Custom recovery proof of concept for DROID X achieved

General

The folks over at alldroid.org have posted a note in their forums claiming that Android tweaker extraordinaire ”Birdman” has successfully booted a stock DROID X into a custom recovery state. The post reads:

Using a hack discovered by the folks who’ve done all the work on the Milestone, birdman has booted a custom recovery on his handset. The process is labor-intensive and dangerous if you’re not prepared to recover from a bricked device (and technically this bricks the device since you can’t reboot into Android at this moment), but it’s a sucessful proof of concept.

Right now he’s working on getting ADB up so we can further investigate what it will take to get a fully functional recovery working (that will also allow reboot back into Android).

From there the focus will move to a more robust recovery and discovery if/how we can do Nandroids and/or write a new /System image (like Froyo).

You may recognize Birdman’s name, as his handy work helped pioneer the original DROID X root. We’ll keep our eyes glued to this one and report back when more progress is made. Godspeed Birdman.

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24 Comments
  • Android

    Trying it now! Thanks, Birdman. Crossing my fingers.

    • Android

      LOL. Bricked. Best Buy, here I come!

    • http://alldroid.org Michael Richardson aka Rainabba

      Umm, you haven’t tried it. We haven’t shared the HORRIBLE looking hack with anyone at this point because you WILL brick your phone. Birdman has done it at least 15 times tonight.

  • nofan

    Birdman = Genius

  • grrr

    Score!

  • BRICK

    Boots into recovery != bricked.

  • MacMan

    Yep that study that came out yesterday about iPhone owners getting more sex was right. Android people like bricking there phones and fixing them on Saturday night haha.

    • Ohholditwithmyrighthand

      Kill yourself

    • Droid904

      I think it only count if you have sex with people, not your phone. Get your phone out of your pants and get a clue.

  • Ohholditwithmyrighthand

    birdman for president

  • JoeS

    proabably he geekiest post ive read on bgr

  • X Glansburg

    I can’t say I have any desire to try this…

  • AT

    Ok, this is nothing special and does NOTHING with regard to the Bootloader.

    Seriously, “Custom Recovery” has been achieved for the Motorola Milestone a while back.
    All it provides is the ability to load nandroid backups.

    The core problem remains. The Bootloader prevents any custom kernel being run on the device.

    THAT is the issue.

    • http://alldroid.org Michael Richardson aka Rainabba

      NOTHING special huh? So you have a way to flash /System or otherwise contribute?

  • ChocoTaco

    I just got hard.

  • Mike

    The talk about using the stock kernel to boot a custom one seemed most promising.

    • AT

      Indeed. Unfortunately that project is stuck because the baseband does not get initiated. Basically, the second kernel is run correctly but the modem does not initiate.

      Las Motorola phone I will ever buy.

  • Uneducated

    I’m ignorant on this type of stuff. So is this like building a model rocket as a step to the moon, or is this like making a solid fueled rocket?

  • Leehblanc

    @Rainbabba: Screw these guys talking shit. There are a lot of Droid X owners who are very grateful for what you, Birdman, et al do. I’m one of them.

    I have to admit to being VERY ignorant of the inner workings of Android, and smartphones in general, but I have a thought. It may well be worthless, and it’s probably something you’ve already thought of, but for the phone to boot normally, the encryption key would have to be transmitted from the ROM to the phone, no? So wouldn’t it be theoretically possible to intercept the key during boot? Like I said, just the musings of an Android ingnorant.

    PS… I saw a site last week accepting donations to help with the cracking of the bootloader, but I wasn’t entirely sure if it was legit. Can you point me in the right direction? I’d like to help.

  • I told you so.com

    I guess you can grab one of these, orrrrrrr wait for the HPalm Road Runner, thats going to be running Webos 2.0 with the new omap4 chip on sprint this fall. Bigger, faster, and better is what HPalm is about.

    we welcome you to the future
    HPALM

  • I told you so.com

    I guess you can grab one of these, orrrrrrr wait for the HPalm Road Runner, thats going to be running Webos 2.0 with the new omap4 chip on sprint this fall. Bigger, faster, and better is what HPalm is about.

    we welcome you to the future
    HPALM

  • lolwut

    DNW Sprint
    DNW HP Phone
    DNW WebOS (lol webOS ghey)

    Congrats @ birdman, can’t wait for what this will lead to.

  • Brian D

    Props to Birdman and Koush. I can’t believe that I just booted into custom recovery on my X. You guys rule!

  • wha!!!

    You’re a douche in real life.

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