how to properly go back to gingerbread

[ziggieice]

i bought the droid 4 yesterday and it unfortunately came with icecream sandwich 4.0.4, i want to go back to the firmware it shipped with originally back in febuary which i believe was 2.3.6 but i cant find any guides that deal with my phone specifically.

sorry if this has been asked before but i really cant find anything about reverting back a few OS builds

[audinutt]

There currently is no way to revert, from my understanding ICS changes the partitions and there isn't a way to revert.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

[ziggieice]

i dont think that should matter, my phone is rooted and i have controll of all my files, if the droid razr can revert back i dont see how the same phone cant essentially

[tcrews]

The RAZR cannot revert back to gingerbread either. The Droid 4 and the Droid RAZR cannot go back to gingerbread after updating to ICS. You can have root all you want but that doesn't change the locked boot loader and need for signed installs for the kernel. The device does not allow older versions to be installed. The Bionic has been the only one to be able to go back and its last few leaks have even removed that ability for those that installed them (.235, .238 and now .242).

Why would you want to go back when ICS is so much better in every way?

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[ziggieice]

The RAZR cannot revert back to gingerbread either. The Droid 4 and the Droid RAZR cannot go back to gingerbread after updating to ICS. You can have root all you want but that doesn't change the locked boot loader and need for signed installs for the kernel. The device does not allow older versions to be installed. The Bionic has been the only one to be able to go back and its last few leaks have even removed that ability for those that installed them (.235, .238 and now .242).

Why would you want to go back when ICS is so much better in every way?

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

i have a friend who was able load a leak of ics on his razr but then he had sim card issues and loaded his stock 2.3.6 so that is was if he never voided his warranty when he returned it to verizon

[ziggieice]

oh i forgot to explane myself, gingerbread to me is superior in every single way from the layout all the way to the widgets, pretty much the way it works. so much was lost during the transfer over i can tell you all the things missing if your interested

[tcrews]

Yes, tell what's lost.

There is no way back to gingerbread on the RAZR or the Droid 4. When the Bionic gets it officially, other will be no way back for it either.

Most likely your friend was running a custom ICS ROM on top of the stock Gingerbread kernel...this was very common. Since the boot loader and kernel are still gingerbread you can reflash the gingerbread image. Once ICS installs rewriting the stock boot loader and kernel, there is no going back.

So much more is gained through the improvements in the underlying code as well as the UI with ICS I can't think of a single thing lost.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[EliWallace]

I don't know much about android and linux in general, but if a developer cared enough would it be possible to use kexec to "downgrade"?

[ziggieice]

tl;dr

firstly the widgets;
1.there is no way to have the "messaging widget" like in gingerbread, this was the one that had the red window and white background and when you replied to the message you where taken to a blue and white quick messaging application. i always used this.
2. no individual wireless/airplane mode/ blu-tooth ect. widgets. this is very annoying as i cant have my individual screens how they where before i transferred over from my droid 2. i am unable to find airplane mode without taking the time to mess with settings, this is bothersome.
3. the calender is practically worthless. i used to have a full page calender right on my screen, now isc's calender wants me to click on it and then view it, i shouldn't have to do this
4.no individual quick call widget, i believe now its all clustered into a single row and holds 5, i would like to only have 3.
5.i currently cant gain access to my verizon no matter what i do, with gingerbread's version i was able to click on it and load all my info.
6. the biggest one of them all is the phone app in gingerbread it was all in one convent spot now it is split into two different apps(seriously)."people" for contacts and "phone" for dialer,recent. this is unacceptable.
7. the gallery app is missing, only have picture slideshow, i am unable to find where i can view all my pics and there folders like in gingerbread's and pretty much all previous android versions.

apps.
1. there are 2 different music apps that seemed to share different parts of the original gingerbread music player. the one called "my music" shares the color scheme and somewhat of gingerbread's ease of accessibility of the players functions, it is currently unable to scroll properly and efficiently like gingerbread's and example of this is when you would quickly swipe your thumb across your music library it would practically go all the way to "z". this one cant, it will go as fast and as far every time no matter how forceful you are. also EVERY SINGLE TIME i open the app it wants me to set something up with my computer.I JUST WANT TO VIEW MY SONGS

the other one is called "google play music" this one has the same quick access widget as the gingerbread one. unfortunately this cannot make up for how much of a bother it is to use. when i click on the widget to change songs it goes to "artist" instead of "songs", and it want me to double tap to get the media functions like skip,next and so on.
2. the menu's for apps are now in a vertical small option box instead of a big horizontal display like in gingerbread.
-more to come-

functionality

1. why is it when i right click i cant view "motorola widgets, android widgets, shortcuts and folders. why is every option having to do with a wallpaper.seriously.
2.why when i hold down the option soft touch key i dont get a keyboard.
3. i cant find any battery mode, i would like to turn on night time saver
4.practically all of the settings that where nicely categorized are now all over the place in ics

[pnwsr6]

Sounds like its time for you to find a custom rom and take control of your phone.