How to Install CyanogenMod on the Asus Transformer Pad ("tf701t")

This guide will walk you through the process of taking the Transformer Pad from stock to having a custom recovery image and the ability to flash the latest version of CyanogenMod.

Note: DISCLAIMER

Modifying or replacing your device's software may void your device's warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Important Notes

WARNING:

In order to use Cyanogenmod on this device, you MUST be on bootloader/firmware version 10.26.1.18 or higher! It is reccommended to update to 11.4.1.29 (updating to ASUS’s latest 4.4.2 release will install this). Bootloader/firmware version can be checked by rebooting into the bootloader and viewing the top of the screen. This is a mandatory prerequisite to use ClockWorkMod tool with this Asus tablet.
As of 2014-12-31, all the installation steps in this wiki page to upgrade from Android to CyanogenMod are tested with an upgrade from Asus firmware WW 11.4.1.27 (Android 4.4.2) to CyanogenMod 11 M12 (based on Android 4.4.4) (file cm-11-20141112-SNAPSHOT-M12-tf701t.zip) and Google Apps 4.4.3 (file gapps-kk-20140606-signed.zip).

Unlock and Install a Custom Recovery on the Transformer Pad

Upgrade the bootloader to meet the minimum requirement needed by CWM (ClockWorkMod)

1. Check firmware/bootloader version of your device (Path: Settings->About tablet-> software information->Build number), if it does not meeet requirement, you need to upgrade it. Installation steps below.
2. Navigate to Asus' support site for the Transformer Pad.
3. From the drop-down menu, select Android.
4. Expand the section titled Firmware.
5. Download the good firmware for your Transformer Pad device.Warning: if you have a WW firmware and need to upgrade from V10.14.1.47 to V10.26.1.18, the best choice to avoid problems is to use "WW_10_26_1_18_SDupdate"(use RCK option in the Asus bootloader). Only the upgrade for this specific release, follow the installation steps in this documentation. For all the others releases, use this documentation.
   Tips: If you want to use Asus Bootloader to upgrade your Firmware/Android release from Asus, then rename UL-K00C-KEYBOARD_CODE-FIRMWARE_NUMBER-user.zip (like UL-K00C-WW-11.4.1.17-user.zip) to T4_SDUPDATE.zip and copy it in the root folder on a MicroSD card that you will insert in Asus tablet. Then use use RCK option in the Asus bootloader to read the file and launch the upgrade.

Obtaining the Bootloader Unlock Application

If the Bootloader on the Transformer Pad has already been unlocked, you may skip this section.

1. Configure your computer for using ADB and fastboot.
2. Navigate to Asus' support site for the Transformer Pad.
3. From the drop-down menu, select Android.
4. Expand the section titled Utilities.
5. Download the Unlock Device App.
6. If the downloaded file is packaged in a zip archive, extract it.
7. Open a command prompt or terminal to the location where the UnLock Device App apk resides.
8. Install the apk using adb:

   adb install Name_of_unlock_app.apk

   For example, on the tf701 device, it would be adb install 0820-0954_SIGNED_UnLock_for_TF701_repart.apk

9. Run the application "Unlock Device Tool" from the device and agree to the terms.

   Note 1: if you have two-factor authentication enabled on your Google account, you will have to generate an individual app password on the Google accounts settings website, as the ASUS unlock app does not natively support two-factor.

   Note 2: After you agree with the terms, the Asus unlock app will ask you to login with your gmail account. If your password does not works, then you need to enable temporary access for less secure apps at https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps .

10. Reboot the device.

Installing recovery using fastboot

See All About Recovery Images for more information about custom recoveries and their capabilities.

1. If you haven't done so already, configure your computer for using ADB and fastboot.
2. Download pershoot's recovery -- you can directly download the recovery image using the link below, or visit the CWM or TWRP site to check for the latest version of custom recovery (if your device can be found there). Be careful to select the right image!
   • pershoot's Recovery: recovery.img

     md5: 4b851b4bdccbb9dfa48cdab11dbe4d2b (6.0.5.1 release)

3. Connect the Transformer Pad to the computer via USB.
4. Make sure the fastboot binary is in your PATH or that you place the downloaded image in the same directory as fastboot.
5. Open a terminal on your PC and reboot the device into fastboot mode by typing adb reboot bootloader or by using the hardware key combination.

