If you feel like you are the only person to notice that there hasn’t been a huge amount of CyanogenMod 9 builds for the vast amount of Android devices released, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. With previous versions of Android, you could see CM ported to practically any device you could imagine. From the newest blog update on the releases of CM9, we get the feeling that the CyanogenMod team definitely has their work cut out for themselves this time with Ice Cream Sandwich:

Since Android 4.0 is such a major change from 2.3, we started with a fresh codebase from Google and have been forward-porting features from CM7 with an eye on design and better integration. This is a somewhat time-consuming process, but it allows us to rethink everything. We’ve eliminated the CMParts app, instead choosing to add our custom features directly into the main settings. We are also taking a “just works” approach when it comes to configuration- CM7 had too many options that just weren’t widely used. We hope to achieve a good balance between tweakability and a great out-of-the-box experience. I want your phone or tablet to feel like it should have come with CM9.

So far, many owners of anything besides a Nexus handset or purely Vanilla device such as the Motorola XOOM, have not received CyanogenMod 9. I wouldn’t say there will ever be riots of people demanding its release, but you can most certainly sense the yearn for the custom OS in the development threads of various forums. The CM team has always said that as soon as they know, the users will know. We’ll keep you posted.

Via: CyanogenMod

For folks who have been flashing ROMs and themes on their phones over the last few years, the name Brian “Bgill55″ should ring a few bells. Brian has some of the best known themes available under his belt such as Invertnito, Synergy, and Incognito. Now with the release of the unlocked Galaxy Nexus, it looks like he is back to bring us another great theme.

As far as we know, it still doesn’t have an official name, other than “un-blacked out.” Classy though, right? The theme is still in alpha phase, so you can expect a few things to not look right. If waiting for this sexy white theme is something you can’t do, then go ahead and try it out right now.

Most important is that you must be on a naked version of AOKP M3 in order to flash. Download here. If you’re already running a theme, you will need to re-flash the ROM so there are no themed assets. If you are already on an un-themed Build M3, then go ahead and follow the directions down below.

Instructions:

1. Download Un-Blacked Out Alpha zip file and place on phone’s internal storage.
2. Boot into ClockworkMod Recovery and create nandroid backup.
3. Navigate to zip file’s location.
4. Hit “Install”.
5. Reboot and enjoy.

If you have any issues flashing or need any other help, let us know down below and we’ll try to help you out. Happy flashing!

After Friday’s bombshell concerning the LTE Galaxy Nexus losing official AOSP “support” from Google was barely addressed, a somewhat deeper explanation as to what this means has finally been delivered. According to Android engineer Dan Morril, the device is still a supported “Nexus” device for “everyday use” and will receive updates and all that jazz. Google is just now making it public that they can’t lock down licenses for CDMA binaries like they do with GSM, therefore they cannot distribute them. So to have their developer pages represented appropriately, they have to say that “no CDMA devices are supported.”

Full message below.  

Hi, all! Thanks for all the questions. Here’s a quick omnibus to answer the questions folks have asked…

First, just to be clear this change is only related to AOSP support for these devices — that is, personal custom builds. These are obviously still officially-supported Nexus devices for everyday use, they will receive official software updates, and so on. Similarly, these are still fully-supported development devices for app developers.

Second, as I noted at the top of the thread, Nexus devices will still have unlocked bootloaders, and we’ll continue to make available as many of the closed-source binaries as we can. CDMA support in AOSP has always been more challenging than GSM, and this change is a reflection of that reality.

On that topic, here’s a quick clarification on the core issue. Every device has a number of closed-source software packages included on it. Though Google distributes some of these binaries for Nexus devices for use with AOSP, Google does not own the software. Rather, this software is variously owned by the device manufacturer, the carrier, and their suppliers. We try to get distribution rights for as many of these binaries as possible, but in some cases it is difficult or impossible to obtain these rights. (CDMA specifically has a tricky history of intellectual property.) Combined with the technical issues of needing to sign the apks correctly, this has prevented us from obtaining the distribution rights we need to support these devices in AOSP.

Finally, we will of course continue to work on improving support. If we can resolve these issues, we’ll certainly restore CDMA support to AOSP. In the meantime, we’ve updated our docs to be more accurate about the degree of support.

Again, CDMA is simply a pain in the ass.

