Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean & Amazon Kindle Fire

As mentioned in this space before, it never ceases to amaze exactly what the developers over at XDA can prepare. One dev’s latest feat is really getting Jelly Bean to operate on the ‘outdated’ 512MB RAM equipped Amazon Kindle Fire. As with a lot of hacks, there are several features missing (at the time of this writing) for example Swype keyboard, USB camera support, and photo sync.

However, you need to do get the benefits of Google Now plus a straight port of simply the exact ROM being pushed to Nexus 7 and 10 users. The procedure itself is very much like flashing other ROMs on other devices, so the ones that are familiar with it will feel at home. If you need to brush up on your rooting skills, you should check our guide and dictionary to help.

To Install Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean ROM on Kindle Fire

• Download Android 4.2.1 AOSP ROM
• Download Google apps package
• Connect device to computer using USB cable and copy downloaded files to SD card without extracting contents
• Disconnect from computer and switch device off
• Boot into Recovery mode (to do so, press Power to turn device on and press again when triangle appears on screen to enter Recovery mode)
• In Recovery, perform Nandroid backup of existing ROM (to do so, select Backup and Restore > Backup and return to main Recovery menu once action is completed)
• In recovery, perform a data wipe by selecting Wipe Data/Factory Reset > Yes and return to main Recovery menu once action is completed
• Use Power to select Install Zip from SD Card and Power again to select Choose Zip from SD Card. Locate, select and confirm installation of Jelly Bean ROM from SD card
• After installation, repeat above selection and installation procedure for Google apps package
• After installation, repeat data wipe
• Return to main Recovery menu and select Reboot System Now