Upgrading the Motorola Atrix 4G

Been eyeing JB Hi-Fi's $199 Motorola Atrix 4G for a couple of weeks now. Before I could order online, SIL had a change of heart and gave me her pre-loved handset, which she bought for $700. There's a good reason though - she's now rocking an SGS III. Her Atrix is prone to random reboots, and the battery sometimes doesn't recharge.

Spent most of the day reading up on how to unlock the bootloader, how to root, how install a recovery and how to flash a new ROM/kernel. With Moto devices, you have to deal with locked bootloaders, SBFs, RDS, fastboot, and a few terms I've never heard of.

Theoretically, you simply unlock the bootloader using the "fastboot oem unlock" command, once you've managed to connect the phone to the PC and go into the fastboot menu. Some devices come with a BL that cannot be unlocked, so your best option is to flash a known unlockable BL. This is done using the RDSLite tool.

Unlocking/Rooting the Motorola Atrix 4G
http://www.forceflow.be/2012/01/15/unlocking-rooting-the-motorola-atrix-4g/

Noob's Guide
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1154600

Another guide from Cyanogenmod
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_olympus

Automatic Bootloader Unlock/Root
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1182871

Pudding unlock/root guide
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1136261

In my case, I find it more convenient to simply download the auto-unlocker tool because it comes with all the tools and software that you'll need in one package. Install the Windows drivers and make sure the PC can detect the Atrix. Boot into the RDS Protocol Mode by powering up the phone with the VolUp button pressed. Run RDSLite and flash the SBF (Single Binary File) for your device. Once finished, the phone will automatically reboot. Power off the phone.

Dunno what happened, but the Atrix never booted up properly after that. Looks like a softbrick to me. Used the auto-unlocker tool to fix the softbrick.

Next step is to unlock the BL. Power on the phone while holding the VolDown button. This will get you into the fastboot menu. Scroll through the options by pressing the VolDown button. Once you see "fastboot", press the VolUp button to select that option (fastboot protocol support). Most guides don't mention this, so all the while I thought there's something wrong with the USB cable or USB port or the drivers or the laptop! From the command prompt, "fastboot oem unlock" to get your DeviceID. "fastboot oem unlock " to unlock BL. "fastboot reboot" to reboot.

Next step is to install a CWM recovery. Easiest and safest way is to do it via ROM Manager. Then it complained that my device is not yet rooted. You can root it now using the one-click root tool, but I opted to use moto-fastbook instead. I can get the root later by flashing a pre-rooted ROM.

One-click root for Moto devices
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1255548

RomRacer's Recovery
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1204500


Last step is to flash a custom ROM. Even here I got problems. I've decided to go with Neutrino's ROM because non-Blur and slimmed. Problem is, it hasn't been updated for a while, and the original download links are now broken. Had to trawl through the forum posts to get the ROM and addons. That's how ended up with a v2.8 ROM with v2.9 addons, which failed. With a proper recovery, it's relatively easy to recover from such mistakes.

Neutrino ROM downloads
http://neutrinorom.haris.me/old-files/aaurnab/

Official Neutrino ROM addons
http://ge.tt/84vdN0M?c

faux123 kernels
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1156040