ZTE Skate (skate)

Cyanogenmod ROM ZTE Skate

Cyanogenmod ROM ZTE Skate (skate)

Quick Info

Download CyanogenMod

Download (nightly build)
CyanogenMod 7 (Android 2.3 (Gingerbread))

Note: Support Status

This device does not support the latest official release of CyanogenMod. This may be due to hardware limitations or simply because development is ongoing. The most recent version supported is based on the gingerbread branch of CyanogenMod.

Notes

The ZTE Skate is a touchscreen Android phone manufactured by ZTE running 2.3 Gingerbread

Special boot modes

  • Recovery: Hold Volume Down & Power (CWM 4.0.1.x) or Volume Up, Home & Power

Source code

Device http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_device_zte_skate
Skate Specifications
Codename: skate
Vendor: ZTE
Manufacturer: ZTE
Release date: 2011 September
Carrier: Orange
Type: phone
GSM freq: 850 900 1800 1900 2100 MHz UMTS/HSUPA
Platform: Qualcomm MSM7227
CPU: 800 MHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S1
GPU: Adreno 200
RAM: 512MB
Weight: 148 g
Screen size: 109 mm (4.3 in)
Resolution: 480×800
Internal storage: 512MB
SD Card: up to 32GB
Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g
Main camera: 5MP w/ LED flash
CM supported: 7
Latest CM version: gingerbread

How to Install CyanogenMod on the ZTE Skate (skate)

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Important Notes

The ZTE Skate is a touchscreen Android phone manufactured by ZTE running 2.3 Gingerbread

Installing a custom recovery using fastboot

See All About Recovery Images for more information about custom recoveries and their capabilities.

  1. Make sure your computer has working fastboot and adb.
  2. Download recovery — visit twrp.me to obtain the latest version of Team Win Recovery Project for your device.
  3. Connect the Skate to the computer via USB.
  4. Make sure the fastboot binary is in your PATH or that you place the recovery image in the same directory as fastboot.
  5. Open a terminal on your PC and reboot the device into fastboot mode by typing
    adb reboot bootloader
    or by using the hardware key combination for your device while it is powered off.
  6. Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC sees the device by typing
    fastboot devices
    • If you don’t see your device serial number, and instead see “<waiting for device>”, fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastboot documentation for more info.
    • If you see “no permissionsfastboot”, make sure your UDEV rules are setup correctly.
  7. Flash recovery onto your device by entering the following command:
    fastboot flash recovery your_recovery_image.img
    where the latter part is the filename of the recovery image.
  8. Once the flash completes successfully, reboot the device into recovery to verify the installation. Boot to recovery instructions: Hold Volume Down & Power (CWM 4.0.1.x) or Volume Up, Home & Power
    • Note: Some ROMs overwrite recovery at boot time so if you do not plan to immediately boot into recovery to install CyanogenMod, please be aware that this may overwrite your custom recovery with the stock one.

Installing CyanogenMod from recovery

  1. Make sure your computer has working adb.
  2. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.
    Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.
  3. Boot to recovery mode, and connect the phone to your computer through USB.
    • Hold Volume Down & Power (CWM 4.0.1.x) or Volume Up, Home & Power
  4. In ClockworkMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. On most devices, the power button is used to confirm a menu selection, but for some devices a physical home key acts as a selector. Some devices have touch enabled ClockworkMod Recovery, in which case you may be able to swipe to, or touch, menu selections.
  5. Optional (Recommended): Select backup and restore to create a backup.
  6. Select wipe data/factory reset.
  7. You have two options for transferring and installing the installation packages. The sideload method is more universal across devices, whereas the push and install method is more commonly used:
    • Sideload method: select install zip > install zip from sideload. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Push and install method: Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and navigate to the directory holding the package(s) you would like to install. On the device, navigate to the mounts and storage menu. If you see /storage/sdcard0 or /sdcard as a mountable volume, go ahead and mount it. If you do not see one of these partitions, then instead mount the /data partition. Take note of which volume you mounted. Now, push the package(s) to your device (also, see tip below):
    – If you mounted /storage/sdcard0, then: adb push update.zip /storage/sdcard0/
    – If you mounted /sdcard or /data, then: adb push update.zip /sdcard/
    where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. Go back to the main menu and select install zip. Choose to install from the same directory where you pushed the package(s). If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  8. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip – SD card folders

CyanogenMod 10.1 and newer have multi-user support (introduced in Android 4.2). If your device has storage on the /data partition, then Android actually looks in /data/media/0/ for the first user’s /sdcard/ storage. ClockworkMod recovery symlinks /sdcard/ to /data/media/ though. So, if you are pushing files to internal storage in recovery and want them to be visible in Android, you should push them to /sdcard/0/ or /data/media/0/. Here’s the most frequent scenarios:

  1. If you’re coming from a ROM with Android 4.1 or older to CyanogenMod 10 or older: adb push update.zip /sdcard/
  2. If you’re coming from a ROM with Android 4.1 or older to CyanogenMod 10.1 or newer: adb shell "mkdir /sdcard/0/" followed by adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/
  3. If you’re coming from a ROM with Android 4.2 or newer to CyanogenMod 10.1 or newer: adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/

Helpful Tip

See something wrong on this page? Click here: Report a Site Problem.

How To Build CyanogenMod For ZTE Skate (skate)

Introduction

These instructions will hopefully assist you to start with a stock Skate, unlock the bootloader (if necessary), and then download the required tools as well as the very latest source code for CyanogenMod (based on Google’s Android operating system). Using these, you can build both CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery image from source code, and then install them both to your device.

It is difficult to say how much experience is necessary to follow these instructions. While this guide is certainly not for the very very very uninitiated, these steps shouldn’t require a PhD in software development either. Some readers will have no difficulty and breeze through the steps easily. Others may struggle over the most basic operation. Because people’s experiences, backgrounds, and intuitions differ, it may be a good idea to read through just to ascertain whether you feel comfortable or are getting over your head.

Remember, you assume all risk of trying this, but you will reap the rewards! It’s pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :) And once you’re an Android-building ninja, there will be no more need to wait for “nightly” builds from anyone. You will have at your fingertips the skills to build a full operating system from code to a running device, whenever you want. Where you go from there– maybe you’ll add a feature, fix a bug, add a translation, or use what you’ve learned to build a new app or port to a new device– or maybe you’ll never build again– it’s all really up to you.

What you’ll need

  • A Skate
  • A relatively recent computer (Linux, OS X, or Windows) with a reasonable amount of RAM and about 100 GB of free storage (more if you enable ccache or build for multiple devices). The less RAM you have, the longer the build will take (aim for 8 GB or more). Using SSDs results in considerably faster build times than traditional hard drives.
  • A USB cable compatible with the Skate (typically micro USB, but older devices may use mini USB or have a proprietary cable)
  • A decent internet connection & reliable electricity :)
  • Some familiarity with basic Android operation and terminology. It would help if you’ve installed custom roms on other devices and are familiar with recovery. It may also be useful to know some basic command line concepts such as cd for “change directory”, the concept of directory hierarchies, that in Linux they are separated by /, etc.

If you are not accustomed to using Linux– this is an excellent chance to learn. It’s free– just download and run a virtual machine (VM) such as Virtualbox, then install a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu (AOSP vets Ubuntu as well). Any recent 64-bit version should work great, but the latest is recommended.

Note:

You want to use a 64-bit version of Linux. A 32-bit Linux environment will only work if you are building CyanogenMod 6 and older. For CyanogenMod 10.1, if you encounter issues with 64bit host binaries, you can set BUILD_HOST_32bit=1 in your environment. This is generally not needed, though, especially with CyanogenMod 10.2 and newer.

Using a VM allows Linux to run as a guest inside your host computer– a computer in a computer, if you will. If you hate Linux for whatever reason, you can always just uninstall and delete the whole thing. (There are plenty of places to find instructions for setting up Virtualbox with Ubuntu, so I’ll leave it to you to do that.)

So let’s begin!

Build CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery

Prepare the Build Environment

Note:

You only need to do these steps the first time you build. If you previously prepared your build environment and have downloaded the CyanogenMod source code for another device, skip to Prepare the device-specific code.

Install the SDK

If you have not previously installed adb and fastboot, install the Android SDK. “SDK” stands for Software Developer Kit, and it includes useful tools that you can use to flash software, look at the system logs in real time, grab screenshots, and more– all from your computer.

Helpful Tip

While the SDK contains lots of different things– the two tools you are most interested in for building Android are adb and fastboot, located in the /platform-tools directory.

Install the Build Packages

Several “build packages” are needed to build CyanogenMod. You can install these using the package manager of your choice.

Helpful Tip

A package manager in Linux is a system used to install or remove software (usually originating from the Internet) on your computer. With Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu Software Center. Even better, you may also use the apt-get install command directly in the Terminal. (Learn more about the apt packaging tool system from Wikipedia.)

For both 32-bit & 64-bit systems, you’ll need:

bc bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev

In addition to the above, for 64-bit systems, get these:

g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev

For Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) and newer, substitute:

  • lib32readline-gplv2-devlib32readline6-dev

For Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and newer, substitute (additionally see java notes below):

  • libwxgtk2.8-devlibwxgtk3.0-dev
  • openjdk-7-jdkopenjdk-8-jdk

Java versions: Different versions of CyanogenMod require different versions of the JDK (Java Development Kit):

  • CyanogenMod 7 – 9: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6
  • CyanogenMod 10.1: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7
  • CyanogenMod 10.2 – 11.0: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7 (OpenJDK 1.7 works fine, but the build system will display a warning)
  • CyanogenMod 12.0 – 13.0: OpenJDK 1.7 (see note about OpenJDK 1.8 below)
  • CyanogenMod 14.1: OpenJDK 1.8

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) or newer and OpenJDK: Since OpenJDK 1.7 was removed from the official Ubuntu repositories, you have a couple options:

  1. Obtain OpenJDK 1.7 from the openjdk-r PPA
  2. Enable experimental OpenJDK 1.8 support in CyanogenMod 13.0 (not available in earlier version). To enable OpenJDK 1.8 support, add this line to your $HOME/.bashrc file: export EXPERIMENTAL_USE_JAVA8=true.

Also see http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html which lists needed packages.

Create the directories

You will need to set up some directories in your build environment.

To create them:

$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ mkdir -p ~/android/system

Install the repo command

Enter the following to download the “repo” binary and make it executable (runnable):

$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution

In recent versions of Ubuntu, ~/bin should already be in your PATH. You can check this by opening ~/.profile with a text editor and verifying the following code exists (add it if it is missing):

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Initialize the CyanogenMod source repository

Enter the following to initialize the repository:

Note: Make sure the cm branch entered here is the one you wish to build and is supported on your device.
$ cd ~/android/system/
$ repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b gingerbread

Download the source code

To start the download of all the source code to your computer:

$ repo sync

The CM manifests include a sensible default configuration for repo, which we strongly suggest you use (i.e. don’t add any options to sync). For reference, our default values are -j 4 and -c. The -j 4 part means that there will be four simultaneous threads/connections. If you experience problems syncing, you can lower this to -j 3 or -j 2. -c will ask repo to pull in only the current branch, instead of the entire CM history.

Prepare to wait a long time while the source code downloads.

Helpful Tip

The repo sync command is used to update the latest source code from CyanogenMod and Google. Remember it, as you can do it every few days to keep your code base fresh and up-to-date.

Get prebuilt Rom Manager

$ cd ~/android/system/vendor/cyanogen

then enter:

$ ./get-rommanager

You won’t see any confirmation- just another prompt. But this should cause the Rom Manager apps to be loaded and installed into the source code. Once completed, this does not need to be done again.

Prepare the device-specific code

After the source downloads, ensure you are in the root of the source code (cd ~/android/system), then type:
$ source build/envsetup.sh
$ lunch

You should see a list of devices, including something like cm_skate-userdebug. Select it by typing its number. It is possible that lunch does not display your device. In that case try

$ lunch cm_skate-userdebug

or

$ lunch full_skate-userdebug

If all goes well, you should see that skate-specific directories are downloaded automatically.

Helpful Tip

If you want to know more about what source build/envsetup.sh does or simply want to know more about the breakfast, brunch and lunch commands, you can head over to the Envsetup help page.

Helpful Tip

Instead of typing cd ~/android/system every time you want to return back to the root of the source code, here’s a short command that will do it for you: croot. To use this command, you must first run source build/envsetup.sh from ~/android/system.

Extract proprietary blobs

Now ensure that your Skate is connected to your computer via the USB cable and that you are in the ~/android/system/device/zte/skate directory (you can cd ~/android/system/device/zte/skate if necessary). Then run the extract-files.sh script:

$ ./extract-files.sh

You should see the proprietary files (aka “blobs”) get pulled from the device and moved to the ~/android/system/vendor/zte directory. If you see errors about adb being unable to pull the files, adb may not be in the path of execution. If this is the case, see the adb page for suggestions for dealing with “command not found” errors.

Note:

Your device should already be running a build of CyanogenMod for the branch you wish to build for the extract-files.sh script to function properly.

Note:

It’s important that these proprietary files are extracted to the ~/android/system/vendor/zte directory by using the extract-files.sh script. Makefiles are generated at the same time to make sure the blobs are eventually copied to the device. Without these blobs, CyanogenMod may build without error, but you’ll be missing important functionality, such as graphics libraries that enable you to see anything!

Turn on caching to speed up build

You can speed up subsequent builds by adding

export USE_CCACHE=1

to your ~/.bashrc file (what’s a .bashrc file?). Then, specify the amount of disk space to dedicate to ccache by typing this from the top of your Android tree:

prebuilt/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

where 50G corresponds to 50GB of cache. This only needs to be run once and the setting will be remembered. Anywhere in the range of 25GB to 100GB will result in very noticeably increased build speeds (for instance, a typical 1hr build time can be reduced to 20min). If you’re only building for one device, 25GB-50GB is fine. If you plan to build for several devices that do not share the same kernel source, aim for 75GB-100GB. This space will be permanently occupied on your drive, so take this into consideration. See more information about ccache on Google’s android build environment initialization page.

Helpful Tip

If you are a very active developer, working on many other projects than just Android, you might prefer to keep your Android ccache independent (because it’s huge and can slow down the efficiency of ccache in your other projects). Beginning with CyanogenMod 12.1, you can specify environment variables for the location and size of CyanogenMod’s ccache. Some syntax examples: export ANDROID_CCACHE_DIR="$HOME/android/.ccache" and export ANDROID_CCACHE_SIZE="50G".

Start the build

Time to start building! So now type:

$ croot
$ brunch skate

The build should begin.

Helpful Tip

If the build doesn’t start, try lunch and choose your device from the menu. If that doesn’t work, try breakfast and choose from the menu. The command make skate should then work.

Helpful Tip

A second, bonus tip! If you get a command not found error for croot, brunch, or lunch, be sure you’ve done the source build/envsetup.sh command in this Terminal session from the ~/android/system directory.

Helpful Tip

A third tip! If the build to fails while downloading Gello, you’ll need to import a missing certificate into Maven’s truststore. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found here

If the build breaks…

  • If you experience this not-enough-memory-related error…
ERROR: signapk.jar failed: return code 1make: *** [out/target/product/skate/cm_skate-ota-eng.root.zip] Error 1

…you may want to make the following change to ~/android/system/build/tools/releasetools/common.py:

Search for instances of -Xmx2048m (it should appear either under OPTIONS.java_args or near usage of signapk.jar), and replace it with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx512m.

Then start the build again (with brunch).

  • If you see a message about things suddenly being “killed” for no reason, your (virtual) machine may have run out of memory or storage space. Assign it more resources and try again.

Install the build

Assuming the build completed without error (it will be obvious when it finishes), type:

$ cd $OUT

in the same terminal window that you did the build. Here you’ll find all the files that were created. The stuff that will go in /system is in a folder called system. The stuff that will become your ramdisk is in a folder called root. And your kernel is called… kernel.

But that’s all just background info. The two files we are interested in are (1) recovery.img, which contains CyanogenMod Recovery, and (2) cm-7-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-skate.zip, which is the CyanogenMod installation package.

Installing a custom recovery using fastboot

See All About Recovery Images for more information about custom recoveries and their capabilities.

  1. Make sure your computer has working fastboot and adb.
  1. Connect the Skate to the computer via USB.
  2. Make sure the fastboot binary is in your PATH or that you place the recovery image in the same directory as fastboot.
  3. Open a terminal on your PC and reboot the device into fastboot mode by typing
    adb reboot bootloader
    or by using the hardware key combination for your device while it is powered off.
  4. Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC sees the device by typing
    fastboot devices
    • If you don’t see your device serial number, and instead see “<waiting for device>”, fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastboot documentation for more info.
    • If you see “no permissionsfastboot”, make sure your UDEV rules are setup correctly.
  5. Flash recovery onto your device by entering the following command:
    fastboot flash recovery your_recovery_image.img
    where the latter part is the filename of the recovery image.
  6. Once the flash completes successfully, reboot the device into recovery to verify the installation.
    • Note: Some ROMs overwrite recovery at boot time so if you do not plan to immediately boot into recovery to install CyanogenMod, please be aware that this may overwrite your custom recovery with the stock one.

Install CyanogenMod

Back to the $OUT directory on your computer– you should see a file that looks something like:

cm-7-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-skate.zip

Note:

The above file name may vary depending on the version of CM you are building. Your build may not include a version number or may identify itself as a “KANG” rather than UNOFFICIAL version. Regardless, the file name will end in .zip and should be titled similarly to official builds.

Now you can flash the cm...zip file above as usual via recovery mode. Before doing so, now is a good time to make a backup of whatever installation is currently running on the device in case something goes wrong with the flash attempt. While CyanogenMod Recovery doesn’t have a backup feature, there are other custom recoveries available that do. You can also use something like Titanium Backup (root required) as an alternative.

Success! So….what’s next?

You’ve done it! Welcome to the elite club of self-builders. You’ve built your operating system from scratch, from the ground up. You are the master/mistress of your domain… and hopefully you’ve learned a bit on the way and had some fun too.

Now that you’ve succeeded in building CyanogenMod for your device, here are some suggestions on what to do next.

Also, be sure to take a glance at the Dev Center on this wiki for all kinds of more detailed information about developer topics ranging from collecting logs, understanding what’s in the source code directories, submitting your own contributions, porting CyanogenMod to new devices, and a lot more.

Congrats again!

Content of this page is based on informations from wiki.cyanogenmod.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Categories ZTE

Sony Xperia M (nicki)

Cyanogenmod ROM Sony Xperia M (nicki)

Cyanogenmod ROM Sony Xperia M (nicki)

Quick Info

Download CyanogenMod

Download (nightly build)
CyanogenMod 14.1 (Android 7.1 (Nougat))

Special boot modes

  • Recovery: Press Volume Up when the notification light is pink.
  • Bootloader: With the device powered down, hold Volume Down and connect the USB cable. The notification light should briefly turn green to indicate you are in flash mode.
  • Fastboot: With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.

Source code

Device http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_device_sony_nicki
Kernel http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_kernel_sony_msm8x27
Xperia M Specifications
Codename: nicki
Vendor: Sony
Release date: 2013 June
Type: phone
GSM freq: HSDPA 900 / 2100 – C1905, C2005. HSDPA 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 – C1904, C2004
Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8227
CPU: 1 GHz dual-core Krait
GPU: Adreno 305
RAM: 1GB
Weight: 115 g (4.83 oz)
Dimensions: 124 x 62 x 9.3 mm (4.88 x 2.44 x 0.37 in)
Screen size: 102 mm (4.0 in)
Resolution: 480×854
Screen density: 244.9 ppi
Screen type: TFT
Internal storage: 4GB
SD Card: up to 32GB
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0 + A2DP
Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Main camera: 5 MP
Secondary camera: VGA
Peripherals: Accelerometer, proximity, compass
CM supported: 11, 12.1, 13, 14.1

How to Install CyanogenMod on the Sony Xperia M (nicki)

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Unlock your Xperia M

What does “unlocking” mean?

The first step in putting any custom operating system on your Xperia M is to unlock the bootloader. A bootloader is the very first program that runs when you turn on your device. The bootloader initializes some hardware and then loads the kernel and ramdisk, and gets the boot process going. If the bootloader is in locked mode, it will ensure that only the stock operating system can run. Since you will be installing your own operating system (CyanogenMod), you need to turn this off.

To unlock your bootloader, you’ll first need a program on your computer called adb. One way to get adb is to download and install the Android SDK (Software Developer Kit) from Google. The SDK is used by app developers when they’re writing programs for Android, and who knows, you may want to write apps someday.

Install the Android SDK

Download the SDK, per the steps on Google’s web page. Then install it by following the specific instructions for your computer.

Obtaining the Bootloader Unlock Code

Note:

Unlocking the bootloader on a Sony device may automatically wipe internal storage; a backup of the sdcard is suggested. It will also irreversibly erase the DRM keys stored in the TA partition of some devices, which will result in the loss of certain proprietary features that may have been included. Check your specific device forum on XDA to learn more.

In order to unlock the bootloader on your Xperia M you will need to obtain a code from Sony. The following process will help you acquire this code so that you can flash a custom recovery.

