# 893 or 901 - consensus?



## LDubs (Nov 8, 2011)

I was able to successfully (I believe) get my phone back on the upgrade path and did a stock bloated rooted nandroid backup for both 893 and 901. Now running Kin3tx with 901 patch but wanted to get folks' thoughts on where to stay - 901 or 893? Has there been verification of VZW supporting 901 since it was a boo-boo?

I'm thinking of installing safestrap and putting rooted bloated 893 or 901 on non-safe side and a custom ROM on safe side.

Thoughts?


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## unchoney (Jun 15, 2011)

I was on 901...went back to 893...backed it up in nonsafe mode running ics4b in safe( I can get 1x at least with 893 radio).


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## rkuhldude77 (Nov 12, 2011)

I would say that the service I get on 901 is by far superior to 893. I ran on stock bloated 893 for a while not wanting to update then caved and on stock 901 the reception seemed to just be way better I get 4g where I didn't before. I am currently running the Liberty 901 patch and can say it is working great! Not sure about VZW's support but I am having great results.


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## swc2001 (Dec 29, 2011)

rkuhldude77 said:


> I would say that the service I get on 901 is by far superior to 893. I ran on stock bloated 893 for a while not wanting to update then caved and on stock 901 the reception seemed to just be way better I get 4g where I didn't before. I am currently running the Liberty 901 patch and can say it is working great! Not sure about VZW's support but I am having great results.


Agreed Reception Is WAYYYY Better on .901 also I have not had one Drop yet whereas I had a 50% drop rate on .893. Literally 50% I am not kiddin it was HORRIBLE. I almost took this phone back.

I am really glad I didnt now though. its amazing.


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## skyroket (Oct 26, 2011)

5.9.901 is clearly better, but has there been any more commentary by Verizon as to whether they're going to support their update that was accidentally leaked? How many handsets do we estimate it leaked to?


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## John L. Galt (Sep 16, 2011)

Between accidentally pushed to devices and those of us that have installed it, I'd double the number of accidentally pushed to numbers. At the very least.


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

If you safestrap, you will be taken off the update path. So keeping bloated stock really won't matter. And to expand on what john stated, I believe they "accidentally" pushed the update to a limited number of devices to see how many people install it on their own. Hopefully but doutful to see what impact unlocking the bootloader would have.


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## LDubs (Nov 8, 2011)

Wait - explain please - why would using safestrap remove me from the update path? I thought the whole point was being able to keep basically 2 partitions - stock bloated (rooted obv) on non-safe, and custom ROM on the other - so if OTA comes, revert to non-safe, take the OTA, and then flip back to safe...?


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## ROB281 (Oct 11, 2011)

I too would like to know why safestrapping would remove me from ota path


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## WA_Bob (Aug 2, 2011)

rkuhldude77 said:


> I would say that the service I get on 901 is by far superior to 893. I ran on stock bloated 893 for a while not wanting to update then caved and on stock 901 the reception seemed to just be way better I get 4g where I didn't before.


Same here! HUGE surprise to me how much of a difference it made in reception and battery life.


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

Look in your preinstall partition. There is where your second System is saved, which stock updates do assert.


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## LDubs (Nov 8, 2011)

OHHHHH. See I didn't know that. So probably better to just keep a nandroid of 893 or 901 stock bloated rooted and restore it when and if another OTA pops?


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

Nandroid back-ups don't save your /preinstall partition. Just the /system, /data ,/cache.


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## swc2001 (Dec 29, 2011)

What is safestrap? What is its purpose? I am on .901 Rooted with Theory Rom and use Bootstrap. I can reload my stock .901 Nandroid anytime, and if I want to unroot and get OTA I would just go into fastboot and use Pathsaver again. However I really cant see taking this phone past where its at. Right now with this new .901 Update it doeseverything I want..... The main thing is it never drops my Data anymore. Its freaking fast and has all of the apps I use and need. The main app of course being WIFI Tether.

But tell me Whats so special about ICS that everyone is clamoring for? Whats it going to give us that we dont already have?


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

LDubs said:


> OHHHHH. See I didn't know that. So probably better to just keep a nandroid of 893 or 901 stock bloated rooted and restore it when and if another OTA pops?


 Yes as long as you bootstrapped opposed to safestrapped.


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## ROB281 (Oct 11, 2011)

okay so if I installed safestrap, but haven't flashed any roms am I still off the ota? can I just delete safestrap files to get back on path?

this is f*cking ridiculous


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

ROB281 said:


> okay so if I installed safestrap, but haven't flashed any roms am I still off the ota? can I just delete safestrap files to get back on path?
> 
> this is f*cking ridiculous


If you've only installed safestrap without going to safe-mode and installing a rom, you should be able to just uninstall safestrap and be good. For the record, safestrap was never intended or claimed to keep you on the OTA path. Its purpose is to have a full-proof way to boot up if you f*ck up and bootloop your device and to try experimental roms without having to reflash your phone.


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## LDubs (Nov 8, 2011)

Timmy10shoes said:


> Yes as long as you bootstrapped opposed to safestrapped.


Boots. Thanks. So I'll keep it where it is, and restore from 893 or 901 stock bloated if/when needed.


