mygamjaishot

Hi Guys,
First time posting here. Just want to start off by saying that the reason why I made this guide is so that people could just click on one thread rather than search and sift through hundreds of them to find out how to root, deodex, and install a custom ROM/Theme as well as finding a solution to unbricking their phones. So, as people with solutions always like to mention, I am in no way responsible for you damaging your phone by following this guide!

Included is (hopefully) a prettsy straightforward set of directions. There is also a guide to unbricking your phone in case you happen to miss some of the steps. Also, credits to the individuals that created these programs for our use on the android forums. I DID NOT MAKE THESE PROGRAMS I am merely the tour guide getting you through the maze that is the customization of your droid x! I hope these directions are helpful! Also, at the bottom there is one issue that I ran into, which is double text messages (two of the same texts NOT the double notification problem that most people seem to be having), which I fixed by using Titanium Backup to uninstall the stock messaging app. Hope this is helpful guys and feel free to comment and add some stuff to the "Troubleshooting" section.
~E


Making Modifications to Your Droid X (From rooting, to deodexing, to installation of custom ROMs and themes…

NOTE: I am not responsible for you bricking your phone! If you have trouble with the directions and manage to brick your phone there are instructions below for a fix.

****Perform following steps on a Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP platform. A Mac User guide will follow later.

****PHONE BASE PLATFORM: FROYO 2.2.1
DO NOT TRY TO DO THIS ON ANY EARLIER VERSION OF ANDROID AS I DO NOT KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES OF DOING SO. SIFTING THROUGH THE PAGES OF MANY A FORUM I DON'T KNOW IF THIS WILL BE PLEASANT FOR YOU IF YOU TRY!


I. Some General Guidelines (PERFORM THESE STEPS BEFORE installing ANY custom ROMs or Themes)….

Here is a checklist of what should be accomplished before trying to install any custom modification on your stock Droid X. I’m writing this to make sure that no one else has to suffer the indecencies of browsing through thousands of android forums for god knows how many hours trying to figure out how to do this by piecing together fragments of information….the guys out there on the forums know their stuff but sometimes it can be tough to navigate through what they know so I’m going to try to put the instructions in layman’s terms. I am by no means preaching that I am better at this than any other DX user (I am not, I can assure you that) so please don’t take anything the wrong way!

THESE ARE JUST GENERAL GUIDELINES I WILL GO INTO DETAILS FOR EACH STEP AFTER I LIST OUT THE BASICS!!!!!

A. ROOT FIRST : Without rooting your Droid X, you will not be able to access the restricted files that are normally locked on your stock DX and will not be able to make any modifications to your DX)
B. CONFIRM THAT ROOT HAS WORKED: you can check this by making sure that an app called “Superuser Permissions” has installed in your app drawer.
C. DEODEX YOUR FROYO: don’t worry about what this really means…just know that it’s necessary for the custom ROMs to function with respect to changing fonts, widgets, frame appearance, etc. If you want a real explanation, google it…as I’ve said before there are hundred and thousands of forums dedicated to explaining what this actually does. Without deodexing your Droid X (or any other android-based platform) you will most likely not be able to install any of the current custom ROMs and themes that are available for download. ****NOTE: With the release of 2.2.1, there are known issues of android users bricking their phones while trying to use 928Droid's BlackGlassTheme. This deodexed theme was designed for 2.3.15 and NOT 2.3.340. Please ignore this step below and I will post a more updated way of deodexing in the future. Other than manually deodexing your phone, it seems that at this point installing a theme that is not deodex compatible won't be reasonably easy in the near future due to the release of 2.2.1
D. Download and install ONLY DEODEXED ROMs (or Themes) using BOOTSTRAP APP. If you try to install a ROM that is not deodex compatible you will brick your phone. I have directions to unbrick your phone at the end of this manual.
E. IF ALL OF THIS FAILS AND YOU SOMEHOW MANAGE TO BRICK YOUR PHONE…UNBRICKING INSTRUCTIONS BELOW AS WELL!

II. THE JOURNEY BEGINS…

A. ROOTING (this step has now been revised). There are various one-click root methods out there as of December 10, 2010. Dark Onion's root program is a little buggy with the 2.2.1 release and I will no longer be using DO's rooting method until the issues are resolved. Regardless the one-click methods are much simpler and I am providing a link to Z4's one-click rooting .APK file that you can drag and drop into your phone's SD Card folder.

