Wow, “Mark”:http://www.mark-world.tv/motorola/ has a great tutorial on how to modify and make the razor really yours. Here’s a quick summary of what I did based on his excellent site.
h2. Getting Started with the right bootloader
* “Software”:http://www.mark-world.tv/motorola/page1.html. First off, he tells you about all the software you need. A key piece is going looking for various Motorola service programs that you have to find in various torrents somewhere like PST (Product Support Tool) which has the Multi Flash Flex (MFF) program you use to download new firmware. As well as the newer RSD Lite which replaces MFF.
* To find out what version of the bootloader you have, you have to hold the * and the # key down and then press the power button. Its the equivalent of the ctrl-alt-del on a PC. This gives you the boot loader the software version number. The main issue here is that if you have bootloader 08.26 or higher, then Motorola put RSA encryption on, so you have to downgrade the bootloader to 07.d0. In my case, our late model Cingular phone had Boot Loader 08.26 and Software Version R374_G_0E.41.C3R_B (how is that for obscure!)
** Download the “P2K Drivers”:http://www.mark-world.tv/motorola/zip/P2KDrivers2.9.zip drivers. Internally, the RAZR V3 and many other phones are on the P2K platform or if you have RSD Lite or MFF, they have their own \drivers directories where p2k.sys lives
** Turn off the phone and turn it on in its normal mode, plug it into the USB port of your computer, the USB Modem will install, then unplug and replug it and the Accessory, Data Logging MCU Interface, Test Command will install. You will have to keep telling it where the drivers are
** Download the “Scotty’s Downrev Loader”:http://www.mark-world.tv/motorola/zip/scotty2_8.26_downgrader_v2.zip for use just with 08.26. When it start you will see the phones Bootloader mode, click OK on the phone to start. Windows will then as for the Flash Interface driver and it will you get it from the P2K drivers location you downloaded above. This DOS program will then open an interface to the phone and start downdating it to the more friendly 07.D0 bootloader
** After you downgrade the V3 bootloader to 07.D0 the phone may not display the bootloader screen in flash mode correctly, it may be just a black screen. Don’t panic, this is normal and will not cause any problems in the operation of the phone.
h2. Unlocking the phone
If you phone is unlocked, try to give Cingular or your service provider a call. Otherwise, there is a program you can try that “Mark”:http://www.mark-world.tv/motorola/page7.html covers. It is an unlocker that need the 07.0D bootloader. You start the program and click yes and it seems to unlock the phone. Give it a try if you dare :_)
h2. Backing things up
Scotty has some really great directions on what to do next. In short, you install a bunch of programs and make sure that it works:
* Install the RSD Lite and see if you can see the phone. You just want to see if it connects. You use this to download news Flashes (.SHA files) for new firmware and for new flexes which are language packs. In my case, I want to download the simplified chinese and english packs which is the whole goal of the exercise.
* Install the P2K Phone File Manager to see if that works. This is the program you use to edit all the files. The file system in the V3 has all kinds of magical places for everything from the startup screens to the settings for GPRS, so you do need this as a way to navigate.
* If you have the Motorola Phone Tools (you can buy this) see if that works. As a note, this is a really nice program, let’s you copy your selected contacts as well as your calendar to your phone from Outlook.
As a note, the P2K.sys driver can definitely have problems. In my case, it stopped working and when I tried to reboot Windows, the shutdown hung on the driver. Forcing the shutdown fixed everything.
Then you need “Randoms”:http://random.motofan.ru/en/ Flash Backup and other utilities and then you run FlashBackup/Full Backup and select PHone memory size 32MB and disable compression since the program is buggy with compression. This thing actually hangs on my machines, but “BigDaddy5”:http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=544325 says that you don’t really need to backup, if you can get to the bootloader with the *, # and Power button combination then you can just reload with RSD Lite or MFF a Monster flash that includes flash and flex from “Motox”:http://www.planetmotox.net. For me, I can’t figure out why it hangs, maybe I’ll try a different machine?
h2. Installing Flash, Flex and Language Packs
Ok, the Motorola terminology is very confusing on “Flashing”:http://www.mark-world.tv/motorola/page3.html. The lowest level is the bootloader that does the basic connection (much like the BIOS in PCs), the Flash is the firmware that controls the hardware, Flex controls the applications and the software while language packs get added on top. There is something called a “Monster”:http://www.planetmotox.net/monster_packs.php pack which is flash, flex and a set of language packs. Motox has some he has made himself so right now the latest US version has the brilliant name R374_G_OE.42.09R_MOTOX.shx (.shx is the filename of a flash file). The main number here seems to the “42” with Flex Version, hold your breath!, GSMV3MXCINO1NA0F5 which seems to say GSM, Motorola V3, Cingular and finally the language pack is MXLP0001 US English. You use download the file, unpack it and point the RSD Lite to the file, plug in the phone in “flash mode” (that is turn the phone on while holding the # and * key down) and it does it.
