Update HTC One S to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean via Cyanogenmod 10.1 Custom ROM

In previous year HTC launched their One series which just rocked the Android world. If specifications and price is considered HTC One S is in between One X and One V amongst the trio. With dedicated image processing chip it has amazing camera and excellent sound quality with Beats Audio integration. It has good specifications and hardware and it come with on board Ice Cream Sandwich.

ICS was latest at the time when phone was released but eventually Google released Jelly Bean and further updates but still no official update is given for this device via HTC themselves. But you don’t have to worry about that, developers are always there to bring latest stuff to you like custom ROMs, custom Recoveries etc.

Now here is world’s most used custom ROM that isCyanogenmod 10.1 based on latestAndroid 4.2.1 which is upgraded version of Jelly Bean available for your own HTC One S. Thanks to $droyd$, member of XDA developers. As the ROM is based on Android 4.2 you can enjoy all the latest features like actionable notifications, amazing widgets, buttery smooth interface etc. Though being an unofficial build it may have some bugs and stability issues but they will be fixed by rolling out updated builds. Following article explains how to install Android 4.2 on your HTC One S via Cyanogenmod 10.1.

Disclaimer : The Procedure described in this article are risky & can cause damage to your device. You should not try to attempt this if you are not aware of these things. Please follow this guide completely at your own risk. If any damage happened to your device while following this tutorial, we should not be held responsible for it.

Attention! Please note that, the steps mentioned in this article should be performed on HTC One S. DON’T try it on any other device, it can damage your phone while doing so.

Prerequisites:

• Your phone must be charged at least up to 70% battery level.

• As all the data on the mobile gets wiped during installation of ROM, you should take a backup of all your personal important data like SMS, MMS, APN, contacts etc. to the external memory.

• USB debugging mode must be enabled.

• You must have unlocked bootloader of your device. If youve not unlocked it yet, follow this procedure given in tutorial below.

1. How to unlock bootloader of HTC One S

• Custom Recovery like CWM (Clockwork Mod Recovery) or TWRP must be installed on the phone. You can follow this guide given below to install CWM Recovery.

1. How To Root & Install Clockworkmod Recovery on HTC One S

Procedure to Update HTC One S with Cyanogenmod 10.1 Custom ROM (Android 4.2 Jelly Bean) :

• Download latest Cyanogenmod build from the official ROM development page (link is given below):

1. Cyanogenmod 10.1 for HTC One S.

• You have to separately download and flash Google Apps (Gmail, Maps, GTalk, Play Store etc.) because they are not present in ROM by default. Link to download Goggle Apps is given below

1. Google Apps (Jelly Bean).

• Connect your phone to computer using USB cable and copy zip files of ROM file & Google Apps to your device’s SD Card.

• Download the fastboot files which we will need to flash the kernel image.

1. Fastboot Files

• Extract above zip package of fastboot files. You will find four files inside your extracted folder.

1. adb.exe
2. AdbWinApi.dll
3. AdbWinUsbApi.dll
4. fastboot.exe

 

• Open ROM package which you’ve just downloaded in your computer. Search for boot.img inside it (which is kernel file). Extract that kernel file using WinRAR & copy the same in fastboot folder so that you should have total five files inside it by now.

• On the phone (while switched off), enter into the fastboot mode. To do so,

1. Press & hold Volume Down + Power Button together.
2. Your device will be booted in bootloader mode. Now navigate Fastboot mode using volume up/down buttons & select it using power button.
3. After entering into the Fastboot mode, Connect your phone to the PC.

• Open the ‘Fastboot‘ folder in which you have extracted fastboot files.

• Now Open command prompt & Point its directory to the fastboot folder (OR You can do the same as: open Fastboot folder, Press & hold shift key and then right click on the free space in the same folder.When right clicked (holding shift), you’ll see ‘Open Command window here‘ option. Click it & Command prompt will get opened pointing to the Fastboot directory).

• Put this command in command prompt :fastboot devices (After entering this command, you’ll see the random numbers are appeared in the command prompt window.This is to ensure that your device is properly connected. If it doesn’t appear then you need to install HTC Sync software to install essential drivers for One S).

• Type the following command in command prompt to flash the kernel file:

fastboot flash boot boot.img

• Restart it in bootloader by typing “adb reboot bootloader” (without quotes) in command prompt. Once phone restarts then you can disconnect the phone from PC.

• You’ll be landed in bootloader mode. Now highlight recovery option using volume up/down keys & select it using power button.

• Don’t forget to take nanroid backup of ROM which you are currently using. In case if anything goes wrong you can go back to your previous ROM just by restoring this backup . To backup your current ROM, select Backupand Restore option from the recovery mode & on next screen, select backup. Now It will make a nandroid backup of your whole system (excluding SD card). Wait for the backup process to get finished.

• After successfully backup, select wipe data/factory reset & wipe cache partition to wipe all the data & caches from the phone memory respectively.

• Select “install zip from sdcard” & then “choose zip from sdcard“. Navigate the ROM file (which you’ve transferred earlier) Select it & press on ‘Yes‘ to continue. ROM installation process will start.

• Wait for the ROM to get installed. After ROM gets successfully installed, your phone will land in the recovery mode.

• Again select “install zip from sdcard” followed by “choose zip from sdcard” & this time navigate Google apps package file. Press on Yes to install Google Apps.

• After flashing both the files, Select reboot system now to Restart the phone.

• First start may take a bit long but don’t worry

Congrats!! You’ve successfully updated your HTC One S to latest version of Android that is 4.2 (Jelly Bean) via custom ROM called Cyanogenmod 10.1. Do let us know how it is working for you and if you have any doubt regarding the procedure mentioned above, feel free to comment below, we’ll be happy by helping you out.

Tip: In case if you want to restore back your previous ROM , enter into recovery mode, select Backupand Restore option & on next screen, select restore & choose your latest backup to restore.