39 replies to this topic

[MadDogFooker]

I was wondering if you would be able to answer some questions that I cant find the answers to on google.  OK so I have a droid 2 and never updated it.  It was on FROYO and i rooted, put a boot strap on it and put cm7 Froyo based rom on it.  I never SBFed as i was on Froyo.  Ok, I backed it up with CWM.  Now say i wanted to try out the GB cm7.  I would have to sbf my phone to GB root, bootstrap and install the cm7 GB.  Now here comes my question.  If i backed up the new GB rom with CWM could i switch between the roms or would I need to SBF back to the vzw ROM and root, bootstrap before switching?  I know with CWM I can make backups and revert to an older backup as I have but they were all froyo based and I was not going from GB to Froyo or vise versa.  I would assume that I would need to SBF to go from one kernel to another but I am not sure as it is backed up in CWM can it just be restored without all that hassle?

[Spitemare]

nandroid's (CWM backups) won't work across the different bases. It leads to nothing but bootloops unfortunately.

[MadDogFooker]

Thank you for clarifying.

[drfsupercenter]

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Well, it's not quite 5%. It's actually 8 levels. Each item element corresponds to one battery level. When the actual battery level falls equal to or below the appropriate value that level is used for the icon. If you want more levels then you can add them to this file while putting the appropriate images in drawable-hdpi.

Hmm, OK.  Basically, what I did was: I used ROM Toolbox Pro to download "battery green" which had 10% increments... then using Photoshop I changed the color to blue and added the 5's.
Editing that XML on a computer would be easy enough, but how would I go about doing it in the .apk file? Are those just .zip archives? I'm a bit paranoid about messing with my phone's framework on something untested! LOL

Hence why I used ROM Toolbox Pro, that just has regular zip files with the PNG images inside, I modified the PNGs, re-zipped it, and installed using that.  I can do the 1% increments using that too, but I don't think it would let me edit the XML.
Though, that's odd.  My icons are named stat_sys_battery_100, 95, 90, 80 etc. and they actually do display properly, every 5%.  Which is more than 8 increments.  I also don't have the "odd" numbers like 43 and 57 like that page shows... so what the heck is my phone doing?

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As for upgrading to the Droid 4, I recommend against it. Motorola and Verizon are committed to locked bootloaders for now and that make development more difficult than it needs to be. I'm not sure what other options are out there for hardware keyboards but if you want custom ROMs I don't recommend Motorola hardware.

Darn it... I've had my eyes on the Droid 4 for a long time and was actually thinking about getting one soon (I'd have to pay full retail but I'm beginning to hate 3G speeds, LOL)... I really want a 4G phone with a physical keyboard... what other options are there?  Is the Samsung Stratosphere rootable/exploitable?

I should at least be able to *root* the Droid 4, right? Seeing as how the Droid X2 and all of those have been rooted, there's even a ClockworkMod for X2... and isn't the Droid 4 somewhat based on that?  Not quite sure what you mean about bootloaders though.  I remember the original Droid X had that "e-fuse" thing that pissed off a lot of phone hackers, and supposedly the Droid 2 (being based on the X) had the same thing? Hence the "bootstrap" applications from ClockworkMod... so what does CyanogenMod do?  Once you flash to it, it has both stock and custom recoveries and no need for bootstrapping? I'm a bit confused what the bootloader is/does and how it ties in.  Is that different than the ability to flash ClockworkMod recovery on it?

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nandroid's (CWM backups) won't work across the different bases. It leads to nothing but bootloops unfortunately.

What I do is do a custom restore and just restore data only.  That should work.  I went from the GB base (RevNumbers builds) to the Froyo base, got the boot-loops so I SBF'ed and reflashed all over again... then restoring the data only seems to work, at least it did for me.

--EDIT--

Took framework-res.apk and copied it to SD, put it on my computer and extracted it as a ZIP.  Found stat_sys_battery.xml but it appears to be encrypted, or at least have some really bizarre format that Notepad/Wordpad can't understand... am I missing something here?

Edited by drfsupercenter, 10 February 2012 - 04:31 PM.

