[Onetouch Idol 3 Android Development] famewolf:
Telus + Root + AOSP-ify + xposed

Tonight I installed Telus + Root + AOSP-ify + xposed while keeping my existing data partition. I know..shame on me...but just in case there is someone else that wants to live on the wild side here are the steps that worked:

1) Make a full TWRP backup of your system as it is right now so you can go back if you have issues.

2) Flash 6045X_Backup_Modem_to_sdcard.zip to place a copy of your current modem at /sdcard/modem.img.

3) Flash the NewMM.zip (Telus Factory Rom modded by [MENTION=4150512]The Marionette[/MENTION]) optionally followed by flashing BETA-SuperSU-v2.74-2-20160519174328.zip if you want your device rooted.

4) Remain in TWRP. Back out to the main menu and go into "Mount". Choose to have system mounted. Either via "adb shell" from the pc while the phone is connected or from the console in twrp run the following two commands one after the other(without the quotes): "touch /system/xbin/su" and "touch /system/bin/su". These create 0 byte files that will make busybox and many other root apps work with systemless root.

5) Reboot and let your phone boot up fully. Verify that root is working correctly. Now reboot BACK into recovery. [Multiple ways to accomplish this. via "adb reboot recovery", holding down the power button till the phone powers off then holding volume up until TWRP loads or I have a root app named "quick reboot" that gives me options including "reboot into recovery"]

6) Make a full TWRP backup of your system as it is at that point. I later went back and renamed the folder created to add "_Telus_MM" to the end of the folder.

7) Flash AOSP-ify-v1.zip followed by 6045X_Flash_Modem_from_sdcard.zip to restore your own personal modem back in case it was overwritten. Now you can flash all the minor addon zips you like to flash after a rom install with the exception of xposed. Do NOT install it yet. When you have them all flashed (Snapdragon v2.2 camera for example or a zip that adds personal build.prop tweaks)

8) Reboot back into the rom and confirm everything is still working ok (lte is working...wifi is working....aosp-ify has applied as expected)

9) Reboot back into Recovery and Make a full TWRP backup of your system as it is at that point. I later went back and renamed the folder created to add "_AOSP-ify" to the end of the folder.

10) Flash xposed-v85.7-sdk23-systemless.zip (systemless exposed framework).

11) Reboot back into the rom and confirm everything is still working ok. This would be a good time to install the "Material Design Xposed Installer" which is the one that will work with "systemless xposed" along with a few xposed modules. Might I recommend Gravitybox for MM? Now go reboot your phone BACK into your Rom and go back into the xposed installer. Verify it shows you the xposed framework is installed and that your modules are active. (you did remember to go click the boxes next to them in the module list to enable them didn't you?).

12) Finally Reboot back into Recovery and Make a full TWRP backup of your system as it is at that point. I later went back and renamed the folder created to add "_xposed" to the end of the folder.

13) Reboot and let loose the Dog's of war. Err or maybe just go crack open a beer. You deserve it...and hey...you don't even have to drink the beer....if you don't want it...just pass THAT OVER here. ;)

Now if xposed gives you issues you can restore to before you installed xposed. Ditto if a bug is found with AOSP-ify (is that [MENTION=4150512]The Marionette[/MENTION] doing all that hyperventilating back there?) and should you ever need to go back to your "factory install" you have a twrp of that as well. Those 3 should give you a good base for the future. I'd recommend getting those twrp backups offloaded to a jump drive, pc or cloud storage in case your sdcard should get wiped which can occasionally happen when flashing a rom.

The links to the modem back/restore zips are in the 1st post.