GUIDE TO MODDING YOUR MOTORALA CELLPHONE

Guide to Flashing your E6


This write-up explains:
• what is firmware and how to tell what version you have
• the advantages and disadvantages of the different firmware versions
• how to change the firmware (flash) on your phone.


It was created by combining and summarizing the information provided in the dozens of threads on this forum and then rewriting it as easy-to-follow steps that new users can print off and have all the information that they need in one place to (hopefully) easily and successfully flash their phones.

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WARNINGS

Flashing your phone to a different version of firmware should be fairly straightforward, however, please read the following cautions before you start:

• Always find out what your current version of firmware is before you start (instructions below) and write it down! - so if issues then you will know what you started with.

• Make sure your battery is fully charged before beginning a flash

• Back up your contacts and files using Motorola Phone Tools before doing any flashing as flashing will delete all of these and return your phone to a “vanilla” state. Data on your SD card is not touched.

• Give yourself plenty of time to complete the flashing. Never disconnect your phone or turn off your PC until the flashing is finished or you may make it unusable (i.e. "brick" it!!). There are ways to recover using a tool called radiocom (described in the threads) - but they are fairly complex.

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1. What is Firmware

The E6 runs using a special Motorola version of the Linux operating system (MONTAVISTA Linux CONSUMER ELECTRONICS 3.1). This is known as the "firmware". There are several different versions of "firmware" that will run successfully on the E6. Think of firmware as being equivalent to different versions of the operating system (just as there is Windows 98 versus Windows 2000). Every so often Motorola releases a new version of firmware with new features and enhancements. All firmwares come with both English and Chinese languages (except for the Spanish version released in Latin America - up until now it's the only firmware that doesn't come with Chinese language).



2. What version of firmware does my phone have?

To determine what version your phone is currently running do the following:

• Go to your Dial Pad and dial: WWW008W. To make the W hit the menu button while in the dial pad, then hit insert->insert wait to make the W .

You should see something like:
R533_G_11.12.08P
BP: R533_G_11.12.08PB
PFlex: GSZMCAUT678SW016
DSP: 63343400 TECHNOLOGY

Look at the numbers at the end of the first line for the version. The version shown here is .08P.

3. China Mobile versus Generic (Unbranded) Firmware

Some of the firmware versions are generic (straight from Motorola) while others are China Mobile branded. This means that the Chinese mobile operator "China Mobile" has added their stuff to that firmware, like modified icons, wallpapers, startup and shutdown animation of their own brand. Some of the main differences are:
• Startup screen is a red China Mobile one.
• web browser is called Monternet
• additional icons for a customer service program and 'China Mobile In" (whatever that is!)
• additional icon for kodak app in Chinese (removable) and a bowling game
• No MSN
• File Explorer is called “My Favorites” which includes a bunch of MMS cards and the folders are named a bit differently. There are a lot of Chinese settings for e-mail, internet etc. Some can be removed, some cannot.

You can also tell if your phone was originally China Mobile branded if has a "CM" printed on the back of the battery cover.


4. Advantages/Disadvantages of each E6 Firmware Version

Each version of the firmware has a number of advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately at this time there is no version that has everything - so you have to pick which best suits your needs. The main enhancements/bugs that the various versions fix are:

• Voicemail bug - in some versions a blank fax and/or a blank text message is sent to the phone every time voicemail is checked.

• Network time bug - in some versions the network time function does not report correct network time

• New Features - Such as Screen 3 and the EQ for Real Player ( read through the whole thread to see which firmware includes these features)

Firmware Versions

There are constantly new versions of firmware being released so you should check the threads for the latest. However following is a summary of the versions that were available as of September 2008 - along with their advantages and disadvantages gathered from user's posts - so you can see where you stand with your current version. [Most important versions marked by ]

The Following are all Generic Firmware

R533_G_11.12.02P

R535_G_11.81.03P

R533_G_11.12.06P

R533_G_11.12.08P

R535H10_G_11.87.22P



MonsterPacks

There have also been a number of modified versions of the firmware (aka "monsterpacks") posted to the forum. These are usually debranded versions of ChinaMobile versions (ie the mod had removed the Chinese icons and other CM added stuff). As of now, there are quite a few variants of the generic firmware, with many of them having applications adn new themes inbuilt. :

E608P_Hybrid_ahman_v1 ( Hybrid Firmware)

E6_11.12.10P_06R by AHBN

DAGr8 Modded 07p

Shadow_Cruiser Modded 07p

E6e_07P_DAG_final + Multi LP _ F I N A L !!!

E6_E6e_BPE6e07P_APE610P_20071221_asmotoe2 DAG ' s Version

asmotoe2_E6_E6e_BPE6e07P_APE610P_20070909

Asmotoe2_0930_DAG and Multi_theme Fully translated

R533_G_11.12.08P neil's mod

Modded 08p by aksd

Yukycg's Unbranded 11.12.08p

R535_G_11.81.09P_R92_NewLinux_Vietkeymap10_Workingman

11.12.09P with Autorun_linkSys_Silent camera_SmartAss

R533_G_11.12.10P~09P_The_Beast_Supermod

Prasannars 09p

Lamborghini ARABIC LP 09P

R533 G 11.12.09P Lamborghini TLPDA

E6_11.12.09P Bangkok DualStart by AHBN

AHBN_11.12.09P by shadow_cruiser

E6 11.12.09P Perfect by AHBN

E6_11.12.09iP by QiShi

R533.G.11.12.09P - english/french/portuguese/spanish

R535_09P_22P_10P_NEWROKR from motofunvn

E6_11.12.10P_Speedup_Steady_QiShi

R533_G_11.12.10P_EnG_† Nik †_RoKr_RokXX™

FW R535_07P_R533_10P_newstarwar

Rokr !!.'Musix'.!! Firmware - based on 10p Beta

E6_11.12.10P Speedup by AHBN

XIBEI_R533_G_11.12.10P_20080306

533 G 11.11.10P (Vista)

R535H10_G_11.87.22P_Konig_v1

E6_r533_g_11.10.54r_e2vn_02

E6_11.10.54R DualStart by AHBN


5. Which Version of Firmware should I Use?

That is really up to you, Most people stay with a Generic firmware. But Lately the most popular firmware is ahman's hybrid firmware.


