[Xoom Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] llama-power:
don't worry, its not exactly a rocket science...

no, but this is what you'll need to do:

preparations

disable any anti-virus, anti-adware, firewall software you might have on your computer. Best would be to completely uninstall those. If you're using the windows firewall, disable it. You may re-install/activate it after you are done flashing your device.

download and install JDK

google says that the JDK (Java Development Kit) is needed to run the Android SDK. I am not sure if the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) is sufficient, but to play it safe, we're just gonna install the JDK. (JRE is needed to run Java applications, JDK usually to develop Java applications. However, JRE is a part of the JDK and the JDK wont clog up your computer in an excessive way, so you should be safe just using the JDK)

go here and hit the download button beneath JDK.

under "Java SE Development Kit 7u2" (at time of writing, in the future, the release-number might be higher), click the "Accept License Agreement"-option and find the Download that is right for your version of windows. x86 and i586 are names for 32-bit-versions of windows, if you are using a 64-bit version of windows use the file that reads windows-x64 in its name.

install the file, shouldn't be too hard

download and install motorola drivers

If you are using windows, you will need the motorola USB-driver package for adb and fastboot to work.

download the motorola drivers from the motorola website. Open motorola.com, find the xoom's page, find a link saying "support", on the right column of that page you should find a link named "USB-Drivers" or something like that in the "software updates and drivers" section. You should get a page with a link "Download Motorola USB-Driver v5.4.0 with MotoHelper". Do not download the stuff labled "USB-Charging drivers".

At the time of writing this, this link will lead to this file.

once this file has downloaded, just run it and follow the on-screen instructions.

download, install and set up android SDK

The Android SDK (Software Development Kit) is needed to develop applications for android. It also contains the programs adb and fastboot, which we will need. The program SDK Manager, which we will use, is used to download certain parts of the Android SDK.

go to developer.android.com/sdk/ and download the current SDKs zip file. I know, it recommends the installer, but just don't download that.

the zip will contain one folder called "android-sdk-windows", just have your favorite program extract this folder to C:\. I renamed this folder to android-sdk, this is optional but i will assume you did for the following instructions.

you should now have a program C:\android-sdk\SDK Manager.exe. Run it.

A window will open and the program will download a list of currently available packages. After this list has been refreshed, you should find a "Tools"-folder with "Android SDK Tools" and "Android SDK Platform-tools". Check both and hit the button "Install (2) Packages". You won't need anything else unless you really want to develop apps for android.

the installation will take a bit, afterwards, you will find new folders in C:\android-sdk\: tools and platform-tools. Please check, that the platform-tools-folder contains the programs adb.exe and fastboot.exe

(Optional)add tools and platform-tools to your PATH

If you enter a command in windows' command prompt, it will try to locate this command (essentially a program) in the directorys specified in the current directory. If it can't find the program there, it will search in the directories specified in your PATH-Variable.

This step is only needed, if you want to be able to use the adb or fastboot-commands from any directory, like Desktop, your Users folder, etc.

These instructions apply to Windows 7, they will be similar in other Versions of windows.

As I am currently on a german machine, these instructions are a little unspecific. If any user with an english installation of windows 7 could post the exact names for these links&buttons, that would be greatly appreciated.

hit Start, right-click "My Computer" and hit "Properties"

in the left tab, the 5th link from the top should read something like "Advanced System Settings". Hit that link.

a window "System Properties" opens up. Navigate to the 3rd tab "Advanced" and hit the button on the bottom of this Tab "Environment Variables..."

you will see two tables, in the lower list (entitled "System Variables") you should find the variable named "Path": Click on it and hit the Edit-Button below the table.

a small window will pop up with a long text in the lower field (value of the variable). I can't stress this enough: DO NOT DELETE WHATEVER IS WRITTEN IN THERE!!!. Instead: APPEND ";C:\android-sdk\tools\;C:\android-sdk\platform-tools\" without the "". the first ; MUST be there.

hit OK in all three windows

done

This should basically do it. You can now connect your xoom with your computer. Make sure USB-Debugging on the xoom is enabled, that option should be somwhere in Settings -> Development. The first time you connect your xoom with debugging enabled, Windows should give you a message that it is installing some new drivers, but that should work automatically. Same goes for the first time connecting your xoom in bootloader mode.

You can now open a command prompt (Win+R, enter cmd, hit run) and enter "adb devices", it sould read something like

C:\>adb devices
List of devices attached
012c3456789f1234 device

, that means it worked. From here on, you can follow the instructions in the thread I mentioned in my previous post.

