Hello Developers!
Here I will put forth instructions required for successful upgrade to lollipop. (These instruction are based on my own experience. I have been using Sony Xperia and Nexus phone for quite a while and I have flashed lot of roms. I may not have much experience in developing but definitely lot of experience in flashing! )
So, motorola has officially put up release notes here: https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/102639
So the questions that are bugging most people are:
1. When will the OTA be available in particular country?
2. Will I be able to smoothly able to upgrade and gain root access on Android L?
For first question: I really can't help you there. It depends on motorola. Android upgrades are rolled out region by region. So OTA will hit your phone when it is available in your region.
Second question:
To answer that, let us first consider few things.
New bootloader:
The very first note on release notes put out by Motorla says that: You cannot downgrade to a previous software version after installing this update. It means that new bootloader has been included in the update which does not allow downgrading.
ART runtime:
Android L uses new Android Runtime (ART). Some applications have not yet been optimized for ART and have problems with ART. To make sure the apps which you require daily work fine with ART, read the changlog given by its developer. If it has not yet been optimized then request the developer to optimize it for ART. If I am not wrong tools to develop apps using ART were released when Google released L preview. So you can expect many apps have been already optimized for ART.
When will the upgrade fail and when will it won't?
1. Locked/Unlocked bootloader:
If you have locked/unlocked bootloader but HAVE NOT CUSTOMIZED or HAVE NOT MESSED WITH RECOVERY AND KERNEL partition then don't worry. OTA upgrade will definitely hit your phone and you will be able to smoothly upgrade to L.
2. Modified kernel/recovery partition and root:
If you have rooted your moto g then it means you unlocked your bootloader, flashed a custom recovery and flashed the superuser binary. In this case you won't be able to upgrade to android L. According to few article I have read, you have to be completely stock before update. Completely as in you shold have never rooted your phone or flashed a custom kernel. Even if you have unrooted after rooting or flashed a stock kernel/recovery after flashing custom kernel/recovery is NOT allowed for Android L upgrade.
3. Unstable internet connection while downloading OTA.
Unstable connection might corrupt the OTA upgrade file. Make sure you have stable internet connection while downloading OTA.
Considering all these there you are in one of the following scenarios:
1. Locked/unlocked bootloader with no customizations to any partitions:
Don't worry. You won't face any problems with OTA upgrade. Just make sure all your apps work fine on ART.
2. Unlocked bootloader with stock/custom rom and sotck/custom kernel with root or unrooted after root:
You will need to flash official kitkat firmware. Official firmware images for Moto G 2014 are located here: http://sbf.droid-developers.org/phone.php?device=36
Then you can upgrade via OTA.
3. Unlocked bootlaoder, root but do not want to lose root priviliges:
Then you will need to wait till developers modify new custom roms based on android L. Then you can flash those by following their instructions. To root stock android L build, a custom kernel is required and also according to chainfire the system.img will be need to be patched. So it is not possible to root sotck android L unless motorola release kernel sources and some developer pathces the system.img.
I have no experience in handling/using/modifying carrier locked phones. So I cannot help you with those.
I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT TO FLASH STOCK/CUSTOM LOLLIPOP ROM OF DIFFERENT MOTO G VARIANT.
Enjoy and happy flashing!
Nice info, thanks!
Also: you need 850 MB of available space or the OTA update will refuse to download.
Thanks man!
It the only thing you did is unlock boot loader and no more... And do the ota update, might boot loader stay unlocked?
El_Froz said:
Thanks man!
It the only thing you did is unlock boot loader and no more... And do the ota update, might boot loader stay unlocked?
Click to expand...
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Yes it will stay unlocked.
Any disadvantage in unlocking boot loader other than voiding the warranty? We will still get future OTA updates?
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Trekker56 said:
Any disadvantage in unlocking boot loader other than voiding the warranty? We will still get future OTA updates?
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Sent from my LIFE PLAY using Tapatalk Pro.
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Yes. I have confirmed this by chatting with motorola assistant.
AD9295 said:
Yes. I have confirmed this by chatting with motorola assistant.
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Click to collapse
I know about the warranty.
What about future OTA updates?
Trekker56 said:
I know about the warranty.
What about future OTA updates?
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Click to collapse
I said "YES"! You will get the future OTA updates. Make sure that you don't mess with the partitions in any way. I have confirmed this by chatting with motorola assistant.
AD9295 said:
I said "YES"! You will get the future OTA updates. Make sure that you don't mess with the partitions in any way. I have confirmed this by chatting with motorola assistant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Good to know.
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axl409 said:
Hey, this seems the right thread to ask.
I'm not so hyped about lollipop (doesn't see all these big changes), but sooner or later I will upgrade of course.
My plan on upgrade is when some custom rom with lollipop will come out.
So my questions are:
-will I be able to flash a lollipop rom from my rooted Moto g with philz recovery and stock/custom kernel?
-do I have to upgrade (somehow) the bootloader or the recovery? And if I have, do I need to return to stock KitKat and then upgrade to official lollipop and then unlock bootloader again and flash recovery again?
Thanks for your answers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well waiting for lollipop custom rom is actually the best solution yet!
You need following things to upgrade to lollipop:
New bootloader
Recovery compatible with that bootloader
Kernel comatible with lollipop rom which you want to flash
New baseband (radio)
And system and data partition image
When a developer creates a flashable zip, it generally includes:
System and data partition image
Kernel
So before flashing that lollipop rom. You just need to flash
New bootloader
Recovery
Baseband(radio)
Then from recovery you can flash the zip file.
Your bootloader needs to be unlocked to do all this.
Only problem is, it takes time for motorola to release factory images like google releases for nexus phones.
