Building a Vanilla Android AOSP ICS Rom on Windows 7 64-bit

Please note that this is a guide to how to setup an environment to create your own ROM, and to build a test AOSP ICS Rom that will work on an emulator. While it is possible to do all this in 32-bit Win 7, you will find it much (!) easier in 64-bit Win 7. The intention is to allow all the folks who have said they'd like to work on a ROM to get their feet wet. If you complete all the steps in this guide you will have a Vanilla ICS Rom that works in the Android Emulator. You would still need to modify the kernel for the CPU your particular device uses and add the special radio and other drivers before porting to your device.

Of course you can skip step 4 if you are willing to either dual-boot Ubuntu, or go into Ubuntu full time. However I figure a lot of folks on here are still on Windows for one reason or another.

1) Make sure that the ROM for your Windows 7 computer is set to allow Virtualization. If you have a Core i7 this will be the default. Otherwise you will need to make sure to set it manually through the Setup that should come up before BOOT.

2) Download VirtualBox 4.1.8
DL Link here for VB:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.1.8/VirtualBox-4.1.8-75467-Win.exe

DL Link here for VB Extensions (necessary for USB, shared folders, etc):
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.1.8/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.1.8-75467.vbox-extpack

3) Download Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit
DL Link here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download
Make sure (!) to select the 64-bit version before clicking download

4) Install VirtualBox and Ubuntu:
Install and Setup Guide:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/130922-linux-install-windows-7-virtual-machine-using-virtualbox.html
(Note that some of the images from this guide are from an earlier version of Ubuntu)

I personally recommend that as long as you have at least a Quad Core that you give your VB machine Two Cores and Two Gigs of RAM. For the HD size of your Virtual HD remember that the Android Source Code is almost 16 Gigs. For speed and other purposes I suggest creating a fixed size 80 Gig (or larger) Virtual HD. While this can be on an external drive, if you have room on an internal drive that will also improve performance.

5) Install the Toolchain (Android Build Environment):
http://mjanja.co.ke/2011/11/building-android-4-0-on-ubuntu-11-10/

The first three steps will take between 1-2 hours. Step 4 will take an hour or so as well. Step 5 takes multiple hours due to the size of the Android repo source library. Plan accordingly :-)

Hope this helps!