Flashing Galaxy Nexus to a yakju build

One of the advantages of buying a “Nexus” branded phones is that it’s vanilla Android and always the first to get updates – pretty much as soon as Google release it. You could pretty much look at it as a Google Phone. But alas, with the Galaxy Nexus, this seems to have changed. The “Google” version is the yakju build. It appears that the majority of Galaxy Nexus sold here in OZ have a yakjudv or similar build.

Both are vanilla Android Ice Cream Sandwich but yakju gets updated immediately by Google and all other builds get updated when Samsung get around to releasing the update. Fortunately, it’s a painless process to convert to yakju assuming you have the pre-req software installed.

Before you start, you need to install the following:

• Samsung USB drivers - http://samsung.de/de/support/detail.aspx?aguid=3d722dbc-9813-4d08-b5b7-5772e168e9e4
• Android SDK – http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html (don’t need to install everything, just need tools & platform tools)
• Java SE JDK - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
• Factory image for yakju - http://code.google.com/android/nexus/images.html#yakjuicl53f (download and extract contents)

Install the apps and reboot. You also need to add the path to the platform-tools folder for the sdk into the Windows environment (needed for dos shell). The only other thing you need to do at this stage is enable debugging mode on the handset.

To test that everything is working and ready for the flashing, plug the phone into the USB and wait for the driver installation to complete. It should install as a Galaxy Nexus and on the phone you should be seeing the debug icon. Once the driver has installed, open a command prompt and type “adb devices”. If it’s all working, it should return the serial number of your handset.

Ok, leave the handset plugged in and let’s start flashing using the DOS command prompt.

Note: this process will wipe the data on your phone and void the warranty. Do this at your own risk, I take no responsibility if you kill your device.

Change to the directory where you extracted the firmware

Reboot the phone into fastboot mode by typing “adb reboot bootloader” – it should show fastboot on the handset

1. Unlock the bootloader – “fastboot oem unlock”
2. Flash the new bootloader – “fastboot flash bootloader ”
3. Restart – “fastboot reboot-bootloader”
4. Flash the new radio – “fastboot flash radio ”
5. Restart – “fastboot reboot-bootloader”
6. Flash the yakju image – “fastboot -w update ” (The handset may reboot once done)
7. Return handset to fastboot mode and lock the bootloader – “fastboot oem lock”

If you get stuck in a reboot animation loop after applying the yakju image, remove the battery and re-insert. That should sort that out. Power up and you should be on a stock Google image ready for updates. 8-)