What's the difference between "cdma_shadow" and "shadow" builds in CyanogenMod 7.2

Question

• In 2011, Motorola Droid X was somewhat supported by CyanogenMod 7.1+, and was known under "cdma_shadow" tag: http://download.cyanogenmod.com/?device=cdma_shadow&type=nightly

  It had - and still has - only 2 official nightlies builds (the latest from 2011-11-16) and no RCs or stable releases.

• Now, I just found another tag ("shadow"): http://download.cyanogenmod.com/?device=shadow&type=nightly

  It has 4 nightly builds (last one 2012-06-17), all 3 RC builds and a stable build.

• However, that other "shadow" build looks suspiciously wrong to me:

  • Clicking on "Motorola Droid X" from CM device page links to "cdma_shadow" (the one with 2 2011 nightlies and no stable releases).

  • To the best of my knowledge, CM7.2 never worked well on Droid X.

  • The tag lacks "cdma" prefix.

Q1: What is the "shadow" tag? Is it a new name for Motorola Droid X for CM7.2? Is it non-CDMA version of Droid X? A cdma_shadow port without working CDMA radios?

Q2: How well does this "shadow" stable build support Verizon's Motorola Droid X?

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A little extra info: I just downloaded the actual "shadow" stable ROM, and "build.prop" file has this:

ro.build.fingerprint=verizon/shadow_vzw/cdma_shadow/shadow:2.2.1/VZW/23.340:user/ota-rel-keys,release-keys ro.product.model=DROIDX
ro.product.brand=verizon
ro.product.name=shadow_vzw
ro.product.device=cdma_shadow
ro.product.board=shadow

... abd further down ...

# Default network type.
# 4 => CDMA / EVDO.
ro.telephony.default_network=4
ro.com.google.clientid=android-motorola
ro.cdma.home.operator.numeric=310004
ro.cdma.home.operator.alpha=Verizon

Answer 1

EDITED

Found the official source where can be read that the Motorola Droid X build was renamed to shadow:

Also worthy of note: the new release files have a slightly modified naming-scheme, including the codename instead of the commercial/common name in the filename. So the following is a handy “translation chart” to make sure you don’t mis-identify your device...

...

shadow - Motorola Droid X

...

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Original Answer

At cyanogenmod downloads, the build identified by cdma_shadow stopped at cm_shadow_full-154.zip (the available links are broken).

When they were resumed, they've been renamed to shadow, being shadow the codename for the Droid X.

• Droid X formerly known as Droid Xtreme, has the development codename "Shadow".
• CDMA Stands for: Code Division Multiple Access. It is the general system used for 3G services.

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Related information:

CDMA Technology - CDMA is a wireless technology standard used by Verizon Wireless in all of its phones, and by certain other carriers in the countries listed at this link.

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Trying further to justify this answer:

Here's the metadata found at /META-INF/com/android/metadata for the cm-7-20120624-NIGHTLY-shadow.zip where can be seen the reference to the cdma_shadow:

post-build=verizon/shadow_vzw/cdma_shadow/shadow:2.2.1/VZW/23.340:user/ota-rel-keys,release-keys
post-timestamp=1289194863
pre-device=cdma_shadow

And yet the information presented on the menu hover effect:

Besides from this, the cyanogenmod documentation, forums and wiki pages reveal no better insight and are mentioned to be outdated. This seams to be the best official justification for the build rename.

Answer 2

'Shadow' refers to the base model of the phone, cdma_shadow being the Droid X on Verizon, and the regular shadow is likely the Milestone X, a GSM phone released overseas.

While the software is mostly the same, there is likely some difference in the hardware, almost certainly the phone's radio, and sounds like the camera as well, according to what you've been told.

It's not uncommon for the different phone+network combinations to have different codenames, another examble would be the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, with Verizon's LTE version called "toro", and the later Sprint version called "toroplus"