[ WeekendProjects ] Upgrading Xperia X10 to Jelly Bean

My wife has an old Sony Xperia X10 phone, it’s an android phone. When she bought it in 2010, the Android version was Eclair (2.1), and it’s never been upgraded before. Now, she let me play around to upgrade the phone. [emoji grinning face]

In its website, Sony only provides official update up to GingerBread (2.3) version. Yeaa, it’s too old really, and actually I want a 4.x version. After searching android ROMs through google, I decided to port the JellyBean (4.1) version. However, since it’s not an official update from Sony, it needs a little bit hacking to make it work in X10. It sounds difficult, indeed.. but actually, it’s a fun weekend project for me. [emoji face with look of triumph]

If you go search through google, there are lot of tutorials on how to upgrade android phones to JellyBean. But the problem is, in Xperia X10, the bootloader cannot be unlocked, while most tutorials out there are for unlocked bootloader phones. Fortunately, FeraLab have successfully managed JellyBean ROM that supports both locked and unlocked bootloaders. Here are the steps to port it to Xperia X10:

But, wait… I write here for my own reference, so if you wanna try and follow this reference,

DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK..  [emoji hushed face]

Make sure you already have PC Companion or Sony Bridge for Mac on your PC/Mac. So if you get lost somewhere, you are able to rollback to the default firmware.

        1. You need to root your android. If you don’t know how to root, take some times to read this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1321582
        2. Install Root Browser or any root-enabled explorer app.
        3. By using Root Browser, enable write permissions (mode 777) of /system folder for all users.
        4. Download JellyBean ROM made by FeraLab through https://www.wuala.com/feravolt/ROM/FeraLab_JB/FeraLab_JellyBean-v3.zip
        5. Change the zip file name (“FeraLab_JellyBean-v3.zip”) to be “update.zip” and copy it to your SD Card
        6. Install recovery tools, you may use xRecovery or CWM-based Recovery. But, in this tutorial, I used xRecovery which can be downloaded from http://cloud.addictivetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/xRecovery-0.3-release.apk. How to install it ? read this: http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-install-latest-xrecovery-to-sony-ericsson-xperia-x10/
        7. At this point, you should backup your data like contacts, purchased/downloaded apps, song, etc, because they are gonna be wiped.
        8. Reboot your phone to Recovery mode. How to do it ? just press the back button a few times immediately once you see the Sony Ericsson logo on the screen.xRecovery
        9. In Recovery mode, do “Factory Reset (full wipe)”
        10. Then, select “Partition tools” and do “Format System”
        11. Still in Partition tools, do mount all partitions (system, data, sdcard, …)
        12. If you failed to mount the sdcard, do these steps
          1. Still in Recovery mode, connect your phone to PC/Mac
          2. use adb shell to remotely access the phone, and then type command:
          3. rm -r /sdcard
            mkdir sdcard
            chmod 777 sdcard
          4. Then, try to mount it again
        13. Now we are ready to install the JB ROM. Do select “Install update.zip from SD Card”, then follow all the instructions appeared.jb1
        14. Once it finished, you need to reboot your phone THREE times. To be noted, at the first reboot, it may take several minutes, don’t touch anything and let it works until you got the configuration page.
        15. Now you can use your Xperia X10 with Jelly Bean inside.  [emoji smiling face with open mouth and smiling eyes]

jb3jb2

Reference:
feralab.ru
forum.xda-developers.com
addictivetips.com/mobile

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