Instructions to Unlock the Motorola Atrix 4G Bootloader

By
Brandon Orndorff
-
12

We all know that Motorola and AT&T will be unlocking the bootloader for the Atrix 4G next month with its Gingerbread update. This being said XDA has gotten hold of the code for the update and striped out what is needed to unlock the Atrix 4G Bootloader and made it available for all of us Atrix owners to unlock them a bit earlier.

It has only been two days since we heard about the July release of Gingerbread for the Motorola Atrix and already the Bootloader unlocking part of the new update has been found and used now. These instructions work for not only the Atrix running on Gingerbread but with it running on Froyo as well.

Instruction to Unlock the Atrix 4G Bootloader:

  1. If you’re already running Gingerbread, skip to step 12.
  2. Power off your Motorola Atrix
  3. Remove your microSD card and SIM card for the flashing process
  4. When turning the phone on, hold the Volume Up button until it acknowledges RSD
  5. Your device will say “Starting RSD protocol support”
  6. Run “RSD Lite” on your computer (Download RSD Lite 5.3.1)
  7. Download and unzip the SBF File (Download Unlock SBF file (REMOVED))
  8. Press the “. . .” button next to the box labeled “Filename” and Load the SBF file
  9. Plug your device into your computer (if you have USB on the back of your computer use it for safety)
  10. RSD Lite should recognize your device and say “Model: NS Flash Olympus” and “Connected…”
  11. Press the “Start” button (Be patient while the phone reboots. It will take a while).
  12. Open and extract the Fastboot package (Download Fastboot package)
  13. Open a command prompt window (Press Start and type “cmd” then press ENTER)
  14. Navigate to the fastboot folder (example: cd c:/fastboot)
  15. Turn off your Atrix
  16. Hold the power button and the volume down button until you see “Fastboot”
  17. Let go of the buttons and press the volume up button once
  18. You will now see “Starting Fastboot protocol support”
  19. Type the following command: “fastboot oem unlock” (without quotes of course)
  20. You will now receive a warning along with a unique device ID
  21. Type the following commands using your unique device ID in place of the ####: “fastboot oem unlock ####” Press ENTER then “fastboot reboot” (again no quotes)
  22. Wait for your device to reboot.
  23. Congratulations! Your Atrix 4G now has an unlocked bootloader!

12 COMMENTS

  1. Hey, my Atrix shows up in RSD lite as ‘SE Flash Olympus’ instead of ‘NS Flash Olympus’. When I try to flash anything onto it using RSD lite, my phone reads “sec_exception: febe 35, 35” and RSD lite gets stuck on ‘Waiting for re-enumeration’ for a few minutes before it displays ‘FAILED’. What can I do?

  2. Atrix 4.5.141; 2.3.6 – updated to current version before rooting.

    Rooting went flawlessly.
    But… trying to unlock, gives the error:
    OEM unlock is not implemented

    (using “fastboot” with:
    fastboot oem unlock

    Any suggestions?
    Thanks

  3. Is this method confirmed to work on 2.3.6 and Atrix 4.5.141? I’m also unable to extract the fastboot files because it says access denied and that they are password protected. Thanks

  7. Hi it is me again, waited a while and thought….well….may as well try to follow the rest of the instructions and see what happens!!! I powered off by taking battery out and then place battery back in and power up with volume up. Opened Command promt, followed all the instructions to the detail, and ……. reboot ……unlocked on phone screen. sitting..waiting……waiting…take batery out, place back again, power up and WOW! go through the Motoblur screens and loaded the OS. Now back to standard and have to reload all Apps etc.

    There is no bar at the top of the screen with icons for sim, wireless, battery? How come? Can you help, I will read through manual and instructions.

    Thanks again. There is always some minor step that goes wrong. (Head bang)

  8. Hey i have the same error!!!
    My Atrix shows up in RSD lite as ‘SE Flash Olympus’ instead of ‘NS Flash Olympus’.
    When I try to flash anything onto it using RSD lite, my phone reads “sec_exception: febe 35, 35″ and RSD lite gets stuck on ‘Waiting for re-enumeration’ for a few minutes before it displays ‘FAIL’.
    What can I do?
    Any updates?
    HELP IM STUCK!!!!!!

  9. This article my be outdated as it was written over a year ago. With the updates since this method it may have been changed and we no longer have an Atrix for development. If anyone has one they would like to send us to test and find a new method we will gladly do it although we no longer mod the original Atrix currently. If you need to find another method to unlock the Atrix Bootloader you may have luck at XDA assuming they have any updates to this method here.

    Also this method was tested and completed successfully on the AT&T Atrix 4G so we cannot vouch for the Bell Atrix.

  10. The link to download package is no longer availible. Is there someother fast boot package to download. This would be greatly appriciated.

    • We are going through the site and trying to put any linked files locally due to this being an ongoing issue. This article has been added. If anyone has the correct file and would link to it in the comments, it would be appreciated.

  11. I’m not sure if Chris was referring to the SBF package file, but that is the link that is not working for me. Appreciate the whole guide though. Thank you Android Advice

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