  1. Open the Phone application on the Xperia M and enter *#06# to obtain the device’s IMEI, IDID or MEID. Save this for later use.
    • Optional: if you do not have a phone app, the IMEI, IDID or MEID can be found on the box or on the device in Settings -> About Device -> Status.
  2. Put the device into fastboot mode:
    • With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.
  3. Open a terminal on the PC and enter fastboot getvar version
    • If you receive the message <waiting for device> fastboot is not configured properly, please see fastboot for more details.
  4. Navigate a browser here
    • Select your device and click the ‘continue’ button at the bottom of the page.
    • Enter your email address, agree to the terms and select ‘Submit’
    • Click the link from your email, enter your IMEI, IDID or MEID and continue
    • The unlock code should now appear, write this down for the next step.
  5. In the PC’s terminal, enter the following command: fastboot oem unlock 0xKEY
    • KEY corresponds to the unlock code you were given.

The Xperia M’s bootloader should now be unlocked.

Installing CyanogenMod on Sony Devices

  1. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.
    Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.
  2. Extract boot.img from the zip to your computer, you will need this file for fastboot.
  3. Put the phone into fastboot mode:
    With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.
  4. Open a terminal on the PC with admin rights, access your platform-tools directory of the Android SDK, and enter the following:
    • fastboot flash boot boot.img
    • fastboot reboot
    While the device reboots, press the Volume rockers a few times to load recovery.
Note: Make the selection below based on the recovery version you see on your screen. If you’re installing CyanogenMod 11, you will have CWM Recovery. If installing CyanogenMod 12.0 or newer, you will have CyanogenMod Recovery.
Click here to continue instructions using CyanogenMod Recovery
Note: Once the device boots into CyanogenMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. The home button is used to confirm your selection. The recovery is also touch screen friendly, so you can swipe up or down to scroll and tap the item you wish to select.
  1. Optional (Recommended): Using adb you can create a backup on your PC of your apps and app data. Boot the device into android and open a command prompt (or terminal on Mac and Linux) and enter the following:
    • adb backup -apk -all -f backup20161224.ab
    When the backup is complete return to recovery mode.
  2. On the device, select wipe data/factory reset.
  3. You have two options for installing the installation zip packages. (Note: The sideload method requires a recent version of adb to be working in recovery (adb bundled with ubuntu may have protocol errors):
    • Sideload method: Select apply update > apply update from adb. Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and enter adb sideload update.zip, where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Install update method: If you previously placed the installation zip packages on your internal storage, select apply update > choose from internal storage. Navigate to the directory where you placed the packages and select one. If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  4. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Note:

On all 2011 model Sony devices, the kernel will not update when flashed in recovery, so the kernel must be updated via fastboot every time you flash a new build of CyanogenMod.

Click here to continue instructions using CWM Recovery
Note:Once the device boots into ClockworkMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. The home button is used to confirm your selection.
  1. Optional (Recommended): Select backup and restore to create a backup of your current ROM.
  2. Select wipe data/factory reset. If you get an error formatting /data, try format /data and /data/media from the mounts and storage menu
  3. You have two options for transferring and installing the installation zip packages. Both cases require a recent version of adb to be working in recovery (adb bundled with ubuntu may have protocol errors). The sideload method is more universal across devices, whereas the push and install method is more commonly used:
    • Sideload method: select install zip > install zip from sideload. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Push and install method: Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and navigate to the directory holding the package(s) you would like to install. On the device, navigate to the mounts and storage menu. If you see /storage/sdcard0 as a mountable volume, go ahead and mount it. If you do not see this directory, then instead mount the /data directory. Take note of which volume you mounted. Now, push the package(s) to your device:
    – If you mounted /storage/sdcard0, then: adb push update.zip /storage/sdcard0/
    – If you mounted /data, then: adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/
    where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. Go back to the main menu and select install zip. Choose to install from the same directory where you pushed the package(s). If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  4. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Note:

On all 2011 model Sony devices, the kernel will not update when flashed in recovery, so the kernel must be updated via fastboot every time you flash a new build of CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip

See something wrong on this page? Click here: Report a Site Problem.

How To Build CyanogenMod For Sony Xperia M (nicki)

Introduction

These instructions will hopefully assist you to start with a stock Xperia M, unlock the bootloader (if necessary), and then download the required tools as well as the very latest source code for CyanogenMod (based on Google’s Android operating system). Using these, you can build both CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery image from source code, and then install them both to your device.

It is difficult to say how much experience is necessary to follow these instructions. While this guide is certainly not for the very very very uninitiated, these steps shouldn’t require a PhD in software development either. Some readers will have no difficulty and breeze through the steps easily. Others may struggle over the most basic operation. Because people’s experiences, backgrounds, and intuitions differ, it may be a good idea to read through just to ascertain whether you feel comfortable or are getting over your head.

Remember, you assume all risk of trying this, but you will reap the rewards! It’s pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :) And once you’re an Android-building ninja, there will be no more need to wait for “nightly” builds from anyone. You will have at your fingertips the skills to build a full operating system from code to a running device, whenever you want. Where you go from there– maybe you’ll add a feature, fix a bug, add a translation, or use what you’ve learned to build a new app or port to a new device– or maybe you’ll never build again– it’s all really up to you.

What you’ll need

  • A Xperia M
  • A relatively recent computer (Linux, OS X, or Windows) with a reasonable amount of RAM and about 100 GB of free storage (more if you enable ccache or build for multiple devices). The less RAM you have, the longer the build will take (aim for 8 GB or more). Using SSDs results in considerably faster build times than traditional hard drives.
  • A USB cable compatible with the Xperia M (typically micro USB, but older devices may use mini USB or have a proprietary cable)
  • A decent internet connection & reliable electricity :)
  • Some familiarity with basic Android operation and terminology. It would help if you’ve installed custom roms on other devices and are familiar with recovery. It may also be useful to know some basic command line concepts such as cd for “change directory”, the concept of directory hierarchies, that in Linux they are separated by /, etc.

If you are not accustomed to using Linux– this is an excellent chance to learn. It’s free– just download and run a virtual machine (VM) such as Virtualbox, then install a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu (AOSP vets Ubuntu as well). Any recent 64-bit version should work great, but the latest is recommended.

Note:

You want to use a 64-bit version of Linux. A 32-bit Linux environment will only work if you are building CyanogenMod 6 and older. For CyanogenMod 10.1, if you encounter issues with 64bit host binaries, you can set BUILD_HOST_32bit=1 in your environment. This is generally not needed, though, especially with CyanogenMod 10.2 and newer.

Using a VM allows Linux to run as a guest inside your host computer– a computer in a computer, if you will. If you hate Linux for whatever reason, you can always just uninstall and delete the whole thing. (There are plenty of places to find instructions for setting up Virtualbox with Ubuntu, so I’ll leave it to you to do that.)

So let’s begin!

Build CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery

Prepare the Build Environment

Note:

You only need to do these steps the first time you build. If you previously prepared your build environment and have downloaded the CyanogenMod source code for another device, skip to Prepare the device-specific code.

Install the SDK

If you have not previously installed adb and fastboot, install the Android SDK. “SDK” stands for Software Developer Kit, and it includes useful tools that you can use to flash software, look at the system logs in real time, grab screenshots, and more– all from your computer.

Helpful Tip

While the SDK contains lots of different things– the two tools you are most interested in for building Android are adb and fastboot, located in the /platform-tools directory.

Install the Build Packages

Several “build packages” are needed to build CyanogenMod. You can install these using the package manager of your choice.

Helpful Tip

A package manager in Linux is a system used to install or remove software (usually originating from the Internet) on your computer. With Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu Software Center. Even better, you may also use the apt-get install command directly in the Terminal. (Learn more about the apt packaging tool system from Wikipedia.)

For both 32-bit & 64-bit systems, you’ll need:

bc bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev

In addition to the above, for 64-bit systems, get these:

g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev

For Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) and newer, substitute:

  • lib32readline-gplv2-devlib32readline6-dev

For Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and newer, substitute (additionally see java notes below):

  • libwxgtk2.8-devlibwxgtk3.0-dev
  • openjdk-7-jdkopenjdk-8-jdk

Java versions: Different versions of CyanogenMod require different versions of the JDK (Java Development Kit):

  • CyanogenMod 7 – 9: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6
  • CyanogenMod 10.1: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7
  • CyanogenMod 10.2 – 11.0: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7 (OpenJDK 1.7 works fine, but the build system will display a warning)
  • CyanogenMod 12.0 – 13.0: OpenJDK 1.7 (see note about OpenJDK 1.8 below)
  • CyanogenMod 14.1: OpenJDK 1.8

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) or newer and OpenJDK: Since OpenJDK 1.7 was removed from the official Ubuntu repositories, you have a couple options:

  1. Obtain OpenJDK 1.7 from the openjdk-r PPA
  2. Enable experimental OpenJDK 1.8 support in CyanogenMod 13.0 (not available in earlier version). To enable OpenJDK 1.8 support, add this line to your $HOME/.bashrc file: export EXPERIMENTAL_USE_JAVA8=true.

Also see http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html which lists needed packages.

Create the directories

You will need to set up some directories in your build environment.

To create them:

$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ mkdir -p ~/android/system

Install the repo command

Enter the following to download the “repo” binary and make it executable (runnable):

$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution

In recent versions of Ubuntu, ~/bin should already be in your PATH. You can check this by opening ~/.profile with a text editor and verifying the following code exists (add it if it is missing):

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Initialize the CyanogenMod source repository

Enter the following to initialize the repository:

Note: Make sure the cm branch entered here is the one you wish to build and is supported on your device.
$ cd ~/android/system/
$ repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b cm-13.0

Download the source code

To start the download of all the source code to your computer:

$ repo sync

The CM manifests include a sensible default configuration for repo, which we strongly suggest you use (i.e. don’t add any options to sync). For reference, our default values are -j 4 and -c. The -j 4 part means that there will be four simultaneous threads/connections. If you experience problems syncing, you can lower this to -j 3 or -j 2. -c will ask repo to pull in only the current branch, instead of the entire CM history.

Prepare to wait a long time while the source code downloads.

Helpful Tip

The repo sync command is used to update the latest source code from CyanogenMod and Google. Remember it, as you can do it every few days to keep your code base fresh and up-to-date.

Get prebuilt apps (CM11 and below)

Next,

$ cd ~/android/system/vendor/cm

then enter:

$ ./get-prebuilts

You won’t see any confirmation- just another prompt. But this should cause some prebuilt apps to be loaded and installed into the source code. Once completed, this does not need to be done again.

Prepare the device-specific code

Helpful Tip – Errors during breakfast

Different maintainers setup their device inheritance rules differently. Some require a vendor directory to be populated before breakfast will even succeed. If you receive an error here about vendor makefiles, then jump down to the next section Extract proprietary blobs. The first portion of breakfast should have succeeded at pulling in the device tree and the extract blobs script should be available. After completing that section, you can rerun breakfast nicki

After the source downloads, ensure you are in the root of the source code (cd ~/android/system), then type:

$ source build/envsetup.sh
$ breakfast nicki

This will download the device specific configuration and kernel source for your device. An alternative to using the breakfast command is to build your own local manifest. To do this, you will need to locate your device on CyanogenMod’s GitHub and list all of the repositories defined in cm.dependencies in your local manifest.

Helpful Tip

If you want to know more about what source build/envsetup.sh does or simply want to know more about the breakfast, brunch and lunch commands, you can head over to the Envsetup help page.

Helpful Tip

Instead of typing cd ~/android/system every time you want to return back to the root of the source code, here’s a short command that will do it for you: croot. To use this command, you must first run source build/envsetup.sh from ~/android/system.

Extract proprietary blobs

Now ensure that your Xperia M is connected to your computer via the USB cable and that you are in the ~/android/system/device/sony/nicki directory (you can cd ~/android/system/device/sony/nicki if necessary). Then run the extract-files.sh script:

$ ./extract-files.sh

You should see the proprietary files (aka “blobs”) get pulled from the device and moved to the ~/android/system/vendor/sony directory. If you see errors about adb being unable to pull the files, adb may not be in the path of execution. If this is the case, see the adb page for suggestions for dealing with “command not found” errors.

Note:

Your device should already be running a build of CyanogenMod for the branch you wish to build for the extract-files.sh script to function properly.

Note:

It’s important that these proprietary files are extracted to the ~/android/system/vendor/sony directory by using the extract-files.sh script. Makefiles are generated at the same time to make sure the blobs are eventually copied to the device. Without these blobs, CyanogenMod may build without error, but you’ll be missing important functionality, such as graphics libraries that enable you to see anything!

Turn on caching to speed up build

You can speed up subsequent builds by adding

export USE_CCACHE=1

to your ~/.bashrc file (what’s a .bashrc file?). Then, specify the amount of disk space to dedicate to ccache by typing this from the top of your Android tree:

prebuilts/misc/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

where 50G corresponds to 50GB of cache. This only needs to be run once and the setting will be remembered. Anywhere in the range of 25GB to 100GB will result in very noticeably increased build speeds (for instance, a typical 1hr build time can be reduced to 20min). If you’re only building for one device, 25GB-50GB is fine. If you plan to build for several devices that do not share the same kernel source, aim for 75GB-100GB. This space will be permanently occupied on your drive, so take this into consideration. See more information about ccache on Google’s android build environment initialization page.

Helpful Tip

If you are a very active developer, working on many other projects than just Android, you might prefer to keep your Android ccache independent (because it’s huge and can slow down the efficiency of ccache in your other projects). Beginning with CyanogenMod 12.1, you can specify environment variables for the location and size of CyanogenMod’s ccache. Some syntax examples: export ANDROID_CCACHE_DIR="$HOME/android/.ccache" and export ANDROID_CCACHE_SIZE="50G".

Start the build

Time to start building! So now type:

$ croot
$ brunch nicki

The build should begin.

Helpful Tip

If the build doesn’t start, try lunch and choose your device from the menu. If that doesn’t work, try breakfast and choose from the menu. The command make nicki should then work.

Helpful Tip

A second, bonus tip! If you get a command not found error for croot, brunch, or lunch, be sure you’ve done the source build/envsetup.sh command in this Terminal session from the ~/android/system directory.

Helpful Tip

A third tip! If the build to fails while downloading Gello, you’ll need to import a missing certificate into Maven’s truststore. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found here

If the build breaks…

  • If you experience this not-enough-memory-related error…
ERROR: signapk.jar failed: return code 1make: *** [out/target/product/nicki/cm_nicki-ota-eng.root.zip] Error 1

…you may want to make the following change to ~/android/system/build/tools/releasetools/common.py:

Search for instances of -Xmx2048m (it should appear either under OPTIONS.java_args or near usage of signapk.jar), and replace it with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx512m.

Then start the build again (with brunch).

  • If you see a message about things suddenly being “killed” for no reason, your (virtual) machine may have run out of memory or storage space. Assign it more resources and try again.

Install the build

Assuming the build completed without error (it will be obvious when it finishes), type:

$ cd $OUT

in the same terminal window that you did the build. Here you’ll find all the files that were created. The stuff that will go in /system is in a folder called system. The stuff that will become your ramdisk is in a folder called root. And your kernel is called… kernel.

But that’s all just background info. The two files we are interested in are (1) recovery.img, which contains CyanogenMod Recovery, and (2) cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-nicki.zip, which is the CyanogenMod installation package.

Install CyanogenMod

Back to the $OUT directory on your computer– you should see a file that looks something like:

cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-nicki.zip

Note:

The above file name may vary depending on the version of CM you are building. Your build may not include a version number or may identify itself as a “KANG” rather than UNOFFICIAL version. Regardless, the file name will end in .zip and should be titled similarly to official builds.

Now you can flash the cm...zip file above as usual via recovery mode. Before doing so, now is a good time to make a backup of whatever installation is currently running on the device in case something goes wrong with the flash attempt. While CyanogenMod Recovery doesn’t have a backup feature, there are other custom recoveries available that do. You can also use something like Titanium Backup (root required) as an alternative.

Success! So….what’s next?

You’ve done it! Welcome to the elite club of self-builders. You’ve built your operating system from scratch, from the ground up. You are the master/mistress of your domain… and hopefully you’ve learned a bit on the way and had some fun too.

Now that you’ve succeeded in building CyanogenMod for your device, here are some suggestions on what to do next.

Also, be sure to take a glance at the Dev Center on this wiki for all kinds of more detailed information about developer topics ranging from collecting logs, understanding what’s in the source code directories, submitting your own contributions, porting CyanogenMod to new devices, and a lot more.

Congrats again!

Content of this page is based on informations from wiki.cyanogenmod.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

LG Optimus L7 (p700)

Cyanogenmod ROM LG Optimus L7 (p700)

Cyanogenmod ROM LG Optimus L7 (p700)

Quick Info

Download CyanogenMod

Download (nightly build)
CyanogenMod 10 (Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean))

Note: Support Status

This device does not support the latest official release of CyanogenMod. This may be due to hardware limitations or simply because development is ongoing. The most recent version supported is based on the jellybean branch of CyanogenMod.

Special boot modes

  • Recovery: Volume Up + Home + Power , After phone vibrates, release Power button.

Source code

Device http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_device_lg_p700
Kernel http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/lge-kernel-p700
Optimus L7 Specifications
Codename: p700
Vendor: LG
Manufacturer: LG
Release date: 2012 July
Type: phone
GSM freq: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
Platform: Qualcomm MSM7227A
CPU: 1 GHz single-core Cortex-A5
GPU: Adreno 200
RAM: 512MB
Weight: 122 g
Dimensions: 125.5 mm (4.94 in) (h)
67 mm (2.64 in) (w)
8.7 mm (0.34 in) (d)
Screen size: 109 mm (4.3 in)
Resolution: 480×800 (WXGA)
Screen density: 220ppi
Screen type: IPS LCD
Internal storage: 4GB
SD Card: up to 32GB
Bluetooth: 3.0
Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n
Main camera: 5MP, flash: LED
Secondary camera: 1.3MP
Power: 1700 mAh
CM supported: 10
Latest CM version: jellybean

How to Install CyanogenMod on the LG Optimus L7 (p700)

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Installing CyanogenMod from recovery

  1. Make sure your computer has working adb.
  2. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.
    Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.
  3. Boot to recovery mode, and connect the phone to your computer through USB.
    • Volume Up + Home + Power , After phone vibrates, release Power button.
  4. In ClockworkMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. On most devices, the power button is used to confirm a menu selection, but for some devices a physical home key acts as a selector. Some devices have touch enabled ClockworkMod Recovery, in which case you may be able to swipe to, or touch, menu selections.
  5. Optional (Recommended): Select backup and restore to create a backup.
  6. Select wipe data/factory reset.
  7. You have two options for transferring and installing the installation packages. The sideload method is more universal across devices, whereas the push and install method is more commonly used:
    • Sideload method: select install zip > install zip from sideload. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Push and install method: Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and navigate to the directory holding the package(s) you would like to install. On the device, navigate to the mounts and storage menu. If you see /storage/sdcard0 or /sdcard as a mountable volume, go ahead and mount it. If you do not see one of these partitions, then instead mount the /data partition. Take note of which volume you mounted. Now, push the package(s) to your device (also, see tip below):
    – If you mounted /storage/sdcard0, then: adb push update.zip /storage/sdcard0/
    – If you mounted /sdcard or /data, then: adb push update.zip /sdcard/
    where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. Go back to the main menu and select install zip. Choose to install from the same directory where you pushed the package(s). If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  8. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip – SD card folders

CyanogenMod 10.1 and newer have multi-user support (introduced in Android 4.2). If your device has storage on the /data partition, then Android actually looks in /data/media/0/ for the first user’s /sdcard/ storage. ClockworkMod recovery symlinks /sdcard/ to /data/media/ though. So, if you are pushing files to internal storage in recovery and want them to be visible in Android, you should push them to /sdcard/0/ or /data/media/0/. Here’s the most frequent scenarios:

  1. If you’re coming from a ROM with Android 4.1 or older to CyanogenMod 10 or older: adb push update.zip /sdcard/
  2. If you’re coming from a ROM with Android 4.1 or older to CyanogenMod 10.1 or newer: adb shell "mkdir /sdcard/0/" followed by adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/
  3. If you’re coming from a ROM with Android 4.2 or newer to CyanogenMod 10.1 or newer: adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/

Helpful Tip

See something wrong on this page? Click here: Report a Site Problem.

How To Build CyanogenMod For LG Optimus L7 (p700)

Introduction

These instructions will hopefully assist you to start with a stock Optimus L7, unlock the bootloader (if necessary), and then download the required tools as well as the very latest source code for CyanogenMod (based on Google’s Android operating system). Using these, you can build both CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery image from source code, and then install them both to your device.

It is difficult to say how much experience is necessary to follow these instructions. While this guide is certainly not for the very very very uninitiated, these steps shouldn’t require a PhD in software development either. Some readers will have no difficulty and breeze through the steps easily. Others may struggle over the most basic operation. Because people’s experiences, backgrounds, and intuitions differ, it may be a good idea to read through just to ascertain whether you feel comfortable or are getting over your head.

Remember, you assume all risk of trying this, but you will reap the rewards! It’s pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :) And once you’re an Android-building ninja, there will be no more need to wait for “nightly” builds from anyone. You will have at your fingertips the skills to build a full operating system from code to a running device, whenever you want. Where you go from there– maybe you’ll add a feature, fix a bug, add a translation, or use what you’ve learned to build a new app or port to a new device– or maybe you’ll never build again– it’s all really up to you.

