Motorola Xoom 4G Upgrade Info

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you already know that I have started building ROMs for the Motorola Xoom. I will be discussing these builds and others in a post soon. Today I'd like to remind the Verizon Xoom owners about the free 4G upgrade that is available and hopefully clear up some confusion in the process.

Earlier this month, Verizon sent out a reminder email stating "Last Chance For A Free 4G Upgrade". It went on to say that time is indeed running out and that if you act now, they will throw in a free dock. Regardless of these incentives, let's go over the reasons why you need to send your device in.

Google recently announced that the Motorola Xoom is fully supported "out of the box" by AOSP. In other words, custom ROMs from source can be built for it, as with Nexus devices. Unfortunately, only the 4G Verizon Xoom and Wi-Fi Xoom is supported. The 3G Xooms that have yet to be upgraded, will not be able to utilize the buffet of ROMs that are soon to come.

Even if your Xoom is not currently active (does not have a data plan), you can still send it in for the upgrade! My Xoom has not been active for nearly 8 months, even during the time I sent it in for the upgrade. Some of you may have purchased your Verizon Xoom used and may not be an actual Verizon customer, your device can still be upgraded for free as well. The upgrade process is done via Motorola, not Verizon.

It's only natural for us to want bigger and better things. At some point you may want to sell your Verizon Xoom to purchase a newer tablet. Resale value will be much lower on a non-upgraded 3G Xoom, especially once the upgrade window closes. So do your wallet a favor and send it in asap.

The entire upgrade process is quite easy. For starters, head over to the upgrade form on Motorola's website. Once completed, you will receive a package with instructions on how to send it in. Remember, this entire process is free, all the shipping is paid for in advance. Once shipped, the process only takes a few days. By the end of the week you can be running my ROM!

Update: If your Verizon Xoom currently is rooted or is running a custom ROM, I would advise flashing it back to its factory state before sending it in for the upgrade. To do so, download the latest "Software Images" from my downloads page and flash each using fastboot and relock the bootloader.

Screen shot of the email after the break.

Download: Stock Rooted Gingerbread (Android 2.3.3) ROM Update GPA14

It's about that time again isn't it? Perhaps the most important aspects of this updated build are the FRG83G proprietaries and the adjustments made to the way Gingerbread manages RAM. As mentioned in a previous post, "Unfortunately not every file on the Droid can be built from source. Because of this, "proprietary" files are used."  

Gingerbread was never intended to run on devices with less then 256MB of RAM, such as the Droid. This is made evident by the way applications will randomly close or stop syncing, they are being "kicked out" of memory. For example, on previous Gingerbread builds (not only including mine), if a user had music playing in the background and later opened a few more apps, the music would stop playing. Issues such as these are now resolved due to the adjustments I have made. Now user can multitask as much as they would expect an Android device to be able to. As an added bonus, you can expect to see alot less homescreen redraws.

One of my favorite things about Nexus devices is that they always receive the latest updates, including apps. More often then not, when an app is updated on this device, it is not available in the Market yet. This gives rooted users an opportunity to run the latest versions before others even get news of it. In GPA14 you will find the latest Street View and Google Search apps not available in the Market yet. When you download all of the Google apps from the Market, be sure to not download Street View and Google Search because you will overwrite the new version with the "old" Market version.

Other changes including updates and bug fixes are included in this release so be sure to check out the changelog for full details.

GPA14 (71.7MB)
Download | Statistics
Mirror | Statistics

File hosting provided by @dwonderly & @b16a2smith

Further installation details after the jump...

Download: FRG83G Motorola Droid 1 Update

The Droid community heard news of this update all the way back in January. "A limited number of owners will receive the update as part of a pre-launch 'soak' test before it’s more widely released. This has become standard practice, so we can observe for a few days to make sure there are no hidden problems before wide release", Matt stated, manager of the Motorola Owners Forum. As you may have seen, MyDroidWorld leaked this "test" update before it was officially released OTA (over the air) giving us a glimpse of what it may bring. For those who flashed the leaked "test" update or were included in the pre-launch OTA, you will still be notified to receive the official "release" FRG83G now that all bugs have been worked out. The official "release" OTA started on March 9th and will update your Droid to Android 2.2.2. As noted by Verizon Wireless Droid support .pdf, this update will fix some mms/sms issues users were reporting.

