Flashing a ROM on a Droid 1 - Best Practices

[guidot]

Guide to SPRecovery

All,

This is my first attempt at writing a guide so helping me out with links and such will be helpful too.

MotoCache1 created a great guide on rooting a D1 running 2.2, however after I was done doing that I had to do more experimenting. I read so much on flashing, and whether to use ROM Manager or stick with SPRecovery, etc.

This guide will take over after the above rooting method has taken place. MotoCache1's method will leave you stock with SU, and BusyBox. These are the basics to having 'root' access. From here you should create a Nandroid backup in SPRecovery if you didn't after running the guide. This will give you a base to return to if something happens with your next ROM installation.

Steps:
1. Power off your Droid.
2. Slide open the keyboard.
3. Hold the 'x' key down, then press the power key as you normally would to turn the device on.
4. Continue holding the 'x' key until you are booted into SPRecovery.
5. Slide the keyboard closed.
6. Once there, using the volume key to move the selector up and down, select 'Backup/Restore'
7. Select 'create simple nandroid backup' This will create a backup marked with the date for easy restoration.
8. The progress bar will show up and complete in a minute or 2.
9. Once it says complete you can then press the power button to return to the main menu.
10. You can select 'reboot now'

Now you are back the home screen. Once you have decided on your ROM, download it (either using the PC or over WiFi on your Droid), and place it in the root of your SDcard and rename it update.zip. You can use a program on your Droid, such as Astro, or ES Explorer, or use your PC via USB cable. This is the same place you placed your update.zip using the MotoCache1 method. You will have to erase or rename the other update.zip.

At this time, you may wish to backup your apps and data. To do that you want to use a program like MyBackup Pro or Titanium Backup. This isn't something I will cover here.

Now you have the update.zip on the root of your sdcard, we will run through the procedure to flash your new ROM.

1. Power off your Droid.
2. Slide open your keyboard.
3. Hold 'x' button and press and hold power.
4. Navigate to Wipe Cache. Select. Select Yes.
5. Navigate to Wipe Data/Factory reset. Select. Volume down to select Yes.
6. Select Install.
7. Navigate to Allow Update.zip. Select. Screen will flicker for a moment, but nothing on screen will change.
8. Navigate to Install Update.zip (deprecated).
9. Back to main menu, using the power button.
10. Reboot now.

Now on boot this should take a bit longer on the boot animation screen. The OS is getting everything squared away.
Typically, when you feel the short vibration the install was successful and close to completion.

You should be back to your home screen in the new ROM!

From here you can go to the Market and load up Titanium backup. This is just my best practice here. Once you have downloaded TI or MyBackup, turn airplane mode on, so that you aren’t wasting processing power by loading your apps with TI while the Market is also trying to download them. Once you have the TI backups restored, turn airplane mode off.

If you haven't made it to your new ROM, which is unlikely if you've followed this so far, you can battery pull, reboot into recovery, reload your backup and re download the ROM. Sometimes they can be corrupt. Then follow the guide starting from the second section.

Guide to RZRecovery by GirLuvsDroid

GLD’s Method for Wiping and Installing a ROM through RaidZero Recovery
Now that more and more of us are switching to RZRecovery, I thought I'd chime in on how I install ROMs through RZR.

1. Copy the ROM zip file to any directory on your SDcard (there's no need to rename the file, and I always store mine in a directory under the Dev's name, to make it easier to find).

2. Purchase the license for Titanium Backup (TiBu) if you don't already have it; it's worth it; and go to Batch and select "Backup all user apps + system data" (skip this step if you don't intend to restore using TiBu).

3. Once your TiBu backup completes, boot into recovery (use the ROM shutdown menu options to do this if available, or select shut down, open your keyboard and press and hold the power button and the X button at the same time). Use your volume rocker to scroll down to Backup/Restore and your camera button to select it. Then select Nandroid Backup and Set backup name. Open your keyboard and give the backup a descriptive name for your current ROM (you can use the shift and alt keys on the kebyoard for capitals and numbers/symbols, you just have to hold them down while you press the desired key). Hit enter and close your keyboard, then scroll down and ensure that android_secure is checked. Now select Perform backup. This will do a nandroid backup of your current setup, which will be stored on your SDcard under nandroid).

4. Once the nandroid backup competes, use the power key to get back to the main menu and select Wipe Options. I always use Wipe all before installing a new ROM or a new ROM version and, because I'm a little OCD, I always wipe 3 times.

5. Press the Power key to get back to the main RZRecovery menu and select Install, then navigate to the directory where you stored the ROM zip file. Select the ROM zip file and you will see four options. Because you've already made your backup and wiped everything (in my view, it's not enough to wipe only /data, so I always wipe everything first), you want to select Install XXXXXXXXXX.zip. Now just watch it install!

