Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play is a very unique smartphone. Aside from its mobile features, the phone can also be used as portable gaming gizmo. You can play a lot of PlayStation games as you get to control your characters using the handset’s dedicated gaming buttons.
You might not be able to upgrade your phone to Android Ice Cream Sandwich yet. But that does not mean that you will limit your handset’s capabilities as you wait for Android 4.0. That is why we’re here to help you out. Allow us to guide you through the steps as you get your Xperia Play running on a Gingerbread-based CyanogenMod 7.2 custom ROM.
But before we get to the real deal, be sure to keep a backup of your original firmware version. You also need to make sure that your computer is running on Windows Vista or 7 and that your handset has been fully charged. If you’re all set, let’s start!
Step 1: Download and Install the Android SDK.
Step 2: Unlock the bootloader of your Xperia Play. You can do so by following the instructions on this page.
Step 3: Download Google Apps for CyanogenMod on this link. Do not extract the file and keep its Zip format.
Step 4: Download the CyanogenMod 7.2 update files on this link. Extract the file to a new folder on your desktop. You can use WinRar or WinZip to extract.
Step 5: Open the new folder, locate and open the APPS folder. Find the boot.img file as well the Zip file named update-cm-7.2.0-RC0-XperiaPlay-R800i-KANG-signed.zip.
Step 6: Copy the boot.img file to the /tools folder of your Android SDK installation directory.
Step 7: Use a USB data cable to connect your phone to your PC.
Step 8: Copy the file called gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip to the main storage of your phone.
Step 9: Copy the file called update-cm-7.2.0-RC0-XperiaPlay-R800i-KANG-signed.zip and save to the main storage of your phone.
Step 10: Remove the Xperia Play from your computer. Turn off the phone.
Step 11: Press and hold the Search button of your device while you connect it back to your computer.
Step 12: On your computer, open a command prompt window then go to the “Tools” folder inside the Android SDK folder.
Step 13: Type the following commands:
fastboot -i 0xfce flash boot boot.img
fastboot -i 0xfce reboot
Step 14: Your phone will then show a list of options. Use your phone’s volume rocker and Power button to navigate through the list of options.
Step 15: Select “ClockworkMod Recovery” then “Wipe data/factory reset”. Select “Wipe Cache Partition”.
Step 16: Choose “Install Zip from sd card” then “choose Zip from sd card”. Locate and select the file named update-cm-7.2.0-RC0-XperiaPlay-R800i-KANG-signed.zip. Wait for the installation to complete. Repeat this step for the file called gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip.
Step 17: After the installation, select “++++ Go Back ++++” to return to main menu then choose “Reboot System Now”.
Step 18: Wait for a minute or two for the device to reboot.
That’s it! You have successfully installed the CyanogenMod 7.2 ROM on your Xperia Play smartphone.
Hello, I have a Roger’s Xperia play, with locked boot loader, there is apparently no way to unlock it. Is there another way to flash the update with having too boot to recovery mode? Thanks gang! Love the CyanogenMod on all my the droids, but this one is a tough nut to crack.
Thank you very much, it helped, but I wanna ask what is the point of unlocking the bootloader, is it so we can run clockworksmod? and why you didn’t flash a custom kernel, I am going to do what you wrote now, but this is the first method I see without flashing a custom kernel, if I my device brick you pay me
cuz you didn’t write that you are not responsible.
hmm got it kinda, so the boot.img is the freeXperia kernel ??
Reverted to Stock backup, it still needs some work and touch pads not working, anyway it’s faster and better, absorb battery tho.
Thanks
Please guide me how did you revert to stock backup??