Thursday, September 8, 2011

[TUT] From stock ROM to custom ROM for n00bs (X10 mini pro)


NOTE
This guide applies only Xperia X10 mini pro

I will add more screenshots and change the ones with danish text to english at a later time.

Danish version available at my website (see link in my profile).


Warning
The instructions on this page may cause damage to your Xperia X10 mini pro, that you might not be able to correct. You are responsible for such damages.Guarantee and/or warranty can also be set aside by the dealer.

What you need
  • Xperia X10 mini pro
  • Access to the Android Market from your Xperia X10 mini pro
  • A computer with Windows and Internet connection
  • USB cable (USB-A Male / USB-MICRO-B Male)
  • USB or SD adapter for microSD

General references used in this guide
Connect the MicroSD card to your computer
Turn off your Xperia X10 mini pro and remove the microSD card. See the instructions that came with your Xperia X10 mini pro for further instruction.


Insert the microSD card into the included original Sony Ericsson microSD adapter (CCR-80). Do you not have one, the use a SD adapter, which often follows when you buy a microSD card. Both adapters work the same way.


Plug the USB or SD adapter into your computer.


Why not use built-in partotion tool in the recovery tools?
People PM me about that. The short answer is: You will loose all your data on the SD-card.

If you do not care about that, just bypass the part with partitioning the SD-card with EASEUS Partition Master.

You will then have to partition the SD-card from xRecovery or ClockworkMod Recovery. Find the partition tool under advanced.

The longer answer is, that... oh... never mind 


Native Apps2SD
Some ROMs do not need an EXT-partition for Apps2SD, if they use native Apps2SD.

http://android-developers.blogspot.c...d-details.html
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Apps2SD

If this is the case, you do not have to partition your microSD card.


Preparing the microSD card for APPS2SD
You probably have a lot of pictures, etc. on the memory card. It's a good idea, just for safety's sake, to copy them onto your computer before you continue.

Note: Pictures taken with the stock camera is located on the SD card in the DCIM folder.


Download EASEUS Partition Master (www.partition-tool.com) and install it on your computer and then start the program. Home Edition is free (freeware).

In the Partition Master's main window you can now see all the hard drives, including the microSD card that sits in your USB or SD adapter.


Click the right mouse button on the microSD card and select Resize/Move. Be very carefull that it is the microSD card you click!

In the window that pops up, decrease the Partition Size until Unallocated Space After get as close to 1024 as possible, but not over. The space to be used by APPS2SD on the microSD card, can not exceed 1024 MB

Edit: It has come to my attention, that higher size, like 2048 should work fine too. But do we need that much space for apps? You can always resize at a later time using Partition Master.


Then click the OK button.

The main window now shows an unused area at the end of the microSD card.

Click the right mouse button in the Unallocated field and choose Create.


You might get a warning that Windows will only see the first partition. Just click Yes and continue.


Choose Primary at Create as, and EXT3 at File System and click the OK button.


Click Apply at the top left in the main windows, and then YES at the box that appears.


The program now starts to move the files and reduces the size of the existing partition and then creates the EXT3 partition used by APPS2SD.

Let the microSD card in your computer, for next, we will put some files onto it.


Place custom ROM etc. on the microSD card
Now that we have the microSD card in the computer, we might as well put some files and custom ROM and some special apps (apk-files) on it.

Create a folder on your microSD card and call it ROMs.

Inside that folder create folders for the custom ROM you want.

E.g. if you want CyaNo (R)Evolution, create a folder named CyaNo.

Then download CyaNo and put the zip file in the CyaNo-folder.

If any hotfix are realeased for the two ROM, you can also store them in folders.


List of ROMs for the Xperia X10 mini pro

Eclair (2.1) Froyo (2.2) Gingerbread (2.3) (VGA-video only in some of the ROMs, should be fixed soon in all)
Did I miss anyone? Or misleed?

Looking for ROM reviews? Look here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1168096 (nice done djx24)

Download needed apps for later use
To install a custom ROM on Xperia X10 mini pro, there must be a recovery app on.

