[Guide] Acer Liquid E Root from Stock

(cross posted from my post on Howard forums)
I've had my Liquid E for a few days. I returned the Xperia X10 to Rogers. The Liquid E is a much better phone right now.

The Liquid E has 512 MB RAM! The X10 only has 256 MB available (might be an Android 1.6 limitation). Not only does it have more RAM, it runs much more efficiently than the X10.

Linpack on X10: Low 4.x @1 GHz
Linpack on Acer Liquid E: Low 5.x @ 768 MHz
Linpack on Acer Liquid E: High 6.x @ 960MHz

I already rooted mine, but at the moment until we get the bin file there is no way back to the Rogers ROM. So do this at your own risk.

Status of Custom ROMs and Root
Rooting is very simple. Just get to fastboot and flash the modded recovery. From that point on either root the stock Rogers ROM, or flash a custom ROM!

Froyo Android 2.2 doesn't seem to be stable yet. I've the Acer Liquid Community Eclair Android 2.1 ROM on it right now, which I think is the best ROM out there for this phone. It has the usual goodies of a fully rooted ROM, including Apps2SD.

Here's the good stuff. Root!
I use Windows so Windows instructions only

I don't recommending following the Unlockr's method. Rooting the Rogers Liquid E is very straight forward. I have no idea what detrimental effects flashing older bin files intended for the non E version can do to your phone!

To root the ROM, download Malez recovery basically follow the instructions, but I'm going to explain some of those steps:
http://code.google.com/p/acer-liquid-malez-recovery/wiki/howToInstall

Here we go!

Boot into your phone and enable debugging under Settings->Applications->Development->USB debugging

You must have proper ADB and fastboot drivers working on your phone. Here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IEZRXHZ0
Install x64 for 64 bit only if you didn't figure that out by yourself.

You also need to download the SDK tools pack to use some of the adb (Android debugging bridge) and fastboot (which sends commands to the bootloader). Extract it to someplace you remember:

Extract the files and open up a command prompt (cmd), and browse to where you just extracted the SDK and browse to the tools folder under command prompt. (if extracted to c:\tools and you are in c:, type 'cd c:\tools")

Download the latest malezrecovery custom recovery disk image and put it into the tools folder. Download from here:
http://code.google.com/p/acer-liquid-malez-recovery/downloads/list

Now connect your phone to your computer. Then type:
This shows you if your device is detected by your computer. If there's nothing showing under 'List", you don't have the drivers installed.

Now we install the custom recovery. Still in command prompt, type:
(replace malezRecovery_0.5.3.img with the filename of the malezrecovery custom recovery disk image you just downloaded)
When you are done, it will say something like this on your computer: sending 'recovery' (4876 KB)... OKAY writing 'recovery'... OKAY

This will reboot your phone back into the normal firmware. Now you need to get into the custom recovery by typing into command prompt:

At this point your phone will reboot. Now you can root your ROM or download any custom ROM you like. I recommend performing a backup by choosing Nandroid backup.
In this recovery mode, simply use the 'Menu' key to select items, and the Volume keys to move through the list. The 'Home' key confirms actions.

Getting back into recovery
This is a bit weird. With the phone off, hold the volume down key with the camera key down for a few seconds. Then still holding those keys, hold the power button until your phone vibrates 3 times.

Otherwise you can just run 'adb shell reboot recovery' through your computer, or there are other ways to get this. If you are still confused, Google first. Ask later.

Installing the Acer Liquid Community ROM
Before you install the ROM, I recommend backing up Docs2GoLite from your Rogers ROM if you haven't already, as it is not included in this ROM.

You can do that in various ways. I think you can use Estrong's File Manager to do this. (I used 'adb pull' from command prompt for /system/app)

Do a nandroid backup!

Then wipe your phone (wipe data/factory reset)

Now you do NOT need to flash a new bin file. Just take the ROM zip (LCR_1.7-signed.zip) and flash it in recovery.

Reboot then you are done!

Overclocking
Based on phhusson's git for the Acer kernel source, he has made a few custom kernel images enabling overclocking and also wifi tethering.
http://android.modaco.com/content-page/312094/custom-kernel-for-eclair-lcr-v1-7-and-1-6/

Since the Liquid E already has 512MB RAM, we don't need compcache. Don't download those.

Wifi Tether
Currently development is at this thread here:
http://android.modaco.com/content/a...liquid-tether-wifi-tethering-for-acer-liquid/

Resources
Modaco Forum for Acer Liquid: http://android.modaco.com/category/418/acer-liquid-liquid-modaco-com/
Acer Liquid Community ROM: http://code.google.com/p/acer-liquid-community-rom-bugtracker/

Custom kernel I'm running.

I built this from phhusson's source. Includes undervolting for lower voltages, and scales up to 960MHz at 1.3v. I found 998 at 1.3v to be a little unstable.

compcache is off. Just flash in recovery.

Bootsplash based on 月喰い谷 by aile, http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mod...lust_id=6768374

Tested on LCR 1.7. I didn't update to 1.7.1 because I've been pushing files manually.

You want to be finding kernels like this

I can refine it a little, but the only thing missing from this making this a step-by-step is numbers

I just used LCR as an example because that's currently the most feature complete ROM there is out of them. Heck they have a few guys working on that, one of whom does our recovery.

The Dolby audio feature on LCR is finicky, but sweet. I use my phone for music, so I need this ROM. There's supposedly divx support too, but I haven't tried that.

LCR has some weird missing things in it, but it's got a lot of stuff in it.


xian is an optimized stock Acer Liquid build and doesn't bring a lot more in terms of features. But it's a pretty good ROM too. It's down to personal preference really.


It comes down to which kernel you flash on top that really affects performance the most.