Unlocking & Flashing CyanogenMod ROM (Or Any Other ROM)

[mindfrost82]

CyanogenMod is one of the most popular GSM ROMs out there. It is supported at XDA here and also has its own forum here. The Wiki for it can be found here. The changelog for the ROM can be found here.

One nice thing with this ROM is that you can download the CyanogenMod Updater in the Market and set notifications in it. Within a couple hours of a new ROM you can get a notification, download the update, and even have it flash it for you, without losing any data!

The features listed at XDA are:

* Can be used with or without Google applications
* Kernel 2.6.33.1 which supports highmem (thanks to Arve Hjønnevåg and the rest @ Google for this work), tethering (thanks to Zinx and Ben Buxton for the original RNDIS backport, and Google for merging the goodies into the gadget subsystem), VPN/tun, and other modules (cifs, nfs, aufs, fuse)
* Clean shutdown/startup system
* New Apps2SD method implemented mostly by Chris Soyars. Create an ext4 partition and enable it in settings->applications (wiki page coming soon)
* Built in USB tether
* Graphical enhancements, trippy bootanimation, #boobs, and excellent wallpapers by Prash
* ARM NEON optimizations from 0xdroid and Qualcomm
* Includes BusyBox, htop, nano, powertop, openvpn, bash, and all engineering commandline utilities
* FLAC audio support from Kenny Root
* Phone enhancements from Cytown
* Contacts enhancements from Wysie
* MMS enhancements from, well, everyone (see changelog)
* Perform zipalign-on-install of applications
* DeskClock tweaks- longer autosilence and "require unlock" option 
* Massive APN list
* Huge collection of ringtones and audio
* Customizable Nexus live wallpaper by Chris Soyars and me
* All available locales are included thanks to PsychoBoy
* 360-degree auto-orientation by Optedoblivion and Elanthis (enable in settings)
* Full color trackball notifications (from Google)
* OpenVPN integration thanks to James Bottomley
* Music app can respond to double-click on the trackball and long-press on the volume buttons (from Metalhead)
* Launcher2 tweaks from ruqq
* Many other bugfixes and tweaks from AOSP contributors
* Tons of work on the build system by Koush and Chris Soyars

BASIC INSTRUCTIONS:
- First time flashing CM to your Nexus (or coming from another ROM)?
1. Unlock your device and install Amon_RA's recovery image
2. Do a Nandroid backup!
3. Update your radio if necessary
4. WIPE
5. Install the ROM
5. Optionally install the Google Addon

- Upgrading?
1. Do a Nandroid Backup!
2. Install the ROM (your Google apps will be backed up automatically)

You can download it from their forums here (without registering). The most recent version will be the subforum link at the top, above the threads.

[mindfrost82]

Unlocking & Flashing

When I first unlocked my phone and decided to flash a ROM, I had to do some searching to figure out what exactly I needed. Not everything was in one place, some things were out-dated, and it took quite a bit of research. Hopefully this will help those beginners.

Getting the files you need...
-First you need to download the Android SDK. You can get it from here.
-You may need an updated USB Driver, so you can download the attachment here.
-Download your ROM (In this case we're using CyanogenMOD from here, but you can use any ROM you want).
-Download the latest Google Addon (as of this writing its EPE54B which you can get from here).
-Download the latest Amon_Ra Recovery Image from here (as of this writing its 1.7.0). Rename this file to 'Recovery.img' and save it on your computer.

Installing AndroidSDK...
-This is your bread and butter and I recommend you keep this installed because you may need it again.
-You can find basic instructions here.
-If you can't get the USB drivers to work, use the ones you downloaded earlier that are attached to this post, don't follow the instructions in that Wiki guide since they are dated.
-Once 'adb devices' shows your serial number, you're good to go.

Before We Flash...
-You need to copy your ROM zip file and the Google Addon zip file to the root of your SD card.

Unlocking Your Bootloader...
-This WILL void your warranty. As of now there is no way to re-lock your bootloader either.
-This WILL also wipe everything on your device.
1) Turn on USB Debugging (Settings / Applications / Development). With the phone connected to the computer, power off the phone. Hold down the trackball and turn the phone on. Do not release the trackball until it boots into the bootloader (which is a white screen with three skating droids).
2) Go to your AndroidSDK\Tools folder. Hold down Shift and right click in the folder. Select "Open Command Prompt Here", or open a CMD window and CD to that directory.
3) In the CMD window, type 'fastboot oem unlock' and press enter.
4) On the phone, follow the prompts to unlock the bootloader.
5) Let your phone restart, then turn on USB Debugging again (Settings / Applications / Development).

Flashing Recovery Partition...
1) Move your Amon_Ra Recovery.img file into your AndroidSDK\Tools folder and open a CMD window like you did earlier.
2) Reboot your phone into the bootloader (hold down the trackball while booting).
3) In the CMD window, type 'fastboot flash recovery Recovery.img' and follow the prompts.

