First off, before you read this, understand that I take no credit from this, but I will give you many of the directions I used and a compilation of them all that got my LTE Xoom from a complete stock setting to having ICS up and running.
A lot of credit goes to okantomi from the xda forums. Most of it was written after using his steps to get most of it done.
Credit for the build goes to zone23 - his thread is here.
For some parts I drew from a lot of other reading and general thanks goes to everyone who is out there posting their experiences.
All of the features I can think of work! Including the Camera, 3G, 4G, wifi, games, android apps and anything else I have used. I have not seen anything fail on the build and the files I will link.
WARNING: This process will void your warranty. I am not responsible for that. I'm not responsible for anything you do to your Xoom. You are willingly following this and you are completely in charge of your actions.
That said... let's get to downloading. I kept everything I had to use, and I will explain what it is and how I worked it.
Part one - Familiarize yourself with what you are going to do
This full operation will be taking a stock Xoom - all the latest OTA updates and stuff already done - into where you are on a ROM of ICS made by someone that isn't me! What you do need to understand about me before we continue is I will be a little talkative and I will babble. In that babble I will completely cover everything though. I will give you WAY more information than you might need. That is to ensure that there is nothing left out.
To do this, you will need the following things:
1. USB Cable that connects your Xoom to your computer.
2. A Windows computer - I don't know how to do this on a MAC. Don't have any MAC.
3. a MicroSD card, preferably 2 just to make things easier.
4. A reader of some sort that connects directly into your computer for that MicroSD card. This means, not a phone or other device that you are running your MicroSD card through. Some sort of a piece of equipment that you put your MicroSD card into and that goes into your computer and it reads just like a thumb drive. It may work using a phone or something as a proxy, but I didn't do it that way, so I have no idea if it will do that.
5. A bunch of files
6. TIME!!!! - This may work first try off and it takes you 20 - 30 minutes and you're up and running. It may take you 4 hours to do it, or 6 like me because I hit a road block and had to do more research.
7. Patience - This may not work right off, please understand that. You may have to do things 2 times or repeat a step along the way.
Here are the files that you will need in order of using them and what they are for.
A - First you need to be able to have your computer communicate on the most intimate levels with your Xoom. Simply you can download the drivers. You can do that here. Fear not, as this file comes directly from Motorola themselves, I downloaded it from their website directly myself and I don't have the means of corrupting an .exe with anything, so you're safe. Also, you can download it from this link: Motorola Drivers You have to sign up and stuff, but it's doable.
B - You will need to next download the Developer tools that will allow you to access your Xoom's inner workings. These developers tools are extremely powerful and I do NOT fully understand them. My advice is to download them and do not do more than is outlined in these directions until you understand what you are doing. You will see, as we use these tools, you are going to type in a window on your computer and give commands using these tools. These tools will then communicate with your Xoom and do things internally that will alter the Xoom. Some things for instance will be just giving the xoom a reboot command from your computer without touching your Xoom. This WILL be the hardest part of this whole project. Follow that part the closest. Before installing these tools, be sure to read the part "B-2" and follow those directions during the install of these tools. Those tools are Android's SDK and Java's SDK When you install Android's SDK tools you are going to have to have downloaded and installed Java's first, so, do that one first.
B-2 Installation of the Android SDK tools seems to somehow have to actually be installed directly into your C:/ folder of your computer. To do this, when you are clicking "I agree" and "Next next next" to get the installation complete, pay attention to where you are actually installing the program. It will say something by default that is probably ending in "\Program Files" or "\Program Files (x86)" I do not claim to know if you can run the programs from that location. People seemed to want it on your C:\ folder. Just click Browse, and select your C: drive, and press Okay. It will drop it on your C: drive. Once you have downloaded and installed Android's SDK, you have not yet completed its download and install though it seemed like you did. Yes, this gave me a lot of trouble, and I will save the trouble for you. There is a readme file hiding in there that tells you that you have just downloaded the thing that will allow you to download the right thing. You need to be working with the tools found in the "Android-Platform" folder of your installation. Open a file browser by going Start - My computer - C: and look in the Android folder and then click on the folder "android-sdk" and in there you will find that readme if you'd like to read it... or you can just trust me it says that and start the SDK Manager found in your Start menu under "All Programs" and then Android SDK Tools. That will bring up a window that has a LOAD of things going on. There are a lot of boxes down the left side.. some checked, some not. Really, you need to find the one named "Android SDK Platform-tools" and check that one. Download whatever else you decide to download and experiment if you want, but that Platform-tools piece is what you need. Click the button "Install X Packages" and let it do its thing. Sorry for being wordy, but that's how I roll.
