Cyanogenmod 11 for Fairphone FP1(U) Install guide + experiences

Works like a charm now, thanks to a comment on the xda forums

I absolutely take no guarantee, but here is a step-by step guide:

INSTALL CYANOGENMOD 11 M 10 (CM FP 0.2):

Requires:

  • Additional SD card
  • FP1 repartitioned with OS Version 1.6. FP1U is reported to work AS well.
  • Important! Back up all your data with Titanium Backup, backup your recovery file + Backup all your contacts and anything else important somewhere, you will need it, as all data will be erased in the process.

Download on your (Windows) Computer:

  • MTK 6598 driver (don’t know if that’s really necessary though…)
  • MTK Droid Root & Tools v. 2.5.3
  • [FP1 KitKat Recovery Image][4] (FP1U Users probably need the 0.2 version + alter filenames [in this guide][5])
  • [Cyanogenmod zip file][6] + put it on your sd-card
  • If you want GAPPS then also get the [GAPPS.zip for Cyanogenmod][7] + put it on your sd-card

Install on phone:

  • [Rom Manager 6.6.3.7 ][8]

Procedure:

  1. [Install MTK 6589 driver][9] (again no idea, if that’s necessary)
  2. Install + Open up [MTK Droid Root & Tools v. 2.5.3][10] (allow USB Debugging von the Fairphone in System Settings, then connect your phone to Computer via USB)
  3. Root phone in MTK Droid Root & Tools
  4. Backup phone with MTK Droid Root & Tools
  5. Install the recovery.img on phone: Open adb console in MTK Droid Root & Tools and type: (FP1U users have to use a different .img and filenames consequently. For more on that step see [installation instructions])[12]:

adb push cwm-fp1-kk.0.1.img /storage/sdcard1
adb shell
dd if=/storage/sdcard1/cwm-fp1-kk.0.1.img of=/dev/recovery

  1. Unplug device and “Reboot into Recovery” with [Rom Manager 6.6.3.7 ][13]
  2. In the recovery menu: (use lower volume key to navigate and upper one for Enter command)
    ->wipe data / factory reset
    –>Wipe user data
    ->Install zip
    → choose zip from /storage/sdcard 1
    —>cm-11_FP1-ota-UNOFFICIAL-FULLOFBUGS-0.2.zip
    ->Reboot phone now (this can take a while)

Now you have Cyanogenmod! For Google Apps:
8) Go to Settings → Developper options → tick Advanced Restartmenu
9) Power → Restart → Restart in Recovery mode (use upper and lower volume key to navigate und Power button to select / Enter)
→ Install zip
→ choose zip from /storage/sdcard 1
—>gapps-kk-20140606-signed.zip (different filename possible, depending on what Version of GAPPS for Cyanogenmod you are using)
->Reboot

19 Likes

Good thing you got it working.

To bad (at least for the time being) I’m done with testing, otherwise I would have tried it myself.
Hopefully someone else with FP1U will.

Whhoaha, wait, WHAT? This means they run 4.4 on a Fairphone FP1? o_O
Seriously?

Hey, @anon90052001, you should push to hire this guy chrmhoffmann, if this works. :thumbsup:
:smile:

6 Likes

Very interested by your feedback. Will it be suitable for daily use ? What limitations have you encoutered ?

Looking forward to a FP1U realese, I’ll be happy to be a tester!

Hey. So far it really works surprisingly well.
*GPS performance actually improved in some situations compared to my 1.6, athough there is still a long way to go… In the thread it is said, that A-GPS doesn’t work and that it is kind of slow.

  • Accessing the file system and sd card via usb cable from my computer somehow doesn’t seem to work after the installation.

  • There are very minor glitches in animations (like turning your phone by 90 degrees) with smaller stripes, but videoplayback via youtube etc. works perfectly well.

  • No crashes, no blackscreens so far…

*Some glitches with the phone app actually disappeared.

  • And the phone seems a bit faster overall and some apps run more smoothly.

Known bugs (according to the thread):

  • 2nd sim card 3G switch
  • Dual SIM is a WIP and has some bugs (data connection instability, etc.)
  • camera for “movies” does not work
  • (hw) video en/decoding not enabled
  • bluetooth not available
  • FM radio not available
  • A-GPS does not work, GPS works though but slowish
  • rest of MTK specifics (what?)

So if you’re not relying on bluetooth and a second sim card, I’d say you can give it a try :wink:

chrmhoffmann states, that he doesn’t own a FP1U. I reallly have no idea of the implications of trying it with the other mediatek chipset, but it would be interesting to see if it works anyway :wink:

I’ll let this cook just a little longer so it’s a bit more feature complete and stable and then I am going to seriously consider installing it. Unless FairPhone themselves announce a 4.4 update of course.

Anyone know if the FairPhone OS launcher is available separately? I’ve grown quite fond of the swipe quick access.

No prob, I’ll wait. Very happy to see some movement on this phone.

Maybe FP can give chrmhoffmann a FP1U for testing/developing?

9 Likes

Maybe someone could provide a ZIP directly to be flashed and have the process as easy for other users to try out this fantastic step forward?
Anyways, thanks a lot for making this progress!

Flashing the ZIP file (See above) is actually the smallest issue. The hustle is, that you have to get the custom recovery.img in place for the ZIP file to work.
But all in all it won’t take longer then ~30 Minutes to set up cyanogenmod, which i think is absolutely alright.

I’ve just installed Cyanogenmod 11 and I have to say, it’s not actually as full of bugs as chrmhoffmann suggests. In fact, I actually get more reliable phone signal!

For those that are tempted to try and install, note that some technical know-how is required for the configuration of bootloader etc is required but the overall difficulty isn’t too high. It took be about an hour to install as I had some issues accessing the bootloader at first and the backups can take a while.

Very interesting development, I will try it out after the weekend! :thumbsup:

I installed the cm11 too. Installing went well with the tutorial. No strange things so far. I had dome difficulties with installing the mtk tools (never used it before), but once that was solved, everything went smooth. The phone feels snappier indeed. Nice development !! Thanks!

2 Likes

@jerry - yeah someone has put the launcher up on google :smile:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.lulebe.fairphone.launcher

2 Likes

The same build can be used for both FP1 and FP1U. I have tried

3 Likes

WOW - I will definitely watch this as usually the first thing I do when I get a phone is to install Cyanogenmod. One of the reasons I bought the Fairphone actually was because they stated they’d support alternate OS/Android versions… :wink:

For now I hope Dual SIM will get stable as it is something I rely on (one card for calls/texts, one for data) - but as soon as that works, I’m flashing…

Hey @madde

How did you experience the download of the zip-file? I clicked the download link from http://forum.xda-developers.com/fairphone/orig-development/rom-cyanogenmod-11-4-4-4-kitkat-t2862874 but it never started the download, just kept loading the site… Did you or someone else have the same issues?

There is a New download for the 0.2 Version. Did you try this one? Works for me, just takes a while to load…