Kexec: Bypass Locked Bootloader On Motorola Droid RAZR

The Droid RAZR gets an unlocked bootloader! Well not exactly, but if I am to sum up the achievement of XDA-Developers forum members  kholk and embeem, I can tell you that the locked bootloader on the Droid RAZR is not going to stop you from flashing stuff like custom kernels anymore. The rumored project was named Kexec and had been in the works for a while now. What the developers have managed to do, is come up with a way to bypass the bootloader signature checks on the device, thereby totally ignoring the existence of an otherwise locked bootloader. Given the attempts to pressurize Motorola into providing unlocked bootloaders for their devices, like petitions and reaching out via social media, nothing has changed at all at Motorola’s end. So Kexec right now – for the Droid RAZR and its users – is a huge deal. We tell you more about it, and how you can get it up and running on your Droid RAZR, after the break.

First thing first, you need to know that this is still a work in progress and while significant ground has been made, there are a few known issues as well. According to kholk:

“(1) CPU1 doesn’t come up. (2) It fails on (some?) CDMA Droid RAZRs.”

So far the package has been tested on:

* 651.167.19.XT910.Retail.en.FR
* 651.167.26.XT910.Retail.en.EU
* 65.1.40.XT910.MERetail.en.06
* 651.73.250.XT910.Brasil.en.BR
* 65.1.40.XT910.AsiaRetail.en.03
* 65.3.106.XT910S.SKT.en.KR

So let’s move on to the installation and correcting a few problems that may or may not arise as a consequence.

Requirements:

* A rooted Motorola Droid RAZR with a custom recovery installed. Click here for our guide on rooting the        Droid RAZR and installing a custom recovery.
* Terminal Emulator installed from the Market.
* Download Kexec.

Instructions:

1. To begin, copy the package to your device’s internal memory or ext SD card.
2. Boot into bootstrap recovery and install the package via the recovery.
3. Once installed, reboot into the OS.
4. Open up the terminal emulator and enter the following commands:
su

sh /system/bypassme/bypassme.sh


Done! Wait for 10 seconds and the phone will vibrate and apparently freeze. Give it a minute as the phone is jumping over to the new kernel. Incase it’s still frozen, press the Volume down key and the Power button together for a hard shutdown, and try again.

Incase the device has slowed down really bad, install an app like SetCPU or CPU Master and change the governor from ‘mot_hotplug’ to ‘ondemand’. Moreover, incase something isn’t working, remove anything set to automatically run at boot, especially apps like SetCPU and CPU Master.

For updates and queries, head over to the forum thread at XDA-Developers.

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