Motorola Droid 3

Motorola Droid 3
Manufacturer	Motorola
Codename	Solana XT862 / XT860
Dimensions	todo
Release Date	todo
Category	Supported
Specifications
SoC	TI OMAP4430
DRAM	512MB DDR2
Hardware Features
LCD	960x540 4"
Video	PowerVR SGX540
Storage	16GB flash
Sensors	todo
Software Features
Kernel	6.1.9
Serial	Yes, special cable
Charging	Yes
USB Slave	Yes
USB Host	Yes
Touchscreen	Yes
Keyboard	Yes
Screen	Yes
HDMI-out	No
3D acceleration	Yes [1] (closed)
Vibration motor	Yes
Audio	Yes
Phone calls	No (needs modem work)
SMS	No (needs modem work)
Wifi	Yes
Bluetooth	todo
FM transmitter	No, but apparently exists, needs serdev kernel modules/drivers
Accelerometer	Yes
Compass	Yes, no integration
Proximity Sensor	Yes
Ambient Light Sensor	Yes
GPS	No (needs modem work)
A-GPS	No
Front Camera	No
Back Camera(s)	No

This device is called "Motorola Milestone 3" outside of the US.

Installation

Hardware requirements:

• Droid 3 with fully charged battery
• MicroUSB cable
• MicroSD card

Software requirements:

• Host Linux system
• Android Tools: fastboot adb

Download latest Chimera release from https://maedevu.maemo.org/images/droid3/

1. Latest maemo-leste-1.0-armhf-droid3-20240908.img.xz

Download from https://github.com/tmlind/droid4-kexecboot.git

1. droid4-kexecboot.img

Download or clone https://github.com/MerlijnWajer/bionic-clown-boot/tree/solana (solana branch!)

Follow the instructions in bionic-clown-boot's readme to install kexecboot on your device.

Now, flash the Maemo Leste image to your sdcard.

Notes

IMPORTANT: Set the USB mode to "PC mode" instead of "mass storage mode" on your device before running install.sh on bionic-clown-boot

Device is still heavy work in the progress. The following is known not to work:

• Brightness control (screen is always max brightness) You can scale the brightness using xrandr:

   xrandr --output DSI-1 --brightness 0.5
  

• Keyboard backlight
• Modem interrupts, it is visible on USB but other communication with it doesn't work
• pstore (needs figuring out what the reserved memory is on Android)
• See if we can use 512MB ram instead of 509MB (see dts)
• 3d shows some frame lag / misdrawing, so probably powervr clock needs adjusting (seems solved on kernel 5.15)
• touchscreen buttons do not work yet (fixed on 5.15)
• keyboard layout in Leste is not faithful to the icons on the keyboard, but rather mostly mimic droid 4

Additionally, the device suffers from random hangs while in use, causing resets. When pstore works, we can hopefully figure this out. (Haven't seen them on 5.15) (Came back on kernel 6.x) It might be a power-management-related issue, or a GPU issue (last log line shows something about OMAP complaining about DRM), or something else. The emergency shell works just fine with no hangs at all.

There is a workaround to the random hangs that work for some in 6.1. Here is how to work around this.

Download the latest Chimaera release: maemo-leste-1.0-armhf-droid3-20250608.img.xz and follow the same installation instructions provided above.

• From the kexecboot menu, select the "emergency shell" startup.
• Bypass the login prompt, ALT-D, the kernel will continue to boot into the Hildon window manager.
• Immediately try and configure your wifi settings, the device might hang and reboot. Reset the battery and try again until you get it configured.
• Once wifi is configured, let the device sleep, having the screen off reduces the chances of it freezing up again.
• ssh/scp in to the D3 from another device.
• Replace the script in the /etc/init.d/powervr with this:

#!/sbin/openrc-run

depend() {
        after eudev kmod
        before xorg xsession hildon-desktop
}

start() {
        ebegin "Starting PowerVR"

        modprobe pvrsrvkm_omap4_sgx540_120 || true

        for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do
                [ -e /sys/bus/platform/devices/56000000.gpu/power/control ] && break
                sleep 1
        done

        #echo 0xffffffff > /sys/module/pvrsrvkm_omap4_sgx540_120/parameters/gPVRDebugLevel 2>/dev/null || true
        echo on > /sys/bus/platform/devices/56000000.gpu/power/control 2>/dev/null || true

        /usr/bin/pvrsrvinit || true

        eend 0
}

stop() {
        ebegin "Stopping PowerVR"
        eend 0
}

• Reboot always using the "emergency shell" startup. Use xrandr to reduce the screen brightness. Chimaera should run without random hangs.

Also, the device often comes network locked. User:Wizzup has access to Sigmakey software and can help remotely remove the network lock.

If you run the battery dead, you cannot recharge using the MicroUSB cable. It is recommended to purchase a wall-wort to externally charge the battery.

If you have got the device stuck, you should hold the power button for about 7 seconds. Droid3 will display a white LED letting you know that it is shutting down. Once the LED shuts off, power on the device at any time. If this doesn't work, remove the battery and reset it.

Conversations

• You cannot join IRC channels in conversations, but you can apt install irssi to use IRC.
• You cannot create contacts to send messages or make calls.
• XMPP works but is limited. One has to SMS the droid3 to get the address/phone number into conversations as a workaround.

Music

• Lollypop works very well for the droid3. The controls are a bit small but are manageable.
• CMUS works, but chews up a lot of battery. It uses some remote M3 CPUs which are not available to normal Linux.

Gallery

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•