Sunday 5 September 2010

Putting Android 2.1 (adlxmod) on a UK Orange Dext

Motorola suck. They really REALLY suck and I'm not buying anything manufactured by them in future and I'd recommend others don't either. Last year, when Android phones were really beginning to hit the market, I spent quite a while choosing the right one for me. I really wanted a keyboard and the price had to be right, so at the time the only option was the Dext on Orange. It was running Android 1.5 but I *knew* that Android phones get upgraded, right? Wrong.

Motorola have promised an update to the U.S. release of the Dext (called the Cliq) for some time, but the upgrade path in Europe, S. America and elsewhere was labelled "Evaluation in progress". This was the case for months and months. The upgrade website wasn't updated but a lead figure at Motorola had announced that all Dext phones would be upgraded to 2.1. This announcement led to many more people rushing out to buy a Dext. Unfortunately it was a lie.

On August 23rd, after 6-8 months of waiting for an update. The update status website change from "Under evaulation" to "Europe will not be getting the update". Unsurprisingly, Dext owners are really angry, not just because they were lied to, not only because they were strung along for 8 months, but because the U.S. Cliq is getting the update but Motorola can't be arsed to push it out over here! The software exists, we just can't get it. So, you have a UK Dext and want Android 2.1 - then you need to take matters into your own hands...

Installing a custom ROM on a vanilla Dext involves 3 major steps:

1. Rooting the phone (gaining super-user access)
2. Flashing a recovery image to the phone (enabling a custom recovery mode)
3. Flashing a ROM to the phone (installing the new operating system)

This tutorial worked on an up-to-date UK Orange Dext with a 5025 radio. I don't guarantee it will work for you on that phone or any other, but it worked for me.

Obviously, this will void your warranty, I don't accept any responsibility for breakage and I have no clue how it all works, this is just what worked for me. If you have a problem post over at modmymobile.com. If it goes irreversibly wrong then it's no-one else's fault but your own for trying it in the first place.

That said, this method of rooting and installing ROM is fairly straightforward and not as risky as other methods. It worked for me.

Before you start, first do the following:

1. Boot into Windows
2. Download the Android SDK from here
3. Extract it to c:\android_sdk or something
4. Download and install the Motorola USB drivers from here
5. Reboot Windows
6. Plug your phone in to Windows, choose "USB drive" when prompted. Copy all your files and data (backup) to your computer, and delete any large media files/documents from the phone. (Makes the nandroid backup quicker). Then unmount the phone and plug it back in again.
6. When your Dext says "USB Drive" or "Charge only" then choose "Charge only"
7. Download this
8. Extract it to C:\Moto_MSM_Root

Now head over to the rooting tutorial on modmymobile.com

Follow the steps after "Process"

Things to look out for:
1. Read the whole tutorial before doing anything
2. Make sure that you wait until "Forked xxxx childs" appears before pressing a key at that stage of the tutorial
3. Make sure after that step you definitely have a '#'

If you complete the tutorial successfully, then your phone is rooted; which means you have super-user access to the phone.

The next step is to flash a custom recovery image. The recovery image is booted when you hold down the camera button while you power on the phone. You need a custom recovery image to flash the Android 2.1 rom.

I used this one

Follow the steps there. Make sure you remove the /system/recovery.img file. To do this you may need to remount the system folder so it's not read-only. Follow the instructions here to do that, then remove the recovery.img file. After I'd removed it I re-flashed the recovery just in case, but that's probably unnecessary.

Now, disconnect the phone. Turn it off. Then hold the camera button and turn it on. Don't release the camera button until you reach a black screen with green text. When you do, press the volume down button and wait a few seconds. You should get a nice menu with several options, this is recovery mode. One of the options will be to run a Nandroid backup. Do this! It may take several minutes to run, if it starts taking longer (mine did) then something on your phone is confusing the backup.
 
If this happens, remove the battery and turn the phone on again with the camera button held. Then, when you get to the menu, choose "Wipe" and then choose the first option, then second and then third, one after the other. Before doing this make sure you've backed up everything you need to to your PC. Then, run the backup again. It should work now that you've reset the phone.

