It took its sweet time, but all good things come as a reward for patience. The official CyanogenMod 7 (CM7) is out for the Motorola Photon 4G, bringing you a customizable and fast performing Gingerbread Android 2.3.7 ROM, free of all bloatware. All thanks to XDA Recognized Developer cybik, who recently joined the CyanogenMod team, who has now bought official support for CM7 on the Photon 4G.

Read on to find out how you can install CM7 on your Motorola Photon 4G.

Compatibility

This hack and the guide below is compatible only and only with the Motorola Photon 4G. It’s not compatible with any other device. Check your device model in Settings » About phone.

Warning!

The methods and procedures discussed here are considered risky and you should not attempt anything if you don’t know completely what it is. If any damage occurs to your device, we won’t be held liable.

ROM Developer → cybik

Known Issues:

  • WiMax is not working for the Sprint variant yet. USCC variant does not have WiMax functionality.

Pre-Installation Requirements

  1. Important! Motorola Photon 4G with Clockworkmod recovery installed.
  2. Sufficiently charged battery, at least 30% is recommended.

How to Install CM7 on Motorola Photon 4G

  1. This procedure will wipe all your apps, data and settings (but it will NOT touch your SD cards, so don’t worry about those). Backup your Apps and important data — bookmarks, contacts, SMS, APNs (internet settings), etc. This Android backup guide would help you.
    Important! Don’t forget to at least make a backup of your APN settings, which you can restore later if your data connection does not work after installing the ROM. Use the backup guide to find out how.
  2. Download the latest version of the ROM from the official development page.
  3. Download the Google Apps package. This will install apps like Market, Gmail, etc. which are not present in the ROM.
    Download Link  |  Filename: gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip
  4. Copy the downloaded zip files from step 5 and step 6 to the root of the internal SD card (not the micro SD).
  5. Turn off the phone and boot into CWM recovery. Use Volume buttons to navigate and Power button to select options in recovery.
  6. Perform a Nandroid Backup of your existing ROM, so that you can always restore it from recovery if something does not work out with this rom. To perform a backup, select backup and restore –> On the next screen, select backup again. Go back to main recovery menu after backup is complete.
  7. Select wipe data/factory reset, then select Yes on next screen to confirm. Wait a while till the data wipe is complete.
  8. Now select install zip from sdcard, then select choose zip from sdcard. Scroll to the ROM file on the sdcard and select it. Confirm installation by selecting Yes – Install _____.zip on the next screen. The ROM will start installing.
  9. After ROM installation completes, select choose zip from sdcard again, then select the Google apps file gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip that you downloaded in step 3 to install the Google apps package. Confirm installation by selecting Yes on the next screen.
  10. After the installation is complete, select go back and then select reboot system now to reboot your phone.

After a few minutes, your Motorola Photon 4G will boot into CM7, based on Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread. Visit the official development page to get more info and to get the latest updates on the ROM. Share your thoughts on the ROM in the comments below.