9 replies to this topic

[rockmonkey]

Hi All.

Just sold my blade and like a few others have bought a defy. It must be something in the water  

Anyway i love the phone itself. It has a larger screen than the blade yet sits in smaller housing. Have to say motorola have done an outstanding job and i have no complaints about the build quality. I even like some of the apps like mobile wifi hotspot dlna and the data counter which is a great idea (although i am on an unlimted data plan so it is almost irrelevant i think it is still a nice touch).

However i have some questions regarding root recovery and custom roms. Now i aint an android newbie i rooted my hero with a gold card and i think i had to do the same again with the desire and when i first bought the blade last year it was not as easy as it is now to gain root access and install recovery. So what i am saying is i dont think i am a total frump when it comes to android and customising my phone. Yet the defy and the guides regarding root are numerous some are old and picking through them all to find the most up to date and easiest method is quite tough.

So what i need is someone to please just point me in the right direction and give me a link to the standard guide to follow when wanting to gain root install recovery and then run a custom rom. I have decided i will probably install pays (having used his from the old hero/ desire days) or CM7 unless anyone can provide another better alternative.

As i have said i have done quite a lot of reading but still arent 100 per cent up on this and help and pointers would be mucho appreciated.

[nvkid909]

THIS is a good page to start,

Also as it's Moto get yourself the latest RSD Lite & drivers (see above) then you can flash the full .sbf if something goes wrong.

Know what you mean about info changing, I managed to root & upgrade to Froyo but since then it's a bit daunting, however I believe from reading that site if I want custom rom it can be done via recovery / nandroid backup (ie: CM7 latest based on Froyo, see above). I've used recovery when on Eclair, now thinking about custom rom again but tbh I'm happy with motoblur Froyo / rooted overclocked.

I think SuperOneClick still works though there are different versions. When I did this after Froyo I still had to fetch Busybox off the market.

As long as you have RSD Lite & a full flash (probably best to get a leaked UK motoblur generic & start from there) you should be able to fix it if you brick it.

[rockmonkey]

thganks for the suggestion but i have read a lot of the wiki and ended up slightly baffled.

What i am confused about is the downgradeability. i would like to be able to downgrade the firmware to 2.1 should anything go wrong with the phone so i can claim on warranty. I am running the oldest version of 2.1 there is JBDEM_UB_2.21.0 and want to get off it asap.

I have now read one hell of a lot of stuff yet this specifically i dont get. I can only seem to gather that if i flash a full sbf of 2.2 then i am stuck and there is no way to get back to 2.1 however this seems to suggest there is

http://motoroladefy....-unbrick-phone/.

and so does this with point 6 yet if i can just flash a full sbf why would i need to case about downgradeability and thus point 7 of the same article   ?

http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1065798

So then if i understand it correctly all i need is the full sbf of any version and i can flash that regardless of whether i started on 2.1 and am now running 2.2 or 2.3 and it looks like all the sbfs are here so why do i need downgradeability????

http://and-developers.com/sbf:defy

Can someone please clarify all of this for me please as it appears rooting and installing recovery is fairly straightforward but then what comes next seems like a minefield.

Edited by rockmonkey, 30 May 2011 - 10:01 AM.

[rockmonkey]

wow totally mental. God knows where i am at but i have rooted installed 2.2 and i think i have downgradeability. I followed the guide here

http://android.modac...o/#entry1648898

at post 8 and it worked a gtreat.

However i then tried to install pays rom and i had major problems with 2init recovery. I flashed the fixed sbf that goes with pays that was fine but i lost root and recovery so i rooted and installed init. However i got quite confused in the init menu as there are loads of different options and i eventually settled for custom recovery which appeared like clockwork mod. Anyways i tired to install the zip and i couldnt it came back with an error message and the update was aborted. So i was still running the old stock rom but with pays sfb if that makes sense. Anyuways i then though bollox to this and wiped and reflashed the 3.4.3-11 sbf and the corresponding nandroid. That is now where i am at which appears all well and good but not quite qhere i want to be. I would like to run a custom rom preferably pays or one that has non motoblur yet still has some of the cooler moto apps.

I have also got a nandroid of my stock rom but i dont have corresponding sbf. the one i downloaded from here


http://and-developers.com/sbf:defy


for RDNEM_U3_2.21.0 is a gz file and not sbf and so i cant seem to choose that to flash in rds lite.

I am hoping that i am still able to go back to 2.1 but without the sbf file i seem slightly screwed.

Any suggestions?

Edited by rockmonkey, 30 May 2011 - 03:34 PM.

[nvkid909]

I would just reflash a full Froyo .sbf on RSD Lite.

