Installing CyanogenMod - manakeri/android_device_samsung_xcover GitHub Wiki

DISCLAIMER: The following article is written for people who have at least some idea of what they are doing. If you are not willing to break/brick your phone, DO NOT DO THIS. Neither the administrator of this repository nor the author of this article can guarantee you that everything will work out (or will take any responsibility if your phone is rendered unuseable in the process). This article was written for the Samsung Galaxy Xcover (GT-S5690). Using it on other smartphone models might break them.

What is CyanogenMod?

An alternative to stock Android ROMs. It is pretty popular, however, the xcover version is still in an early stage of development (and not useable yet). More information about CM can be found at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyanogenMod Also, it can be fun to develop this stuff...

Why is this being developed?

Because the xcover has not enough storage and is bloated with apps one might not want to use. Also, the most recent official version for the xcover seems to be Android 2.3.6 which is a dinosaur in the Android ecosystem. At least Android 4.0.4 would be desirable.

What is necessary to install CM?

It is necessary to have ClockworkMod flashed as a recovery image, as explained in this link. You also have to aquire a CyanogenMod file, most likely you will have to compile it yourself.

Steps to installing CyanogenMod

(Note: Some of the functions from 5 to 12 are in the "advanced" menu in CWM)

  1. Compile CyanogenMod yourself - or aquire the correct CyanogenMod file.
  2. Copy the compiled/aquired file to SD-Card
  3. Insert SD-Card into phone
  4. Boot into recovery mode (works best with "adb reboot recovery", since it does not give you hand cramps)
  5. Do a factory reset in ClockworkMod
  6. Wipe cache in ClockworkMod
  7. Wipe dalvik cache in ClockworkMod
  8. Format /system in ClockworkMod
  9. Format /data in ClockworkMod
  10. Select "Install update from sdcard" (not sure if it's named exactly like that, but should be similar)
  11. Select your CyanogenMod file
  12. Install

It will then install CyanogenMod and reboot. The first boot time is about 2 minutes or more. Don't worry, it gets less after first boot. Too see what works and what does not work consult the README file.