So why care about this update when you have GPA ROMs to enjoy?  Unfortunately not every file on the Droid can be built from source. Because of this, "proprietary" files are used. These files are pulled directly from your device so it is very important to have the latest ones available, in this case FRG83G. Although the release notes for this update state that only mms/sms issues were addressed, the official OTA .zip shows much more being patched. Rather than contemplating for hours about what has or has not been changed from one release to another, I would much rather just be certain and include the latest proprietaries in my ROMs. That being said, expect them in GPA14.

"Pete you're slacking, you should have had these FRG83G ROMs in your downloads section the night of March 9th." I know, I know...For some reason this update has been very hard to get. I sure do miss the days when people were eager to post the Droid 1 OTA files or download urls taken from logcats. I put my development Droid back to stock using RSDLite and an sbf file but I still could not get it to receive the update. Usually, and even stated in official documents, you can "force" the update by going to Settings > About phone > System updates, but this did not work. Fortunately, Twitter followers Jonassink and DizkoDan wanted to help. After spending some time on Gtalk with each, I was able to guide them through the process required to get the system and OTA files dumped. I then took these files and created stock rooted ROMs out of them, one odexed and the other deodexed.

Before posting the download links for this update, I'd like to end on a lighter note. Check out the graphic of the Droid 1 in the update support .pdf. What a major FAIL! For starters the Droid 1 has never ran Donut (Android 1.6) as shown on the screen. Also note the "Advanced Task Killer" application in the top left. Pretty funny stuff. I can count the hours of Photoshop experience I have on one hand and I know I could have made a better graphic!

Download:
FRG83G Deodexed
FRG83G Odexed
FRG83G OTA file

Edit: For those wanting to stop OTA notifications you will need to edit your build.prop file with the following...

ro.build.description=voles-user 2.2.2 FRG83G 91102 release-keys
ro.build.fingerprint=verizon/voles/sholes/sholes:2.2.2/FRG83G/91102:user/release-keys

Download: Stock Rooted Gingerbread (Android 2.3.3) ROM Update GPA13

Over the past week, the Android team at Google pushed Gingerbread version 2.3.3 to AOSP (Android Open Source Project). Unfortunately I couldn't immediately work on it because of being busy with school but now I am on spring break and have found some time. Although the end user may not notice a difference between the two versions, I assure you much coding has changed. So much in fact that Live Wallpapers no longer worked and delayed this release until I could pinpoint the culprit.

Now that I have learned to compile kernels, I have made a 600MHz, stock voltage kernel that eliminates all the lag users have experienced running Gingerbread on the Droid. Before, audio would stutter, wake time would be delayed, and nothing felt "fluid" unless clocked to atleast 1GHz. With this new kernel, none of those issues occur. How I have achieved this with a 600MHz kernel came to me while I was half  asleep (not sure if this is good or bad, but ideas and thoughts related to Android run through my head until I finally fall asleep every night). Being that this kernel is stock voltage, I highly recommend flashing my low voltage 600MHz kernel (if your device can handle the voltage decrease) to save battery life. Let's hope a Motorola employee flashes this ROM, sees how well it runs without being over-clocked, and decides to push an official Gingerbread update!

Aside from updating the entire ROM to Android 2.3.3, I have also updated the Market application to 2.3.4 and added the native Quick Office application that comes on Droid devices. For details about changes between each release, please read my changelog. Although the changelog may seem "simple" please realize that hours and hours of work are put into each release.

Once again I will mention, no Market applications are included in this ROM. Once you install this ROM you will need to download the following: YouTube, Gmail, Street View, Voice Search, Maps, Flash Player, Talkback, Kickback, and Soundback. Once Gmail is installed, allow it to auto sync by changing the following setting: Menu > Settings > Accounts & sync > example@gmail.com > Sync Gmail

If you experience any problems at all wipe data and cache!