C - This file is an image file that you will need to use to set up your first MicroSD card. If you only have one, don't worry, I will tell you what to do if you only have one later. This file will go through the tools and "flash" onto your SD card THROUGH your Xoom. How that works, I don't know, and I don't care, I just know how to do it, and that's all I claim to know. That file is here. When I downloaded it, it was named... oh hell, I don't know what it was named. When we flash it, you will need to precisely type the name of the file. I renamed it "boot.img" so that when it came time to write it, I didn't have to type in a TON of crap and I just had to type boot.img So, it's still named that. If you want a challenge it, name it whatever you want by smacking your keyboard a few thousand times. Have fun with that. Once you have downloaded this put this file in your Platform-Tools folder. That was bold because if you stopped reading my BS rambling, it will catch your attention.
D - These next three things are going to be what you need to put onto your MicroSD card after it is flashed. We will do that later, at the appropriate time, but for now, just download them here, here, and here. These files are the Universal Xoom Root, The actual build of ICS, and the Google Apps build that works on my Xoom and works with this build. All three of these files are zip files. DO NOT EXTRACT THE ZIP FILES. DO NOTHING WITH THEM. Treat them as if they are exe files or whatever you need to but they need to be on your MicroSD card as is! More bold to be sure I catch attention from my ramblings!
That's it, we're done with part one.
Part Two - Unlocking your Xoom and Flashing your image onto your MicroSD Card
Before we begin, take a breath. Go get a drink (probably not a beer, I need your attention for this). Pee if you gotta. Just understand you need to take your time. Things can now go wrong, terribly wrong.
If you have files on your Xoom that you want, get them backed up. If you want pictures, or whatever, get them all backed up on your computer. We are about to WIPE your Xoom COMPLETELY. Nothing will survive the next few steps. If you can't live without something and can't download it again, stop here. If you haven't done something like this before, I would suggest that you grab a pad and pen, open word, do whatever you want, and make lists. List your apps you "can't live without". Write down how you like your homescreen to look or take pictures with your phone or something. The more you prepare PRIOR to wiping your Xoom, the easier it will be to get the Xoom back to "just how you like it" later. If you don't care, just go forward. So again... take your time, and be ready to go on. Don't waste your time though doing a factory reset, because we're about to do that.
STEP ONE - Unlocking the Boot Loader
Install the Motorola Drivers you downloaded if you haven't already.
Turn your Xoom on and have it fully booted up.
BACK UP WHAT YOU WANT TO AT THIS POINT!!!!! - you have been warned twice now!
On your Xoom, you need to enable USB debugging. You do this by going into Settings - Applications - Development and checking the box next to USB Debugging.
Plug your Xoom into your computer via the USB cord. When you do this, you will see your computer pop up and tell you there is a new device. Also, your Xoom will have a little icon in the notification that looks like a Bee. Yup, deBUGging... bee... yeah... nice touch Google.
When your computer pops up a window saying you have attached a device and it's looking for autorun, just close it, we don't care about that.
Next you are going to get yourself ready to play with ADB. This part is where we write exactly what we've been told, because it works. There may be another method to getting to this faster, but this is what I know works, so do it your way if you know it better or do it my way if you don't know a better way.
OPEN A COMMAND PROMPT: Do this by going to your start menu and in the search bar and type 'cmd' then press enter. It will pull up a black window with grey writing. If you're young and never got to play with DOS, you won't recognize this. If you did play with DOS, you are saying "Huh, I remember that!"
At this point you should see it say something about Microsoft Windows... then a couple lines below you should read "C:\Users\XXXXXXXX" where the XXXXXXXXX is the name you have as the user. Mine is Josh. Hi, my name is Josh, nice to meet you.
Now, we are going to use some old DOS commands. What I want you to do is also open a windows explorer folder because to be honest, I don't remember if I told Android SDK to install directly onto C: or if I told it to install inside of C:\Android\. To remedy this, I will walk you through what you need to do. With your windows explorer folder up, click on your C: drive. Look for a folder called Android. If it's there, click on it and you should see a folder called "android-sdk". If "Android" isn't there, then you should have the folder "android-sdk" sitting there. That's cool, either way works.