[Spitemare]

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

Took framework-res.apk and copied it to SD, put it on my computer and extracted it as a ZIP.  Found stat_sys_battery.xml but it appears to be encrypted, or at least have some really bizarre format that Notepad/Wordpad can't understand... am I missing something here?

It's binary XML. Basically it's the same XML but compressed into a binary format that's smaller and faster for a computer to parse.

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

Hmm, OK.  Basically, what I did was: I used ROM Toolbox Pro to download "battery green" which had 10% increments... then using Photoshop I changed the color to blue and added the 5's.
Editing that XML on a computer would be easy enough, but how would I go about doing it in the .apk file? Are those just .zip archives? I'm a bit paranoid about messing with my phone's framework on something untested! LOL

It's a bit more complicated than that. I believe there's some tools out there that can decompile the XML and recompile everything. I'm not too familiar with it all though because I build from source.

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

Hence why I used ROM Toolbox Pro, that just has regular zip files with the PNG images inside, I modified the PNGs, re-zipped it, and installed using that.  I can do the 1% increments using that too, but I don't think it would let me edit the XML.
Though, that's odd.  My icons are named stat_sys_battery_100, 95, 90, 80 etc. and they actually do display properly, every 5%.  Which is more than 8 increments.  I also don't have the "odd" numbers like 43 and 57 like that page shows... so what the heck is my phone doing?

I would guess ROM Toolbox Pro is simply replacing the existing stat_sys_battery.xml with one that works with their images. On a technical level, stat_sys_battery.xml is what is known as a drawable. A drawable in Android can either be simply an image or it can be an XML file composed of other drawables (either images or other XML files again). stat_sys_battery.xml itself describes a particular drawable known as a level-list. A level-list drawable is renders a different sub-drawable based on the value of some particular variable. In this case the system says, "Hey stat_sys_battery drawable! I need the drawable for the battery at level 76!" stat_sys_drawable will then respond with the appropriate image. Or maybe it responds with an XML drawable that describes a gradient color; drawables are really flexible that way.

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

I should at least be able to *root* the Droid 4, right? Seeing as how the Droid X2 and all of those have been rooted, there's even a ClockworkMod for X2... and isn't the Droid 4 somewhat based on that?

Maybe. I don't really know. I'm sure a method to root the Droid 4 will be available eventually if it's not already.

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

Not quite sure what you mean about bootloaders though.  I remember the original Droid X had that "e-fuse" thing that pissed off a lot of phone hackers, and supposedly the Droid 2 (being based on the X) had the same thing?

The bootloader is the bit responsible for for booting the phone. It contains the kernel (the core of the OS), init (the conductor for the entire boot process), and any tools init might need plus the recovery binary. Our locked bootloader means we can't replace any of these components on our phone. Something without a locked bootloader, like the HTC Incredible for example, can have any of these pieces replaced. For those phones that's exactly what CyanogenMod does. There's a custom kernel that can include extra stuff and a different init that starts things up in a slightly different manner.

Since we have a locked bootloader, though, we have to do something different.

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

Hence the "bootstrap" applications from ClockworkMod... so what does CyanogenMod do?  Once you flash to it, it has both stock and custom recoveries and no need for bootstrapping? I'm a bit confused what the bootloader is/does and how it ties in.  Is that different than the ability to flash ClockworkMod recovery on it?

We can't replace anything in the locked bootloader so we work our way around it. We can't ever replace the Moto kernel with a custom one, but that's really okay since the kernel is mainly responsible for device drivers and not much else. It helps that our kernel can also load modules so if we do ever need some extra functionality we can possibly write a module to do things.

For everything else, though, we can hijack the process. For ClockworkMod we have a tricked out hijack binary that masquerades as one of the tools init uses. During the init process this tool looks for the file /data/.recovery_mode and if it finds it, it starts up CWM and stops the rest of init. If the file doesn't exist it does something really cool: first it pauses the init process and starts killing off everything that might be run. Then it loads our custom CM bootloader stuff into memory on top of Moto's stuff; essentially we can replace Moto's stuff in memory with our own even if we can't replace the bootloader. Finally init is restarted but now it's using the CM init and all the CM specific stuff. It works even if it's not quite clean.