GPA13 (71.7MB):
Download Link (Statistics)

Kernel Input Needed

If you haven't realised it yet, I am a perfectionist. This trait has been instilled in me since I was a child by my dad. Because of that, I want to not just make a kernel, but make a great kernel. I have created a chart (using Google Docs) comparing the voltage levels/values of each popular "Low Voltage" kernel who's source is available. I want your input on what values I should use for my kernel. Keep in mind if the voltage is too low it may become unstable. The lower the voltage value, the lower the overall power consumption. Should I take the average, should I go with the lowest value, should I make a new value, should I round high or low? What do you think? Comment below and let me know...

Update (2-21-11): After conducting more research on modifying kernels I have compiled another one that I am quite happy with. So far it is running amazing on my Droid. I disabled more debugging, added cpu temp monitoring, changed the slots to 225, 450, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, and appended _1GHz_LV to the kernel version. I thought compcache would be included in this release but it looks like it will have to wait until the next one. The lowest slot is still below stock at 250 yet seems to be a perfect minimum to eliminate the lag we experience in Gingerbread. I have tried 125, 175, and 200 as minimum slots but they just don't do the trick. Based on the chart below, I have selected what I think are great low voltage values for stability and less power consumption. After more trial runs and feedback from you all I will publish my values. This kernel is in Koush's anykernel.zip format meaning it will work on any Gingerbread ROM. Once again, I would like to thank RaidZero for helping me with my questions.

Download:
Update in my latest post!

Download: 900MHz Overclocked Gingerbread Kernel

Who dares test my first kernel? If you are willing let me go ahead and state a disclaimer, flash this at your own risk! I will not be held responsible if your phone explodes, catches on fire, your girlfriend dumps you, etc. I literally just made this kernel so I have not had time to fully test it, things may be broken! Having said that, this kernel still needs a few features, but I think for my first effort, its pretty darn good. After flashing many kernels through the time I have owned my Droid I have never been satisfied with the slots available, so I modified the slots to my liking; 175, 275, 400, 500, 600, 750, and 900 MHz. I have included all of the popular scaling  governors; interactive, conservative, userspace, powersave, ondemand, and performance. For now, the voltage levels remain completely stock, I feel I need to educate myself a bit more before I decide what levels I will be satisfied with. For those of you running my stock Gingerbread ROM this kernel will automatically set is maximum frequency to 900 and its minimum frequency to 175 at boot via a script I created. The default governor that will be applied is ondemand. If you wish to change any of these settings you may need a cpu application such as "SetCPU" by Michael Huang. Again, for those on my ROM, typing "cpuinfo" into the terminal will print out a list of details that you may be interested in. Future features will come with time, compcache, processor temperature reporting, and time in state stats, are on the priority list.

Please note that this .zip is not in the "anykernel.zip" format by Koush meaning it was created to work on my Gingerbread ROM. If you flash this on someone else's Gingerbread ROM, it may not work. This will absolutely not work on any Froyo ROM so do not even try it. Also note, this will only work on the Droid 1, if you try to flash it on any other device it will fail.


Special thanks goes out to raidzero for answering my questions! Apparently I was compiling the wrong wifi module at first, no wonder it wasn't working...

Download Link:
Outdated, now up to 1Ghz, download here.

Download: Stock Rooted Gingerbread (Android 2.3.2) ROM

I would like to present to you a clean stock Gingerbread (Android 2.3.2) ROM. Although this build is stock, I spent many hours modifying it to my liking. First off let me start by saying compiling Gingerbread for the Droid is a pain, goodluck to those who are attempting this process. On that note, I would like to say thank you to actngrezy for answering my questions about Gingerbread specific compiling. Secondly, but no less important, I would like to say thank you to the CyanogenMod community, specifically the maintainers for the Droid, cvpcs, mtwebster, and koush. Without the efforts of this community we (Droid users) would not have a stable, fully functional Gingerbread build.

So how is this build different from other Gingerbread ROMs?

For starters, this build was made using the master branch of the AOSP only two days ago, meaning it not only brings you to version 2.3.2 but it also has the latest bug fixes included. Once you flash this ROM you will immediately see how much time I spent making this build exactly how Motorola would have provided it to you (if they still supported our "old" device). This ROM has the stock signature Droid boot animation, ringtones, wallpaper set, 2D Launcher, and Neural Network live wallpaper. Additionally, I have implemented many of my own bug fixes and others provided by the development community. I also went ahead and enabled the Sound Recorder and Camcorder shortcuts because I find them useful.