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## ROB281 (Oct 11, 2011)

Timmy10shoes said:


> If you've only installed safestrap without going to safe-mode and installing a rom, you should be able to just uninstall safestrap and be good. For the record, safestrap was never intended or claimed to keep you on the OTA path. Its purpose is to have a full-proof way to boot up if you f*ck up and bootloop your device and to try experimental roms without having to reflash your phone.


I know, but the fact that this phone goes off the path with such ease is really frustrating

so I safestrapped toggled safe mode once, didn't load a rom, but still need to go back to stock to get on path that correct?


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

ROB281 said:


> I know, but the fact that this phone goes off the path with such ease is really frustrating
> 
> so I safestrapped toggled safe mode once, didn't load a rom, but still need to go back to stock to get on path that correct?


If you only toggled safe mode on and off without installing a rom, uninstall safestrap. Use bootstrap to save your stock system and then flash roms through bootstrap. Then when a OTA hits, restore stock image and accept the OTA.


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## ROB281 (Oct 11, 2011)

thanks for the clarification on that

so since .901 is apparently better than .893 is it possible to flash the .901 update from stock recovery on a rooted stock bloated 5.893 device?


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

yes


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## King Howie (Nov 8, 2011)

swc2001 said:


> But tell me Whats so special about ICS that everyone is clamoring for? Whats it going to give us that we dont already have?


the one big difference i know of is, ICS will be the first OS optimized to use both cores


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## envizion (Sep 22, 2011)

Timmy10shoes said:


> If you only toggled safe mode on and off without installing a rom, uninstall safestrap. Use bootstrap to save your stock system and then flash roms through bootstrap. Then when a OTA hits, restore stock image and accept the OTA.


damn, if only i knew about this earlier. i kept the non-safe system stock and rooted so i can take OTAs and i already flashed eclipse on my safe system. so my only option to be able to take OTAs in the future is to use the 5.5.893 fxz file to get back to full stock?


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

envizion said:


> damn, if only i knew about this earlier. i kept the non-safe system stock and rooted so i can take OTAs and i already flashed eclipse on my safe system. so my only option to be able to take OTAs in the future is to use the 5.5.893 fxz file to get back to full stock?


If the preinstall partition is the thing that stops OTA updates (there may be other things safestrap affects) and you stayed on. 893 , then you should be able to fastboot the preinstall from the fxz and be good.


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## kedriastral (Sep 19, 2011)

Timmy10shoes said:


> Look in your preinstall partition. There is where your second System is saved, which stock updates do assert.


Fyi I installed the .901 update with safestrap installed. The new updates don't seem to check the preinstall. This is how I learned that the .901 radio didn't work with custom roms. I had ics alpha safe strapped, installed .901, let it boot, reboot into ics.

the preinstall files like motocast/zumocast actually get removed if yo install .901


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

zumocast is still in the /preinstall and the .901 update that was pushed is not complete, hence them pulling it. As always, i could be wrong, but when the official OTA is pushed, i'm sure they will have a /preinstall patch. So safestrap with caution, most likely there will be the sideload errors again.


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## envizion (Sep 22, 2011)

if what kedriastral say is true, that i can update to .901 with safestrap. if i revert to my stock .893 and uninstall safestrap then flash the .901 ota, will that reset my /preinstall back to stock? or will it still be altered from safestrap previously? this is assuming future OTAs can be accepted on the .901


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## kryptic17 (Oct 14, 2011)

Has anyone had that issue previously? having safe strapped on a older system, and then have been unable to OTA? It's just the first I have heard of it is all.

Also, .901 being a accident or not, SOME people got it via OTA regardless, so why should someone be afraid to take it? a solution is inevitably gonna have to be in place for those individuals. Ive read no complaints, and I really have none either, when I was still stock, it wasn't bad at all.

I don't really understand the lack of support for .901 I understand it was accidental or incomplete, but to not support it while having took leaks, that still don't quite match even 5.893 doesn't make sense. not to mention with how positive people have been about it, why not? I hope Motorola doesn't take forever for an ICS update though. Cause ICS is bad tushy, if I could tell myself back in september to just wait for the Galaxy Nexus, I would have. Definitely would be less of a headache as this Bionic has been. Typical Motorola.

Don't get me wrong, I still love my Bionic. Just saying, I envy them Nexus owners.


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## envizion (Sep 22, 2011)

kryptic17 said:


> Has anyone had that issue previously? having safe strapped on a older system, and then have been unable to OTA? It's just the first I have heard of it is all.
> 
> Also, .901 being a accident or not, SOME people got it via OTA regardless, so why should someone be afraid to take it? a solution is inevitably gonna have to be in place for those individuals. Ive read no complaints, and I really have none either, when I was still stock, it wasn't bad at all.
> 
> ...


i think people being stuck on 5.7.893 island with no way back for awhile have a lot to do with it. the ota was accidentally released, sure this gives it a bigger chance of being supported, but with motorola and their poor quality of customer support as of late, it is still not guaranteed. imagined stuck off the upgrade path and unable to take the ics update whenever it actually lands, of course that's probably the worst case scenario.


