How Do I Flash AOKP on GSM Galaxy Nexus?

[chaseman28]

I'm pretty sure I just need to bite the bullet but I keep picturing my phone as a paperweight. I unlocked and rooted the phone using WugFresh's Toolkit. I now have Clockwork Mod Recovery/ROM Manager Premium (Play Store). As well Carbon Backup Premium. All the direction I find either make it seem to simple or to complicated. My thought is I should just put the .zip files for AOKP and Google Apps in the 'ReadyToFlash!' folder using Windows Explorer on my laptop. And then use ROM Manager to flash both the files.

My concerns are:
1) That 'ReadyToFlash!' folder will disappear when I wipe everything during the flashing process
2) Because the Galaxy Nexus does not have a an SD card, I might put the .zip files someplace where they get wiped out
3) I actually need to use ADB to see the root of my device and put the .zip files there and this sort of thing is (currently) beyond me
4) Clockword Mod Recovery/ROM Manager gets wiped because I got it from the Play Store and didn't flash it myself
(I realize these are pretty much different facets of one concern)

I apologize if this is a noob question or if I'm just being a coward.

Thanks in advance

 

[Paul627g]

Hello.

Sounds like you have done some good research.

Things I could recommend. I would personally (my choice) stay away from ROM Manager. Not that it doesn't do the job but it has been known from time to time to give issues with the custom recovery. You do have the custom recovery installed by ROM Manager (CWM or TWRP) and can manually boot into that and do things thru the recovery which IMO is the better route. But again either way will work.

Placing the ROM and GAPPS on your internal SD card in that folder or elsewhere will not be deleted during the wipe process. Data/cache/dalvik cache wipes only affect /system/ level of the file system and not the internal storage (sdcard) of the device.

Using Windows Explorer is the common way of moving things around on your device like ROMs, etc.. that is acceptable.

If you were to get away from using ROM Manager another great app from the Google Play Store that is highly supportive of the popular ROMs/developers is ' Goo Manager '. Its FREE and it will search out and find/download the latest updates and packages for your favorite ROM/developer based on YOUR DEVICE. Leaves the guess work out of making sure you have the proper ROM file for your specific device. Along with that it will also install your custom recovery and allow you to backup & flash the ROMs directly from the app or boot into your recovery and do it manually.

Anyhow theres some more information and you are on the right track and should have a good outcome on the other side.

Any questions just ask.. Myself or someone else will be happy to answer.

 

[chaseman28]

The Galaxy Nexus does not have an SD Card though. I think I have seen in the past that the internal storage was partitioned to look like an SD Card but I can't seem to find that in Windows Explorer. You think that 'ReadyToFlash!' folder would be safe. And if I wipe everything, can custom recovery restore the backup of the stock ROM? Or would that be gone as well?

Thanks

 

[Paul627g]

The Galaxy Nexus does not have an SD Card though. I think I have seen in the past that the internal storage was partitioned to look like an SD Card but I can't seem to find that in Windows Explorer. You think that 'ReadyToFlash!' folder would be safe. And if I wipe everything, can custom recovery restore the backup of the stock ROM? Or would that be gone as well?

Thanks

Yes that is true the GNex doesn't truly have a sdcard. But the internal storage that you pull up when you open the device in Windows Explorer is basically your 'sdcard' partition.

Regardless of how you want to paint it, you place your ROM there or in that ReadytoFlash folder it will be safe when you do the wipes to flash your ROM.

As for a restore of your stock ROM, yes if you make a Nandroid Backup in your custom recovery it will be fine to restore even after wipe. Only way you will lose that information is if you choose to format your sdcard/internal storage location in your custom recovery.

 

[chaseman28]

Thank you, sir. I think I see it now but one more question: I'm still concerned about wiping something crucial after finding a number of different wipe procedures.

