[GUIDE] Soft Unlocking Defy with CM7.1 and Debricking Defy

[GUIDE] Soft Unlocking Defy with CM7.1 and Debricking Defy

Simple yet detailed step by step guide to:
(i) Soft Unlocking Defy with CM7.1
(ii) Debricking Defy

Contents:
[0. Prelude]
[1. Soft unlocking Defy with CM7.1]
---> [1.0] Backing up your original files
---> [1.1] Installing Froyo
---> [1.2] Rooting your phone and installing Defy 2nd init
---> [1.3] Installing Cyanogen Mod 7.1.0
---> [1.4] Soft unlocking your Defy
[2. Debricking your Defy]
---> [2.0] Stuck on static red Motorola Cyanogen mod logo with wasp
---> [2.1] Stuck on animated blue Cyanogen logo
---> [2.2] White LED when plugged into PC and no response otherwise

[0. Prelude]

After spending around 15 hours, I finally managed to soft unlock my Defy.

There's a lot of useful information around here and everywhere else but it was a headache for me to find all of these and spent unnecessary time on trying to find what I needed so I've decided to make a guide to help people with the information I've learnt.

However, as I'm not a developer by any means and only a user, most of my knowledge will be limited and it will be only my experience and so your mileage may vary.

This guide will only feature:
(i) how to soft unlock the Motorola Defy using "Cyanogen Mod 7.1.0 (Android 2.3.7)"
(ii) some problems I encountered and how to fix them

This guide will not be updated unfortunately as I don't have the time to play with Android and keep up with it.

Note: Soft unlocking means that when you change firmware your unlock will be lost.

I am not liable for any damage caused from following this guide

[1. Soft unlocking Defy with CM7.1]

[1.0] Backing up your original files

Unfortunately I can't provide any information on backing up as I went straight into this but due to the locked bootloader of the Defy, it's really hard to completely brick your Defy anyway.

[1.1] Installing Froyo

(Froyo firmware, Motorola drivers and RSD Lite required)

You will need to install Froyo (Android 2.2) as Cyanogen Mod 7.1.0 can only be installed on that as far as I know.

Personally, I chose to use the UK Retail 2.2.2 Service sbf (Build number: JRDNEM_U3_3.4.2_177-003)
This was downloaded here at http://and-developers.com/sbf:defy.

Once you've downloaded the sbf file (you will need to extract it as it's compressed to a .gz file) you will need the Motorola drivers and RSD Lite. Some people have had issues with certain versions, I personally used RSD Lite v5.3.1.

Open RSD Lite and click "..." between the empty space for "Filename:" and the greyed out "Start" button. Rename your sbf file to something shorter (I called it "stock") and select it. Once selected, it should display this:


Connect your phone the computer via USB. For RSD Lite to recognise your phone, you will need to enter the Bootloader. Turn your phone off and when it's fully off, hold down the Volume up button and then hold down power button. The screen should now have backlighting and there will be a black screen with text saying:

Bootloader 09.10

Battery OK
OK to Program
Transfer Mode:
USB

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

RSD Lite should now detect your phone and display information with status "Connected...":


Press start now and wait for it to flash. Once it finishes flashing the phone should reboot automatically into a red pulsing Motorola logo before completing the boot process and showing you the setup screens.

[1.2] Rooting your phone and installing Defy 2nd init

(SuperOneClick and Defy 2nd init required)

You will need to root your phone to allow superuser access.

Download SuperOneClick (I used version v2.3.3) and connect your phone to your computer via USB debugging mode by going to Settings > Applications > Development and ticking the box for USB Debugging. Open SuperOneClick as Administrator and press Root and wait a couple of minutes; your phone will most likely restart twice in the process so don't use it after the first restart as it's still rooting.

Now you need Defy 2nd init, download it here and copy it onto your MicroSD card. You will then need to install it using "File Manager" and it will require you to have the ability to install from unknown sources which can be allowed via Settings > Application settings and ticking the box for Unknown sources.

Once you've installed it, you need to open it and install 2nd init recovery which will require Superuser permission (click accept).

Turn off your phone now.

[1.3] Installing Cyanogen Mod 7.1.0

(Cyanogen Mod 7.1.0 zip and Gapps zip files required)

You will need to download Cyanogen Mod 7.1.0 and Gapps. Put these on your MicroSD card. Now you need to boot into 2nd init recovery. Do this by turning on your phone and pressing the Volume down button when you see the blue status LED light.

