How to install ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on Samsung Galaxy S3

In this article I will describe how to install ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on the Samsung Galaxy S3. By installing CyanogenMod your device will also be rooted. I have written this post while I was installing ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on my own Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-i9300 (International). I provided the specific software download locations for the GT-i9300 and also the general download links in case you have an other model of the S3. You may also consider taking a look at the tutorial from the CyanogenMod website for your specific device. Also make sure that you have enough battery life throughout the whole installation procedure and to read the disclaimer before starting to follow this guide!

Disclaimer – Read before proceeding:
This article is based on my personal notes and experiences throughout the installation process of ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on my Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-i9300 (international). The described methods worked for me and my specific device just fine, but I will take absolutely no responsibility for any data loss or damage to your smartphone. Only proceed if you know what you are doing and proceed with care.

0. Preparations
1. Downloading CyanogenMod & Google Apps
2. Downloading ClockworkMod Recovery & Heimdall Suite
3. Installing ClockworkMod Recovery
4. Installing CyanogenMod & Google Apps

0. Preparations

1. Identify your device modelnumber
   In order to download the proper version of ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod, it is important to know the modelnumber of your Samsung Galaxy S3. Take your smartphone and open the “settings”, at the bottom of the settings screen choose “about phone” and there you will find the modelnumber. The modelnumber of my device is “GT-i9300”, also called Samsung Galaxy S3 International.

2. Backup your data from your phone:
   By installing CyanogenMod, the internal storage and virtual sdcard (the /sdcard folder) will be formated, it is important to backup the data from your phone e.g. the phonebook, photos and so on. You may do this by copying everything you want to keep onto your phones external sdcard, transferring it to your PCs hard drive or moving your stuff into any cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive. If you have already rooted your device, then you can install Titanium Backup from Google Play. This app allows you to backup and restore all your apps including the app-data like settings or savegames.

3. Install the Android Developer Tools on your computer:
   You will need the Android Debugging Bridge (ADB) which is a part of the Android Developer Tools (ADT) in order to be able to detect a smartphone connected to your PC and to transfer data between the PC and Smartphone. You can download it from the Android Developers website. I downloaded the ADT-Bundle-linux-x86_64Bit version, if you have a 32Bit system you may want to download the ADT-Bundle-linux-x86_32Bit version. Extract the downloaded archive to a location of your choice on your filesystem. Example, extract the archive into the subfolder “programs” of your home directory:

   $ unzip adt-bundle-linux-x86_64-20131030.zip -d ~/programs/

   Like I mentioned before, we will need a tool called “adb” to establish the connection between PC and Smartphone. This tool is located in the subdirectory sdk/plattform-tools/ of the previously extracted Android Developer Tools. Since we don’t want to change into that folder everytime we want to use adb, it is a good idea to make adb executeable from anywhere, by adding a softlink to /usr/local/bin folder. This can be done like this (depending on where you extracted the archive you may need to change the path to adb), example:

   $ sudo ln -s /home/myUsername/programs/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools/adb 
    /usr/local/bin/adb

   Now you should be able to execute “adb” from any location in the filesystem by simply typing adb in the terminal.

4. Enable USB Debugging on your phone:
   You need to enable the USB Debuggin option on your Smartphone in order to be able to establish a connection to the PC via USB cable. Open Settings>Developer options on your smartphone and enable the USB Debugging option.

   If you don’t have the Developer options entry in the settings, open Settings>About phone and tap multiple times on the Build number entry. This should enable the Developer options in the Settings menu.

5. Learn how to connect the phone to your PC:
   In some steps of this “How to” you will be told to connect your phone with the USB cable to your PC. Every time you connect the phone to the PC you should make shure that it is detected properly and that the connection has been established. Do this by executing this command:

   $ adb devices

   This will start the adb daemon and try to find any android devices connected to your PC. If everything worked properly you should see a outout listing your device, it should look like this:

   * daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
   * daemon started successfully *
   List of devices attached 
   1ff154d862c0cff8	device
   

   If the output says no permission, your device is not detected or there is any other kind of problem: Kill the adb process, e.g. like this:

   $ pkill adb

   and retry. If it still dosn't work, it could be a permission problem, so try to execute adb devices as root.

1. Downloading CyanogenMod & Google Apps

1. Download the latest stable version of CyanogenMod
   Download CyanogenMod for your specific device from here: CyanogenMod Device Selection.
   Since mine is a GT-i9300 (International) I downloaded the latest stable version from here: Download CyanogenMod 10.2 for i9300

2. Optionally download the Google-Apps
   This step is optionally, but recommended. The Google Play App-Store is not included in CyanogenMod. If you wish to use Google App market place, you will also have to download the Google-Apps package based on your CyanogenMod version. You can download the right version for your CyanogenMod from here: Google-Apps

3. Copy the zip-files to your phones sdcard
   Copy the zip-file of the CyanogenMod image (and the Google-Apss zip-file) into the root directory of your phones virtual (/sdcard) or external sdcard (storage/extSdCard/). Since you should already have installed ADB (if not read the preparations chapter) you can do this via terminal like this:

   $ adb push cm-10.2.0-i9300.zip /sdcard/

   or

   $ adb push cm-10.2.0-i9300.zip /storage/extSdCard/

   Of course you can also transfer the files via network or even directly download them to your smartphone. If you have an external sdcard you can simply put it into your PC and copy the files directly into the root directory.

