Upgrade HTC Desire S to pre-rooted Android 4.0.3 ICS and HTC Sense 4.0A (Lite) leaked from HTC One V

With the official announcement of the HTC One V at the Mobile World Congress last February, HTC fans finally got a glimpse of how the Sense 4.0 UI looks on top of Ice Cream Sandwich. Just right after its announcement, numerous leaked firmware builds of the HTC One series began to circulate throughout the Internet. And, expectedly, independent developers scooped them up, hoping to be able to port the updated firmware to other earlier HTC handsets.

One device lucky enough to receive a ported version of the HTC One V firmware is the HTC Desire S. Featuring a 1 GHz processor and a 3.7 inch touchscreen, the Desire S is already a fantastic device, although it is definitely overshadowed by dual-core or quad-core devices. But, can the HTC Desire S survive an Ice Cream Sandwich invasion? Apparently so, as XDA Developers member proxuser has ported Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC Sense 4.0A (Lite) from the HTC One V to the HTC Desire S.

The custom ROM, called Primo-S, is based on firmware 1.56.401.4 from the HTC One V. It is pre-rooted and odexed, supports init.d and multiple languages, provides free 25 GB Dropbox storage, and includes updated apps.

Currently, the ROM is still in development, but most phone functions are working well. The following, though, don’t work yet: camera, camcorder, Wi-Fi hotspot, USB tethering, and a few other issues yet to be identified.

If you want HTC One V’s software running on your HTC Desire S, check out the rest of this guide.

Requirements

HTC Desire S — rooted, with S-OFF, and with custom recovery (e.g., ClockworkMod Recovery) installed
- Check this guide for rooting the HTC Desire S.
Fully charged battery or at least 70% battery left.
Backup of your personal data and files.

Instructions

Download the latest Primo-S 3.0 ROM for the HTC Desire S from here (PrimoS-v3.0.zip, md5sum: 6c9168c3ccda528ebcb440357c2a022c) and save it to your PC. Do not extract the ZIP file.
Connect your HTC Desire S to your PC via USB cable.
Copy the downloaded ZIP file to the root of your phone’s sdcard.
Disconnect your phone from your PC.
Switch off your phone completely. (Wait for it to vibrate.)
Reboot into recovery mode. You can do this by pressing simultaneously the “Volume Down” and “Power Key”. If you get stuck at the screen showing a phone with a red exclamation mark, press Volume Up and Power buttons simultaneously.
Once inside recovery mode, create a Nandroid backup of your existing ROM so that you can always have a restore point if something should happen when installing or trying out this ROM. You can perform a backup in ClockworkMod by selecting “Backup and Restore”, then select “Backup”.
Return to the main recovery menu.
Select “Wipe Data/Factory Reset” then select “Yes” on the screen that follows to confirm the data wipe.
Select “Install zip from sdcard”.
Select “Choose zip from scard”, and browse for the ZIP file that you have copied to the phone and select the file.
Confirm the installation by selecting “Yes”. It may take 5-10 minutes for the installation process to finish.
After the installation is complete, select “Go back” then select “Reboot system now” to reboot your device.

Voila! HTC One V firmware on your HTC Desire S. Your phone is now running Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC Sense 4.0A (Lite), courtesy of the Primo-S custom ROM.

HTC One Review! [video]

by Kristofer Wouk, 1 month ago

After a series of well designed phones that nonetheless were poor sellers, HTC has adopted an all-or-nothing approach with its latest flagship, the somewhat confusingly-named HTC One. Does the One have what it takes to…

Comments

gesfs

I actually welcome the ir port. Hopefully I’ll be able to control multiple devices (aircons, tvs, fans) with it.
stkiswr

Add a battery percentage and a larger battery. No sense in coming to the game shorthanded again
- MasterMuffin
  
