Tips on How to Flash Official CM 10.1 M1 for Sprint Samsung Galaxy Nexus L700

The first Monthly Release of CM 10.1 ROM has been launched for over twenty devices. This is a tutorial that teaches you how to successfully flash the CM10.1 MR1 ROM on your Sprint Galaxy Nexus smartphone. Read this entire post and you’ll manage to flash the new ROM in not time without risking any damage to done to your device.

The new build of CyanogenMod is more of a ‘Milestone’ release of the Nightlies of CM10.1 and you can now easily install it on your device. It is obviously based on the Android 4.2.1 and it brings all the latest Jelly Bean features and functions. If you’re a CM ROM enthusiast then you know that it is a great release. Also, users who are new to CyanogenMod team’s works then you should know that you’re about to experience the best Android OS ever released. Or, so it has been for my phone.

If you want to correctly flash this new ROM on your device first you need to read the guidelines below:

• This is a tutorial that works only with the Sprint Samsung Galaxy Nexus model number L700. It is the device codenamed ‘toroplus’. Don’t try to flash the CM 10.1 MR1 on any other variant of Galaxy Nexus devices, as that will result in a bricked device.
• Your device has to be on an unlocked bootloader, it has to be running a rooted firmware and a custom recovery image. Such guides can be found here.
• Before getting to the tutorial you should create a full NANDROID backup of your current ROM. This will be very useful in case you cannot boot your device normally after installing the new custom ROM.
• The tutorial will ask you to factory reset the device, a process that will wipe the /system partition. Make sure to create backups of your most important files such as SMS, Call Logs etc. Use these apps for some of those tasks: SMS backup & restore | Call Logs backup & restore | APN Settings Backup & Restore | AppBack for Android application. Root access is required for some of these apps.
• Sync the People/ Contacts app with your Gmail account, so that you won’t any important phone numbers. Guide HERE.
• Enable USB debugging option from the Developer Options menu.
• Charge the phone’s battery so that the device won’t power off during the installation of the CM10.1 ROM.
• Read the entire post and make sure that you won’t skip any steps that I have listed.
• Note that we cannot be blamed in case you brick your phone or you lose any important data in the process. Use the comments section to ask for any extra help that you might require in completing the installation of the first CM10.1 M build ROM.

NOTE: Users that already have a CyanogenMod 10 or CM 10.1 ROM can skip step 7 and simply install this new ROM over the current OS. However, if you wish to install the new ROM on a clean device, then you need to factory reset the device.

How to install CyanogenMod 10.1 M1 ROM for Sprint Samsung Galaxy Nexus L700:

1. Download the custom ROM zip from HERE. Save it on your PC and don’t extract its contents.
2. Download the Gapps for CM10.1 / Android 4.2.1 from HERE. This is the file that you will have to flash in order to install the Google applications.
3. Connect  your smartphone to your PC via USB cable. Move ROM and the Gapps zip files on the phone’s internal SD card. Unplug the phone from PC when the files have been successfully moved.
4. Power off your smartphone.
5. Boot it into Fastboot mode by pressing Volume Up, Volume Down and Power. Select ‘Recovery’ options from the Fastboot selection menu and then the device will enter CWM / TWRP Recovery mode; it depends on which custom recovery you installed. We’re using the CWM Recovery in this post.
6. If you don’t have a NANDROID backup of the current ROM, then you will have to select ‘backup and restore’ option. Create a ROM backup. NOTE: If you have one already, then you can skip this step and continue to the next one and learn how to factory reset the device.
7. Select ‘wipe data/ Factory reset’ option. Confirm this. Remember that this will delete only the system partition while the data on the Internal SD card won’t be affected.
8. Now, select ‘install zip from SDcard’ and then ‘choose zip from SDcard’. Find the CM 10.1 M1 EXPERIMENTAL ROM zip file. Install it.
9. After the ROM installs you have to select again ‘choose zip from sdcard’ and then install the Gapps for CM10.1 zip. Confirm this installation.
10. Return to the main menu of custom REcovery menu and select ‘reboot system now’.
11. Wait for your phone to load all its new CM10.1 M1 files and apps. This first boot process shouldn’t take more than five minutes to complete and you should simply wait.
12. Enter your Google Account credentials and that should be all.

NOTE: If your device doesn’t complete the first boot process in under 5 minutes, then you will have to power off the device and then repeat the entire tutorial again starting with step 4. Make sure that you wipe data and factory reset your phone.

Test the new CM10.1 M1 ROM and tell us which are the best new features. Also, you should know that you can keep updating your Galaxy Nexus Sprint device with new CM 10.1 Nightlies by going through Settings, then About Phone menu and then use the ‘CyanogenMod Updates’ link.

Source : http://www.android.gs/