Go back to the Command Prompt window by just clicking on it. Enter the following command:
EDIT -- Feb 26, 2012 --
I noticed I think I have the wrong folder going here. We want to be in the platform-tools folder. I can't believe that big of a mistake hasn't been pointed out. So, I may be off the mark. If ADB is not working, add an additional command of cd platform-tools and then adb should be working like normal
If your android-skd lies directly on C: just don't type the \android
Notice that is a "BACKSLASH" It is important that you use that backslash, it is found above the enter key on your keyboard and NOT on the same button as the ? key on your keyboard.
We are now sitting in the android-sdk directory in the simulated DOS. Now, enter the next command:
The reaction of your Xoom will be to shut down and reload. When your Xoom NORMALLY loads, it turns on to a Red Circle and the Motorola Batwing (that is what the M thing is called). This time, it will not proceed past that, in fact it will also have a bit of writing in the top left corner of the screen. Don't touch anything on your Xoom at this time, just work through your computer.
Next, enter this command: THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING, this command will void your warranty and this will erase everything. Your Xoom will actually warn you one more time.
Congratulations, you are now unlocked. While your Xoom reboots, take another breath.
When your Xoom reboots, just skip all the start up stuff, none of it matters, cause we're about to obliterate it again! All you need to do is go back into Settings - Applications - Development and check the Debugging thing again.
Let's flash ClockWorkMod onto your MicroSD card.
Now, along the way, the Xoom got the MicroSD card slot working. It wasn't like that at the beginning. If you got that update or got your Xoom after that update and proceeded to put a card in the Xoom, you might want to take it out and back it up if you have something on it. If you have nothing on it, you don't have anything to worry about. I haven't mentioned anything about your MicroSD card yet, because we haven't changed it yet.
Grab your MicroSD card reader that we talked about in the prep phase. You'll need that in just a second.
At this point, we're sitting in our freshly booted Xoom with our USB cord plugged in, we have that command prompt window up on our computer and we have a few files we have yet to work with that we downloaded. If I didn't say it before, the file called "boot.img" needs to be placed in the folder called android-sdk\platform-tools in there is where we are using fastboot and adb. In a moment, fast boot will extract the file boot.img from this folder and flash it onto our MicroSD card.
First, reboot the device in recovery mode with:
To Flash boot.img onto your MicroSD card and get ClockWorkMod installed, enter the following command:
Part Three - Using ClockWorkMod to install ICS, Google Apps, and Root.
First, if you are here, you're doing good, we're so close. Good job so far. At this point in the guide, as of today, January 15th at 2 am (why do these guides always seem to be written at this time of day?) and the ROM of my choice is for sure the one I linked above. Here you get to differ just a bit if you want another ROM. I don't care if you use this one or another one, but I really LOVE this one. There may be more up to date ones by the time you are reading this, feel free to use that ROM or what ever you want.
Current Status
We have our Xoom plugged into our computer via USB. We have Flashed CWM onto our MicroSD card currently in our Xoom. On our computer we have the Command Prompt open and we also have downloaded those three zip files. And for the love of god, we have not unzipped them, we left them alone!
At this point, we want to take our MicroSD card OUT of our Xoom and leave the Xoom sitting there plugged into the computer and powered on with the Batwing looking at us. Take your MicroSD card and put it into the reader we gathered in prep phase. Put that into your computer, and when it comes up with the Autorun dialog, you can click Browse folder, or close it, either one works. If you closed it, you now need to open up the drive by going Start - My Computer - and click on that drive... mine popped up F: I think, but it can be any letter, just make sure that when you pull it up you are actually talking to your MicroSD card. There should be files on the card, LEAVE THEM ALONE.
Drop all 3 zipped files onto your MicroSD card. Their names are Xoom-Universal-Root, Xoom.Zone.ICS.1.9.12.v2, and gapps-ics-201111125-2. There may be one less 1 in there, but my contacts are being stupid right now. After they have copied into your MicroSD card, go ahead and stick it back into your Xoom. And, while we have the MicroSD card reader out, grab your other MicroSD if you have it and format it really fast. Format it by going Start - My Computer then right click on your card and select Format. The file system should be FAT32 (not NTFS) and the label doesn't matter. Go ahead and use the "Quick Format" option because the long format doesn't actually apply to solid state devices as far as I am concerned! Oh, and that MicroSD is a solid state device... means no moving parts. Google it if you care, I'll shut up.
