Installing a Custom Rom On Any Android Phone

Posted by: AndroidAppLog September 21, 2012 in Rooting & Flashing Leave a comment

If you are coming from Rooting Guide for One X, this guide helps you to flash a ROM on HTC One X.

Before you begin please backup your current ROM to preserve data in case of unexpected failure.

How to flash a ROM on any Android Phone:

How to backup your current ROM and all system data along with apps and settings ?

Restart your device from power menu while holding VOLUME DOWN button or press both POWER and VOLUME DOWN simultaneously.
You will enter Bootloader mode. (A white screen with three Android robots dancing)
Now press VOLUME DOWN to highlight RECOVERY mode and press POWER to select.
You will enter the recovery menu after a short restart.
The recovery menu has an option “Backup and Restore”, highlight it using VOLUME buttons for up-down navigation and press POWER or tap it to select(works only if using a Touch recovery like ClockWorkMod touch recovery).
Then select Backup(press POWER or tap)
Confirm by selecting “Yes, Backup”.
Wait for the process to complete. It should ideally take less than 5 minutes.
When you see a successfully completed backup message, you are done with backup that can restore your system data including contacts, sms, mms, bookmarks, settings, apps, app data and settings and everything else on your device as it was during the backup.

Steps to install(flash) a new ROM:

Download the required ROM from the list of available ROMs for One X and place it on your SD root (or any path you can remember).
Enter Bootloader by pressing POWER and VOLUME DOWN(if you are not already within)
You will enter Bootloader mode. (A white screen with three Android robots dancing)
Now press VOLUME DOWN to highlight RECOVERY mode and press POWER to select.
You will enter the recovery menu after a short restart.
It is highly recommended that you perform a factory reset before the installation/flashing of ROM.
Choose “Install Zip from SD card” (SD card refers to internal memory on devices that come without SD slot example: One X)
Navigate to the path of ROM, if it was placed in root folder, scroll down and select the ROM’s zip file (say cyanogenmod-9-beta2.zip).
Now choose the file, and confirm with a “Yes, install ROM-xyz.zip”
Based on the install options, the ROM installation may start or may take you to a installation interface (if AROMA installer is included).
Choose your preferences, add-ons, tweaks and mods for your ROM just as you would do while installing a software on a PC or MAC.
You will complete the installation when you see a successful/completion message.
Choose to reboot your device from recovery menu (or within AROMA installer). Just after you confirm the reboot, hold both POWER and VOLUME DOWN.
You will get into the bootloader, if not keep holding the POWER and VOLUME DOWN.
Now select Fastboot by pressing POWER button.
Connect your Phone to computer via USB.
Make sure you have the adb and fastboot drivers already installed on your computer.
Flash the boot.img file provided by the ROM maker from Fastboot, if you need step by step instructions, move on to the How to flash Boot.img on android phone page.

You have successfully flashed a custom ROM on your android phone. Now you can install kernels, Mods, tweaks, themes and patches that are supported by your ROM and device.

See the full guide on Rooting HTC One X.