We can understand the eagerness of Galaxy S5 users wanting an stock Android 5.0 Lollipop based ROM. Samsung’s stock UI, TouchWiz, is horrendous and even on the leaked Android 5.0 Lollipop update for Galaxy S5 it looks bad. This goes to show Samsung still isn’t listening to its users for providing near stock UI feel on for its devices.

Anyway, thanks to albinoman887 over XDA for bringing CM12 a.k.a CyanogenMod 12 to Galaxy S5, giving you and millions of other Galaxy S5 users a chance to experience Android 5.0 Lollipop update in pure Google flavor. CyanogenMod is popular custom ROM that’s completely based on stock Android UI, with added features and options, and CM12 is the Android 5.0 Lollipop flavor of the ROM.

At the core, CM12 is maintained by the CyanogenMod team. And as per the CM team, CM12 is yet to be complete, many CyanogenMod features users love to use aren’t yet available on the CM12. The team is looking at options to bring those features to the material design language of Android 5.0.

Galaxy S5 is expected to receive Android 5.0 Lollipop update officially from Samsung in December 2014. And the carrier branded variants of Galaxy S5 will receive the update in January 2015. So until then, CM12 is your best bet to get Android 5.0 Lollipop on your Galaxy S5.

CM12 is an AOSP based ROM, so you won’t have fancy features like Fingerprint scanner or Heartbeat sensor on your Galaxy S5 if you chose to install CM12. But we guess, you could do away with them, those aren’t any must-have features and using those features at the cost missing Android 5.0 Lollipop doesn’t makes sense.

We’re covering this CM12 ROM for Galaxy S5 a bit late, it’s has already been out for enough days that devs have already resolved most bugs/incompatibility issue on the ROM. Although still in Alpha stage, everything seems to be working on Galaxy S5 CM12 ROM. Great work devs!

The only issues present on this CM12 ROM are things like touchscreen not working on some games and SystemUI force closes sometimes but it’s not specific to Galaxy S5 only, it’s a CM12 issue present in all device the ROM is available for.

Also, know that this CM12 ROM for Galaxy S5 isn’t coming from the CM team directly. It’s an unofficial port from the CM12 device tree. Official CM12 nightlles are expected to release by Dec. 2014, but we guess nightlies will come first for Nexus devices only. For the Galaxy S5, CM12 nightlies may come by the end of Dec. 2012 or early in January 2015.

Enough talk? Okay, let’s hit the downloads section and flash CM12 on your Galaxy S5.

ROM INFO

Name CM12 a.k.a CyanogenMod 12
Android Version Android 5.0 Lollipop (Released on November 3, 2014 by Google)
Is this official? No.
It’s an AOSP based ROM. Official update from Samsung is expected in December 2014 for the Galaxy S5.
Stability Not a perfect daily driver. But you could try and see if it works for you.
Credits albinoman887
Development page link → XDA Developers

DOWNLOADS

 icon-download CM12 for Galaxy S5 | Mirror (234.21 MB)
File name: cm-12-xxx-UNOFFICIAL-klte.zip

└ To get the latest version, check the downloads section on this post →

  Android 5.0 Gapps package (155 MB)
File name: gapps-lp-201411xx-signed.zip

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

WARNING: Warranty may be void of your device if you follow the procedures given on this page. You only are responsible for your device. We won’t be liable if any damage occurs to your device and/or its components.

Important Note: Backup important files stored on your device before proceeding with the steps below, so that in case something goes wrong you’ll have backup of all your important files.

  1. Make sure your device is Samsung Galaxy S5 [klte] running a Qualcomm CPU, do NOT flash this ROM on an Exynos running Galaxy S5 variant or any other device.
  2. Transfer the CM12 ROM file “cm-12-xxx-UNOFFICIAL-klte.zip” and Gapps package file “gapps-lp-201411xx-signed.zip” to your device’s internal storage and remember the location where you save it.
  3. Install a custom recovery (TWRP, CWM, etc.) on your device. Either search our site or Google it!
  4. Boot into Recovery mode via adb, hardware buttons or if your device is rooted use the QuickBoot app →
  5. Once in recovery mode, take a backup of your current ROM. On TWRP, select Backup » and do a “Swipe to Back Up” on the bottom of the screen.
  6. Once the backup is finished, select Wipe » and do a “Swipe to Factory Reset” on the bottom of the screen.
  7. Go back to the main menu of TWRP recovery and select Install.
  8. Navigate to the file where you saved your CM12 ROM’s zip file, select it and “Swipe to Confirm Flash” on the bottom of the screen. And wait until the flashing process finishes.
  9. Once ROM is flashed, flash the Gapps package in a similar way like you flashed the ROM file.
  10. After flashing both the files. Go to back to recovery’s Main menu, select Reboot » select System.

Your device will now reboot with CM12. Be extremely excited for this!