Confusion with rooting/unlocking various firmware versions with Stock

[comhack]

Next week I am going to be receiving an Atrix 4G (ATT) running the stock (Froyo) to replace my broken Inspire 4G. Anyway, I plan on upgrading to CM9 immediately as soon as I receive the phone. After reading through tons of tutorials on XDA, rootzwiki, etc., I realized that most of the roms depend on certain firmware versions mainly the Gingerbread build to build from. I am familiar with adb and other android functions but I am mainly curious as to what the exact method would be from original stock? Do I need to upgrade the official firmwares in steps and then root, unlock bootloader, install clockworkmod, install rom, etc. or can I just go from Froyo to CM9 with the usual methods?

I have rooted and installed many custom roms but motorola has a few extras enabled like a locked bootloader. I am just curious as the correct starting point as I have seen many different methods for this device. If anyone has any advice, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[giqbal]

I think you should upgrade to the latest firmware 4.5.141 then use the 2.3.4 method to unlock the boot loader. Heres a thread with someone who unlocked their phone on 2.3.6 and installed the cm9:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1515954
I think the method you mentioned above should be fine….'upgrade the official firmwares in steps and then root, unlock bootloader, install clockworkmod, install rom'

 

[comhack]

I think you should upgrade to the latest firmware 4.5.141 then use the 2.3.4 method to unlock the boot loader. Heres a thread with someone who unlocked their phone on 2.3.6 and installed the cm9:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1515954
I think the method you mentioned above should be fine….'upgrade the official firmwares in steps and then root, unlock bootloader, install clockworkmod, install rom'

Thanks a lot for the clarification!!!!