Run Android Ice Cream Sandwich on Nokia N9

Have a Nokia N9 but wish you could just get some Android goodness on it? How about loading Ice Cream Sandwich on it and in a separate partition so you don’t mess up your current setup? Thanks to some hard-working developers over at Nitdroid.com, no problem at all. 

Here’s how.

 

I. Before You Begin

1. This shouldn’t effect your current MeeGo setup, but as a precaution please do a backup.

2. This can be a dangerous procedure so please be careful, especially when typing in commands etc.

3. These instructions are for a Windows computer.

 

II. Flash the Dual-Boot Kernel

1. On your device go to Settings > Security > Device Lock > Autolock and turn it OFF.

2. Download the Flasher program from here to flash the N9 with (WinFlasher-3.12.1.exe)

3. Install it to your computer and install it to the folder C:\Program Files\Nokia\Flasher\ when prompted.

4. Turn off the Nokia N9 and make sure it is NOT plugged in to the computer.

5. Download NaviFirm from here, unzip it, and install it on your computer.

6. Open NaviFirm and then select the Nokia N9 from the far left list, then select 30.2012.7.1 from the second list, then look for your version of the Nokia N9 in the last list (you can better decide by looking under the SIM tray for the 7 character identifier, type in that identifier in the last list to easily find your version) and select it.

7. After it is selected click Unmark all at the top, then look through that list and only check the one that starts with DFL61 AND has the word LEGACY in it.

8. Then click on “Browse” next to “Save to” on the right and choose the folder C:\Program Files\Nokia\Flasher\ and also uncheck the “Use productcode as final path”.

9. Then click Download.

10. Next, download the Kernel file from here and save it inside the folder C:\Program Files\Nokia\Flasher\

11. Open the command prompt on your computer by opening the start menu and typing cmd in the search box and hitting enter.

12. In the command prompt type the following with hitting enter at the end of each line:

cd C:\Program Files\Nokia\Flasher
 

flasher -a DFL61_HARMATTAN_30.2012.07-1_PR_LEGACY_005-OEM1-958_ARM.bin -k zImage –flash-only=kernel -f -R

*in the above command please note that 005 not 001 after LEGACY, and please not the two hyphens before flash (–).

 

13. After hitting enter at the last line, plug the USB cable into the phone first then plug the other end into the computer and wait a few seconds for it to start flashing the phone.

III. Install Sillyboot

1. Unplug your phone from the computer and turn it on if it isn’t on already.

2. On your device, go to Settings > Security > Developer Mode and turn it ON. This will restart the device and download some apps, say yes to all the prompts.

3. Plug the phone back in to the computer via USB and select USB Storage mode so we can transfer files to it.

4. Download the Sillyboot file from here and save it to your computer.

5. Copy the Sillyboot file to the Nokia N9 in the MyDocs folder.

6. Unplug the device.

7. Open Terminal on the Nokia N9 and type the following into it with hitting enter at the end of each line (when asked for a password put in rootme):

devel-su
 

tar xjvf /home/user/MyDocs/sillyboot.tar.bz2 -C /

IV. Install Android Ice Cream Sandwich

1. Download the ICS ROM from here and save it to your computer.

2. Plug in the Nokia N9 via USB and select USB Storage mode so we can transfer files to it.

3. Copy the file to your Nokia N9 in the MyDocs folder.

4. Unplug the device.

5. Open Terminal on the Nokia N9 and type the following into it with hitting enter at the end of each line (when asked for a password put in rootme):

devel-su

tar xjvf /home/user/MyDocs/nninedroid_ics_alpha1.tar.bz2 -C /home/

6. After that, turn off the Nokia N9 and then turn it back on.

7. When prompted, hit the Volume Up button to boot into the “alternative OS”.

8. Wait a while for it to boot for the first time.

9. Soon as your device boots in to Android, go to Settings > Display > Sleep and change the option to 30 minutes (there is a known issue that sometimes when it goes to sleep it will turn off the phone).

10. To boot back to regular MeeGo, simply turn off the phone and turn it back on.

Thanks to the developers who created all these goodies and who created the original procedures. This was adapted from the following procedures and simplified to help people get through it easily. If this procedure was helpful or you enjoyed it, please head to the source links and donate to the hard working developers who made it all possible! – Source 1, Source 2, and Source 3.