There are two options to reboot your Xoom at this point. Read this whole paragraph before doing either unless you know what you're doing. If you knew what you were doing, you wouldn't be reading my version of this for sure. So, we are going to reboot the Xoom and you can do either way. I pick the button method, because it puts my hands on my Xoom for the trickiest part of the whole freakin process. The other method is to simply type into your command prompt: fastboot reboot. The button method is simply hitting the Volume up and Power buttons at the same time. BUT, when the Xoom reboots you need to wait until you see the Red Circle and the Batwing. When you see that appear, you say ONE, then count two, three. When you say three, you need to press the DOWN VOLUME button on the Xoom. Read that again, and I'm going to say it another way just to be sure we clearly are communicating. When the Red Circle and the Batwing appear on your screen you begin counting. Begin by saying one, don't say "onethousand one" in order to give time from 0 to 1. START AT ONE. Then say two and then when you say Three press the down volume button.
IF YOU GET IT RIGHT - you will see white letters in the upper left that says Android Recovery. If you see anything else, you failed, and get to try again. It may take a few tries. This is why I use the button method because of the retrying.
Now, when you see Android Recovery you will press the Up Volume Key. The Xoom will think for a few seconds, and then it will display a black screen with Orange letters. Welcome to ClowckWorkMod Recovery.
You navigate CWM by using the up and down volume keys on your Xoom. Touch doesn't work, but go ahead, and try if you don't believe me. See, I told you... don't you feel stupid. To select something, use the power button. What I mean by that is, one of the list will be highlighted with orange and have black letters, To select that one, you press the power button, as if it was an Ok button or something.
You are now going to want to navigate down to "Install Zip From SD card", click Power to select it... Then Navigate to "Choose Zip".
You want to install the zips in this order.
Xoom.Zone.ICS.1.9.12.v2 - This is ICS (that's why it says ICS in the name!)
gapps-ics-201111125-2 These are google apps, like market and stuff that makes the google apps work.
Xoom-Universal-Root - this roots the device
****NOTE***** The original order was root, ICS, gapps. It was found to be wrong. If you install them in this order, it is correct. Thanks to the guy who found it, doclee07!!!
This is another step that I am not sure we need, but I would do it if I were you, because I did it, and mine worked. I am fairly certain that it IS necessary though, so do it, it's not going to hurt you. If you had a second MicroSD card we formatted earlier, take out the MicroSD card that is in there and put it down gently as to not piss it off in case things didn't work and we need it again. Put the formatted MicroSD in. If you only have the one MicroSD card, then it sucks for you, because you need to now format your card and put it in your Xoom. The reason I say have a formatted card in there is because when I put CM7 on my sons Nook Color it failed over and over and over again because I didn't know I was supposed to put a MicroSD card in for the system to write to while it initially loaded.
Now, with your formatted MicroSD card in, select the <<<<BACK<<<< option and then select the reboot your system option.
OH EM GEE - we are almost done. Your Xoom will now power off. It will then power back on, hence the reboot! You will see your Batwing logo you have been staring at for maybe a few hours now, hopefully not if I did my job right, and then, something different. It should pop up a blue ANDROID that is shimmering and stuff. This is good, that means that we are right on track. Let it load and give it a good 10 minutes before you think you failed.
Your Xoom will then boot into ICS! Register it, add your google account, download your apps and have fun. And... Oh, guess what? I forgot to tell you (I didn't forget, I wanted to see if you're still paying attention) Who ever these geniuses are that wrote this ROM included OVERCLOCKING into the ROM. Oh yeah, you got that right, we hit the freakin jack pot. The next post in the thread will be about over clocking. If you want to do that... read it... if not... you're a party pooper and you can feel free to play with your new ICS Xoom. Enjoy.
Thank you for putting up with me through this. If you made it, Great job. If you haven't, I'm pretty sure that there is enough information in the ramblings that you can atleast have a really good starting point on where to go next. If I am around and remember to check the thread, I will gladly help you with what ever I can.
Again, credit goes to about 15 guides that I read through to get this set up that I have put together. Most were out of date and wanted me to flash something else or some custom ROMs. None were start to finish what I wanted today. Some were mostly that, but they left out the stuff that I didn't know yet and needed to read from out dated guides. To my knowledge, this is the most up to date of everything out there and I can attest that it works! Enjoy!
A lot of credit goes to okantomi from the xda forums. Most of it was written after using his steps to get most of it done.