---------- Post added at 06:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:18 PM ----------

crap, read that too late. But anyways, since I'm already on it:

preparation

we will need some files in order to get your xoom runnin a custom rom. In this section we will download them and put them into their places.

create a folder on your desktop and name it "xoom"

check this thread for downloads. What you will need is Universial xoom root and ClockWorkMod recovery. But again, please check the named thread for updated files. All credits to these files go to their original posters.

at this point, you might just as well just download your new rom, but I won't go into this at this point.

you need an micro-sd-card for your xoom. You cannot use the internal /sdcard partition for this

place the universial xoom root zip-file onto your sdcard. If you already downloaded your new rom, put that onto the sdcard as well, it should be a flashable .zip-file.

place the ClockWorkMod-File in your Desktop\xoom-folder and rename it to recovery.img .

put the sdcard into your xoom, if it isn't in there already

boot the xoom

enable USB-Debugging (Somewhere in Settings -> Development)

connect your xoom using a good and short USB-cable. Let this cable be a trustworthy cable, one that you barely use and that has not been bent, cut or otherwise abused.

right-click on the xoom-folder on your desktop while holding the shift-button on your keyboard and hit "open Command prompt here" (or sth. like that, again, my windows is german;))

enter adb devices to make sure adb is working, if your device shows up in the device list, everything is good:

C:\Users\llama-power\Desktop\xoom>adb devices
List of devices attached
012c3456789f1234 device

unlock your xoom

unlocking your xoom will enable us to flash new files to your xoom. We want to do this. However, unlocking your xoom will void your warranty and DELETE EVERYTHING you've got on your xoom. To unlock this we're gonna reboot the xoom into the bootloader and have it unlock your xoom

to get into the bootloader, you may now just enter adb reboot bootloader

wait a minute. Your xoom should shut down, and reboot into the bootloader. continue if you see the red M and "Starting Fastboot protocol support." on your xooms display

check if fastboot is set up correctly. Enter fastboot devices , this should list your device, just like when you tested adb;)

enter fastboot oem unlock , this will start the unlocking process. Follow the instructions on your xoom. Bear in mind, this will really delete everything and void your warranty. You Control this thing using the volume up/down-buttons. volume down changes the selection, volume up selects whatever is on your screen. the xoom will ask you if you want to delete/void your warranty/unlock your xoom and if you say yes, it will ask you, if you really really want to do this and then it will unlock itself and delete everything.

I'm not sure if your xoom will reboot on itself or if you will be back to the bootloader screen. in the latter case, just enter fastboot reboot

Your device is now unlocked and has rebooted into a shiny new Desktop.

installing ClockWorkMod

Clockworkmod is a recovery that gives you a lot more options than the stock recovery. For example, it will enable you to create backups, delecte specific partitions and install non-motorola update.zip-files

to install CWM recovery, we will again need to go to the bootloader. So just enable usb debugging in your xooms settings again (remember, you wiped that when you unlocked it) and enter adb reboot bootloader

wait until you are back in the bootloader and "Starting Fastboot protocol support" appears on your screen

to flash the new recovery, just enter fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

remember, for this to work, you still need to be in your desktop\xoom-folder and the recovery-image must be named recovery.img. If your recovery-image is named differently, just modify this command accordingly (fastboot flash recovery blahblub.img)

watch your xoom's screen, once it says that it has successfully flashed the recovery, you need to reset your xoom. It is important, to know how to boot into the recovery right away, so please read this step thoroughly before starting.

To reset the xoom, press and hold vol-up + power for about two seconds. Your xoom will restart. Once the red M appears, wait 3 seconds and then press vol-down. It should ask you what to do (display --> Android Recovery). You can change the option with von-down, select with vol-up, highlight Android Recovery and select it with vol-up.

if this suceeded, you should be in the ClockworkMod recovery (Your background image should now be a green robot:)). If not, you have to restart with flashing the recovery. Do not boot into android as, depending on your OS-Version, it will reset the recovery to stock.

backup your system

Why would you want to backup now, this system is as stock as it gets??? Exactly, maybe you will want to revert back to a stock xoom, so keeping a backup of this will be nice:)

Right now you are in the Clockworkmod-System, controls are: vol-up/down: cursor up/down; power: select

using the vol-down-button on your xoom, navigate to "backup and restore" and hit the power button

make sure "Backup" is highlighted, hit power to start the backup process. It will backup basically everything from your xoom onto your sdcard

after this is done use the "+++++Go Back+++++"-links to go back to CWMs main menu. Do not reboot, as this will probably delete CWM

root your xoom

If you root your xoom, you will be able to do much more on your xoom. The universal xoom root update.zip will also prevent your xoom from deleting the Recovery upon boot.

using vol up/down, navigate to "install zip from sdcard", hit power to select

use "choose zip from sdcard"

pick the Xoom-Universal-Root.zip

find the entry that says "yes"

once that is done, "+++++Go Back+++++" until you find an entry "reboot System now", hit that one

Your xoom should now be unlocked, rooted and be equipped with a new recovery system. To install a custom rom, reboot into the recovery (reboot the xoom, when the red M appears, wait three seconds, hit vol down, then vol up) and just install the custom roms update.zip. Be sure to follow the roms installation instructions, you might need to wipe certain partitions or manually install more than one package (for example for the google applications)

All credits go to creators of the downloaded files, I assembled these instructions from their threads or other informations. I have not created a single of these files.