6. After installation completes, select Reboot into Android. Once your Droid boots back up after install, you can follow my TiBu restore directions found at the link below or sign in and allow the market to restore your apps.

GLD's Method for a Clean Install and Restore Using Titanium Backup

Thanks to:
teddyearp (RM Guide)
GirLuvDroid (RZR Guide)
MotoCache1 (Root)
mwhartman (additions)
Tallica (additions, Local props!)
tp76 (being cool with my n00bness)

 

[guidot]

Guide to ROM Manager by teddyearp

ROM Manager Method

As mentioned in the last post, this is to take over after you have already rooted your Moto A855 phone using MotoCache1’s (or most any other WORKING) guide. The previous post was how to best flash a new ROM using SPRecovery, this one will cover how to do so using ROM Manager freely available in the android market. Now there is a paid version which does unlock some other features, but for the basics to be covered here, the paid version isn’t needed. So, are you ready? Well, let’s go.

First (of course) you’re going to need to search for and install ROM Manager (RM) by koush (ClockworkMod is listed as the author). Upon the first run of ROM Manager, it will ask for superuser permissions, and as usual make SURE you select the remember checkbox BEFORE you grant them. Then it will give you a message that you need to flash the ClockworkMod recovery to use RM, go ahead and do so, there will be a window that pops up with one selection, “Moto Droid (CDMA)” select it and after just a few seconds you should get a success message window. The very next thing you want to do is go to menu -> settings and select “Advanced Settings”. This probably doesn’t apply to what we’re going to do here, but what the heck.

OK, now after you start looking around in RM, you’re going to see that you can download a lot of stuff and flash them right from within this app. We’re not going to cover all of these options here, but I will add two things about them should you choose to try it. One, just don’t. Why? Because it’s better to research the stuff available within RM on the net because you’re not going to get any of the good (or bad) info from within the RM application itself. Two, if either you insist on using RM to download and/or have done your research, make sure you do so while hooked up via WiFi.

All right, let’s just get to the best way to flash a rom with RM. Once you have decided on what rom you want to install it’s pretty easy. If you have downloaded it with your PC you can then transfer it anywhere on your sdcard you feel like and you don’t even have to rename it to just “update.zip”, you just have to remember where you put it and what it’s called. If you did use RM to download your new rom, all you really have to worry about is step four below.

1. Fire up RM and chose the “Install ROM from SD Card” option.
2. You will then be presented with a look at the directory structure of your sdcard. Navigate to where you have your ‘new’ rom, and then select it.
3. Next RM will have an “Install Queue” window pop up. Just select the “OK” button.
4. The next window will be titled “ROM Pre-Installation” with two options; “Backup Existing ROM” and Wipe Data and Cache”. ALWAYS choose the first option and for the purposes of this guide, select the second one too as the decision behind this choice is beyond the scope of this guide.
5. Then at the bottom, just tap “OK” and watch your phone go to work.
Now you are done. Your phone should boot into the CMRecovery, make a backup, wipe /data and /cache then install your new rom and then reboot all in one fail swoop. My experience has shown that this will probably take a bit longer than with SPRecovery. As in the post above, the actual boot process will probably take longer, and as above, your phone will give the short vibration indicating that the ‘boot’ process is almost over.

Troubleshooting:

If after selecting “OK” in step five above your phone fails to boot into CMRecovery, just go ahead and do a battery pull and boot your phone normally. Then open RM and try flashing the alternate recovery (near the bottom) and then flash CMRecovery again. If you don’t get a success message for the CMR within a few seconds, repeat the process.

If when your phone goes to reboot after flashing the new rom and it hangs on the bootlogo, again do a battery pull. But this time boot manually into recovery (should be green on black i.e. CMRecovery), then go to the nandroid menu. Select Restore and select the backup that was created in step four above.

Tiny final note about backups and RM; my preferred method. Within RM, there is the option to “Backup current ROM”. Once you select it, then you are presented with a fully editable field wherein you can give your backup any name you wish. Sure once you hit the “OK” button your phone is going to go through the recovery system and reboot, but I’d rather do it this way and then I (personally) will NOT need to select the backup option in step four above since now I have a personalized name to my backup.

good luck

 

[Droid DOES!!]

This should be a sticky IMO! What's the difference between "simple nandroid backup" and "advanced nandroid backup"? I've always done advanced.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums app (free in market)

 

[guidot]

This should be a sticky IMO! What's the difference between "simple nandroid backup" and "advanced nandroid backup"? I've always done advanced.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums app (free in market)

This is one of the things that I'm waiting for clarifications on.

 

[mwhartman]

All,

This is my first attempt at writing a guide so helping me out with links and such will be helpful too.

MotoCache1 created a great guide on rooting a D1 running 2.2, however after I was done doing that I had to do more experimenting. I read so much on flashing, and whether to use ROM Manager or stick with SPRecovery, etc.