Download z4root 1.3.0 for Android Free - z4root will root your device and enable you to supply system level access to applications that request it. - Softpedia

1. You must first download the app "App Installer" onto your phone from the Market and install the Z4 one click root .apk file manually.
2. Open Z4's file and press "root".
3. If it hasn't loaded in 20 seconds or less perform a battery pull and restart your phone and attempt to root your phone again through the Z4 program. It should work now.

B. DEODEXING ***WARNING: With the release of 2.2.1 I have experienced a few bricks myself trying to deodex using blackglass' theme (as have many others due to my unedited guide and for that I am very sorry guys!). OMJ has taken the liberty of editing this section so unless you are sticking with 2.2 DO NOT FOLLOW THIS NEXT SECTION. Once again thanks for the edit OMJ. I will post a new method of trying to theme your phone but it seems that with the release of 2.2.1 there are issues that many developers haven't resolved so using a deodexed theme isn't very practical at this point... Warning this step does not work with 2.2.1



C. UnBRICKING INSTRUCTIONS:
HELP ME. Ima noob! I BRICKED MY PHONE!

1. go to Droid X: 2.3.32 Full SBF and DL the leaked full OTA FROYO 2.2.1 .SBF file.
2. Download and install RSDLite v4.8 (it should be on Home if not, go Google it.)
3. If your phone is stuck on the load screen, pull the battery, wait a minute, push the battery back in and restart with the phone’s Boot Loader Mode (do this by pressing the red camera button + volume down + power button  hold all of them in the order that I stated until your phone flashes briefly). Your phone should flash white and a Boot Loader menu will come up. Make sure there is at least 20 to 25 percent battery life remaining in order for the reformat of you phone to complete. If your phone dies in the middle of this process GOD HELP YOU.
4. Run the RSDLite File and connect your Droid X to your computer via USB.
5. Browse for the .SBF file you downloaded in step 1 and click “Start”, at which point the program should run and your phone will proceed to unbrick
6. EASY RIGHT?
7. Once unbricking you will have to go through reactivation of your phone. This is normal so just go through the steps you did when you first started.
8. GUESS WHAT? You made a backup of your previous customizations REMEMBER? If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of re-downloading your entire life onto your phone again follow the “ROOTING” instructions in Part A and redownload Bootstrap and reboot into recovery mode to RESTORE the backup you made by following steps 2-11 in Part B….except you won’t be going to “install from sdcard” you will going to “Backup and Restore” and “Restore from sdcard”.

III. Trouble Shooting

1. Experiencing Double Text Messaging: Receiving two of the exact texts at the same time?
This is a problem that I had to wrestle with for a while after installing a custom Theme on top of the blackglass deodexed ROM. After sifting through a couple forums I found that the easiest way of eliminating this problem was to download and install the “Titanium Backup” app from the app market and used it to uninstall the stock messaging app that Froyo comes with. This will solve your problem!

2. More issues to come later…none so far though!

CREDITS:
Dark Onion
RyanZA (Z4 Root)
928 Droid
The developers at rootzwiki
Android Developers for SDK Manager
...and the genius that invented RSD Lite


DONATIONS ARE WELCOME
If you thought this guide was helpful feel free to hit the donate link below and help me pay the bills!

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CZN7T9LS7NMWS

Last edited by mygamjaishot; January 19th, 2011 at 01:07 PM. Reason: UPDATED LINK to 2.2.1 SBF MIRRORS, updated rooting method, deodex bricking issues

raqball

Great guide!!!!! I smell a sticky~!

Thanks!

jbhumph

THANK YOU for this post! It was very helpful

Especially since I, apparently, am a NOOB who couldn't follow instructions

I bricked my phone, but tried to remain calm. Your instructions walked me through everything PERFECTLY and I am now up and running again. Still haven't tried doing the deodex again because I have to leave the house shortly but will later...not sure where I messed up because I've hacked many an iPhone but obviously I didn't listen to something

So thank you for saving my NOOB-A$$!!!!!

Last edited by jbhumph; October 20th, 2010 at 04:57 PM.

cultldr

Finally decided to take the plunge and get my black notification bar lol. Worked great, got nervous because it was stuck on the eye for a while but left my desk, got something to drink figuring a new theme had to take some time etc. Thanks for the directions and worked like a charm!

xx DROiD ERiS xx

ehh i accidentally ran my battery down before i could unbrick so im SOL lol. MY best friend works for verizon so my 2.2 OTAed DX should be in the mail in a couple days. Then it's off to rooting the official 2.2 :O

__________________
ERiS > Dinc > MoTo X > iPhone4 > Droid Bionic > MoTo Xoom > iPad2 .... i love technology

xx DROiD ERiS xx

beastly guide by the way LOVE IT

lennydude

Quick question if i may..............

