Custom ROM on LG Optimus 2x

Some rights reserved by Johan Larsson

Ever since I started using LG Optimus 2X P990, i noticed some or the other issue with its Battery. The OS was as well not upgradable as it supported updates only to Android 2.3. I tried almost all battery saving apps from the App store. Well, battery was not the only problem, the phone used to freeze after sometime after using it. After browsing a lot through the XDA Developers forum i found that the default firmware provided by LG wasn't good enough for the hardware. Only a new custom ROM would help. There were numerous mentions on CynogenMod being the best of all. However getting a custom ROM was not a one click solution.
Here are some steps how you could get your own custom ROM on LG Optimus 2X although these are common for most of the phones.

1. Install LG Optimus P990 USB driver on your windows PC
2. Experts suggest that your phone should have a good battery life before going ahead with this as it take time for the installation to finish.
3. You will first need to root your phone before going ahead with Custom ROM. I used OneClick root software. It took a while, but did the job.
4. Install Titanium Backup to backup all your apps and other data
5. Enable USB debugging mode from settings
6. To back up your contacts you can use www.phonecopy.com
7. Download any version of you choice form Cyanogens' website. I chose a stable one, although you can go for any of the nightly release too.
8. Install Clock work mode recovery software on your phone.
9. Copy the Cynogenmod zip to your SD CARD
10. Power off the phone
11. Restart the phone by pressing the start button and holding the Volume button down.
12. You will be in Clock Work Recovery mode screen
13. Click on Wipe data
14. Click on Wipe Cache
15. Click on Install Zip from sdcard
16. Select the zip and wait for the installation to finish
17. After the installation restart you phone to find the new ROM installed.
18. You may find that Google Apps are missing here. You can look for CyanogenMod gapps and install them using Steps 11, 12, 15, 16 above.
19. Restart the phone and you can see google apps as well.

There are many other custom ROMs available. Some famous ones are CynogenMod, Paranoid, AOKP, Liquid Smooth etc.