Develop Bugs

New to Motorola Defy

Hi Guys,
Previously I have had a HTC Magic, Vario II and Vario III. Am used to easy flashing and updates lol.
I know Moto have got a locked bootloader (seen the news about possible unlocking coming) however I could not resist the Defy as T-Mobile UK gave me a fantastic deal.
T-Mobile handsets come "customised" something that is not popular with me will probably debrand it.
1st question, can I flash back to the branded firmware if it needs to go back to T-Mob?
2nd question there is alot of talk over 2.51 normally I would automatically upgrade to the latest ROM however am unsure if it is worth it?
Cheers,

The easiset thing you could do it so make a nandroid backup of your current setup and then try what ever SBF you want except for 2.51 (this due to the fact that it has a non downgrable bootloader).
I bought a german defy and I installed the 2.31 firmware which I'm happy with. Since then I have also deodexed the system files and removed some apps that I dont need.
Just read through the faq/guides sections of the development board and you will be fine.

If you're new to the Defy, this guide is indispensable.
I links to a series of other guides but it lays them out in the order you should do them and the author also adds his own little notes which are very helpful.
Personally, I flashed the 2.34 ROM as it's got less Blur crap on it.
There are also Froyo ROMs kicking around but they're basically backups from other people's phones, as opposed to proper builds released by Motorola.

[Q] New Defy owner. Where do I start ?

Hi all, as you can see I've been a member here for a good while and dipped in and out as and when I've owned any devices featured here.
I have a brand new, UK unbranded, sim free and factory fresh Defy arriving tomorrow and have read with interest the various posts here, including the WIKI but I've got a bit dizzy trying to work out what's new/current/most stable/best.
I'm very happy modding and flashing custom roms and have done since the XDA1.
Could anyone please fill me in with the essential tools I need, such as the clockwork recovery version I should be installing and also the best/most recent/most stable rom - Android 2.2 preferred. Also what can I use to overclock and any other system mods that people consider essential also gratefully received.
If there's a n00b how to somewhere and I've missed it, I apologise, but it's hard to figure out what's out of date and what isn't.
Once I'm up to speed on this particular device, I'll chip in where I can.
many thanks,
malty

I'm in no means a developer and unworthy of replying...but I'll try! In the dev section, there is a 'FAQ/Guides/Tutorials' section that is pretty up to date with links to just about everything needed.
Custom Recovery: I've used both tenfar's recovery and the clockworkmod recovery 2010-12-18 version that I believe is the most updated and works well. I like the latter version best so far.
Overclocking: Only one I've used is setvsel and liking it.
Root: I think Z4 root doesn't work on 2.2 and above, so you'll have to root with special version superoneclick.
Backing up applications: Good ol Titanium Backup.
As for custom roms, I'm sure many have preferrences but from what I've gathered, the FIN and Orange deblur are working great (I have two phones, ones on stock tmous froyo, the other is 2.1 UK2.34 deblur...loving the deblur!). Check out Pays, JBoogie, and Higgsy's ROMs in dev section. Also, in the dev section you'll see the sbf file folder at top of forum to flash away with.
Again, I'm pretty much a noob so I probably missed a bunch of stuff...but this should get you started for now

[Q] How to choose a ROM and how to know the requirements

Hi there folks!
I've been searching and reading post for two days and i've found some interesting posts, an one that almost fits my case but i still need some advises or opinions
I've bought a HTC Desire branded on Orange (but i already unlocked to any network). Now what i want is to debrand. In many posts i see that some rooms need to root the phone, some note, some may cause wireless, radio or camera problems .. I would like to have an official rom that i can update always when htc launches updates and do not causes issues ot the phone like radio issues(or other), it is possible? I've seen official releases like in thread id 7559576 but it seems it cant receive updates and has some problems :S I've also seen and leedroid and oxygene seem nice roms...
If not possible to have an official rom that can update i would like one stable rom that causes no problems to phone (like radio,wireless,gps or camera issues..) that let enjoy to the max your phone and gives autonomy
Last question: The language of the phone can be installed independently of the ROM or the ROM has to be in that language?
Technical data (that i've seen there and looks important when updating rom):
hboot: 0.93.001
s-on
radio 5.10 05.30

[Q] Which radio is the best?

Hi!
Tried to search and search alot about this but no luck, so I'll just go ahead and ask..
I have a HTC DHD, flashed with CM10.1 4.2.2 (I think the radio is 12.56.60.25U_26.10.04.03_M). Sometimes the cellular signal is just complete and utter bulls*it. Does that have something to do with the radio or is it just network related things?
Should I test some other radio, and if so, which one? I've read something about this and it looks like I shouldn't flash RIL at all, just the radio.
And finally, it would be nice if some made a general thread for radios, which would list let's say 3 to 5 newest radios for each device and compatible roms so noobs like me wouldn't have to ask this question again :angel:

Or you could use the search function to find other threads from noobs that have asked the same question :beer:
Sent from a dream.

Like I said, didn't find the info I wanted by searching the forums..
But here's some info for DHD users who are facing similar questions:
As told in the first post, I have CM 10.1 4.2.2 installed to my phone. The old radio was 12.56.60.25U_26.10.04.03_M. I updated the radio to version 12.69a.60.29U_26.17.14.11_M presented here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=996630
Conclusion after first 24 hours:
+ Better battery life (+25% at the moment)
+ Better signal (both wlan and cellular)
+ Overall performance (No idea how the radio affects this, but the whole phone seems lag-free now)
- None so far
And as far as I can tell, you can update the radio to your phone, no matter where you're located (Operator specific phones may not work if tried). AND remember, if you have a CM installed, DON'T even try to install the RIL, just the radio.
I hope someone uses this information somewhere to provide forum users some answers

[Q] differences between m8 versions and [Q] about ROOT and custom ROMs

Hi, thanks for taking a look!
First of, this is not the first time I'm getting in touch with rooting, but am a bit confused since I only usd purely 'international' devices until now. I have researched the forums and found the existing threads, but they didn't seem to answer my questions.
I recently bought a m8w (m8 for China Unicom, I'll be living in China for the life of this phone, so it kind of makes sense...) and have a few questions about this:
The differences I can see until now are the following:
CPU @ 2.5 GHz, Differences in radio frequencies
Rooting:
Does the difference in radios and cpu affect the way I would have to root? I'm assuming that the common how-tos for rooting should still work, since there doesn't seem to be any changes in terms of hardware? Am I correct in that assumption?
[*]gApps:
First thing after rooting would be the installation of gApps and XPOSED. Anything specific in this regard I should keep an I on (again, considering the slightly different HW).
[*]Custom ROMs:
I've been dabling with different ROMs on my last phone. How would I go about ensuring the compatibility? Is it possible to extract the radio files of my current firmware and e.g. use mobileOdin to flash this together with a custom ROM? Or any other way of 'making sure' a ROM is flashable?
While researching I stumbled over the claim that all Versions are the same, except for Verizon and Sprint. I honestly can't find that thread anymore - but is there a way to check on this directly on the device? Or is it possible, that this claim was based on the assumption that the phone used is for the North American markets?
Thanks again for viewing. I appreciate you taking your time to read through all this!