[drfsupercenter]

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I would guess ROM Toolbox Pro is simply replacing the existing stat_sys_battery.xml with one that works with their images. On a technical level, stat_sys_battery.xml is what is known as a drawable. A drawable in Android can either be simply an image or it can be an XML file composed of other drawables (either images or other XML files again). stat_sys_battery.xml itself describes a particular drawable known as a level-list. A level-list drawable is renders a different sub-drawable based on the value of some particular variable. In this case the system says, "Hey stat_sys_battery drawable! I need the drawable for the battery at level 76!" stat_sys_drawable will then respond with the appropriate image. Or maybe it responds with an XML drawable that describes a gradient color; drawables are really flexible that way.

I guess that makes sense, but I don't think ROM Toolbox Pro replaces the XML.  In fact, it warns you to only use increments supported by your framework, if you install a 1% increment one on a 10% increment phone, for example, it might crash it or not work properly.  There certainly wasn't a .xml in that ZIP file - and the original one had 10% increments, but yet ROM Toolbox Pro was still replacing with 5% increments. (Every other 5%, as in, the 95, 85 etc) were using the stock image.  And RTP also doesn't even support 5% so I doubt that was the case.
But yet, I opened that XML file inside Root Explorer (where it actually displayed properly) and it's a lot different than the one you linked me.  So I honestly have no idea what's going on here.

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It's a bit more complicated than that. I believe there's some tools out there that can decompile the XML and recompile everything. I'm not too familiar with it all though because I build from source.

Can you try using a 1% battery step in there next time you make a build to see if it works?
I can give you a ZIP if images if you can't find one, ROM Toolbox Pro literally has about 30 of them to choose from.

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We can't replace anything in the locked bootloader so we work our way around it. We can't ever replace the Moto kernel with a custom one, but that's really okay since the kernel is mainly responsible for device drivers and not much else. It helps that our kernel can also load modules so if we do ever need some extra functionality we can possibly write a module to do things.

Is the E-fuse I was hearing about in the Droid X a result of trying to replace the bootloader?  I actually have never seen a Droid 2 with the E-fuse, though supposedly they use the same kernel.
So if it's not a problem, then theoretically couldn't you get ClockworkMod and all of that on a Droid 4?  I don't need CyanogenMod as much as I just need a way to make nandroid backups.  I had my Droid 2 for almost a year before finding out about CM7, LOL

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For ClockworkMod we have a tricked out hijack binary that masquerades as one of the tools init uses. During the init process this tool looks for the file /data/.recovery_mode and if it finds it, it starts up CWM and stops the rest of init. If the file doesn't exist it does something really cool: first it pauses the init process and starts killing off everything that might be run. Then it loads our custom CM bootloader stuff into memory on top of Moto's stuff; essentially we can replace Moto's stuff in memory with our own even if we can't replace the bootloader. Finally init is restarted but now it's using the CM init and all the CM specific stuff. It works even if it's not quite clean.

One thing I'm curious about: How come when the phone is off, if you hold down X on the keypad while powering on, it boots up STOCK recovery, but if you select "reboot - recovery" from the power menu while running CM7 it uses ClockworkMod?  Is that similar to the bootstrapper, only using the newer CWM that supports more stuff? (I hate the booststrapper, I bricked my phone once using it... I had backed up in the new one and tried to restore in the old, and since the files weren't .img format it broke, and the only other image I restored was somewhat corrupted... I had to SBF it)
IS there a way to access CWM while the phone is off? It would be very useful, I know on my original Motorola Droid, CWM literally overwrote the stock recovery.