Once inside, use the volume up and down buttons to navigate, and the power button to select. Firstly, you can backup here by going to "Backup and restore" and selecting "Backup (all)". Then "go back" to the main menu and select "Wipe data/factory reset". Once this is successful, select "Wipe cache partition". Now you select "Install zip from sdcard" and install Cyanogen first by selecting the file. After this, install Gapps.

Your phone should now start with a red Motorola icon with a wasp stating cyanogen defy 7.1-11 with the LEDs flashing blue and then green before displaying a blue cyanogen mod logo with the swirling animation. This will then lead into setup, meaning your install was successful!

[Note: CM 7.1.0 comes with the latest version of 2nd init recovery]

[1.4] Soft unlocking your Defy

(bp_ptc file and Root Browser Lite required)

Firstly, you will want to backup your system again. To do this, turn off your phone and when it's on the first Motorola logo, press Volume down when the blue LED light flashes. Then select "Backup and restore" and select "Backup (all)".

Then boot back normally and download the bp_unlock file and extract the file and copy the file "bp_ptc" to your MicroSD card and ignore all the other folders and files. Now search for Root Browser Lite in the Market and open it and enable the root features when it asks by pressing "Yes" and allow SuperUser access. Press the Home button on the top left and select "SD card" and look for bp_ptc and highlight it by holding your finger on it and selecting "Copy". Now press on the Home button again at the top and select "Home" and scroll down to system > bin and press "Paste". Now go back to the previous parent folder by pressing the green arrow and select bootmenu > 2nd-init.

Here, look for the file init.mapphone_umts.rc and long press on it and select "Open in text editor" Scroll down until you get to "service usbd /system/bin/usbd" (about 10 medium flicks) and just after it, enter "service bp-ptc /system/bin/bp_ptc user root group root user root" on a line underneath it. Now press the "Save" button.



[Note: If you accidently select the wrong text or something, press back. If you think you accidently edited something, press "Cancel" and then reopen the file for editing.]

Now turn off your phone and put a different SIM in your Defy and turn it back on. If it displays your new network, then congratulations! If it asks for an unlock code, then either you followed the instructions wrong or it doesn't work for you. If you are stuck on the swirling blue Cyanogen mod logo, then your phone is slightly bricked and you'll need to restore from the backup you made at the beginning of this step. Hopefully it works for you!

[2. Debricking your Defy]

Luckily for the locked Bootloader, you're very unlikely to brick your Defy 100%. Here are the main problems I encountered:

[2.0] Stuck on static red Motorola Cyanogen mod logo with wasp

If you are constantly stuck on this logo (i.e. even if you take out your battery and put it back in and turn it on, it displays this), it means that Cyanogen is not loading with your flashed sbf file.



To fix this, you would need to take out the battery to turn off the phone. Put it back in, and hold Volume up button along with the power button to get into Bootloader. Here you need to use RSD Lite to flash a new sbf file by following step [1.1].

If you enter Bootloader and RSD Lite doesn't recognise it, then see if it displays "Battery Low. Cannot Program". If this is the case, follow [2.2]

[2.1] Stuck on animated blue Cyanogen logo

If you are stuck on the Cyanogen logo, it means there's something wrong with your Cyanogen install/files. This can happen when your install is working with your sbf file but the Cyanogen install is corrupt.



This is the easiest of fixes and you can easily enter the recovery menu whilst pressing the Volume down button when the blue LED flashes when you turn your phone on with the red wasp logo.

You can then either restore from a previous backup of Cyanogen, or you can put the zipped Cyanogen file on your MicroSD card and install from there.

[2.2] White LED when plugged into PC and no response otherwise

In this situation, your phone is failing to enter any recovery modes correctly and it cannot charge properly either as the battery is not recognised properly. You cannot load the bootloader correctly for RSD Lite to recognise your phone as the battery is not detected.

The only way to fix this is via the MacGyver method which involves cutting up any USB cable and using it to power your phone. To do this, cut the non-USB connector part of the cable off and strip the outside and specifically get the black and red cables and strip a bit off them and ignore the white and green ones. Take out the battery of your Defy and using some tape, stick down the black on + and red on - (according to the Motorola battery), making sure the wire touches the connectors.

[Note: Personally I make sure the wires are on the outside of the connectors so I will either lose the connection only or get a better contact. If your wires are in between pins, you may end up shorting the phone if the wire touches the wrong contact.]



Once you've done this, hold down the Volume down button and power and you should get into bootloader fine without any "Battery low" errors. You can then follow step [1.1] to flash a working sbf file.

Hope this helps!