There are currently two different:
Note: All Froyo and Gingerbread ROMs installs with CWM.

Note: It is possible to have both xRecovery and CWM on your Xperia X10 mini pro at the same time using Dual Recovery. To install this, you first need to have CWM installed.

The easiest way of getting CWM on your Xperia X10 mini pro is via Mini Rom Manager or Recovery Installer.

Mini Rom Manager and Recovery Installer can not be downloaded from the Android Market, but must be downloaded from xda and installed manually.

Create a folder on your microSD card and call it APK.
  • Download Mini Rom Manager and save the apk-file in the APK folder.
  • Download Recovery Installer and save the apk-file in the APK folder.
  • Download kFix and save the apk-file in the APK folder (i will get back to this one later)
  • Download Dual Recovery and save the zip-file in the ROMs folder
Now you can remove the microSD card from your PC. Remember to use the "eject" function on your computer.

Put the microSD card back into your phone, click on its rear panel and turn on your Xperia X10 mini pro.



Gain root on your phone
Enable USB debug on the phone.

Start Settings from the app-menu. Tap Applications > Devolopment > USB debugging. Accept warning-popup by tapping OK.

   

Connect your phone to your computer using the USB cable.


Du not activate access to the microSD card. tap on Charge phone.



Download SuperOneClick (www.shortfuse.org) and unpack the zip file somewhere you can find it easily, eg. on the desktop.

Open the folder and run the program and click on the large Root button on the top left corner. The program works a little and finally ask whether to check for root. It is not sure you will see any reaction on your phone.


You can now remove the USB cable.

Turn off the phone, and the turn on again.


Along with root, SuperOneClick will install an app onto the phone called Superuser. This app is crucial as it is able to give other apps access to system folders.

After restart it's a good idea to find and start Superuser. Under the Settings tab, there is an update button at the bottom. Tap this, just to be sure that you got the latest binary.


Install Recovery Installer

Start Super Manager (or your favorite file explorer) and navigate to the APK-folder.

Choose the Recovery Installer APK-file and then tap on the install button (bottom left). If you are asked what action to complete the operation, then select Package Installer.

  

Maybe you will be asked to provide access for installation from unsafe sources. In this case, choose Settings, then tap Unknown sources. A warning will appear that you just accept by tappingOK.

  


Install Recovery (CWM or xRecovery)
 
Start the Recovery Installer from app menu. Accept Superuser request by tapping Allow.

Tap Install CWM Recovery, or Install xRecovery, depending on how your chosen custom ROM must be installed.

 


Alternative way to install CWM
Mini Rom Manager has a build-in CWM-installer.

Start Super Manager (or your favorite file explorer) and navigate to the APK-folder.

Choose the Mini Rom Manager APK-file and then tap on the install button (bottom left). If you are asked what action to complete the operation, then select Package Installer.

Start the Mini Rom Manager from app menu. Accept warning by tapping Agree, and the tap Install CWM Recovery.

  

Note: Mini Rom Manager will retrieve CWM from the Internet, so it would be handy if your Xperia X10 mini pro is connected to a WIFI.

Manual way of installing xrecovery or CWM
N
If none of the above installment of recovery works, try the manual one in post #2 below.


Save the phonebook, SMS, MMS, call logs and notes
 
If your phonebook is not connected with a google account and/or you have a lot of messages you want to keep, you can make a backup of everything with MyBackup Root that you can find on the Android Market. After installing your custom ROM you can then restore the backedup phonebook, messages ect.

If you got a lot of notes you've written in the stock note app, then you must write them all down on a piece of paper or copy-paste them all one by one to a another note-app, like Evernote, which can save them online.

Note: You will otherwise lose all that data.


Backup the entire phone
Note: Make sure the battery isn't drained before you continue from here

Restart the phone and press repeatedly (not holding but press, release, press, release, press, release .....) on the back button when the white Sony Ericsson logo appears.


Shortly after CWM will start.

