Xperia:Installing a Custom Kernel

The kernel is the heart of the Android operating system. It handles a lot of very important tasks like communicating between hardware and software. The kernel that comes with a phone is usually fine running the phone as-is, but installing a custom kernel can give you many benefits, like the ability to overclock.

Note that the kernel must match the version of Android you are installing. For instance, you cannot use an Ice Cream Sandwich-based kernel with a Gingerbread-based ROM.

Installation Instructions

Installing a custom kernel is pretty easy on this phone. There are generally three ways to do so, depending on the file format (IMG is preferred).

• If it's an FTF file, you can flash it through FlashTool.
• If it's a ZIP file, you would flash it in a custom recovery.
• If it's an IMG file, you flash it through fastboot with this command:
  fastboot flash boot kernel.img
  • Here, "kernel.img" would be the actual name of the file. You would also want to run this command from the folder where the file is located.