GD Quickie: Not Even Mother Nature Can Stop the Android Army

The National Guard does not get called to handle problems on the home front, well at least not in Southeast, Pa we don’t. The overhyped ice storm we had yesterday caused some panic and the governor activated us just in case things got a little crazy. Well despite Mother Nature’s efforts we didn’t have much going on this time around and mostly just prepared our trucks and gear for a night out in the ice.

While waiting for the order I was talking with some other soldiers in my crew about our mobile devices. One of my troops recently changed over from the iPhone world to Team Android and picked up a Droid X. My section is all Commo/Signal/IT people,  so we are all pretty much tech savvy geeks, and basically are the IT department for the Army. This soldier is an avid hacker/modder and usually has no problem modding any of his devices. He said his Droid X was giving him some trouble so we decided to use our Army training and make that Droid X the real mission for the night. So while we stood by waiting for a mission to pass down from above, we decided rooting the Droid X and getting a bloat free Rom was our primary order of business.

Not 15 minutes went by until we had Z4Root downloaded to my Vibrant and emailed off to him. I have the XDA app installed so it took only minutes to find the .apk (which is no longer on the market) and read up a little on the process of taking a stock Droid X to putting a custom Rom on it. The first time we ran it, it froze up and had to do a battery pull. The second time around it worked like a champ and we were ready for the next step. Installing Koush’s Droid X Bootstrap App was next and allowed us to boot into his Clockwork Recovery. Once that was done we did what all good modders do and made a Nandroid backup of the current Rom, just in case we needed to go back to the original (but rooted) Rom. Lastly we found a killer Rom on the XDA forums called Liberty 1.0 and downloaded the 106MB zip file. This was the most time-consuming part of the build but we had a little help from a local WiFi network. After the download completed we booted back into Clockwork and flashed the .zip file. After a quick image install and waiting 5 minutes for it to load up the first time we had a rooted Droid X with a custom Rom installed. The best part is that this can all be done from the phone itself. A computer and SD reader are recommended, but certainly not required.

Koush’s Droid X Bootstrap App, Free from his site, or $2 donation from the market

Booted into Clockwork Recovery using the Bootstrap App, next step is to install Rom from SD card

The Final Product, A new custom Rom that can be installed and running within minutes (after download)

Of course as you may already know the “warranty” on this phone is now void. Although, the entire process is completely reversible and the phone can be put back to factory if you need to take it in for service. All this greatness was made possible due to the two great apps (Z4Root, Droid X Bootstrap) that are freely available for download. This ex-iPhone user is now happily configuring his Droid X and has stated that he does not plan to go back. Whether you are activated for state emergencies, or sitting at your home computer you can see that the process is actually quite simple. Thanks to the great Android Community for making this process simple and painless, and thanks to the developers for all the great Rom’s available to install. From what I can tell this process is identical for the Droid 2. This further proves the Android Army simply cannot be stopped, even by Mother Nature. Don’t forget to donate to your favorite app builders and developers. Happy Modding.

Steps:

1. *Do this at your own risk, Myself, Gear Diary, and these great developers are not responsible for what happens to your device
2. Root phone using Z4Root
3. Install Bootstrap App
4. Download Rom to SD card
5. Run Bootstrap App, Boot to Recovery
6. Install Rom
7. Enjoy

Thanks to:

Z4Root Thread

Koush’s Bootstrap App

Liberty Rom Thread

XDA Droid X Forum

*Support our Troops*

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The Waiting (for Android Updates) is the Hardest Part GD Quickie: DoubleTwist Brings AirPlay to Android Verizon Announces 14 Android Devices Are Getting 4.0 ICS Updates This Year! Latest Android OS Distribution Numbers Showing Gingerbread Taking Over Droid 4 Revealed – Like a Moto Razr with a Slide-Out QWERTY Keyboard Motorola Adds Three New Razr Smartphones on Verizon! When is a ROM Update an Official Update? The Verizon Galaxy Nexus Edition

Tags: Android Apps, Android Phones and Tablets, Motorola