Credit for the build goes to zone23 - his thread is here.
For some parts I drew from a lot of other reading and general thanks goes to everyone who is out there posting their experiences.
All of the features I can think of work! Including the Camera, 3G, 4G, wifi, games, android apps and anything else I have used. I have not seen anything fail on the build and the files I will link.
WARNING: This process will void your warranty. I am not responsible for that. I'm not responsible for anything you do to your Xoom. You are willingly following this and you are completely in charge of your actions.
That said... let's get to downloading. I kept everything I had to use, and I will explain what it is and how I worked it.
Part one - Familiarize yourself with what you are going to do
This full operation will be taking a stock Xoom - all the latest OTA updates and stuff already done - into where you are on a ROM of ICS made by someone that isn't me! What you do need to understand about me before we continue is I will be a little talkative and I will babble. In that babble I will completely cover everything though. I will give you WAY more information than you might need. That is to ensure that there is nothing left out.
To do this, you will need the following things:
1. USB Cable that connects your Xoom to your computer.
2. A Windows computer - I don't know how to do this on a MAC. Don't have any MAC.
3. a MicroSD card, preferably 2 just to make things easier.
4. A reader of some sort that connects directly into your computer for that MicroSD card. This means, not a phone or other device that you are running your MicroSD card through. Some sort of a piece of equipment that you put your MicroSD card into and that goes into your computer and it reads just like a thumb drive. It may work using a phone or something as a proxy, but I didn't do it that way, so I have no idea if it will do that.
5. A bunch of files
6. TIME!!!! - This may work first try off and it takes you 20 - 30 minutes and you're up and running. It may take you 4 hours to do it, or 6 like me because I hit a road block and had to do more research.
7. Patience - This may not work right off, please understand that. You may have to do things 2 times or repeat a step along the way.
Here are the files that you will need in order of using them and what they are for.
A - First you need to be able to have your computer communicate on the most intimate levels with your Xoom. Simply you can download the drivers. You can do that here. Fear not, as this file comes directly from Motorola themselves, I downloaded it from their website directly myself and I don't have the means of corrupting an .exe with anything, so you're safe. Also, you can download it from this link: Motorola Drivers You have to sign up and stuff, but it's doable.
B - You will need to next download the Developer tools that will allow you to access your Xoom's inner workings. These developers tools are extremely powerful and I do NOT fully understand them. My advice is to download them and do not do more than is outlined in these directions until you understand what you are doing. You will see, as we use these tools, you are going to type in a window on your computer and give commands using these tools. These tools will then communicate with your Xoom and do things internally that will alter the Xoom. Some things for instance will be just giving the xoom a reboot command from your computer without touching your Xoom. This WILL be the hardest part of this whole project. Follow that part the closest. Before installing these tools, be sure to read the part "B-2" and follow those directions during the install of these tools. Those tools are Android's SDK and Java's SDK When you install Android's SDK tools you are going to have to have downloaded and installed Java's first, so, do that one first.
B-2 Installation of the Android SDK tools seems to somehow have to actually be installed directly into your C:/ folder of your computer. To do this, when you are clicking "I agree" and "Next next next" to get the installation complete, pay attention to where you are actually installing the program. It will say something by default that is probably ending in "\Program Files" or "\Program Files (x86)" I do not claim to know if you can run the programs from that location. People seemed to want it on your C:\ folder. Just click Browse, and select your C: drive, and press Okay. It will drop it on your C: drive. Once you have downloaded and installed Android's SDK, you have not yet completed its download and install though it seemed like you did. Yes, this gave me a lot of trouble, and I will save the trouble for you. There is a readme file hiding in there that tells you that you have just downloaded the thing that will allow you to download the right thing. You need to be working with the tools found in the "Android-Platform" folder of your installation. Open a file browser by going Start - My computer - C: and look in the Android folder and then click on the folder "android-sdk" and in there you will find that readme if you'd like to read it... or you can just trust me it says that and start the SDK Manager found in your Start menu under "All Programs" and then Android SDK Tools. That will bring up a window that has a LOAD of things going on. There are a lot of boxes down the left side.. some checked, some not. Really, you need to find the one named "Android SDK Platform-tools" and check that one. Download whatever else you decide to download and experiment if you want, but that Platform-tools piece is what you need. Click the button "Install X Packages" and let it do its thing. Sorry for being wordy, but that's how I roll.