What you’ll need

  • A Optimus L7
  • A relatively recent computer (Linux, OS X, or Windows) with a reasonable amount of RAM and about 100 GB of free storage (more if you enable ccache or build for multiple devices). The less RAM you have, the longer the build will take (aim for 8 GB or more). Using SSDs results in considerably faster build times than traditional hard drives.
  • A USB cable compatible with the Optimus L7 (typically micro USB, but older devices may use mini USB or have a proprietary cable)
  • A decent internet connection & reliable electricity :)
  • Some familiarity with basic Android operation and terminology. It would help if you’ve installed custom roms on other devices and are familiar with recovery. It may also be useful to know some basic command line concepts such as cd for “change directory”, the concept of directory hierarchies, that in Linux they are separated by /, etc.

If you are not accustomed to using Linux– this is an excellent chance to learn. It’s free– just download and run a virtual machine (VM) such as Virtualbox, then install a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu (AOSP vets Ubuntu as well). Any recent 64-bit version should work great, but the latest is recommended.

Note:

You want to use a 64-bit version of Linux. A 32-bit Linux environment will only work if you are building CyanogenMod 6 and older. For CyanogenMod 10.1, if you encounter issues with 64bit host binaries, you can set BUILD_HOST_32bit=1 in your environment. This is generally not needed, though, especially with CyanogenMod 10.2 and newer.

Using a VM allows Linux to run as a guest inside your host computer– a computer in a computer, if you will. If you hate Linux for whatever reason, you can always just uninstall and delete the whole thing. (There are plenty of places to find instructions for setting up Virtualbox with Ubuntu, so I’ll leave it to you to do that.)

So let’s begin!

Build CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery

Prepare the Build Environment

Note:

You only need to do these steps the first time you build. If you previously prepared your build environment and have downloaded the CyanogenMod source code for another device, skip to Prepare the device-specific code.

Install the SDK

If you have not previously installed adb and fastboot, install the Android SDK. “SDK” stands for Software Developer Kit, and it includes useful tools that you can use to flash software, look at the system logs in real time, grab screenshots, and more– all from your computer.

Helpful Tip

While the SDK contains lots of different things– the two tools you are most interested in for building Android are adb and fastboot, located in the /platform-tools directory.

Install the Build Packages

Several “build packages” are needed to build CyanogenMod. You can install these using the package manager of your choice.

Helpful Tip

A package manager in Linux is a system used to install or remove software (usually originating from the Internet) on your computer. With Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu Software Center. Even better, you may also use the apt-get install command directly in the Terminal. (Learn more about the apt packaging tool system from Wikipedia.)

For both 32-bit & 64-bit systems, you’ll need:

bc bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev

In addition to the above, for 64-bit systems, get these:

g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev

For Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) and newer, substitute:

  • lib32readline-gplv2-devlib32readline6-dev

For Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and newer, substitute (additionally see java notes below):

  • libwxgtk2.8-devlibwxgtk3.0-dev
  • openjdk-7-jdkopenjdk-8-jdk

Java versions: Different versions of CyanogenMod require different versions of the JDK (Java Development Kit):

  • CyanogenMod 7 – 9: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6
  • CyanogenMod 10.1: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7
  • CyanogenMod 10.2 – 11.0: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7 (OpenJDK 1.7 works fine, but the build system will display a warning)
  • CyanogenMod 12.0 – 13.0: OpenJDK 1.7 (see note about OpenJDK 1.8 below)
  • CyanogenMod 14.1: OpenJDK 1.8

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) or newer and OpenJDK: Since OpenJDK 1.7 was removed from the official Ubuntu repositories, you have a couple options:

  1. Obtain OpenJDK 1.7 from the openjdk-r PPA
  2. Enable experimental OpenJDK 1.8 support in CyanogenMod 13.0 (not available in earlier version). To enable OpenJDK 1.8 support, add this line to your $HOME/.bashrc file: export EXPERIMENTAL_USE_JAVA8=true.

Also see http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html which lists needed packages.

Create the directories

You will need to set up some directories in your build environment.

To create them:

$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ mkdir -p ~/android/system

Install the repo command

Enter the following to download the “repo” binary and make it executable (runnable):

$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution

In recent versions of Ubuntu, ~/bin should already be in your PATH. You can check this by opening ~/.profile with a text editor and verifying the following code exists (add it if it is missing):

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Initialize the CyanogenMod source repository

Enter the following to initialize the repository:

Note: Make sure the cm branch entered here is the one you wish to build and is supported on your device.
$ cd ~/android/system/
$ repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b jellybean

Download the source code

To start the download of all the source code to your computer:

$ repo sync

The CM manifests include a sensible default configuration for repo, which we strongly suggest you use (i.e. don’t add any options to sync). For reference, our default values are -j 4 and -c. The -j 4 part means that there will be four simultaneous threads/connections. If you experience problems syncing, you can lower this to -j 3 or -j 2. -c will ask repo to pull in only the current branch, instead of the entire CM history.

Prepare to wait a long time while the source code downloads.

Helpful Tip

The repo sync command is used to update the latest source code from CyanogenMod and Google. Remember it, as you can do it every few days to keep your code base fresh and up-to-date.

Get prebuilt apps (CM11 and below)

Next,

$ cd ~/android/system/vendor/cm

then enter:

$ ./get-prebuilts

You won’t see any confirmation- just another prompt. But this should cause some prebuilt apps to be loaded and installed into the source code. Once completed, this does not need to be done again.

Prepare the device-specific code

Helpful Tip – Errors during breakfast

Different maintainers setup their device inheritance rules differently. Some require a vendor directory to be populated before breakfast will even succeed. If you receive an error here about vendor makefiles, then jump down to the next section Extract proprietary blobs. The first portion of breakfast should have succeeded at pulling in the device tree and the extract blobs script should be available. After completing that section, you can rerun breakfast p700

After the source downloads, ensure you are in the root of the source code (cd ~/android/system), then type:

$ source build/envsetup.sh
$ breakfast p700

This will download the device specific configuration and kernel source for your device. An alternative to using the breakfast command is to build your own local manifest. To do this, you will need to locate your device on CyanogenMod’s GitHub and list all of the repositories defined in cm.dependencies in your local manifest.

Helpful Tip

If you want to know more about what source build/envsetup.sh does or simply want to know more about the breakfast, brunch and lunch commands, you can head over to the Envsetup help page.

Helpful Tip

Instead of typing cd ~/android/system every time you want to return back to the root of the source code, here’s a short command that will do it for you: croot. To use this command, you must first run source build/envsetup.sh from ~/android/system.

Extract proprietary blobs

Now ensure that your Optimus L7 is connected to your computer via the USB cable and that you are in the ~/android/system/device/lg/p700 directory (you can cd ~/android/system/device/lg/p700 if necessary). Then run the extract-files.sh script:

$ ./extract-files.sh

You should see the proprietary files (aka “blobs”) get pulled from the device and moved to the ~/android/system/vendor/lg directory. If you see errors about adb being unable to pull the files, adb may not be in the path of execution. If this is the case, see the adb page for suggestions for dealing with “command not found” errors.

Note:

Your device should already be running a build of CyanogenMod for the branch you wish to build for the extract-files.sh script to function properly.

Note:

It’s important that these proprietary files are extracted to the ~/android/system/vendor/lg directory by using the extract-files.sh script. Makefiles are generated at the same time to make sure the blobs are eventually copied to the device. Without these blobs, CyanogenMod may build without error, but you’ll be missing important functionality, such as graphics libraries that enable you to see anything!

Turn on caching to speed up build

You can speed up subsequent builds by adding

export USE_CCACHE=1

to your ~/.bashrc file (what’s a .bashrc file?). Then, specify the amount of disk space to dedicate to ccache by typing this from the top of your Android tree:

prebuilts/misc/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

where 50G corresponds to 50GB of cache. This only needs to be run once and the setting will be remembered. Anywhere in the range of 25GB to 100GB will result in very noticeably increased build speeds (for instance, a typical 1hr build time can be reduced to 20min). If you’re only building for one device, 25GB-50GB is fine. If you plan to build for several devices that do not share the same kernel source, aim for 75GB-100GB. This space will be permanently occupied on your drive, so take this into consideration. See more information about ccache on Google’s android build environment initialization page.

Helpful Tip

If you are a very active developer, working on many other projects than just Android, you might prefer to keep your Android ccache independent (because it’s huge and can slow down the efficiency of ccache in your other projects). Beginning with CyanogenMod 12.1, you can specify environment variables for the location and size of CyanogenMod’s ccache. Some syntax examples: export ANDROID_CCACHE_DIR="$HOME/android/.ccache" and export ANDROID_CCACHE_SIZE="50G".

Start the build

Time to start building! So now type:

$ croot
$ brunch p700

The build should begin.

Helpful Tip

If the build doesn’t start, try lunch and choose your device from the menu. If that doesn’t work, try breakfast and choose from the menu. The command make p700 should then work.

Helpful Tip

A second, bonus tip! If you get a command not found error for croot, brunch, or lunch, be sure you’ve done the source build/envsetup.sh command in this Terminal session from the ~/android/system directory.

Helpful Tip

A third tip! If the build to fails while downloading Gello, you’ll need to import a missing certificate into Maven’s truststore. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found here

If the build breaks…

  • If you experience this not-enough-memory-related error…
ERROR: signapk.jar failed: return code 1make: *** [out/target/product/p700/cm_p700-ota-eng.root.zip] Error 1

…you may want to make the following change to ~/android/system/build/tools/releasetools/common.py:

Search for instances of -Xmx2048m (it should appear either under OPTIONS.java_args or near usage of signapk.jar), and replace it with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx512m.

Then start the build again (with brunch).

  • If you see a message about things suddenly being “killed” for no reason, your (virtual) machine may have run out of memory or storage space. Assign it more resources and try again.

Install the build

Assuming the build completed without error (it will be obvious when it finishes), type:

$ cd $OUT

in the same terminal window that you did the build. Here you’ll find all the files that were created. The stuff that will go in /system is in a folder called system. The stuff that will become your ramdisk is in a folder called root. And your kernel is called… kernel.

But that’s all just background info. The two files we are interested in are (1) recovery.img, which contains CyanogenMod Recovery, and (2) cm-10-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-p700.zip, which is the CyanogenMod installation package.

Install CyanogenMod

Back to the $OUT directory on your computer– you should see a file that looks something like:

cm-10-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-p700.zip

Note:

The above file name may vary depending on the version of CM you are building. Your build may not include a version number or may identify itself as a “KANG” rather than UNOFFICIAL version. Regardless, the file name will end in .zip and should be titled similarly to official builds.

Now you can flash the cm...zip file above as usual via recovery mode. Before doing so, now is a good time to make a backup of whatever installation is currently running on the device in case something goes wrong with the flash attempt. While CyanogenMod Recovery doesn’t have a backup feature, there are other custom recoveries available that do. You can also use something like Titanium Backup (root required) as an alternative.

Success! So….what’s next?

You’ve done it! Welcome to the elite club of self-builders. You’ve built your operating system from scratch, from the ground up. You are the master/mistress of your domain… and hopefully you’ve learned a bit on the way and had some fun too.

Now that you’ve succeeded in building CyanogenMod for your device, here are some suggestions on what to do next.

Also, be sure to take a glance at the Dev Center on this wiki for all kinds of more detailed information about developer topics ranging from collecting logs, understanding what’s in the source code directories, submitting your own contributions, porting CyanogenMod to new devices, and a lot more.

Congrats again!

Content of this page is based on informations from wiki.cyanogenmod.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Categories LG

LG Optimus G Pro (e980)

CyanogenMod ROM LG Optimus G Pro (e980) (All e98x GSM)

CyanogenMod ROM LG Optimus G Pro (e980) (All e98x GSM)

Quick Info

Download CyanogenMod

Download (nightly build)
CyanogenMod 12.1 (Android 5.1 (Lollipop))

Notes

Recovery can be installed via the same app used for unlocking the bootloader: FreeGee. This does require root. Once the bootloader is unlocked, recovery may also be flashed via fastboot.

Special boot modes

  • Recovery: Hold Volume Up & Power until fastboot screen appears, then press Volume Down twice, then press Power to boot recovery.
  • Bootloader: Hold Volume Up & Power until fastboot screen appears.

Source code

Device http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_device_lge_e980
Kernel http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/lge-kernel-gproj
Optimus G Pro Specifications
Codename: e980
Vendor: LG
Release date: 2013 May 1
Carrier: ATT
Type: phone
GSM freq: UMTS 850 1900 2100 MHz, GSM 850 900 1800 1900 MHz
LTE freq: LTE CAT 3 Band 4, and 17, HSPA+ 21 Mbps
Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064)
CPU: 1.7 GHz quad-core Krait 300
GPU: Adreno 320
RAM: 2GB
Weight: 174 g (6.14 oz)
Dimensions: 150.1 mm (5.91 in) H, 76.2 mm (3.00 in) W, 9.4 mm (0.37 in) D
Screen size: 140 mm (5.5 in)
Resolution: 1920×1080
Screen density: 400 ppi
Screen type: IPS LCD
Internal storage: 16GB/32GB
SD Card: microSD, up to 64 GB
Bluetooth: 4.0LE
Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Main camera: 13MP, flash: LED
Secondary camera: 2.1MP
Power: 3,140 mAh
Peripherals: Accelerometer, S-GPS
CM supported: 10.2, 11, 12, 12.1

How to Install CyanogenMod on the LG Optimus G Pro (e980)

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Important Notes

Recovery can be installed via the same app used for unlocking the bootloader: FreeGee. This does require root. Once the bootloader is unlocked, recovery may also be flashed via fastboot.

Installing CyanogenMod from recovery

  1. Make sure your computer has working adb.
  2. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.
    Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.
  3. Place the CyanogenMod .zip package, as well as any optional .zip packages, on the root of /sdcard:
    • Using adb: adb push filename.zip /sdcard/
    Note: You can copy the .zip packages to your device using any method you are familiar with. The adb method is used here because it is universal across all devices and works in both Android and recovery mode. If you are in recovery mode, you may need to ensure /sdcard (sometimes called Internal Storage) is mounted by checking its status in the Mounts menu. If you have booted regularly, USB debugging must be enabled.
  4. If you are not already in recovery, boot to recovery mode now.
    • Hold Volume Up & Power until fastboot screen appears, then press Volume Down twice, then press Power to boot recovery.
  5. In Team Win Recovery Project, select menu choices by tapping on the appropriately labelled button.
  6. Optional (Recommended): Select the Backup button to create a backup.
  7. Select Wipe and then Factory Reset.
  8. Select Install.
  9. Navigate to /sdcard and select the CyanogenMod .zip package.
  10. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package.
  11. Optional: Install any additional packages you wish using the same method (if you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it).
  12. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select Reboot, then System. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip

See something wrong on this page? Click here: Report a Site Problem.

How To Build CyanogenMod For LG Optimus G Pro (e980)

Introduction

These instructions will hopefully assist you to start with a stock Optimus G Pro, unlock the bootloader (if necessary), and then download the required tools as well as the very latest source code for CyanogenMod (based on Google’s Android operating system). Using these, you can build both CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery image from source code, and then install them both to your device.

It is difficult to say how much experience is necessary to follow these instructions. While this guide is certainly not for the very very very uninitiated, these steps shouldn’t require a PhD in software development either. Some readers will have no difficulty and breeze through the steps easily. Others may struggle over the most basic operation. Because people’s experiences, backgrounds, and intuitions differ, it may be a good idea to read through just to ascertain whether you feel comfortable or are getting over your head.

Remember, you assume all risk of trying this, but you will reap the rewards! It’s pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :) And once you’re an Android-building ninja, there will be no more need to wait for “nightly” builds from anyone. You will have at your fingertips the skills to build a full operating system from code to a running device, whenever you want. Where you go from there– maybe you’ll add a feature, fix a bug, add a translation, or use what you’ve learned to build a new app or port to a new device– or maybe you’ll never build again– it’s all really up to you.

What you’ll need

  • A Optimus G Pro
  • A relatively recent computer (Linux, OS X, or Windows) with a reasonable amount of RAM and about 100 GB of free storage (more if you enable ccache or build for multiple devices). The less RAM you have, the longer the build will take (aim for 8 GB or more). Using SSDs results in considerably faster build times than traditional hard drives.
  • A USB cable compatible with the Optimus G Pro (typically micro USB, but older devices may use mini USB or have a proprietary cable)
  • A decent internet connection & reliable electricity :)
  • Some familiarity with basic Android operation and terminology. It would help if you’ve installed custom roms on other devices and are familiar with recovery. It may also be useful to know some basic command line concepts such as cd for “change directory”, the concept of directory hierarchies, that in Linux they are separated by /, etc.

If you are not accustomed to using Linux– this is an excellent chance to learn. It’s free– just download and run a virtual machine (VM) such as Virtualbox, then install a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu (AOSP vets Ubuntu as well). Any recent 64-bit version should work great, but the latest is recommended.

Note:

You want to use a 64-bit version of Linux. A 32-bit Linux environment will only work if you are building CyanogenMod 6 and older. For CyanogenMod 10.1, if you encounter issues with 64bit host binaries, you can set BUILD_HOST_32bit=1 in your environment. This is generally not needed, though, especially with CyanogenMod 10.2 and newer.

Using a VM allows Linux to run as a guest inside your host computer– a computer in a computer, if you will. If you hate Linux for whatever reason, you can always just uninstall and delete the whole thing. (There are plenty of places to find instructions for setting up Virtualbox with Ubuntu, so I’ll leave it to you to do that.)

So let’s begin!

Build CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery

Prepare the Build Environment

Note:

You only need to do these steps the first time you build. If you previously prepared your build environment and have downloaded the CyanogenMod source code for another device, skip to Prepare the device-specific code.

Install the SDK

If you have not previously installed adb and fastboot, install the Android SDK. “SDK” stands for Software Developer Kit, and it includes useful tools that you can use to flash software, look at the system logs in real time, grab screenshots, and more– all from your computer.

Helpful Tip

While the SDK contains lots of different things– the two tools you are most interested in for building Android are adb and fastboot, located in the /platform-tools directory.

Install the Build Packages

Several “build packages” are needed to build CyanogenMod. You can install these using the package manager of your choice.

Helpful Tip

A package manager in Linux is a system used to install or remove software (usually originating from the Internet) on your computer. With Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu Software Center. Even better, you may also use the apt-get install command directly in the Terminal. (Learn more about the apt packaging tool system from Wikipedia.)

For both 32-bit & 64-bit systems, you’ll need:

bc bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev

In addition to the above, for 64-bit systems, get these:

g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev

For Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) and newer, substitute:

  • lib32readline-gplv2-devlib32readline6-dev

For Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and newer, substitute (additionally see java notes below):

  • libwxgtk2.8-devlibwxgtk3.0-dev
  • openjdk-7-jdkopenjdk-8-jdk

Java versions: Different versions of CyanogenMod require different versions of the JDK (Java Development Kit):

  • CyanogenMod 7 – 9: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6
  • CyanogenMod 10.1: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7
  • CyanogenMod 10.2 – 11.0: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7 (OpenJDK 1.7 works fine, but the build system will display a warning)
  • CyanogenMod 12.0 – 13.0: OpenJDK 1.7 (see note about OpenJDK 1.8 below)
  • CyanogenMod 14.1: OpenJDK 1.8

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) or newer and OpenJDK: Since OpenJDK 1.7 was removed from the official Ubuntu repositories, you have a couple options:

  1. Obtain OpenJDK 1.7 from the openjdk-r PPA
  2. Enable experimental OpenJDK 1.8 support in CyanogenMod 13.0 (not available in earlier version). To enable OpenJDK 1.8 support, add this line to your $HOME/.bashrc file: export EXPERIMENTAL_USE_JAVA8=true.

Also see http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html which lists needed packages.

Create the directories

You will need to set up some directories in your build environment.

To create them:

$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ mkdir -p ~/android/system

Install the repo command

Enter the following to download the “repo” binary and make it executable (runnable):

$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution

In recent versions of Ubuntu, ~/bin should already be in your PATH. You can check this by opening ~/.profile with a text editor and verifying the following code exists (add it if it is missing):

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Initialize the CyanogenMod source repository

Enter the following to initialize the repository:

Note: Make sure the cm branch entered here is the one you wish to build and is supported on your device.
$ cd ~/android/system/
$ repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b cm-13.0

Download the source code

To start the download of all the source code to your computer:

$ repo sync

The CM manifests include a sensible default configuration for repo, which we strongly suggest you use (i.e. don’t add any options to sync). For reference, our default values are -j 4 and -c. The -j 4 part means that there will be four simultaneous threads/connections. If you experience problems syncing, you can lower this to -j 3 or -j 2. -c will ask repo to pull in only the current branch, instead of the entire CM history.

Prepare to wait a long time while the source code downloads.

Helpful Tip

The repo sync command is used to update the latest source code from CyanogenMod and Google. Remember it, as you can do it every few days to keep your code base fresh and up-to-date.

