Ice Cream Sandwich on S2?

thenashlegend

Hey lads and ladies,

Just picked up a good as new S2 on Vodafone and I want to update it to ICS....but I cant seem to find an update? I assumed it would be readily available at this stage but it's not happening for me. Any advice or information on when it might be around? Thanks

Paulw

Have you asked Vodafone?

Atomic Pineapple

Since its Vodafone branded its up to Vodafone to knock out their version of ICS for the SGS II, try asking them, if your anyway technically minded you can root and put ICS on yourself but this will void your warranty.

elderlemon

Actually it doesn't void the warranty. My SG2 (from Vodafone) has been back for repair twice with a custom rom on it and both times no problem with the warranty.

draffodx wrote: »

... if your anyway technically minded you can root and put ICS on yourself but this will void your warranty.

srsly78

No rooting needed, just flash official ics yourself. No custom roms involved at all.

GrumPy

srsly78 wrote: »

No rooting needed, just flash official ics yourself. No custom roms involved at all.

Yip, yip. Been running ICS on my S2 for 2 weeks now. Head over to the xda-developer forums and have a poke about. You'll have it done in 10 minutes!

thenashlegend

Checked with VF and they say ICS wont be available for another two months. Sad times.:( I've been looking around on the XDA site, just wondering if there's any particular tutorial I should follow or what's the best option to go with?

Atomic Pineapple

srsly78 wrote: »

No rooting needed, just flash official ics yourself. No custom roms involved at all.

GrumPy wrote: »

Yip, yip. Been running ICS on my S2 for 2 weeks now. Head over to the xda-developer forums and have a poke about. You'll have it done in 10 minutes!

thenashlegend wrote: »

Checked with VF and they say ICS wont be available for another two months. Sad times.:( I've been looking around on the XDA site, just wondering if there's any particular tutorial I should follow or what's the best option to go with?

+1 any link to how to put on ICS without needing to root!?

PogMoThoin

elderlemon wrote: »

Actually it doesn't void the warranty. My SG2 (from Vodafone) has been back for repair twice with a custom rom on it and both times no problem with the warranty.

Have you that in writing because if all comes to all they will have a get out of jail card with regards the warranty.

srsly78

How to install ICS on your SGS2 without root:

-1.0: Backup your phone, this method will nuke everything, it's not an upgrade.
0: Download rom: http://www.samfirmware.com/ (I used the Polish one, is open europe and works fine). Might need to find a torrent mirror if that site is slow.
0.5: Download and install Odin.
1: Install Kies (horrible I know). You need this for the usb driver, but you don't actually use Kies.
2: Make sure Kies is not running!! Close it from system tray if needed. It conflicts with Odin.
3: Turn off your SGS2.
4: Turn on your sgs2 with 3 finger salute: hold voldown+home+power -> This should boot the phone up into download mode.
5: Connect phone to PC.
6: Fire up Odin, should see phone detected.
7: Select your ROM from wherever you unzipped it, click flash.
8: Realise that this fancy ICS basically looks exactly the same as what you had before

thenashlegend

srsly78 wrote: »

8: Realise that this fancy ICS basically looks exactly the same as what you had before

That's another question, I've seen a few screenshots and it looks identical. I think I'll just wait for the VF update. Unless there is some major benefit to upgrading now?

byte

Have to admit, I've not noticed much difference myself with ICS over v2.3.6 I had previously.

Biggest thing I noticed was a different font.

I'm using XXLPQ (Multi-CSC) from here

jimmycrackcorm

I installed Lite'ning ICS Rom from XDA. Straight forward install using Odin.

srsly78

It looks the same because official samsung roms use TouchWiz. They have deliberately tried to make it look the same. Under the hood it's different and stuff but noone can see that.

If you want proper ICS experience install a custom rom (ie not an official one). CM9 supposed to be good now they have finally fixed bugs I hear.

Random

i have moved this thread to the android forum.
thanks

coldfire1x

Which one did you use? Is this the one? I9100OXALPS

There's an open europe one released in Feb - I9100OXALPJ

srsly78 wrote: »

How to install ICS on your SGS2 without root:

-1.0: Backup your phone, this method will nuke everything, it's not an upgrade.
0: Download rom: http://www.samfirmware.com/ (I used the Polish one, is open europe and works fine). Might need to find a torrent mirror if that site is slow.
0.5: Download and install Odin.
1: Install Kies (horrible I know). You need this for the usb driver, but you don't actually use Kies.
2: Make sure Kies is not running!! Close it from system tray if needed. It conflicts with Odin.
3: Turn off your SGS2.
4: Turn on your sgs2 with 3 finger salute: hold voldown+home+power -> This should boot the phone up into download mode.
5: Connect phone to PC.
6: Fire up Odin, should see phone detected.
7: Select your ROM from wherever you unzipped it, click flash.
8: Realise that this fancy ICS basically looks exactly the same as what you had before

coldfire1x

Also where to download odin and kies from?

