Tired of waiting

It doesn't look like Motorola is going to bring 2.2 to Milestone and it feels like we were still in dark ages, riding horse chariots when HTC users already zoom around in BMWs, being able to use 2.3.

In other words, I've decided to flash my Moto with a custom mod. Apparently it should save me waiting, and offer a couple of improvements, for example better battery life.

What you start with is rooting your device. That however may not be quite easy... Especially if you've done it once or... are using Windows 7.

My steps were as follows:

1. Charge MM to 100%.
2. Install Motorola USB drivers (Windows didn't recognize my device, nor did linux).
3. Download and install RSD Lite (Windows) or sbf_flash (Linux). Google up latest versions.
4. Download Vulnerable recovery for Motorola Milestone
   
   With the two above flash your device:
   Start the Flashing app (RSD or sbf_flash), wait for your device to show up on list, choose it, select your sbf file (it's the Vulnerable recovery one) and run it.
   
   NOTES:
   If you can't see your device try:
   1. switching your MM USB connection to Portal and Tools mode.
   2. reinstalling motorola drivers.
   
   If you have already rooted your MM before you'll probably have problems later, to avoid that do the following:
   install OpenRecovery (or any other mod that has it, I've chosen G.O.T.’s OpenRecovery) and copy this script to /sdcard/OpenRecovery/scripts. Later in OpenRecovery you will run it to remove the unwanted check.
   
   The way to copy files to your device is to change MM USB mode to memory card management and copy them normally to SD card, which should be mounted in your system as resource.
   
   REMEMBER: copy file only to memory card, and to the root of it, don't make any directories.
   
   Wait for the Flash to end, your MM wil reboot a couple of times, and unplug it.
   
5. Reboot your MM holding camera button and power button until you see the triangle image. Press volume up button, followed by camera button again and you should see boot menu.
6. Apply update.zip, this will root your phone.
   
   NOTE: If at this point you see:
   
   E:EOCD marker occurs after start of EOCD E:signature verification failed
   
   You have to re-flash your MM with the Vulnerable recovery, see point 4 note about script and OpenRecovery. Be sure to press camera button when your MM will be rebooting during flashing. Then manually start it as described above and apply update.zip and then mentioned script.
   
7. Download and copy to your MM the mod you have chosen. I've picked CyanogenMod 6 as the latest stable for MM from here.
8. Copy it to: /sdcard/OpenRecovery/updates on your mobile.
9. Download missing google apps: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Latest_Version#Google_Apps and copy them to the same folder.
10. Again reboot your MM into bootloader. Use Nandroid to make a full backup.
11. Then clean completely your MM removing user data, both caches and run both updates. Mod first, Google apps next.
12. Reboot and enjoy