4.4.2 stock fimrware has a lot less files/images than 4.3 or 4.4.2 update file

The 4.3 stock firmware from http://sbf.droid-developers.org/ has these files

boot.img
cache.img
emmc_appsboot.mbn
fastboot
flashall.bat
flashall.sh
flashall.xml
fsg.mbn
gpt.bin
logo.bin
mfastboot
motoboot_4015.img
motoboot.img
NON-HLOS.bin
persist.img
recovery.img
rpm.mbn
sbl1_8226.mbn
sbl1_8626.mbn
sbl1.mbn
sdi.mbn
system.img
tz.mbn
userdata.img

but the flash file only flashes a handful of these, eg system, boot etc, it does not say how to flash the less obvious files such as tz.mbn and sdi.mbn.


The 4.4.2 stock firmware has

boot.img
emmc_appsboot.mbn
fsg.mbn
gpt.bin
logo.bin
mfastboot
motoboot.img
NON-HLOS.bin
recovery.img
RETAIL-GB_4.4.2_KLB20.9-1.10-1.9_cid7_CFC_1FF_v5_SVC.xml
system.img_sparsechunk.0
system.img_sparsechunk.1
system.img_sparsechunk.2

The 4.4.2 OTA update file contains a lot of the same named files (albeit updated ones) as in the 4.3 stock firmware, eg the flash script for 4.4.2 update has lines to flash files such as
tz.mbn
sdi.mbn
sbl1_8226.mbn


So why are files missing from stock 4.4.2 firmware. It would indicate to me that if you are on 4.3 and you decide to wipe and just flash 4.4.2 stock firmware (ie not update using the OTA files) then you actually do not end up on a true 4.4.2 phone, ie you are missing updates to tz.mbn etc.

The 4.4.2 GPE stock firmware does NOT contain the lesser known files either, ie tz.mbn, sdi.mbm etc. So again if you are on non-GPE and you flash GPE you will be left with some non-GPE files/partitions.

I wonder why:
stock 4.3 and OTA 4.4.2 contains these files.
stock 4.4.2 and stock GPE 4.4.2 do not contain these files.

Why doesnt all firmwares contain all the files? Why does the xml/ba flash files for 4.3 not contain any info on these files and how to flash them.

It makes me nervous of NOT using an OTA to update, even if I later decide to wipe and install the 'offical' firmware. This was how I applied 4.4.2 non-GPE. I used OTA and then (due to wakelocks issues) decided to reflash stock system to ensure it was 'clean'.

Anyone have any views on the above. All seems odd to me.

denzel09 said:

For what i know, all those firmwares are taked from motorola servers.
About last things in op, i did not understand about ota. If you install a 4.4.2 from there non-gpe then you can not update by ota?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

So assume I was on 4.3 and I then downloaded 4.4.2 full firmware from sbf.droid. If I flash 4.4.2 firmware it will not update those files such as tz.mbn etc as they are not included. So my point was by not using OTA to go from 4.3 to 4.4.2 (all non-gpe of course) then I still have tz.mbn etc left as they were when I had 4.3. May not matter but my OCD would make me feel worried