Thanks.

srsly78 wrote: »

How to install ICS on your SGS2 without root:

-1.0: Backup your phone, this method will nuke everything, it's not an upgrade.
0: Download rom: http://www.samfirmware.com/ (I used the Polish one, is open europe and works fine). Might need to find a torrent mirror if that site is slow.
0.5: Download and install Odin.
1: Install Kies (horrible I know). You need this for the usb driver, but you don't actually use Kies.
2: Make sure Kies is not running!! Close it from system tray if needed. It conflicts with Odin.
3: Turn off your SGS2.
4: Turn on your sgs2 with 3 finger salute: hold voldown+home+power -> This should boot the phone up into download mode.
5: Connect phone to PC.
6: Fire up Odin, should see phone detected.
7: Select your ROM from wherever you unzipped it, click flash.
8: Realise that this fancy ICS basically looks exactly the same as what you had before

srsly78

odin -> http://file.jayceooi.com/2011/07/Odin3-v1.85.zip Not got a more official link sorry. 1.85 is the version I used.

Kies comes with phone, look on sdcard I think.

I would try I9100OXALPS. Don't use a carrier branded one unless you are on 3, or the february open europe one.

coldfire1x

Thanks a lot. I will give it a try.

The link http://file.jayceooi.com/2011/07/Odin3-v1.85.zip is not working.

Is it possible to upload it somewhere. If it's a small file then can you please send it to me via email?

srsly78 wrote: »

odin -> http://file.jayceooi.com/2011/07/Odin3-v1.85.zip Not got a more official link sorry. 1.85 is the version I used.

Kies comes with phone, look on sdcard I think.

I would try I9100OXALPS. Don't use a carrier branded one unless you are on 3, or the february open europe one.

coldfire1x

Got it. Used this link - http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=581913&d=1304094576

god's toy

srsly78 wrote: »

It looks the same because official samsung roms use TouchWiz. They have deliberately tried to make it look the same. Under the hood it's different and stuff but noone can see that.

If you want proper ICS experience install a custom rom (ie not an official one). CM9 supposed to be good now they have finally fixed bugs I hear.

Or you can try Nova Launcher, it gives most of the stock ICS look and freel back and with no slow down. (For ICS users only)

Free version here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS50ZXNsYWNvaWxzdy5sYXVuY2hlciJd

event

anyone know when its due to be out on Meteor?

robz18

srsly78 wrote: »

8: Realise that this fancy ICS basically looks exactly the same as what you had before

anyone facing this issue should check out cyanogenmod 9. although only nightly releases it works really well. one thing to note is that video recording isn't properly implemented yet, it only records in a fairly low quality.

and it's a fair bit more involved than flashing the official ICS with odin.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1419102

Grassey

robz18 wrote: »

anyone facing this issue should check out cyanogenmod 9. although only nightly releases it works really well. one thing to note is that video recording isn't properly implemented yet, it only records in a fairly low quality.

low quality??? i'm on 30 March nightly and 1080 and 720 hd video recording is working flawlessly for me. video recording has been fixed for over last week.

croo

I'm new to android and was nervous using odin to flash a stock Samsung ICS to my new S2. It turned out to be fairly painless and have since update the original XXLPQ based rom with an up to date XXLPS rom. With both I noticed that it sometimes reboots ... but I'm not prompted enter a sim pincode so I'm thinking it's just the UI that is crashing not the underlying OS!?

Anyway since this is official samsung and it's not 100% stable I'm thinking the open source roms cannot be any worse. Plus I always like the look of the ICS on the nexus.

So I was considering CM9, though I'm just getting confident of odin - I'm not sure if I'm up to rooting just yet. Then I came across this Pure ICS
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1451346

Looks good and seems to be very stable AND can be installed via odin - I think? Looks like everything works. CM9 seems much more popular however and I know from experience that in the Open Source world this is very important point. But I like the idea of stock ICS (if I wanted to try some developing), plus it looks like I can just use odin to flash so I'm tempted.