So you will need to wait till some developer captures OTA, extract all the partition images and share it online. (Make sure the uploaded partition images are of the same moto g variant which you have)
axl409 said:
Hey, this seems the right thread to ask.
I'm not so hyped about lollipop (doesn't see all these big changes), but sooner or later I will upgrade of course.
My plan on upgrade is when some custom rom with lollipop will come out.
So my questions are:
-will I be able to flash a lollipop rom from my rooted Moto g with philz recovery and stock/custom kernel?
-do I have to upgrade (somehow) the bootloader or the recovery? And if I have, do I need to return to stock KitKat and then upgrade to official lollipop and then unlock bootloader again and flash recovery again?
Thanks for your answers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually it is easier to flash official kitkat images and update to lollipop with ota update. Then you can flash any custom lollipop rom just by following rom developer's instruction. It will be easier.
Thanks for this thread Bro.
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axl409 said:
Thanks a lot @AD9295!
So, I was searching around for returning stock, because you said in the end I'll have to and also because I want to be prepared in time!
I found the thread "restore to stock" and in the end, there's written this at q18 (I made a screenshot).
It's good to do this even if I have philz recovery? Will I get the update or I need to flash also the stock recovery? I know there's written, but it's cool? Or maybe something could go wrong?
Click to expand...
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If you are using rooted custom rom:
Flash the complete official kitkat image. images are located here:
http://sbf.droid-developers.org/phone.php?device=36
If you are just using rooted stock rom then follow the instruction in response to that q18. You do need to flash stock recovery as mentioned there. That's what is meant by returning to "stock".
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axl409 said:
No I'm just rooted, and of course have installed some apps that need root.
So in order to restore stock I should:
- uninstall the root apps
- do the q18 (but where I found the stock recovery image?)
- waiting for the ota lollipop upgrade that will update all (bootloader, recovery, radio, system and data).
Am I correct?
And then from lollipop do again root and install future lollipop compatible recovery.
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Click to collapse
Yes you are correct. the zip files located here: http://sbf.droid-developers.org/phone.php?device=36 contain all the official .img files. You can download it from there (I understand file size is large but it's worth downloading coz you will always be able to return to stock even if you mess up your phone pretty badly ) or you can ask on forum
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AD9295 said:
I said "YES"! You will get the future OTA updates. Make sure that you don't mess with the partitions in any way. I have confirmed this by chatting with motorola assistant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What benefit gives just unlocking and not rooting?
Hi, I am currently use SOKP (5.1.1) rom on my t mobile note 4. My baseband is still COD6 (I guess bootloader should be in the same version as baseband). My TWRP is still 2.8.0.X.
I want to switch to Touchwiz based custom rom. In the meanwhile, I think I need to update the baseband (bootloader and etc) and TWRP for a smooth experience.
Can anyone advise an approach to do it? I am thinking to flash the latest original N910TUVU2DOK2_N910TTMB2DOK2_TMB.zip rom via odin. Can anyone post a link to the instruction? I want to make sure what I do via odin is correct.
I assume this flash will automatically update bootloader and baseband to the latest version. and I need to re-root and update TWRP per the instruction here before flash the TW based custom rom.
I figured out that I could just load the stock via odin and go from there. So far so good.
So since the firmware updates are not 'flashable' yet via TWRP, am I right in assuming that one can only update one's firmware if one goes back to stock?? I know this will change but trying to understand the current options for flashing/installing firmware updates for the P9Plus (rooted), thanks
just flash original recovery over twrp than update as normal, then flash twrp/root after that.
thanks, any idea where to get original recovery?
I found in twrp topic or you can find in Rayglobe tool
Hi,
No OTA updates for me as my Z2 Pro is running some merchant version as I have multiple languages available.
With that in mind, do I need to update to latest ZUI software, or simply unblock bootloader, root and flash custom rom?
At the moment I am at 2.1.120 ST
Same here. That's international ROM, which does not support OTA. I believe I'm gonna flash latest ZUI using QFIL method (there's a thread "How to flash stock ROM") but there's not much info about this latest ZUI version.
Both of you are best served following any of the guides to flash the stock rom via QFIL. After that you're free to decide how to continue (OTA, Custom ROM, Custom Recovery...)
Thanks, will do.
By the way, I bought the device specifically to go straight to a custom ROM. I had a really easy time flashing the stock rom, updating through OTA (didn't even need VPN for some reason) and then unlocked bootloader, flashed TWRP and AEX. The whole setup works quite nicely.
And according to a number of threads the device should be close to unbrickable. But I haven't verified that myself
I installed Dr.Ketan's ROM (CVDD) and wanted to try Beyond (CVD2) but the stock CVD2 gets stuck on ODIN (super when AP only and idfw if i also select the Bootloader)
I flashed CVDD, magisk pathed CVDD and twrp with no issue. I also tried flashing and old Android 11 firmware, but it also gets stuck. Tried with many versions of Odin, patched or not.
I read that even downgrading to A11 is possible and doesn't need any special steps, you just flash old firmware. Why mine refuses to flash anything other than the latest?
Thanks in advance for any help.
@palamosteliaro
The CVDD firmware for the Exynos Samsung Galaxy S21 series increments the underlying bootloader version to v5. As a result, you can't flash an older firmware with a lower bootloader version anymore.
Regarding downgrading to Android 11, the final Android 11 firmware (AUJ7 for most regions) featured bootloader version v3. The first stable Android 12 build (BUK8) also landed with the v3 bootloader, hence you could perform a downgrade. Nonetheless, a subsequent update (BULF) bumped the bootloader version to v4 and closed the downgrade path.
Oh I see. So its expected behavior then, that was my main concern. I think I know the answer, but you cant downgrade the bootloader version in anyway right?
Yes, there's no known way to do so.
SkandaH said:
Yes, there's no known way to do so.
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Thanks for the clarification bro.