Get prebuilt apps (CM11 and below)

Next,

$ cd ~/android/system/vendor/cm

then enter:

$ ./get-prebuilts

You won’t see any confirmation- just another prompt. But this should cause some prebuilt apps to be loaded and installed into the source code. Once completed, this does not need to be done again.

Prepare the device-specific code

Helpful Tip – Errors during breakfast

Different maintainers setup their device inheritance rules differently. Some require a vendor directory to be populated before breakfast will even succeed. If you receive an error here about vendor makefiles, then jump down to the next section Extract proprietary blobs. The first portion of breakfast should have succeeded at pulling in the device tree and the extract blobs script should be available. After completing that section, you can rerun breakfast e980

After the source downloads, ensure you are in the root of the source code (cd ~/android/system), then type:

$ source build/envsetup.sh
$ breakfast e980

This will download the device specific configuration and kernel source for your device. An alternative to using the breakfast command is to build your own local manifest. To do this, you will need to locate your device on CyanogenMod’s GitHub and list all of the repositories defined in cm.dependencies in your local manifest.

Helpful Tip

If you want to know more about what source build/envsetup.sh does or simply want to know more about the breakfast, brunch and lunch commands, you can head over to the Envsetup help page.

Helpful Tip

Instead of typing cd ~/android/system every time you want to return back to the root of the source code, here’s a short command that will do it for you: croot. To use this command, you must first run source build/envsetup.sh from ~/android/system.

Extract proprietary blobs

Now ensure that your Optimus G Pro is connected to your computer via the USB cable and that you are in the ~/android/system/device/lge/e980 directory (you can cd ~/android/system/device/lge/e980 if necessary). Then run the extract-files.sh script:

$ ./extract-files.sh

You should see the proprietary files (aka “blobs”) get pulled from the device and moved to the ~/android/system/vendor/lge directory. If you see errors about adb being unable to pull the files, adb may not be in the path of execution. If this is the case, see the adb page for suggestions for dealing with “command not found” errors.

Note:

Your device should already be running a build of CyanogenMod for the branch you wish to build for the extract-files.sh script to function properly.

Note:

It’s important that these proprietary files are extracted to the ~/android/system/vendor/lge directory by using the extract-files.sh script. Makefiles are generated at the same time to make sure the blobs are eventually copied to the device. Without these blobs, CyanogenMod may build without error, but you’ll be missing important functionality, such as graphics libraries that enable you to see anything!

Turn on caching to speed up build

You can speed up subsequent builds by adding

export USE_CCACHE=1

to your ~/.bashrc file (what’s a .bashrc file?). Then, specify the amount of disk space to dedicate to ccache by typing this from the top of your Android tree:

prebuilts/misc/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

where 50G corresponds to 50GB of cache. This only needs to be run once and the setting will be remembered. Anywhere in the range of 25GB to 100GB will result in very noticeably increased build speeds (for instance, a typical 1hr build time can be reduced to 20min). If you’re only building for one device, 25GB-50GB is fine. If you plan to build for several devices that do not share the same kernel source, aim for 75GB-100GB. This space will be permanently occupied on your drive, so take this into consideration. See more information about ccache on Google’s android build environment initialization page.

Helpful Tip

If you are a very active developer, working on many other projects than just Android, you might prefer to keep your Android ccache independent (because it’s huge and can slow down the efficiency of ccache in your other projects). Beginning with CyanogenMod 12.1, you can specify environment variables for the location and size of CyanogenMod’s ccache. Some syntax examples: export ANDROID_CCACHE_DIR="$HOME/android/.ccache" and export ANDROID_CCACHE_SIZE="50G".

Start the build

Time to start building! So now type:

$ croot
$ brunch e980

The build should begin.

Helpful Tip

If the build doesn’t start, try lunch and choose your device from the menu. If that doesn’t work, try breakfast and choose from the menu. The command make e980 should then work.

Helpful Tip

A second, bonus tip! If you get a command not found error for croot, brunch, or lunch, be sure you’ve done the source build/envsetup.sh command in this Terminal session from the ~/android/system directory.

Helpful Tip

A third tip! If the build to fails while downloading Gello, you’ll need to import a missing certificate into Maven’s truststore. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found here

If the build breaks…

  • If you experience this not-enough-memory-related error…
ERROR: signapk.jar failed: return code 1make: *** [out/target/product/e980/cm_e980-ota-eng.root.zip] Error 1

…you may want to make the following change to ~/android/system/build/tools/releasetools/common.py:

Search for instances of -Xmx2048m (it should appear either under OPTIONS.java_args or near usage of signapk.jar), and replace it with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx512m.

Then start the build again (with brunch).

  • If you see a message about things suddenly being “killed” for no reason, your (virtual) machine may have run out of memory or storage space. Assign it more resources and try again.

Install the build

Assuming the build completed without error (it will be obvious when it finishes), type:

$ cd $OUT

in the same terminal window that you did the build. Here you’ll find all the files that were created. The stuff that will go in /system is in a folder called system. The stuff that will become your ramdisk is in a folder called root. And your kernel is called… kernel.

But that’s all just background info. The two files we are interested in are (1) recovery.img, which contains CyanogenMod Recovery, and (2) cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-e980.zip, which is the CyanogenMod installation package.

Install CyanogenMod

Back to the $OUT directory on your computer– you should see a file that looks something like:

cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-e980.zip

Note:

The above file name may vary depending on the version of CM you are building. Your build may not include a version number or may identify itself as a “KANG” rather than UNOFFICIAL version. Regardless, the file name will end in .zip and should be titled similarly to official builds.

Now you can flash the cm...zip file above as usual via recovery mode. Before doing so, now is a good time to make a backup of whatever installation is currently running on the device in case something goes wrong with the flash attempt. While CyanogenMod Recovery doesn’t have a backup feature, there are other custom recoveries available that do. You can also use something like Titanium Backup (root required) as an alternative.

Success! So….what’s next?

You’ve done it! Welcome to the elite club of self-builders. You’ve built your operating system from scratch, from the ground up. You are the master/mistress of your domain… and hopefully you’ve learned a bit on the way and had some fun too.

Now that you’ve succeeded in building CyanogenMod for your device, here are some suggestions on what to do next.

Also, be sure to take a glance at the Dev Center on this wiki for all kinds of more detailed information about developer topics ranging from collecting logs, understanding what’s in the source code directories, submitting your own contributions, porting CyanogenMod to new devices, and a lot more.

Congrats again!

Content of this page is based on informations from wiki.cyanogenmod.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Categories LG

Motorola Nexus 6 (shamu)

CyanogenMod ROM Motorola Nexus 6 (Shamu)

CyanogenMod ROM Motorola Nexus 6 (shamu)

Quick Info

Download CyanogenMod

Download (nightly build)
CyanogenMod 14.1 (Android 7.1 (Nougat))

Notes

Note:

If you’re a Verizon Wireless customer using a Nexus 6 that is not Verizon Wireless branded, you must reboot into bootloader mode and then enter fastboot oem config carrier vzw to ensure proper data operation.

Special boot modes

  • Recovery: Hold down the Volume Down button while booting, and use the menu to select Recovery.
  • Bootloader: Hold down the Volume Down button while booting.
  • Fastboot: Hold down the Volume Down button while booting.

Source code

Device http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_device_moto_shamu
Kernel http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_kernel_moto_shamu
Nexus 6 Specifications
Codename: shamu
Vendor: Google
Manufacturer: Motorola
Release date: 29 October 2014
Type: phablet
GSM freq: 850 900 1800 1900 MHz UTMS HSPA+
CDMA freq: 800 1900 MHz (North/South American model only)
LTE freq: North/South American devices: 700 850 1700 1800 1900 2500 2600 MHz
Afro-Eurasian devices: 700 800 850 900 1800 2100 2500 2600 MHz
Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805
CPU: 2.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait 450
GPU: Adreno 420
RAM: 3GB
Weight: 184 g (6.49 oz)
Dimensions: 159.26 mm (6.27 in) (h)
82.98 mm (3.267 in) (w)
3.8 mm (0.15 in) to 10.06 mm (0.396 in) (d, curved)
Screen size: 151 mm (5.96 in)
Resolution: 2560×1440
Screen density: 493 ppi
Screen type: Pentile RGBG QHD AMOLED
Internal storage: 32/64 GB
SD Card: none
Bluetooth: 4.1 LE
Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2×2 (MIMO)
Main camera: 13 MP, flash: Dual LED
Secondary camera: 2.1 MP
Power: Non-removable Li-Po 3220 mAh
CM supported: 12, 12.1, 13, 14.1

How to Install CyanogenMod on the Google Nexus 6 (shamu)

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Important Notes

Note:

If you’re a Verizon Wireless customer using a Nexus 6 that is not Verizon Wireless branded, you must reboot into bootloader mode and then enter fastboot oem config carrier vzw to ensure proper data operation.

Unlocking the bootloader

WARNING:

Unlocking the bootloader will automatically wipe all device data.

  1. Make sure your computer has working fastboot and adb.
  2. Enable USB debugging on the device.
  3. Enable OEM unlock in the Developer options settings on the device. (Note: Not all devices have this setting, so continue with next step if yours does not.)
  4. Connect the device to the computer through USB.
  5. From a terminal on a computer, type the following to boot the device into fastboot mode:
    adb reboot bootloader
  6. Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC sees the device by typing fastboot devices
    • If you don’t see your device serial number, and instead see “<waiting for device>”, fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastboot documentation for more info.
    • If you see “no permissions fastboot”, try running fastboot as root.
  7. From the same terminal, type the following command to unlock the bootloader:
    fastboot oem unlock
  8. A disclaimer will display on the device that must be accepted. Use the volume keys to cycle through the options. Pressing the power button should confirm your selection.
  9. If the device doesn’t automatically reboot, reboot it from the menu. It should now be unlocked. You can confirm this is the case if you see an unlocked icon at the bottom of the Google boot screen during reboots.
  10. Since the device resets completely, you will need to re-enable USB debugging on the device to continue.

Installing a custom recovery using fastboot

See All About Recovery Images for more information about custom recoveries and their capabilities.

  1. Make sure your computer has working fastboot and adb.
  2. Download recovery — you can directly download a recovery image using the link below, or visit twrp.me to obtain the latest version of Team Win Recovery Project for your device.
    Recovery: Download
    md5: 46cb38b5a408cd3f3045f51d9357fa7e
  3. Connect the Nexus 6 to the computer via USB.
  4. Make sure the fastboot binary is in your PATH or that you place the recovery image in the same directory as fastboot.
  5. Open a terminal on your PC and reboot the device into fastboot mode by typing
    adb reboot bootloader
    or by using the hardware key combination for your device while it is powered off.
  6. Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC sees the device by typing
    fastboot devices
    • If you don’t see your device serial number, and instead see “<waiting for device>”, fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastboot documentation for more info.
    • If you see “no permissionsfastboot”, make sure your UDEV rules are setup correctly.
  7. Flash recovery onto your device by entering the following command:
    fastboot flash recovery your_recovery_image.img
    where the latter part is the filename of the recovery image.
  8. Once the flash completes successfully, reboot the device into recovery to verify the installation. Boot to recovery instructions: Hold down the Volume Down button while booting, and use the menu to select Recovery.
    • Note: Some ROMs overwrite recovery at boot time so if you do not plan to immediately boot into recovery to install CyanogenMod, please be aware that this may overwrite your custom recovery with the stock one.

Installing CyanogenMod from recovery

  1. Make sure your computer has working adb.
  2. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.
    Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.
  3. Place the CyanogenMod .zip package, as well as any optional .zip packages, on the root of /sdcard:
    • Using adb: adb push filename.zip /sdcard/
    Note: You can copy the .zip packages to your device using any method you are familiar with. The adb method is used here because it is universal across all devices and works in both Android and recovery mode. If you are in recovery mode, you may need to ensure /sdcard (sometimes called Internal Storage) is mounted by checking its status in the Mounts menu. If you have booted regularly, USB debugging must be enabled.
  4. If you are not already in recovery, boot to recovery mode now.
    • Hold down the Volume Down button while booting, and use the menu to select Recovery.
  5. In Team Win Recovery Project, select menu choices by tapping on the appropriately labelled button.
  6. Optional (Recommended): Select the Backup button to create a backup.
  7. Select Wipe and then Factory Reset.
  8. Select Install.
  9. Navigate to /sdcard and select the CyanogenMod .zip package.
  10. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package.
  11. Optional: Install any additional packages you wish using the same method (if you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it).
  12. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select Reboot, then System. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip

See something wrong on this page? Click here: Report a Site Problem.

How To Build CyanogenMod For Google Nexus 6 (shamu)

Introduction

These instructions will hopefully assist you to start with a stock Nexus 6, unlock the bootloader (if necessary), and then download the required tools as well as the very latest source code for CyanogenMod (based on Google’s Android operating system). Using these, you can build both CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery image from source code, and then install them both to your device.

It is difficult to say how much experience is necessary to follow these instructions. While this guide is certainly not for the very very very uninitiated, these steps shouldn’t require a PhD in software development either. Some readers will have no difficulty and breeze through the steps easily. Others may struggle over the most basic operation. Because people’s experiences, backgrounds, and intuitions differ, it may be a good idea to read through just to ascertain whether you feel comfortable or are getting over your head.

Remember, you assume all risk of trying this, but you will reap the rewards! It’s pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :) And once you’re an Android-building ninja, there will be no more need to wait for “nightly” builds from anyone. You will have at your fingertips the skills to build a full operating system from code to a running device, whenever you want. Where you go from there– maybe you’ll add a feature, fix a bug, add a translation, or use what you’ve learned to build a new app or port to a new device– or maybe you’ll never build again– it’s all really up to you.

What you’ll need

  • A Nexus 6
  • A relatively recent computer (Linux, OS X, or Windows) with a reasonable amount of RAM and about 100 GB of free storage (more if you enable ccache or build for multiple devices). The less RAM you have, the longer the build will take (aim for 8 GB or more). Using SSDs results in considerably faster build times than traditional hard drives.
  • A USB cable compatible with the Nexus 6 (typically micro USB, but older devices may use mini USB or have a proprietary cable)
  • A decent internet connection & reliable electricity :)
  • Some familiarity with basic Android operation and terminology. It would help if you’ve installed custom roms on other devices and are familiar with recovery. It may also be useful to know some basic command line concepts such as cd for “change directory”, the concept of directory hierarchies, that in Linux they are separated by /, etc.

If you are not accustomed to using Linux– this is an excellent chance to learn. It’s free– just download and run a virtual machine (VM) such as Virtualbox, then install a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu (AOSP vets Ubuntu as well). Any recent 64-bit version should work great, but the latest is recommended.

Note:

You want to use a 64-bit version of Linux. A 32-bit Linux environment will only work if you are building CyanogenMod 6 and older. For CyanogenMod 10.1, if you encounter issues with 64bit host binaries, you can set BUILD_HOST_32bit=1 in your environment. This is generally not needed, though, especially with CyanogenMod 10.2 and newer.

Using a VM allows Linux to run as a guest inside your host computer– a computer in a computer, if you will. If you hate Linux for whatever reason, you can always just uninstall and delete the whole thing. (There are plenty of places to find instructions for setting up Virtualbox with Ubuntu, so I’ll leave it to you to do that.)

So let’s begin!

Unlocking your Nexus 6

What does “unlocking” mean?

Note:

If you’ve already installed CyanogenMod or another ROM on your Nexus 6, your device is already unlocked. Assuming you also have adb and fastboot installed on your computer, you can skip this whole section and proceed to the HOW TO BUILD section below.

The first step in putting any custom operating system on your Nexus 6 is to unlock the bootloader. A bootloader is the very first program that runs when you turn on your device. The bootloader initializes some hardware and then loads the kernel and ramdisk, and gets the boot process going. If the bootloader is in locked mode, it will ensure that only the stock operating system can run. Since you will be installing your own operating system, you need to turn this off. Luckily, Google and moto make it easy.

Note: A Warning About Unlocking

THE PROCESS OF UNLOCKING THE BOOTLOADER WILL ERASE ALL YOUR PERSONAL DATA FROM THE DEVICE.

Okay. I’m in. What do I need to do this?

To unlock your bootloader, you’ll first need a program on your computer called fastboot. One way to get fastboot is to download and install the Android SDK (Software Developer Kit) from Google. The SDK is used by app developers when they’re writing programs for Android, and who knows, you may want to write apps someday. But the SDK also contains two great tools that are useful even to non-developers. They are:

  • adbAndroid Debug Bridge – this is a program that lets your computer “talk” to your Nexus 6 while the device is running. Among the many things you can do with adb– you can push files from your computer to the device or pull files from the device to your computer, you can get a running real-time log of Android activity (which is very useful for debugging or having others help you debug), you can create an interactive “shell” session (similar to Linux or OS X) to type commands to your device, and much more.

  • fastboot – fastboot works a little bit like adb, except it’s often used at a much earlier point in the boot process, even before Android or any operating system loads. You can put your Nexus 6 into a “fastboot” mode, whereby, if you are connected via USB cable, you can copy entire partitions from your computer (usually in the form of an image file, such as boot.img or recovery.img) over to the device, wiping over whatever happened to be there. Fastboot is able to do more than that, however. It’s also used to send special commands to the device to do things such as unlock your bootloader.

How do I do the actual unlocking?

So this should be a one time thing…

Install the Android SDK

To unlock your Nexus 6, you will need fastboot installed. Go ahead and download the SDK, per the steps on Google’s web page. Then install it by following the specific instructions for your computer.

Note:

Google’s instructions may be out of date for 12.04. The Sun JDK isn’t available anymore as a dpkg AND they say Eclipse 3.6 isn’t available as a package. Well, 3.7.X is now available. Doing a “$ sudo apt-get install eclipse” will now install the proper Eclipse and JDK (OpenJDK 6).

Unlocking the bootloader

WARNING:

Unlocking the bootloader will automatically wipe all device data.

  1. Make sure your computer has working fastboot and adb.
  2. Enable USB debugging on the device.
  3. Enable OEM unlock in the Developer options settings on the device. (Note: Not all devices have this setting, so continue with next step if yours does not.)
  4. Connect the device to the computer through USB.
  5. From a terminal on a computer, type the following to boot the device into fastboot mode:
    adb reboot bootloader
  6. Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC sees the device by typing fastboot devices
    • If you don’t see your device serial number, and instead see “<waiting for device>”, fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastboot documentation for more info.
    • If you see “no permissions fastboot”, try running fastboot as root.
  7. From the same terminal, type the following command to unlock the bootloader:
    fastboot oem unlock
  8. A disclaimer will display on the device that must be accepted. Use the volume keys to cycle through the options. Pressing the power button should confirm your selection.unlock the bootloader:
    {{{device_oem_unlock_command}}}
  9. If the device doesn’t automatically reboot, reboot it from the menu. It should now be unlocked. You can confirm this is the case if you see an unlocked icon at the bottom of the Google boot screen during reboots.
  10. Since the device resets completely, you will need to re-enable USB debugging on the device to continue.

Troubleshooting

If you have issues with fastboot or adb not being found, make sure that the Android SDK folder /platform-tools, which contains the adb and fastboot files, are in the path of execution for commands typed at the terminal. Usually typing something like

# PATH=$PATH:/your/specific/path/to/android/sdk/platform-tools/

will work for that terminal session.

Note:

The above command requires a bash-like shell. If you’re running a linux distribution which uses a shell such as csh or tcsh, first run /bin/bash to start a bash shell. See http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-do-i-find-out-what-shell-im-using.html or google for more help on that. You will need bash later as well, when using the “. build/envsetup.sh” command.

Note: Linux Mint users

If you have problems with adb (“file not found”) and you’re using 64-bit linux (I don’t know much about Mint, so maybe it’s all 64-bit?) try doing this to see if adb works better:

$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

You’ll be using fastboot again to install a custom recovery.

Build CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery

Prepare the Build Environment

Note:

You only need to do these steps the first time you build. If you previously prepared your build environment and have downloaded the CyanogenMod source code for another device, skip to Prepare the device-specific code.

Install the SDK

If you have not previously installed adb and fastboot, install the Android SDK. “SDK” stands for Software Developer Kit, and it includes useful tools that you can use to flash software, look at the system logs in real time, grab screenshots, and more– all from your computer.

Helpful Tip

While the SDK contains lots of different things– the two tools you are most interested in for building Android are adb and fastboot, located in the /platform-tools directory.

Install the Build Packages

Several “build packages” are needed to build CyanogenMod. You can install these using the package manager of your choice.

Helpful Tip

A package manager in Linux is a system used to install or remove software (usually originating from the Internet) on your computer. With Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu Software Center. Even better, you may also use the apt-get install command directly in the Terminal. (Learn more about the apt packaging tool system from Wikipedia.)

