# Shouldn't we all just go to. 621 now?



## luv2increase (Sep 3, 2011)

Seriously y'all, if going through a little hassle is all it takes to get the latest kernel then I'm in.

Can't MIUI and everything else run off of the. 621 kernel. In reality, is there any CONS of. 621 or only pwemormance increases and battery life due to the new radio and kernel?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2


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## Maverick39 (Jun 13, 2011)

I'm on the 621/604 and have flashed just about every 2nd init ROM out there today and they run smooth as butter so I guess it is up to you rather you want to go to 621 or not, I did it in less then 15 minutes or less.


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## zEnethSTORM (Mar 17, 2012)

Wait, is thier a thread for instructions to do this?

or can u tell me if this is correct, im not quite sure:
1) SBF to .605 and update to .621
2) Then follow directions from http://www.droidxforums.com/forum/droid-x-sbf/23638-linux-solution-your-windows-rsd-lite-problems.html


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

*Downsides: No reversion.* A bit of a pain in the ass still (although significantly better now that we can root/SBF/621 kernel reversion) but still definitely more than it used to be. Some ROMs need patching/not compatible.

*Upsides:* Better reception with radio. Kernel seems to handle multi-tasking/battery life better.

*Thoughts:* Radio is available without swap to .621. Kernel may be doable without swap but not yet determined. So you are able to get 1/2 (IMO, the biggest draw) of 621 without going to it. It is of course personal opinion however. There is little danger to it now, just a bit of a pain in the ass.


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## kennyfool (Aug 24, 2011)

Goose306 said:


> *Downsides: No reversion.* A bit of a pain in the ass still (although significantly better now that we can root/SBF/621 kernel reversion) but still definitely more than it used to be. Some ROMs need patching/not compatible.
> 
> *Upsides:* Better reception with radio. Kernel seems to handle multi-tasking/battery life better.
> 
> *Thoughts:* Radio is available without swap to .621. Kernel may be doable without swap but not yet determined. So you are able to get 1/2 (IMO, the biggest draw) of 621 without going to it. It is of course personal opinion however. There is little danger to it now, just a bit of a pain in the ass.


So how exactly does one get the 621 radio without fully upgrading? Is there a tutorial somewhere?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

kennyfool said:


> So how exactly does one get the 621 radio without fully upgrading? Is there a tutorial somewhere?
> 
> Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2


http://www.droidxforums.com/forum/gingerbread-development-hacking/45095-15p-flashable-radio.html


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## bmt11 (Dec 30, 2011)

Most people use windows and don't know how to install linux, if you do screw up there your data will be broken requiring you to deal with verizons incompetent customer service, you will never be able to run the official CM7 nightlies or any rom not based on the GB kernel, and any blur based rom will have to be modified to work with it while still having wifi issues even then.


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## 1loudsvt (Jun 10, 2011)

There are bootable Linux sbf isos available. Simple as popping in a CD rebooting and following the directions

Sent from my DROIDX using RootzWiki


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## bmt11 (Dec 30, 2011)

1loudsvt said:


> There are bootable Linux sbf isos available. Simple as popping in a CD rebooting and following the directions
> 
> Sent from my DROIDX using RootzWiki


Assuming they know what an ISO file is, that they have a program that can burn it as a bootable disc and that their computer can boot it without having to change any BIOS settings.

All that is over the head of most people that I know that are android users.


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## luv2increase (Sep 3, 2011)

bmt11 said:


> Assuming they know what an ISO file is, that they have a program that can burn it as a bootable disc and that their computer can boot it without having to change any BIOS settings.
> 
> All that is over the head of most people that I know that are android users.


It is called using a VM. Many ppl here are more competent than you would think.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2


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## TwinShadow (Oct 17, 2011)

luv2increase said:


> It is called using a VM. Many ppl here are more competent than you would think.
> 
> Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2


True, for the majority of users here since we are typically power users that know what we're doing. But your average consumer will go "WTF IS THIS?!" or something like that... Power users only make up a tiny fraction of the total android user-base. Even less when you deal with the iPhone considering many people go gaga over those it seems..


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## MongolPup (Dec 14, 2011)

luv2increase said:


> It is called using a VM. Many ppl here are more competent than you would think.
> 
> Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2


It's called using a live cd, don't go out of your way to prove the man right lol.


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## Zeklandia (Oct 19, 2011)

So are there any problems running 2nd-init ROMs like CM9 on .621?

