14 DAY TRIAL // The GSM flavor of Galaxy Nexus has been on shelves since about two weeks ago, and Google has decided it was high time to make available for download the factory image for the device.
Put up for download on the Internet giant’s servers, the image was released only for Galaxy Nexus GSM/HSPA+ devices.
Jean-Baptiste Queru, software engineer, Android Open-Source Project, Google explains that the file should be unarchived after being downloaded, and that it includes the bootloader, baseband, and the rest of the system for the GSM flavor of the latest Google phone.
“You'll need to have fastboot in your path, and to have the device in fastboot mode before you can use it (either "adb reboot bootloader", or press-and-hold both volume-up and volume-down then press-and-hold power),” he explains.
In order to enable the restoration of the Ice Cream Sandwich mobile phone to its initial state, a flash-all.sh script is also provided.
“If you're only flashing some of the images, I strongly recommend flashing things in the same order as flash-all.sh. Specifically, flash the bootloader before the radio, and reboot after flashing the bootloader or the radio,” Jean-Baptiste Queru notes.
One thing that should be noted is that the bootloader on Galaxy Nexus will be unlocked after flashing the device back to the factory state. Users should consider locking it back to ensure that the device remains secure ("fastboot oem lock").
“Hopefully this'll be useful to people flashing custom AOSP builds, as it provides a clean supported way to return to factory state,” Jean-Baptiste Queru concludes.
There you have it. Provided that you have a good reason you might want to get your new Galaxy Nexus smartphone back to its factory settings, you can now do that.
All you need to do is to head over to Google’s website and download the said factory image for the mobile phone, and then flash it back to its original state.