  That’s the advantage that Samsung phones have!
MasterMuffin

If you’re a HTC lover and/or 5″ is too big for you and/or you just want to brag about the PPI, take this. If you want water (and other stuff) resistant cool phone with Sony’s Bravia engine and great sound, go for Xperia Z. If you are patient enough, wait for the next über cool Galaxy S with many nice Samsung add-ons, probably lots of memory and a big replacable battery and über cool 1080p SAMOLED screen. What’s your choice? :)
- Ivan Budiutama
  
  Motorola X phone? or pray to god that Sony will manufacture the next Nexus with many Xperia Z stuff? I would love to bring my Nexus to bath :D
  - MasterMuffin
    
    :D when I wrote that comment, the “x phone” was just a rumor so I didn’t include it in there but yea it would be really nice :)
    - Ivan Budiutama
      
      all just rumors :D but if realistically speaking, I would like to get XZ. How can you resist such a nice.. umm phone.
      
      http://sonyviet.vn/2013/02/xperia-sieu-sexy-trong-bo-hinh-moi/
      
      ok forget about that. If anything can offer you the best experience in music, I believe it would be Sony. I still keep my SE Walkman w980 phone and barely find one who can actually offer similar experience. I don’t know about Oppo Find 5 Dirac HD, might want to watch over that one too.
http://twitter.com/NoahSkye Noah Skye

Too be honest I really love Samsung devices. I am currently rocking the Galaxy Note 2 and I LOVE it. But the only problem with Samsung devices is that they are not the best build quality one could imagine. Let’s face it, yes it is handy that you can pop your back and put a new battery in and sd card, but too be honest I never do this at all. I already put my sd card in and my battery I don’t even do it anymore. Unless something is wrong with it. But then again if something was wrong with the battery I would not buy a new battery and pop it in now would I? I would send this baby right back to sammy and let them fix it. So my perfect phone would actually be a Samsung device with: 5 Inch screen, Full HD AMOLED, 16/32/64 GB available with SD card on the side. No removable battery. And I want HTC build quality. Also if it was available in a VERY dark black, that would look amazing with the deep dark blacks of AMOLED, Obviously the octo core of sammy and 3 GB of ram and 13 mp camera! That’s basically my perfect phone.
- Numbra
  
  Galaxy S3 feels so cheap in the hand. that’s why i love HTC phone because of Sense and the Build quality is premium. Plus i’m not a Huge fan of Super Amoled displays because the colors aren’t that accurate. I am more of a LCD fan.
  - http://www.facebook.com/georgealexiouvalentey George Av
    
    keep your washed out colors.
    - http://twitter.com/NoahSkye Noah Skye
      
      Don’t start a fight over an opinion tho….
      - http://www.facebook.com/georgealexiouvalentey George Av
        
        i’m not but anyone that has seen a iphone, s3, and one X would say that the one X is washed out!
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Mauricio-Paladines-Caicedo/601915356 Mauricio Paladines Caicedo
  
  some people like to use their phones all day and replace the battery with a fresh fully charged one (like me). so interchangeable batteries will always be needed and that is part of a reason that HTC fails so hard.
  - mrband
    
    Bingo! That and no microSD slot. Changing phone’s name again and again will not make crap smell better, do you know Shakespeare, HTC? :p
http://www.facebook.com/georgealexiouvalentey George Av

mehhhhhhhh, s4 pro is weak as hell now. even at 1.7ghz. T4, s800, exunos 5 octa is here, and they run rings around s4 pro.
Lara

LCD is much better than amoled/samoled. At least twice as better. iPhone 5′s screen much brighter and better color reproduction than s3. I should know, I have two s3′s and the screen ain’t that great, but it’s ok.
- vdcxz
  
  Pentile sucks. But the true rgb matrix with superamoled is amazing.
j.k. trowler

Use tegra 4! HTC where are you?!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mauricio-Paladines-Caicedo/601915356 Mauricio Paladines Caicedo

i smell another flop, no battery removal pppffffttttt!
NoOne

“the panel won’t be of the AMOLED variation we all love so much” Really? I am glad they did not use the AMOLED display. My galaxy note 2 is freaking hard to see when I am out side on the sunny day. And the brightness is so bad.