Install Sony Xperia Ion Android 4.0.4 ICS CM 9.1 Custom ROM

Android 4.0.4 Ice cream sandwich [ ICS ] based CyanogenMod 9.1 [ CM9.1 ] custom ROM available for the Sony Xperia Ion LT28. This is the very first custom ROM that we can see for this device. If you’re not familiar with custom ROM, its an after market android distribution.

CyanogenMod is a community support popular custom ROM for various android devices. It provides pure android experience and its appearance just like Google nexus devices, but it’s not include Google apps such as Play store, sync, etc. But you can install all these Google apps using Gapps zip file.

As I mentioned earlier, CM 9.1 not include Sony Xperia Ion pre-installed apps such as media player, bravia engine etc. In-order to install cyanogenmod 9.1 on Xperia ion, you have to unlock the bootloader, because of it has own kernel. That kernel is pre-rooted and available CWM. Therefore you don’t need to install any custom recovery.

Warning!

Installing custom firmware and unlocking bootloader voids the warranty. This is not a risky process, but if your device damaged or bricked by following this tutorial, I can’t claim its damages.

Requirements.

Charge the battery minimum 60% .
Backup and sync internal memory including contacts, sms, etc. [ Guide in here ] .
Unlock the bootloader. [ Guide in here ] .
Install ADB driver [ Guide in here ] .

Download.

CyanogenMod 9.1 ROM in here. [ Use jDownloader; ] .
If the recovery some function not work use this kernel.
Google apps in here.
Fastboot files in here.

How to Install Android 4.0.4 ICS CyanogenMod 9.1 [ CM9.1 ] custom ROM Sony Xperia Ion LT28.

If you already have a custom ROM you can install the ROM zip file and its kernel directly from the recovery. If you don’t have a recovery, you have to follow thes steps.

Extract the downloaded fastboot drivers zip file to the desktop.
Extract the downloaded ROM zip file contain “boot.img” kernel file and save it in the fastboot folder.
Copy the downloaded ROM and Gapps into the Xperia Ion internal SD card.
Power off the phone and wait for a few seconds.
Now press and hold the “Volume Up” key and plug the phone to the PC via USB cable.
Now your Xperia ion led turn to blue color.
Open the fastboot folder.
Press and hold the “shift” key on your keyboard and at the same time right click inside the folder.
Now you can see the “Windows context menu”. Release the pressed key.
Click its “Open command window here” option.
Type or copy,paste following command line in the command prompt.

fastboot flash boot boot.img

Now you can see the installation progress, when it shows “finished” type following command line to reboot the phone.

fastboot reboot

When you see the “Free Xperia Project” boot logo continuously press and release “Volume Down” key for boot into the recovery.
In the ClockworkMod based recovery go to “Wipe data/factory reset>Yes – Wipe user data”.
After that navigate to “Wipe cache partition>Yes – Wipe cache”.
Go to “Advanced>Wipe dalvik-cache>Yes – Wipe dalvik-cache”.
If you’re interesting to format “System” partition go to “mount and storage> – mount /system”. After that select “-Format /System>Yes – Format”. This step optional.
Now we can start the ROM zip file installation. To do that navigate to “Install zip from the sd card>Choose zip from the sd card”, now browse the CM9.1 ROM zip file and select it.
To begin the installation select “Yes – Install”.
Installation takes a few seconds. When it’s completed again select the “Gapps zip” file and install it.
After all the zip files installation completed go to the CWM main menu.
To reboot the phone select “reboot system now”.
First boot takes a longer time than usual. It’s normal. After phone fully boot up log-in to Google and other accounts.