Galaxy Nexus : How to flash a new rom using ClockworkMod Recovery

In order to flash a new rom on the Galaxy Nexus, these are the prerequistes:

1. The phone bootloader must be unlock and phone rooted with Clockworkmod installed. Download the GNex Toolkit to do this from forum XDA HERE or you can refer my blog posting HERE . The toolkit will install the phone drivers, ADB and fastboot drivers . From the GNex menu – select options 1, 2 and 4

2. Download the required rom zip file. After downloading check it is a good download by extracting it in the PC. If it turns out good, copy the rom zip file to the phone. There are 2 ways you can copy it over to your phone :

– Connect your phone to PC and you will see under Windows Explorer : Galaxy Nexus/Internal Storage. Make sure Android Debugging is selected at settings/Developer Options. Copy the downloaded rom zip file to Internal Storage OR

– Download app WiFi File Explorer from Market. Install app on phone. Switch on WiFi in phone. Launch this app and you will see a File Explorer Web URL : example http://192.168.1.3:8000 .

On your PC, open browser and copy this URL address and your phone contents will be displayed in the browser. At the right hand side of the browser window you will see “Upload files to this directory”. Click “Select Files” and you will be directed to browse to your PC to loacte the files you need to be uploaded/copy to your phone. After you have selected the files,  “Upload Files”. Within seconds, your rom zip file will be copied over to the phone.

FLASHING the rom

Switch off phone

Boot to RECOVERY mode by pressing the Volunme buttons and POWER button simultaneously . You will see the following

Scroll the Volume button down till you see “RECOVERY MODE ” . Then press POWER button to select

The phone will boot into Recovery mode and you will see the RECOVERY menu :

Using the vol buttons , scroll up or down to and perform the following actions : Press POWER button to activate your choice

– Clear cache partition
– At Advanced – select it and choose Clear Dalvik Cache
– Select ” wipe data/factory reset” ( Read the NOTES below on this step )
– GO Back and select ” Install zip from SD card” – than select ” Choose zip from SDcard” . You will see a list of all your files in the SDcard – use the volume button to scroll up or down and select the rom zip file . Press POWER button to select it

Your phone will start to flash the new rom
Wait for process to finish and phone will reboot successfully into the new rom. This process will take 2-3 minutes to complete

NOTES : Most rom developers will advise you to wipe phone , ie clear data/factory reset when flashing their upgraded roms or new roms. The main reason is to avoid bugs or unnecessary force closures and all such reports with phone wipe clean will enable the rom developers a more accurate assessment of your issues. However this step is really unnecessary if you are flashing among roms of same build ( eg 4.0.3). It is advisable to wipe clean if you are moving from say 4.01 or 4.0.2 to 4.0.3. Anyway if you did not wipe phone clean and you faced continual rebooting , than last option is switch off phone. Boot back to recovery mode, select clear data/factory reset and reboot system

You use the same method if you just need to flash KERNEL only. Just copy the kernel zip file into phone and follow same procedures. NO need to clear data/factory reset if you are flashing kernel only

BACKING up your rom before flashing the new rom

This is highly recommended. To do this, boot into RECOVERY mode as above. From the Recovery menu – select Backup/Restore. This will do a FULL backup of your present rom and all your 3rd party apps, data, files etc . A copy of the backup will be created in the internal SDcard under Clockworkmod/Backup

This backup will be very useful in case your phone fail to flash or it crashed and you cannot reboot it successfully. In such a scenario, just reboot phone to Recovery mode and select RESTORE to recover back your original rom

You can use an app Titanium Backup Pro to backup all your apps/data. Launch Titanium Backup – select Menu/Batch : in the full listing displayed under BACKUP – select “Backup all user apps + system data”. If you have wipe your phone clean, reinstall Titanium Backup – launch it and in batch mode , under RESTORE , select ” restore missing apps with data “. If you are using the paid PRO version, all the backup 3rd party apps and data will be auto restore. In the displayed list, you can also choose what apps you do not wish to restore back. NEVER select anything else as some of the backup system apps could overwrite the new rom system apps/data. The non -paid version of Titanium Backup, you need to restore back apps one after another manually

If you need to restore some system data , eg messages, contacts etc – choose ” restore all system data” : UNSELECT all and only tick those system apps you need , example you can restore back the Launcher data where you have setup all your homescreen. Just select restore ONLY data. Reset phone and your system data will be back. If you are restoring launcher data, all widgets will not be restored back – you will see missing spaces where the widgets are used to be there . Manually reset the widgets again

Galaxy Nexus : How to flash official ( yakju ) roms
Galaxy Nexus : Rooting and installing ClockworkMod Recovery

Tagged: Cook rom Galaxy Nexus, Flash rom on Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Nexus flashing

Posted in: Android, Software : Mobile/PDA's