OK so there's been a lot of developments/disappointments with the Droid X and rooting roms, running custom roms, etc. I'm not an expert in this topic but I have been following this pretty closely, and it seems like some of I've read is contradictory. Can we therefore get the facts straight and know exactly where we are right now? I'd like to compile the progress that's been made both for our sake and for people new to the phone/platform.
Root Access
This is possible across all platforms (2.1, 2.2 leaked, and 2.2 OTA). The most universal procedure seems to be the Droid 2 exploit, which can be found over at Droid X. Also a full root guide can be found at http://androidforums.com/droid-x-al...t-guide-updated-4-09pm-est-sep-12-2010-a.html.
Applying Themes
Again possible on all Deodexed phones.
Instruction for deodexing can be found over at http://androidforums.com/droid-x-all-things-root/158274-how-manually-deodex-your-phone.html or you can just download a pre-Deodexed rom.
List of themes have been compiled by D13 over at http://androidforums.com/droid-x-all-things-root/167180-droid-x-roms-themes.html.
Roms
This is the part where I'm confused and would like some clarification. As I understand it, the roms that are being released now aren't full "roms." They're more of a tweaking of apps and replacing Blur apps, etc. Is this because Moto is signing their rom releases? How is cvpcs getting around this then? Is he still using a Moto release for his codebase? I thought he was starting from scratch though. What is preventing other people from doing this or is it because the locked bootloader is hindering developers?
Regardless the custom roms available now were compiled by D13 and are once again over at http://androidforums.com/droid-x-all-things-root/167180-droid-x-roms-themes.html.
Replacing the Bootloader/Kernel
This seems to be where we're stuck right now. However, it seems like the Milestone people have made some progress in this respect too using the kexec exploit that nenolod is now pursuing too. For a full recap of the progress on the Milestone there's a wiki at start [And Developers]. Basically they got a custom kernel to boot without radio access. Is there any inherent reason that's not possible though, i.e. is interfacing with the radio actually being locked somewhere or have the developers just not figured out a way yet? Although I don't want to be overly optimistic this is still quite a good start.
What are the gains of replacing the kernel other than overclocking anyway? I understand that future Android releases will require a new kernel that we won't have access to until Moto decides to release one, but honesty Gingerbread isn't coming until next year, so there's still plenty of time to figure out a way still.
I just don't see why so many people are jumping ship already. We have root access, semi-custom roms (?), and our phones can do basically anything that other android phones can do right now if not just as well then better than most phones. Am I missing something here or are people just against the principle of the locked bootloader? I agree that it sucks that Moto did this, but this might be something that we have to deal with from now on what with HTC also implementing a hardware rootkit on the G2.
Anyway there's a ton of questions right now, and I hope as I get answers that I can edit this post so that we can get a full picture of what is actually going on with the Droid X.
Root Access
This is possible across all platforms (2.1, 2.2 leaked, and 2.2 OTA). The most universal procedure seems to be the Droid 2 exploit, which can be found over at Droid X. Also a full root guide can be found at http://androidforums.com/droid-x-al...t-guide-updated-4-09pm-est-sep-12-2010-a.html.
Applying Themes
Again possible on all Deodexed phones.
Instruction for deodexing can be found over at http://androidforums.com/droid-x-all-things-root/158274-how-manually-deodex-your-phone.html or you can just download a pre-Deodexed rom.
List of themes have been compiled by D13 over at http://androidforums.com/droid-x-all-things-root/167180-droid-x-roms-themes.html.
Roms
This is the part where I'm confused and would like some clarification. As I understand it, the roms that are being released now aren't full "roms." They're more of a tweaking of apps and replacing Blur apps, etc. Is this because Moto is signing their rom releases? How is cvpcs getting around this then? Is he still using a Moto release for his codebase? I thought he was starting from scratch though. What is preventing other people from doing this or is it because the locked bootloader is hindering developers?
Regardless the custom roms available now were compiled by D13 and are once again over at http://androidforums.com/droid-x-all-things-root/167180-droid-x-roms-themes.html.
Replacing the Bootloader/Kernel
This seems to be where we're stuck right now. However, it seems like the Milestone people have made some progress in this respect too using the kexec exploit that nenolod is now pursuing too. For a full recap of the progress on the Milestone there's a wiki at start [And Developers]. Basically they got a custom kernel to boot without radio access. Is there any inherent reason that's not possible though, i.e. is interfacing with the radio actually being locked somewhere or have the developers just not figured out a way yet? Although I don't want to be overly optimistic this is still quite a good start.
What are the gains of replacing the kernel other than overclocking anyway? I understand that future Android releases will require a new kernel that we won't have access to until Moto decides to release one, but honesty Gingerbread isn't coming until next year, so there's still plenty of time to figure out a way still.
I just don't see why so many people are jumping ship already. We have root access, semi-custom roms (?), and our phones can do basically anything that other android phones can do right now if not just as well then better than most phones. Am I missing something here or are people just against the principle of the locked bootloader? I agree that it sucks that Moto did this, but this might be something that we have to deal with from now on what with HTC also implementing a hardware rootkit on the G2.
Anyway there's a ton of questions right now, and I hope as I get answers that I can edit this post so that we can get a full picture of what is actually going on with the Droid X.