Make your Galaxy Tab new again: Flash ICS!

A screenshot from my Galaxy Tab showing an Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich nightly ROM provided by CyanogenMod9.

If you’re a new visitor of my blog you probably didn’t know that back in late 2010 I was chosen by Samsung to be one of their Galaxy Tab Ambassadors in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. I received a P1000 unit just before the year ended and that’s when I started promoting the first Samsung tablet which I became quite fond of. I still use it today but it has gone through a huge facelift.

The history of ROMs ever to grace my Galaxy Tab

The original Galaxy Tab ran Froyo (Android version 2.2). Gingerbread (2.3) was later released in Italy and I was dying to get my hands on it. The only way to install the official Gingerbread ROM was to hack my Galaxy Tab. I was successful in doing so marking it as the first attempt to hack my Tab. The update didn’t make me happy though as some of the Japanese games that I loved to play started to force close but I didn’t go back to Froyo as Gingerbread proved to be a lot better than Froyo in other sectors.

Then I heard of the Overcome ROM. There were so many steps that needed to be done especially when coming from Gingerbread. I have been successful though and I used Overcome for a while.

Later an alpha Honeycomb (3.0) ROM was released. Honeycomb was Google’s first real tablet OS. Unfortunately, the Honeycomb ROM never really got to the point of being usable (blame Google for not releasing the source) so I came back to Overcome. Installing the Honeycomb ROM was a pain and I even end up bricking my device once. Good thing the Galaxy Tab had a Download Mode which allowed me to attempt a reflash again.

Finally, Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) was released along with its source code. This enabled hackers to create a better and more usable ROM than the Honeycomb ROM ever was. I am currently using a CyanogenMod9 nightly and, although it isn’t perfect yet, it’s pretty much stable now. It works like a charm! My favorite Japanese game also works now!

So how did I get ICS to run on my Galaxy Tab?

Warning!

Trying to flash a ROM to your Galaxy Tab can potentially render it useless. Any instructions must be followed by the letter. If you feel like your technical knowledge is inadequate for the task, please do not continue. I cannot be held liable for any damages, injuries or deaths caused by attempting to flash your device. Also remember that the available ROMs are not yet completely stable. If you insist that you can do it please proceed at your own risk.

To flash CM9 onto your Galaxy Tab you can follow the steps mentioned here. You might need to download certain applications to restock your Galaxy Tab. If you find the steps overwhelming then please don’t proceed. If you really think that you should continue then you can ask the experts on this XDA discussion thread. They should be of more help than I would ever be.

If you have flashed a custom ROM like Overcome before (or any with CWM recovery) then it’s as easy as dumping the ROM’s zip file into your Galaxy Tab’s internal memory and flashing it through Recovery Mode. I’ll assume you already know how to do that given that you’ve flashed your device already so I won’t dwell on the details already. The instructions on how to do this can be found on the link I mentioned earlier.

I wish you the best of luck to refresh your device’s capabilities with a new and updated ROM! Enjoy!