Install Android 2.3 Gingerbread on Samsung Galaxy S - Complete Guide
Install Android 2.3 Gingerbread on Samsung Galaxy S
The Samsung Galaxy S is one of the most popular Android smartphones to date. It has already sold more than 10 million units worldwide, making it the highest selling Android phone yet.
It comes with Android 2.1 Eclair but has already received the Android 2.2 Froyo upgrade officially. When Google released Android 2.3 Gingerbread earlier last month, it was expected that the Samsung Galaxy S would be one of the first phones to get an upgrade to Android 2.3 as it is very similar to the Google Nexus S in terms of hardware specifications. It is almost the same, except for a few changes.
However, even a month after the Gingerbread launch, it is still not available for any other device officially, not even the Nexus One. The Android hacker community at XDA has been working hard though, and has already come out with many Android 2.3 Gingerbread ROM builds for multiple Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S, Motorola Droid X, HTC Droid Incredible, Droid Eris and the HTC Desire. SuperCurio, an Android modder has already created a port of Android 2.3 Gingerbread for the Galaxy S. It has been ported from the Nexus S and works quite well with a few bugs.
In this tutorial, I will explain how you can install Android 2.3 Gingerbread on your Samsung Galaxy S.
How to Install Android 2.3 Gingerbread on Samsung Galaxy S
In order to install Android 2.3 Gingerbread on your Samsung Galaxy S, there are a few pre-requisites.
1. Your Samsung Galaxy S must be rooted. If it isn’t, first root your phone before you proceed further.
2. Your /data must be converted to the EXT4 format by using something like the Voodoo lagfix or any other EXT4 lagfix.
3. You should have complete backups before you do this
4. You should have busybox installed on your Galaxy S
Steps to Install Android 2.3 on Galaxy S
1. Download the Cyanogen Mod 7 system dumps on your PC using this link
<strong>Download CM7.tar.gz</strong>
Copy it to your SD card.
2. Also download the <strong>Nexus S Kernel for the Galaxy S</strong>
Copy this to your SD card as well and insert the SD card into your device.
3. Now connect your Galaxy S to your PC and run the following commands via ADB.
adb shell
su
cd /data
mkdir gingerbread
cd gingerbread
busybox tar zxvf /sdcard/CM7.tar.gz
busybox cp -a /efs efs
sync
reboot recovery
4. Now, just flash the nsonsgs-unsigned-cwm-update.zip via CWM recovery. You can use ODIN client to flash the kernel. Just select the file with NO PIT and NO Repartition.
Now, if you want to revert back to your original Froyo ROM, just flash it back using ODIN. Alternatively, you could also use Heimdall to flash the ROMs.
You should now see Android 2.3 Gingerbread (Cyanogen Mod 7) booting on your Galaxy S, with the Nexus S kernel by Supercurio and a CM7 image file.
Some features like the Wi-Fi won’t work. It also doesn’t have the official Google Apps.
Note: I would like to warn you that this process is a bit risky. You could brick your Galaxy S rendering it useless. Wait for a more stable ROM or an official update to Android 2.3 Gingerbread by Samsung. Try this method at your own risk.
