We certainly love the pure sweetness of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich from the Galaxy Nexus. People were excited to try the new update on their Android phones. However, as they received the updates, the pure sweetness of Android 4.0 ICS was tinged by individual manufacturer’s skins, making it more of a TouchWiz, Motoblur, Timescape, or HTC Sense.

If you want to experience pure Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich on your Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I9100, you should try installing the F1 GalaxyNexus custom ROM. This ROM was created by recognized XDA Developers member Faryaab and offers pure Google ICS experience with some tweaks and enhancements under the hood. Take note that this ROM is not yet in its final build. You may experience some bugs when you flash this ROM.

So, if you want pure Google ICS on your phone, continue reading the rest of this guide to learn how to flash the F1 GalaxyNexus custom ROM on your Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I9100.

Warning

• The instructions in this guide are intended for use with the Samsung Galaxy S2, model number GT-I9100. Applying these instructions on another device or model may produce undesired outcomes.
• The information in this guide is provided for instructional and educational purposes only. There is no guarantee that these instructions will work under your specific and unique circumstances.
• Use these instructions at your own risk. We shall not hold any responsibility or liability for whatever happens to you or your device arising from your use of the info in this guide.

Requirements

• A Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100 with ClockworkMod Recovery. You may refer to the following guides:
  • Root the Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I9100 running XXLPQ firmware and install ClockworkMod Recovery
  • Root and ClockworkMod Recovery for the Samsung Galaxy S2 running Android 4.0 firmware XXLPJ
  • Root Your Samsung Galaxy S2 Running on Android 4.0.3 ICS Firmware XXLPB
  • How to Root Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100 Running XXLP2 Firmware
  • Root Your Samsung Galaxy S2 Running XXLP6 Firmware Using CF-Root
  • How to Root Samsung Galaxy S2 GT I9100 on XXKP8 ICS Android 4.0.3 Firmware
  • Root the Samsung Galaxy S2 Running Android 2.3.6 Firmware Build XWKL1
• Backup your mobile data and files prior to flashing the ROM.
  • Check out our guide on how to sync your data to the cloud and how to create local backup of your mobile data.
• Maintain a phone battery of at least 70%.
• Download the F1 GalaxyNexus ROM from here (F1-GalaxyNexus-GalaxyS2-20120423.zip, 100.74 MB).
• Download the GApps (Google Apps) package for this ROM from here (gapps-ics-20120422-signed.zip, md5sum: 0b30df25505799b5e10c0b6409f73137).

Instructions

1. Download the F1 GalaxyNexus ROM and its Google Apps package from the links provided above.
2. Copy the ROM package and the GApps package to the root of your phone’s SD card.
3. Reboot your Samsung Galaxy S2 into ClockworkMod Recovery. You can do that by pressing the Volume Up key, Home button (middle key), and Power button simultaneously until recovery boots.
4. Create a Nandroid backup before flashing the ROM. Go to Backup and Restore. On the next screen, select Backup to create a backup of your current ROM.
5. Go back to the main menu and perform a full wipe (you can skip this step if you came from a previous version of F1 Galaxy Nexus ROM):
   • Select Wipe data/factory reset and confirm the action on the next screen.
   • Select Wipe cache partition and confirm the action on the next screen.
   • From the main menu, select Advanced. Select Wipe Dalvik Cache and confirm the action on the next screen.
6. Return to the main menu.
7. Select install zip from sd card.  Select choose zip from sd card and locate the F1-GalaxyNexus-GalaxyS2-20120423.zip. Confirm the action on the next screen to begin flashing the ROM to your phone.
8. Once installation is complete, go back to the main menu and flash the gapps-ics-20120422-signed.zip to your phone in the same manner as in step 7.
9. Return to the main menu and select Reboot system now to restart your mobile phone.

Good job! You have successfully installed the F1 GalaxyNexus ROM on your Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I9100.