:
Never even heard of it until the guy at the store pointed it out. I figured I was still in my return policy so why the heck not... So I get it home and turn it on and I gotta say... WOW! Even with a stock image from the store, this thing makes the atrix look like an old man. Moto did something with that phone that made it laughable! It couldnt even produce the color yellow...
Anyway...
Is this phone as hard to ROM as it appears? I was checking the dev section and I gotta say.. it looked a little crazy. Captivate was pretty straight forward - root, download CMW, flash rom. Is this that difficult or am I just making more of it than it really is? I couldnt figure out what a gold card was lol..
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Welcome! Just returned my Atrix for the Inspire few days back. The Atrix needs another 6 months of software and firmware refinement and polish, to even come close. Motoblur is ugly.
Rooting process complete with a few hiccups - had to manually copy a few files to the phone that for some reason werent there.
All in all, im really impressed with this phone. I havent tested the battery much but I turned off most syncing etc. Hopefully ill get good life out of it!
I went from a Motorola Milestone to a Droid 2 Global. And as much as I am enjoying the Fission ROM from Team DeFuse, I am wondering why there seems to be such low interest in the Droid 2 Global compared to the original Droid 2? Can anyone give me some info as to why this is the case? I realize that with the Droid 2 globals additional radios that that transcribes to more work to get those operational in a custom ROM, I just dont understand why this powerful phone is ignored and left to sit on the curb. Thank you to all in advance.
1. The Global is hard to dev for. There aren't many Global devices to go off of, so the radios are hard to get 100% working on custom roms
2. It was launched silently. No one really knows it exists, so it just didn't receive the initial dev bump that phones usually get when they're first released
3. It didn't sell very well. I can't speak for the whole sales numbers, but my friend who works for Verizon Corporate (or something like that) said the numbers weren't fantastic in New York.
4. Three devices is a lot. Any devs willing to work on the Global probably already work on the Droid X and Droid 2. Adding a third device to the list is just too much for people who do this as a hobby.
That's the best explanation I can give... sorry for how negative it was, lol.
To be fair, the D2G is receiving more support this last month or so. Look on droidforums.net, some good work being done on there (3 or 4 roms available).
I will keep an eye out on droidforums. I was also thinking that with the possibility of 2.3 coming out for it most devs dont (myself included) see a point in making a ROM on froyo when 2.3 is around the corner. Thank you for your input. Its much appreciated
Most of the correct answers were already stated...
Just wated to point out that only people who truly needed global support would buy the D2G.
Droid Pro got play merely because it was targeted at the Crackberry crowd conversion which really didn't work.
Those are the only two GLOBAL phone I know of. Doesn't make sense to make many more with the 4G revolution under way.
Business have bought into the form factor but the Devs they all look at the performance specs and the EASE of development regarding the model.
The biggest issue though is the locked bootloader! Since the boot loader is locked you can not run custom Kernels so any development that could be made is limited to the stock kernel.
All of the Motorola development you see regarding phone with lockd bootloaders are really nothing more than a bunch of stock and AOSP apps and system files that change the look and the startup sequence but the base code that runs the phone pretty much stays the same!
I would love to see more people making ROMs for the unit but what I really want to see is the unlocking of that boot loader.
If we managed to do that then none of us would be worrying how many roms were available or which one updates next.
We would probably all be running Cyanogen at this point and merely wait for the next release of stable! And also be looking for the next great Kernel update to make it even better!
Asphyx said:
Most of the correct answers were already stated...
Just wated to point out that only people who truly needed global support would buy the D2G.
Droid Pro got play merely because it was targeted at the Crackberry crowd conversion which really didn't work.
Those are the only two GLOBAL phone I know of. Doesn't make sense to make many more with the 4G revolution under way.
Business have bought into the form factor but the Devs they all look at the performance specs and the EASE of development regarding the model.
The biggest issue though is the locked bootloader! Since the boot loader is locked you can not run custom Kernels so any development that could be made is limited to the stock kernel.
All of the Motorola development you see regarding phone with lockd bootloaders are really nothing more than a bunch of stock and AOSP apps and system files that change the look and the startup sequence but the base code that runs the phone pretty much stays the same!
I would love to see more people making ROMs for the unit but what I really want to see is the unlocking of that boot loader.
