[Fire Original Android Development] cheezweasel:
Success! I just finished my first device and its working great. I tested out chromecast, netflix, pandora, bluetooth, etc. and all seem to be working. I am so happy right now. I only had one little hiccup when i tried to install Gaaps 6.0 (i needed 5.1 - D'OH!). Other than that, it was all pretty seamless. I did end up putting SuperSU on it.

First and Foremost, I want to say thanks to the community here, especially [MENTION=6000946]marrco[/MENTION] for holding my hand a bit while i did this. However, I would not have been able to do it without the help of the many contributors to this thread.

However, for someone who has never done this sort of thing (I literally decided last night on a whim to try it), a lot of the information is over my head. People contradicting each other, links that no longer work, information on older versions, videos that are really close to your configuration but not quite exact. It can get a little confusing, and also worrisome, especially when you're worried about bricking the system. What I really needed was a step by step process on what to download and what to do all in one place.

So, I figured I would make this post for anyone who was in my situation.

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So, you have decided that you want to get your hands on a cheap tablet with full android functionality. The Amazon Fire Tablet is perfect, but comes with that FireOS that makes it almost unusable, unless you want to live in Amazon. You did some google searches and now you're here, but you don't want to ruin a machine. Well, the good news is that I can confirm these steps worked (at least for me). Once you start it, it really isn't that bad. So, let's get started.

You will need the following:

Hardware

Amazon Fire Tablet running FireOS 5.0.1 (Anything newer and I'm not sure these steps will work)

USB Cable (Comes with the tablet)

Some sort of PC (I was running HP Windows 7 Laptop)

MicroSD Card (mine is an old 8GB I had lying around)

Downloads

Newest version of CM, found in the first post - this will be a zip

GApps 5.1 Pico - this will be a zip

SuperTool - this will be a zip

Market helper - this is an .apk (Android application). You will get this once everything is done.

Watch this video for visualization of steps 34-44

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1) First things first - Order the Fire Tablet. I bought the Fire 7 for 49.99. I used Prime Now so that it came within a couple of hours.

2) OK, the tablet is here. take it out of the box, plug it into the wall and turn it on

3) Its going to ask you to set up. Go ahead and select your language and hit next.

4) On the wi-fi setup page, SKIP. DO NOT SET UP YOUR WI-FI. If you're running an older version of FireOS, you don't want it to upgrade. Mine said it was upgrading, but it wasn't. Don't worry about that message. As long as you don't turn on wi-fi, you're good.

5) At this point you should be at your start screen. Yeah, it looks like you're in the amazon store already. Don't worry, this is temporary.

6) Drag your finger from the top to bring down your menu. Select the Settings (gear) button

7) Select the Device Options

8) Select the System Updates option. This will tell you your version number. If its 5.0.1, you're good. If not, I'm sorry, i don't know what to do next. These steps may work, but they may not - I simply don't know. Sorry.

9) Congrats! You've come this far, which means you have 5.0.1. Your next step is to let your tablet charge to 100%. Mine took about 30 minutes I think - I made breakfast, picked up some of my kid's toys and had a conference call for work.

10) All charged up? Good. Now we get down to it.

11) Download the Newest Version of CM, found in the first post. This will be a zip file

12) Download Gapps 5.1 Pico. Make sure to select ARM, 5.1, Pico. If you get the wrong version (like I did at first) it causes a headache. This will be a zip file

13) Download the Supertool from RootJunky. This will be a zip file

14) Go back to those Device Options from step 7

15) Click the Serial Number several times to gain access to the Developer Tools

16) Open Developer Tools

17) Select the button to Enable ADB

18) Put the SD card in the tablet. Mine gave me a warning saying it was too slow. No big deal here, it worked. This should only affect your camera or videos.

19) Plug your tablet into your PC

20) Your Fire will show up in your directory. Select it and choose the SD card storage device.

21) Move the CM and the Gapps zip's to the SD Card

22) In a new window, extract the SuperTool

23) In the Apps Folder, find the SuperSU v2.46 zip

24) Move SuperSU zip to the SD Card

25) Ok, so now you should have a SD card with 3 zip files on it. You should also be plugged in and have the SuperTool folder open. The fun begins now.

26) We need to install the drivers first. Open up the batch file "1-Amazon-Fire-5th-gen". Notice how your device is NOT recognized yet. That's because there are no drivers yet., Make sure to click OK whever your device asks if its ok to allow connections

27) Select option 1 to install the drivers (start with ADB)

28) Read the instructions. Dont click anything they don't tell you to.

29) Once installed, you may need to restart your PC

30) Repeat steps 26-28 for "Fastboot" drivers

31) Repeat steps 26-27. but this time test the drivers and fastboot. You should be good at this point. We are almost done

32) Now its time to boot into TWRP.

33) Launch the batch file again, and select step 4 to access TWRP on your device.

34) Do a backup first. Select backup, check all the boxes, and backup to the SD card. This took about 10-15 minutes for me I think.

35) Now, we wipe. I wiped everything except the SD card and USB. System, internal storage, cache....it all got wiped.

36) Now, its time to install. Select the Install button.

37) Select the SD card.

38) Select Cm 12.1

39) Add another Zip

40) Select Gapps 5.1 Pico

41) Add Another Zip

42) Select SuperSu

43) Flash it! This took me about 5 minutes I think once it was all said and done. A couple minutes to flash and a couple minutes to re-boot.

44) You now have a useful version of Android on your tablet. However, you may find that some apps from the play store will not download. They say they are incompatible.

45) Go to the Market Helper app link above. In that link you will find the latest version (about halfway down the page). Click on that and install the application (from your shiny new tablet).

These steps worked for me and I hope they work for you guys, too. Im afraid I wont be much help with troubleshooting, but I can confirm that these steps got my tablet working.

Good luck.