Want to do the 928 with deodexing but was wondering one thing prior to doing it.
If i do not like the theme, can i simply go back to where i was with my current theme? Can you give me step by step...........do not want to start all over

PSUlion01

+1 on this. What are our options if we want/need to go back to a stock-like setup? Should we just flash the SBF, or is it a ridiculous question because no one in their right mind would EVER want to go back?

Thanks for the guide... exactly what I was looking for!

raqball

If you are bringing it in for warranty work or a replacement, I'd flash the SBF....

mxsjw

go into bootstrap, click reboot recovery.
once in, use the volume keys to scroll, the back button to go back, and the camera key to select

scroll to backup and restore, select it, now highlight backup and select it. that will create a backup to revert to if you want rid of black glass and want your current layout. you can do this at anytime and have many backups to revert to.

Aggie12

Go into ROM manager and click Backup current ROM. Give it a good name to distinguish it like 2.2 stock or something. That way if you don't like the theme you can just restore this Backup from ROM manager by going to manage and restore backups.

mygamjaishot

Ideally, you should have backed up your system before installing 928's custom ROM with auto-deodex but I didn't include that in my instructions so I'm very sorry about that. I'm not 100 percent certain but there may be stock themes out on the forums but I haven't bothered looking...but if you really want to go back to stock I suppose you could just flash the stock .sbf through bootloader and RSD like you said!

mygamjaishot

actually, scratch that, I did say to backup first hah... so you should already have a backup ready on your sd card. You can just flash back to your stock setup after running bootstrap recovery by running Bootstrap, select "Backup and Restore" and then "Restore" and pick the file the backup created (it automatically saves it by the date it was created).

mygamjaishot

Are you on the original stock DX theme? If you're using a custom theme just save the unzipped theme file to your sdcard (make a new folder let's just say you lable it "themes") open up bootstrap recovery, boot into recovery mode, and follow steps 2-11 in the guide.

mr.gollihue

First and foremost, to the OP, I say good first-time post. I'm a new guy myself, so I assumed something of use might be worth contributing to make people take me with at least a grain of credibility at first. It's a good idea in theory. However, my commendations end there.

When I set out to pen a thread of use to newbies and veterans alike, I was trying to go with something devoid of the smarmy, know-it-all attitude that I have come to expect from many tutorials I've read. As fun as it might be sometimes, deprecating those who are new to the scene is only poisonous to us as a whole. The more people we have out there who WANT to mod can only be better for us, but accusing someone of possibly being a moron right from the get-go can do no good for you or anyone reading your post. I suspect the only thing it might do is make you feel self-righteous, but then again, I don't know you...I only know what you've posted. Aside from making fun of the guy who didn't back up his data (where you said "Actually, scratch that, I did say to backup first hah"), so far I've only seen this longer, saltier, diatribe of something I wrote already. Yes...I did spot that. Between talking about the quest for the "ultimate android experience" and my Lego bricks analogy, all you've done is kang my reference guide and the guides I linked to (more on my calling it this in a moment) and call it your own. The reasons I linked to those threads I got the information? A. They said it better than I did first due to the fact that they are the ones who packaged the release, and credit should be given to those who have done the real work, which I see you have either conveniently or inconsiderately left out, and B. Because the support threads beneath the posters who did the actual work pretty much outline any problem anyone has ever encountered with the software, and because the developers themselves oftentimes respond personally to the concerns of the users...something much better than I can offer, being a new guy, and C. Because the user will learn for themselves by reading these threads before they install. Maybe I'm wrong, but we should be teaching users to fish rather than just giving them one.

But aside from the fact that you spent more time talking about the unlikely scenario of someone blaming you for the fact that they may have bricked their phone (which you know full well there is no danger of seeing as how there is a 2.2 SBF, which you should be using to reassure users that they can't do anything to brick their phone and be willing to try it, rather than just trying to scare them) rather than trying to convince someone to root, your general attitude is the most degrading part of the post. You said it yourself, you're a new poster...where do you get off insulting users looking for help? I'm not sure if you've read the FAQ here, but our forum doesn't require users to search before posting...part of the reason I'm a member here...but that doesn't mean that people are morons, nor does it give you the right to treat people that way.

I don't speak for the community as a whole, and I welcome them to correct me if I'm wrong, but in closing, I feel that while your post is helpful, there's plenty of other people willing to help that might seem a little more willing to do it. Like I said before, I don't know you personally...I just know you by the post I commented on, and the user you heckled below. But if you're the type who is willing to laugh at someone who makes the common mistake of forgetting to make a backup, maybe you're not the type who should be trying to help anyone.