For both 32-bit & 64-bit systems, you’ll need:

bc bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev

In addition to the above, for 64-bit systems, get these:

g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev

For Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) and newer, substitute:

  • lib32readline-gplv2-devlib32readline6-dev

For Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and newer, substitute (additionally see java notes below):

  • libwxgtk2.8-devlibwxgtk3.0-dev
  • openjdk-7-jdkopenjdk-8-jdk

Java versions: Different versions of CyanogenMod require different versions of the JDK (Java Development Kit):

  • CyanogenMod 7 – 9: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6
  • CyanogenMod 10.1: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7
  • CyanogenMod 10.2 – 11.0: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7 (OpenJDK 1.7 works fine, but the build system will display a warning)
  • CyanogenMod 12.0 – 13.0: OpenJDK 1.7 (see note about OpenJDK 1.8 below)
  • CyanogenMod 14.1: OpenJDK 1.8

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) or newer and OpenJDK: Since OpenJDK 1.7 was removed from the official Ubuntu repositories, you have a couple options:

  1. Obtain OpenJDK 1.7 from the openjdk-r PPA
  2. Enable experimental OpenJDK 1.8 support in CyanogenMod 13.0 (not available in earlier version). To enable OpenJDK 1.8 support, add this line to your $HOME/.bashrc file: export EXPERIMENTAL_USE_JAVA8=true.

Also see http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html which lists needed packages.

Create the directories

You will need to set up some directories in your build environment.

To create them:

$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ mkdir -p ~/android/system

Install the repo command

Enter the following to download the “repo” binary and make it executable (runnable):

$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution

In recent versions of Ubuntu, ~/bin should already be in your PATH. You can check this by opening ~/.profile with a text editor and verifying the following code exists (add it if it is missing):

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Initialize the CyanogenMod source repository

Enter the following to initialize the repository:

Note: Make sure the cm branch entered here is the one you wish to build and is supported on your device.
$ cd ~/android/system/
$ repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b cm-13.0

Download the source code

To start the download of all the source code to your computer:

$ repo sync

The CM manifests include a sensible default configuration for repo, which we strongly suggest you use (i.e. don’t add any options to sync). For reference, our default values are -j 4 and -c. The -j 4 part means that there will be four simultaneous threads/connections. If you experience problems syncing, you can lower this to -j 3 or -j 2. -c will ask repo to pull in only the current branch, instead of the entire CM history.

Prepare to wait a long time while the source code downloads.

Helpful Tip

The repo sync command is used to update the latest source code from CyanogenMod and Google. Remember it, as you can do it every few days to keep your code base fresh and up-to-date.

Get prebuilt apps (CM11 and below)

Next,

$ cd ~/android/system/vendor/cm

then enter:

$ ./get-prebuilts

You won’t see any confirmation- just another prompt. But this should cause some prebuilt apps to be loaded and installed into the source code. Once completed, this does not need to be done again.

Prepare the device-specific code

Helpful Tip – Errors during breakfast

Different maintainers setup their device inheritance rules differently. Some require a vendor directory to be populated before breakfast will even succeed. If you receive an error here about vendor makefiles, then jump down to the next section Extract proprietary blobs. The first portion of breakfast should have succeeded at pulling in the device tree and the extract blobs script should be available. After completing that section, you can rerun breakfast shamu

After the source downloads, ensure you are in the root of the source code (cd ~/android/system), then type:

$ source build/envsetup.sh
$ breakfast shamu

This will download the device specific configuration and kernel source for your device. An alternative to using the breakfast command is to build your own local manifest. To do this, you will need to locate your device on CyanogenMod’s GitHub and list all of the repositories defined in cm.dependencies in your local manifest.

Helpful Tip

If you want to know more about what source build/envsetup.sh does or simply want to know more about the breakfast, brunch and lunch commands, you can head over to the Envsetup help page.

Helpful Tip

Instead of typing cd ~/android/system every time you want to return back to the root of the source code, here’s a short command that will do it for you: croot. To use this command, you must first run source build/envsetup.sh from ~/android/system.

Extract proprietary blobs

Now ensure that your Nexus 6 is connected to your computer via the USB cable and that you are in the ~/android/system/device/moto/shamu directory (you can cd ~/android/system/device/moto/shamu if necessary). Then run the extract-files.sh script:

$ ./extract-files.sh

You should see the proprietary files (aka “blobs”) get pulled from the device and moved to the ~/android/system/vendor/moto directory. If you see errors about adb being unable to pull the files, adb may not be in the path of execution. If this is the case, see the adb page for suggestions for dealing with “command not found” errors.

Note:

Your device should already be running a build of CyanogenMod for the branch you wish to build for the extract-files.sh script to function properly.

Note:

It’s important that these proprietary files are extracted to the ~/android/system/vendor/moto directory by using the extract-files.sh script. Makefiles are generated at the same time to make sure the blobs are eventually copied to the device. Without these blobs, CyanogenMod may build without error, but you’ll be missing important functionality, such as graphics libraries that enable you to see anything!

Turn on caching to speed up build

You can speed up subsequent builds by adding

export USE_CCACHE=1

to your ~/.bashrc file (what’s a .bashrc file?). Then, specify the amount of disk space to dedicate to ccache by typing this from the top of your Android tree:

prebuilts/misc/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

where 50G corresponds to 50GB of cache. This only needs to be run once and the setting will be remembered. Anywhere in the range of 25GB to 100GB will result in very noticeably increased build speeds (for instance, a typical 1hr build time can be reduced to 20min). If you’re only building for one device, 25GB-50GB is fine. If you plan to build for several devices that do not share the same kernel source, aim for 75GB-100GB. This space will be permanently occupied on your drive, so take this into consideration. See more information about ccache on Google’s android build environment initialization page.

Helpful Tip

If you are a very active developer, working on many other projects than just Android, you might prefer to keep your Android ccache independent (because it’s huge and can slow down the efficiency of ccache in your other projects). Beginning with CyanogenMod 12.1, you can specify environment variables for the location and size of CyanogenMod’s ccache. Some syntax examples: export ANDROID_CCACHE_DIR="$HOME/android/.ccache" and export ANDROID_CCACHE_SIZE="50G".

Start the build

Time to start building! So now type:

$ croot
$ brunch shamu

The build should begin.

Helpful Tip

If the build doesn’t start, try lunch and choose your device from the menu. If that doesn’t work, try breakfast and choose from the menu. The command make shamu should then work.

Helpful Tip

A second, bonus tip! If you get a command not found error for croot, brunch, or lunch, be sure you’ve done the source build/envsetup.sh command in this Terminal session from the ~/android/system directory.

Helpful Tip

A third tip! If the build to fails while downloading Gello, you’ll need to import a missing certificate into Maven’s truststore. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found here

If the build breaks…

  • If you experience this not-enough-memory-related error…
ERROR: signapk.jar failed: return code 1make: *** [out/target/product/shamu/cm_shamu-ota-eng.root.zip] Error 1

…you may want to make the following change to ~/android/system/build/tools/releasetools/common.py:

Search for instances of -Xmx2048m (it should appear either under OPTIONS.java_args or near usage of signapk.jar), and replace it with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx512m.

Then start the build again (with brunch).

  • If you see a message about things suddenly being “killed” for no reason, your (virtual) machine may have run out of memory or storage space. Assign it more resources and try again.

Install the build

Assuming the build completed without error (it will be obvious when it finishes), type:

$ cd $OUT

in the same terminal window that you did the build. Here you’ll find all the files that were created. The stuff that will go in /system is in a folder called system. The stuff that will become your ramdisk is in a folder called root. And your kernel is called… kernel.

But that’s all just background info. The two files we are interested in are (1) recovery.img, which contains CyanogenMod Recovery, and (2) cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-shamu.zip, which is the CyanogenMod installation package.

Installing a custom recovery using fastboot

See All About Recovery Images for more information about custom recoveries and their capabilities.

  1. Make sure your computer has working fastboot and adb.
  1. Connect the Nexus 6 to the computer via USB.
  2. Make sure the fastboot binary is in your PATH or that you place the recovery image in the same directory as fastboot.
  3. Open a terminal on your PC and reboot the device into fastboot mode by typing
    adb reboot bootloader
    or by using the hardware key combination for your device while it is powered off.
  4. Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC sees the device by typing
    fastboot devices
    • If you don’t see your device serial number, and instead see “<waiting for device>”, fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastboot documentation for more info.
    • If you see “no permissionsfastboot”, make sure your UDEV rules are setup correctly.
  5. Flash recovery onto your device by entering the following command:
    fastboot flash recovery your_recovery_image.img
    where the latter part is the filename of the recovery image.
  6. Once the flash completes successfully, reboot the device into recovery to verify the installation.
    • Note: Some ROMs overwrite recovery at boot time so if you do not plan to immediately boot into recovery to install CyanogenMod, please be aware that this may overwrite your custom recovery with the stock one.

Install CyanogenMod

Back to the $OUT directory on your computer– you should see a file that looks something like:

cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-shamu.zip

Note:

The above file name may vary depending on the version of CM you are building. Your build may not include a version number or may identify itself as a “KANG” rather than UNOFFICIAL version. Regardless, the file name will end in .zip and should be titled similarly to official builds.

Now you can flash the cm...zip file above as usual via recovery mode. Before doing so, now is a good time to make a backup of whatever installation is currently running on the device in case something goes wrong with the flash attempt. While CyanogenMod Recovery doesn’t have a backup feature, there are other custom recoveries available that do. You can also use something like Titanium Backup (root required) as an alternative.

Success! So….what’s next?

You’ve done it! Welcome to the elite club of self-builders. You’ve built your operating system from scratch, from the ground up. You are the master/mistress of your domain… and hopefully you’ve learned a bit on the way and had some fun too.

Now that you’ve succeeded in building CyanogenMod for your device, here are some suggestions on what to do next.

Also, be sure to take a glance at the Dev Center on this wiki for all kinds of more detailed information about developer topics ranging from collecting logs, understanding what’s in the source code directories, submitting your own contributions, porting CyanogenMod to new devices, and a lot more.

Congrats again!

Content of this page is based on informations from wiki.cyanogenmod.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

LG G-PAD (v500)

CyanogenMod ROM LG G-PAD (v500)

CyanogenMod ROM LG G-PAD (v500)

G Pad 8.3 Specifications
Codename: v500
Vendor: LG
Manufacturer: LG
Release date: 14 October 2013
Type: tablet
Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T
CPU: 1.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait 300
GPU: Adreno 320
RAM: 2GB
Weight: 338 g (11.92 oz)
Dimensions: 216.8 mm (8.54 in) (h)
126.5 mm (4.98 in) (w)
8.3 mm (0.33 in) (d)
Screen size: 210 mm (8.3 in)
Resolution: 1920×1200
Screen density: 273 ppi
Screen type: IPS LCD
Internal storage: 16GB
SD Card: up to 64GB
Bluetooth: 4.0 LE
Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4/5 GHz)
Main camera: 5MP, flash: none
Secondary camera: 1.3MP
Power: Non-removable 4,600 mAh Li-Polymer
Peripherals: accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, digital compass, GPS, microphone
CM supported: 11, 12, 12.1, 14.1

How to Install CyanogenMod on the LG G Pad 8.3 (v500)

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Installing CyanogenMod from recovery

  1. Make sure your computer has working adb.
  2. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.
    Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.
  3. Boot to recovery mode, and connect the phone to your computer through USB.
  1. In ClockworkMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. On most devices, the power button is used to confirm a menu selection, but for some devices a physical home key acts as a selector. Some devices have touch enabled ClockworkMod Recovery, in which case you may be able to swipe to, or touch, menu selections.
  2. Optional (Recommended): Select backup and restore to create a backup.
  3. Select wipe data/factory reset.
  4. You have two options for transferring and installing the installation packages. The sideload method is more universal across devices, whereas the push and install method is more commonly used:
    • Sideload method: select install zip > install zip from sideload. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Push and install method: Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and navigate to the directory holding the package(s) you would like to install. On the device, navigate to the mounts and storage menu. If you see /storage/sdcard0 or /sdcard as a mountable volume, go ahead and mount it. If you do not see one of these partitions, then instead mount the /data partition. Take note of which volume you mounted. Now, push the package(s) to your device (also, see tip below):
    – If you mounted /storage/sdcard0, then: adb push update.zip /storage/sdcard0/
    – If you mounted /sdcard or /data, then: adb push update.zip /sdcard/
    where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. Go back to the main menu and select install zip. Choose to install from the same directory where you pushed the package(s). If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  5. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip – SD card folders

CyanogenMod 10.1 and newer have multi-user support (introduced in Android 4.2). If your device has storage on the /data partition, then Android actually looks in /data/media/0/ for the first user’s /sdcard/ storage. ClockworkMod recovery symlinks /sdcard/ to /data/media/ though. So, if you are pushing files to internal storage in recovery and want them to be visible in Android, you should push them to /sdcard/0/ or /data/media/0/. Here’s the most frequent scenarios:

  1. If you’re coming from a ROM with Android 4.1 or older to CyanogenMod 10 or older: adb push update.zip /sdcard/
  2. If you’re coming from a ROM with Android 4.1 or older to CyanogenMod 10.1 or newer: adb shell "mkdir /sdcard/0/" followed by adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/
  3. If you’re coming from a ROM with Android 4.2 or newer to CyanogenMod 10.1 or newer: adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/

Helpful Tip

See something wrong on this page? Click here: Report a Site Problem.

How To Build CyanogenMod For LG G Pad 8.3 (v500)

Introduction

These instructions will hopefully assist you to start with a stock G Pad 8.3, unlock the bootloader (if necessary), and then download the required tools as well as the very latest source code for CyanogenMod (based on Google’s Android operating system). Using these, you can build both CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery image from source code, and then install them both to your device.

It is difficult to say how much experience is necessary to follow these instructions. While this guide is certainly not for the very very very uninitiated, these steps shouldn’t require a PhD in software development either. Some readers will have no difficulty and breeze through the steps easily. Others may struggle over the most basic operation. Because people’s experiences, backgrounds, and intuitions differ, it may be a good idea to read through just to ascertain whether you feel comfortable or are getting over your head.

Remember, you assume all risk of trying this, but you will reap the rewards! It’s pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :) And once you’re an Android-building ninja, there will be no more need to wait for “nightly” builds from anyone. You will have at your fingertips the skills to build a full operating system from code to a running device, whenever you want. Where you go from there– maybe you’ll add a feature, fix a bug, add a translation, or use what you’ve learned to build a new app or port to a new device– or maybe you’ll never build again– it’s all really up to you.

What you’ll need

  • A G Pad 8.3
  • A relatively recent computer (Linux, OS X, or Windows) with a reasonable amount of RAM and about 100 GB of free storage (more if you enable ccache or build for multiple devices). The less RAM you have, the longer the build will take (aim for 8 GB or more). Using SSDs results in considerably faster build times than traditional hard drives.
  • A USB cable compatible with the G Pad 8.3 (typically micro USB, but older devices may use mini USB or have a proprietary cable)
  • A decent internet connection & reliable electricity :)
  • Some familiarity with basic Android operation and terminology. It would help if you’ve installed custom roms on other devices and are familiar with recovery. It may also be useful to know some basic command line concepts such as cd for “change directory”, the concept of directory hierarchies, that in Linux they are separated by /, etc.

If you are not accustomed to using Linux– this is an excellent chance to learn. It’s free– just download and run a virtual machine (VM) such as Virtualbox, then install a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu (AOSP vets Ubuntu as well). Any recent 64-bit version should work great, but the latest is recommended.

Note:

You want to use a 64-bit version of Linux. A 32-bit Linux environment will only work if you are building CyanogenMod 6 and older. For CyanogenMod 10.1, if you encounter issues with 64bit host binaries, you can set BUILD_HOST_32bit=1 in your environment. This is generally not needed, though, especially with CyanogenMod 10.2 and newer.

Using a VM allows Linux to run as a guest inside your host computer– a computer in a computer, if you will. If you hate Linux for whatever reason, you can always just uninstall and delete the whole thing. (There are plenty of places to find instructions for setting up Virtualbox with Ubuntu, so I’ll leave it to you to do that.)

So let’s begin!

Build CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery

Prepare the Build Environment

Note:

You only need to do these steps the first time you build. If you previously prepared your build environment and have downloaded the CyanogenMod source code for another device, skip to Prepare the device-specific code.

Install the SDK

If you have not previously installed adb and fastboot, install the Android SDK. “SDK” stands for Software Developer Kit, and it includes useful tools that you can use to flash software, look at the system logs in real time, grab screenshots, and more– all from your computer.

Helpful Tip

While the SDK contains lots of different things– the two tools you are most interested in for building Android are adb and fastboot, located in the /platform-tools directory.

Install the Build Packages

Several “build packages” are needed to build CyanogenMod. You can install these using the package manager of your choice.

Helpful Tip

A package manager in Linux is a system used to install or remove software (usually originating from the Internet) on your computer. With Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu Software Center. Even better, you may also use the apt-get install command directly in the Terminal. (Learn more about the apt packaging tool system from Wikipedia.)

For both 32-bit & 64-bit systems, you’ll need:

bc bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev

In addition to the above, for 64-bit systems, get these:

g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev

For Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) and newer, substitute:

  • lib32readline-gplv2-devlib32readline6-dev

For Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and newer, substitute (additionally see java notes below):

  • libwxgtk2.8-devlibwxgtk3.0-dev
  • openjdk-7-jdkopenjdk-8-jdk

Java versions: Different versions of CyanogenMod require different versions of the JDK (Java Development Kit):

  • CyanogenMod 7 – 9: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6
  • CyanogenMod 10.1: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7
  • CyanogenMod 10.2 – 11.0: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7 (OpenJDK 1.7 works fine, but the build system will display a warning)
  • CyanogenMod 12.0 – 13.0: OpenJDK 1.7 (see note about OpenJDK 1.8 below)
  • CyanogenMod 14.1: OpenJDK 1.8

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) or newer and OpenJDK: Since OpenJDK 1.7 was removed from the official Ubuntu repositories, you have a couple options:

  1. Obtain OpenJDK 1.7 from the openjdk-r PPA
  2. Enable experimental OpenJDK 1.8 support in CyanogenMod 13.0 (not available in earlier version). To enable OpenJDK 1.8 support, add this line to your $HOME/.bashrc file: export EXPERIMENTAL_USE_JAVA8=true.

Also see http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html which lists needed packages.

Create the directories

You will need to set up some directories in your build environment.

To create them:

$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ mkdir -p ~/android/system

Install the repo command

Enter the following to download the “repo” binary and make it executable (runnable):

$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution

In recent versions of Ubuntu, ~/bin should already be in your PATH. You can check this by opening ~/.profile with a text editor and verifying the following code exists (add it if it is missing):

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Initialize the CyanogenMod source repository

Enter the following to initialize the repository:

Note: Make sure the cm branch entered here is the one you wish to build and is supported on your device.
$ cd ~/android/system/
$ repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b cm-13.0

Download the source code

To start the download of all the source code to your computer:

$ repo sync

The CM manifests include a sensible default configuration for repo, which we strongly suggest you use (i.e. don’t add any options to sync). For reference, our default values are -j 4 and -c. The -j 4 part means that there will be four simultaneous threads/connections. If you experience problems syncing, you can lower this to -j 3 or -j 2. -c will ask repo to pull in only the current branch, instead of the entire CM history.

Prepare to wait a long time while the source code downloads.

Helpful Tip

The repo sync command is used to update the latest source code from CyanogenMod and Google. Remember it, as you can do it every few days to keep your code base fresh and up-to-date.

Get prebuilt apps (CM11 and below)

Next,

$ cd ~/android/system/vendor/cm

then enter:

$ ./get-prebuilts

You won’t see any confirmation- just another prompt. But this should cause some prebuilt apps to be loaded and installed into the source code. Once completed, this does not need to be done again.

Prepare the device-specific code

Helpful Tip – Errors during breakfast

Different maintainers setup their device inheritance rules differently. Some require a vendor directory to be populated before breakfast will even succeed. If you receive an error here about vendor makefiles, then jump down to the next section Extract proprietary blobs. The first portion of breakfast should have succeeded at pulling in the device tree and the extract blobs script should be available. After completing that section, you can rerun breakfast v500

After the source downloads, ensure you are in the root of the source code (cd ~/android/system), then type:

$ source build/envsetup.sh
$ breakfast v500

This will download the device specific configuration and kernel source for your device. An alternative to using the breakfast command is to build your own local manifest. To do this, you will need to locate your device on CyanogenMod’s GitHub and list all of the repositories defined in cm.dependencies in your local manifest.

Helpful Tip

If you want to know more about what source build/envsetup.sh does or simply want to know more about the breakfast, brunch and lunch commands, you can head over to the Envsetup help page.

Helpful Tip

Instead of typing cd ~/android/system every time you want to return back to the root of the source code, here’s a short command that will do it for you: croot. To use this command, you must first run source build/envsetup.sh from ~/android/system.

Extract proprietary blobs

Now ensure that your G Pad 8.3 is connected to your computer via the USB cable and that you are in the ~/android/system/device/lge/v500 directory (you can cd ~/android/system/device/lge/v500 if necessary). Then run the extract-files.sh script:

$ ./extract-files.sh

You should see the proprietary files (aka “blobs”) get pulled from the device and moved to the ~/android/system/vendor/lge directory. If you see errors about adb being unable to pull the files, adb may not be in the path of execution. If this is the case, see the adb page for suggestions for dealing with “command not found” errors.

Note:

Your device should already be running a build of CyanogenMod for the branch you wish to build for the extract-files.sh script to function properly.

Note:

It’s important that these proprietary files are extracted to the ~/android/system/vendor/lge directory by using the extract-files.sh script. Makefiles are generated at the same time to make sure the blobs are eventually copied to the device. Without these blobs, CyanogenMod may build without error, but you’ll be missing important functionality, such as graphics libraries that enable you to see anything!

