[Motorola Droid RAZR] Silverlink34:
I am making this post for new RAZR users, to help you get caught up with where the Droid RAZR is today in the development world.

First, some basic information.

The Droid RAZR XT912 is a US Verizon phone with recently added capabilities to operate in outside countries.

The XT912, also codenamed "Spyder," is a device with a locked boot loader. This means the very basic filesystem of the phone is locked down and in order to flash custom ROMs we use partitions of the sdcard instead of flashing the entire phone. With that said, it is difficult to flash fancy things such as radios, modems, or even a kernel.

Two developers almost any RAZR dev or flasher knows is Hashcode and Dhacker, these developers formed a group called STS dev team. (Solana targa spyder)

These developers made several things possible for us RAZR owners, they created a stable Recovery for our phones called safe strap, which prevents us from modifying our stock system on accident. It uses partitions on internal SD card.

Sts has also ported CyanogenMod and AOKP for us, and provide source code for us to build at any time.

Another great contribution by sts is provide stock flashable ROMs, a ROM with the stock blur system, along with root access. This is a major stepping stone for community developers as we can slim it down and add our own customizations, making a fully functioning ROM from the stock system.

Lastly, one of the most famous things sts team has done is create "kexec" based ROMs. Kexec is kernel execution, where a Linux based system boots stock kernel, and soft reboots into a custom kernel, which does not overwrite the original kernel. This is the only way for RAZRs to try out new kernels.

So we have two types of ROMs, stock based ROMs and aftermarket ROMs, such as CyanogenMod and AOKP. Aftermarket ROMs promise features that stock does not normally have, such as fancy pulldown toggles, volume controls and ROM controls to customize your ROM on the go. These are wonderful ROMs, but there are a couple drawbacks. You can't use blur apps such as visual voicemail or Verizon Wireless data widget, or even the webtop/HDMI output.

Stock based ROMs can potentially have as many features as an aftermarket, depending on the developer. A stock based ROM can use any blur app since it is based off of blur, but most developers de-blur it for speed. A stock ROM's best feature is that you can do everything your phone was meant to do, such as webtop and HDMI output.

Using Both ROM types simultaneously

Not sure what to pick? That's no problem, you can try them all with ease with SafeStrap. Sts recently updated safe strap to a touchscreen utility that has several ROM slots. You can think of these slots as several "save game" slots. Want to use HDMI? Reboot your phone and select the slot with stock base ROM installed. Want to try out that new liquid smooth aftermarket ROM? Reboot phone and select an open slot, wipe it clean and install it. All you have to do to switch between installed ROMs is reboot, select slot, activate it, and reboot. It takes about 10 seconds to switch to a different ROM.

Another developer that many RAZR users know is Matt Groff. This developer is famous for his droidrzr utility that he has rebuilt for each RAZR update, even after he stopped using a RAZR personally. This is the all mighty utility used to root, update your phone to the latest leak or switch kernels around so you can run a leak based ROM or a ota kernel ROM. This guy is a huge contributor to droidrzr development and he continues to make utilities for other phones. If you mess your phone up chances are you will be using his utility to fix it.

So, you ready to get started?

Here is a quick step by step to get you flashing some custom ROMs.

1. You need root. Get Matt Groff's utility for this procedure here from his website:

http://batakang.com/ftp/?dir=DROID_RAZR

Install the moto drivers included in the zip, enable android debugging and connect your razr to PC. Run the root selection in his utility.

Note that his utility is meant for convenience, he simply put the existing razr-blade exploit into his script.

2. You need a recovery. The best (IMO) and most stable recovery out there is SafeStrap. Get it and learn how to install it here:

http://blog.hash-of-codes.com/how-to-safestrap/

3. You need to select a ROM to install. Note that with safe strap, there are several ROM slots, but as of now certain aftermarket ROMs NEED to be installed in a certain slot. Here's a quick overview:

ROM-slot 1 - CyanogenMod

ROM-slot 2 - AOKP

ROM-slot 3 - LiquidSmooth

Also note you can flash stock based ROMs into any slot. When you are downloading a ROM, always double check for information regarding which slot to install to.

Once you have selected a ROM, download it to your sdcard and note where it went (default download is sdcard0/downloads)

Also check if gapps is included. Gapps is Google apps, everything Google is in it, including the play store. If it isn't already apart of the ROM find the download link.

4. Install the ROM

Now you have a ROM and you are certain if it has a particular slot to install it in. Follow these steps to boot into your new ROM.

Reboot.

Press menu key when prompted to enter safe strap menu.

Touch the boot options button.

Select appropriate ROM slot.

Create the slot if it hasn't been created yet. You can select your partition size, I always keep the smallest available. This doesn't limit your sdcard size. This takes a couple minutes.

It should auto activate. You can always see which slot is active on the top of the screen. Note there is a stock system button highlighted in red. Selecting this will allow you to reboot into your stock system.

Now, navigate to the main menu by pressing home soft key, and select Wipe. You need to wipe data(factory reset), cache, dalvik, and system. Don't touch the bottom two buttons for internal and external SD. This is a pretty normal procedure and you should wipe every time you install a ROM.

You now need to install. Navigate to install in the main menu, select the ROM you downloaded. Press additional zips if you have to flash gapps, and select it as well. Swipe over to flash, and if all goes well you can simply press the reboot button and boot into your new ROM! Enjoy!

Thanks goes to all of the developers out there who made this possible, especially sts team and Mattgroff.

Please leave a thank you if you learned something and this information helped you. I pride myself in the Droid RAZR and will offer help if needed.