Sent from my Battle Droid


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

Zeklandia said:


> So are there any problems running 2nd-init ROMs like CM9 on .621?
> 
> Sent from my Battle Droid


No as long as its GB.

Sent from my DROIDX using RootzWiki


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## Zeklandia (Oct 19, 2011)

Then why haven't we all gone to it??

Sent from my Battle Droid


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## TwinShadow (Oct 17, 2011)

One reason I haven't switched is mainly due to the long-winded process it requires just to obtain root. Sure its easy if you follow the instructions right, but its quite involved compared to just rooting 602/605 which has a one-click-root method available to us. I've thought about flashing the .15p radio perhaps, but I'd have to flash to Froyo to get it since I don't want to get onto 621 currently.


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## MongolPup (Dec 14, 2011)

TwinShadow said:


> One reason I haven't switched is mainly due to the long-winded process it requires just to obtain root. Sure its easy if you follow the instructions right, but its quite involved compared to just rooting 602/605 which has a one-click-root method available to us. I've thought about flashing the .15p radio perhaps, but I'd have to flash to Froyo to get it since I don't want to get onto 621 currently.


I recently went through the steps of getting the .15p radio on both of my DX's but I have no interest in going through the 621 process. Goose is doing awesome work and I think at some point will figure out how to beat the cdl change that prevents reversion etc.

Sent from my CM9 Droid X


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## masterchung7 (Dec 19, 2011)

Another downside is that you can't manually program the phone (whenever I sbf, I have to reprogram and update prl to get signal, but that can only be done in froyo as far as I know).

Sent from my DROIDX using RootzWiki


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

masterchung7 said:


> Another downside is that you can't manually program the phone (whenever I sbf, I have to reprogram and update prl to get signal, but that can only be done in froyo as far as I know).
> 
> Sent from my DROIDX using RootzWiki


Can't this be done in CDMA Workshop? I've never had to do it myself as I live in a Verizon area, but I thought PRL could be updated via that? Someone who has a DX flashed to a different carrier could probably answer that better.


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

MongolPup said:


> I recently went through the steps of getting the .15p radio on both of my DX's but I have no interest in going through the 621 process. Goose is doing awesome work and I think at some point will figure out how to beat the cdl change that prevents reversion etc.
> 
> Sent from my CM9 Droid X


Thanks, reassurance from other users makes me feel a bit better after I get done SBF'ing my phone 10 times in a row.


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## MongolPup (Dec 14, 2011)

Goose306 said:


> Thanks, reassurance from other users makes me feel a bit better after I get done SBF'ing my phone 10 times in a row.


Definitely appreciate all the work you have been doing. I've been chasing your threads about it across the forums getting bits and pieces for what I'm doing.

As far as doing a lot of SBFing, I've been doing the same thing with my spare X. Grafting .621 parts etc into 605, I wanted some of the 2.3.4 components among other things. I've been meaning to ask you to post a pure .621 build.prop if you have one handy.

Sent from my CM9 Droid X


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

MongolPup said:


> Definitely appreciate all the work you have been doing. I've been chasing your threads about it across the forums getting bits and pieces for what I'm doing.
> 
> As far as doing a lot of SBFing, I've been doing the same thing with my spare X. Grafting .621 parts etc into 605, I wanted some of the 2.3.4 components among other things. I've been meaning to ask you to post a pure .621 build.prop if you have one handy.
> 
> Sent from my CM9 Droid X


There is a 621 sbf in the link in my sig. I also have the sbf decompiled on github, I can get you a link when near a computer.

Sent from my Droid X using RootzWiki


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## MongolPup (Dec 14, 2011)

Goose306 said:


> There is a 621 sbf in the link in my sig. I also have the sbf decompiled on github, I can get you a link when near a computer.
> 
> Sent from my Droid X using RootzWiki


I have it decompiled as well, I guess I don't know how to extract the actual build.prop from it? Or that you even could.

Sent from my CM9 Droid X


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

There is a few things you can do with decompiled SBFs:

There is a few very useful items here:

http://and-developers.com/partitions:cdt

If you scroll down there is a Droid X section. It details all the different CG numbers and what they correspond to. As they are in binary format, you can do some things with them. As the main files (mbm, kernel, cdt, recoveries) etc. are written to the phone in binary all you have to do is literally change the name on them and they correspond to that. However, as soon as you attempt to modify/open them you break the precious header data which contains the signature validation. But we are able to extract them and use them in their current form in .zip files using the write_raw_data command (you can find this in the kernel update, for example).