Turn on caching to speed up build

You can speed up subsequent builds by adding

export USE_CCACHE=1

to your ~/.bashrc file (what’s a .bashrc file?). Then, specify the amount of disk space to dedicate to ccache by typing this from the top of your Android tree:

prebuilts/misc/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

where 50G corresponds to 50GB of cache. This only needs to be run once and the setting will be remembered. Anywhere in the range of 25GB to 100GB will result in very noticeably increased build speeds (for instance, a typical 1hr build time can be reduced to 20min). If you’re only building for one device, 25GB-50GB is fine. If you plan to build for several devices that do not share the same kernel source, aim for 75GB-100GB. This space will be permanently occupied on your drive, so take this into consideration. See more information about ccache on Google’s android build environment initialization page.

Helpful Tip

If you are a very active developer, working on many other projects than just Android, you might prefer to keep your Android ccache independent (because it’s huge and can slow down the efficiency of ccache in your other projects). Beginning with CyanogenMod 12.1, you can specify environment variables for the location and size of CyanogenMod’s ccache. Some syntax examples: export ANDROID_CCACHE_DIR="$HOME/android/.ccache" and export ANDROID_CCACHE_SIZE="50G".

Start the build

Time to start building! So now type:

$ croot
$ brunch v500

The build should begin.

Helpful Tip

If the build doesn’t start, try lunch and choose your device from the menu. If that doesn’t work, try breakfast and choose from the menu. The command make v500 should then work.

Helpful Tip

A second, bonus tip! If you get a command not found error for croot, brunch, or lunch, be sure you’ve done the source build/envsetup.sh command in this Terminal session from the ~/android/system directory.

Helpful Tip

A third tip! If the build to fails while downloading Gello, you’ll need to import a missing certificate into Maven’s truststore. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found here

If the build breaks…

  • If you experience this not-enough-memory-related error…
ERROR: signapk.jar failed: return code 1make: *** [out/target/product/v500/cm_v500-ota-eng.root.zip] Error 1

…you may want to make the following change to ~/android/system/build/tools/releasetools/common.py:

Search for instances of -Xmx2048m (it should appear either under OPTIONS.java_args or near usage of signapk.jar), and replace it with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx512m.

Then start the build again (with brunch).

  • If you see a message about things suddenly being “killed” for no reason, your (virtual) machine may have run out of memory or storage space. Assign it more resources and try again.

Install the build

Assuming the build completed without error (it will be obvious when it finishes), type:

$ cd $OUT

in the same terminal window that you did the build. Here you’ll find all the files that were created. The stuff that will go in /system is in a folder called system. The stuff that will become your ramdisk is in a folder called root. And your kernel is called… kernel.

But that’s all just background info. The two files we are interested in are (1) recovery.img, which contains CyanogenMod Recovery, and (2) cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-v500.zip, which is the CyanogenMod installation package.

Install CyanogenMod

Back to the $OUT directory on your computer– you should see a file that looks something like:

cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-v500.zip

Note:

The above file name may vary depending on the version of CM you are building. Your build may not include a version number or may identify itself as a “KANG” rather than UNOFFICIAL version. Regardless, the file name will end in .zip and should be titled similarly to official builds.

Now you can flash the cm...zip file above as usual via recovery mode. Before doing so, now is a good time to make a backup of whatever installation is currently running on the device in case something goes wrong with the flash attempt. While CyanogenMod Recovery doesn’t have a backup feature, there are other custom recoveries available that do. You can also use something like Titanium Backup (root required) as an alternative.

Success! So….what’s next?

You’ve done it! Welcome to the elite club of self-builders. You’ve built your operating system from scratch, from the ground up. You are the master/mistress of your domain… and hopefully you’ve learned a bit on the way and had some fun too.

Now that you’ve succeeded in building CyanogenMod for your device, here are some suggestions on what to do next.

Also, be sure to take a glance at the Dev Center on this wiki for all kinds of more detailed information about developer topics ranging from collecting logs, understanding what’s in the source code directories, submitting your own contributions, porting CyanogenMod to new devices, and a lot more.

Congrats again!

Content of this page is based on informations from wiki.cyanogenmod.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Categories LG

Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet WiFi (castor_windy)

CyanogenMod ROM Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet WiFi (castor_windy) SGP511/B SGP512/B

CyanogenMod ROM Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet WiFi SGP511/B SGP512/B (castor_windy)

Quick Info

Download CyanogenMod

Download (nightly build)
CyanogenMod 12.1 (Android 5.1 (Lollipop))

Special boot modes

  • Recovery: Press Volume Up when the notification light is purple.
  • Bootloader: With the device powered down, hold Volume Down and connect the USB cable. The notification light should briefly turn green to indicate you are in flash mode.
  • Fastboot: With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.

Source code

Device http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_device_sony_castor_windy
Kernel http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_kernel_sony_msm8974pro
Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi) Specifications
Codename: castor_windy
Also known as: SGP511/B SGP512/B
Vendor: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Release date: February 2014
Type: tablet
Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 APQ8074AB
CPU: 2.3 GHz quad-core Krait 400
GPU: Adreno 330
RAM: 3GB
Weight: 426 g
Dimensions: 266.0 mm (w) x 172.0 mm (h) x 6.4 mm (d)
Screen size: 257 mm (10.1 in)
Resolution: 1920×1200
Screen density: 224 ppi
Screen type: IPS LED
Internal storage: 16/32 GB
SD Card: microSD up to 128GB
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0
Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n
Main camera: 8.1 MP
Secondary camera: 2.2 MP
Power: 6000 mAh
Peripherals: ambient light sensor, accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope
CM supported: 11, 12, 12.1

How to Install CyanogenMod on the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi) (castor_windy)

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Unlock your Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi)

What does “unlocking” mean?

The first step in putting any custom operating system on your Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi) is to unlock the bootloader. A bootloader is the very first program that runs when you turn on your device. The bootloader initializes some hardware and then loads the kernel and ramdisk, and gets the boot process going. If the bootloader is in locked mode, it will ensure that only the stock operating system can run. Since you will be installing your own operating system (CyanogenMod), you need to turn this off.

To unlock your bootloader, you’ll first need a program on your computer called adb. One way to get adb is to download and install the Android SDK (Software Developer Kit) from Google. The SDK is used by app developers when they’re writing programs for Android, and who knows, you may want to write apps someday.

Install the Android SDK

Download the SDK, per the steps on Google’s web page. Then install it by following the specific instructions for your computer.

Obtaining the Bootloader Unlock Code

Note:

Unlocking the bootloader on a Sony device may automatically wipe internal storage; a backup of the sdcard is suggested. It will also irreversibly erase the DRM keys stored in the TA partition of some devices, which will result in the loss of certain proprietary features that may have been included. Check your specific device forum on XDA to learn more.

In order to unlock the bootloader on your Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi) you will need to obtain a code from Sony. The following process will help you acquire this code so that you can flash a custom recovery.

  1. Open the Phone application on the Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi) and enter *#06# to obtain the device’s IMEI, IDID or MEID. Save this for later use.
    • Optional: if you do not have a phone app, the IMEI, IDID or MEID can be found on the box or on the device in Settings -> About Device -> Status.
  2. Put the device into fastboot mode:
    • With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.
  3. Open a terminal on the PC and enter fastboot getvar version
    • If you receive the message <waiting for device> fastboot is not configured properly, please see fastboot for more details.
  4. Navigate a browser here
    • Select your device and click the ‘continue’ button at the bottom of the page.
    • Enter your email address, agree to the terms and select ‘Submit’
    • Click the link from your email, enter your IMEI, IDID or MEID and continue
    • The unlock code should now appear, write this down for the next step.
  5. In the PC’s terminal, enter the following command: fastboot oem unlock 0xKEY
    • KEY corresponds to the unlock code you were given.

The Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi)’s bootloader should now be unlocked.

Installing CyanogenMod on Sony Devices

  1. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.
    Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.
  2. Extract boot.img from the zip to your computer, you will need this file for fastboot.
  3. Put the phone into fastboot mode:
    With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.
  4. Open a terminal on the PC with admin rights, access your platform-tools directory of the Android SDK, and enter the following:
    • fastboot flash boot boot.img
    • fastboot reboot
    While the device reboots, press the Volume rockers a few times to load recovery.
Note: Make the selection below based on the recovery version you see on your screen. If you’re installing CyanogenMod 11, you will have CWM Recovery. If installing CyanogenMod 12.0 or newer, you will have CyanogenMod Recovery.
Click here to continue instructions using CyanogenMod Recovery
Note: Once the device boots into CyanogenMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. The home button is used to confirm your selection. The recovery is also touch screen friendly, so you can swipe up or down to scroll and tap the item you wish to select.
  1. Optional (Recommended): Using adb you can create a backup on your PC of your apps and app data. Boot the device into android and open a command prompt (or terminal on Mac and Linux) and enter the following:
    • adb backup -apk -all -f backup20161224.ab
    When the backup is complete return to recovery mode.
  2. On the device, select wipe data/factory reset.
  3. You have two options for installing the installation zip packages. (Note: The sideload method requires a recent version of adb to be working in recovery (adb bundled with ubuntu may have protocol errors):
    • Sideload method: Select apply update > apply update from adb. Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and enter adb sideload update.zip, where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Install update method: If you previously placed the installation zip packages on your internal storage, select apply update > choose from internal storage. Navigate to the directory where you placed the packages and select one. If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  4. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Note:

On all 2011 model Sony devices, the kernel will not update when flashed in recovery, so the kernel must be updated via fastboot every time you flash a new build of CyanogenMod.

Click here to continue instructions using CWM Recovery
Note:Once the device boots into ClockworkMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. The home button is used to confirm your selection.
  1. Optional (Recommended): Select backup and restore to create a backup of your current ROM.
  2. Select wipe data/factory reset. If you get an error formatting /data, try format /data and /data/media from the mounts and storage menu
  3. You have two options for transferring and installing the installation zip packages. Both cases require a recent version of adb to be working in recovery (adb bundled with ubuntu may have protocol errors). The sideload method is more universal across devices, whereas the push and install method is more commonly used:
    • Sideload method: select install zip > install zip from sideload. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Push and install method: Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and navigate to the directory holding the package(s) you would like to install. On the device, navigate to the mounts and storage menu. If you see /storage/sdcard0 as a mountable volume, go ahead and mount it. If you do not see this directory, then instead mount the /data directory. Take note of which volume you mounted. Now, push the package(s) to your device:
    – If you mounted /storage/sdcard0, then: adb push update.zip /storage/sdcard0/
    – If you mounted /data, then: adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/
    where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. Go back to the main menu and select install zip. Choose to install from the same directory where you pushed the package(s). If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  4. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Note:

On all 2011 model Sony devices, the kernel will not update when flashed in recovery, so the kernel must be updated via fastboot every time you flash a new build of CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip

See something wrong on this page? Click here: Report a Site Problem.

How To Build CyanogenMod For Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi) (castor_windy)

Introduction

These instructions will hopefully assist you to start with a stock Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi), unlock the bootloader (if necessary), and then download the required tools as well as the very latest source code for CyanogenMod (based on Google’s Android operating system). Using these, you can build both CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery image from source code, and then install them both to your device.

It is difficult to say how much experience is necessary to follow these instructions. While this guide is certainly not for the very very very uninitiated, these steps shouldn’t require a PhD in software development either. Some readers will have no difficulty and breeze through the steps easily. Others may struggle over the most basic operation. Because people’s experiences, backgrounds, and intuitions differ, it may be a good idea to read through just to ascertain whether you feel comfortable or are getting over your head.

Remember, you assume all risk of trying this, but you will reap the rewards! It’s pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :) And once you’re an Android-building ninja, there will be no more need to wait for “nightly” builds from anyone. You will have at your fingertips the skills to build a full operating system from code to a running device, whenever you want. Where you go from there– maybe you’ll add a feature, fix a bug, add a translation, or use what you’ve learned to build a new app or port to a new device– or maybe you’ll never build again– it’s all really up to you.

What you’ll need

  • A Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi)
  • A relatively recent computer (Linux, OS X, or Windows) with a reasonable amount of RAM and about 100 GB of free storage (more if you enable ccache or build for multiple devices). The less RAM you have, the longer the build will take (aim for 8 GB or more). Using SSDs results in considerably faster build times than traditional hard drives.
  • A USB cable compatible with the Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi) (typically micro USB, but older devices may use mini USB or have a proprietary cable)
  • A decent internet connection & reliable electricity :)
  • Some familiarity with basic Android operation and terminology. It would help if you’ve installed custom roms on other devices and are familiar with recovery. It may also be useful to know some basic command line concepts such as cd for “change directory”, the concept of directory hierarchies, that in Linux they are separated by /, etc.

If you are not accustomed to using Linux– this is an excellent chance to learn. It’s free– just download and run a virtual machine (VM) such as Virtualbox, then install a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu (AOSP vets Ubuntu as well). Any recent 64-bit version should work great, but the latest is recommended.

Note:

You want to use a 64-bit version of Linux. A 32-bit Linux environment will only work if you are building CyanogenMod 6 and older. For CyanogenMod 10.1, if you encounter issues with 64bit host binaries, you can set BUILD_HOST_32bit=1 in your environment. This is generally not needed, though, especially with CyanogenMod 10.2 and newer.

Using a VM allows Linux to run as a guest inside your host computer– a computer in a computer, if you will. If you hate Linux for whatever reason, you can always just uninstall and delete the whole thing. (There are plenty of places to find instructions for setting up Virtualbox with Ubuntu, so I’ll leave it to you to do that.)

So let’s begin!

Build CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery

Prepare the Build Environment

Note:

You only need to do these steps the first time you build. If you previously prepared your build environment and have downloaded the CyanogenMod source code for another device, skip to Prepare the device-specific code.

Install the SDK

If you have not previously installed adb and fastboot, install the Android SDK. “SDK” stands for Software Developer Kit, and it includes useful tools that you can use to flash software, look at the system logs in real time, grab screenshots, and more– all from your computer.

Helpful Tip

While the SDK contains lots of different things– the two tools you are most interested in for building Android are adb and fastboot, located in the /platform-tools directory.

Install the Build Packages

Several “build packages” are needed to build CyanogenMod. You can install these using the package manager of your choice.

Helpful Tip

A package manager in Linux is a system used to install or remove software (usually originating from the Internet) on your computer. With Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu Software Center. Even better, you may also use the apt-get install command directly in the Terminal. (Learn more about the apt packaging tool system from Wikipedia.)

For both 32-bit & 64-bit systems, you’ll need:

bc bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev

In addition to the above, for 64-bit systems, get these:

g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev

For Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) and newer, substitute:

  • lib32readline-gplv2-devlib32readline6-dev

For Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and newer, substitute (additionally see java notes below):

  • libwxgtk2.8-devlibwxgtk3.0-dev
  • openjdk-7-jdkopenjdk-8-jdk

Java versions: Different versions of CyanogenMod require different versions of the JDK (Java Development Kit):

  • CyanogenMod 7 – 9: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6
  • CyanogenMod 10.1: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7
  • CyanogenMod 10.2 – 11.0: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7 (OpenJDK 1.7 works fine, but the build system will display a warning)
  • CyanogenMod 12.0 – 13.0: OpenJDK 1.7 (see note about OpenJDK 1.8 below)
  • CyanogenMod 14.1: OpenJDK 1.8

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) or newer and OpenJDK: Since OpenJDK 1.7 was removed from the official Ubuntu repositories, you have a couple options:

  1. Obtain OpenJDK 1.7 from the openjdk-r PPA
  2. Enable experimental OpenJDK 1.8 support in CyanogenMod 13.0 (not available in earlier version). To enable OpenJDK 1.8 support, add this line to your $HOME/.bashrc file: export EXPERIMENTAL_USE_JAVA8=true.

Also see http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html which lists needed packages.

Create the directories

You will need to set up some directories in your build environment.

To create them:

$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ mkdir -p ~/android/system

Install the repo command

Enter the following to download the “repo” binary and make it executable (runnable):

$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution

In recent versions of Ubuntu, ~/bin should already be in your PATH. You can check this by opening ~/.profile with a text editor and verifying the following code exists (add it if it is missing):

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Initialize the CyanogenMod source repository

Enter the following to initialize the repository:

Note: Make sure the cm branch entered here is the one you wish to build and is supported on your device.
$ cd ~/android/system/
$ repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b cm-13.0

Download the source code

To start the download of all the source code to your computer:

$ repo sync

The CM manifests include a sensible default configuration for repo, which we strongly suggest you use (i.e. don’t add any options to sync). For reference, our default values are -j 4 and -c. The -j 4 part means that there will be four simultaneous threads/connections. If you experience problems syncing, you can lower this to -j 3 or -j 2. -c will ask repo to pull in only the current branch, instead of the entire CM history.

Prepare to wait a long time while the source code downloads.

Helpful Tip

The repo sync command is used to update the latest source code from CyanogenMod and Google. Remember it, as you can do it every few days to keep your code base fresh and up-to-date.

Get prebuilt apps (CM11 and below)

Next,

$ cd ~/android/system/vendor/cm

then enter:

$ ./get-prebuilts

You won’t see any confirmation- just another prompt. But this should cause some prebuilt apps to be loaded and installed into the source code. Once completed, this does not need to be done again.

Prepare the device-specific code

Helpful Tip – Errors during breakfast

Different maintainers setup their device inheritance rules differently. Some require a vendor directory to be populated before breakfast will even succeed. If you receive an error here about vendor makefiles, then jump down to the next section Extract proprietary blobs. The first portion of breakfast should have succeeded at pulling in the device tree and the extract blobs script should be available. After completing that section, you can rerun breakfast castor_windy

After the source downloads, ensure you are in the root of the source code (cd ~/android/system), then type:

$ source build/envsetup.sh
$ breakfast castor_windy

This will download the device specific configuration and kernel source for your device. An alternative to using the breakfast command is to build your own local manifest. To do this, you will need to locate your device on CyanogenMod’s GitHub and list all of the repositories defined in cm.dependencies in your local manifest.

Helpful Tip

If you want to know more about what source build/envsetup.sh does or simply want to know more about the breakfast, brunch and lunch commands, you can head over to the Envsetup help page.

Helpful Tip

Instead of typing cd ~/android/system every time you want to return back to the root of the source code, here’s a short command that will do it for you: croot. To use this command, you must first run source build/envsetup.sh from ~/android/system.

Extract proprietary blobs

Now ensure that your Xperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi) is connected to your computer via the USB cable and that you are in the ~/android/system/device/sony/castor_windy directory (you can cd ~/android/system/device/sony/castor_windy if necessary). Then run the extract-files.sh script:

$ ./extract-files.sh

You should see the proprietary files (aka “blobs”) get pulled from the device and moved to the ~/android/system/vendor/sony directory. If you see errors about adb being unable to pull the files, adb may not be in the path of execution. If this is the case, see the adb page for suggestions for dealing with “command not found” errors.

Note:

Your device should already be running a build of CyanogenMod for the branch you wish to build for the extract-files.sh script to function properly.

Note:

It’s important that these proprietary files are extracted to the ~/android/system/vendor/sony directory by using the extract-files.sh script. Makefiles are generated at the same time to make sure the blobs are eventually copied to the device. Without these blobs, CyanogenMod may build without error, but you’ll be missing important functionality, such as graphics libraries that enable you to see anything!

Turn on caching to speed up build

You can speed up subsequent builds by adding

export USE_CCACHE=1

to your ~/.bashrc file (what’s a .bashrc file?). Then, specify the amount of disk space to dedicate to ccache by typing this from the top of your Android tree:

prebuilts/misc/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

where 50G corresponds to 50GB of cache. This only needs to be run once and the setting will be remembered. Anywhere in the range of 25GB to 100GB will result in very noticeably increased build speeds (for instance, a typical 1hr build time can be reduced to 20min). If you’re only building for one device, 25GB-50GB is fine. If you plan to build for several devices that do not share the same kernel source, aim for 75GB-100GB. This space will be permanently occupied on your drive, so take this into consideration. See more information about ccache on Google’s android build environment initialization page.

Helpful Tip

If you are a very active developer, working on many other projects than just Android, you might prefer to keep your Android ccache independent (because it’s huge and can slow down the efficiency of ccache in your other projects). Beginning with CyanogenMod 12.1, you can specify environment variables for the location and size of CyanogenMod’s ccache. Some syntax examples: export ANDROID_CCACHE_DIR="$HOME/android/.ccache" and export ANDROID_CCACHE_SIZE="50G".

Start the build

Time to start building! So now type:

$ croot
$ brunch castor_windy

The build should begin.

Helpful Tip

If the build doesn’t start, try lunch and choose your device from the menu. If that doesn’t work, try breakfast and choose from the menu. The command make castor_windy should then work.

Helpful Tip

A second, bonus tip! If you get a command not found error for croot, brunch, or lunch, be sure you’ve done the source build/envsetup.sh command in this Terminal session from the ~/android/system directory.

Helpful Tip

A third tip! If the build to fails while downloading Gello, you’ll need to import a missing certificate into Maven’s truststore. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found here

If the build breaks…

  • If you experience this not-enough-memory-related error…
ERROR: signapk.jar failed: return code 1make: *** [out/target/product/castor_windy/cm_castor_windy-ota-eng.root.zip] Error 1

…you may want to make the following change to ~/android/system/build/tools/releasetools/common.py:

Search for instances of -Xmx2048m (it should appear either under OPTIONS.java_args or near usage of signapk.jar), and replace it with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx512m.

