I am very interested to see what the first released custom rom will be. I am still very new to this droid stuff but i have been reading none stop. Im still not sure which rom is best because afterall i have to test a few of em out and see which one i like best but i cant wait to get in to it.

i'm also a newbie but from reading all the forums, it seems it may not happen at all since the bootloader's encrypted and that's quite a feat ... to defeat..

Yeah it's likely that you won't be able to load custom roms on the X for a while if never.

Yea thats what im afraid of..thats prolly the only thing that im not liking about the DX.

does this mean you wont be able to load roms for snes?

^^^ different kind of roms

haha oh ok! phew! what does this actually mean then? it seems to be a big deal to people so i feel i should be "in the know" ;]

The X has a locked boot loader. The boot loader needs to be cracked in order to load recovery and custom ROMs.... so far it doesn't look good.

Look at the Milestone, it has a signed boot loader and it's still an issue

I'm just waiting till the price drop's to grab a X for research purposes. I'm positive someone will crack it by then. If you already have an X keep your fingers crossed. Make sure not to be so caught up in ROM flashing that you forget to enjoy all the awesome stuff its already packing.

Read the following:

MyDroidWorld - Droid X is locked down, root possible but custom kernels and roms are out !!!

How the Droid X is locked down? Let me tell you what I know.

it may very well NEVER be cracked...... I keep seeing alot of comments around about how "eventually it will be cracked", "nothing is uncrackable", etc. BUT I don't think very many folks have any experience with a system like the DROID X uses.

There ARE devices out there that can never be cracked, and simply cannot load custom firmware. Any BlackBerry device on the market comes to mind. The security on the DROID X, from what i've been reading, is even MORE locked down.

I'm not wasting my money on the droid x because of this. No overclocking, no custom roms, and no sprecovery are the main reasons. Two thumbs down for Motorola. :rating00:

This is such BS. If I pay for my phone what's the big deal to them if I customize it?! Why would they lock it? Does anyone know the reasoning behind it?

If it ain't cracked.... then Moto won't get any MORE money outta me and I'll keep my sweet customized Droid

I'm pretty sure I have read on this forum, multiple times that if its been written it can be hacked.

According to P3Droid (who brought us Droid Froyo in the first place) The Droid X is hardware encrypted. So it isn't a matter of hacking written software. A hardware "fuse" trips, literally turning the device into a brick.

The fuse can apparently be un-tripped, but it takes specialized hardware and JTAG language software, which normal people don't have access to.

I am hoping that it isn't this complicated, but from what I'm reading, I'm not getting my hopes up.

Seems complex and thanks for the info.

Question: If it is some sort of "trip" would that require the device to be physically opened in order to root or would some complex software be sufficient.

As you can see I have little knowledge of how Androids work.

The device will probably get rooted (through a software exploit) so you can use apps that require root access like drocap2, root explorer, and maybe even setcpu. But loading custom ROMS, custom recovery or custom kernels probably won't happen because the bootloader is locked. So what good is the ability to use setcpu if you don't have an overclockable kernel?

Who knows what will actually happen, P3Droid is the only dev that has taken a look at it so far. We have so many talented people in the Android community, that someone may very well figure something out. Like I said though, I'm not getting my hopes up.

It's apparently specialized software not availble through normal channels. Probably only available to very specific Motorola personnel to avoid leaks to the public.

Can you elaborate on what does apps are and why the phone needs to be rooted to run them? I'm tech savvy just not accustomed to Android yet.

Sure, I'm sorry, I was speaking like everyone would know what I was talking about without. Let me back up a bit.

Root is also called superuser permission (like an administrator account on windows). Some programs require you to have superuser privileges to run them. You can google "android apps that require root" to get a much more complete list, but a few common ones are:

Drocap2: lets you take screenshots of your phone (not sure why that requires privileges)

SetCPU: Lets you overclock your phone if you have an overclock kernel that devs create.

Wireless Tether for Root Users: when you run this app, your phone becomes a wifi hotspot, and lets your computer, ipod touch, whatever else connect to the internet using your phone's internet connection. Completely free. No extra fees.

Root Explorer is just a file manager that lets you explore parts of your phone that you normally cannot see.

Titanium backup: backs up all your apps, texts, bluetooth pairings, etc.

Like I said, there are many more but you can google that and see some more cool Root User apps.

Right, and a computer CAN count pi to billions of digits, but how long's it going to take you to count it?

Everything can be cracked, but what good is cracking root on the Droid X if it takes three years? None whatsoever. For that reason, it may as well be uncrackable because it'll be a junk phone by that time. Particularly right now with smartphone technology moving ahead at blinding speeds.