The CDT (that which breaks reversion) is essentially what maps out all these different sections, thus the MEM_MAP. Its signature is a base 1 according to that website's coding system, which essentially means its full-on 2048 RSA security (that which cannot be hacked...








)

Some items are unsigned, and some are signed and validated at every boot, and some are only validated at first boot. All that is described there.

Effectively, because of the CDT changes, which IS new signatures, it makes it unrevertable. I verified via opening the CDT in binary that the actual MEM_MAP is untouched e.g. the its not something new in the system that breaks it. What DOES break it is the new signatures (at least as far as I can tell... I mean I'm staring at encrypted binary so yeah... lol) but I'm about 95% positive this is it. I can tell the portion that contains the MEM_MAP is untouched because the MEM_MAP is the top third of the CDT and there is no diff between it and .602.

So, the CDT basically controls everything we do, at least as far as writing the raw data or kernels, etc. which is what we want to get out of this. So we are effectively in a catch-22 - because of the new CDT we cannot write old code otherwise the signature validation will fail on boot. Even if we try forcing it to write the old CDT table using the write_raw_data command it doesn't take. HOWEVER if we DO write the .602 CDT table using said command we no longer get the MEM_MAP BLANK error in bootloader. We will still get a bootloader error, but it is coded differently. What this means is the consistency of the MEM_MAP is unaffected, however signature validation has failed. This is the holy "e-fuse" - its not as exciting as it sounds, lol. I'm guessing and/or assuming that we get MEM_MAP BLANK when using the SBF file because the SBF does a signature validation check while flashing and because it does not match it does not overwrite the CDT, which breaks a bunch of stuff at that point.

In a way, Skreelink is right... it IS the MBM (Motorola Boot Manager) that is stopping us from reverting back, but the MBM gets its signatures from the CDT. Which means all roads eventually lead to the CDT. I can verify the MBM signatures are NOT changed, as I did update my MBM from 30.03 to 30.04 using write_raw_data while on .621. So its not an updated MBM/Bootloader, but its the CDT table file.

So... where does this leave us? Hell if I know. LOL. I'm still trying and failing to merge CDT files and try different versions of recovery/etc getting swapped either in a recompiled SBF or via write_raw_data. I've gotten a few different bootloader errors... but they are always bootloader errors.

BTW, you can load up the /system portion of the SBF in Linux and get its contents. However changing it is chancy. You effectively have a certain number of bytes to work with otherwise you break its headers and it won't flash when its recompiled. There's info at XDA about the terminal commands needed to mount that portion in Linux. This is how it may be feasible to make a pre-rooted SBF, as it has been done on a few phones.

So, I am looking at two possibilities. First, I want to find where the radio is written in the SBF, as its never clearly delineated. If I can do that, I want to pull the .15p radio from the .621 and put it in a .605 and a .604 SBF. This way we can use RSD Lite to SBF to the Milestone X rootable firmware, and those still on .605 can upgrade the radio by performing a simple SBF rather than having to go to Froyo. Still trying to figure this one out.

If I can pull that off, then I would want to attempt making a pre-rooted /system portion on the .621 SBF and .605 SBF. Then, we would have a pre-root, .15p radio, SBF file available for anyone.

Finally, and the big one, is still reversion? Can it be broken? I've kinda taken this as a personal quest, but I only have so much time between work, college, girlfriend, etc. to be SBF'ing my phone over and over. LOL.

So we'll see. I don't know if anyone of this is possible, but it'd be damn awesome if I got it, I know that much.


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## TwinShadow (Oct 17, 2011)

Wow, that's a lot of work in trying to figure out if there ever will be a way to possibly revert back to 605 from 621. Would be nice I suppose for those few, but I have a funny feeling that Motorola doesn't want you going back to Froyo for whatever reason anymore. Grant it, some phones still run Froyo and were never given the Gingerbread update it seems. Regardless, its good to see all the work is being done, or... trying rather. I'd love to see a file where I could flash the 15p radio without the need to go to Froyo, and actually still retain all my data. I'd hate to SBF just to get a new radio, but then again, that's what nandroids are for. Just an annoying process to undertake for a simple radio update. XD


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