Friday, December 11, 2015
Lollipop based Cyanogenmod 12.1 Custom Rom for Sony Xperia Go Lotus
Update your sony xperia Go lotus to latest version of android lollipop by flashing cyanogenmod 12.1 custom rom.Sony didn't push any firmware upgrades for xperia go after 4.12 jellybean and this didn't stop developers at xda to bring lollipop for this device.
Cyanogenmod 12.1 is finally available for xperia go and good part is that most of the features are working fine and of course it has bugs too which you can ignore for sake of lollipop.Though it has only 512mb of ram with 1ghz dual core chipset ,cm runs just smooth and might experience lag if fill up internal storage with lot of apps.
Device specific codename for Xperia Go is "Lotus" and has model numbers as Sony ST27i, Sony ST27a.Check your device model number before proceeding further.Go to settings and then to about device,you will find your device model number there.
Disclaimer:
As we all know flashing a rom on xperia go or any other android device is a risky job and it might cause earthquakes,tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in our hearts in case of failure and we hold no responsibility for that.Proceed at your own risk.
About Cyanogenmod custom rom:
This rom is compiled by a xda senior member "Hardlight"a big thanks to him for bringing this amazing firmware for xperia go lotus.Cyanogenmod is one of the best custom roms available in android development ecosystem. They support lot of devices.This is based on android open source project with lot of added features.It uses android 5.1.1 lollipop as base for now and will be updated to later versions of android when available.
Since this is not official cm 12.1 there are some bugs like video recording doesn't work at all,a2dp too doesn't work.But if you cant resist yourself to try lollipop on your xperia go then this is only way which is left for us.
Cyanogenmod 12.1 is finally available for xperia go and good part is that most of the features are working fine and of course it has bugs too which you can ignore for sake of lollipop.Though it has only 512mb of ram with 1ghz dual core chipset ,cm runs just smooth and might experience lag if fill up internal storage with lot of apps.
Device specific codename for Xperia Go is "Lotus" and has model numbers as Sony ST27i, Sony ST27a.Check your device model number before proceeding further.Go to settings and then to about device,you will find your device model number there.
Disclaimer:
As we all know flashing a rom on xperia go or any other android device is a risky job and it might cause earthquakes,tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in our hearts in case of failure and we hold no responsibility for that.Proceed at your own risk.
Cyanogenmod 12.1 rom For Sony Xperia Go lotus:
This rom is compiled by a xda senior member "Hardlight"a big thanks to him for bringing this amazing firmware for xperia go lotus.Cyanogenmod is one of the best custom roms available in android development ecosystem. They support lot of devices.This is based on android open source project with lot of added features.It uses android 5.1.1 lollipop as base for now and will be updated to later versions of android when available.
General features of Cm 12.1:
- Trebuchet: This is a launcher that ships with cyanogenmod. But if you flash gapps then you might loose this.It is simple,fast and responsive and lacks customization a bit.
- Performance control:A default CPU manager app to control frequencies and governors . You can adjust cpu frequencies and also set them on boot too.
- Status bar Tweaks:Status bar has lot of tweaks which include a brightness slider.Slide in status bar to adjust brightness of the screen.Double tap on status bar to sleep device and also network speed indicator for on going traffic info.
- Theme engine: Theme engine is a custom feature cyanogenmod custom rom which basically changes the look user interface from lock screen to ring tones all the way up to boot animations. The speciality of the theme engine is the ability to choose individual elements of every theme you have installed.So you like the ringtones and wallpapers of one theme and icons of other theme then you can have them at a time.Just open the theme chooser and you will understand how to do it.This might reming you of theme store from miui rom.
- Software Updates: Cyanogenmod is usually available in three types one s nightlies which gets updated with new features every night and are quite stable for daily usage.second one is the snapchat which is monthly build version which will be stable version and other one is the release candidate.Some times nightlies are considered must stable than the snapshots. As of now we have android lollipop 5.1.1 in form on CM 12.1.
- If you are missing root functionality or all your root apps are not working properly then to developer settings and check if root permissions are set properly.
These are key features of cyanogenmod rom and you can explore other features by flashing this rom on your Sony Xperia Go Lotus.
Prerequisites:
- Battery: Charge your xperia go to at least 90% so that you wont encounter any battery related issues while flashing this.
- You must have updated your xperai U to latest firmware available.
- Custom recovery: You need a custom recovery like philz or cwm installed on your xperia Go.Without it you can not flash at all.
- Backup:Backup all your data which includes apps,contacts,photos videos etc everything to computer or any cloud storage as flashing Cyanogenmod on SonyXperia Go Lotus will erase all your data.
- Backup Efs partitions: Backup all your efs partition of your sony xperia go on current Rom.If you loose signal you can just restore it back.
- You must have a Unlocked bootloader for sure.
- Downloads:Cm 12.1 rom for xperia go lotus (androidfilehost mirror) and google apps. Transfer them to internal storage of your device.
Flash Cyanogenmod on Xperia go using recovery:
- Download Cm 12.1 for Xperia go and Gapps transfer it to sdcard or internal storage of your smartphone.
- Power of device completely and wait for few seconds to confirm that it is off completely.
- Press power button and when device boots up leave power button.
- While you Xperia go is powering up you you will notice led light blinks.When this happens you have to press either volume up or down continuously until it boots into recovery mode.
- Sony xperia go boots into cwm recovery.
- Once you are in cwm click on backup and select all partitions which you want to backup. It might take about 5 minutes for backup to complete. Don't interrupt backup process.
- Once backup of your existing rom is completed click on back button.Wipe data,cache and dalvik cache and wipe system partition too.
- Now select Install and navigate to location where you have placed your Rom and gapps zip files.
- Flashing rom might take about 5 minutes or so.Once flashing is complete do a factory reset again.
- Now reboot to system.Wait at least 15 minutes for initial boot to complete and once done you can explore Rom features.
After flashing cyanogenmod if xperia go didn't boot or pass boot logo then press and hold power button for about 15 seconds and you will notice that it shuts down completely and it shutdowns use volume button combinations again to boot into recovery.Wipe all required partitions again and flash rom.If it still fails to boot then restore backup.
Since this rom is in alpha stage and there are bugs you may not like it to use it as a daily driver.But most of features that are essential for daily usage like calling,messaging,mobile data are working fine which means you can actually try this rom for sure.If you have any other queries for flashing lollipop based cyanogenmod 12.1 rom on your sony xperia go lotus just leave a comment below.