But what about our custom ROM community? This shouldn’t ruin the experience for our ROM developers either in case you were wondering. From what I have been told, these CDMA binaries are usually pulled from the devices themselves, so if Google isn’t distributing them, things should still be fine (as long as they know what they are doing). When new source is dropped, it can still be used for the LTE Nexus (“toro”). The thing here, is that the title of being “supported” isn’t there for now. I think we can all live with that as long as we continue to receive support like we expected when we bought this phone.

If you want even more technical details on this CDMA licensing issue, Jean-Baptiste Queru has you covered.

Funny thing is, a blog post over at their Android Developers site before they made this change would have solved this all. We can talk about the action bar and the death of the menu bar, but not talk about a pretty massive re-classification of what it means to be an AOSP device? Interesting.

Via:  Google Groups

Cheers Angelo and Pete!

This weekend’s Android 4.0.4 update for the Galaxy Nexus was a welcomed surprise, except for the fact that many of you had issues regaining root afterwards. Thankfully, we have amazing developers (adrynalyne specifically) that produced a new su.zip that can be flashed to give you root in no time. If you updated to 4.0.4 and have been banging your head against the wall trying to get root back, head past the break for instructions.  

Instructions:

1.  Download this su.zip to your internal storage.
2.  Download Clockwork Recovery and place in in your SDk/Tools or Platform-Tools folder.
3.  From you Tools or Platform-Tools folder, open a command prompt.

 *Wherever your adb.exe and fastboot.exe files are.

4.  Type the following commands:

adb reboot bootloader
–wait for your phone to boot to the bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img
–wait until the command prompt tells you it has finished  

5.  On your phone, scroll down to “Recovery Mode” and press the power button.
6.  Your phone should boot into Clockwork Recovery.
7.  Select “install zip from sdcard.”
8.  Find the su.zip file that you downloaded earlier. Choose it and flash it.
9.  Reboot your phone and you should now be rooted.

Enjoy!

Not that we are surprised by this since the Nexus developer community has been pedal-to-the-metal since day one, but we wanted to be sure that you all realized that 4.0.4 ROMs are already available. If you have yet to update, feel free to grab one of the releases we listed below. You have a CM9 Kang that keeps getting better by the minute, followed by two completely stock ROMS – 1 that is only rooted and another that has been deodexed, includes busybox, etc. 

Links:  CM9 Kang | Stock Rooted | Stock Rooted Deodexed

Cheers Jeff and Kris!

Folks with a Galaxy Nexus, a treat popped up for you online today. Android 4.0.4 is now in the wild and available for you to install via custom recovery. The new build is IMM30B and like I said, brings you to 4.0.4 rather than the 4.0.3 that many were hoping for. There is no official changelog, but this appears to update the radios and bootloader at the very minimum. Funny thing is, I now get 3 bars of 4G LTE at my house, a place that I used to get just 1 or 2 bars. I’d say that bar calculation that Verizon had mentioned is included. Will be digging into it throughout the night to see what else has changed – for now, get to flashing.  

Download Link [mirror]

Instructions:

*These instructions use Clockwork Recovery.

*Reminder: If  you would like to keep root, feel free to try Voodoo RootKeeper before updating.

1.  You will need to be running stock Android 4.0.2 (ICL53F) in order to update to this.

*You will likely have to have stock radios, bootloader, and have made no system changes as well. If you need to flash those, you can get them from our Galaxy Nexus guide.

2.  Download the file from above and rename to update.zip.
3.  Reboot into Clockwork Recovery.
4.  Choose “install zip from sdcard” and then find the file and select it.
5.  Let it flash, reboot and enjoy 4.0.4.

*Note – Rooting instructions here.

And if someone has instructions for updating without using CWM, please let us know. I was unsuccessful in my attempts.

Via:  XDA, AC Forums

Cheers gerry, Jamie and everyone else!

After last week’s return of Custom ROM Friday, we could see that folks sure did miss it. So this week, we bring you a few ROMs that should tie you over until next week. First up, we have GummyNex 0.7.0 by developer Kejar31 and Syaoran12. If you have been flashing ROMs on the Galaxy Nexus, then we are sure you have come across this name at least a few times. It brings the speed, customizations, and stability that people look for in daily drivers. 

With too many features to actually list out, we will try and pin point a few of the big ones: Kernel capable of being clocked to 1350MHz, soft key modifier, changeable lockscreen, and so much more.

