Root What ROMS do you recommend for Motorola Milestone?

[tase25]

Hi,

Just rooted my Telus Motorola Milestone and was wondering if there were any recommendations on custom ROMS that people have been having good experiences with. Preferably something running 2.2

 

[Szadzik]

There is G.O.T 2.2.1 and there is Cyanogen Mod AFAIR.

 

[TwinDragons]

The G.O.T. SBF is an older leak of the 2.2.1 SBF.

There is also Cronos, but I don't know a lot about it.

The most recent leak for 2.2.1 for the Milestone is a leak from Vivo, a wireless provider in Brazil. The leak was released on January 14th here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=913938. This version has a new kernel version, so if anyone is having battery troubles on 2.2.1 they might want to check out the new kernel.

Cyanogen's most recent update has this new kernel aswell.

 

[mikicishte]

g.o.t. 2.2.1 works perfect

 

[tase25]

I've seen a lot of people using G.O.T. Can someone confirm that this is the link?

[How To] Install The New GOT Update On Milestone - xda-developers

Also, any problems with the Telus version?

 

[PcPhobic]

I have used G.O.T, Cyanogenmod 6.1 and Cronos before.

The best is Cronos in terms of battery life.
I am using Cronos ver.1.7.0 at the moment but as of now, Cronos just released ver.1.8.1 (based on the leaked Brazilian kernel for Milestone).

What I like about Cronos (ver.1.7.0) is that it is clocked at 700mhz and undervolt to 49vsel and yet it feels as fast as when I had overclocked my stock Android 2.1 to 900mhz 56vsel.

The problem with G.O.T is Facebook sync doesn't work and at default speed of 550mhz, it feels laggy.

The problem with Cyanogenmod is it eats up my battery life crazy. This is how I conduct my test:

Back when I was on stock Motorola ROM Android 2.1, I usually browse my usual few websites on my 30 minutes trip to work on the public transport. And during that time, after 20 minutes of browsing my favourite websites, my battery level drops by 10 percent.

When I was on Cyanogenmod 6.1, that same 20 minutes of usage took 30% off my battery life.

So far Cronos (ver.1.7.0) gave me similar battery life (if not slightly better) to when i was on stock Motorola ROM Android 2.1

Here's the link to where u can located the necessary files from Cronos:
Cronos Android, Android on Steroids! • View forum - Official Releases

Note to newbies:
The big problem with the stock Android 2.1 rom of our Motorola Milestone is the locked bootloader. So the most straight forward method to get you starting on your journey to installing custom rom is flashing the G.O.T sbf file as described in this guide:
[How To] Install The New GOT Update On Milestone - xda-developers

Once you have successfully installed G.O.T Froyo ROM on your Milestone, remember to reboot into Open Recovery and Root your phone first and then do a Nandroid backup.

Nandroid backup is the failsafe for us. If anything goes wrong, we can always boot into Recovery and restore a Nandroid backup.

Once you get bored with G.O.T Froyo Rom, you can start to read up on how to install the other various custom ROM for Motorola Milestone which requires a different Open Recovery such as Androidaini Open Recovery to install their custom ROMS.

 

[tase25]

Thanks Phobic. Great info here.

So I have GOT now with 2.2.1. But I can't seem to root it. I want to try Cronos and all of these other great ROMS but have no idea how to root or how to a Nandroid backup.

Any useful guides for newbies like me?

 

[tase25]

There's also no link to download Cronos on that website...

 

[PcPhobic]

There's also no link to download Cronos on that website...

Yes, there is. The reason I gave u this link so that u can decide for yourself which Cronos version u want to try. Just click the link below and then at that forum, there are threads dedicated to each Cronos version. And on the first page of each thread, the Cronos developer will post all the necessary info and links to download his custom roms which are in .zip format.

Cronos Android, Android on Steroids! • View forum - Official Releases

 

[PcPhobic]

Thanks Phobic. Great info here.

So I have GOT now with 2.2.1. But I can't seem to root it. I want to try Cronos and all of these other great ROMS but have no idea how to root or how to a Nandroid backup.

Any useful guides for newbies like me?

To root your Milestone now since you are on G.O.T, have u installed G.O.T's Custom Recovery menu (refer to G.O.T's website for the files to install it).

Then once u have copied the necessary files for G.O.T's Open Recovery menu to your SD card, shut down your phone.

Then power up you phone again, but this time do the 3 finger press method which is to hold the "x" key + "power on button" + "camera button" all at the same time and do not let go until u see the triangle icon with the exclamation mark in the middle.

Then once u see that triangle icon with the exclamation mark in the middle, close your keyboard, and then press and hold the volume up button and then tap or press the camera button once and then let go both buttons.

Then you should see the stock Open Recovery menu. Slide open the keyboard and holding the phone vertically (in portrait mode), use the D-pad to scroll down until it highlights the menu that says "Apply SDcard: Update.zip"

Press down on the middle of the D-Pad to select that option. What it does is that it now opens the "update.zip" file provided by G.O.T to load the custom G.O.T Open Recovery Menu.

Once the G.O.T Open Recovery Menu has successfully loaded, you will see that you now have a whole load more of menus and functions. Nandroid is one of them. The function to "Root" your phone is somewhere in there in one of those menus (I had only rooted my phone one time and never have to re-root again).

Once you have rooted, reboot back into Android as per normal and check in your Application Drawer to see if you have this app called "Superuser". If u have that app, it means you have successfully rooted your phone.

Now you need to reboot back into recovery mode again but shutting down the phone first. Then reboot using the 3 finger press technique and repeat the process to load G.O.T Open Recovery Menu to get into Nandroid menu and do another Nandroid backup so that you have a backup of your current Rooted state.

Once done, I suggest you read up on how to load other custom roms like CRONOS and Cyanogenmod 6.1. They way those custom ROMS are installed is also via a custom open recovery. I recommend this custom open recovery menu called Androidaini.

Good luck!

 

[tase25]

Ok, so I was able to get into the G.O.T openrecovery, have Root. Turned off phone, but when I did the 3 finger reboot, it brought me to regular recover mode. I had to unzip the "update" package again to get G.O.T openrecovery again.

Now I need to learn how to load custom ROMS

 

[PcPhobic]

Latest Cronos Froyo Rom for Motorola Milestone version 1.8.1 with Blackout Theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSF8z7KjRPw

 

[tase25]

Is Cronos able to sync with Facebook?

Edit: Never mind, yes it is



Also wanted to note that I've been using Cronos for over a day now and love it. So fast, but I don't see that much, or if any improvements in battery life.

 

[tase25]

I have used G.O.T, Cyanogenmod 6.1 and Cronos before.

The best is Cronos in terms of battery life.
I am using Cronos ver.1.7.0 at the moment but as of now, Cronos just released ver.1.8.1 (based on the leaked Brazilian kernel for Milestone).

What I like about Cronos (ver.1.7.0) is that it is clocked at 700mhz and undervolt to 49vsel and yet it feels as fast as when I had overclocked my stock Android 2.1 to 900mhz 56vsel.

......

I tried 1.8.1 and the battery life is pretty bad. Definitely worse than stock 2.1. May have to try 1.7.0 instead.

Does anyone know which version of Cronos is better for battery life???