If we managed to do that then none of us would be worrying how many roms were available or which one updates next.
We would probably all be running Cyanogen at this point and merely wait for the next release of stable! And also be looking for the next great Kernel update to make it even better!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Won't anyone who wants a keyboard on verizon also get the D2G? I mean it's the only half decent phone with a physical qwerty keyboard on verizon, and the droid 2 itself was phased out months ago, 4 months ago when I got my D2G you couldn't get a new Droid 2 at verizon, though I think Best Buy might have still had them, though they were just clearing out stock.
Also I thought fact that everything has to be signed is the problem with the phone. When you don't know how to sign the kernel and other things the phone has hardware to autobrick which is why no one can get around it. Tons of phones out there have locked bootloaders that are gotten around well before or within a few days of the phone being released. If it was just the locked bootloader then I'd say motorola has found the holy grail of security, because everything else out there has been hacked through.
The problem isn't that the bootloader is signed, its that its encrypted. Newer htc phones have bootloaders that require signed kernels and people have found ways around them already, the encryption prevents us from loading custom software on it.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using XDA App
Well, first of all, i don't live in US, but i'm a BIG fan of Android and really need an upgrade from my old Moto Cliq.
The Inspire is compatible with my local 3g and 4g network,and the price is really good.. but there is something weird that haves me confused.
How does Radio files work here? I saw in some ROMS threads that you need to have "X" radio version so it works ok. I Don't want to flash any Radio file as i don't want to screw up my 3G/4G.
2nd Question: Can you unbrick an Inspire 4g? I Bricked my Cliq once and was really happy i could unbrick it (fhew).
Thanks XDA!
PD: Just 2 general questions... what kind of results you could expect in quadrant? The phone is really smooth for games and UI?
BurnRubber90 said:
Well, first of all, i don't live in US, but i'm a BIG fan of Android and really need an upgrade from my old Moto Cliq.
The Inspire is compatible with my local 3g and 4g network,and the price is really good.. but there is something weird that haves me confused.
How does Radio files work here? I saw in some ROMS threads that you need to have "X" radio version so it works ok. I Don't want to flash any Radio file as i don't want to screw up my 3G/4G.
2nd Question: Can you unbrick an Inspire 4g? I Bricked my Cliq once and was really happy i could unbrick it (fhew).
Thanks XDA!
PD: Just 2 general questions... what kind of results you could expect in quadrant? The phone is really smooth for games and UI?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing a radio isn't any harder than the rest of the rooting process, you'll be able to fix it. I haven't heard of anyone hard-bricking an Inspire, but I've soft-bricked mine, battery pull fixed it. If you have any rom problems you can always go back to stock.
As for quadrant I don't know about stock settings but with my current settings(overclocked to 1.3ghz) I get about 2500-2700 depending on my cpu governor. But just because I haven't gotten a chance to post this yet. This is my BEST quadrant ever. Overclocked to 2.0ghz(unsafe! never go over 1.8) with performance governor. I can't repeat this because now every time I try to set my cpu that high it locks up, but i got a pretty epic score.
wow, awesome. Can't wait to put my hands on this bad boy.
@Quadrant scores : That basically makes my Cliq look like it's from the 80's lol.
Thanks for your quick responses!
You can hard brick it with a bad radio flash. but if you check md5 sums your good to go. If you get good speed and signal you can stick with the stock radio. You never HAVE to flash a radio unless your unhappy with it. however after flashing roms its good practice to flash the ril files for your radio. different roms come with different rils but NEVER replace your radio. I got quadrant scores of 3600 with my inspire but quadrant should be taken with a grain of salt. Ive had quadrant differ over 800 points from one run to another back to back. dont even bother with quadrant scores go by how it feels under your fingers
Honestly, the A2 has great performance, it is not top of the line, but it is certainly pretty high end. It has a decent feel overall, but still know one knows about it. Why is this?!!? I'm not even talking strictly from a development standpoint, as it is just so unheard of. everyone knows about the whole droid line and such, but our great phone is completely neglected. There is no way i'm the only one that is bothered by this, especially because there is so much potential in our phone. I know the locked bootloader, makes things difficult, but a way around that is near, so do y'all think development will take off once we get it bypassed or unlocked? Thanks for listening to my rant and feel free to give your own opinion
Motorola or Att did not push this phone like they did with the original Atrix. Most people are going with samsung (sgs2 or the note). That is why we do not have very many devs. Samsung phone are much easier to work with. I know because i have one. If no one else decides to get this phone that's fine with me. I like the phone as is. Im also happy with the few devs we have. Their work is greatly appreciated.