Mr. G.

t0adman

Great guide - thank you for taking the time to compile and post it. I followed it exactly and ran into zero issues going from stock to rooted, deodexed, themed and now running ApeX.

Last edited by t0adman; October 26th, 2010 at 05:17 PM. Reason: After edits to OP no longer relevant

mxsjw

Personally, and this is just one opinion people, I think this type of delivery works well for some people. Who cares if it doesn't link to a bunch of websites for more information or cite sources of information. The write up is down and dirty, straight to the point. Gives about everything needed without a bunch of detail that is over most of our heads. While I was searching and going from page to page...website to website, trying to compare ideas, and following the directions on each, I can't tell you how many times I wished someone would just put it all in one place and dumb it down, this thread does just that. It's written in a way that's entertaining to read with a bit of hazing. Some of us like to be given a bit of shit while we learn. We aren't all on the verge of crying and carving at our wrists if someone says the wrong thing and hurts our feelings. Some of us are still trying to overcome the pussification of our society.

Again, this obviously may not work for everyone, but it's definitely going to appeal to some. You make a choice to keep reading, if you get offended, stop and move on to another tutorial, cause there are others. IMO, this thread should also be added to the sticky.

The internet...it's serious business.

mr.gollihue

@mxsjw

I totally agree that it works well for some people. But the delivery depends on the context, and it's more like a new user is walking in like he owns the place and telling folks what's what. It's not about pussification...it's about common sense and working toward a common goal. We're just here to help one another...you can be simple without degrading others, it's been done plenty of times, it just requires a certain degree of tact.

But as I said before, it's all about context. If this were coming from an experienced programmer who is an actual contributer who feels like writing a tutorial like he's Dr. Cox from Scrubs, that's one thing. But this is some guy we don't even know who is insulting his core audience...an audience that is important to a modding community that is already too small as it is. Lots of people choose not to mod due to the exact air of this post and many others like it. Information is a powerful thing when used efficiently, but when used as something to poke fun at a less experienced user it's becoming excessive. It's my aim and the aim of others (I think) to bring this scene out of the basements, off of the workbenches, and into the mainstream...and the geek-like scorn that people are used to when trying to find support for anything electronic is something that will only hurt the scene as a whole. Here: Site Rules/Guidelines and here: Zero Tolerance Policy (ALL MEMBERS READ) are two posts in particular that talk about our policy here. You're absolutely correct...it is "the internet", but it doesn't mean that people should be disrespected needlessly. Honey works far better than vinegar...

mygamjaishot

Not trying to offend anyone in all honesty just trying to add some humor to my post, but I won't make any excuses I will edit any of the parts that people may deem as me power tripping or thinking that I am god on this forum. It was not my intention to deprecate other users so I apologize if any feelings were hurt in the process.
~E

bigjakex3

Went through the bootstrap, made a backup and tried to install928droid deodex file/zip. Started and lists "installing update" but nothing further is happening. The progress bas hasn't moved in 15 min.

What should I do.
thanks

dhoffman1421

928 BG is a theme as opposed to a ROM isn't it? And the ApeX ROM instructions are far more complicated than loading 928 BG (which I have).

mygamjaishot

yeah it's a theme sorry for the confusion. But regardless of whether it's a theme or rom you would go about the same process installing it using bootstrap

dhoffman1421

I am probably gonna install ApeX soon so I'll keep the unbricking instrux handy.

As to styles I see mr. g's point I think, it is the internet and not face to face or even via phone so liberal use of smiley emoticons helps.

Anyway I post on a lot of forums where things can every once in while get pretty nasty so I have thick skin and asbestos underoos.

mygamjaishot

duly noted

lennydude

Now that there is funny.............don't care who you are

cultldr

I didn't see that at all with the guide but it was very accurate as far as I'm concerned. I have never rooted or themed etc my phone before, followed the directions as they were listed and it worked great!

mygamjaishot

thanks for the support! There are tons of resources out there I just tried to combine them so that you guys could just click here haha.

jbhumph

+1 for me! It's sometimes hard to convey tone when typing on the internet. And often times things can be easily misinterpreted.

I've hacked my iPhone but never the Droid OS. So I was a little intimidated. That's why I had never tried to root my phone til now and I got mine on launch day.

The fact that it was straight forward and didn't beat around the bush is something I like, personally. And I cannot say thanks enough to show me how to fix it when I DID brick my phone on the deodex. Not sure what I did wrong but when I tried again, it worked flawlessly.

So I was very glad all these instructions were together and easy to follow

Last edited by jbhumph; October 23rd, 2010 at 12:00 PM.

