Motorola Droid Razr GSM and CDMA: How to bypass your phone's bootloader

Unlocking the bootloader on the Motorola Droid Razr might have been impossible before, but now it is literally a dream come true. You read that right; there is a now a way to bypass the bootloader of your device which means that installing full custom ROMs is now possible. Read on to learn how to unlock it.

The Motorola Droid Razr is definitely among the most powerful and durable devices that you can find on the market. Its durability is no exaggeration because developers have had a hard time unlocking its locked bootloader. Many have criticized Motorola for this, as it prevented further customization. When the Droid Razr was released, developers had been as excited as the users, but their enthusiasm for the device was cut short when they learned about its locked bootloader. In effect, there haven’t been many full custom ROMs and custom kernels for the device.

The good news is that there is now a method to bypass the bootloader of the device. kholk and [mbm] from the EternityProject Development Forums have devoted their efforts to make this happen. Dubbed the kexec project, this package makes the customization we’ve all dreamed of and waited for for so long happen. Unfortunately, there are still some issues that need to be resolved. Only one processor is running after doing the bypass and some CDMA Razrs fail to even run the bypass.

If you want to try and unlock the boot loader of your Droid Razr, see the instructions below.

Requirements

• A Motorola Droid Razr XT912 or Motorola Razr XT910 with Bootstrap Recovery.
• Create a back up of all the important data (i.e. contacts, call logs, files and internet settings) because the installation will involve wiping the data of your phone. You can read our guides on how to backup your data locally and how to backup your data to the cloud.
• Make sure that your battery has sufficient power (at least 50%) to avoid interruption due to power loss.
• Download the kexec package (EPRJRAZR_BLBYPASS_v0.99_CWM.zip) to your computer.
• Android Terminal Emulator app installed on your phone

Caution

• The instructions in this guide are intended for use with the Motorola Droid Razr XT912 or the Motorola Razr XT910. Applying these instructions on another device or model may produce undesired outcomes.
• According to the developers’ notes, the method has been tested and found working on handsets with the following software versions:
  • 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
• The developers also note that the method fails on some Motorola Droid Razr XT912 handsets.
• The information in this guide is provided for instructional and educational purposes only.  There is no guarantee that these instructions will work under your specific and unique circumstances.
• Use these instructions at your own risk. We shall not any responsibility or liability for whatever happens to you or your device arising from your use of the info in this guide.

Instructions

1. Copy the kexec package to your phone’s internal storage or to the microSD card.
2. Boot your Razr into Bootstrap Recovery:
   1. Launch the Razr Bootstrapper app on your phone.
   2. Tap the Bootstrap Recovery button.
   3. Tap the Reboot Recovery button.
3. In Bootstrap Recovery, look for the kexec package from your internal storage or microSD card and install it.
4. Reboot the phone.
5. Fire up the Android Terminal Emulator app.
6. You can boot with kexec by opening a terminal emulator or ADB and entering the following commands:
   • su
   • sh /system/bypassme/bypassme.sh
7. Wait for about 10 seconds for your phone to switch to the new kernel. Your device will vibrate and then appear to hang.  Just wait a bit for the whole script to finish executing.
8. If nothing happens for an abnormally long time, you can retry executing the bypass script.  First, force shutdown your phone by holding down both the Volume Down and Power buttons for about 10 seconds.  Then, retry booting kexec again as in step 5.

Great! You can now bypass your phone’s bootloader.  If you know how, you can even set the bypass script to execute at boot time so that you don’t need to type the commands manually each time.