Galaxy Nexus Firmware Upgrade on Ubuntu (manual)

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Leo Gaggl

As a Galaxy Nexus Owner I have been waiting for months for an OTA (over the air) upgrade to the factory installed Firmware (4.0.2). I am

finally sick of waiting and complaining to Google (an absolute lost cause).

After some research it turns out that (contrary to popular opinion) not every unlocked Google Nexus actually has the ‘official’ Google

Firmware. Some of them have a Samsung variant (WTF !?) of the firmware. Now I really don’t want to get off the technical topic, but I

personally think that this means Google is misleading their most loyal customer base. The reason I chose a Nexus device over the (from

a hardware perspective) superior HTC One X was the fact that they were supposed to have the official Google Firmware and I did not

have to wait forever for bugfixes from the manufacturers.

There are a reportedly several different versions out there. Google’s ‘official’ build for the GSM version of the Galaxy Nexus is named

‘yakju’. Samsung builds ‘yakjusc’, ‘yakjuxw’ and ‘yakjuux’. While they appear mostly the same, only Google’s yakju build is likely to get

updates as they happen. Go figure why there was a need for others … :(

To find out which version your Nexus uses you can use this key combination (in the phone app)

*#*#4636#*#*

or for a more permanent option grab “Android System Info” from the Google Market.

digital nomad so many ideas – so little time …

Disclaimer: this procedure obiously has the potential to ‘brick’ your mobile. Only attempt this if you are absolutely comfortable with

flashing device firmware. Proceed at your own risk !!! If you decide to proceed – BACKUP YOUR DEVICE FIRST ! Check the

documentation for ‘adb backup‘.

All the notes below are for GSM (HSPDA+) NEXUS (GT I9250 - maguro) devices !

Android SDK Install

The Android SDK can be downloaded from the Androide Site: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html)

Android Fastboot Mode

For all the following procedures to work the device needs to be in ‘Fastboot Mode’

How put your phone in fastboot mode:

1. Power off the phone

2. Hold the Volume Up Key + Volume Down Key pressed and at the same time press the Power button.

You should now see an Android robot with it’s body opened (see photo).

wget http://dl.google.com/android/android-sdk_r18-linux.tgztar -xzf android-sdk_r18-linux.tgzandroid-sdk-linux/tools/android update sdk --no-ui#test fastboot mode#this should show the serial number of the connected devicecd android-sdk-linux/platform-tools/fastboot devices

Adding the USB Driver definitions for the Galaxy Nexus

vim /etc/udev/rules.d/70-android.rules#add this line:SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"

Unlocking the Bootloader

NOTE: This command will erase the whole device. Make sure backups have been taken before (check the ‘adb backup’ tool

http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html).

fastboot oem unlock

Flashing the new Firmware

The ‘factory images’ for Nexus devices can be found here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images – make sure to choose

the correct model. The commands below are for the European GSM/HSPDA+ version of 4.0.4 (yakju)

wget https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/yakju-imm76i-factory-8001e72f.tgztar -xzf yakju-imm76i-factory-8001e72f.tgzfastboot flash bootloader yakju-imm76i/bootloader-maguro-primela03.imgfastboot reboot-bootloaderfastboot flash radio yakju-imm76i/radio-maguro-i9250xxla02.imgfastboot reboot-bootloaderfastboot -w update yakju-imm76i/image-yakju-imm76i.zip

After the last step the handset will reboot and you should be presented with a Google “Stock” device and go through the normal Android

setup wizard. As it should have been when I purchased this “Google” branded device in the first place – thank you Google (and of course

SAMSUNG) for wasting my time !

If you want to lock your bootloader after the upgrade (not necessary) you can go into Fastboot Mode again and issue the following

command:

fastboot oem lock

17

Leo Gaggl on Google+

This entry was posted in documentation, mobile and tagged firmware, galaxy, google, nexus, samsung, ubuntu by Leo Gaggl.

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Last reply was January 9, 2013

1. alexanderhayes

View May 28, 2012

I like it.

I like it a lot.

I like when your blogging and when I’m blogging too.

Your theme is simple, readable and great :)

2. leogaggl

View May 28, 2012

Thanks for the roses – can’t take too much credit for the theme. Had to call in a few favours from our old friend over @

http://leideritz.com/ :)

3. Julian

View May 28, 2012

cool that you post this guide just as i am searching for it ;) trying it out now! i was pretty pissed when i found out that samsung

still puts their own builds on the phone..