Since Motorola will never "officially" provide the Droid with a Gingerbread build, we will never have accurate build numbers (e.g. FRG83) to go by. Because of this I have decided to create my own build numbers and always maintain an updated stock build for the Droid here on my website in the Downloads section. Upon installing this ROM, you will notice a build number of GPA10. The first letter stands for Gingerbread, second letter Peter, third letter Alfonso, and a number that will increase as I release future updated builds.

This ROM is to be treated as if it were an update straight from Motorola. For those learning to develop or those who base their ROMs off of stock builds you may use this ROM, modify it, and distribute it as your own. I do ask that you provide a link to my website wherever you distribute it. Also, please do not reupload this ROM elsewhere if you have not modified it in any way. I would like to keep track of the download count.

If you have not read about the amazing features that Gingerbread brings, I encourage you to visit android.com to learn more. While you're there you may notice that Android 2.3.3 is on its way, when it hits the source tree, I will bring it to you. Also, don't forget that the new market.android.com is now live and works well with this ROM. Most importantly, be sure to give Google a "thank you" by setting you and you're friends home page to Google.com!

I did not include ANY market apps in this ROM other than Car Home (because I included an updated version not available in the Market yet) and Quick Search Box (if you do not include this app, the search key will not work properly). Having said that, after the installation I recommend downloading YouTube, Gmail, Street View, Voice Search, Maps, and Flash Player. For those of you wanting a boost of performance without the need of a CPU scaling application, download and install AutoOverClock.zip which will bring this ROM to 800mhz. If you decide to flash an alternate kernel, it will automatically overclock itself to the highest available slot.

Ok, I am done rambling...follow me on Twitter and enjoy!

GPA10 (66MB):
Download Link (Statistics)

If you want a great 1Ghz kernel I recommend this one:  http://bit.ly/fUb6wB

Download: Gingerbread Keyboard With Extra Features (Updated 1-19-10)

Many of you enjoyed the port I did of the Gingerbread keyboard a while back so I decided to modify it a bit with intentions on including it in Bugless Beast. Before doing so I need this tested thoroughly....
  
Features:
1) Added heart emoticon to smiley menu <3
2) Renamed keyboard to "Gingerbread keyboard" instead of "Android keyboard"
3) Added larger 12,000 word English dictionary
4) Added Spanish Dictionary
5) Changed suggestion text color to green instead of orange
6) Added some tweaks for increased speed
7) Greek keyboard support
8) Fully compatible with Froyo, maybe Eclair
9) Open Source! Help make it better @github

BG, CS, CZ, DA, DE, FI, FR, IT, NB, NL, PL, PT, RU, SL, and SV dictionaries available if needed....here.


Changelog/Credits

Prerequisites:
1. Android 2.2 (Froyo)
2. Latest Voice Search App (Download in Market)
3. Rooted Device

Installation:
0. Make A Backup!!!!
1. Download LatinIME.zip
2. Place on sdcard (rename to update.zip if using SPRecovery)
3. Reboot into recovery mode
4. Choose and install LatinIME.zip (do not wipe data or cache)
5. Reboot

Gingerbread Easter Egg Found....And Added To Bugless Beast!

Earlier this week an "Easter Egg" was found in Gingerbread. For those who don't know, an "Easter Egg" is a hidden item found in the system, in this case it was a zombie/android painting by Jack Larson. This image is accessible by repeatedly clicking the "Android version" property in the "About phone" menu. I thought this was really neat so I decided to add it to Bugless Beast V0.6.2.2

Edit: For some reason this is breaking the browser, school is starting this Monday so I am not sure when I will get time to fix this. 

How To: Stop OTA Notifications on Bugless Beast V0.5

I have been notified by a few Bugless Beast users that they have been receiving the OTA update notification and were wondering what to do. The reason for this is because Bugless Beast V0.5 is based on FRG22D, an earlier build than the new OTA update (FRG83D). A few months ago many of us would have simply renamed or removed otacerts.zip from /system/etc/security to block OTA updates but we quickly learned that this method drained battery life tremendously because it constantly caused the update to redownload. The patch I will provide below will update the build keys and fingerprint to "trick" the system into thinking it is the latest build. Therefore no more OTA update notifications.

