Database Users

What's the safest method to root Vibrant and load a Custom ROM ?

So, I'm getting the Vibrant soon. All these different methods have me confused. So I'm looking for the safest and simplest method to root and load a custom ROM.

All the methods are pretty simple if you took the time to actually research the steps. There's a "bible" of everything you need to know stickied in the general section.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

before you do anything, check to see if your vibrant can boot into recovery. hold volume up +down while you turn it on. if it goes into recovery mode, good. now try download mode. turn it off, plug it into your computer and hold power , volume up and volume down. let go of ONLY the power button when the screen turns black (switching between the charging icon and the bootup screen) and continue to hold vol up/dwn. if you see a yellow android with a shovel, you're good. if not, that means you have a hardware locked vibrant, so if you soft brick (not that hard to do) your screwed. (you can take it to tmobile and they will replace it for you. this has been acknowledged as a defect in some phones)
if you aren't hardware locked, feel free to root.

[Q] Most Complicated Brick thus far. A cry for help..

I know I have Few or no posts at all... but I am quite experienced with Android OS... I wish i could have contributed more to this forum before asking for help on such an INTRICATE problem.. Anyways
The rundown is this, in the sequence in which the things occured... Today i set my phone down, (Droid X, Rooted, Running Apex 1.4.1) and it was working perfectly fine. I then pick it up, absolutely nothing had been done to it between me setting it down and picking it up, and the hard buttons (Menu, Home, Back, Search, Volume Rockers, Camera Button) all not working, only the lock button on top. So, I think like I always do, Battery pull time. I preform a pull, and turn the phone back on, then it's stuck on "M", just stays there. I pull again, stuck again, nothing, one more time and it goes to stock recovery mode just the Android and Exclamation triangle, (I have clockworkmod installed) but of course, no hardbuttons are working so it's false hope. I press buttons over and over out of frustration and I bring up the menu, but that's all i can do, and i have to hold the Volume rocker down, and search to even do that, but besides that i can do nothing more. So I'm stuck at what I see as a dead end, can't move through recovery because buttons aren't working for whatever reason, so i can't flash SBF, or stock reset... So I'm asking for help, please.

wunsung said:
I know I have Few or no posts at all... but I am quite experienced with Android OS... I wish i could have contributed more to this forum before asking for help on such an INTRICATE problem.. Anyways
The rundown is this, in the sequence in which the things occured... Today i set my phone down, (Droid X, Rooted, Running Apex 1.4.1) and it was working perfectly fine. I then pick it up, absolutely nothing had been done to it between me setting it down and picking it up, and the hard buttons (Menu, Home, Back, Search, Volume Rockers, Camera Button) all not working, only the lock button on top. So, I think like I always do, Battery pull time. I preform a pull, and turn the phone back on, then it's stuck on "M", just stays there. I pull again, stuck again, nothing, one more time and it goes to stock recovery mode just the Android and Exclamation triangle, (I have clockworkmod installed) but of course, no hardbuttons are working so it's false hope. I press buttons over and over out of frustration and I bring up the menu, but that's all i can do, and i have to hold the Volume rocker down, and search to even do that, but besides that i can do nothing more. So I'm stuck at what I see as a dead end, can't move through recovery because buttons aren't working for whatever reason, so i can't flash SBF, or stock reset... So I'm asking for help, please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you tried getting it into bootloader mode?
hold vol - + camera + search while powering the device on
if you can get into bootloader mode than you can flash an sbf file

If you tried everything you can think of and still can't get it to do anything take it back to verizon. If you can't get it to work I doubt most of the employees at verizon would be able to get it to work either
Did you try a long battery pull. 30 seconds or more?
Sent from my Droid

Pull the battery and then.plug the phone into.the wall charger. Then put the battery back in, and when the phone boots up it should boot to clockwork
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Did this work?

how to get data off the phone if it is not booting

Hi My boss has a droid x and it stopped booting. He already got his replacement but he did not back his info up to google so he lost everything. The phone is completely stock. He said that first it gave him the black screen with the yellow triangle and the android then it would not boot. I know the software is partially working because when I plugged it in to the charger the battery animation comes up. When I plugged it into the pc I tried different button combos because I do not know how to get into recovery mode. So I think when I hit vol up and power I got a screen that said bootloader and power low and cannot configure software or something like that. Oh the screen was black and the letters were white. I am not familiar with this phone or motorolla in general I have and lg and a Samsung and both have unlocked bootloaders. So is there a way to get his info off this phone? The only thing I can think of is to some how install CWM and then mount the internal sdcard but I don't know how to do that with a locked bootloader. So if anyone knows anything please let me know.
Thank you,
Charlie

The black screen with the yellow triangle just means your in recovery mode. If it still goes to that when you turn it on just press both volume buttons and it will give you options. There's an option to reboot and you can factory reset. But I don't know if you can get the data.
Also to get into recovery just press home and power and when you see the m for Motorola release power and keep home held.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

I think my Atrix is completely bricked...