Also, as far as terms are concerned - what do you call that thing that prevents bricks? Like, when you power it up holding volume-up and camera?  Same thing that lets you use RSD Lite.  Is that the "bootloader"? If so, why would you ever want to replace that anyway?  That thing has literally saved my phone at least 10 times now when I bricked it and got boot-looped due to experimentation.  And even on the original Droid, that programming mode is still there, even though CWM overwrites the stock recovery.  People would be screwed if there was a way to remove the brick-protection

[MadDogFooker]

drfsupercenter not that I want to burst your bubble anymore about the droid 4 but I just did some research on it and found out that the droid 4 doesn't have a removable battery.  The whole locked boot strap I was pissed about but like anything if there's a will there's a way.  And I am sure being a popular phone the bootloader would get hacked rather quickly.  As far as rooting goes DoomLord's Zergrush exploit seems to work on all droids.  I would assume droid 4 would be no less susceptible.  Back to the battery issue.  Not being able to remove the battery is a TOTAL turn off to me.  The 4G, front facing camera and hdmi are all things my droid 2 lack but the battery is critical to being able to use the phone.  my phone is a yr old and the battery is starting to weaken.  I can get a new one on ebay and breath new life into my 1yr old phone.    if this was a droid 4 I would be forced to upgrade for a new $200 whether or not I felt like it because batteries all die eventually.  Second issue I have with this is say my battery doesnt seem to have enough juice for my usage.  I can not simply buy an extended battery.  My wife got a droid x when it came out and I bought  her an extended bettery cuz her phone wouldnt last a day.  And being this phone has LTE it will suck up that battery it has.   Tisk tisk Motorola.  My last and biggest beef with the battery pull is most critical to the phone.  I am in the IT industry and even Blackberries while totally different in every way from a droid will need a battery pull.  Some issues you can walk users through everything in the world including powering off their phone and the only cure to their issue is pulling the battery.  Now if my email stopped working and the only cure is to pull the battery what would I do.  I had this issue with my droid 2.  It would happen about once a month.  email would stop and a battery pull was the only cure.  Well till i put cm7 on it.  This tells me that Moto or vzw f'ed up the rom and email doesnt work right.  But what if you couldnt pull the battery I guess u wipe the phone???? Let the battery drian all the way down to kill the phone ruining your battery in the process.  But wait its in the phone and one and the same you cant replace it if you ruin it so you are killing your phone.  Now I know there is a way to hole the power button and volume down button to power the phone off if it hangs but like i said before I have powered off droids and BB's before and issues remained and pulling the battery magically fix the issue.  Makes me feel like Moto doesnt care about their customers.  They make a phone that looks amazing if you look at the specs but no one is going to look at the little thing that are most critical to a phone.  Why have a smart phone that may have the potential of having a problem with email that cant be resolved.  Its a step backwards.  Whats next no sd card slot.   Sorry for the rant.  Just extremely angered by this.

[Spitemare]

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 07:42 PM, said:

Can you try using a 1% battery step in there next time you make a build to see if it works?
I can give you a ZIP if images if you can't find one, ROM Toolbox Pro literally has about 30 of them to choose from.

I'll think about it. I don't want to come across as indifferent, but it wouldn't be a priority for me and I've got a few other things to fix first.

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 07:42 PM, said:

Is the E-fuse I was hearing about in the Droid X a result of trying to replace the bootloader?  I actually have never seen a Droid 2 with the E-fuse, though supposedly they use the same kernel.

I never could tell if the e-Fuse thing was just a ruse or real. Regardless, we can't even begin to try to replace the bootloader because the system rejects anything that isn't signed with Moto's key.

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 07:42 PM, said:

So if it's not a problem, then theoretically couldn't you get ClockworkMod and all of that on a Droid 4?  I don't need CyanogenMod as much as I just need a way to make nandroid backups.  I had my Droid 2 for almost a year before finding out about CM7, LOL

That's up to koush to work out. He develops CWM. I'm sure there are some out there trying to get it working on the D4 and I'm sure they'll succeed at some point in the future. It's all a matter of obtaining root and then inspecting the init system for holes.

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 07:42 PM, said:

One thing I'm curious about: How come when the phone is off, if you hold down X on the keypad while powering on, it boots up STOCK recovery, but if you select "reboot - recovery" from the power menu while running CM7 it uses ClockworkMod?