You navigate up and down in the menu using the volume buttons on the side of the phone and choose a menu item with the select button (middle button) and go back into the menu system with the back button.

In case you should regret installing the custom ROM, you can now make a backup of the everything first. Select Backup and restore, then Backup.

If you regred installing the custom ROM, you can restore the stock ROM later.


Install custom ROM
When the backup is compleate, select Factory Reset.

Now we are ready to install your custom ROM.

Select Install zip from sdcard and navigate to the folder where you put your custom ROMs and select your the ROM you want. Repeat this for any hotfix.

  

The 2 screens to the left are from CWM, the right is from xRecovery.

CWM and xRecovery has almost the same interface and are easy to use.

You navigate up and down in the menu using the volume buttons on the side of the phone and choose a menu item with the select button (middle button) and go back into the menu system with the back button.


Dual Recovery (xRecovery + CWM recovery on your Phone)
Note: Only for ROM-testers, that want to change ROM more often than changing their shorts.

If you followed the guide above, you sould also have the Dual Recovery zip in your ROMs folder.

If you think you might need to install custom ROMs with xRecovery, you can now install Dual Recovery. If you know you don't need xRecovery, then don't bother.

Select Install zip from sdcard and navigate to the ROMs folder and select the Dual Recovery zip.

To start CWM use the Back key as explained above. To start xRecovery use the Home key in the same way instead.


Ready for your custom ROM
When finished, select Reboot phone.

When the phone starts again, it is with your new custom ROM.

Note: First startup might take a long time.

Note: Keeps looping boot-image forever? Pull battery and turn on again and press repeatedly on the back button when the white Sony Ericsson logo appears. Try another ROM.

Note: Everything sucks and don't work? Try Sony Ericsson PC Companion to restore custom ROM.


National QWERTY hard-keyboard
In Mini Rom Manager there is a feature to set the hardware keyboard, so your national characters works properly.


The most sensible custom ROM comes with Mini Rome Manager preinstalled. If not, follow my instructions to install Mini Rom Manager again on the custom rom.

Start the Mini Rom Manager and go to Settings and Extras.

Tap Change HW Keyboard Layout and select your national keyboard in the list.

 

If you experience ÆØÅ and other special characters like @ is not seated properly when using the keyboard, long-tap (set your finger and let stay on the screen) where the text is written until a menu pops up.

Scroll to the bottom of the menu and select Input Method. Then choose Standard Input. Now you can write ÆØÅ etc.

  

With the QWERTY keyboard folded in, an on-screen keyboard appear instead. We all know Standard Input.


The two other input methods displays a full keyboard on the screen that you can swich between small and big letters, numbers and special characters.

Android keyboard does not have special keys like ÆØÅ, but offers the ability to write special (national) versions of letters, if there are any, if you long-tab on the letter.

 

TalkBack keyboard on the other hand, got special keys like ÆØÅ, but also allows you to write special (national) versions of letters by using long-tap. I always find it difficult to call them up. The long-tap mostly fails for me in TalkBack.

 

kFix - Keyboard LED lights like on Stock ROMs

kFix is a little app that sets the keyboard light as in the original ROM.

The most sensible custom ROM comes with kFix preinstalled. If not, install kFix.

Start Super Manager (or your favorite file explorer) and navigate to the APK-folder.

Choose kFix APK-file and then tap on the install button (bottom left).

If you are asked what action to complete the operation, then select Package Installer.

Maybe you will be asked to provide access for installation from unsafe sources. In this case, choose Settings, then tap Unknown sources. A warning will appear that you just accept by tapping OK.

Now you can avoid the pitfalls of having to use the keyboard in the dark while the light in the keys will not turn on. Do you go from a bright room into a dark, the light in the keyboard should turn on as we know it from the original ROM.


Restore phonebook, SMS, MMS, call logs, etc.
If your phonebook is linked to a Google account all your contacts will show up again when you are logged into your google account during synchronization (if you added your contacts to Google-profile and not just stored them on the phone).
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