C - This file is an image file that you will need to use to set up your first MicroSD card. If you only have one, don't worry, I will tell you what to do if you only have one later. This file will go through the tools and "flash" onto your SD card THROUGH your Xoom. How that works, I don't know, and I don't care, I just know how to do it, and that's all I claim to know. That file is here. When I downloaded it, it was named... oh hell, I don't know what it was named. When we flash it, you will need to precisely type the name of the file. I renamed it "boot.img" so that when it came time to write it, I didn't have to type in a TON of crap and I just had to type boot.img So, it's still named that. If you want a challenge it, name it whatever you want by smacking your keyboard a few thousand times. Have fun with that. Once you have downloaded this put this file in your Platform-Tools folder. That was bold because if you stopped reading my BS rambling, it will catch your attention.
D - These next three things are going to be what you need to put onto your MicroSD card after it is flashed. We will do that later, at the appropriate time, but for now, just download them here, here, and here. These files are the Universal Xoom Root, The actual build of ICS, and the Google Apps build that works on my Xoom and works with this build. All three of these files are zip files. DO NOT EXTRACT THE ZIP FILES. DO NOTHING WITH THEM. Treat them as if they are exe files or whatever you need to but they need to be on your MicroSD card as is! More bold to be sure I catch attention from my ramblings!
That's it, we're done with part one.
Part Two - Unlocking your Xoom and Flashing your image onto your MicroSD Card
Before we begin, take a breath. Go get a drink (probably not a beer, I need your attention for this). Pee if you gotta. Just understand you need to take your time. Things can now go wrong, terribly wrong.
If you have files on your Xoom that you want, get them backed up. If you want pictures, or whatever, get them all backed up on your computer. We are about to WIPE your Xoom COMPLETELY. Nothing will survive the next few steps. If you can't live without something and can't download it again, stop here. If you haven't done something like this before, I would suggest that you grab a pad and pen, open word, do whatever you want, and make lists. List your apps you "can't live without". Write down how you like your homescreen to look or take pictures with your phone or something. The more you prepare PRIOR to wiping your Xoom, the easier it will be to get the Xoom back to "just how you like it" later. If you don't care, just go forward. So again... take your time, and be ready to go on. Don't waste your time though doing a factory reset, because we're about to do that.
STEP ONE - Unlocking the Boot Loader
Install the Motorola Drivers you downloaded if you haven't already.
Turn your Xoom on and have it fully booted up.
BACK UP WHAT YOU WANT TO AT THIS POINT!!!!! - you have been warned twice now!
On your Xoom, you need to enable USB debugging. You do this by going into Settings - Applications - Development and checking the box next to USB Debugging.
Plug your Xoom into your computer via the USB cord. When you do this, you will see your computer pop up and tell you there is a new device. Also, your Xoom will have a little icon in the notification that looks like a Bee. Yup, deBUGging... bee... yeah... nice touch Google.
When your computer pops up a window saying you have attached a device and it's looking for autorun, just close it, we don't care about that.
Next you are going to get yourself ready to play with ADB. This part is where we write exactly what we've been told, because it works. There may be another method to getting to this faster, but this is what I know works, so do it your way if you know it better or do it my way if you don't know a better way.
OPEN A COMMAND PROMPT: Do this by going to your start menu and in the search bar and type 'cmd' then press enter. It will pull up a black window with grey writing. If you're young and never got to play with DOS, you won't recognize this. If you did play with DOS, you are saying "Huh, I remember that!"
At this point you should see it say something about Microsoft Windows... then a couple lines below you should read "C:\Users\XXXXXXXX" where the XXXXXXXXX is the name you have as the user. Mine is Josh. Hi, my name is Josh, nice to meet you.
Now, we are going to use some old DOS commands. What I want you to do is also open a windows explorer folder because to be honest, I don't remember if I told Android SDK to install directly onto C: or if I told it to install inside of C:\Android\. To remedy this, I will walk you through what you need to do. With your windows explorer folder up, click on your C: drive. Look for a folder called Android. If it's there, click on it and you should see a folder called "android-sdk". If "Android" isn't there, then you should have the folder "android-sdk" sitting there. That's cool, either way works.
Go back to the Command Prompt window by just clicking on it. Enter the following command:
EDIT -- Feb 26, 2012 --
I noticed I think I have the wrong folder going here. We want to be in the platform-tools folder. I can't believe that big of a mistake hasn't been pointed out. So, I may be off the mark. If ADB is not working, add an additional command of cd platform-tools and then adb should be working like normal
If your android-skd lies directly on C: just don't type the \android
Notice that is a "BACKSLASH" It is important that you use that backslash, it is found above the enter key on your keyboard and NOT on the same button as the ? key on your keyboard.