Flashing the ROM...
1) You should have the ROM zip and the Google Addon zip in the root of your SD card.
2) Boot into Recovery Mode (hold Volume Down while booting).
3) Select Recovery
4) Create a NAndroid Backup (optional)...Scroll to Backup/Restore, then press the trackball 3 times to follow the steps to perform a backup.
5) Perform a full wipe (follow the menus).
6) Select 'Flash zip from SD Card'.
7) Select the Cyanogen zip file (or the zip file of the ROM you downloaded) and wait for the flash to complete.
8) Select 'Flash zip from SD Card' again.
9) This time select your Google Addon zip file and wait for it to complete.
10) Reboot.

On first boot, it may take a few minutes to boot up, this is normal.

For CyanogenMOD, if you get stuck in a loop or on a screen for more than 5 minutes, you may need to download Cyanogen 5.0.5 and flash that first, then perform an update to 5.0.5.x. This is a well-known issue and this is the only workaround for it as of now.

[mindfrost82]

At&t Sending MMS Fix

If you have At&t and are using CyanogenMod 5.0.5.x, you've probably noticed that you usually cannot send MMS messages. The issue is well documented in the XDA thread and in the Cyanogen forums, but the fix is a little more difficult.

First, you need to have the Android SDK ready to go from the previous post since you need to use ADB to push an apk file.

1) Turn on USB Debugging on your phone (Settings / Applications / Development).

2) Connect your phone to your computer.

3) Go into your Android SDK Tools folder, hold down Shift and right click in the folder and choose "Open Command Prompt Here". You should get a CMD window in your Tools folder. Type 'adb devices' and you should see your serial number listed. If not, there is something wrong.

4) Save the attached mms.apk in your Tools folder on your PC.

5) In the command window type 'adb remount' and press enter. Once the next command prompt comes up type 'adb push mms.apk /system/app' and press enter.

6) Eject your USB device in Windows, then unplug it from the computer. You can disable USB debugging now if you want.

You will probably have to reboot your phone for this to take effect.

What this does is takes an older version of the MMS files from CyanogenMOD 5.0.4.x, which will compress images that are too large to send. You lose some of the customizable messaging themes, but you can now send MMS, which is worth it IMO. As of this writing, CyanogenMOD is on 5.0.5.3, so later versions may have this fixed, so be sure to check the changelogs.

[mindfrost82]

Desire Camera App

Quite a few people are reporting better camera quality with the Desire camera app than the stock one. You can see a few different pictures here. It has quite a few more settings, seems to be faster, has face recognition and auto-focus with the trackball. You can also disable the forsaken shutter sound.

Luckily since you've flashed the ROM, applying this update is fairly easy.

1) Download it from here. As of this writing, you want the "Update zip for CM 5.0.5.3" version.

2) Save the r2-desire-camera-cm-5.0.5.3-signed.zip to the root of your SD card.

3) Boot into Recovery Mode (hold volume down while booting, then select Recovery).

4) Now scroll down and select "Flash Zip From SD Card".

5) Highlight the r2-desire-camera-cm-5.0.5.3-signed.zip and press the trackball to select it.

Now you can reboot and you'll have the Desire camera app.

[mindfrost82]

Reserved for anything else.

[Carla]

Awesome job Frosty!

[rainfreak]

Yes, very nice Frosty. Makes me want to get a Nexuse One lol.

[orangekid]

Frostdude,

might I suggest splitting this into 2 threads, the unlocking/rooting/flashing being its own? Because there are going to be people maybe wanting to flash other ROMs as well.


Also, this I thought 2.6 wasn't even out yet? Or did I misunderstand what that kernel version meant, I thought this ran eclair?


also at the end "On first boot, it may take a few minutes to boot up, this is morning." did you mean this is normal?

[p-slim]

Originally Posted by orangekid

Frostdude,

might I suggest splitting this into 2 threads, the unlocking/rooting/flashing being its own? Because there are going to be people maybe wanting to flash other ROMs as well.


Also, this I thought 2.6 wasn't even out yet? Or did I misunderstand what that kernel version meant, I thought this ran eclair?


also at the end "On first boot, it may take a few minutes to boot up, this is morning." did you mean this is normal?

Flashing other roms you would take these exact same steps, you would just have to download the other rom instead of cyanogens. This does run eclair, I believe the kernel is something else. I'll be honest though I rooted my phone a little different, but their are many websites that will walk you through it, mindfrost's is the most detailed I've found. Rooting wasn't as simple as flashing hspl. Once you are rooted flashing different roms is easier on android IMO. All you do is download the rom, move it to your SD card then soft reset to bootloader screen and select flash from SD card, then you're done.

[mindfrost82]

The kernel version is different. The OS is 2.1 Eclair, but the kernel is a different number. There are 2.6.32, 2.6.33, and now 2.6.34 versions of the kernel.

I fixed morning to normal lol, don't ask me what I was thinking when I typed that haha.

Like p-slim said, the process is the same for flashing any other ROM, you'll just have a different zip file. I might edit it and add that you can flash other ROMs with this process, just substitute the update.zip with the ROM one you want to flash.