Unofficial Froyo ROM now available for Droid

By Peter Smith  Add a new comment

Adventurous Motorola Droid owners who're eager to take Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) out for a test drive will be pleased to know the Droid hacking community has released a 2.2 ROM for their phone. It seems to be a full-release with the exception of WiFi support. The ROM has WiFi disabled "to protect the original source." I'll admit that I don't know enough about phone hacking to understand how disabling WiFi helps hide the originator. In any case, there appears to be an alternate kernel you can install in order to get WiFi back.

[ Get news and reviews on tech toys in ITworld's personal tech newsletter]

The ROM comes from MyDroidWorld but if you're as confused as I am about the terminology, I suggest starting at Android & Me; their instructions are a bit more noob-friendly, and they include instructions for getting WiFi up and running. BriefMobile also has a good summary of all the steps and files you need to pull this off.

Once you get Froyo installed, you can download the Flash 10.1 beta from the Android Market, or so I'm told. I'm still not convinced Flash on the Droid is a good idea.

Keep in mind, no one (including me) will be held responsible if something goes awry and you brick your phone. I do suggest reading the comments at Android & Me. Most people seem to be having good luck but a few are experiencing random reboots and other glitchiness after installing this ROM.

Personally I'm going to be patient and wait for the official version. I rely too much on my phone to risk having it borked, either by a faulty ROM, or by user error.

Here's a video of Froyo running on a Droid, with some benchmarks, if you can make them out:

Follow Peter on Google+

Peter Smith writes about personal technology for ITworld.

ITworld LIVE

Mobile & WirelessWhite Papers & Webcasts

White Paper

Empowering Your Mobile Worker

Today's most productive employees are mobile, and your company's IT strategy must be ready to support them with 24/7 access to the business information they need across a range of mobile devices.See how corporations are meeting the many needs of their mobile workers with the help of Box.

White Paper

Converged Infrastructure for Dummies

As you know, everything is mobile, connected, interactive, and immediate. This is exactly why organizations need a highly agile IT infrastructure in order to keep pace with extreme fluctuations in business demand. This book will help you understand why infrastructure convergence has been widely accepted as the optimal approach for simplifying and accelerating your IT to deliver services at the speed of business while also shifting significantly more IT resources from operations to innovation.Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

White Paper

SMB's and the Consumerization of IT

As social media becomes an integral part of consumer technology, an increasing number of employees are bringing their personal mobile devices to work, enabling social media and collaboration in the workplace.

White Paper

Refreshing the Mobile Infrastructure

The convenient portability and high functionality of consumer devices combined with the ability to connect to the Internet almost anywhere and at any time are resulting in a growing mobile workforce realizing important productivity benefits - right at the point of contact with customers and partners.

Webcast On Demand

Mobility KnowledgeVault

How "mobile ready" is your infrastructure? This Mobility Knowledge Vault provides a wide variety of expert advice on how to strike a balance between end user ease-of-use and security. Prepare your organization with primers on data encryption and user authentication, device disablement and devising an employee-liable device strategy that makes both IT and users happy.

Sponsor: Dell

See more White Papers | Webcasts

Ask a question

Ask a Question