The actual recovery menu cooked into the bootloader lives in the locked off part of the system and the method in which the phone boots into that is handled there as well. For us to boot into CWM we write the file /data/.recovery_mode and init checks for that file on startup. If you'd like to see it in action execute the following in a terminal and then reboot normally.

su
touch /data/.recovery_mode

You should boot into CWM.

drfsupercenter, on 10 February 2012 - 07:42 PM, said:

Also, as far as terms are concerned - what do you call that thing that prevents bricks? Like, when you power it up holding volume-up and camera?  Same thing that lets you use RSD Lite.  Is that the "bootloader"? If so, why would you ever want to replace that anyway?  That thing has literally saved my phone at least 10 times now when I bricked it and got boot-looped due to experimentation.  And even on the original Droid, that programming mode is still there, even though CWM overwrites the stock recovery.  People would be screwed if there was a way to remove the brick-protection

We don't want to replace that. That's very low level and we're fine with that being there. That part is literally written into the chips on the phone and provides a minimal working device should everything after that go all **** up.

What we would like to change but can't due to the bootloader is the next piece. The kernel and init system have to be Moto's.

[drfsupercenter]

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drfsupercenter not that I want to burst your bubble anymore about the droid 4 but I just did some research on it and found out that the droid 4 doesn't have a removable battery.

OK, dude, chill out here... I've known that for a while.  It IS a removable battery, you just need a "case tool" to pull the back cover off.  Same goes with the Droid Razr.  And as far as I know, it comes with that tool.

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I'll think about it. I don't want to come across as indifferent, but it wouldn't be a priority for me and I've got a few other things to fix first.

Alright then.  Would simply editing the XML in Root Explorer work? I could do that myself.

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That's up to koush to work out. He develops CWM. I'm sure there are some out there trying to get it working on the D4 and I'm sure they'll succeed at some point in the future. It's all a matter of obtaining root and then inspecting the init system for holes.

Well yeah.  There's already a root exploit for it, apparently some dude wanted $500? LOL I don't really follow it but yesterday or the day before, a rooting method was found for the Droid 4.  Now I'll just wait for koush to do his thing

Though, is there any other way to do nandroid backups from the phone itself if you have root?

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The actual recovery menu cooked into the bootloader lives in the locked off part of the system and the method in which the phone boots into that is handled there as well. For us to boot into CWM we write the file /data/.recovery_mode and init checks for that file on startup. If you'd like to see it in action execute the following in a terminal and then reboot normally.

OK yeah, that booted me into CWM.  So does the "bootstrap" on non-CM7 basically just make that permanent? I always hated having to boot twice (in other words, power on, then 'reboot phone' to boot it), but it's better than not having CWM at all.

Which leads to my next question - is there a way to either make that change permanent (wouldn't prefer it, but better than nothing) or to have some sort of "hotkey" that will boot CWM instead of CM7? Like, pressing Y instead of X, or something of that sort.  I've run into a couple boot-loops when playing around in CM7 and had to wipe the entire phone as a result since I can't get into CWM without booting into CM7 and rebooting into it... would be much easier if I could just restore my /system and be able to boot again.

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What we would like to change but can't due to the bootloader is the next piece. The kernel and init system have to be Moto's.

OK, but you made it work on the Droid 2, right? So what's to say you couldn't for Droid 4 as well?  Granted it's a brand new phone and I'm not expecting it to be done quickly at all, but it would be something cool to look forward to when I get my Droid 4 soon.

--EDIT--

Oh, and one more thing: that "Bootloader" option in the reboot menu has never worked for me. Just thought I'd bring that up, not sure why the option is there if it doesn't do anything - it just reboots normally.  The normal reboot and recovery reboot work as they should, though. (A "hot boot" option could be cool, I'm currently using Quick Boot combined with Power Control Plus to do fast reboots and shutdowns)

Edited by drfsupercenter, 13 February 2012 - 02:42 PM.

[Spitemare]

drfsupercenter, on 13 February 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

Alright then.  Would simply editing the XML in Root Explorer work? I could do that myself.