Once the backup completes (whether you had to Wipe or not) turn on the phone, and plug it into Windows. If you had to Wipe the phone then you'll see motoblur setup. Ignore it, don't do anything on the phone except choose "USB Drive" from the notification area. Copy the newly created "nandroid" folder from the phone to your PC.

Download the adlx ROM zip files from here you'll need both the 2.0-signed zip and the 2.0.2 patch zip. Download both to the top directory on your phone. Check your phone battery, make sure it's pretty full. Now safely remove, disconnect and reboot your phone into the recovery mode again.

Now, Wipe your phone by choosing the top 3 options under Wipe one at a time. Then go back to the menu, choose "Flash zip from SD". Choose the 2.0-signed zip file and flash that. Reboot the phone and hold down the camera button immediately (don't let it start up). Then once in recovery mode again, choose "Flash zip from SD" once more and this time choose the 2.0.2 patch zip. Once that is complete you can reboot your phone into Android 2.1.

Note: The first time you boot your phone after Wiping and loading the ROM will take some time. If you see the "Blur" speech bubble flashing repeatedly just be patient. Don't turn the phone off at this stage otherwise it can break stuff (that's what I did and I had to re-wipe to fix it). When the phone starts up you'll get the Motoblur account setup screen. Follow through the steps and then you should be all done!

18 comments:

  1. thx man for your topic! it was very useful for me.

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  2. great posting. just updated my dext with your instructions plus some others from mymymobile. All now running. good stuff.

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  3. I'm now on 2.1 thanks mainly to your help here.
    I did however use the rageagainstthecage to root (unlocker)

    thanks again for explaining this all in easy to understand English!

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  4. Thank you so much!!! You made it so much easier to understand

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  5. Can I ask a really silly question? I want to be out of the Android 1.5 doldrums and this will seem to work for me, will I have to take note of any Orange UK phone settings before doing this, such as the voicemail number etc, or will they still be there after this android upgrade?

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  6. I decided to go ahead and give it a try anyway. Thanks for this information my Dext is now running Android 2.1 with a small glitch od not being able to recieve or send MMS, will sort that out with Orange soon. Once again many thanks for the posting

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  7. @Family Sorry, I didn't see your message until just now! I'm glad it's all working for you, and everyone else in this thread :)

    One thing to note is now Adlxmod has been updated: https://sites.google.com/site/adlxmod/

    You should be able to flash that zip from the recovery, although you may need to "Wipe" from the recovery mode to make it work. If you try it don't forget to nandroid backup and copy any files etc. And as usual, all at your own risk ;)

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Hi Kazade
    Yes i have upgraded to the new adlx, the one on here caused one or two problems with Orange UK APN's but the new one has solved all them problems due to "Null" being in places where it should not have been.
    once again thanks for this tutorial, all is well the better DEXT

    11 January 2011 19:38

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  10. Thanks, this worked great for me... one issue that I came across.. su stands for super user. when doing this the first time i did not notice the phone was asking me to grant permission. without doing this you will receive 'permission denied' from the command prompt on your PC.

    now on 2.1 works a treat.

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  11. Thanks for the walk through. My SO bought a Dext from Orange this weekend without realising that its on an 'ancient' version of Android. She's now up and running with all the latest apps.

    Two biggest sticking points for me: SU authentication (as highlighted by Little Bloke above - and not read by me for quite a long while!) and an update of the Radio. We could not connect to google services or set the date / time before upgrading the WCDMA radio.

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  12. Hi i have one or two question about this,
    firstly was you dext a sim locked device or had you unlocked?
    Secondly comand prompt on windows does not use superuser only linux does so what do i type instead?

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  13. Hi Imran

    It does not matter if the phone is locked or not, the MOD will not unlock the phone though. it will also not re-lock an unlocked phone if you use the above mentioned MOD as it does not have a lock in it, some do.

    The SU is typed on the phone after you have installed an App such as ConnectBot so that you can run the commands to root the phone.

    Keep an eye out for the phone asking for permission to grant SU rights.

    Hope that helps

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  14. Hi,I followed your instructions and now I'm on "Process" I've been stuck for over 3 hours...won't work for me :(
    I've download the 7 files on sdk folder but im struggling with cmd....
    thanks and please reply asap

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  15. This was super helpful to me, too! Now running Cyanogenmod, but ran Adlxmod for over a year according to these instructions.

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