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.