[GUIDE]Flashing Motorola EZX phones on linux

[kundancool]

A good news to every one now we can flash our EZX phones on Linux.

Requirements

# PC with Linux OS (I used Ubuntu 10.4)
# Motorola EZX phone (A780, E680, A1200, E6, E2, A910, OLD EZX phones) I have only tried this with A1200 and I hope it will work for others too
# USB Cable.
# Wine Windows program loader for LINUX. Installed on your Computer to extract .SMG from firmwares using EZXCODEC

Preparation
consider working directory is /home/kundan/test/ it could depend on your choice.
First start EZXCODEC and extract the firmware to /home/kundan/test/ where you have these two files moto-boot-usb and gen-blob

Procedure

Switch your phone to MBM flash Mode.

Enter the bootloader

A780 : press camera and jogdial(scrollwheel) button while power on. (Blue bootloader screen)
E680(i) : press camera and volume down button while power on. (Blue bootloader screen)
ROKR E2 : press voicedail button while power on. (Red bootloader screen)
ROKR E6 : press camera button while power on. (Red bootloader screen)
A1200(i,E) : press voicedial button while power on. (Red bootloader screen)
A910 : press voicedial button while power on. (Red bootloader screen)

open root terminal and give password when prompted Note : It will not work in normal terminal it requires root privileges

cd /home/kundan/test/ // change according to your working directory

Plug in the Phone in MBM flash mode
now wait for 5 seconds till Computer detects the phone.
now type this in terminal

chmod a+x ./moto-boot-usb
./moto-boot-usb setflag usb

you will see this in terminal.

$Id: boot_usb.c 2456 2009-03-29 23:46:33Z wyrm $
Serching for EZX phone: E2/A1200/E6/A910 found.
100% OK

now type this

./moto-boot-usb gen-blob 0 (its zero not 'O')

now you will see this as output

$Id: boot_usb.c 2456 2009-03-29 23:46:33Z wyrm $
Serching for EZX phone: E2/A1200/E6/A910 found.
Uploading kernel: 100% OK
Warning, params is not supported on your phone, please consider using gen-blob
Calling the kernel...
DONE

and you will also see that the phone screen has changed from MBM flash mode to something like this

OpenEZX blob 090504
USB ready

Now your phone is ready to flash.
now using folder browser go to the Directory where you have extracted the firmware and in that go to SMG folder and open sbf_info.txt
it will look like this. for my A1200 firmware with only AP

RDL3_start=A0DE0000 // No need to flash RAM DOWNLOADER
CG31_start=00060000
CG32_start=00080000
CG33_start=000A0000
CG34_start=001A0000
CG35_start=00AA0000
CG36_start=010A0000
CG37_start=018A0000
CG39_start=018E0000
CG41_start=019E0000
CG42_start=025E0000 <==== 025E0000
CG43_start=02600000

now to flash a smg file to phone
Syntax :

./moto-boot-usb flash <address> <file>

Note : use respective address for each CGs as they are fixed size so that if you change a little in address you may have flash fail or a unusable phone until you flash it correctly.
e.g.

./moto-boot-usb flash 0x025E0000 smg/CG42.smg // Note :Use the Address from sbf_info.txt file

Take a Look
UPDATE : Using the Script for Flashing
================================
NOTE : Run the Script as root privilege or it will not work.
* Switch the Phone in flash mode.
* Extract the smg of firmwares using EZXCODEC and copy them to you working folder ...
* The working folder should contain moto-boot-usb gen-blob start.sh and smg files you want to flash.
* now start the terminal as root and then connect your phone in MBM Flash mode. wait till PC detects the phone about 15 Sec then start the script..
* and follow the instructions... showed on screen.

NOTE : If you see any error then restart the whole process.
if you see the phone screen is moving upside down after starting the process please restart the process..