Not sure. I don't know if Root Explorer can compile the XML back to binary. If so, just make enough items where maxLevel=1 (or 2 or 3 or 4...) and drawable references the sys_stat_battery_1 (or 2 or 3 or 4...)

drfsupercenter, on 13 February 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

Though, is there any other way to do nandroid backups from the phone itself if you have root?

Not sure. There might be an app that can do that but I'm not quite sure if backing up /data on a live system would be accurate.

drfsupercenter, on 13 February 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

OK yeah, that booted me into CWM.  So does the "bootstrap" on non-CM7 basically just make that permanent? I always hated having to boot twice (in other words, power on, then 'reboot phone' to boot it), but it's better than not having CWM at all.

Nope. Using D2Bootstrapper on stock or some other non-2nd init ROM does basically the same thing. There isn't a way to really make it permanent since whatever method you use is going to delete that file once CWM starts up.

drfsupercenter, on 13 February 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

Which leads to my next question - is there a way to either make that change permanent (wouldn't prefer it, but better than nothing) or to have some sort of "hotkey" that will boot CWM instead of CM7? Like, pressing Y instead of X, or something of that sort.  I've run into a couple boot-loops when playing around in CM7 and had to wipe the entire phone as a result since I can't get into CWM without booting into CM7 and rebooting into it... would be much easier if I could just restore my /system and be able to boot again.

On my todo list is to integrate bootmenu into the builds. bootmenu provides a way to boot into CWM even if the phone bootloops.

drfsupercenter, on 13 February 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

Oh, and one more thing: that "Bootloader" option in the reboot menu has never worked for me. Just thought I'd bring that up, not sure why the option is there if it doesn't do anything - it just reboots normally.  The normal reboot and recovery reboot work as they should, though. (A "hot boot" option could be cool, I'm currently using Quick Boot combined with Power Control Plus to do fast reboots and shutdowns)

Good to know. I'll look into removing it from our builds if possible.

[drfsupercenter]

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Not sure. I don't know if Root Explorer can compile the XML back to binary. If so, just make enough items where maxLevel=1 (or 2 or 3 or 4...) and drawable references the sys_stat_battery_1 (or 2 or 3 or 4...)

Nope.  Tried editing it (I had to extract it first, probably as a safety measure) and the saved result was regular XML, not binary.  Weird.

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Nope. Using D2Bootstrapper on stock or some other non-2nd init ROM does basically the same thing. There isn't a way to really make it permanent since whatever method you use is going to delete that file once CWM starts up.

That's odd.  When I used the bootstrapper, it would *always* boot up CWM before anything else, if the phone was powered off and I powered it on, I'd get CWM and had to select "reboot phone"

I know this also works if you yank the battery out at a certain time while trying to flash CWM? LOL
Unless... I know that Bootstrap app would ask for root at random intervals (until I shut notifications off)... maybe it would just redo that command upon booting the phone?  But even after I told superuser to deny root to Bootstrap I swear it still showed that each and every time I powered my phone on.  Oh, and if I somehow did glitch it into not booting into CWM, I couldn't make backups at all. I'd tell CWM to boot into recovery and it would do a normal reboot.  This was all under stock Froyo and GB, by the way. CM7 works as it should.

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On my todo list is to integrate bootmenu into the builds. bootmenu provides a way to boot into CWM even if the phone bootloops.

But that means you'd have to select CM7 every time? Or could it be automatic and only show a menu if you hold down a key? I'm all for getting my phone turned on as fast as possible.

[Spitemare]

drfsupercenter, on 13 February 2012 - 04:53 PM, said:

That's odd.  When I used the bootstrapper, it would *always* boot up CWM before anything else, if the phone was powered off and I powered it on, I'd get CWM and had to select "reboot phone"

I got that too occasionally on the old Fission ROM. I just assumed it was a bug in D2Bootstrapper. It didn't happen all the time, but once it started it stayed that way until I would SBF.

drfsupercenter, on 13 February 2012 - 04:53 PM, said:

But that means you'd have to select CM7 every time? Or could it be automatic and only show a menu if you hold down a key? I'm all for getting my phone turned on as fast as possible.