Hoffinator

Alright, I'm about to attempt this. I messed up with my original droid (I think it might have been my slashes... looking back through my command prompt when everything went wrong I was freely switching between "/" and "\" without noticing it.) Anyway I got scared and stopped there. Hopefully It'll all work our and thank you so much for this guide.

Hoffinator

Nevermind... My PC is so horribly slow and virus ridden that it is now physically incapable of opening any program. Guess I'll have to wait for a Mac guide.

faber78

download, update, and run. its free.
|MG| IObit Security 360 1.5.0 Updated Download

cdmoore74

I for one loved the guide. Straight to the point and it gets the job done. I'm already rooted but I wish this guide was available a few days ago. I sensed humor and it was down to earth.

And on a separate note. Can the unbrick method be used if you just want the phone back to factory 2.2ota? Or do you only use this in case of emergency?

cultldr

Yes the 2.2 sbf will take you back to original 2.2 OTA version.

Hoffinator

Thanks. I found a Mac guide right after I posted that but I'll also try to do it that way. Quite frankly I hate my Mac and I'd rather use the PC.

cdmoore74

First time I heard that from a Mac user.

mygamjaishot

Haha I happen to use both but in my experience PC is friendlier for android mods but that doesn't mean there aren't resources out there for mac users

hob0d4n

ok might be a stupid question.
so if i root my phone do i have to install 928 to deodex it or can i just install a theme after i root?

HalfFrozen

How do I just revert back to stock?

I am talking no root, just stock.

__________________

JazzMat

Wow. Some seriously thin skins in this thread. I think the guide is terrific; to the point, straightforward, and cuts through a lot of the jargon and mumbo-jumbo that many noobs don't understand -- and aren't interested in. A refreshing, "Just tell me how to most easily root my damn phone" guide. Kudos to the OP.

Perhaps I missed some pre-edit issues to which the two cranky-posters are referring, but from what's there now, I have a really hard time seeing how anyone could possibly take issue with the tone or content of the OP.

mygamjaishot

You can use the same directions for "Unbricking Your Droid X" to go back to pure stock froyo.

mygamjaishot

Using 928's deodexed theme worked best for me, you can try finding other themes that come with automatic deodex but 928 was the one I chose to use. If you want to change to a different theme you can install 928's deodexed theme and install any other theme pack over 928's theme using bootstrap.

Last edited by mygamjaishot; October 25th, 2010 at 04:02 PM.

hob0d4n

thanks for the response! so say i flash 928 theme but i dont like it and want to flash another theme. how would i completely wipe out the 928 theme?

mxsjw

Download and run BackToStock DeOdexed...2nd from the bottom.
928Droid Themes for the Droid X

faber78

worked like a charm. thanks bro.

mygamjaishot

for the record, u don't have to flash back to stock deodexed everytime you want to install a new theme. You can simply just flash the theme you want to install and that will install over 928's theme.

mxsjw

Except if the new theme doesn't address something changed by the old theme...it will "bleed" through.

hob0d4n

lol ok sorry for asking so many questions but if i wanted to flash ApeX's rom do i just follow the same steps?

mygamjaishot

yeah but make sure you backup your stock rom first

mygamjaishot

imagine gala + blackglass + revolution...ALL IN ONE THEME!

ogreinside

First of all, thanks for compiling all of this information in one place. As a new Android user and Droid X owner, it would have taking me several hours (or much more) to search many forums to find all of this information.

However, as you are a new user and this thread is not stickied, I was compelled to research all of your steps completely to make sure they were accurate. It would be very helpful if you had cited sources for each section, or even at the end. You obviously had to search and find these in the first place, so it would be helpful for OCD neurotic people like myself to easily find the original threads for more details, and of course to give others credit.

That said, everything worked just as you have listed. The only corrections I would add is in Section B DeOdexing.

For step 4 you state:

This confused me , and I think you meant "un-unzipped" since in step 2 you stated in caps not to unzip this file.

Also, it would help if in step 2 when you mention downloading the theme you provide a link or at least the name of the zip to download "928DroidBlackGlassX-DroidX-OTA2315-DeOdexEERR-THEME.ZIP". Yes it is mentioned later in steps 10 and 11, but if someone isn't reading ahead first they would miss this.

Lastly, in step 8 I would just remove the note about you personally skipping the backup. It doesn't add to the guide in anyway and makes the step very wordy. Someone seeing this might subconsciously think "oh he skipped it, I'll skip it too!". In fact, you should probably state here in all caps they if they do not backup and they brick they are out of luck

Again, thanks for compiling the information, and I bet if you added sources and credit you might even get a sticky