If you have froyo & rooted then you can use custom recovery app & a nandroid stored on your memory card, don't think you need 2ndinit for that as I was able to boot into recovery mode where the option was to backup / restore. To get into recovery mode I go in the system recovery app* & press custom recovery, when it reboots i hold the UP key, takes me into usb bootloader, just power the phone off / on again & voila - there is the recovery boot screen with the options to back up, restore, etc etc.

i didn't bother loading a custom rom though, as like i said i'm happy with the motoblur one i have... for now.

*btw, I am using "defy_recovery-1216-2022-signed.apk" which i probably got from here (cheers all), this one is defy specific.

Edited by nvkid909, 30 May 2011 - 06:31 PM.

[rockmonkey]

But why would you flash a full sbf of froyo. I do actually want to keep the ability to go back to 2.1 just in case and if i do as you suggest then i lose that dont i?

As it stands i feel pretty confident that i have been flashing fixed sbfs and then the related nandroid or fixed sbf and the related zips

I could really do with a bit of help regarding this as i am swimming slightly alone here wading though pages and pages  of threads and i am sure you know that that can create its fair share of probs what with a lot of fairly conflicting info and different ways of doing stuff.

[scottie1973]

rockmonkey, on May 30 2011, 19:41, said:

But why would you flash a full sbf of froyo. I do actually want to keep the ability to go back to 2.1 just in case and if i do as you suggest then i lose that dont i?

As it stands i feel pretty confident that i have been flashing fixed sbfs and then the related nandroid or fixed sbf and the related zips

I could really do with a bit of help regarding this as i am swimming slightly alone here wading though pages and pages  of threads and i am sure you know that that can create its fair share of probs what with a lot of fairly conflicting info and different ways of doing stuff.

i started out there aswell rock,but addthebad and a few others gave me a slightly easier way to get to 2.2,which is in another thread on here,from what i  have read yes u can go back to 2.1 as long as u used a fixed sbf.if you made your own backup before flashing 2.2 all you need todo is flash a stock 2.1 image then restore your own 1

[rockmonkey]

scottie1973, on May 30 2011, 21:26, said:

i started out there aswell rock,but addthebad and a few others gave me a slightly easier way to get to 2.2,which is in another thread on here,from what i  have read yes u can go back to 2.1 as long as u used a fixed sbf.if you made your own backup before flashing 2.2 all you need todo is flash a stock 2.1 image then restore your own 1

i have totally bricked it it now wont turn on and it wont boot into any mode using power on volume up or down it justs sits there dead as a dodo with a black screen. I flashed what i thought was mu old 2.1 sbf and that did it. i got the sbf JRDNEM_U3_2.21.0 from here http://and-developers.com/sbf:defy

i honestly thought by flashing that i would be testing out whether i could downgrade back to my original rom but i guess it wasnt.

anybody any idea what i have done and more importantly if i can recover?

help really needed now

edit wow flying blind... it appears that i have lost the ability to downgrade must have flashed it worong to start with. Anyways flashed a full sbf of a 2.2 rom and now we are back up and running. Oh well the warranty with motorola has gone but it is not a dead loss as i bought it from cex so get 12 months with them anything goes wrong in that time i just need to take it back to the store. Oh well.

Edited by rockmonkey, 30 May 2011 - 11:52 PM.

[rockmonkey]

Guess this forum really is as dead as i thought my phone was lmao. Should have really asked on xda but they can be quick to flame ya when you dont quite understand it all.

Anyways i hope that this thread will help someone out who may find themselves in the same position i was in. Bottom line i never knew what a pain in the butt a locked bootloader can be till i got my hands on this phone.

Thanks to those who did try to assist and in future i will really have to learn to be a little more patient rather than being the bull in the china shop. Lesson of the day is dont always rely on google and if i think i know something check it out first and get confirmation that i am actually as smart as i think.

Happy days anyways as it is now running as smooth as a babys bum overclocked to 1100 and set up as i like with all the problems of market access and other teething problems overcome. The lack of motorola warranty is a slight sting but as i said cex gives me 12 months so not a major biggy. Got meself a martin field screeny (most definitely worth the money over the cheapys) coming tomorrow and a spare battery and charger so it really is all good.

End of the day this phone really is a tough little cookie. In the last 36 hours there has been more boot loops and pulling of batteries than the last year and a half of owning android handsets and yet it still survives and lives to fight another day. Now i just have to figure out what system apps are safe to remove and get to grips with the cooler moto apps and then it really will be about as good as it gets. Top stuff.

[nvkid909]

Glad you got it sored.

Flashing the full rom is just more convenient if you brick it. Dunno why so many people fret over being able to downgrade to 2.1, as the upgrade is meant to be better  

I think most of us bricked it in some way while mucking about with things. Personally, on my device the lockscreen was giving me lag - hell, so I really don't wanna go back to 2.1. YMMV.

Like I said, once you have froyo you can install clockwork mod recovery app (or similar) & try the froyo custom roms (nandroid backups). I'm waiting for all the bugs in CM7 defy to be ironed out but tbh i quite like it how i've got it now