2. Downloading ClockworkMod Recovery & Heimdall Suite

1. Download ClockworkMod Recovery
   Download the latest version of ClockworkMod Recovery for your device to your PC:
   ClockworkMod Download Page
   I downloaded this version with touchscreen support for my GT-i9300:
   recovery-clockwork-touch-6.0.3.6-i9300.img

2. Download Heimdall suite
   Download the Heimdall Suite to your PC. The Heimdall Suite will be used to flash the ClockworkMod Recovery image to your smartphone.
   Heimdall Suite 1.4RC1 Binary 32bit
   Heimdall Suite 1.4RC1 Binary 64bit
   Unpack the archive after the download has completed

   $ tar -xf heimdall_v1.4rc1_x64.tar

   and place the Heimdall binary into the same folder as the previously downloaded ClockworkMod recovery image.

3. Installing ClockworkMod Recovery

1. Boot your smartphone into "Download Mode"
   • Power off your smartphone
   • Boot your smartphone into "Download Mode" by holding Home & Volume Down & Power the same time
   • Accept the appearing Disclaimer/Warnings by pressing the "Volume Up" key. Your phone should now be in Download Mode
   

   Download Mode

2. Installing and booting into ClockworkMod Recovery
   • First connect your smartphones USB-Cable to the Computer (not into an USB-HUB) and then to the smartphone
   • Open a terminal on your PC, change into the Heimdall and ClockworkMod recovery folder and start the installation like this (where "cwm-touch-6.0.3.6-i9300.img" is the filename of the ClockworkMod recovery image):

     $ sudo heimdall flash --recovery cwm-touch-6.0.3.6-i9300.img --no-reboot

     You should see a blue status bar filling up on your smartphones screen and the installation should be finished really quickly. The output of Heimdall should look like this:

     
     Initialising connection...
     Detecting device...
     Claiming interface...
     Attempt failed. Detaching driver...
     Claiming interface again...
     Setting up interface...Checking if protocol is initialised...
     Protocol is not initialised.Initialising protocol...
     Protocol initialisation successful.Beginning session...
     Session begun.Downloading device's PIT file...
     PIT file download successful.Uploading RECOVERY
     100%
     RECOVERY upload successfulEnding session...
     Releasing device interface...
     Re-attaching kernel driver...
     

   • Now reboot your phone into ClockworkMod Recovery by holding Home & Volume Up & Power the same time and let go when you see the Samsung Galaxy S3 logo. Make sure to don't boot back into Android. if you boot back into android your recovery will be reset and you have to redo the process!
   

   Recovery upload success

   

   ClockworkMod Recovery menu

4. Installing CyanogenMod & Google Apps

At this point you should be in ClockworkMod Recovery

1. Optionally: Make a full system backup
   This step is optionally but highly recommended. A full system backup enables you to rollback everything like it was before installing CyanogenMod. You will be able to restore the stock Android with all your data and installed apps.
   • Select backup and restore
   • From the next screen choose how you want to do the backup. I choose "backup to external sdcard" (/storage/sdcard1). Wait for the backup to end, this will take some time depending on how much data you have
   • Go back to the main menu/screen
   

   The backup menu

   

   Running backup

   

   Backup complete

2. Wipe all data from the device
   • Select the option "wipe data/factory reset"
   • Then choose "Yes - Wipe all user data"
   

   Wiping data

3. Install CyanogenMod and Google Apps
   • Select "install zip from sdcard"
   • Then select "choose zip from sdcard" or "choose zip from external sdcard" (depending on where you put the zip-file of the CyanogenMod image) and select the CyanogenMod zip-file
   • Confirm your selection by choosing "Yes - install cm-10.2.0-i9300.zip". Now the installation process should start.
   • If you also want to install the Google-Apps redo the same steps, but choose the Google-Apps zip-file instead of the CyanogenMod zip-file
   • When the installation is finished go back to the main menu and select "reboot system now"
   

   CyanogenMod installation

   

   CynaogenMod loading screen

   
   

Now you should see the CyanogenMod loading screen. Congratulations, you have successfully installed ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on your Samsung Galaxy S III!

Related articles:

• How to install ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod on Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000)

Legal notice: all images in this post (including the title image) are screenshots/photos taken from my phone. All rights to the cyanogenmod logo and android logo belong to their respective owners.