[Moto X General] Perseus:
Technical Specifications -

Unique Features -

Moto X Review -

List of Commonly used Terms -

All that is fine, but I don't know what this rooting, flashing, nandroid, Modding etc. mean? Yelp ?

Fear Not! Here's a little Cheat Sheet for you. Please thank @benjamingwynn for this. I took his original list for HTC and extended it for here. Given bellow is a Glossary of sorts for commonly used terms. Please let me know if I missed any and I will add it.

Ok Now that you have a hang of your device, you probably want to explore your options and maybe install a Custom Rom. Well, the first thing you will need is to Root the Device.

So what really is a Root ? Why should I do it ? Would it break my Phone ? How about my Warranty ? All legitimate questions. To start off, here's an easy guide by Lifehacker. This whole concept may seem mystical to some of us. Let me try to make it pretty straightforward. Rooting is a process on Android that effectively grants you superuser access. Think of it as Administrator access on Windows. Android is a derivative of Linux. So those from Linux should have no difficulty with this concept.

There are certain operations that only a Superuser can do. Hence you'd want to root in order to so. For ex, remove any application that is installed as System application. Just like on on Windows, Root access does come with risk, so you need to use it with care. Just because you have Root access, does not mean your phone is broken. Typically making wrong changes to system with Root access, will result in affecting smooth operation of your phone. In extreme cases, the device may be Bricked if incorrect software (Rom, Mod or others) is flashed.

When it comes to Warranty, typically Root as such does not void your warranty. But if you end up flashing anything with a custom Recovery, then your Warranty may be voided.

Rooting -

Ok so, I got what Root is and I need to be responsible in what I do. How do I get the root ? Well the first and basic thing would be to install appropriate drivers for Windows. Next in order to Root, please follow the thread to install PwnMyMoto by @jcase. If you have received the Camera update, then you will need RockMyMoto to patch PwnMyMoto. are on Kitkat, then you will need SlapMyMoto. There's a nice Tutorial by @Tha TechnoCrat as well for you. There could be additional questions or specific questions about bootloader downgrade or otherwise. If so you may wish to review a reference thread by [MENTION=1872802]dray_jr[/MENTION]

Once rooted, some of you may wish to stick with that and not proceed any further. With root, you will want to remove some of the apps that you don't need. I wish to suggest that you take a complete backup with a tool such as Titanium Backup. That way if you accidentally uninstall/remove something that's critical to android's operation, then you can restore it. For those of you, who wish to install custom Rom, read on.

The first step towards installing a custom Rom is to install a custom Recovery.

Please note, In order to flash any custom Recoveries, you need to have unlocked Bootloader. Barring the open Bounty, the only viable option right now is to get an unlock code from Motorola. Do know that according to this blog, unlocking the Bootloader of a Developer Edition device will NOT VOID WARRANTY!

If you do not wish to unlock your Bootloader, you may also wish to explore Safe Strap. It is a Bootstrap / Recovery for locked bootloader phones. Its aim is to avoid making changes to the main system partition and only flash or make large changes to the Data Partition in general, /sdcard in particular. When SafeStrap is installed, you should see a menu at boot, with a choice to enter recovery. As of now, the recovery of Safestrap is based on TWRP 2.6.3.0. If you wish to proceed down this path, please see this thread for more details.

Reference - Moto X Forum Thread.

ROOTING WITH LOLLIPOP UPDATE -

With the Lollipop update, rooting process is different. You may wish to review [HOW TO] How to Root 5.1 with (unlocked bootloader) if you have already unlocked the bootloader. If not, you might want to do so, preferably before the update.

For those with AT&T or Verizon version of Moto X, there is another option to Root. Please review Moto X Root AT&T/VZW [KXA21.12-L1.26] for more details on this. Do note, it does require specific firmware version.

Custom Recoveries -

A Custom Recovery is a unofficial Recovery Console that can be flashed to your device's Recovery Partition.

Typically unofficial recoveries offer several advantages over Stock or Official Recovery. Hence the unofficial recoveries are necessary in order to flash a Custom Rom. Apart from flashing a Rom, Kernel or any other firmware, unofficial Recoveries can also take Nandroids.

An unofficial Recovery is also commonly referred to as Custom Recovery. There are two major projects that contribute Custom recoveries. One is called CWM. The other is called TWRP. Given bellow is a list of Custom Recoveries available for your device.

The internal Storage of Moto X does support F2FS, a file system developed by Samsung engineers. The custom recoveries too do support the same.

TWRP 2 Recovery v2.7.1.1 - Official

[HIDE/] Please visit TWRP 2 Project Official website for the latest version.[/HIDE]

TWRP Recovery v2.6.3.1 by @Hashcode -

TWRP 2 Project Recovery for Android KitKat (Android v4.4). As with TWRP 2, this is a touch Recovery. Head over to the Thread for more details.

(Thread updated as of 11-19-2013)

TWRP Recovery v2.6.3 by @dhacker29 -

This is TWRP 2 project brought over to Moto X by @dhacker29. Keeping with TWRP 2, its a Touch Recovery. It does have F2FS support. Head over to the thread for more details.

(Thread updated as of 11-25-13)

CWM Recovery Touch v 6.0.4.8 by @scoobaspeaz -

Touch enabled version for XT 1060 alone. Please visit the thread for details.

(Thread as of 14th April 2014)

Philz Touch Recovery v 6.4.1.5 by @Phil3759 -

This Recovery is for all XT10xx devices. Although Philz is based on CWM, it adds a host of advanced features that are not available in CWM. Please visit the thread for more details.

(Thread as of 15th January 2014)

CWM Recovery v 6.0.4.5 by @dhacker29 -

This is an unofficial Port of the ClockWorkMod Recovery to Moto X. It does have support for F2FS. Head over to the thread for more details.

(Thread as of 12-16-2013)

Open Recovery v 2.09 by @Skrilax_CZ -

One of the big difference Open Recovery has over TWRP and CWM is that, it can backup and restore modem firmware. In particular, it can backup the following partitions.

boot, cache, data, fsg, logo, modem, modemst1, modemst2, system.

It has F2FS support, however, after Motorola released 4.4 image, f2fs has been broken. Those of you, who are using it, can chime in on any issues.

It was designed for Droid MAXX but works well for Moto X. Head over to the thread for more details.

(Thread as of 12-02-2013)

Back to Stock -

Just like rooting and using custom Roms, there will be a time when some of us might decide that they want to start over. For any reason, should you wish to restore the phone to the condition that it was in when it arrived, that's certainly possible to do. This is collectively called Return to Stock. Your best places to review are the excellent guides. You can go with

[GUIDE][VIDEO] Moto X - Return to 100% stock (using RSD Lite OR manual flash). by [MENTION=4273261]TechSavvy2[/MENTION].

It is possible that you only wish to go to stock so that you receive Android updates such as Lollipop, in which case, you don't have to go to stock Recovery. If so, please review [REF][How To] Return to STOCK Recovery (IF rooted) and sideload OTA by [MENTION=1165307]KidJoe[/MENTION].