6. What is Flashing?

Flashing is the process by which you can change the version of firmware running on your phone. (Just like you can upgrade your Windows software). The process takes about 10 minutes. Generally you can flash from any version of firmware to any other – and then flash back again if desired.


Flashing to a different version of firmware should be fairly straightforward if you follow the directions carefully – but if you have any problems then there are many threads devoted to resolving flashing problems.

No harm will come to the phone from too much flashing, however, there is a small chance you could "brick" your phone if something goes seriously wrong - so the more you flash it, the more chances are that something might go wrong! Depending on your carrier you may also void the warranty! That said I have successfully flashed my phone 5 times now to try out different versions.

IMPORTANT - before you begin flashing:

• Make sure your battery is fully charged before beginning a flash
• Back up your contacts and files using Motorola Phone Tools before doing any flashing as flashing will delete all of these and return your phone to a “vanilla” state. Data on your SD card is not touched.
• Give yourself plenty of time to complete the flashing. Never disconnect your phone or turn off your PC until the flashing is finished or you may make it unusable (i.e. "brick" it!!). There are ways to recover using a tool called radiocom (described in the threads) - but they are fairly complex.


7. How to Flash your Phone

All the files mentioned can be obtained from the Downloads section

Click here to download the following files.

1. Download the file Motorola_USB_Driver_32_v2.7.6 to your PC and unrar it to your desktop so you can easily find it.

2. Install a program called "RSDLite" on your PC. To Download RSD lite Click thread for the file. For trouble free installation, if you are running Windows XP, you should have Service Pack 2 installed.

3. Download the firmware file that you want to flash to and unrar it to your desktop.

4. Start up RSDLite on your PC. You may be asked to install a number of drivers (5 or 6) to your PC. Point it in the direction to the motpcsdrivers folder you unrared.

5. Put the phone in Bootloader Mode - MBM mode by turning on phone while also holding down the Camera Button and the On/off button (These need to be all be held down together). The phone should start up with a red screen and say its in MBM mode.

6. Plug phone in using usb cable.

7. RSDLite should list the phone (this may take a minute or so. If it does not close down RSDLite and restart it). Start the flash process, by clicking the button on the top with the ”…” and select the firmware file to install then click “Start”. The process will take several minutes so be patient, the screen on you phone will turn off, but RSDLite will still show progress.

8. When the "Found New Hardware" screen pops up, select “NO” for “Can Windows connect to Windows Update?” then select “Y” for “Install Software from a specific location” and point it to the motpcsdrivers folder you unrared. Once the driver has installed, click on “Finish” on the “Found New Hardware wizard” to continue the process.

9. You will need to install quite a few drivers – so just keep repeating. It may ask you to manually restart the phone – if so,unplug the cable from PC, remove the battery for 5 seconds (make sure unplugged first!), put battery back in then turn phone back on.

10. Once its fully on, go to Setup --> USB Mode and change mode from "Mass Storage" to "Modem".

11. Plug phone back into the PC using the cable. RSDLite should say "complete" or “PASS”

12. Unplug the phone again, turn it off and on. All should be complete.

You can now restore all your contacts, calendar and tasks back to your phone using MPT. (Be sure to remove the SIM card before doing this as the recovery function from MPT deletes any contact on SIM for some reason!)


8. What to Do if Problems

If you have any problems then don’t panic – the best thing is to close RSDLite, unplug the phone, take out the battery, replace then try again from the start.

1. If you get any of the following error messages that have been reported by users, then it appears most have been resolved by starting the flash process from the start:
- The "secure_motorola_flash" interface could not be found the super-file is secure and for re-flash, the phone needs a super-file that is not secure and for reflash. (0x7066)
- “flashing couldn't be complete because of licensed data”
- “error jumping to RAM downloader”
- a red line across their battery after flashing

2. Try a different USB port – a lot of users have stated that changing the USB port they have their phone plugged into helps, this is most likely because windows will reinstall all the drivers.

3. Try a different version of RSD Lite.

4. Make sure you put your phone in to USB MODEM MODE before plugging it back in. If you do not do this your system will not install all the devices correctly.

5. Try a different version of the firmware.


Problem: Phone can not read SIM card or has no signal after flashing

Some users experienced problems with the phone reading the SIM card or not getting a signal after flashing (ie it searches and finds nothing). If this happens to you then try the following:

1. Tap on status bar in home screen. Switch off antenna tap ok on the bottom. Then switch on antenna again. (You may need to repeat this a couple of times)

2. If that doesn't work, change the network band [dial pad-->menu button (at bottom left)-->setup--> network setup--> menu button--> search setup--> After that close all those things and you should have service again. Once you get your service back, repeat the steps and put it on automatic again.


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All of the information presented in this write-up was obtained from user's postings from the various threads on this forum. A best effort was made to ensure it is complete and accurate including performing all of the steps presented on my own phone - but there are no guarantees there are not errors!!

Good Luck(ROCKY_SUJEET)