Then start the build again (with brunch).

  • If you see a message about things suddenly being “killed” for no reason, your (virtual) machine may have run out of memory or storage space. Assign it more resources and try again.

Install the build

Assuming the build completed without error (it will be obvious when it finishes), type:

$ cd $OUT

in the same terminal window that you did the build. Here you’ll find all the files that were created. The stuff that will go in /system is in a folder called system. The stuff that will become your ramdisk is in a folder called root. And your kernel is called… kernel.

But that’s all just background info. The two files we are interested in are (1) recovery.img, which contains CyanogenMod Recovery, and (2) cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-castor_windy.zip, which is the CyanogenMod installation package.

Install CyanogenMod

Back to the $OUT directory on your computer– you should see a file that looks something like:

cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-castor_windy.zip

Note:

The above file name may vary depending on the version of CM you are building. Your build may not include a version number or may identify itself as a “KANG” rather than UNOFFICIAL version. Regardless, the file name will end in .zip and should be titled similarly to official builds.

Now you can flash the cm...zip file above as usual via recovery mode. Before doing so, now is a good time to make a backup of whatever installation is currently running on the device in case something goes wrong with the flash attempt. While CyanogenMod Recovery doesn’t have a backup feature, there are other custom recoveries available that do. You can also use something like Titanium Backup (root required) as an alternative.

Success! So….what’s next?

You’ve done it! Welcome to the elite club of self-builders. You’ve built your operating system from scratch, from the ground up. You are the master/mistress of your domain… and hopefully you’ve learned a bit on the way and had some fun too.

Now that you’ve succeeded in building CyanogenMod for your device, here are some suggestions on what to do next.

Also, be sure to take a glance at the Dev Center on this wiki for all kinds of more detailed information about developer topics ranging from collecting logs, understanding what’s in the source code directories, submitting your own contributions, porting CyanogenMod to new devices, and a lot more.

Congrats again!

Content of this page is based on informations from wiki.cyanogenmod.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) (castor)

CyanogenMod ROM Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) (castor) SGP521, SGP541, SGP551.

CyanogenMod ROM Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) SGP521, SGP541, SGP551 (castor)

Quick Info

Download CyanogenMod

Download (nightly build)
CyanogenMod 12.1 (Android 5.1 (Lollipop))

Special boot modes

  • Recovery: Press Volume Up when the notification light is purple.
  • Bootloader: With the device powered down, hold Volume Down and connect the USB cable. The notification light should briefly turn green to indicate you are in flash mode.
  • Fastboot: With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.

Source code

Device http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_device_sony_castor
Kernel http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_kernel_sony_msm8974pro
Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) Specifications
Codename: castor
Also known as: SGP521 SGP541 SGP551
Vendor: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Release date: February 2014
Type: tablet
GSM freq: SGP521/SGP541/SGP551: UMTS HSPA+ 850 (Band V), 900 (Band VIII), 1700 (Band IV), 1900 (Band II), 2100 (Band I) MHz; GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
LTE freq: SGP521: Band I, Band II, Band III, Band IV, Band V, Band VII, Band VIII, Band XIII, Band XVII, Band XX; SGP551: Band I, Band II, Band III, Band IV, Band V, Band VII, Band VIII
Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 APQ8074AB
CPU: 2.3 GHz quad-core Krait 400
GPU: Adreno 330
RAM: 3GB
Weight: 439 g
Dimensions: 266.0 mm (w) x 172.0 mm (h) x 6.4 mm (d)
Screen size: 257 mm (10.1 in)
Resolution: 1920×1200
Screen density: 224 ppi
Screen type: IPS LED
Internal storage: 16 GB
SD Card: microSD up to 128GB
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0
Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n
Main camera: 8.1 MP
Secondary camera: 2.2 MP
Power: 6000 mAh
Peripherals: ambient light sensor, accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope
CM supported: 11, 12, 12.1

How to Install CyanogenMod on the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) (castor)

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Unlock your Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE)

What does “unlocking” mean?

The first step in putting any custom operating system on your Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) is to unlock the bootloader. A bootloader is the very first program that runs when you turn on your device. The bootloader initializes some hardware and then loads the kernel and ramdisk, and gets the boot process going. If the bootloader is in locked mode, it will ensure that only the stock operating system can run. Since you will be installing your own operating system (CyanogenMod), you need to turn this off.

To unlock your bootloader, you’ll first need a program on your computer called adb. One way to get adb is to download and install the Android SDK (Software Developer Kit) from Google. The SDK is used by app developers when they’re writing programs for Android, and who knows, you may want to write apps someday.

Install the Android SDK

Download the SDK, per the steps on Google’s web page. Then install it by following the specific instructions for your computer.

Obtaining the Bootloader Unlock Code

Note:

Unlocking the bootloader on a Sony device may automatically wipe internal storage; a backup of the sdcard is suggested. It will also irreversibly erase the DRM keys stored in the TA partition of some devices, which will result in the loss of certain proprietary features that may have been included. Check your specific device forum on XDA to learn more.

In order to unlock the bootloader on your Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) you will need to obtain a code from Sony. The following process will help you acquire this code so that you can flash a custom recovery.

  1. Open the Phone application on the Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) and enter *#06# to obtain the device’s IMEI, IDID or MEID. Save this for later use.
    • Optional: if you do not have a phone app, the IMEI, IDID or MEID can be found on the box or on the device in Settings -> About Device -> Status.
  2. Put the device into fastboot mode:
    • With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.
  3. Open a terminal on the PC and enter fastboot getvar version
    • If you receive the message <waiting for device> fastboot is not configured properly, please see fastboot for more details.
  4. Navigate a browser here
    • Select your device and click the ‘continue’ button at the bottom of the page.
    • Enter your email address, agree to the terms and select ‘Submit’
    • Click the link from your email, enter your IMEI, IDID or MEID and continue
    • The unlock code should now appear, write this down for the next step.
  5. In the PC’s terminal, enter the following command: fastboot oem unlock 0xKEY
    • KEY corresponds to the unlock code you were given.

The Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE)’s bootloader should now be unlocked.

Installing CyanogenMod on Sony Devices

  1. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.
    Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.
  2. Extract boot.img from the zip to your computer, you will need this file for fastboot.
  3. Put the phone into fastboot mode:
    With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.
  4. Open a terminal on the PC with admin rights, access your platform-tools directory of the Android SDK, and enter the following:
    • fastboot flash boot boot.img
    • fastboot reboot
    While the device reboots, press the Volume rockers a few times to load recovery.
Note: Make the selection below based on the recovery version you see on your screen. If you’re installing CyanogenMod 11, you will have CWM Recovery. If installing CyanogenMod 12.0 or newer, you will have CyanogenMod Recovery.
Click here to continue instructions using CyanogenMod Recovery
Note: Once the device boots into CyanogenMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. The home button is used to confirm your selection. The recovery is also touch screen friendly, so you can swipe up or down to scroll and tap the item you wish to select.
  1. Optional (Recommended): Using adb you can create a backup on your PC of your apps and app data. Boot the device into android and open a command prompt (or terminal on Mac and Linux) and enter the following:
    • adb backup -apk -all -f backup20161224.ab
    When the backup is complete return to recovery mode.
  2. On the device, select wipe data/factory reset.
  3. You have two options for installing the installation zip packages. (Note: The sideload method requires a recent version of adb to be working in recovery (adb bundled with ubuntu may have protocol errors):
    • Sideload method: Select apply update > apply update from adb. Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and enter adb sideload update.zip, where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Install update method: If you previously placed the installation zip packages on your internal storage, select apply update > choose from internal storage. Navigate to the directory where you placed the packages and select one. If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  4. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Note:

On all 2011 model Sony devices, the kernel will not update when flashed in recovery, so the kernel must be updated via fastboot every time you flash a new build of CyanogenMod.

Click here to continue instructions using CWM Recovery
Note:Once the device boots into ClockworkMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. The home button is used to confirm your selection.
  1. Optional (Recommended): Select backup and restore to create a backup of your current ROM.
  2. Select wipe data/factory reset. If you get an error formatting /data, try format /data and /data/media from the mounts and storage menu
  3. You have two options for transferring and installing the installation zip packages. Both cases require a recent version of adb to be working in recovery (adb bundled with ubuntu may have protocol errors). The sideload method is more universal across devices, whereas the push and install method is more commonly used:
    • Sideload method: select install zip > install zip from sideload. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Push and install method: Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and navigate to the directory holding the package(s) you would like to install. On the device, navigate to the mounts and storage menu. If you see /storage/sdcard0 as a mountable volume, go ahead and mount it. If you do not see this directory, then instead mount the /data directory. Take note of which volume you mounted. Now, push the package(s) to your device:
    – If you mounted /storage/sdcard0, then: adb push update.zip /storage/sdcard0/
    – If you mounted /data, then: adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/
    where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. Go back to the main menu and select install zip. Choose to install from the same directory where you pushed the package(s). If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  4. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Note:

On all 2011 model Sony devices, the kernel will not update when flashed in recovery, so the kernel must be updated via fastboot every time you flash a new build of CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip

See something wrong on this page? Click here: Report a Site Problem.

How To Build CyanogenMod For Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) (castor)

Introduction

These instructions will hopefully assist you to start with a stock Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE), unlock the bootloader (if necessary), and then download the required tools as well as the very latest source code for CyanogenMod (based on Google’s Android operating system). Using these, you can build both CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery image from source code, and then install them both to your device.

It is difficult to say how much experience is necessary to follow these instructions. While this guide is certainly not for the very very very uninitiated, these steps shouldn’t require a PhD in software development either. Some readers will have no difficulty and breeze through the steps easily. Others may struggle over the most basic operation. Because people’s experiences, backgrounds, and intuitions differ, it may be a good idea to read through just to ascertain whether you feel comfortable or are getting over your head.

Remember, you assume all risk of trying this, but you will reap the rewards! It’s pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :) And once you’re an Android-building ninja, there will be no more need to wait for “nightly” builds from anyone. You will have at your fingertips the skills to build a full operating system from code to a running device, whenever you want. Where you go from there– maybe you’ll add a feature, fix a bug, add a translation, or use what you’ve learned to build a new app or port to a new device– or maybe you’ll never build again– it’s all really up to you.

What you’ll need

  • A Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE)
  • A relatively recent computer (Linux, OS X, or Windows) with a reasonable amount of RAM and about 100 GB of free storage (more if you enable ccache or build for multiple devices). The less RAM you have, the longer the build will take (aim for 8 GB or more). Using SSDs results in considerably faster build times than traditional hard drives.
  • A USB cable compatible with the Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) (typically micro USB, but older devices may use mini USB or have a proprietary cable)
  • A decent internet connection & reliable electricity :)
  • Some familiarity with basic Android operation and terminology. It would help if you’ve installed custom roms on other devices and are familiar with recovery. It may also be useful to know some basic command line concepts such as cd for “change directory”, the concept of directory hierarchies, that in Linux they are separated by /, etc.

If you are not accustomed to using Linux– this is an excellent chance to learn. It’s free– just download and run a virtual machine (VM) such as Virtualbox, then install a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu (AOSP vets Ubuntu as well). Any recent 64-bit version should work great, but the latest is recommended.

Note:

You want to use a 64-bit version of Linux. A 32-bit Linux environment will only work if you are building CyanogenMod 6 and older. For CyanogenMod 10.1, if you encounter issues with 64bit host binaries, you can set BUILD_HOST_32bit=1 in your environment. This is generally not needed, though, especially with CyanogenMod 10.2 and newer.

Using a VM allows Linux to run as a guest inside your host computer– a computer in a computer, if you will. If you hate Linux for whatever reason, you can always just uninstall and delete the whole thing. (There are plenty of places to find instructions for setting up Virtualbox with Ubuntu, so I’ll leave it to you to do that.)

So let’s begin!

Build CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery

Prepare the Build Environment

Note:

You only need to do these steps the first time you build. If you previously prepared your build environment and have downloaded the CyanogenMod source code for another device, skip to Prepare the device-specific code.

Install the SDK

If you have not previously installed adb and fastboot, install the Android SDK. “SDK” stands for Software Developer Kit, and it includes useful tools that you can use to flash software, look at the system logs in real time, grab screenshots, and more– all from your computer.

Helpful Tip

While the SDK contains lots of different things– the two tools you are most interested in for building Android are adb and fastboot, located in the /platform-tools directory.

Install the Build Packages

Several “build packages” are needed to build CyanogenMod. You can install these using the package manager of your choice.

Helpful Tip

A package manager in Linux is a system used to install or remove software (usually originating from the Internet) on your computer. With Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu Software Center. Even better, you may also use the apt-get install command directly in the Terminal. (Learn more about the apt packaging tool system from Wikipedia.)

For both 32-bit & 64-bit systems, you’ll need:

bc bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev

In addition to the above, for 64-bit systems, get these:

g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev

For Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) and newer, substitute:

  • lib32readline-gplv2-devlib32readline6-dev

For Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and newer, substitute (additionally see java notes below):

  • libwxgtk2.8-devlibwxgtk3.0-dev
  • openjdk-7-jdkopenjdk-8-jdk

Java versions: Different versions of CyanogenMod require different versions of the JDK (Java Development Kit):

  • CyanogenMod 7 – 9: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6
  • CyanogenMod 10.1: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7
  • CyanogenMod 10.2 – 11.0: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7 (OpenJDK 1.7 works fine, but the build system will display a warning)
  • CyanogenMod 12.0 – 13.0: OpenJDK 1.7 (see note about OpenJDK 1.8 below)
  • CyanogenMod 14.1: OpenJDK 1.8

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) or newer and OpenJDK: Since OpenJDK 1.7 was removed from the official Ubuntu repositories, you have a couple options:

  1. Obtain OpenJDK 1.7 from the openjdk-r PPA
  2. Enable experimental OpenJDK 1.8 support in CyanogenMod 13.0 (not available in earlier version). To enable OpenJDK 1.8 support, add this line to your $HOME/.bashrc file: export EXPERIMENTAL_USE_JAVA8=true.

Also see http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html which lists needed packages.

Create the directories

You will need to set up some directories in your build environment.

To create them:

$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ mkdir -p ~/android/system

Install the repo command

Enter the following to download the “repo” binary and make it executable (runnable):

$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution

In recent versions of Ubuntu, ~/bin should already be in your PATH. You can check this by opening ~/.profile with a text editor and verifying the following code exists (add it if it is missing):

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Initialize the CyanogenMod source repository

Enter the following to initialize the repository:

Note: Make sure the cm branch entered here is the one you wish to build and is supported on your device.
$ cd ~/android/system/
$ repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b cm-13.0

Download the source code

To start the download of all the source code to your computer:

$ repo sync

The CM manifests include a sensible default configuration for repo, which we strongly suggest you use (i.e. don’t add any options to sync). For reference, our default values are -j 4 and -c. The -j 4 part means that there will be four simultaneous threads/connections. If you experience problems syncing, you can lower this to -j 3 or -j 2. -c will ask repo to pull in only the current branch, instead of the entire CM history.

Prepare to wait a long time while the source code downloads.

Helpful Tip

The repo sync command is used to update the latest source code from CyanogenMod and Google. Remember it, as you can do it every few days to keep your code base fresh and up-to-date.

Get prebuilt apps (CM11 and below)

Next,

$ cd ~/android/system/vendor/cm

then enter:

$ ./get-prebuilts

You won’t see any confirmation- just another prompt. But this should cause some prebuilt apps to be loaded and installed into the source code. Once completed, this does not need to be done again.

Prepare the device-specific code

Helpful Tip – Errors during breakfast

Different maintainers setup their device inheritance rules differently. Some require a vendor directory to be populated before breakfast will even succeed. If you receive an error here about vendor makefiles, then jump down to the next section Extract proprietary blobs. The first portion of breakfast should have succeeded at pulling in the device tree and the extract blobs script should be available. After completing that section, you can rerun breakfast castor

After the source downloads, ensure you are in the root of the source code (cd ~/android/system), then type:

$ source build/envsetup.sh
$ breakfast castor

This will download the device specific configuration and kernel source for your device. An alternative to using the breakfast command is to build your own local manifest. To do this, you will need to locate your device on CyanogenMod’s GitHub and list all of the repositories defined in cm.dependencies in your local manifest.

Helpful Tip

If you want to know more about what source build/envsetup.sh does or simply want to know more about the breakfast, brunch and lunch commands, you can head over to the Envsetup help page.

Helpful Tip

Instead of typing cd ~/android/system every time you want to return back to the root of the source code, here’s a short command that will do it for you: croot. To use this command, you must first run source build/envsetup.sh from ~/android/system.

Extract proprietary blobs

Now ensure that your Xperia Z2 Tablet (GSM/LTE) is connected to your computer via the USB cable and that you are in the ~/android/system/device/sony/castor directory (you can cd ~/android/system/device/sony/castor if necessary). Then run the extract-files.sh script:

$ ./extract-files.sh

You should see the proprietary files (aka “blobs”) get pulled from the device and moved to the ~/android/system/vendor/sony directory. If you see errors about adb being unable to pull the files, adb may not be in the path of execution. If this is the case, see the adb page for suggestions for dealing with “command not found” errors.

Note:

Your device should already be running a build of CyanogenMod for the branch you wish to build for the extract-files.sh script to function properly.

Note:

It’s important that these proprietary files are extracted to the ~/android/system/vendor/sony directory by using the extract-files.sh script. Makefiles are generated at the same time to make sure the blobs are eventually copied to the device. Without these blobs, CyanogenMod may build without error, but you’ll be missing important functionality, such as graphics libraries that enable you to see anything!

Turn on caching to speed up build

You can speed up subsequent builds by adding

export USE_CCACHE=1

to your ~/.bashrc file (what’s a .bashrc file?). Then, specify the amount of disk space to dedicate to ccache by typing this from the top of your Android tree:

prebuilts/misc/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

where 50G corresponds to 50GB of cache. This only needs to be run once and the setting will be remembered. Anywhere in the range of 25GB to 100GB will result in very noticeably increased build speeds (for instance, a typical 1hr build time can be reduced to 20min). If you’re only building for one device, 25GB-50GB is fine. If you plan to build for several devices that do not share the same kernel source, aim for 75GB-100GB. This space will be permanently occupied on your drive, so take this into consideration. See more information about ccache on Google’s android build environment initialization page.

Helpful Tip

If you are a very active developer, working on many other projects than just Android, you might prefer to keep your Android ccache independent (because it’s huge and can slow down the efficiency of ccache in your other projects). Beginning with CyanogenMod 12.1, you can specify environment variables for the location and size of CyanogenMod’s ccache. Some syntax examples: export ANDROID_CCACHE_DIR="$HOME/android/.ccache" and export ANDROID_CCACHE_SIZE="50G".

Start the build

Time to start building! So now type:

$ croot
$ brunch castor

The build should begin.

Helpful Tip

If the build doesn’t start, try lunch and choose your device from the menu. If that doesn’t work, try breakfast and choose from the menu. The command make castor should then work.

Helpful Tip

A second, bonus tip! If you get a command not found error for croot, brunch, or lunch, be sure you’ve done the source build/envsetup.sh command in this Terminal session from the ~/android/system directory.

Helpful Tip

A third tip! If the build to fails while downloading Gello, you’ll need to import a missing certificate into Maven’s truststore. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found here

If the build breaks…

  • If you experience this not-enough-memory-related error…
ERROR: signapk.jar failed: return code 1make: *** [out/target/product/castor/cm_castor-ota-eng.root.zip] Error 1

…you may want to make the following change to ~/android/system/build/tools/releasetools/common.py:

Search for instances of -Xmx2048m (it should appear either under OPTIONS.java_args or near usage of signapk.jar), and replace it with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx512m.

Then start the build again (with brunch).

  • If you see a message about things suddenly being “killed” for no reason, your (virtual) machine may have run out of memory or storage space. Assign it more resources and try again.

Install the build

Assuming the build completed without error (it will be obvious when it finishes), type:

$ cd $OUT

in the same terminal window that you did the build. Here you’ll find all the files that were created. The stuff that will go in /system is in a folder called system. The stuff that will become your ramdisk is in a folder called root. And your kernel is called… kernel.

But that’s all just background info. The two files we are interested in are (1) recovery.img, which contains CyanogenMod Recovery, and (2) cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-castor.zip, which is the CyanogenMod installation package.

Install CyanogenMod

Back to the $OUT directory on your computer– you should see a file that looks something like:

cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-castor.zip

Note:

The above file name may vary depending on the version of CM you are building. Your build may not include a version number or may identify itself as a “KANG” rather than UNOFFICIAL version. Regardless, the file name will end in .zip and should be titled similarly to official builds.

Now you can flash the cm...zip file above as usual via recovery mode. Before doing so, now is a good time to make a backup of whatever installation is currently running on the device in case something goes wrong with the flash attempt. While CyanogenMod Recovery doesn’t have a backup feature, there are other custom recoveries available that do. You can also use something like Titanium Backup (root required) as an alternative.

Success! So….what’s next?

You’ve done it! Welcome to the elite club of self-builders. You’ve built your operating system from scratch, from the ground up. You are the master/mistress of your domain… and hopefully you’ve learned a bit on the way and had some fun too.

