First I want to say thanks to jerkwad, JSM9872, and brad92. All of the information has been helpful.
Second, I am not responsible for your phone. The following is a description of a phone that was rooted and liquified to smooth goodness. Proceed at your own risk.
You are responsible for you!
I have to say, this device is extremely sensitive to, ohhh, just about everything. LOL. I made multiple attempts at a good, solid, clean install. And I'd like to give the details of what worked and what made things go wrong. It seems like all the info is out there, but it is scattered and often vague. So I'll try to be as specific as I can! I know I like detail! During the course if installing Liquid Smooth 3.0 on the DROID X three times I learned quite a bit, had some good times, had some bad times, had some SBF time.
But in the end it was a great learning experience. Gain from my pain! When things got really shakey I had to SBF to .602, did the OTA back to .605, rerooted and here we are!
So here it goes.......................
Proceed at your own risk.
1) I started out in .605 and rooted via Peter Souza's one click D3 root tool.
2) Purchased Ti Backup Pro from the market.
3) Installed Rom Manager from the market and flashed clockworkmod recovery from inside Rom Manager.
4) Purchased DX Bootsrtap.
I think that for under $10.00, these dev's deserve to be paid for their work. Great apps.
5) At this point-make sure you have clicked "allow unknown sources" checked in "applications". You also need to make sure USB debugging is not checked!!! Make sure USB debugging is set to off!!!!!!
READ: MAKE SURE USB DEBUGGING IS SET TO OFF!!!!!.
6) I then open bootstrap, press "Bootstrap Recovery". It should ask for root permission and then say "success".
7) I then click "Reboot Recovery" and the phone should shut down and restart into clockworkmod recovery.
8) Once in the recovery menu I use the volume down button to get to "backup/restore" or it may say "nandroid", press the camera button, then scroll to "backup" and again hit the camera button. This backup will take a few minutes. Be patient.
9) After it is all done, I again press the camera button on "reboot system now". And we are back to our rooted .605 DX.
10) Next I open Titanium Backup, click check for updates in the lower left corner and update if needed. Then click the "menu" hard key then press "batch". Now here's where I go into personal over kill. I run three separate batches. Not sure that it's necessary. But I know it works! I run "backup all user apps", then "backup all system data", then I run "backup all user apps+system data". Again-IT WORKS.
11) So at this point, we are rooted, have rom manager, clockworkmod rec, bootstrap, TiBU, and a good clean stock backup in recovery. Go ahead and download liquid 3.0 from the liquid smooth website and get ready to play. Make sure you download the right file for your device!!!!!!!!
12) After the download, go back into bootstrap, click "bootstrap recovery" and then "reboot recovery".
13) Again, I go a little overboard. I have seen Liquid instructions several different ways. So in the interest of self-preservation and good mental health, I use the over-kill method. Once in recovery I do a factory reset, I then go into the partition menu and format "boot" and then format "system". I then go back a screen and wipe cache. Then into "advanced" and wipe dalvik cache. And I do all of that 2 to 3 times. Just for maximum over-kill. Again-perhaps not needed, but the final result was very solid.
14) Now still in recovery-go to install zip from sd card. Navigate down to the download folder, click in there, and you should see your liquid zip. Hit that camera button and in she goes.
15) Patiently wait. Have an ice cream. Relax a little.
16) After it's allllll done, go to reboot system now and let her load. It will take some time.
17) Again, here's where I stray from what I've read a bit. The following is a modified version of the official liquid instructions after install.
"2. Once you boot up, touch the Android in his naughty place to do your Google sign in.
(Knowpig add-in/edit-Now that you are on Liquid 3.0, do not reinstall bootstrap. Again- DO NOT REINSTALL BOOTSTRAP. Leave bootstrap off of your phone. Do not restore in, do not reload it, leave it out. Liquid will allow you to reboot into recivery with a long press of the power button, then reboot, then reboot to recovery. And leave USB debugging off when you reboot to recovery!!!!!! Knowpig edit.)
3. Sign in and let google download your apps, could take a min i suggest going and doing something else for a while, have a drink, go back to work before your boss sees you &%$king with your phone, do both.
5. go to Batch and select Restore all apps with data.
6. deselect all and check data only, now one by one select only the apps google just installed, for best results just the apps you need data from.
7. now make sure you have Unknown sources checked in System>Applications.
8. We recommend you do not restore any system apps or settings, Gingerbread has a habit of going crazy when this is done. It's worth it to just take the time and set everything back up. But it has been working some of the time since tibu updated for GB compatibility. I recommend another backup before you do any system apps just so you don't have to go through all that again.
9. now go into Batch and and select Restore missing apps + all system data. press Deselect all and ONLY check the items in GREEN, If you restore the stuff in red, you're restoring system data from prior ROMs, which could cause you all kinds of issues. It works ok for some simple things like email and Car home and some of Liquid settings (which has one section in green and one in red) but wont work for Talk or Accounts and sync.
(Step 9.5 is a Knowpig edit/add-on.)
9.5 click the menu button, go into TiBU preferences, go into "app processing mode" and click "auto, indirect". I had to do this because when I did the next step it would always get stuck and not finish the batch.
10. Run Restore missing apps with data. (Knowpig edit- press Deselect all and then click app only. NO DATA! Don't do it. App only, NO DATA!!!-that's a Knowpig edited add in) (these will all be missing user (non-system) apps that are in WHITE text) and go through the list to make sure you've got ONLY the items you really want to restore checked. DON'T restore Liquid Tweaks, Liquid Tweaks Helper or Spare Parts if they're on your list. Take your time going through this list, and make sure you have unchecked system apps from prior ROMs or older versions of the same ROM. In addition to the ones I've already mentioned, some examples from my list that I make sure are unchecked are things like Calendar 2.2, Android Keyboard 2.2 and Music Mod 1.8. These may differ from what's on your list, but hopefully that gives you the idea of the kinds of things you're looking for.
11. Reboot your droid"
Again-that long last section in quotes is direct from liquid. I noted add-ins and/or changes I made. I took out their step 4 because I want android and liquid to put apps where they want them. I can move them later.
back to step 18) You should be re-booted into full liquid glory!!!!!
Every single time I tried to install missing apps with data and let it do data with it, she got buggy. The above steps worked well for me and the ROM has been performing nearly flawless. The only issue I have encountered is on time launcher pro was frozen on reboot and after it did a quick force close it works fine. I am unsure if that's a liquid issue or a launcher pro issue, but it is a very minor thing and really not a huge issue. If they could fix it......great.
I hope that is not terribly redundant for the power users. My hope is that I save someone a sleepless night and/or a massive spiral to alcoholism.
