It seems every day we see the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean based AOKP ROM – known for its fast performance and extensive customization options that allow tweaking of the interface – shows up on some or the other Android device, and now it’s the turn of the One series middleman, aka the HTC One S.
Android 4.1 as you already might know brings a lot of new features, such as a smooth as butter and fluid interface, improved Google Search with voice recognition and Google Now for knowledge-graph based information service, expandable and actionable notifications, smart keyboard, improved accessibility, and more, and you get all that and more with AOKP ROM, without any custom OEM skins or bloatware to ruin the experience.
This ROM is ONLY for the One S with the 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 processor, it will not work on the 1.7GHz Snapdragon S3 processor variant. Also, Keep in mind that this is not an official HTC ROM. It’s a custom ROM that is under development and may have a few bugs and issues, and some things may not work properly and may be different from those on HTC ROMs, such as the camera app.
Let’s take a look at how the AOKP ROM can be installed on the One S.
Compatibility
This guide is applicable only for the 1.5GHz dual-core HTC One S. DO NOT try this on the 1.7 GHz variant or any other device.
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.
How to Install AOKP ROM on HTC One S
- 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.
NOTE: Don’t forget to at least note down your network’s APN settings, which are required to make mobile data work. Go into Settings » More » Mobile Networks, click on the APN that is in use, then note down the setting for each field. While APN settings should be automatically restored from network, you can enter them manually if needed to make mobile data work. You can also find your APN details → here. - Unlock the bootloader on your One S by following the bootloader unlocking guide for the HTC One X → here. Procedures for both One S and One X are the same, so simply follow what the One X guide says to unlock the bootloader. Skip this step if your phone’s bootloader is already unlocked.
- Install ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery by following the guide → here. Skip this step if you already have CWM recovery installed.
- Download and install the HTC Sync software, which is needed to install the drivers for the phone. Skip this step if you already have HTC Sync installed on the computer.
HTC Sync Manager - Download the ROM from the source page.
- Download the Google Apps package. This will install apps like Play Store, Gmail, etc. which are not present in the ROM by default.
Download Gapps | Alternate Link | Filename: gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip - Copy the ROM and Gapps file to the phone (don’t extract the files).
- [Backup Current ROM] To be able to return to your current ROM from the new ROM, make a backup of it (this is different than the backup taken in step 1 as this backs up the whole ROM).
- Turn off your phone. Boot into the bootloader mode first by holding the Volume Down button and then pressing power key to turn on device. Then, select RECOVERY from there using the volume buttons to navigate and power button to select to boot into recovery.
In recovery, use volume button to scroll up/down and the power button to select. - Then, 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, then select reboot system now to reboot the phone.
- Turn off your phone. Boot into the bootloader mode first by holding the Volume Down button and then pressing power key to turn on device. Then, select RECOVERY from there using the volume buttons to navigate and power button to select to boot into recovery.
- Open the downloaded zip file of the ROM and extract the boot.img file from inside it (use a software like WinZip or 7-zip to extract).
- Download fastboot.
Download Fastboot | Filename: Fastboot.zip - Extract the Fastboot.zip file to the C: drive on your computer to get a folder named Fastboot with four files inside it.
- Copy the boot.img file extracted in step 9 to the Fastboot folder on C drive. You should have 5 files in the Fastboot folder now.
- Switch off the phone. Enter fastboot mode. For that, boot into the bootloader mode first by holding the Volume Down button and then pressing power key. Then, select fastboot mode from there using the volume buttons to navigate and power button to select. Then connect your phone to the computer once you are in fastboot mode.
- On the computer, click on Start menu » All Programs » Accessories » right-click on Command Prompt and click on Run as administrator.
- Now, type the following commands in command prompt to flash the boot.imgfile, pressing Enter after each command.
- cd c:Fastboot
- fastboot devices (this is to ensure the phone gets detected. A string of numbers and letters should appear if the phone is properly detected. Else, make sure you have the HTC Sync installed which installs the drivers for the phone)
- fastboot flash boot boot.img
- Once the boot.img is flashed, you will get a “finished”/OKAY message in the command prompt window. Now, type adb reboot bootloader in the command prompt to reboot into the bootloader mode.
- Disconnect your phone from the PC.
- Now, the phone will be in the bootloader. Here, select RECOVERY using the volume buttons to navigate and power button to select to boot into recovery.
Use volume buttons to scroll up and down and the power button to select options in bootloader menu and recovery. - Select wipe data/factory reset, then select Yes on next screen to confirm. Wait a while till the data wipe is complete.
- Select install zip from sdcard, then select choose zip from sdcard. Scroll to the ROM file on the SD card and select it. Confirm installation by selecting Yes on the next screen. The ROM will start installing.
- After ROM installation completes, select choose zip from sdcard again, then select the gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip file to install the Google apps package.
- After the installation is complete, select go back then select reboot system now to reboot the phone and boot up into the ROM.
NOTE: If you want to go back to your previous ROM, boot into recovery (as explained in step 8.1), select backup and restore, then select restore to restore your previous ROM.
AOKP ROM, based on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now installed and running on your One S. Visit the source page for more info and to get the latest updates on the ROM. Share your thoughts on the ROM in the comments.
Do take a look at some other Jelly Bean ROMs for the One S → here.
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