My descent into the world of ROMs

It begins here
***Official Droid X Theme & Rom List*** – Android Forums

Oh, damn. Getting some sweet ROM action. I’m just kind of itching for a change from Froyo. I upgraded to Gingerbread, but had limited success with rooting. So, I’m gonna give it a go with a custom ROM.

btw ROM = “Read Only Memory.” In this context, ROM means “operating system.” Well, the operating system is still “Android,” but it’s a modified version of the operating system. I view “ROMs” like the custom flavors of Linux: Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Debian, Linux from scratch, Puppy linux, Mint Linux. Well, actually, Linux is just a “kernel,” which is the running program that gives and receives signals from your hardware. The operating system consists of the GUI like GNOME or Unity, and built-in applications. Anyways, that’s an overview of how I view operating systems.

It’s all right there in the thread. Just thought I would provide some personal insight into the process.

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1:16 AM OK, I am trying to install the AOSP Liberty ROM from this thread, [ROM MOD] AOSP Liberty GB – Droid Forum. I learned that “AOSP” means “Android Open Source Project.” OK. So, I’m currently downloading the SBF for Gingerbread, check out one of my old posts Flash Droid X back to stock Froyo 2.2 if you’d like guidance on flashing an SBF. Anyways, in the Droid Forums thread, the original poster mentioned that you had to be on Gingerbread first. Whoops! I guess I sort of skimmed that part. So, my phone booted into the stock recovery screen, but besides that I only got the white word “Google” appearing. Anyways, I’m going to flash Gingerbread (that’s Android 2.3) to my phone and then retry loading the AOSP Liberty ROM.

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1:37 AM OK, I read this informative article Android Partitions Explained: /boot, /system, /recovery, /data, /cache & /misc. I know about the normal folders in a UNIX operating system, namely the following

/ or “root”
/home, /home/nate
/dev
/mnt
/bin, /bin/bash
/usr
/etc

Those are some of the famous folders in a UNIX-style operating system. Notice that I use the term “UNIX-style” to include any and all Linux, Ubuntu, GNU, FreeBSD, or Solaris operating systems. It’s kind of a good model for thinking about operating systems, or more plainly, the bottom of software on a computer. How in the heck do we get these machines to work for us? Well, those folders give some hints, and the source code for the Linux kernel clarifies more. But that’s for another talk.

OK. Flashed Gingerbread. Time to get into Clockwork Recovery and flash Liberty.

* * *

2:21 AM OK, fuck. Ha ha ha ha. Having a bit of difficulty. Going to hit the sack after I finish writing this blurb.

* running stock Gingerbread (What is wrong? Spidey senses tingling . . . )

* Downloaded and installed Droid X Bootstrap Recovery. Got this error message, “Failure. Error running exec(). Command: [su, -c, ./data/data/com.koushikdutta.droidx.bootstrap/files/surunner.sh] Working Directory: null Environment: null”. So, a pretty weird error message. Since the command involves “su,” I’m guessing that superuser, or root privileges, are involved. And I’m running a non-rooted version of Gingerbread. So, here are the instructions for rooting Gingerbread, Droid X Gingerbread (2.3.3) – Release – PreRooted. Note that, at the time of this post, the only method for rooting Gingerbread is to flash a pre-rooted version. You’ll go down into a rooted operating system (like Froyo) and use a flashing utility (like Droid X Bootstrap Recovery) to install the pre-rooted version.

Back to the drawing board. Current plan is this

flash to Froyo 2.2
root using z4root
download, install, and run Droid X Bootstrap Recovery
Use ClockworkMod Recovery to flash pre-rooted Gingerbread to the phone
Take a breath. *whew*
Download, install and run Droid 2 Bootstrap Recovery. For some reason, I’m reading that D2 over DX is favorable. Go figure.
Use ClockworkMod Recovery to flash the AOSP Liberty ROM to the phone.
Enjoy the delicious textures and smells associated with a custom ROM.

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5:34PM OK. Finally got AOSP Liberty 0.8 up and running. Took a while. Once I finally installed Liberty on top of Gingerbread, I was stuck on the Google logo at boot. But, either waiting 5 minutes or pressing the camera button took me to a new screen, “android.” Then I waited there for 5 minutes, then the phone booted into Liberty! Yay!

Liberty AOSP is actually kind of bland. It’s all gray, I was hoping for something exciting like Gingerbread. Well, I guess I will try CM7 now (CyanogenMod).