[Atrix 4G General] eval-:
EDIT

I think the "mystery" has been solved. I feel stupid. When an OTA updates the bootloader, it writes to mmcblk0p1 (write_raw_image() in updater-script) and the very next lines in the script are:

assert(olympus.set_bl_update("00300000"));

assert(olympus.set_mb_update("00040000"));

This must set flags to update the boot loader and micro boot (from mmcblk0p1) either immediately or on the next boot... and, those also look like the file sizes in hex.

Presumably, RSD can just bypass this step and update both directly. So, if you RSD, you have no 'leftover' bootloader image in mmcblk0p1. And if you OTA, it goes through this interim step before the update. You are probably still getting the new bootloader when using RSD (although I don't know how to test this yet.) And if you have NEVER OTA'd, your mmcblk0p1 is blank, because RSD has always bypassed this step, and your device did not ship with this 'shadow' of your bootloader on emmc.

Thanks to everyone who sent me their files!

for posterity:

Intro:

I am investigating the strange but likely possibility that RSD Lite and sbf_flash do not update the bootloader on Atrix, which is live on /dev/block/mmcblk0p1.

This observation comes from the many ATT users who have flashed the 1.8.3 .sbf but remain on a 1.5.7 bootloader (such as myself.) Although the April bootloader is in the 1.8.3 ATT .sbf's CG44 (& CG47), it does not seem we have it.

In contrast, all users I have talked to so far who applied the 1.8.3 OTA (update.zip contains mbm_combo.bin) are on the April 1.8.3 bootloader. It is very easy to tell, by "grep -a <date> mmcblk0p1" as root, where <date> is "Feb" (1.2.6), "Mar" (1.5.7) or "Apr" (1.8.3)

Help wanted!

If you have applied an OTA even once, either manually or automatically, this thread is not for you. Sorry!

But

if you are on ATT and have never applied an OTA

(on-the-air update[.zip]), and went to 1.5.7 (and possibly 1.8.3) by RSD ONLY, then I am looking for you!

Or if you are a Bell user who flashed Telstra .sbf

, since AFAIK you guys have never had any OTAs. Either group can be very helpful to solve this mystery!

If you are one of these users (and

have a clue

), please do the following:

1. adb shell

2. su

3. dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 of=/sdcard/mmcblk0p1.img

4. grep -a <date> /sdcard/mmcblk0p1.img

(where date is 'Feb' or 'Mar' or 'Apr')

WARNING

If you **** up that dd line, you will brick your phone for all time and not be able to RSD it back to life. Do NOT swap the 'if' and 'of' lines. Please, if you have any doubt whether you should be doing this,

then you shouldn't

.

Conclusion

If you think you can help (you have never applied an OTA) and can run lines 1-4 comfortably, then post your result as a reply below! You will probably see some junk from the "grep -a" but what is interesting is if you get:

grep -a Apr /sdcard/mmcblk0p1.img
Apr 4 2011, 14:57:23console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=null Downloaded code started...
...

or

grep -a Mar /sdcard/mmcblk0p1.img
Mar 1 2011, 09:20:20console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=null Downloaded code started...
...

or

grep -a Feb /sdcard/mmcblk0p1.img
<some garbage>
Feb 5 2011, 02:53:29console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=null Downloaded code started...

Thanks!! And if you do get 'Feb 5' ... would you mind sending your mmcblk0p1.img to eval_at_a-trix.net ? (From PC: "adb pull /sdcard/mmcblk0p1.img" and you might have to "chmod 777 /sdcard/mmcblk0p1.img" as root ['su'] in adb or terminal first in order for the 'adb pull' to succeed).

Much appreciated...