I had this phone given to me because the screen was cracked and I was just gonna replace it and sell it...But there seems to be much more wrong than expected.
When I boot up, no combination of buttons that I hold down will bring up any kind of menu that I've read about. It will boot all the way up past the Motoblur boot animation and enter Android to the lockscreen, but then it will automatically reboot and won't let me even start to unlock the phone. So that means I can't enable USB Debugging, I can't check which software version I have or anything like that. What are my options? Or is this thing just a cracked paperweight...

Not bricked. Otherwise you wouldn't see boot animation. If rebooting while holding volume down doesn't show fastboot, you have some serious problems. Maybe a broken volume rocker.

Phone wont boot [Goes directly into HBoot]

I woke up this morning and my phone will not boot. It automatically boots into the bootloader (hboot) and the up/down (volume keys) wont move the cursor to allow me to get to the recovery option. Also if I try to boot into recovery using the hard button combo it vibrates 3 times and the led turns to green, then it just sits/never gets to recovery. Since hboot is looking for the PDimg file I figure I could use this file to revert to stock but I was hoping someone here might have a better answer.
If not can someone let me know how to go about flashing with a PD15img file and where I can find a copy?
Thanks guys

Sounds like your volume button is stuck
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda premium

Nope because it knows when I'm using them to try to go straight to recovery also the power button cannot be used to select either but it works to turn the phone one. They just stop working in hboot.

A constantly pressed button will of course also react when you're trying to boot directly to recovery. The phone doesn't "know" anything.
Another option is a stuck trackpad.

If all else fails you might try to reflash recovery and or Hboot, it never hurts to try from a clean install.
Nic

Jack_R1 said:
A constantly pressed button will of course also react when you're trying to boot directly to recovery. The phone doesn't "know" anything.
Another option is a stuck trackpad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you guys are misunderstanding the point. This has nothing to do with the buttons. My issue is when I turn my phone on (by hitting the power button once) the phone will only boot into hboot. Once in hboot none of the keys (power or volume) work. If I try to boot directly into recovery by holding vol up/down + power; the phone will viberate 3 times and the LED lights up green. It then just sits on a blacklit black screen and does nothing else.
I am looking for eirther; Anyone that has ever had this issue and may be able to shed some light onto why it happened. Which by the way was completly random, I shut the phone off before going to sleep and woke up too it viberating like crazy then when I tried to turn it back on; this is what happened.
Or the answer to this question; How do I install a rom from hboot? Can I just install any rom as a "update" by using the method of naming it PD15IMG? Since it does search for this file when I have a sd card in at boot. But if my memory serves me correct it will ask; "Would you like to install this update?" and if my hard buttons do not work and I cannot click yes than what else can I do?
Thanks for all the help guys!!!!
- M

And I think you can't read. You've been told in 3 posts that the phone boots directly to HBOOT because EITHER A VOLUME DOWN BUTTON OR A TRACKPAD BUTTON IS STUCK, ON ELECTRICAL LEVEL - THE CONTACTS ARE ALWAYS CLOSED. And THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT ON SOFTWARE/FLASHING LEVEL. You need to fix what's broken, and you've been told what's broken. Patience isn't one of my skills. Good luck from here.

Jack_R1 said:
And I think you can't read. You've been told in 3 posts that the phone boots directly to HBOOT because EITHER A VOLUME DOWN BUTTON OR A TRACKPAD BUTTON IS STUCK, ON ELECTRICAL LEVEL - THE CONTACTS ARE ALWAYS CLOSED. And THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT ON SOFTWARE/FLASHING LEVEL. You need to fix what's broken, and you've been told what's broken. Patience isn't one of my skills. Good luck from here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do thank you for your help but you may want to aquire some patience if you plan to continue helping people... since people in need of help are most likely confused.
Thanks though :highfive:

Im my experience Jack_R1's answers are always right and are the answer to your question. If you think otherwise one of two things is happening.
1) You did not explain your problem thoroughly.
2) You need to examine his post(s) more closely.
He has zero tolerance for stupidity or ignorance due to laziness (i.e. not searching). I'm not trying to speak for him or defend him or anything else. He's grown and quite capable of handling all that. The man just knows the answer and gets to the damn point.
I wish we had more people around here like him.