We are now sitting in the android-sdk directory in the simulated DOS. Now, enter the next command:
The reaction of your Xoom will be to shut down and reload. When your Xoom NORMALLY loads, it turns on to a Red Circle and the Motorola Batwing (that is what the M thing is called). This time, it will not proceed past that, in fact it will also have a bit of writing in the top left corner of the screen. Don't touch anything on your Xoom at this time, just work through your computer.
Next, enter this command: THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING, this command will void your warranty and this will erase everything. Your Xoom will actually warn you one more time.
Your Xoom will react by popping up a lot of words on the screen. Read them. Follow the instructions on the screen and come back here once you have crossed your fingers and are ready to proceed.
Congratulations, you are now unlocked. While your Xoom reboots, take another breath.
When your Xoom reboots, just skip all the start up stuff, none of it matters, cause we're about to obliterate it again! All you need to do is go back into Settings - Applications - Development and check the Debugging thing again.
Let's flash ClockWorkMod onto your MicroSD card.
Now, along the way, the Xoom got the MicroSD card slot working. It wasn't like that at the beginning. If you got that update or got your Xoom after that update and proceeded to put a card in the Xoom, you might want to take it out and back it up if you have something on it. If you have nothing on it, you don't have anything to worry about. I haven't mentioned anything about your MicroSD card yet, because we haven't changed it yet.
Grab your MicroSD card reader that we talked about in the prep phase. You'll need that in just a second.
At this point, we're sitting in our freshly booted Xoom with our USB cord plugged in, we have that command prompt window up on our computer and we have a few files we have yet to work with that we downloaded. If I didn't say it before, the file called "boot.img" needs to be placed in the folder called android-sdk\platform-tools in there is where we are using fastboot and adb. In a moment, fast boot will extract the file boot.img from this folder and flash it onto our MicroSD card.
First, reboot the device in recovery mode with:
Your Xoom will reset, and you will be looking at the Batwing with the white letters in the upper left corner.
To Flash boot.img onto your MicroSD card and get ClockWorkMod installed, enter the following command:
Your command prompt window will think about it for a few seconds, then it will report to you that it's happily done. Once that has happened, we're almost there!
Part Three - Using ClockWorkMod to install ICS, Google Apps, and Root.
First, if you are here, you're doing good, we're so close. Good job so far. At this point in the guide, as of today, January 15th at 2 am (why do these guides always seem to be written at this time of day?) and the ROM of my choice is for sure the one I linked above. Here you get to differ just a bit if you want another ROM. I don't care if you use this one or another one, but I really LOVE this one. There may be more up to date ones by the time you are reading this, feel free to use that ROM or what ever you want.
Current Status
We have our Xoom plugged into our computer via USB. We have Flashed CWM onto our MicroSD card currently in our Xoom. On our computer we have the Command Prompt open and we also have downloaded those three zip files. And for the love of god, we have not unzipped them, we left them alone!
At this point, we want to take our MicroSD card OUT of our Xoom and leave the Xoom sitting there plugged into the computer and powered on with the Batwing looking at us. Take your MicroSD card and put it into the reader we gathered in prep phase. Put that into your computer, and when it comes up with the Autorun dialog, you can click Browse folder, or close it, either one works. If you closed it, you now need to open up the drive by going Start - My Computer - and click on that drive... mine popped up F: I think, but it can be any letter, just make sure that when you pull it up you are actually talking to your MicroSD card. There should be files on the card, LEAVE THEM ALONE.
Drop all 3 zipped files onto your MicroSD card. Their names are Xoom-Universal-Root, Xoom.Zone.ICS.1.9.12.v2, and gapps-ics-201111125-2. There may be one less 1 in there, but my contacts are being stupid right now. After they have copied into your MicroSD card, go ahead and stick it back into your Xoom. And, while we have the MicroSD card reader out, grab your other MicroSD if you have it and format it really fast. Format it by going Start - My Computer then right click on your card and select Format. The file system should be FAT32 (not NTFS) and the label doesn't matter. Go ahead and use the "Quick Format" option because the long format doesn't actually apply to solid state devices as far as I am concerned! Oh, and that MicroSD is a solid state device... means no moving parts. Google it if you care, I'll shut up.
