How to Install any Jelly Bean or Ice Cream Sandwich ROM on a Nexus One

This guide will show you how to install any Jelly Bean (JB) and Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) ROMs on your Nexus One. I wanted to update my aging nexus one with ICS or JB but couldn't find a very good update guide for beginners, so I decided to write one.

Note: this was initially written specifically for SpazeDog roms, but as they have not been updated in a while I have provided links to the Evervolv roms as well. If you would like to try a different ICS or JB rom this guide should work, just substitute with the appropriate rom and depending on the one you choose, you may also need to install Google apps (if not included).

Disclaimer: This guide involves making changes to your phone that potentially could brick your phone leaving it unusable. I am not liable for any changes you make or problems you may have with your phone. You should at least be familiar with entering commands using command prompt. This procedure will erase ALL the data on your phone.  Make sure you have a backup of everything. A nandroid backup is recommended. Proceed at your own risk.

Before we get started make sure you have the following: a rooted Nexus One, a USB cable to attach your phone to a computer, and the Android SDK. If you are just now installing the Android SDK, open the SDK manager and make sure to install the "Tools" and in "Extras" the "Google USB Driver" as shown in the screenshot. Alternatively, you just download ADB and Fastboot (just google "ADB Fastboot Download"). If you have a Mac see this thread to get started with ADB and Fastboot.


If you Nexus One is NOT already rooted, then follow this guide from Cyanogenmod to root your phone.

Links to popular roms that will work using this guide:

• Evervolv JB 4.2

• Evervolv JB 4.1

• CM 10, JB 4.1.2 by vijendrahs

• CM 10, JB 4.2.1 by vijendrahs

• SpazeDog ICS/JB

Step 1 - Download everything you will need:

1. 4EXTRecovery Updater - the first link will download the .apk.
2. BlackRose - go down to bottom of the first post to "Attached Files" and download the latest BlackRose zip file.
1. If you don't want to do it yourself, check out this thread to flash a pre-made partition scheme. Often the developers (Evervolv) will also have a partition schemes that you can flash via Fastboot from your PC as well.
3. Your rom of choice - go to the downloads section and choose which rom you would like to try. Download the zip installation file.
4. Since you will be decreasing the size of your partition that apps can be stored on consider something like Mounts2SD or AD2SDX to move apps to your SD card, otherwise you are likely to run out of free space quickly.

Step 2 - Install and use 4EXTRecovery Updater on your phone:

1. The easiest thing to do is go to this 4ext link, download and install it, directly from your Nexus One. You can also install it by copying the APK file to your SD card, then using a file manager to find it and install it or you can use command prompt by opening command prompt, cd to the location of the Android SDK tools, and then type in the following command (replacing "path" with the path to where the APK is located on your computer):    
   Code:

   adb install /path/4EXTRecoveryUpdater.apk



2. After you have installed 4ext open the 4EXT Recovery Updater.  Tap "Settings" → "Allow" superuser request → "Yes" to connect to 4ext to get new data.  Now select "Online install/upgrade" → "Yes" assuming it detects your Nexus One correctly → select and install the latest 4ext recovery (at the top of the list).
3. IMPORTANT: After 4ext has installed, it will have placed a recovery image on your SD card - find it (it is called recover.img) and it should be located in SD/Download/4EXT_Recovery_Touch/ folder. Copy this to your computer in case something goes wrong later and you need to re-flash the recovery image!
4. After installation of the 4ext recovery turn off your phone and boot into recovery by turning off your phone, turning it on again while holding the trackball down. Your Nexus One will now boot into the bootloader. Once in the bootloader press the trackball once to select "bootloader", use the Volume Down key to select "recovery" and press the trackball to select. Alternatively, you can input the following: 
Code:

adb reboot recovery

5. Your phone should now boot into the 4ext recovery menu.  Select "tools" →“partition sd card” → “remove all partitions and start from scratch.” Then for the 1st partition select “1024″ for a 1GB partition (this will be where ICS or JB will be able to put your applications & data). Select "skip" for the 2nd partition and for the swap partition. Finally select the final system “ext4″. 