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## kryptic17 (Oct 14, 2011)

envizion said:


> i think people being stuck on 5.7.893 island with no way back for awhile have a lot to do with it. the ota was accidentally released, sure this gives it a bigger chance of being supported, but with motorola and their poor quality of customer support as of late, it is still not guaranteed. imagined stuck off the upgrade path and unable to take the ics update whenever it actually lands, of course that's probably the worst case scenario.


That would suck indeed suck, and I agree with what you said there, thanks for sharing that thought!


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## bendrum30 (Oct 12, 2011)

...


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## bendrum30 (Oct 12, 2011)

"I was on 901...went back to 893...backed it up in nonsafe mode running ics4b in safe( I can get 1x at least with 893 radio)."

@unchoney: How did you get back to 893 from 901? I would like to continue testing ICS, but I'm on 901.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk


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## unchoney (Jun 15, 2011)

bendrum30 said:


> "I was on 901...went back to 893...backed it up in nonsafe mode running ics4b in safe( I can get 1x at least with 893 radio)."
> 
> @unchoney: How did you get back to 893 from 901? I would like to continue testing ICS, but I'm on 901.
> 
> Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk


I used the full 5.5.893 fx file from "open 1 your eyes "thread

* [Fastboot Files] 5.5.893 FXZ Leaked*

and realbbb,s cdt.bin no fail fix on page 4 of same thread, rooted using the method from realbbb,s thread 
* Root OTA *

Using rsd lite easy as pie( might want to use the file with no erase data.. i didnt realize it was talking about internal sd card! ( the full file wipes your internal sd card) I am back on 901 now went back to 893 to use ics4bionic but like being able to use the internal audio bluetooth streaming( which is still inoperable on ics4bionic).. just make sure you allow rsd lite to finish everything...after it runs the package has to be unpacked and installed on phone...whole process took less than 10 min for me! I think 901 is alot smoother and nothing to lose since we can now go back to 893.


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## unchoney (Jun 15, 2011)

Timmy10shoes said:


> If you safestrap, you will be taken off the update path. So keeping bloated stock really won't matter. And to expand on what john stated, I believe they "accidentally" pushed the update to a limited number of devices to see how many people install it on their own. Hopefully but doutful to see what impact unlocking the bootloader would have.


Wow...did not realize that! Thanks for the info Timmy!


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## John L. Galt (Sep 16, 2011)

kryptic17 said:


> That would suck indeed suck, and I agree with what you said there, thanks for sharing that thought!


If that comes to be true, then yes. But, at the same time, he may be right *but for a very different reason* - after all, Google _*is*_ acquiring Moto Mobility, so, it might have been at Google's urging that this get released....

It could easily be a plan to see just how many people are really wanting to have an unlocked bootloader for this phone - and what would *really*be cool (but this is pretty far-fetched) would be if the Bionic gets re-dubbed the Bionic Nexus


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## kryptic17 (Oct 14, 2011)

John L. Galt said:


> The biggest reason you should be afraid of it is because when Moto pushed that out they did it via MEID - and if your MEID is not on that list, they can easily block you from being given the 'fix' that might eventually be pushed out to those same users if they applied the 901 update.
> 
> If that comes to be true, then yes. But, at the same time, he may be right *but for a very different reason* - after all, Google _*is*_ acquiring Moto Mobility, so, it might have been at Google's urging that this get released....
> 
> It could easily be a plan to see just how many people are really wanting to have an unlocked bootloader for this phone - and what would *really*be cool (but this is pretty far-fetched) would be if the Bionic gets re-dubbed the Bionic Nexus


I like to believe I live in a land where dreams come true. I accept I am fully insane in that case









Yeah I figure Moto could do that, but as you said, there's a work around for everything it seems. I am considering to revert back to .893 simply cause I miss the ICS alphas.


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## John L. Galt (Sep 16, 2011)

I'm on 901, and since data is not really working, using the lib.so replacement files I have older ICS4BIONICs working on my WiFi. Since this really isn't a daily driver yet, that's good enough for me.

I'm going to revert my phone from 901 to 5.5.893 --> 5.7.893 just to say I can and then I'll re-safe strap and put the latest ICS4BIONIC on the safe side. I don't do any of the other ROMs, so safe is still the best way for me atm.

And it's not a matter of insanity to me- well, not a matter of *my* insanity, as I know I'm sane - it's just the ret fo the world that is going crazy around me


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## Timmy10shoes (Jul 1, 2011)

John L. Galt said:


> I'm on 901, and since data is not really working, using the lib.so replacement files I have older ICS4BIONICs working on my WiFi. Since this really isn't a daily driver yet, that's good enough for me.
> 
> I'm going to revert my phone from 901 to 5.5.893 --> 5.7.893 just to say I can and then I'll re-safe strap and put the latest ICS4BIONIC on the safe side. I don't do any of the other ROMs, so safe is still the best way for me atm.
> 
> And it's not a matter of insanity to me- well, not a matter of *my* insanity, as I know I'm sane - it's just the ret fo the world that is going crazy around me


While your at it, flash back to .886 and test safestrapping and updating to. 893 to see if it works


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