Normally you don’t have “flex”:http://www.mark-world.tv/motorola/page4.html a phone unless you want to get rid of the carrier branding. For instance my Cingular phone has all kinds of logos on startup ,etc. So for instance, after you use the Monster pack to get the latest, you can use “Flexlash”:http://www.planetmotox.net/flexlash.php files which are flex files in .shx format so that you can easily upgrade just the flex (or application part), in my case for instance right now, I could use the previous monster pack with Cingular to get the latest Flash and then use R374_G_03.42.09R_GSMV3MXTMB01NA106_flexlash_MOTOX.shx to get T-mobile branding.
There are also “Reflash”:http://www.planetmotox.net/reflash.php files that download the flash but don’t change any system settings. The latesst version of these mainly seem to allow multiple letter search on phonebooks and also video recording.
For “Language Packs”:http://www.planetmotox.net/language_packs.php, once you have the file, flash it onto the phone. Don’t be alarmed if the flash fails and your phone screen continues to display “SW Upgrade in progress..”, just shut the phone off and turn it on again. Mine did the same thing when I tried a new language pack, but the new language was installed. When you do this, all the previous languages installed on your phone will be erased before the new language pack is installed.
h2. SEEM Editing, Startup, Shutdown and Screensavers and other Mods
SEEM is Motorolas name for its registry where all kinds of thinks can be changed. You use XVI32 to edit these files and the P2K Phone File Manager to transfer them. There are zillions of very nerdy flags you can edit. “http://xlr8.us/hofo/”:http://xlr8.us/hofo/ keeps a list of everything you can edit.
In addition to SEEMs, there are various magic files in magic locations that you can use for customization. “Mods”:http://www.mark-world.tv/motorola/page8.html include being able to change the startup
Most of the time you don’t need to create your own files. As “Mark”:http://www.mark-world.tv/motorola/page10.html points out there are zillions of enthusiasts who have created everything for you. For instance Motox has lots of “cl.gif”:http://www.motox.info/showthread.php?t=435 files. You add them with PK2 Menu Commander jsince it is just a file replacement.
For doing startup and shutdown, Mark’s method is very complicated. There is another tool called “Motokit”:http://www.planetmotox.net/motox101/flex_create.htm that does it much more simply according to “Motomodders.net”:http://www.motomodders.net/Default.aspx?tabid=55&forumid=43&postid=172557&view=topic where you just edit and add. The main problem is out of the box, I get a _vsnetmenu.ocx_ not found so there is something missing from the standard setup at “Motox”:http://www.planetmotox.net/motox101/flex_create.htm and “Exmotocd”:http://ezmotocd.tripod.com/id1.html
h2. Ringtones and Wallpapers and Skins
There are many ways to get these, but the easiest way by “Samsung”:http://www.motox.info/showpost.php?p=584&postcount=6 is to take the MP3 cut it to 30 seconds and less than 300KB in MP3Cutter and go to “Mobstorage”:http://mobstorage.com and upload, then with your item code, go to “wap.mobstorage.com”:http://wap.mobstorage.com and enter the cod and save it.
For skinning the various graphical parts, “Lazy202”:http://www.motox.info/showpost.php?p=584&postcount=6 says download Skin Manager and then find the .ski file on Motox “Skins”:http://www.motox.info/forumdisplay.php?f=6 somewhere and then it will download onto the phone for you. Sweet!
h2. Short guide to it all via unbranding
And finally there is a good guide for removing “Cingular”:http://www.planetmotox.net/motox101/v3_unbranding_guide.htm customizations. This unbrands the phone and gets rid of all the animations and the like. This guide by the way seems much simpler than the others I’ve found. It uses P2KMan to access files and the SEEM on your phone and XVI32 to edit the SEEM files as noted in the “Motox SEEM Editing”:http://www.planetmotox.net/motox101/seem_editing.htm guide.
# External screen. Replace /a/mobile/system/cl.gif with a 96×80 GIF with P2KMan
# WAP Shopping links. Delete /a/DL_DB_INET-RECORDS with P2KMan
# WAP Browser startup animation. Delete /a/mib_op_greet and create your animated 176×220 GIF and put it in own /a/mib_op_great (note there is no .GIF at the end)
# Startup and Shutdown animations. Create /a/custwakeup.gif and /a/custgoodbye.gif
## Deactivate standard startup animation with SEEM 00032_0001 > offset 1D > bit 3 uncheck
## Deactivate standard shutdown with SEEM 0032_0001 > offset 31 > bit 0 uncheck
## Activate custom startup with SEEM 0004a_0001 offset 23 [Set 01]
## Activate custom shutdown with SEEM 00032_0001 > offset 46 > bit 0 check
# Create custom startup in /a/mobile/audio/Cust_Start~up.mp3 and powerdown in /a/mobile/audio/Power~down.mp3
## Activate startup wtih SEEM 0004a_0001 > offset 22 [set 01] and SEEM 0032_0001 > offset 24 > bit 3 [check]
## Activate shutdown with SEEM 0004a_0001 > offset 24 [Set 01]
