Ok, time has come that I was not very happy any more with my Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wifi and Samsungs inability to provide updates. It got stuck at Android 4.0.4. Besides this, I never really liked the Samsung Mod for Android at all. So, I looked for “Howto flash my Tab to the latest and greatest“.
I found a lot of links but many where more vague than extensive about to whole procedure. They wrote about what you need, and what you should have dome already, but missed out on exactly these important parts. E.g, Ibtunes which was the most promising step-by-step tutorial, just mentioned that you should have already rooted your device and installed the ClockworkMod Recovery.
Well, I thought that would be easy, but it turned out to take me a whole lot of time to figure out how to do that. No, it was not complicated in general, but the way most all Howtos described the procedure, did not work for me. For that reason, here my written and without images enhanced version of How to install Android 4.2.1 CM (Cyogenmod) 10.1 on a Galaxy Tab 8.9 (GT-P7310).
!!!! DO A BACKUP OF ALL YOUR USER DATA !!!!
Why all of this?
Well, Samsung kept us hanging for very long to bring Android 4.x, which was very needed due to Android 3.x lack of basically everything. Don’t get me wrong. It was still the best in the beginning, but felt dated fast. I always had painful issues with ActiveSync and my emails.
Than they brought us 4.0.4 and things got better. Email was finally usable and most other things also. Sadly my tablet was very, and I mean VERY, slow. It was so slow, that I was waiting sometimes 30 seconds to see the next email after deleting on. From some point on, Copy&Past did not work any more. Browsing was slow, basically anything was slow. This might have been only an issue for me, but it was finally the pushing factor to try flashing the system.
Downloads you need
- https://hotfile.com/dl/179833739/68d6b91/GTab89Files.zip.html
- http://code.google.com/p/tab89cm/downloads/list
- Get lates CM and Clockwork file for your device
- Have a look at this page for more detailed information, if this tutorial does not help you http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1406137
- http://androidjinn.com/download-latest-gapps-or-google-apps.html
- Download the appropriate file
Root you Tab
The first thing to do is to gain root access to your Tab. This is fairly easy, if it works like described in this YouTube video.
To paraphrase the video and to have the Howto even the video might be deleted. Here is my written version.
- Windows: Install the Samsung Kies Software (only for the USB-Drivers) or install the USB-Drivers from the GTab89Files.zip
- Tab: Activate Developer mode for USB. Settings->Development…
- Tab: Connect Tab to Computer and copy root.zip to the main folder (sdcard)
- Tab: Disconnect your Tab from the computer
- Tab: Reboot the Tab by pressing and holding the power and volume-down button until the screen shows two icons – Something and Download…
- Tab: Push the volume-down button to select the “Something” and than press the volume-up button to confirm.
The screen blanks, the Android shows up shortly and than a blue menu appears. - Tab: Use the volume buttons to navigate to “apply update from /sdcard“. The navigation is reversed!
- Tab: Confirm the selection by hitting the power button.
- Tab: Select the root.zip and confirm with the power button.
At 9. there was my problem. When I confirmed the selection of “apply update from /sdcard“, I got an error message that the directory was not available or similar. To solve this problem, you need to reboot the Tab like described above (5.) but instead of selecting “something” you need to select “downloading”. Than continue as follows:
- Tab: You can see a message that things are dangerous and if you are sure to continue.
- Windows: Start ODIN3 from GTab89Files.zip or download the latest version from somewhere else. Right now the latest version is 2.3.3
- Windows: Select PDA in the ODIN3 software and select the file “Stock Recovery.zip” from GTab89Files.zip
- Tab: Connect the Tab with the computer
- Tab: Confirm to continue
- Windows: Windows should make the known sounds that a USB-device is discoverd and in ODIN3 a COM Port will be recognized.
- Windows: Hit start in ODIN3
- Tab: On the Tab and on Windows things will happen and in the end you are back in the blue menu.
Install ClockworkMod Recovery
The next step is about installing the ClockworkMod Recovery Program. Sadly the Clockwork Manager from the AppStore does not know this Tab. For this reason we need to install a customized version or the CMR, which we downloaded earlier
- Tab: Start the tab in the normal mode
- Tab: Connect the Tab to the Computer
- Windows: Copy the Clockwork_Recovery_6.0.2.7_GT-P7310.zip or the 7310_CWMR.zip from the GTab89Files.zip to the Tab
- Tab: Reboot again as described above into the blue menu
- Tab: “apply update from /sdcard” and select the CMR you just copied to the Tab
- Tab: After the installation reboot the system and boot again into this menu
You will now see a very new menu instead of the blue one from before. The important difference is that you can now create backups and restore backups. This way we can always return to the factory rom (system).
Perform a Backup
To make it totally clear once again. This backup is not a backup of the whole device! It is only the system you will make a backup from. You need to backup ALL your user generated content such al pictures, videos and so on independently and prior to any recovery or installation of a new Mod!!
- Tab: Boot into the Recovery menu as described above
- Tab: In the menu, choose “backup and restore“. Than choose “backup” and wait until the backup is finished.
The backup can be found later in a folder named “clockworkmod” and should be copied the the computer for later use if necessary.
Best is, you boot the Tab now into the normal system and copy the backup to your computer.
Install Android 4.2.1 CM10.1
- Windows: Copy the latest CM file you downloaded to the Tab
- Windows: Copy the Google apps file you downloaded to the Tab
- Tab: Boot into the Recovery menu as described above
- Tab: Perform a full data wipe. To do so, click wipe data/factory reset and then hit Yes on next screen to confirm. Wait for a few minutes until the data wipe process completes.
- Tab: Choose Install zip from sdcard
- Select Choose zip from sdcard.
- Tab: Locate the CM10.1 ROM zip file that you copied to your tablet earlier and select it by tapping Power button.
- Tab: Confirm ROM installation by tapping Yes to confirm and the installation will begin.
- After the ROM is installed, repeat starting from step 6 but choose GApps file instead of ROM zip to install the Google apps package.
- Perform a full data wipe again. To do so, go back to the main menu, hit wipe data/factory reset and click Yes on next screen to confirm. Wait for a few minutes until the data wipe process completes.
- Once the data wiping process is done, return to the main recovery menu and tap Reboot System Now to reboot the Tab and you will see it booting into Android 4.2.1 CM10.1 ROM.
The first boot may be time-consuming (takes about 5 minutes). So, leave it alone.
Restore
You can restore any backup you have made with CMR. To be sure that this will work, ensure that the backup is in the same folder as described in the backup section.
When restoring an old backup, you will loose all the data that is currently on your device. You need to backup ALL your user generated content such al pictures, videos and so on independently and prior to any restoration of an old backup!!
- Tab: Boot into the Recovery menu as described above
- Tab: Perform a full data wipe. To do so, click wipe data/factory reset and then hit Yes on next screen to confirm. Wait for a few minutes until the data wipe process completes.
- Tab: Go to “advanced“
- Tab: Choose “wipe dalvik cache”
- Tab: Go to “mounts and storage” and select “format /system“
- Tab: In the menu, choose “backup and restore“.
- Tab: Choose “restore” and locate the backup you want to restore
- Tab: Wait until the restoring process is finished.
Remember to reflash the kernel if you had one that didn’t come with the ROM (like _motley‘s for example)
First impressions of Android 4.2.1 CM 10.1
GERAT!!
Stay tuned for my later posts, where I tell you more about my impressions.