When holding down the power button (Bionic) and volume up/down buttons all at the same time for a few seconds, several boot options come up on the screen. Does anyone have a list of definitions of what each option does? I know that one of them is supposed to provide the same results of doing a battery pull but I have no clue as to what all of the listed options do. I can't provide a screen shot of it but if someone knows what I am talking about, can you post a screen shot?
sounds like your talking about the stock recovery should have something like reboot recovery factory wipe/reset wipe cache and maybe one more or a variation of the above. Unless your in to rooting i would avoid this all together.
I have seen the same thing and always backed out. Wondered what the options do. One looks like the initial phone setup.
is this what your talking about? Tips and Tricks to Load DROID Bionic Boot Menu for Stock Recovery | AndroidEgis
There are two different subjects here and two different menus. If power is on and you hold down all three switches, the Phone options menu will appear. If you continue holding the three switches until the menu disappears it will start to boot. This reset and then boot is identical to a battery pull. If power is off and you hold down all three switches it calls up the the Boot Mode Selection Menu (displayed in character mode). Boot Mode Selection Menu Vol Up Selects, Vol Down Scrolls Normal Powerup -- boot the Bionic Recovery -- display (!) screen (then hold down vol Up/vol Down for Android System Recovery menu) AP Fastboot -- developers only BP SBF Flash -- developers only BP Only -- developers only BP HW Diag & Boot AP -- developers only BP Tools -- developers only If you do anything with this menu you open the door to causing permanent damage. This is sometimes referred to as BRICKing. If you do nothing after a few seconds it will choose the current option (Normal Powerup) and boot your Bionic. ... Thom
Also, nothing personal, but if we need to ask what they do, we need to stay out of them. We can brick a phone fast in there.
I added the first description to the Tips and included your excellent observation. (So easy to overlook.) ... Thom
Thanks...but was still looking for a definition of them. However, I did find it elsewhere. Thanks for the clarification of two different operations of the buttons.
Nothing personal taken...but we can say that about everything and never learn anything. I just wanted know what the options do.... not necessarily try any of them. This is how we learn.
The information is not just "lying around. I have added the two that I could find to the original message here and the one in Tips. When I find more I will add them. What was your "information elsewhere" lead? ... Thom
It was from the Motorola site. I had asked the same question over there but after not getting any initial responses, I asked here. Is it ethical to copy/post someone else's response? If so, I will post it here (I'll get his permission first of course).
I think your original question was great and I tried Googling and searching around to find out what the abbreviations stood for. I didn't succeed. What I found was a lot of instructions to flash this or that and to press specific buttons. There never was a simple explanation of that each was for. I figured it would make a great addition to the Tips section of this board. Never mind ... I just accessed it on the other board ... it was posted at 11:42 today. I updated both messages here. LEt me know if you don't agree with the result. Thanks. ... Thom
I just got a message from the OP that I can repost his message to me: cellzealot said: This question is difficult to answer properly within the constraints of the forum rules because the modes of access available in the boot menu allow for operations that will void your warranty and discussion of them is forbidden. Given that limitation I will give a simple overview. Recovery is the stock Android partition that is where updates are loaded and has menu options for loading an uodate.zip from sdcard, factory reset/data wipe and wiping just the cache partition. You can only load official signed updates via recovery. Normal use does not void the warranty. AP Fastboot is the new bootloader menu for loading firmware via the command line fastboot interface. This is where the firmware is flashed as discreet image files and is not for end users because the files required are proprietary and intended for use by technicians only. SBF mode is akin to the old bootloader menu and loads firmware in a different format from a single file using a service software utility. This is again not intended for end users and requires proprietary firmware files and tools. The other modes are for various low level hardware and diagnostic access again requiring proprietary software tools designed for use by technicians and developers for testing and/or fixing problems with the device. Some of them also allow for access via adb shell in the Android SDK, the use of which does not strictly void the warranty but may depending on what is done. Basically, the only one that end users should be concerned with is the Recovery mode in cases of failure to boot or other issues that the limited menu provides. Under normal circumstances, most users should never need to deliberately access any of these menus and updates and factory resets are scripted to run from the phone while booted normally and reboot to recovery and run without user input. Short answer: You should never need to know anything about these menus and they would rather you didn't.
