[Miscellaneous Android Development] redtails:
A while ago I replaced the factory rom of my Hyundai A7HD (also called the Cherry M-728) and installed Cyanogenmod version 10 on it. It runs pretty smooth, MUCH better than the stock rom will ever run.

For those of you who are not familiar with Cyanogenmod (CM), this is an alternate version of Android (it does run all Android apps) that supposedly runs a lot better than most stock androids. Due to the subjective nature of "smooth", I'll give you my personal opinion on it: it's

worlds

apart, cannot compare to the stock rom at all. The A7HD had some nasty bugs in it, including wonky wifi (partially fixed with CM10), low screen brightness (increased in CM) and cyanogenmod generally brings much better performance and battery life with it. It also doesn't get as damn hot with CM. The raw gaming experience won't be much affected, though apps like the android market used to take absolutely AGES to start up; this is reduced to near-instant. Truly what an Allwinner A10 tablet should deserve.

TL;DR - tablet experience was great improved with CM10 on A7HD

Please read this guide carefully and don't complain that it is faulty because I've tested it myself and it works fine. The good side is that the Hyundai A7HD is very difficult to permanently brick. Although the firmware updater (Livesuit) thread is written in Dutch, it can be used to return the A7HD to its factory rom without a hitch. During the installation of CM10, the device needs to be formatted so please make sure to move all your personal files off of the internal storage (onto external SD).

It goes without saying that your battery should be full and the device plugged into the ac-adapter (preferably not usb as it delivers less power and cannot sustain the tablet)

The step-by-step guide starts here:

Step 1: Download Clockworkmod (CWM), download here:

http://files.androtab.info/allwinner/cm9/20120308/NOVO7AE/a10_recovery.zip

ALTERNATIVE LINK: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=8E7A3231B094ABEA!6638&authkey=!AOHu-FqMlRpkFQc

Unzip and put all three files on the internal storage of your tablet.

Step 2: Download these three zips (they are the CM10 rom image, "Google Apps" containing the basic necessities such as Market and a driver compatibility pack for the A7HD to get the camera, wifi and touchscreen working):

http://allwinner-cm9.googlecode.com/files/cm10_a10_20120913.zip

http://allwinner-cm9.googlecode.com/files/gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip

http://old.androidfilehost.com/main...ntroy/misc/1.2.x/a7hd_compatibility_1.2.0.zip

ALTERNATIVE LINKS:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=8E7A3231B094ABEA!6639&authkey=!ABnU4BVPWrpTwhg

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=8E7A3231B094ABEA!6640&authkey=!AJ0NyMfFa0jkrb0

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=8E7A3231B094ABEA!6641&authkey=!ADdtoPRuaPWGxaQ

DO NOT UNZIP THESE FILES!!, put the three zips on the internal storage of your tablet, such as the "downloads" directory.

Step 3: Install the program "Script Manager - SManager" from the android market. Upon first start-up, select "Browse as root" and press "Ok".

Step 4: Using SManager, navigate to the directory containing the three unzipped Clockworkmod files. Click on the "install-recovery.sh" file. Select the option "Su" for admin-rights, and after that press "Run" to get the shell-script(sh) running. It'll take a little while. Go back to SManager , and run "reboot-recovery.sh" (again using Su). This will restart the tablet into CWM bootloader mode.

Step 5: You are in CWM bootloader now (see image above as a reference). Because the A7HD does not have vol-up and vol-down buttons (why!), the POWER button represents "Ok" , HOME and MENU both represent "cursor up" and the BACK button functions as "go back". PLEASE FOLLOW THE NEXT STEPS IN EXACT ORDER!!

Step 6: Push the menu-button until the cursor selects "Wipe cache partition". By clicking the "power" button, you select the option the cursor is at. Agree to the question stating again that you'll lose all your data (as it's what you expected to happen, right?).

Step 7: Now select "Wipe data/factory reset". Agree to losing all data. Not doing this step will result in a faulty CM10 installation, so please just do the wipe. This will not delete the zips you've places on your internal memory.

Step 8: Navigate to "install zip from SD card", further on select "choose zip from internal sd card" and browse to the folder containing the three zips.

FIRST INSTALL cm10_a10_20120913.zip!!!

, SECOND YOU MUST INSTALL "a7hd_compatibility_1.2.0.zip". DO NOT INSTALL "gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip" YET!! It's very important that you now press back and reboot the device.

Step 9: Cyanogen is now starting for the first time on your device; give it a minute or two. Android will go through the first couple of standard questions, take your time if you want to and breath easily now that all is good. However, Android Market is not yet installed. Start the program "updateMe", go to the settings tab and select the option "reboot to recovery" all the way to the bottom. This will cause your tablet to reboot back into CWM for the last step.

Step 10: Now that you're back in CWM, please don't do a wipe or you'll lose all your hard work. Again go to "install zip from sd card", , again "choose zip from internal sd card" and choose the file "gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip". After the installation has completed, you can reboot your tablet. Android will claim it's "updating" some programs during start-up; one of these programs is the play store and all supporting binaries for it.

Step 11: If everything went well, you now have a fully functional A7HD tablet running Cyanogenmod 10. In the android settings, there are a couple of new menus; Please don't change anything in the "performance" tab, it'll just crash your tablet. Especially fiddling with the CPU frequency is a very bad idea as the internal voltage regulators are not powerful enough to sustain >1ghz operation of the ARM core.

Personally I think everything runs a lot smoother in CM10. My wifi connection used to drop upon connecting the HDMI-out to my TV; This bug has been fixed in CM10. The battery-bug has also been solved; you can run the tablet all the way down to 0%. The screen brightness can now be set much higher than on the stock rom. HOWEVER, do

not

put it to maximum; as the screen has not been designed for this (It'll probably fail at maximum setting, please put it at around 75% tops). Of course cyanogenmod contains a lot more options and possibilities for customization. Though, you'll have to look those up yourself :D. If you really can't figure it out, drop a message in this thread and maybe you'll get a clear answer, though I hope this guide speaks for itself... Enjoy !

I'd like to thank the author of this thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1821398 for his work on this rom and its compatibility. I've just written this easy guide out for those who are a bit overwhelmed by the difficulties of replacing a stock rom.