   If your stock ROM is a Jellybean release, this should drop you into fastboot mode. If your stock ROM is an ICS release, you will likely need to use the Vol Down key to highlight fastboot from a boot menu and then and press Power to select it.

6. Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC sees the device by typing fastboot devices
   • If you don't see your device serial number, and instead see "<waiting for device>", fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastboot documentation for more info.
   • If you see "no permissions fastboot", make sure your UDEV rules are setup correctly.
7. Flash recovery onto your device by entering the following command: fastboot flash recovery your_recovery_image.img where the latter part is the name of the file you downloaded.
8. Once the flash completes successfully, reboot the device into recovery to verify the installation.
   • Note: Some ROMs overwrite recovery at boot time so if you do not plan to immediately boot into recovery to install CyanogenMod, please be aware that this may overwrite your custom recovery with the stock one.

The Transformer Pad should now be ready to install CyanogenMod.

Installing CyanogenMod from recovery

1. Make sure your computer has working adb.
2. Download the CyanogenMod build package for your device that you'd like to install to your computer.

   Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.

3. Boot to recovery mode, and connect the phone to your computer through USB.
   • Volume Down & Power, then when you are in the Asus Bootloader, select RCK (near Android and Wipe_Data icons) to go in ClockWorkMode tool.
4. In ClockworkMod Recovery, use the physical volume buttons to move up and down. On most devices, the power button is used to confirm a menu selection, but for some devices a physical home key acts as a selector. Some devices have touch enabled ClockworkMod Recovery, in which case you may be able to swipe to, or touch, menu selections.
5. Optional (Recommended): Select backup and restore to create a backup.
6. Select wipe data/factory reset.
7. You have two options for transferring and installing the installation packages. The sideload method is more universal across devices, whereas the push and install method is more commonly used:
   • Sideload method: select install zip > install zip from sideload. Follow the on-screen notices to install the package. The installer does not necessarily display an "Install complete." message. You can tell the install is complete if there were no fatal error messages and you have regained control over the menu.
   • Push and install method: Open a command prompt (or Terminal on Mac and Linux) and navigate to the directory holding the package(s) you would like to install. On the device, navigate to the mounts and storage menu. If you see /storage/sdcard0 or /sdcard as a mountable volume, go ahead and mount it. If you do not see one of these partitions, then instead mount the /data partition. Take note of which volume you mounted. Now, push the package(s) to your device (also, see tip below):

   - If you mounted /storage/sdcard0, then: adb push update.zip /storage/sdcard0/

   - If you mounted /sdcard or /data, then: adb push update.zip /sdcard/

   where update.zip should be replaced with the package filename. Go back to the main menu and select install zip. Choose to install from the same directory where you pushed the package(s). If you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it.

8. Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select reboot system now. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.

Helpful Tip – SD card folders

CyanogenMod 10.1 and newer have multi-user support (introduced in Android 4.2). If your device has storage on the /data partition, then Android actually looks in /data/media/0/ for the first user's /sdcard/ storage. ClockworkMod recovery symlinks /sdcard/ to /data/media/ though. So, if you are pushing files to internal storage in recovery and want them to be visible in Android, you should push them to /sdcard/0/ or /data/media/0/. Here's the most frequent scenarios:

1. If you're coming from a ROM with Android 4.1 or older to CyanogenMod 10 or older: adb push update.zip /sdcard/
2. If you're coming from a ROM with Android 4.1 or older to CyanogenMod 10.1 or newer: adb shell "mkdir /sdcard/0/" followed by adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/
3. If you're coming from a ROM with Android 4.2 or newer to CyanogenMod 10.1 or newer: adb push update.zip /sdcard/0/

Helpful Tip

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