This guide will take over after the above rooting method has taken place. MotoCache1’s method will leave you stock with SU, and BusyBox. These are the basics to having “root” access. From here you should create a Nandroid backup in SPRecovery if you didn’t after running the guide. This will give you a base to return to if something happens with your next ROM installation.

Steps:
1. Power off your Droid.
2. Slide open the keyboard.
3. Hold the “x” key down, then press the power key as you normally would to turn the device on.
4. Continue holding the “x” key until you are booted into SPRecovery.
5. Slide the keyboard closed.
6. Once there, using the volume key to move the selector up and down, select “Backup/Restore”
7. Select “create simple nandroid backup.” This will create a backup marked with the date for easy restoration.

I always do the advance so I may be wrong but I thought that by selecting the simple you needed to place an asterisk next to the items to be copied.


8. The progress bar will show up and complete in a minute or 2.
9. Once it says complete you can then press the power button to return to the main menu.
10. You can select “reboot now.”

Now you are back the home screen. Once you have decided on your ROM, download it (either using the PC or over WiFi on your Droid), and place it in the root of your SDcard and rename it update.zip. You can use a program on your Droid, such as Astro, or ES Explorer, or use your PC via USB cable. This is the same place you placed your update.zip using the MotoCache1 method. You will have to erase or rename the other update.zip.

At this time, you may wish to backup your apps and data. To do that you want to use a program like MyBackup Pro or Titanium Backup. This isn’t something I will cover here.

Now you have the update.zip on the root of your sdcard, we will run through the procedure to flash your new ROM.

1. Power off your Droid.
2. Slide open your keyboard.
3. Hold “x” button and press and hold power.
4. Navigate to Wipe Cache. Select. Select Yes.
5. Navigate to Wipe Data/Factory reset. Select. Volume down to select Yes.
6. Perform step 4 again.
7. Perform step 5 again.
8. Perform step 4 again.
9. Perform step 5 again.
10. Select Install ROM.
11. Navigate to Allow Update.zip. Select. Screen will flicker for a moment, but nothing on screen will change.
12. Navigate to Install Update.zip (deprecated).
13. Back to main menu, using the power button.
14. Reboot now.

Now on boot this should take a bit longer on the boot animation screen. The OS is getting everything squared away. Typically, when you feel the short vibration the install was successful and close to completion.

You should be back to your home screen in the new ROM!

From here you can go to the Market and load up Titanium backup. This is just my best practice here. Once you have downloaded TI or MyBackup, turn airplane mode on, so that you aren’t wasting processing power by loading your apps with TI while the Market is also trying to download them. Once you have the TI backups restored, turn airplane mode off.

If you haven’t made it to your new ROM, which is unlikely if you’ve followed this so far, you can battery pull, reboot into recovery, reload your backup and re download the ROM. Sometimes they can be corrupt. Then follow the guide starting from the second section.

Good job. I added a few comments in blue. Hope they are helpful..

Mike

 

[guidot]

Good job. I added a few comments in blue. Hope they are helpful..

Mike

They were. I added them except the simple/advanced comment. Simple saves everything that is marked with an asterisk when you select advanced. So advanced allows you to save more in the backup, but isn't necessary for the normal user.

 

[Tallica]

Great guide guidot! The only possible change I see is step 10 when installing the Rom. Correct me if i'm wrong but I don't think it's "install Rom" isn't it "install update.zip"?
Haven't used SPR in a while though.

 

[teddyearp]

Simple nandroid backup vs. advanced nandroid backup within SPRecovery:

Simple backup automatically backs up the boot (kernel), data, and system partitions of your phone (hence the "BDS" in the name) and does not allow you to make any type of custom name.

Advanced allows you to add some description to the name and you can manually select which partitions (or all) to backup. And again that will be reflected in the capital letters in the name of the backup.

Clear as mud? And pretty nice job guidot, hows about using the second post for ROM Manager, lol?

good luck

 

[guidot]

Haha clear as mud.

I already talked to tp76 about cm. I don't use it but if you would like to write one up to add I will put it in the second post!!

dancedroid

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[teddyearp]

I can try to whip something up tonight when I get home from work, unless someone else beats me to it.

 

[fdkatz]

Success

Thank you gentlemen for all your help. It took weeks to gain courage, but only a few days to finally root and flash a custom ROM. I have wowed my tech savvy daughter.

 

[mwhartman]

Great and welcome to the dark side (rooted)!

 

[guidot]

Excellent!

Did you find motocache's guide and my guide to be helpful?

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[rlfitz]

motocaches guide worked great for me. I have been reading up on flashing a rom before trying it. I will be watching this thread with great interest.
thanks..

 

[IHC]

Nice work!

How do you flash themes using SPRecovery,(say smoked glass for CM) is it the update.zip format also? I've only used clockwork.