[At Your Own Risk] How to install Jelly Bean to your Huawei MediaPad/T-Mobile Springboard

(Bonus 'beginners guide to Fastboot' included!)

In our MediaPad Rapid Review I mentioned that I was running a near-perfect CM10 build of Jelly Bean on my MediaPad. If you're a present owner of the MediaPad/Springboard, I can imagine that may have grabbed your attention. Since we're giving sorts here at AndroidNZ, you'll find the promised guide for installing the latest flavour of Android on your MediaPad just over the break. 

Before getting underway there are a few things to note. Firstly you should familiarise yourself with out weasel-word disclaimers at the beginning of this post. Secondly, you should be aware that at the present time HDMI-out is not working on this Jelly Bean ROM, so if that is deal-breaker for you then you'd better wait until an update fixes that at some point. Besides that one feature that is stone-cold not working, there are really only a few minor quibbles - the occasional graphical glitch in the browser, a mildly annoying SIM code prompt that you simply dismiss at each startup, and some issues with the WiFi MAC address changing at startup (an issue for some routers). Oh, and it'll wipe your device.

OK, if you've read all that and you're still onboard, here is what you'll need:

• A well charged MediaPad
• A micro SD card
• A micro USB cable
• The CM10 ROM copied to the root directory of a micro SD card, downloaded from here
• The latest Google Apps copied to the root directory of a micro SD card, downloaded from here
• TWRP Recovery, downloaded from here
• The ADB and Fastboot installation zip file, downloaded from here 

Now that we've got everything together, what follows is a two-step process, first we need to get the TWRP Recovery onto the device, and then from within that recovery we install the Jelly Bean ROM.

Before we get underway proper, let me point out that since I installed Jelly Bean a simpler method for installing TWRP Recovery has been released, a method that doesn't require any use of Fastboot and essentially automates the process. Because we only write guides for methods that we've personally road-tested, I'm going to use the Fastboot method here, however the easier method will also be detailed for those who aren't interested in getting their Fastboot-legs. While I'm all for things being easy, my personal recommendation would be to try out the Fastboot method, since it's a gentle introduction to a very useful tool to have at your disposal from time to time as an Android user.

PART ONE:

This step guides you through getting TWRP recovery onto your MediaPad, you'll need this in order to install the Jelly Bean ROM. 

The easy was to do this is simply download the following file, extract it wherever you like and then run install_recovery.cmd and follow onscreen instructions. Once done you can move onto Part Two. 

The slightly more difficult way to do this uses Fasboot, and here are the steps to flashing TWRP Recovery to your MediaPad via Fastboot:

• Extract the downloaded adb_fastboot_and_other_tools.zip file to your computer, for ease of use extract the file to C:\ - you'll end up with a folder called "Android" there.
• Copy the recovery.img file you downloaded into this directory, it should look like this afterwards with the recovery.img file sitting within the root of the C:\Android directory:



Click on images to see their full size


Now, press the Windows key + R, and in the window that opens type "cmd" as shown in the image below, then hit enter:





This will open a command prompt window something like this (the directory path listed in the window will differ on your computer obviously, but we're going to change that anyway so just ignore that):





Into this type "cd C:\" without the quotation marks to change directory to C:\, as shown here:





At this point you'll need to boot your MediaPad into Fastboot mode. You can do this in either of two ways, depending on whether your device is powered on or off. With your device powered off press and hold the volume down and power keys simultaneously until the tablet vibrates, and then release the power key. With your device powered on simply long-press the power button until the menu pops up, select the reboot option and press and hold the volume down key until the Fastboot screen greets you.



If starting from a powered-down MediaPad press and hold these two
together to enter Fastboot mode


OK, you're ready to input your first Fastboot command - connect the tablet to your PC via the micro USB cable and type the following into the command prompt window without the quotation marks "fastboot flash recovery recovery.img"





Once its performed that flash you're going to enter the following "fastboot flash recovery2 recovery.img"
Congratulations, you've installed TWRP Recovery to your MediaPad (and maybe taken your first Fastboot steps to boot).

PART TWO:

OK, most of the hard work is done, now it's just a matter of installing CM10 to your MediaPad.

• Boot into recovery - its the same process as booting into Fastboot above, except that instead of holding down the volume down key, we're going to hold down the volume up key as the tablet restarts. You'll see the Huawei MediaPad splash screen appear initially, just keep the volume up key pressed and eventually you'll see a custom recovery splash screen, and then be greeted by the following screen:





• First select the Backup option, check custom partition as shown, and then swipe to backup the stock ROM

Now press the back key in the top right corner of recovery and select Wipe from the recovery menu. From within the Wipe menu select Factory Reset, once that's done select System and wipe that also.

Hit back again and from the recovery menu select Install, select the cm-10-20120909-UNOFFICIAL-hws7300u.zip file and swipe to flash it to the device

Once done select the gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip and swipe to flash that too

When that's complete go back to the main recovery menu, and Reboot system

Congratulations, you've now got Jelly Bean - the latest and greatest Android OS version - installed to your MediaPad. Be prepared to enjoy much higher performance from your device thanks to project butter, and also all the new bells and whistles like Google Now and Rich Notifications.