Has anybody here tried it yet? What was your experience?

One last question for those more experienced, does the version I have currently installed (and XXLPS kernel in my case) have any bearing on the choice of roms I can flash?

Grassey

You can flash cm9 through odin if you use the cm9 resurrection edition if you are opposed to rooting and doin it through cwm

croo

Grassey wrote: »

You can flash cm9 through odin if you use the cm9 resurrection edition if you are opposed to rooting and doin it through cwm

Thanks, I'll checked out the resurrection remix. I'd seen mention of it but didn't realize that is how it differed from the normal CM9.

I'm not *opposed* to rooting, just nervous of doing something, inadvertently, that would damage the phone There are lots (& lots) of warnings that come with any instructions on rooting - they succeeded in making me cautious

Gaffs89

srsly78 wrote: »

How to install ICS on your SGS2 without root:

-1.0: Backup your phone, this method will nuke everything, it's not an upgrade.
0: Download rom: http://www.samfirmware.com/ (I used the Polish one, is open europe and works fine). Might need to find a torrent mirror if that site is slow.
0.5: Download and install Odin.
1: Install Kies (horrible I know). You need this for the usb driver, but you don't actually use Kies.
2: Make sure Kies is not running!! Close it from system tray if needed. It conflicts with Odin.
3: Turn off your SGS2.
4: Turn on your sgs2 with 3 finger salute: hold voldown+home+power -> This should boot the phone up into download mode.
5: Connect phone to PC.
6: Fire up Odin, should see phone detected.
7: Select your ROM from wherever you unzipped it, click flash.
8: Realise that this fancy ICS basically looks exactly the same as what you had before :confused:

Love it!!!:D:D:D

rokkitgurl

srsly78 wrote: »

How to install ICS on your SGS2 without root:

-1.0: Backup your phone, this method will nuke everything, it's not an upgrade.
0: Download rom: http://www.samfirmware.com/ (I used the Polish one, is open europe and works fine). Might need to find a torrent mirror if that site is slow.
0.5: Download and install Odin.
1: Install Kies (horrible I know). You need this for the usb driver, but you don't actually use Kies.
2: Make sure Kies is not running!! Close it from system tray if needed. It conflicts with Odin.
3: Turn off your SGS2.
4: Turn on your sgs2 with 3 finger salute: hold voldown+home+power -> This should boot the phone up into download mode.
5: Connect phone to PC.
6: Fire up Odin, should see phone detected.
7: Select your ROM from wherever you unzipped it, click flash.
8: Realise that this fancy ICS basically looks exactly the same as what you had before

I am doing this right now... using the polish rom as recommended Pray for me!

srsly78

Yep CM9 is so much better. Once you guys have a feel for using Odin you will want to check it out. Does involve rooting and is a bit more complex tho, but just follow instructions.

Getting over 4 days of battery with light usage I reckon (3g off, am abroad).

rokkitgurl

Looks good and adverts and boarddeals are off the applications list!

Aodan83

Grassey wrote: »

You can flash cm9 through odin if you use the cm9 resurrection edition if you are opposed to rooting and doin it through cwm

Did this earlier.
After getting tired of waiting for my phone to be updates via Kies did it myself last week. I wasn't very impressed with what Samsung had done to be honest. Was exactly the same as Gingerbread, didn't notice any great gains. The resurrection CM9 is going great though. Can't say much about the battery life but everything else is much quicker and smoother. Love the Launcher they used as well.

Zagato

It's worth noting that the ordinary CM9 nightly from CyanogenMod can be flashed via Odin and you can switch root on/off very easily under Settings>>Developer Options>>Root access, it's one of the features of CM9

Atomic Pineapple

Would this one now be the best one to get from SamFirmware?

I9100XWLP7 4.0.3 2012 April I9100XEULP5 United Kingdom / Ireland

srsly78

Yeah. Will have proper apn for all irish/uk networks, won't need to set them up manually. Still rubbish compared to cm9 tho

Atomic Pineapple

srsly78 wrote: »

Yeah. Will have proper apn for all irish/uk networks, won't need to set them up manually. Still rubbish compared to cm9 tho

Need to keep the phone on a stock ROM for testing purposes though so its the best I got

choronzonix

I'd personally recommend just rooting and going for CM9 or one of its variants (there are a bunch of ROMS now available that use CM9 as a base but add extra features). The official Samsung ICS firmwares are horrible, and completely ruin it.