When the Android community gets its hands on new firmware, it doesn’t take long for them to port it to other device models. When the AT&T Galaxy S2 Skyrocket’s Ice Cream Sandwich firmware leak was ported over to the T-Mobile Galaxy S2, it unfortunately meant carrying over a rather sizable problem.

The accelerometer, which is responsible for functions such as the auto-rotation of the screen, doesn’t work. But, thanks to senior XDA Developers member yaldak, a hack has been developed to fix this problem. This hack is a deep fix, going down to the driver level, and should work on all Ice Cream Sandwich derivative ROMs.

For users still running Gingerbread, this hack isn’t necessary for your devices.

Thankfully, this hack doesn’t involve any fiddling with command prompts so users who are familiar with flashing ZIP files from custom recovery can easily apply this hack to their devices.

Caution

• This hack is compatible only with the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2, model number SGH-T989. You can check your device’s model number through Settings > About Phone. If your device does not match the T-Mobile Galaxy S2, model number SGH T989, then we discourage you from attempting to flash this hack to your device as it may lead to bricking.
• Use these instructions at your own risk.  We shall not be responsible for any damage to your phone.

Requirements

• A T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 running on a leak-based Ice Cream Sandwich custom ROM
• ClockworkMod Recovery installed on your T-Mobile Galaxy S2 — Check our guide on how to root and install ClockworkMod Recovery on you Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989.
• Make sure to create a backup of important data on your phone. You may read our guide on how to backup data locally or our guide on how to backup data to the cloud.
• A fully charged battery to prevent your T-Mobile Galaxy S2 from shutting off in the middle of the update process.
• Yaldak’s accelerometer hack (AutoRotateHotfix.zip, 278.5 kB)

Instructions

1. Download Yaldak’s accelerometer hack to your computer.
2. Copy Yaldak’s accelerometer hack to the root of your Galaxy S2′s internal SD Card
3. Turn off your Galaxy S2.
4. Boot into Recovery Mode. You can do this by pressing and holding down the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons while pressing the Power button.
5. Once in Recovery Mode, make a Nandroid backup of your current ROM. You can do this by selecting Backup and Restore > Backup. This will allow you to revert to your current ROM should something not work out with this hack.
6. Select Wipe Dalvik Cache.
7. Select Install Zip from SD Card.
8. Select Yaldak’s accelerometer hack to begin the flashing process.
9. Once installation is complete, select Go Back.
10. Select Reboot System Now.
11. Once the phone boots up, enable the auto rotation option on your launcher.
12. Calibrate the gyroscope from Settings > Display.

The accelerometer should now work correctly on your T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989. You can now download and play games that depend on the sensors and they’ll work like a charm. Users have reported it to be working perfectly with games like Temple Run. Enjoy!