There are two options to reboot your Xoom at this point. Read this whole paragraph before doing either unless you know what you're doing. If you knew what you were doing, you wouldn't be reading my version of this for sure. So, we are going to reboot the Xoom and you can do either way. I pick the button method, because it puts my hands on my Xoom for the trickiest part of the whole freakin process. The other method is to simply type into your command prompt: fastboot reboot. The button method is simply hitting the Volume up and Power buttons at the same time. BUT, when the Xoom reboots you need to wait until you see the Red Circle and the Batwing. When you see that appear, you say ONE, then count two, three. When you say three, you need to press the DOWN VOLUME button on the Xoom. Read that again, and I'm going to say it another way just to be sure we clearly are communicating. When the Red Circle and the Batwing appear on your screen you begin counting. Begin by saying one, don't say "onethousand one" in order to give time from 0 to 1. START AT ONE. Then say two and then when you say Three press the down volume button.
IF YOU GET IT RIGHT - you will see white letters in the upper left that says Android Recovery. If you see anything else, you failed, and get to try again. It may take a few tries. This is why I use the button method because of the retrying.
Now, when you see Android Recovery you will press the Up Volume Key. The Xoom will think for a few seconds, and then it will display a black screen with Orange letters. Welcome to ClowckWorkMod Recovery.
You navigate CWM by using the up and down volume keys on your Xoom. Touch doesn't work, but go ahead, and try if you don't believe me. See, I told you... don't you feel stupid. To select something, use the power button. What I mean by that is, one of the list will be highlighted with orange and have black letters, To select that one, you press the power button, as if it was an Ok button or something.
You are now going to want to navigate down to "Install Zip From SD card", click Power to select it... Then Navigate to "Choose Zip".
You want to install the zips in this order.
Xoom.Zone.ICS.1.9.12.v2 - This is ICS (that's why it says ICS in the name!)
gapps-ics-201111125-2 These are google apps, like market and stuff that makes the google apps work.
Xoom-Universal-Root - this roots the device
****NOTE***** The original order was root, ICS, gapps. It was found to be wrong. If you install them in this order, it is correct. Thanks to the guy who found it, doclee07!!!
This is another step that I am not sure we need, but I would do it if I were you, because I did it, and mine worked. I am fairly certain that it IS necessary though, so do it, it's not going to hurt you. If you had a second MicroSD card we formatted earlier, take out the MicroSD card that is in there and put it down gently as to not piss it off in case things didn't work and we need it again. Put the formatted MicroSD in. If you only have the one MicroSD card, then it sucks for you, because you need to now format your card and put it in your Xoom. The reason I say have a formatted card in there is because when I put CM7 on my sons Nook Color it failed over and over and over again because I didn't know I was supposed to put a MicroSD card in for the system to write to while it initially loaded.
Now, with your formatted MicroSD card in, select the <<<<BACK<<<< option and then select the reboot your system option.
OH EM GEE - we are almost done. Your Xoom will now power off. It will then power back on, hence the reboot! You will see your Batwing logo you have been staring at for maybe a few hours now, hopefully not if I did my job right, and then, something different. It should pop up a blue ANDROID that is shimmering and stuff. This is good, that means that we are right on track. Let it load and give it a good 10 minutes before you think you failed.
Your Xoom will then boot into ICS! Register it, add your google account, download your apps and have fun. And... Oh, guess what? I forgot to tell you (I didn't forget, I wanted to see if you're still paying attention) Who ever these geniuses are that wrote this ROM included OVERCLOCKING into the ROM. Oh yeah, you got that right, we hit the freakin jack pot. The next post in the thread will be about over clocking. If you want to do that... read it... if not... you're a party pooper and you can feel free to play with your new ICS Xoom. Enjoy.
Thank you for putting up with me through this. If you made it, Great job. If you haven't, I'm pretty sure that there is enough information in the ramblings that you can atleast have a really good starting point on where to go next. If I am around and remember to check the thread, I will gladly help you with what ever I can.
Again, credit goes to about 15 guides that I read through to get this set up that I have put together. Most were out of date and wanted me to flash something else or some custom ROMs. None were start to finish what I wanted today. Some were mostly that, but they left out the stuff that I didn't know yet and needed to read from out dated guides. To my knowledge, this is the most up to date of everything out there and I can attest that it works! Enjoy!
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram