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Best way to get rid of bloatware on D2G?

Okay so I got a Droid 2 Global today and have been playing around with it, the first thing I noticed is a ton of bloatware. I have read a few guides, and though this is my 3rd android phone, I am still somewhat clueless at this stuff. After a bit of searching I managed to root with z4root, and got boostrap recovery and made a backup. Now I am seeing guides that say to freeze the apps with titanium backup, or move them somewhere else or this that or something else. However since I made a backup, does that mean I can just delete the files I don't like, and when an update comes out for my phone, use the backup to put them all back? This seems like the easiest solution to me, but I just want to make sure that would work as I don't know much about recovery things. Thanks for any help

ben7337 said:
. However since I made a backup, does that mean I can just delete the files I don't like, and when an update comes out for my phone, use the backup to put them all back? This seems like the easiest solution to me, but I just want to make sure that would work as I don't know much about recovery things. Thanks for any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you can do that. The reason people were just freezing apps was due to the lack of an SBF for the D2G so if you delete and app and Verizon pushes an update you want you can't do it if you didn't back up your phone so now that there is an SBF you can delete them if you don't like them just don't delete until you know how to restore your phone with said SBF. That way if/when something goes south you are ahead of the learning curve instead of having to learn it all real quick so you can use your phone again.

newk8600 said:
Yeah you can do that. The reason people were just freezing apps was due to the lack of an SBF for the D2G so if you delete and app and Verizon pushes an update you want you can't do it if you didn't back up your phone so now that there is an SBF you can delete them if you don't like them just don't delete until you know how to restore your phone with said SBF. That way if/when something goes south you are ahead of the learning curve instead of having to learn it all real quick so you can use your phone again.
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Click to collapse
I don't think I'm following you. I made a backup with bootstrap, but bootstrap was out before the SBF was released, so are you saying that deleting the apps are fine, but my current boostrap backup will NOT restore the apps and I would need to restore with a old SBF that just came out? Also would it make a different that I am on the new 2.4.330 or something software version, but the SBF seems to be for the old 2.4.29 version?

If you mess up the phone bootstrap can't start. And you can't restore anything from it. It is not like the standard recovery which is independent from system image - it just hijacks normal boot to give you recovery where you can flash unsigned files. Or if you mess up and phone sits at M logo, custom recovery isn't going to help you. SBF is the only salvation.
It is fine to flash 2.4.29 over 2.4.330 updated phone. It has been confirmed multiple times to work fine. There is also word going about new SBF based on 2.4.330 that will be released in the following few days.

[Q] General Xoom Root Questions

Greetings to all Xoom users!
I'm a happy Xoom Wifi user (HWI69) with some basic root questions.
- If I unlock and root my Xoom will I be able to unroot and relock my xoom since the official motorola files are out?
- If I follow the procedure to unlock and root the xoom will I lose all the apps/configuration that I have customized?
- Is there a way to make a full backup without rooting?
- Is there anyway to use the sdcard slot without rooting the xoom?
- Any news on a motorola update that will activate the sdcard slot?
- I saw quite a lot of users who have bricked their wifi xoom trying to root the beast. Since the official motorola wifi files are available is it guaranty that I will be able to unbrick my xoom if something goes wrong?
- Is there a difference between soft brick and hard brick?
I think that's all for the moment
Thanks for your help!

spirouzbe said:
Greetings to all Xoom users!
I'm a happy Xoom Wifi user (HWI69) with some basic root questions.
- If I unlock and root my Xoom will I be able to unroot and relock my xoom since the official motorola files are out?
Possibly
- If I follow the procedure to unlock and root the xoom will I lose all the apps/configuration that I have customized?
If you don't back them up .... Yes
- Is there a way to make a full backup without rooting?
Yes and No
- Is there anyway to use the sdcard slot without rooting the xoom?
Not currently
- Any news on a motorola update that will activate the sdcard slot?
No Answer
- I saw quite a lot of users who have bricked their wifi xoom trying to root the beast. Since the official motorola wifi files are available is it guaranty that I will be able to unbrick my xoom if something goes wrong?
No Answer
- Is there a difference between soft brick and hard brick?
I would think Yes
I think that's all for the moment
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was my .02 but more detailed information is available in the forum.

spirouzbe said:
- I saw quite a lot of users who have bricked their wifi xoom trying to root the beast. Since the official motorola wifi files are available is it guaranty that I will be able to unbrick my xoom if something goes wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They have had problems only because they attempted to relock without flashing the official Motorola images first; Motorola did not have these available for download until very recently. So long as you don't try and relock without the correct images on the device first, you should be fine.

Land Master said:
That was my .02 but more detailed information is available in the forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the answers ! I have read about all the posts on the Xoom section and i asked those questions because im kind of confused as the informations found are quite different depending on the model/date of the posts.
Some more questions
- For the unrooted backup do you have any app suggestions ?
- What is the purpose of ClockWorkMod Recovery ? Will it protect me from flashing the wrong xoom files (boot ?) ? Kind of a HardSPL/USPL we use with the HTC custom roms ?
ydaraishy said:
They have had problems only because they attempted to relock without flashing the official Motorola images first; Motorola did not have these available for download until very recently. So long as you don't try and relock without the correct images on the device first, you should be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So now that we have those correct motorola images we are able to relock the Wifi Xoom without any problem ?
Thanks again for all your help

spirouzbe said:
So now that we have those correct motorola images we are able to relock the Wifi Xoom without any problem ?
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Click to collapse
If you do it properly, I don't see why not.

I use My Backup Pro. It's not free but its pretty good. Actually haven't tried it yet on the Zoom but it works fine on my EVO. For rooted users Titanium Backup is good.
The custom recovery will be the foundation of "easy" upgrades to new Rom's, kernels, etc. through flash-able files. Without it you would be required to use ADB to "push" everything to the device. It is also the best backup solution to insure a "complete" backup of your entire system through the Nandroid backup feature. This feature is currently experiencing issues because it is trying to backup the entire "internal" storage to an "external SD card". Since the card is formatted as Fat32 the largest file it can hold is 4GB. This poses a problem because the "internal" drive could have "partitions" larger than 4GB if you have a lot of media on your device. Its still a work in progress. As far as if it "protects" you.....probably not. You need to be sure of what you are doing before using the features.
Regarding the re-lock.... A few users have posted that they were able to re-lock their device but I do not believe anyone has posted as to whether doing so erases any indication that the device was originally un-locked. If you plan on keeping your Xoom for the long haul, I would recommend un-locking and leaving it alone. If for some reason you need to return it for service...THEN worry about re-locking it and dealing any potential pit falls doing so may uncover.

Land Master said:
I use My Backup Pro. It's not free but its pretty good. Actually haven't tried it yet on the Zoom but it works fine on my EVO. For rooted users Titanium Backup is good.
The custom recovery will be the foundation of "easy" upgrades to new Rom's, kernels, etc. through flash-able files. Without it you would be required to use ADB to "push" everything to the device. It is also the best backup solution to insure a "complete" backup of your entire system through the Nandroid backup feature. This feature is currently experiencing issues because it is trying to backup the entire "internal" storage to an "external SD card". Since the card is formatted as Fat32 the largest file it can hold is 4GB. This poses a problem because the "internal" drive could have "partitions" larger than 4GB if you have a lot of media on your device. Its still a work in progress. As far as if it "protects" you.....probably not. You need to be sure of what you are doing before using the features.
Regarding the re-lock.... A few users have posted that they were able to re-lock their device but I do not believe anyone has posted as to whether doing so erases any indication that the device was originally un-locked. If you plan on keeping your Xoom for the long haul, I would recommend un-locking and leaving it alone. If for some reason you need to return it for service...THEN worry about re-locking it and dealing any potential pit falls doing so may uncover.
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Click to collapse
Excellent advice. Thank you Land Master.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

[Q] Need advice about flashing a new ROM?

Hey everyone. First of all, thank you very much for your help here if you're able!
Now, on to this:
I have a Droid 2 Global right now, rooted and running Fission ROM. (Recovery is ClockworkMod v5.0.2.3) Fission is, well, out of commission as it would seem, and I'm looking to upgrade to some Gingerbread.
Thing is, I haven't flashed more than one ROM onto this phone before and I'm coming from the HTC EVO 4G -- so I'm a little nervous about messing anything up as there was a much heavier amount of steps involved in rooting and flashing to this D2G than there was for the EVO!
Needless to say, I'm terrified of messing up. Here's my question:
1. If I load a new ROM onto my SD card, do a factory data reset, clear cache and dalvik, can I flash a new ROM from the recovery, no problems? Or would there be more steps needed?
2. This isn't as relevant I guess, but is it possible to unroot this phone safely and update to the VZW OTA Gingerbread? I'm probably not gonna worry about this if it's possible to just flash another ROM as asked in my first question, but it's worth noting.
Thank you guys so much, I've been super antsy with this phone lately. Any help is completely appreciated!

If you really want Gingerbread, with corresponding kernel patches and stuff, you have to update to VZW's latest firmware (4.5.608) as all modern Gingerbread ROMs use it as the base. They won't work on Froyo base.
The safest and cleanest way to get the phone to update is to flash an SBF image and then update to 4.5.x. Do note that this will clear any CDMA programming you probably have done to get it to work on Sprint Nextel. You'll need to reprogram the phone while still running 2.4.x.
Please also note that using custom ROMs is always a risk as there's always chance you'll need to flash an SBF to recover from a bad build, etc., so if to flash the phone to Sprint you need to contact Sprint themselves (i.e. you cannot do it yourself), this might turn into a real hassle.
Stock 4.5.608 is very stable and fast, especially with bloatware frozen.

Ah, sorry, I should have clarified further! It's on Verizon Wireless right now, so it's operating on Verizon still and has not been flashed to Sprint. (I had to go and change my provider logo -- if only I could have two!)
Also, thank you for your quick reply! I do have two more questions now, though;
1. If I flash another Froyo ROM, would I be able to do so in recovery off of the SD card? Rather, is it only Gingerbread that would need to be done with an SBF?
2. I was reading about SBFs earlier and was about to try the process, but I found that it was in .exe format. Would I need to be using a PC to do this? I have a Mac currently, though I would have access to a PC certainly if it were necessary (since it seems like this might be my best bet).

Regarding the OS question: there's sbf_flash utility available for both Linux and MacOS X. It's more easy to use, and is overall more “sturdy” (no problems with missing drivers leading to SBF process aborting in the middle).
Going through SBF is only required to update to Gingerbread (which is indeed highly recommended; Froyo ROMs are mostly outdated), because for that, you need a clean 2.4.330 system. If you can access ClockworkMod on your Froyo ROM, you definitely can install any Froyo-based custom ROM.

Thank you again. I think I will flash an SBF and update through VZW, it sounds like my best plan!
I'm searching to see if I can find the right SBF utility to download (for MacOS X), but I'm having a bit of trouble--do you happen to know where I can find it or have a link? In the meantime I will keep going through the forums!

http://blog.opticaldelusion.org/2011/04/universal-binaries-running-same.html

[Q] Suggestions for safe 'wiping'?

I bought a used XT925 today. While the previous owner did go to some trouble to clean it, it still has a bunch of apps and some settings that I really don't want. Also, as a privacy paranoiac, I'm worried that there may be something malicious (however slight the possibility).
The device is rooted and running JB 4.1.2. I would love to factory reset it but having read a few reports of people losing root or worse (here, here, here and here, to list just a few) that plan seems ill-advised.
I've been toying with trying to script some kind of fs compare against a fs from a rom, but I'm not sure if this is even feasible. So far the only other thing I can think of to do is uninstall all the apps and manually sift through and delete all the other junk in the filesystem.
Does anyone have any suggestions on returning my device to the most "virgin" state possible while retaining root?

triplexdoubledadevelopers said:
I bought a used XT925 today. While the previous owner did go to some trouble to clean it, it still has a bunch of apps and some settings that I really don't want. Also, as a privacy paranoiac, I'm worried that there may be something malicious (however slight the possibility).
The device is rooted and running JB 4.1.2. I would love to factory reset it but having read a few reports of people losing root or worse (here, here, here and here, to list just a few) that plan seems ill-advised.
I've been toying with trying to script some kind of fs compare against a fs from a rom, but I'm not sure if this is even feasible. So far the only other thing I can think of to do is uninstall all the apps and manually sift through and delete all the other junk in the filesystem.
Does anyone have any suggestions on returning my device to the most "virgin" state possible while retaining root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simplest way is to use RSD Lite to send your device back to stock 4.1.2 -- then you can use the recently posted root method to gain root back. It should take < 15 minutes to do, most of that spent flashing with RSDLite. It'll actually take longer to download all the ADB drivers, Moto drivers, etc -- if you don't have them already.

triplexdoubledadevelopers said:
I bought a used XT925 today. While the previous owner did go to some trouble to clean it, it still has a bunch of apps and some settings that I really don't want. Also, as a privacy paranoiac, I'm worried that there may be something malicious (however slight the possibility).
The device is rooted and running JB 4.1.2. I would love to factory reset it but having read a few reports of people losing root or worse (here, here, here and here, to list just a few) that plan seems ill-advised.
I've been toying with trying to script some kind of fs compare against a fs from a rom, but I'm not sure if this is even feasible. So far the only other thing I can think of to do is uninstall all the apps and manually sift through and delete all the other junk in the filesystem.
Does anyone have any suggestions on returning my device to the most "virgin" state possible while retaining root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whats up,
Cpudan80 is right, your best bet is to flash stock 4.1.2, and to reroot. And it does take about 15 minutes if you don't already have drivers and stuff, but I can help you out, by linking you to my utility, which essentially does the heavy lifting of finding all of the programs and stuff, and puts it together into one convenient package.
Find it here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2241788

Cpudan80 said:
Simplest way is to use RSD Lite to send your device back to stock 4.1.2 -- then you can use the recently posted root method to gain root back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mr.Parkinson said:
Cpudan80 is right, your best bet is to flash stock 4.1.2, and to reroot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the replies! Would you link me to that root method, Cpudan80? All of the root methods I've been able to find say that you must flash 4.0 or CWM first in order to root, then protect root and upgrade to JB again. Is there a new better way which doesn't require downgrading?

triplexdoubledadevelopers said:
Thanks for the replies! Would you link me to that root method, Cpudan80? All of the root methods I've been able to find say that you must flash 4.0 or CWM first in order to root, then protect root and upgrade to JB again. Is there a new better way which doesn't require downgrading?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a thread on here somewhere -- but here's the thread I followed (after using RSDLite to go back to clean 4.1.2). No hard steps at all, just run a bat file - press enter and viola - you're rooted.
http://www.droidrzr.com/index.php/topic/15208-root-motochopper-yet-another-android-root-exploit/

Cpudan80 said:
There's a thread on here somewhere -- but here's the thread I followed (after using RSDLite to go back to clean 4.1.2). No hard steps at all, just run a bat file - press enter and viola - you're rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amazing, thanks! I had seen that exploit at one point when I was considering getting an earlier RAZR version and was looking into how easy it was to root it. I thought that exploit didn't work with the XT925 since there was no link to it in the forum (and searches only revealed many tales of failed root attempts and downgrades). Thanks again!

[Q] Full backup?

I want to root my moto g but apparently rooting it will wipe the phone. I am looking for a way to back up everything e.g. apps,photos,accounts ect.
any ideas?

DjDog7 said:
I want to root my moto g but apparently rooting it will wipe the phone. I am looking for a way to back up everything e.g. apps,photos,accounts ect.
any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unlocking bootloader wipes phone, not rooting.
There are lots of ways to backup. Google will help you here.

@DjDog7
Try this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420351
Or maybe this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1844032
Yesterday i tried both, when I backed up girlfriends tablet, but the first option is better i think, because the sencond option has gui, taht does not look soo good...