Hello everyone, I just registered to XDA. I ordered my nexus 5 and I expect it by the end of the week and I just have a few questions.
Please dont judge me hard as I dont have much knowledge on the subject.
1. What is a custom rom?It is a custom OS based on an android version right?
2. I see many people putting custom roms on nexus 5. Why is that? What do custom roms offer?
3. Which one would you suggest me to install to my new phone?
4.Can you help me on how to do the installation?
Thanks in advance
Custom ROMs are basically just third-party-developer-versions of the Android operating system. They usually offer software modifications you can't find on stock versions of Android, such as overclocking your processor (making it run faster than it's supposed to). I'd recommend for starters to go with CyanogenMod. I will look for a good ROM for you to start out with, and when I find one, I'll return and post instructions on how to install it. I'll aos post instructions for how to Root and install a custom recovery (these are things you MUST do before installing any ROM).
EDIT: Here's a guide for how to get your Nexus 5 up to the point where you are running a custom ROM on it. If there's anything you don't understand, please feel free to ask what it means and I'll try my best to explain. Just as a warning, by doing this, you will probably void any warranty you may have with your device. So if you are NOT OK with a warranty being void, please DO NOT proceed. Otherwise, keep reading:
1) Make sure you have a computer with the proper Nexus 5 drivers installed.
2) Root and unlock the bootloader on your Nexus 5. Take a look at
THIS for how to do both of them.
3) Read through
THIS for how to install a custom recovery. I'd recommend using TWRP. If you already unlocked the bootloader in the previous step, then just ignore the part where this article tells you how to unlock the bootloader.
4) Next you need to download the ROM itself and save it to your Nexus 5's internal storage. My friend who has a Nexus 5 uses
THIS ROM, and he seems to like it. Save
THIS (ROM) and
THIS (Google Apps) to your phone's internal storage. Remember where you put these. Do NOT extract the contents, leave them as a .zip file.
5) Boot your phone into recovery
5.5) DO A FULL BACKUP IN RECOVERY!!! IN CASE SOMETHING GOES WRONG, JUST BOOT INTO RECOVERY, AND SELECT TO RESTORE THE BACKUP AND YOUR PHONE WILL BE BACK TO THE STATE IT WAS BEFORE YOU TRIED TO FLASH THE ROM. THIS IS IMPORTANT! You should do this EVERY TIME you want to flash a Custom ROM. It should be pretty easy to find out how to do a backup in recovery. If you use TWRP Custom Recovery like I suggested, there should be a button in the main menu that says "Backup". Just press that, make sure everything is checked, and then initiate the backup.
If you ever need to restore a backup, there should be a "Restore" button in TWRP Recovery's main menu as well. Just select the backup you made, press restore, and let it do its thing.
6) Do a factory reset. That means wipe the data and cache.
7) Select to install/flash a zip file. First flash the ROM zip file, THEN flash the google gapps zip file.
8) Reboot your phone
9) Give it some time to turn on. The first time your phone restarts/turns on after installing a new ROM (what I like to call "First-Boot") will usually take a lot longer than normal. Just give it time.
10) You're done!