Everyone running Bugless Beast V0.5 (or below) should flash this whether you have received an OTA update notification or not. If you have received the update and wish for the notification to go away first install my patch and reboot. If you are still prompted for an OTA update, press install so that your device will boot into recovery. The update will be blocked by ClockworkMod Recovery and SPRecovery. Reboot your device and you shouldn't have to worry about another update notification again.

Download link and installation instructions after the jump:

Please Vote:

Default Launcher2 app drawer for Bugless Beast V0.6 should be...

More confusion about the FRG01B Droid OTA Update...

As many of you may have heard, the FRG01B OTA update for Droid was supposedly pulled/halted due to "conflicts with flash player". What has left some of us confused is why it has not been removed from Google's servers yet. Even more confusing is a file a man by the name of John Galt provided me with early this morning. He had installed my deodexed FRG22 located on my downloads page and received an OTA notification. Being curious as any rooted user would be, he pulled this file from the cache folder and sent it my way. What he had received OTA turned out to be a "complete", "master" FRG01B update...

Download: Droid OTA Update Baseband (C_01.43.01P)

This should have been included in my previous post releasing the rooted OTA FRG01B but I was too focused on camping to think about it. Unfortunately it caused a bit of confusion for some readers. These readers asked why the new baseband was not included in the ROM I had posted. The simplest answer to this question is that they each replace/update seperate "sections" of files on your device. A standard ROM never updates your baseband because it could become a hassle if the user has already updated the baseband and/or activation may be required each time the ROM is installed.

For those of you who may not know, basebands are said to improve signal and battery life in some cases. You should always upgrade to the latest one available. To check which baseband your Droid is currently running go to Menu > Settings > About Phone > Baseband Version.

Although the latest baseband (C_01.43.01P) has been available for roughly two months now, it was officially pushed OTA on the 3rd of this month. As always, it is a good practice to use the officially pushed files rather than those that have been floating around for quite some time. They may be labeled the same but there is a chance that they could be slightly different.

Download: Droid OTA Update Froyo Rooted Full ROM (FRG01B)

I woke up from my nap while camping and had a few notifications on my phone about the OTA update. I immediately downloaded it from Google, reflashed my Droid to ESE81, modified the OTA update and applied it (just as I said in this post). The end result; the official Froyo OTA update rooted and ready to go:

Download Link

P.S. Sorry about the nap, I could have gotten this out about 4 hours earlier. I should have known I wouldn't be able to take a vacation without playing with the Droid...

Blogs, Forums, etc, feel free to post this on your site but please provide a link to my site. Also please use this download link:  http://bit.ly/otafroyo

Are You Prepared?

Bugless Beast V0.5 is making progress but not quite ready for release to the masses. On a lighter note, you should start preparing now. I have created a tool that will backup a few of the more important databases found on your Droid. Once you run this tool the following will be backed up to your sdcard in a directory titled "backuptool": System Settings, Browser Bookmarks, Call Logs, SMS/MMS, User Dictionary, and Market Downloads List. Please note, this tool does not back up your apps.

So what good is backing up these files if there is no way to restore them? Good question...Once you install V0.5 my ROM will automatically check if these files exist on the sdcard; if they do exist, these files will automatically be restored!

Droid OTA Froyo Update Information

For those of you who bought your Droid with Android 2.1 loaded onto it already, you may be a bit confused (now that your device is rooted and running Bugless Beast) about how you will receive the "official" Froyo update once it is pushed over the air. To clear up your confusion, let me explain how this works.

First of all, if you are prompted to install the OTA update, do not do it! Once the OTA update is received my Twitter and Gmail will most likely blow up with links providing the update. I will download, modify, and apply it over ESE81 (Android 2.1 that stock Droids run on). The end result will be the official Froyo update for the Droid with root. As soon as it is complete you will be able to find it here on this site in the "Downloads" section ready to install on your device.

You may now relax and not worry about going back to a completely stock device.
Let me do the hard work for you...