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium
Once cm9 or a form of ics gets calling and texting going then things will start to kick off. Right now with our limited amount of knowledgeable devs some have lost interest and are just sitting by waiting for Motorola to release ics.
Sent from my I9300 using XDA
you aren't the only one. It pisses me off. I always have service on this phone, for the most part it's fast and smooth, and the ROM support is becoming awesome. Yet still people don't know the name of my phone , they just know it's "big"
tsdeaton said:
Once cm9 or a form of ics gets calling and texting going then things will start to kick off. Right now with our limited amount of knowledgeable devs some have lost interest and are just sitting by waiting for Motorola to release ics.
Sent from my I9300 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, one of the orignal devs for this phone (been on it since it came out) has not lost interest but is working on kexec for our phone which is BY FAR more important than ICS... The possibilities are endless once we have a bootloader bypass.
Motorola did not advertise or really let ANYONE know that the phone was being released. For example, when I walked into the AT&T store with a $100 and a contract renewal, I just browsed/tried all of the phones they had in stock, and happend to like the feature set/performance of the Atrix 2 the best. The funny part is that I had NO idea that the phone actually came out the day before and was just put on display. Luckily the phone is great and the community to go along with it is even greater.
Honestly I'm on Supercharged right now, clocked around 1.25 GHz, and I can go higher, but my battery life sucks. I don't really care about the attention. We're getting ICS, and I'm hoping I don't have a good enough excuse to go back to stock until ICS is out. Then I'm going back to stock for sure. The speed is great, the lagginess and bloat on the stock rom just sucked, but so does my battery life now. It doesn't really take a whole lot to trim down a stock rom, I'm sure someone will do it for ICS if I don't myself.
Douchewithaphone said:
Honestly I'm on Supercharged right now, clocked around 1.25 GHz, and I can go higher, but my battery life sucks. I don't really care about the attention. We're getting ICS, and I'm hoping I don't have a good enough excuse to go back to stock until ICS is out. Then I'm going back to stock for sure. The speed is great, the lagginess and bloat on the stock rom just sucked, but so does my battery life now. It doesn't really take a whole lot to trim down a stock rom, I'm sure someone will do it for ICS if I don't myself.
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Click to collapse
Freezing apps does wonders for performance + battery life. I use Titanium Backup for this. All the "junk apps" that Motorola/AT&T installed (that I don't use) get frozen.
The End.
Some of our roms are great, but there are only 4 or 5 or something, it would be nice to see some of the big ones like cm7. hopefully an unlocked BL and ICS will spark some serious development. I think the biggest problem is the lack of serious developers. Who do we really have? Jimbridgman, lfabor06, and Rdavisct are the only ones I can really think of off the top of my head. We all play a role, but only the true genius' like them do a lot of good towards roms and things
To buy an Atrix 2, I had to special order it from Amazon. The local places didn't sell it because it didn't work with LTE in the area, and were mainly pushing iStuff.
Motorola needs to wake up and start tooting their own horn. The Atrix 2 has been an excellent phone, both in the reception department (better voice and call quality than my HTC and iPhone), CPU department, and in general usage.
Plus, there is an untapped market for these types of phones -- business people who just need a basic laptop where all their data is stored securely at one place, either on the phone with the on device encryption (or SD encryption), or using a Citrix receiver.
farshad525hou said:
Actually, one of the orignal devs for this phone (been on it since it came out) has not lost interest but is working on kexec for our phone which is BY FAR more important than ICS... The possibilities are endless once we have a bootloader bypass.
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Click to collapse
This really is the truth of the matter. Until we can load custom kernels on the A2, the devs are kinda limited on what they can modify. ICS with a locked bootloader is not much better than GB with a locked bootloader.
My wife has a Samsung Galaxy and the A2 is better in almost every area; reception, interface, speaker...