Step 3 - Copy the Evervolv, SpazeDog, or whatever zip installation file you have chosen to your phone's SD card

1. Download the ICS or JB zip file above and copy it to the root of your newly formatted SD card.

Step 4 - Installing and using BlackRose to resize the system partition:

1. Download the BlackRose application and install it on your computer.  
1. This is not always necessary. Some developers have made flash-able partition schemes that you can just flash from your PC - usually links are provided in the rom's installation thread, Evervolv's here). If you do have access to a computer you can check out this thread at xda developers to download files you can flash from recovery.
2. If you choose to change your partition scheme using one of the above methods skip to step 5.
2. Make sure your Nexus One is attached via USB to your computer and is booted into Android normally.
3. Open the BlackRose application and follow the instructions as shown in this video. Note that the video resizes for JB roms, so if you are planning to use an ICS rom follow the instructions below.
1. Open the application and BlackRose will install on your phone, rebooting once. The application will then close.  
2. Open BlackRose again and then select "apply stock/custom blackrose" by pressing 1 and enter.
3. Then select "custom blackrose" by pressing 2.
4. Then type "resize" when prompted.
5. Now the sizes depend on whether you are installing the ICS or JB Roms:
6. You will need to change the sizes of the system partition to 220 (ICS) or 260 (JB)
7. Change the cache size to 10.
8. Finally name the new system partition, you can name it "ICS" or "JB" depending on which ROM you plan to install.

Note: some people have reported having problems getting into recovery at this point (if not move on to step 5). If that happens, luckily for you, 4ext put a recovery image in the downloads folder of your SD card and if you did what I said in step 2 you saved it to your computer. Try reflashing that recovery image using fastboot (remember the one that was in SD/Download/4EXT_Recovery_Touch/ and is named "recovery.img"). Put your phone into the bootloader by turning off your phone, turning it on again while holding the trackball down. To reflash the recovery image open command prompt and cd to the location of the Android SDK tools. Then type in the following command (replacing "path" with the path to where the recovery image is located on your computer):

Code:

fastboot flash recovery /path/recovery.img

If that does not solve your problems (inability to get into recovery) then I would recommend going back to the cyanogenmod wiki and installing Amon_Ra's recovery. Then you can use it to flash your installation zip.

Step 5 - Install ICS or JB:

1. Now turn your phone off and boot into recovery as you did in step 2.4.
2. 4ext will load.  Select "wipe/format" → "format all partitions (except sdcard)" and then also "wipe data/factory reset."
3. Now go back and select "install from sdcard"→ "choose zip from sdcard" → and then select the ICS or JB zip you copied to the SD card in step 3.  
4. Now the installer will load.  Just follow the prompts to install and enjoy!

Update #1: If you do not like the stock boot animation, I wrote a short post about how to change it here.

Update #2: Learn how to install Google Now on SpazeDog rom, one of the major new features in Jelly Bean (Evervolv roms you can just install the Google search app from the play store).

Update #3: Updated guide to reflect easier ways to do certain things like flash partition schemes, provided links for apps-to-sd scripts and others, and emphasized steps that will save you if anything happens to go wrong during the process. Hope it is more helpful.

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Top Kindle Fire Apps to Sideload

The Kindle Fire is an excellent tablet for consuming Amazon's content from videos, to music, to books.  But there are some limitations - one of the most frustrating is the inability to use any android apps, as mentioned in this review.

Fortunately, you can install some applications that are not available for the Kindle Fire in the Amazon App store by sideloading them. If you need help getting started, read this tutorial on how to sideload apps from an Android phone.

These are my top sideloaded apps that enhance the functionality of your Kindle Fire

Alternative Launcher Apps: If you do not like the stock Amazon launcher and would like a classic Android-like homescreen, as you would find on any other Android tablet, then try out GO Launcher EX.

Google applications: not all Google applications will work on the Kindle Fire, but these two work pretty well given the limitation of the Kindle Fire.  Google voice will allow you to get your voicemails and send and receive texts from your google voice number.  Note: the latest version of Google Voice broke functionality with the original Kindle Fire, however, older versions, such as 0.4.2.54 work well. You can find version 0.4.2.54 here. The Kindle Fire does not have GPS, so the Google Maps application will not be able to determine your location, but it works for directions or looking up addresses.

Cloud storage services: Dropbox is very popular, but unfortunately is not officially supported on the Kindle Fire.  But, the sideloaded apps works perfectly!  Dropbox makes it very easy to sideload - you can get the installation file directly from their site by going to https://www.dropbox.com/android, downloading the .apk file, and installing it. A new cloud storage service, called Copy, is very similar to Dropbox and works perfectly on the Kindle Fire. With Copy you can get an extra 5GB of storage for a total of 10GB of free storage by signing up using this referral link. Then refer others and get 5GB for each person who signs up! You can easily get a lot of cloud storage space compared to Dropbox considering that each Copy referral gives you 10 times the space that a Dropbox referral provides.

Browsers: One of the best alternative browsers, if you do not like the stock, silk browser, is Dolphin Browser HD.  It works perfectly on the Kindle Fire.  Also, you can try Opera, if you prefer.

Screen Filter: If you read on your Kindle Fire at night, you may notice that even at the lowest brightness setting the screen is still too bright. Screen Filter is a free app that allows you to dim your screen as much as you want. An alternative that does not have to be side-loaded (is available in the Amazon App Store for the Kindle Fire) is called ScreenDim Full and it costs $1.

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