D2 New Front
The Motorola Droid 2 was the successor to Verizon's popular Droid smartphone, which made Android what it is today with it's ubiquity, business-ready fashion sense, and hackability.
But due to Verizon's demands, the new Droid 2 was shipped with an encrypted bootloader that did everything to prevent a developer community from ever springing up again.
The result for you? A dearth of custom ROMs, improvements, and updates, difficult rooting methods, and danger at every turn. The Droid 2 and Droid X are the most developer-unfriendly devices the world has ever seen, even compared to other Motorola smartphones. Lube up; it's going to be a painful journey.
- Status: Developer Unfriendly
- Developer Community: Lethargic
- Short Name: D2
It's time to begin your long journey. In this guide, we only support methods that work on the newest firmware, 2.3.4, so update your phones accordingly.
- D2 Introduction - Exactly what makes the Droid 2 so developer-unfriendly and what can be done to beat it?
- Flashing an SBF - If things go wrong and you're stuck on the dreaded bootloader mode, you can try and flash a stock SBF. Just make sure that you don't downgrade!
- D2 Rooting - The least we can do is to root the Droid 2, so you can at least enjoy the power of rooted apps.
- Installing a Recovery Image - If you want to go even farther than rooting the stock ROM, you can install a recovery to get custom ROMs. But due to the locked bootloader, there aren't much options.
- D2 Linux - Lo and behold, pure, unadulterated Linux works on these Motorola phones.
- D2 Sources - All the programs used, the sources for the files, etc.
- Introduction - A quick intro to the rationale and ideals of this guide, and modding in general.
- Essential Maker Skills - Essential Skills that every maker should have.
- Archivist Tools - All the tools an internet archivist needs under their belt.
- Android Development Codex - All kinds of Android smartphones.
- Business Class Laptops - Computers that last: The ThinkPad, the HP EliteBook, the Dell Precision/Latitude.
- EBook Readers - A good eInk screen remains the best way to read literature comfortably.
- Game Consoles - Homebrew development scenes have made it possible to unlock the full power of your game console's computer chip.
- Graphing Calculators - This is the last vestige of the age of 80's Home Computers; where programs were simple and graphics were minimal.
- Home Server - Why buy cloud storage when you can build your own cloud? For media streaming, torrenting, and VPN access (to bypass blocked internet).
- Routers - Amazingly, your ordinary router probably runs Linux on it's little embedded CPU.
- Authentication Wallets - Manage your plethora of accounts, passwords, and RSA public keys using a GPG-encrypted wallet.
- LEGO Mindstorms - The easiest way to build functional robots and machines; using good ol' LEGO and Technic bricks.
- Vintage Computers - Amiga, Apple ][, and all the other random home computers that defined the 1980s.
- Genetic Programming - Programs that mutate and evolve by themselves, like Genes. It's a very difficult concept to grasp, but a very powerful method that transcends math or algorithms.
- General Guidelines - The ideals that you should uphold while working with and editing this guide.
- Device Guide Templates - Templates and general guidelines for creating customized guides for a device.
- Linux - Run a full desktop OS on your little mobile device; research is being made to make it comfortable to use in the mobile space.
- Glossary - Contains all the crazy acronyms and word soup that you'll need to wade through when using this guide.