UPDATE : Added a script to flash the phone. start.sh.zip

UPDATE DATE : 16th September 2010
================================
added a c++ based flasher program and source code... as simple as script but a simple binary that can not be altered
Note : run flasher as ROOT so that it can work properly

UPDATE : 16th October 2010
========================
Added Flasher for Motorola ROKR E6
to flash using this flasher just copy the CGxx.smg file with the flasher and moto-boot-usb and gen-blob

and then start the terminal and type

cd /path/to/all/files
sudo chmod a+x ./Flasher_rokre6
sudo ./Flasher_rokre6

This will automatically flash the phone and shutdown the phone after phones turns off just start the phone.

GUIDE STATUS : COMPLETE
GUIDE LAST UPDATE : 16th September 2010
DISCLAIMER : This Guide is for Educational Purpose only. I will not be liable for any damage happens to your Device. Sorry for that.
COPYRIGHT : Please if you are sharing this guide with someone else then Please provide a link to this page with this guide and about the Author thats Kundan (me)
Please provide your valuable comments about this guide.
Well if this GUIDE is helpful to you Please use thanks button to say thanks.

[jendral_hxr]

Nice guide!

I remember the time I flashed openEZX kernel this way. How about ezxflash?

By the way, do ezxcodec runs fine on (GNU/)Linux. If I recall it correct it wouldn't run on my (Slackware) box--on wine.

[kundancool]

Nice guide!

I remember the time I flashed openEZX kernel this way. How about ezxflash?

By the way, do ezxcodec runs fine on (GNU/)Linux. If I recall it correct it wouldn't run on my (Slackware) box.

Well EZXCODEC runs fine and works like windows on my Ubuntu Wine makes it works like windows. but instead of C drive I get drive Z

[shantanu]

good guide

[k4misiek]

Woah! Very very nice! But you can use SBF-ReCalc instead ezxflash via wine to unpack *.sbf to *.smg.

Anyway... I still so fear to flash under Linux... just I don;t want break my four years phone

[kundancool]

Woah! Very very nice! But you can use SBF-ReCalc instead ezxflash via wine to unpack *.sbf to *.smg.

Anyway... I still so fear to flash under Linux... just I don;t want break my four years phone

well I suggest use EZXCodec to unpack firmware and smg it works 100% with wine

and this is safe till you know what are you doing .... if you have any confusion clear it here...

till now I have flashed about 200 smg files to my ROKR... yep it is not fast as RSD Lite but yes it works....

no problem till now....

best for people who do not use Windows...

[k4misiek]

OK so I have question. Effect of flashing in this way only CG42.smg is the same like in RSD Lite FIRMWARE.sbf ??
I thinking about all software configs etc.. that included(CG42) in firmware. This is completly FULL flash ?

PS: I am so sorry for my feeble english if you don't understand just tell me.

[kundancool]

OK so I have question. Effect of flashing in this way only CG42.smg is the same like in RSD Lite FIRMWARE.sbf ??
I thinking about all software configs etc.. that included(CG42) in firmware. This is completly FULL flash ?

PS: I am so sorry for my feeble english if you don't understand just tell me.

Yes I can not understand...

but if you are asking that you want to flash CG42.smg then yes you can flash it without any problem.
CG42.smg contains all configuration files of firmware....
Note do not flash .sbf file with this... other wise phone will not boot..

[k4misiek]

So for example..: If I want change my present firmware with ROKRMOD by KUNDAN I have to do this steps:

1. extract the firmware to get *.smg
2. use moto-boot-usb and check CG42_start code address in sbf_info.txt
3. change firmware using moto-boot-usb flash <address> <file>

??

[kundancool]

So for example..: If I want change my present firmware with ROKRMOD by KUNDAN I have to do this steps:

1. extract the firmware to get *.smg
2. use moto-boot-usb and check CG42_start code address in sbf_info.txt
3. change firmware using moto-boot-usb flash <address> <file>

??

Read the first post I have updated the flasher program if you have Motorola ROKR E6 then read the update of today...

and do as directed... it is made simple..