MIUI for the D2 uses bootmenu. It boots like normal except the notification light will flash blue for a second near the start. If you hold the volume down button when the light flashes it will boot into bootmenu which allows you to select CWM. Works even if you're bootlooping.

[drfsupercenter]

Fission ROM?

And alright, sounds good.  I'll be looking forward to that release - I'm still using your January Froyo-base one which is working fine aside from me wanting 1% battery increments.

[Spitemare]

drfsupercenter, on 13 February 2012 - 06:45 PM, said:

Fission ROM?

Early D2 ROM. Back before 2nd-init Fission was really close to AOSP; it stripped out almost all the Blur and worked decently well.

[MadDogFooker]

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OK, dude, chill out here... I've known that for a while. It IS a removable battery, you just need a "case tool" to pull the back cover off. Same goes with the Droid Razr. And as far as I know, it comes with that tool.

Ok, first off my dreams of getting the Droid 4 was shattered when I saw this.  so the whole bursting your bubble was not meant to upset you.  I was just trying to inform you as well as other readers about this lousy feature.  THERE ISNT a removable battery.  Obviously you haven't done any research on this phone.  There is a little tool to take the cover off but it doesn't allow you access to the battery.  The battery is embedded in the phone not allowing you to upgrade it, replace it or even pull it.  The reason for my rant was for other people like me who were excited to see the release of the droid 4 to be informed of this one thing which in my opinion totally ruins the phone.  And people can make up their own minds about this, whether the phone is just junk or not, but at least they have the full scoop.  When you do research on a phone they tell you about all the things it has but fail to mentions obvious things like an embedded battery.  Just trying to help people.  No need to try and Insult me with using caps, especially when I am right.

[drfsupercenter]

Oh.  My bad.  I hadn't actually looked into it, I just remember when the specs were leaked back in December, it was known that the cover wasn't removable without that special tool.  I assumed that was the only difference.

I guess we'll have to see how well that "hard reset" works... pulling the battery is certainly quicker but if the "volume down + power for ten seconds" is hard-wired in, unlike the iPhone where it's only in software, I won't mind.

Or maybe there's a different way to do it, even if the battery is soldered in, there's gotta be two terminals, one for + and one for -, right?  Maybe using a paperclip at the right spot will cause a hard reset, I'm not about to try it but Verizon floor models on the other hand...

[MadDogFooker]

No prob,  I guess it will be some time before we hear of how well the reset works.  It better be hard wired as some issues with corporate email need the battery physically removed. If it works no different then pulling the battery then I will only have to consider the battery dying and see how hard it would be to tear the phone apart to replace, in order for me to reconsider this as an upgrade option.  Hopefully droid 5 will be out by June and will be the same as droid 4 but with a real battery.  The 4 looks pretty sick spec wise and has a really nice looking keyboard.

[drfsupercenter]

So... any new builds since January?

It would be nice if there was a list of them, even though they're unofficial, saves us from having to spam in the forums to get updates

[jakson0100]

still waiting for update.

[MadDogFooker]

Ok, Update for those who read my rant about the droid 4.  The droid 4 does have a battery that is accessible.  Some really nerdy and brave individual decided to do a complete teardown of the phone.  There is a sticker covering the battery.  Pealing the sticker off reveals the battery.  However Motorola for some reason really didn't want anyone removing the battery so they decided to use torx screws to hold it in place.  ....And in case those didn't deter you they used glue to glue the battery in.  Now that being said I am getting this phone.  If my battery dies I can replace it and no the phone.  Two torx screws arent going to keep me from getting my 4g phone with a front facing camera.  Also Hashcode has a CM9 port already in the beta.  Thanks to Clockwork mod for getting the recovey working hashcode develope safestrap, a pre-bootstrap recovery similar to clockworkmod.  Now you can safely install roms without worrying about bricking and sbf'ing.  
Sorry fellows but I am moving on to a new device.
I love cyanogenmod and am happy for choosing them to be the rom they broke me from the mold.
I was curious tho if you would eventually put those roms on your site.  Like the cm9 port that hashcode is developing for droid 3 and 4?
I feel it would be easier for people with those devices to get installed if they were looking at your site then a bunch of different forums.