The following is from The SuperUser's Guide (How To Flash A ROM - The SuperUser's Guide)

6. Wipe Data (This will NOT erase your sdcard)

1.Wipe data/factory reset
Select ?wipe data/factory reset? > Select Yes
2.Wipe Cache
Select ?wipe cache partition? > Select Yes
3.Format System
Select ?mounts and storage
Select ?format /system? > Select Yes
4.Format Cache
Select ?mounts and storage?
Select ?format /cache? > Select Yes
5.Format Data
Select ?mounts and storage?
Select ?format /data? > Select Yes
6.Wipe Dalvik
Select ?advanced?
Select ?Wipe Dalvik Cache? > Select Yes

Other sites said that steps 3-5 were redundant while others said NOT to do them under any circumstance. And you yourself said that formating the sdcard/internal storage would wipe out my Nandroid backup.

And finally, a two-part bonus question: If I use ROM Manager instead of booting into recovery, will that take care of the needed wipes? And second, I am able to flash the Google apps package after the ROM in ROM Manager ("double flashing") or is that handled better in recovery?

Thanks for all the help

 

[Paul627g]

Okay when flashing a ROM do the following (from your list above) to achieve different results. Naturally MAKE A NANDROID BACKUP ALWAYS BEFORE MOVING FORWARD.

#1 (factory reset/data wipe) is what you would do to start clean. This erases all the caches, and preps you to flash a new ROM. Occasionally it doesn't hurt to go one step further and format system ( # 3) but keep in mind you must have a ROM ready on your device to flash because formatting system erases the ROM/kernel, etc and you have nothing if you tried to reboot. So you if you do #3 make sure you have a backup to restore or ROM ready to flash

You can do what we call a " dirty flash " which is common if your running CM or AOKP, etc. and a developer releases an update. The dirty flash will flash the new ROM over the old but retain your data.

You would just either..
A) Flash the ROM right over the top of the existing say CM 10 Version 1.0 with CM 10 Version 1.5 and reboot and profit.
B) You could wipe dalvik cache and cache partition ( #4 & #6 ) then flash the ROM and reboot.

Now 99% of the time you get a successful dirty flash with no problems. Sometimes it may not go well and something starts force closing or giving problems in that case the dirty flash failed. This happens, get to ROM Manager or your custom recovery and restore your backup to get out of the bad dirty flash.

Sorry if all that is long winded but its very simple once you do it a few times. Keep in mind you always have other means of backing up your app data, etc using 3rd party apps like Titanium Backup or MyBackup Root.

Now onto your second question. If you use ROM Manager, forgive me its been a long time but I believe it will give the option to do the WIPE's and I'm sure you can flash GAPPS from it or it will give you the option to boot directly into your recovery to handle flashing the GAPPS.

Regardless of whatever happens, keep in mind your running a Nexus. Hard bricking a Nexus is really unheard of. If you bork everything to a complete mess but can still pull your battery and then reboot the device into your bootloader you can get out of trouble by flashing the Google factory images and get back to fresh out of the box just like the day you bought it.

Good luck friend, keep in touch with progress

 

[chaseman28]

Did it last night. Rebooted very quickly and haven't had any issues. Thanks for the help. Just a couple things I want to put in here for future reference:

-I only did the wipe data/factory reset and I guess that wiped out just about everything but my photos for some reason. I thought the photos would be on the hit list as well.
-Also, when the phone rebooted it immediately started downloading a number of previously installed apps from the Play Store and not necessarily ones that I had on my phone recently. Is this something AOKP might be set up to do because it didn't happen when my phone got wiped during the root/unlock process?
-I'm using aokp_maguro_jb-mr1_build-6 and some things seem a little less than seamless (the status bar sometimes flashes white when exiting certain apps). I think this can be attributed to running a build instead of a milestone, and not because I didn't wipe something else that I should have.

Thanks for all the help. I can't wait to try this again.

 

[Paul627g]

Congrats.

The files that started to download were probably updates to a few things packaged with AOKP/GAPPS.

The white status bar occasionally when existing apps, yeah I get that to but after weeks of running it there is to no ill side effects from it.

I think you will be very happy after playing around and tweaking things to your liking, there is tons of little customizations to play with verses stock.

Have fun