Now that you’ve succeeded in building CyanogenMod for your device, here are some suggestions on what to do next.

Also, be sure to take a glance at the Dev Center on this wiki for all kinds of more detailed information about developer topics ranging from collecting logs, understanding what’s in the source code directories, submitting your own contributions, porting CyanogenMod to new devices, and a lot more.

Congrats again!

Content of this page is based on informations from wiki.cyanogenmod.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Sony Xperia Z2 (sirius)

CyanogenMod ROM Sony Xperia Z2 (D6503, D6502, D6543) (sirius)

CyanogenMod ROM Sony Xperia Z2 (D6503, D6502, D6543) (sirius)

Quick Info

Download CyanogenMod

Download (nightly build)
CyanogenMod 12.1 (Android 5.1 (Lollipop))

Special boot modes

  • Recovery: Turn off the device and wait at least 5 seconds. Power On the device by pressing the Power button and when the Notification LED is lit, press Volume Up or Volume Down button repeatedly until you are taken to the recovery mode screen.
  • Bootloader: Insert one end of the Micro-USB cable into your PC. Turn off the device and wait at least 5 seconds. Press and hold the Volume Down button and plug the other end of the Micro-USB cable in to your device.
  • Fastboot: Insert one end of the Micro-USB cable into your PC. Turn off the device and wait at least 5 seconds. Press and hold the Volume Up button and plug the other end of the Micro-USB cable in to your device.

Source code

Device http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_device_sony_sirius
Kernel http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod/android_kernel_sony_sirius
Xperia Z2 Specifications
Codename: sirius
Also known as: Z2, D6503, D6502, D6543
Vendor: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Release date: 2014 March 24
Type: phone
GSM freq: 850 900 1800 1900 MHz GSM GPRS/EDGE, 850 900 1700 1900 2100 MHz UMTS/HSPA+
LTE freq: [D6503] Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 20
[D6543] Bands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8
Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8974AB 801
CPU: 2.3 GHz quad-core Krait 400
GPU: Adreno 330
RAM: 3GB
Weight: 163 g (5.75 oz)
Dimensions: 146.8 mm (5.78 in) (h)
73.3 mm (2.89 in) (w)
8.2 mm (0.32 in) (d)
Screen size: 130 mm (5.19 in)
Resolution: 1920×1080
Screen density: 424 ppi
Screen type: IPS LCD
Internal storage: 16 GB
SD Card: up to 128 GB (SDXC supported)
Bluetooth: 4.0
Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Main camera: 20.7MP, flash: LED
Secondary camera: 2.2MP
Power: 3200 mAh non-removable battery
Peripherals: Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor, Barometer sensor, Game rotation vector, Geomagnetic rotation vector, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Step counter, Step detector, Significant motion detector, Proximity sensor
CM supported: 11, 12, 12.1

How to Install CyanogenMod on the Sony Xperia Z2 (sirius)

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Unlock your Xperia Z2

What does “unlocking” mean?

The first step in putting any custom operating system on your Xperia Z2 is to unlock the bootloader. A bootloader is the very first program that runs when you turn on your device. The bootloader initializes some hardware and then loads the kernel and ramdisk, and gets the boot process going. If the bootloader is in locked mode, it will ensure that only the stock operating system can run. Since you will be installing your own operating system (CyanogenMod), you need to turn this off.

To unlock your bootloader, you’ll first need a program on your computer called adb. One way to get adb is to download and install the Android SDK (Software Developer Kit) from Google. The SDK is used by app developers when they’re writing programs for Android, and who knows, you may want to write apps someday.

Install the Android SDK

Download the SDK, per the steps on Google’s web page. Then install it by following the specific instructions for your computer.

Obtaining the Bootloader Unlock Code

Note:

Unlocking the bootloader on a Sony device may automatically wipe internal storage; a backup of the sdcard is suggested. It will also irreversibly erase the DRM keys stored in the TA partition of some devices, which will result in the loss of certain proprietary features that may have been included. Check your specific device forum on XDA to learn more.

In order to unlock the bootloader on your Xperia Z2 you will need to obtain a code from Sony. The following process will help you acquire this code so that you can flash a custom recovery.

  1. Open the Phone application on the Xperia Z2 and enter *#06# to obtain the device’s IMEI, IDID or MEID. Save this for later use.
    • Optional: if you do not have a phone app, the IMEI, IDID or MEID can be found on the box or on the device in Settings -> About Device -> Status.
  2. Put the device into fastboot mode:
    • Insert one end of the Micro-USB cable into your PC. Turn off the device and wait at least 5 seconds. Press and hold the Volume Up button and plug the other end of the Micro-USB cable in to your device.
  3. Open a terminal on the PC and enter fastboot getvar version
    • If you receive the message <waiting for device> fastboot is not configured properly, please see fastboot for more details.
  4. Navigate a browser here
    • Select your device and click the ‘continue’ button at the bottom of the page.
    • Enter your email address, agree to the terms and select ‘Submit’
    • Click the link from your email, enter your IMEI, IDID or MEID and continue
    • The unlock code should now appear, write this down for the next step.
  5. In the PC’s terminal, enter the following command: fastboot oem unlock 0xKEY
    • KEY corresponds to the unlock code you were given.

The Xperia Z2’s bootloader should now be unlocked.

Installing CyanogenMod on Sony Devices

  1. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.
    Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.
  2. Extract boot.img from the zip to your computer, you will need this file for fastboot.
  3. Put the phone into fastboot mode:
    Insert one end of the Micro-USB cable into your PC. Turn off the device and wait at least 5 seconds. Press and hold the Volume Up button and plug the other end of the Micro-USB cable in to your device.
  4. Open a terminal on the PC with admin rights, access your platform-tools directory of the Android SDK, and enter the following:
    • fastboot flash boot boot.img
    • fastboot reboot
    While the device reboots, press the Volume rockers a few times to load recovery.
Note: Make the selection below based on the recovery version you see on your screen. If you’re installing CyanogenMod 11, you will have CWM Recovery. If installing CyanogenMod 12.0 or newer, you will have CyanogenMod Recovery.
Click here to continue instructions using CyanogenMod Recovery
Note: Once the device boots into CyanogenMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. The home button is used to confirm your selection. The recovery is also touch screen friendly, so you can swipe up or down to scroll and tap the item you wish to select.
  1. Optional (Recommended): Using adb you can create a backup on your PC of your apps and app data. Boot the device into android and open a command prompt (or terminal on Mac and Linux) and enter the following:
    • adb backup -apk -all -f backup20161224.ab
    When the backup is complete return to recovery mode.
  2. On the device, select wipe data/factory reset.
  3. You have two options for installing the installation zip packages. (Note: The sideload method requires a recent version of adb to be working in recovery (adb bundled with ubuntu may have protocol errors):
    • Sideload method: Select apply update > apply update from adb. Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and enter adb sideload update.zip, where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Install update method: If you previously placed the installation zip packages on your internal storage, select apply update > choose from internal storage. Navigate to the directory where you placed the packages and select one. If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  4. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Note:

On all 2011 model Sony devices, the kernel will not update when flashed in recovery, so the kernel must be updated via fastboot every time you flash a new build of CyanogenMod.

Click here to continue instructions using CWM Recovery
Note:Once the device boots into ClockworkMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. The home button is used to confirm your selection.
  1. Optional (Recommended): Select backup and restore to create a backup of your current ROM.
  2. Select wipe data/factory reset. If you get an error formatting /data, try format /data and /data/media from the mounts and storage menu
  3. You have two options for transferring and installing the installation zip packages. Both cases require a recent version of adb to be working in recovery (adb bundled with ubuntu may have protocol errors). The sideload method is more universal across devices, whereas the push and install method is more commonly used:
    • Sideload method: select install zip > install zip from sideload. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package. The installer does not necessarily display an “Install complete.” message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
    • Push and install method: Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and navigate to the directory holding the package(s) you would like to install. On the device, navigate to the mounts and storage menu. If you see /storage/sdcard0 as a mountable volume, go ahead and mount it. If you do not see this directory, then instead mount the /data directory. Take note of which volume you mounted. Now, push the package(s) to your device:
    – If you mounted /storage/sdcard0, then: adb push update.zip /storage/sdcard0/
    – If you mounted /data, then: adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/
    where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. Go back to the main menu and select install zip. Choose to install from the same directory where you pushed the package(s). If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.
  4. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Note:

On all 2011 model Sony devices, the kernel will not update when flashed in recovery, so the kernel must be updated via fastboot every time you flash a new build of CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip

See something wrong on this page? Click here: Report a Site Problem.

How To Build CyanogenMod For Sony Xperia Z2 (sirius)

Introduction

These instructions will hopefully assist you to start with a stock Xperia Z2, unlock the bootloader (if necessary), and then download the required tools as well as the very latest source code for CyanogenMod (based on Google’s Android operating system). Using these, you can build both CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery image from source code, and then install them both to your device.

It is difficult to say how much experience is necessary to follow these instructions. While this guide is certainly not for the very very very uninitiated, these steps shouldn’t require a PhD in software development either. Some readers will have no difficulty and breeze through the steps easily. Others may struggle over the most basic operation. Because people’s experiences, backgrounds, and intuitions differ, it may be a good idea to read through just to ascertain whether you feel comfortable or are getting over your head.

Remember, you assume all risk of trying this, but you will reap the rewards! It’s pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :) And once you’re an Android-building ninja, there will be no more need to wait for “nightly” builds from anyone. You will have at your fingertips the skills to build a full operating system from code to a running device, whenever you want. Where you go from there– maybe you’ll add a feature, fix a bug, add a translation, or use what you’ve learned to build a new app or port to a new device– or maybe you’ll never build again– it’s all really up to you.

What you’ll need

  • A Xperia Z2
  • A relatively recent computer (Linux, OS X, or Windows) with a reasonable amount of RAM and about 100 GB of free storage (more if you enable ccache or build for multiple devices). The less RAM you have, the longer the build will take (aim for 8 GB or more). Using SSDs results in considerably faster build times than traditional hard drives.
  • A USB cable compatible with the Xperia Z2 (typically micro USB, but older devices may use mini USB or have a proprietary cable)
  • A decent internet connection & reliable electricity :)
  • Some familiarity with basic Android operation and terminology. It would help if you’ve installed custom roms on other devices and are familiar with recovery. It may also be useful to know some basic command line concepts such as cd for “change directory”, the concept of directory hierarchies, that in Linux they are separated by /, etc.

If you are not accustomed to using Linux– this is an excellent chance to learn. It’s free– just download and run a virtual machine (VM) such as Virtualbox, then install a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu (AOSP vets Ubuntu as well). Any recent 64-bit version should work great, but the latest is recommended.

Note:

You want to use a 64-bit version of Linux. A 32-bit Linux environment will only work if you are building CyanogenMod 6 and older. For CyanogenMod 10.1, if you encounter issues with 64bit host binaries, you can set BUILD_HOST_32bit=1 in your environment. This is generally not needed, though, especially with CyanogenMod 10.2 and newer.

Using a VM allows Linux to run as a guest inside your host computer– a computer in a computer, if you will. If you hate Linux for whatever reason, you can always just uninstall and delete the whole thing. (There are plenty of places to find instructions for setting up Virtualbox with Ubuntu, so I’ll leave it to you to do that.)

So let’s begin!

Build CyanogenMod and CyanogenMod Recovery

Prepare the Build Environment

Note:

You only need to do these steps the first time you build. If you previously prepared your build environment and have downloaded the CyanogenMod source code for another device, skip to Prepare the device-specific code.

Install the SDK

If you have not previously installed adb and fastboot, install the Android SDK. “SDK” stands for Software Developer Kit, and it includes useful tools that you can use to flash software, look at the system logs in real time, grab screenshots, and more– all from your computer.

Helpful Tip

While the SDK contains lots of different things– the two tools you are most interested in for building Android are adb and fastboot, located in the /platform-tools directory.

Install the Build Packages

Several “build packages” are needed to build CyanogenMod. You can install these using the package manager of your choice.

Helpful Tip

A package manager in Linux is a system used to install or remove software (usually originating from the Internet) on your computer. With Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu Software Center. Even better, you may also use the apt-get install command directly in the Terminal. (Learn more about the apt packaging tool system from Wikipedia.)

For both 32-bit & 64-bit systems, you’ll need:

bc bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev

In addition to the above, for 64-bit systems, get these:

g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev

For Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) and newer, substitute:

  • lib32readline-gplv2-devlib32readline6-dev

For Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and newer, substitute (additionally see java notes below):

  • libwxgtk2.8-devlibwxgtk3.0-dev
  • openjdk-7-jdkopenjdk-8-jdk

Java versions: Different versions of CyanogenMod require different versions of the JDK (Java Development Kit):

  • CyanogenMod 7 – 9: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6
  • CyanogenMod 10.1: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7
  • CyanogenMod 10.2 – 11.0: Sun/Oracle Java SE 1.6 or 1.7 (OpenJDK 1.7 works fine, but the build system will display a warning)
  • CyanogenMod 12.0 – 13.0: OpenJDK 1.7 (see note about OpenJDK 1.8 below)
  • CyanogenMod 14.1: OpenJDK 1.8

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) or newer and OpenJDK: Since OpenJDK 1.7 was removed from the official Ubuntu repositories, you have a couple options:

  1. Obtain OpenJDK 1.7 from the openjdk-r PPA
  2. Enable experimental OpenJDK 1.8 support in CyanogenMod 13.0 (not available in earlier version). To enable OpenJDK 1.8 support, add this line to your $HOME/.bashrc file: export EXPERIMENTAL_USE_JAVA8=true.

Also see http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html which lists needed packages.

Create the directories

You will need to set up some directories in your build environment.

To create them:

$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ mkdir -p ~/android/system

Install the repo command

Enter the following to download the “repo” binary and make it executable (runnable):

$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution

In recent versions of Ubuntu, ~/bin should already be in your PATH. You can check this by opening ~/.profile with a text editor and verifying the following code exists (add it if it is missing):

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Initialize the CyanogenMod source repository

Enter the following to initialize the repository:

Note: Make sure the cm branch entered here is the one you wish to build and is supported on your device.
$ cd ~/android/system/
$ repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b cm-13.0

Download the source code

To start the download of all the source code to your computer:

$ repo sync

The CM manifests include a sensible default configuration for repo, which we strongly suggest you use (i.e. don’t add any options to sync). For reference, our default values are -j 4 and -c. The -j 4 part means that there will be four simultaneous threads/connections. If you experience problems syncing, you can lower this to -j 3 or -j 2. -c will ask repo to pull in only the current branch, instead of the entire CM history.

Prepare to wait a long time while the source code downloads.

Helpful Tip

The repo sync command is used to update the latest source code from CyanogenMod and Google. Remember it, as you can do it every few days to keep your code base fresh and up-to-date.

Get prebuilt apps (CM11 and below)

Next,

$ cd ~/android/system/vendor/cm

then enter:

$ ./get-prebuilts

You won’t see any confirmation- just another prompt. But this should cause some prebuilt apps to be loaded and installed into the source code. Once completed, this does not need to be done again.

Prepare the device-specific code

Helpful Tip – Errors during breakfast

Different maintainers setup their device inheritance rules differently. Some require a vendor directory to be populated before breakfast will even succeed. If you receive an error here about vendor makefiles, then jump down to the next section Extract proprietary blobs. The first portion of breakfast should have succeeded at pulling in the device tree and the extract blobs script should be available. After completing that section, you can rerun breakfast sirius

After the source downloads, ensure you are in the root of the source code (cd ~/android/system), then type:

$ source build/envsetup.sh
$ breakfast sirius

This will download the device specific configuration and kernel source for your device. An alternative to using the breakfast command is to build your own local manifest. To do this, you will need to locate your device on CyanogenMod’s GitHub and list all of the repositories defined in cm.dependencies in your local manifest.

Helpful Tip

If you want to know more about what source build/envsetup.sh does or simply want to know more about the breakfast, brunch and lunch commands, you can head over to the Envsetup help page.

Helpful Tip

Instead of typing cd ~/android/system every time you want to return back to the root of the source code, here’s a short command that will do it for you: croot. To use this command, you must first run source build/envsetup.sh from ~/android/system.

Extract proprietary blobs

Now ensure that your Xperia Z2 is connected to your computer via the USB cable and that you are in the ~/android/system/device/sony/sirius directory (you can cd ~/android/system/device/sony/sirius if necessary). Then run the extract-files.sh script:

$ ./extract-files.sh

You should see the proprietary files (aka “blobs”) get pulled from the device and moved to the ~/android/system/vendor/sony directory. If you see errors about adb being unable to pull the files, adb may not be in the path of execution. If this is the case, see the adb page for suggestions for dealing with “command not found” errors.

Note:

Your device should already be running a build of CyanogenMod for the branch you wish to build for the extract-files.sh script to function properly.

Note:

It’s important that these proprietary files are extracted to the ~/android/system/vendor/sony directory by using the extract-files.sh script. Makefiles are generated at the same time to make sure the blobs are eventually copied to the device. Without these blobs, CyanogenMod may build without error, but you’ll be missing important functionality, such as graphics libraries that enable you to see anything!

Turn on caching to speed up build

You can speed up subsequent builds by adding

export USE_CCACHE=1

to your ~/.bashrc file (what’s a .bashrc file?). Then, specify the amount of disk space to dedicate to ccache by typing this from the top of your Android tree:

prebuilts/misc/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

where 50G corresponds to 50GB of cache. This only needs to be run once and the setting will be remembered. Anywhere in the range of 25GB to 100GB will result in very noticeably increased build speeds (for instance, a typical 1hr build time can be reduced to 20min). If you’re only building for one device, 25GB-50GB is fine. If you plan to build for several devices that do not share the same kernel source, aim for 75GB-100GB. This space will be permanently occupied on your drive, so take this into consideration. See more information about ccache on Google’s android build environment initialization page.

Helpful Tip

If you are a very active developer, working on many other projects than just Android, you might prefer to keep your Android ccache independent (because it’s huge and can slow down the efficiency of ccache in your other projects). Beginning with CyanogenMod 12.1, you can specify environment variables for the location and size of CyanogenMod’s ccache. Some syntax examples: export ANDROID_CCACHE_DIR="$HOME/android/.ccache" and export ANDROID_CCACHE_SIZE="50G".

Start the build

Time to start building! So now type:

$ croot
$ brunch sirius

The build should begin.

Helpful Tip

If the build doesn’t start, try lunch and choose your device from the menu. If that doesn’t work, try breakfast and choose from the menu. The command make sirius should then work.

Helpful Tip

A second, bonus tip! If you get a command not found error for croot, brunch, or lunch, be sure you’ve done the source build/envsetup.sh command in this Terminal session from the ~/android/system directory.

Helpful Tip

A third tip! If the build to fails while downloading Gello, you’ll need to import a missing certificate into Maven’s truststore. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found here

If the build breaks…

  • If you experience this not-enough-memory-related error…
ERROR: signapk.jar failed: return code 1make: *** [out/target/product/sirius/cm_sirius-ota-eng.root.zip] Error 1

…you may want to make the following change to ~/android/system/build/tools/releasetools/common.py:

Search for instances of -Xmx2048m (it should appear either under OPTIONS.java_args or near usage of signapk.jar), and replace it with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx512m.

Then start the build again (with brunch).

  • If you see a message about things suddenly being “killed” for no reason, your (virtual) machine may have run out of memory or storage space. Assign it more resources and try again.

Install the build

Assuming the build completed without error (it will be obvious when it finishes), type:

$ cd $OUT

in the same terminal window that you did the build. Here you’ll find all the files that were created. The stuff that will go in /system is in a folder called system. The stuff that will become your ramdisk is in a folder called root. And your kernel is called… kernel.

But that’s all just background info. The two files we are interested in are (1) recovery.img, which contains CyanogenMod Recovery, and (2) cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-sirius.zip, which is the CyanogenMod installation package.

Install CyanogenMod

Back to the $OUT directory on your computer– you should see a file that looks something like:

cm-13.0-20161224-UNOFFICIAL-sirius.zip

Note:

The above file name may vary depending on the version of CM you are building. Your build may not include a version number or may identify itself as a “KANG” rather than UNOFFICIAL version. Regardless, the file name will end in .zip and should be titled similarly to official builds.

Now you can flash the cm...zip file above as usual via recovery mode. Before doing so, now is a good time to make a backup of whatever installation is currently running on the device in case something goes wrong with the flash attempt. While CyanogenMod Recovery doesn’t have a backup feature, there are other custom recoveries available that do. You can also use something like Titanium Backup (root required) as an alternative.

Success! So….what’s next?

You’ve done it! Welcome to the elite club of self-builders. You’ve built your operating system from scratch, from the ground up. You are the master/mistress of your domain… and hopefully you’ve learned a bit on the way and had some fun too.

Now that you’ve succeeded in building CyanogenMod for your device, here are some suggestions on what to do next.

Also, be sure to take a glance at the Dev Center on this wiki for all kinds of more detailed information about developer topics ranging from collecting logs, understanding what’s in the source code directories, submitting your own contributions, porting CyanogenMod to new devices, and a lot more.

Congrats again!

Content of this page is based on informations from wiki.cyanogenmod.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.