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I am planning to upgrade my wife's Galaxy Ace II from 4.1.2 (the latest official firmware offered by Samsung, installed via Kies) to 4.4.4, which is available via http://novafusion.pl/downloads/ as an unofficial CyanogenMod 11.0 variant. I have tried to gather as much information as possible, but some things are not clear yet. I am seeking short, precise, technical answers; there are enough "10 steps for ... your phone" out there already. ;-)

  1. I know what rooting means, but apparently it is not always necessary in order to install a custom ROM? (This seems to differ from Jailbreaks on iPhones.)

  2. However, I probably have to "unlock the bootloader" in order to make the phone accept a firmware that is not signed by Samsung? (I understood that this is what "unlocking" the bootloader means.)

  3. If I understood correctly, the (/a) recovery mode is always available and mainly offers the features to a) wipe the data partition, b) wipe a cache partition (which seems to be hidden from the UI, so I did not know about it before), or c) install an update.zip from an SD card. Apparently, there are more advanced custom recovery ROMs/firmwares out there, too, which is probably analogous to installing Grub instead of Windows' default bootloader. But do I need no install a custom recovery ROM, too? (Why) Is that recommended?

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  1. To install a rom you have to root your device, there is no way without rooting your phone as long it isn't rooted yet

  2. Sorry dont understand your second question.

  3. You have to flash a custom recovery such as Clockwork Mod Recovery. You need a custom recovery because you can't control the default recovery (no way to acces it). So you have to set your phone in downloadmode and flash the root and the recovery.

Have a loook at this step by step tutorial where everything is explained ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2215996).

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  • Thanks for you answer. However, I think it is not true for all phones. For instance, I could easily access the default recovery, by holding Vol-, Home, and Power at boot, and got asked whether I really want to install a custom ROM. I think by saying "yes" (Vol+), I already unlocked the bootloader (2), but that may be Samsung specific, see android.stackexchange.com/questions/37702/…
    – hans_meine
    Sep 27, 2014 at 8:06
  • Okay, didnt know that. At least it's not Samsung specific because on my phone i need a custom recovery and its a samsung too. Anyhow i wish zou good luck and if you think my answer is right please mark it as right too. Thanks
    – MEX
    Sep 27, 2014 at 8:42

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