Instructions:

1. Download GummyNex 0.7.0  zip and Gapps zip. (Place both on your phone’s storage.)
2. Create NANDROID backup.
3. Reboot into ClockworkMod Recovery and wipe data/cache.
4. Install the GummyNex 0.7.0 zip.
5. Once finished installing, then install Gapps zip.
6. Reboot.
7. After you have finished all of those steps, you’re ready to party.

If anyone happens upon some issues, just shoot your questions don below and we will try our best to help out.

Other Devices:

For those of you who do not own the Galaxy Nexus, we have love for you too. Down below we  will try to feature ROMs for other devices as well that we have received word on over the last few weeks.

• DROID 3:  First off is Maverick ROM from developer pedwards3x. It is one of the most fully themed ROMs for the D3 we have seen and has a complete list of features that are sure to blow our Blur fans away. Info on flashing and downloads can be found here.

• HTC Rezound:  Owners of the HTC Rezound may be wanting to give some Vanilla Android a shot. A developer by the name of scrosler has been able to bring Ice Cream Sandwich and all of its sweetness to the device in his beta release of SenselessROM 2.0. For downloads and instructions on flashing, follow this link to the Developer’s posting.

Another leaked build has been released for the DROID RAZR. Do know, that after flashing this you will not be able to return to the official OTA and this might take you off the correct update path Motorola and Verizon has planned for consumers. You flash these at your own risk. In order to return back to stock, you will need to use RSD and fastboot. If you don’t know these terms, then we suggest going no further. 

So now that we have the scary stuff out of the way, this is build version 6.12.174.xt912. According to the source, this could just be a small ‘emergency update’ to fix a force close bug when hitting the hard search key while in the app drawer. The radio has also received a minor update, but no word on what the update actually contains. After flashing this, you will still be running 2.3.6 and everything else should remain the same.

Instructions (simple version):

*You do not need to be rooted to flash this file.
*You need to be running 6.12.173.XT912. That is mandatory.

1.  Download this file to your SD card (not internal storage).

*You want the file located in /mnt/sdcard-ext

2.  Power down your phone.
3.  Reboot into recovery by holding both Volume Up and Down and Power at the same time.
4.  When the first menu appears, choose “recovery.”

*Scroll using Volume Down. Select “recovery” with Volume Up.

5.  When the exclamation and Android logo appear, press both volumes at the same time.
6.  Select “apply update from sdcard.”  Scroll with Volume Down, select with Power switch.
7.  Select the file “Blur_Version.6.12.173.XT912.Verizon.en.US(Update%20to%206.12.174).zip” to flash.
8.  Watch your phone update itself! And trust me, it could take a while.
9.  When it finishes, choose “reboot system now.”
10.  Enjoy your updated phone!

Via: DroidRzr

Click here to view the embedded video.

We wrote up this bit of news on Sunday when Koush first released it, but our inbox has made it clear that many of you unplug from the internet on weekends (how dare you!). So for those with lives, you should know that a beta version of Clockwork Touch Recovery is available for the Galaxy Nexus and a handful of other devices.

If you want to get it for free, you can browse through the “Download Touch Recovery” column at the ClockworkMod site and then flash the .img through fastboot (Instructions). If fastboot is not your friend, you can pay $1.99 through ROM Manager to unlock the touch goodness.

*Note – Through the first couple of releases, some ROMs were struggling to flash properly. Koush appears to be working through many of those issues, so if you run into any, report the errors if you please, and be patient.

This is what we have been looking for in a Galaxy Nexus theme. It is dark, minimal, and super sexy. The theme is called Black Exodus from a themer who goes by the alias “Nitroz.” If you are running either the Android Open Kang Project ROM or GummyNex for the Galaxy Nexus, then you are definitely in luck. Black Exodus does exactly what you would hope it to do, which is completely black out your entire system, Google apps along with their widgets, and pretty much everything in between. 

Instructions for installation:

1. Download zip file for which ROM you are running – AOKP Build 21 | AOKP Milestone 3 | GummyNex 0.7.0
2. Place zip on phone’s storage.
3. Reboot into ClockworkMod Recovery and create NANDROID backup immediately.
4. Navigate to theme .zip and install.
5. Reboot and enjoy!

After you have completed those easy steps, you shall be basking in the custom theme glory. If you have any questions or concerns, shoot them down below and we will try to help out as much as we can.

Via: Rootzwiki