Installing Jelly Bean on the Galaxy S

Thanks to the active developers over at CyanogenMod, we now have a build of Android’s latest and greatest (Jelly Bean, v4.1.1 as of this writing) available for the Samsung Galaxy S. If you’re like me and you can’t wait to get your hands dirty, here’s how you can get your fix.

DISCLAIMER – This guide is applicable only to the international version of the Galaxy S (GT-I9000), and NOT to any other versions (GT-I9003 etc). You can check your model number under Settings > About Phone. In addition, this procedure will void your phone’s warranty and can possibly brick your device, which would entail an expensive trip to your local Samsung service center (cue costly paperweight jokes). By proceeding, you agree that neither I nor the CM team are responsible for any damage whatsoever that may occur to your device. If you wish to proceed, make sure you follow these steps carefully. Needless to say, use your backup solution of choice to preserve your precious data (I’ve heard Titanium Backup is good).

If this is your first time flashing a custom ROM, or your current ROM isn’t CyanogenMod –

Head over to the CM wiki in order to install ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery on your phone if you haven’t already (refer the section titled “Installing the ClockworkMod Recovery”). This is a powerful recovery tool that is far superior to Samsung’s stock recovery options. Next, proceed with the steps below.

Flashing CM10 –

UPDATE – The build has now reached nightly status. I’ve updated the download link to reflect the same.

UPDATE 2 – The build has now reached stable status.

1. Download the latest builds of the ROM as well as the Google Apps package and load the corresponding zip files onto the root of your internal SD card.
2. Make sure your SIM is unlocked (Settings > Security > SIM card lock)
3. Power off your phone, and reboot into CWM by holding down the power button, the home button and the volume up button simultaneously. While in CWM, navigate with the volume rocker and select options using the power button.
4. Do a nandroid backup if you haven’t backed your files up already (backup and restore > backup)
5. Wipe data as well as the cache partition.
6. Select “install zip from sdcard” and select the CM10 zip file.
7. Optionally, repeat step 6 with the gapps zip file.
8. Reboot your phone (“reboot system now”)

Additional notes –

1. Nandroid backups of CM7 (Gingerbread), CM9 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and CM10 (Jelly Bean) are incompatible with each other. Before you restore from a nandroid backup, make sure you’re running the correct version of Android.
2. If flashing fails at any point of time and your device seems to be stuck in a boot loop (keeps rebooting endlessly), chances are it’s soft bricked. Pull out and reinsert the battery, boot into CWM and start over. Remember to wipe both data and cache before every such iteration.
3. The thread corresponding to this build recommends that users stick to the stock kernel for now, since stability issues have been reported with others (especially the devil kernel).

My experience thus far –

UPDATE – While the Play Store was giving me occasional errors earlier, and USB tethering wouldn’t work at all, installing the nightly build for 14th August has fixed both issues.

I’ve been using the phone for close to 12 hours now, and although it’s not much, I can confirm that there is definitely a huge improvement in terms of general responsiveness compared to ICS (which was barely usable on my phone). Apps close and open promptly, transitions are smooth and I actually find myself wanting an excuse to pick up my phone. Battery life seems to be consistent with that under Gingerbread, and I’ve confirmed that the following work flawlessly –

• Camera (again, massive speed improvements here)
• Calling, texting
• Music
• Google Play store
• Data over WiFi as well as 3G
• Syncing with Google accounts

All in all, this has given my phone a new lease of life, and I can proudly say that the software has finally caught up to the capabilities of the hardware 🙂

Happy testing!

Credit for this thread goes to pawitp (the official CyanogenMod maintainer for the Galaxy S) and his concise instructions here. You should totally donate to him if this worked out for you!