alright, so I've had my D2 for a couple months now (well, moreso about a year) and it's about friggin' time I installed a custom ROM.
HOWEVER, all of the ROMs that I've seen are available for the D2 don't look like they're something I'm interested in.
I have two questions:
1.) If I install a custom ROM, is it easy to restore my phone back to its original, out-of-box, preinstalled verizon moto****blur ROM, just in case I want to start from scratch and try out a different ROM?
2.) Right now my phone is backing up via bootstrap. It has that MSDos looking screen. I want a ROM that looks like that, as much as possible. Obviously I don't want to use my phone through that system, but are there any ROMs (or themes) that resemble this at all? Linux themed, DOS prompt themed, etc.
2a.) essentially, which ROM allows the most and easiest customization if I don't like their default layout?
1) yes. easily. make a backup of froyo before you install any rom and you can (except for GB builds) revert back to your original froyo backup in a matter of minutes through clockwork. You'll still be rooted (which is obviously necessary to move on to another custom ROM), so it's not
completely out-of-the-box, but it's close. You'll likely want to stay rooted once you are, so this will be your best bet. You would only want to unroot if you're sending your phone in for replacement, etc.
You can also, at any time, go into setting > privacy > reset to factory, although if I recall that doesn't unroot either; I believe it will just return your phone to whatever rom you have installed as it was immediately after installation (resets all settings, homescreens, etc). Last time I used this method, it returned me to squidly as it was after a fresh install - it didnt remove squidly and return me to stock froyo 2.2, just removed all my settings, installed apps, preferences etc.
You can unroot with z4 if I recall correctly, or you can SBF using RSDlite which takes a little longer, but will unroot and return you to completely out-of-the-box, unactivated, unrooted froyo, with all default, factory settings. But this *should only be necessary if you're boot-looping and unable to get into clockwork, or you're going back and forth between gingerbread and froyo builds.
2) If you want to use a command prompt, use squidlymandigo. Using gscripts and terminal emulator you can customize to your heart's content using code instead of those pesky, convenient buttons
Otherwise, Liberty comes with a "toolbox" that allows you to effortlessly change settings and customize many aspects of your phone. There are also apps like absolute root tools or metamorph that give you further customizing options - fonts, lcd density, custom boot animations/logos, various themes, icon packs, etc. Apps like those only require root and a compatible rom.
Just remember to (almost) always wipe data and cache, and mount your system (and sometimes data) between installations or restorations. This isn't necessary from, say Liberty 1.5 to 2.0, but would be necessary from Liberty to Fission, or Squidly to Gummyjar, etc.
