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Are there "generic" versions of the Cyanogenmod that would work on any device? (My device isn't officially supported.)

If not, why? (If Windows and Linux distros have images that work on any computer – as long you choose the version for the right architecture (x86, ARM, 32bit, 64bit) – then why not Android?)

EDIT

If the issue is mainly that drivers might not work, is there a way to save the drivers that came pre-installed on the device, and install them after Cyanogenmod'ing?

Vince
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Himanshu P
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  • To answer your EDIT, I have no experience with these types of things, but it should be possible. Take a look at how to port CM: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_porting_intro Of course, that means, development work, and asking about how to build custom ROMs is out of topic here. – geffchang Jan 31 '15 at 13:49
  • Linux and therefore Android too use a monolithic kernel that includes all the drivers. Hence extracting is not possible. – Robert Jan 31 '15 at 20:34
  • I think the WHY is a very interesting question! – sir_brickalot Jan 31 '15 at 20:41

2 Answers2

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No, there isn't.

eldarerathis' answer on What's the risk of installing Cyanogen Mod on unsupported phone? explains the negative effects if you installed the incorrect CM ROM.

Community
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geffchang
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To answer the why, mobile operating systems are much more dependent on the hardware. They don't have drivers to work with a lot of different combinations of hardware, unlike desktop OS's. This is primarily done to make them more efficient (which is a more critical issue for mobile OS's).

About your edit, you can't install drivers after installing cyanogenmod, because the OS itself won't boot up. Even if you are using fastboot/recovery, you can only flash whole partitions like system, userdata, boot, etc, and not one off drivers. Also, a lot of the OS code related to driver interaction isn't very generic, where you can just replace the driver and expect it to work You will need a ROM image where the drivers are modified and integrated properly, which is what cynogenmod versions for different devices are.

Munim
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