Bookmark the permalink [http://www.gaggl.com/2012/05/galaxy-nexus-firmware-upgrade-on-ubuntu-manual/] .

but i can’t quite figure out how this adb backup works? could you go into more detail on this?

thanks for this cool tutorial anyway!

4. leogaggl

View May 28, 2012

@Julian: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420351

Or: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=adb+backup+android+phone+full ;)

The only thing you need to make sure is to turn on USB debugging on the Nexus otherwise adb won’t like you.

5. Marco Silva

View June 6, 2012

I’ve flashed yakju over yakjuxw and went great.

However, I’ve lost the portuguese spell check. Is there a way to add the portuguese dictionary?

It’s a functionality I would like to get back…

Thanks for your help.

6. leogaggl

View June 6, 2012

@Marco Silva: By adding the Portugese as an input language you should get your pt dictionary back

Settings > Keyboard & Language > Android Keyboard > Input Languages

Portugese is certainly available.

7. ANK The Elder

View June 28, 2012

Thanks very much for this post!! Was very useful.

It’s amazing that the Android world is so fragmented that you can’t even go and get a device with a big Google logo on its box

without getting a somewhat incompatible firmware :( And thank you Google+Samsung for wasting my time, too!

8. guitarman

View July 17, 2012

You just saved me waiting forever for a proper update from my providor. Thank you! The only thing I would add to your instructions

is that I needed to issue sudo in front of some of those commands. Otherwises spot on,

9. Guy Steels

View July 21, 2012

Thx for this excellent guide. I compromised on hardware and bought a Galaxy Nexus yesterday for the very same reason as you. I

wanted an open phone which is up-to-date with the latest Android version, without crappy Sense or Touchwiz layers and without

any interference from manufacturers (they should stick to their core business which is making hardware and keep their hands of

software). I rooted my previous phone (HTC Desire) using Cyanogenmod but really didn’t want to go down that path anymore with

my new phone. The Cyanogenmod guys do a great job, but it takes them a lot of time before they can reverse-engineer new

Android versions. When setting up my phone yesterday I was trying the system update like a maniac as I wanted the Jelly Bean

upgrade. After some research I found out why I didn’t get past version 4.0.4.

Just upgraded my firmware using your guide. All went very smoothly. My Galaxy Nexus is running Jelly Bean now. #win

10. Kurt

View July 28, 2012

Hello.

I have a brand new nexus bought a year ago.

Never used it, as nothing but phone and camera on it. No apps possibel to install – google play close when I download and run it.

No google play on phone in factory settings. No maps, no nothing.

In about phone is no update avbl.

Baseband is I9250xxkk6

Build is full_maguro_eng 4.0.1 icl23d 288 test keys

model is gt-I9250_EUR_XX

No ota, no way to upd.

A Nokia 100 have more features than my useless Nexus.

Would you by any chance recognice the problem?

Regards Kurt in Denmark.

11. leogaggl

View July 29, 2012

@Kurt: Depends what you want to do. If this is really a brand-new unit I would have taken it back to be replaced under warranty.

The build name certainly sounds fishy to me. Did you buy this from a reputable dealer ?

Otherwise you would have to flash this with the Google Stock Images linked in the blog above.

https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images

12. herb

View August 17, 2012

I followed the guide and got it worked!

A few caveats:

- I had to use sudo for the commands because I was getting permission errors otherwise.

- If the commands aren’t in your path (for n00bs), you’ll have to type in the path as well for the command. E.g sudo ./fastboot

devices

- I had problems restoring the entire backup using the adb. I’m not sure if it was because I stopped it at one point due to it

seeming not to work. When I turned off usb debugging it seems to work but only a small portion was restored.

13. Frank Benign

View August 28, 2012

Thanks. Worked like a charm.

14. David Francoeur

View October 24, 2012

If you look here : http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html

The vendor id for Samsung should be 04e8 instead of 0bb4

Am I wrong?

15. leogaggl

View October 25, 2012

@david That might be right for Samsung phones such as S2 or S3. But the ‘NEXUS’ series are Google devices (some of whuch

happen to be manufactured by Samsung).

16. Martin

View January 9, 2013

Thanks for this topic. It works. =) And if you use 64bit OS you also have to install this “ia32-libs” package.