True Tutorials: How to Install CyanogenMod on the Motorola Moto E (“condor”)

This article will walk you through the procedure of taking the Moto E from stock to having a custom recuperation picture and the capacity to streak the most recent form of CyanogenMod.

Note: DISCLAIMER Modifying or replacing your device’s software may void your device’s warranty, lead to data loss, hair loss, financial loss, privacy loss, security breaches, or other damage, and therefore must be done entirely at your own risk. No one affiliated with the CyanogenMod project is responsible for your actions. Good luck.

Unlocking the device

WARNING: Unlocking the bootloader will automatically wipe all device data.

Make sure your computer has working fastboot and adb.
Enable USB debugging on the device.
Enable OEM unlock in the Developer options settings on the device. (Note: Not all devices have this setting, so continue with next step if yours does not.)
Connect the device to the computer through USB.
From a terminal on a computer, type the following to boot the device into fastboot mode:

adb reboot bootloader

Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC sees the device by typing fastboot devices

If you don’t see your device serial number, and instead see “<waiting for device>”, fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastbootdocumentation for more info.
If you see “no permissions fastboot”, try running fastboot as root.

From the same terminal, type the following command to obtain your bootloader unlock code:

fastboot oem get_unlock_data

Visit the Motorola Bootloader Unlock website and follow the instructions there to obtain your unlock key and unlock your bootloader.
If the device doesn’t automatically reboot, reboot it from the menu. It should now be unlocked.
Since the device resets completely, you will need to re-enable USB debugging on the device to continue.

Installing recovery using fastboot

See All About Recovery Images for more information about custom recoveries and their capabilities.

Make sure your computer has working fastboot and adb.
Download recovery — you can directly download a recovery image using the link below, or visit twrp.me to obtain the latest version of TeamWin Recovery Project for your device.

Recovery: Download

md5: 978296c5f4428f662dafabb0d95f3417

Connect the Moto E to the computer via USB.
Make sure the fastboot binary is in your PATH or that you place the recovery image in the same directory as fastboot.
Open a terminal on your PC and reboot the device into fastboot mode by typing

adb reboot bootloader

or by using the hardware key combination for your device while it is powered off.

Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC sees the device by typing

fastboot devices

If you don’t see your device serial number, and instead see “<waiting for device>”, fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastbootdocumentation for more info.
If you see “no permissions fastboot”, make sure your UDEV rules are setup correctly.

Flash recovery onto your device by entering the following command:

fastboot flash recovery your_recovery_image.img

where the latter part is the filename of the recovery image.

Once the flash completes successfully, reboot the device into recovery to verify the installation. Boot to recovery instructions: Hold Volume Down & Powersimultaneously. On the next screen use Volume Down to scroll to recovery and then use Volume Up to select.

Note: Some ROMs overwrite recovery at boot time so if you do not plan to immediately boot into recovery to install CyanogenMod, please be aware that this may overwrite your custom recovery with the stock one.

Installing CyanogenMod from recovery

Make sure your computer has working adb.
Download the CyanogenMod package for your device that you’d like to install to your computer.

Optional: Download 3rd party applications packages, like Google Apps which are necessary to download apps from Google Play.

Place the CyanogenMod .zip package, as well as any optional .zip packages, on the root of /sdcard:

Using adb: adb push filename.zip /sdcard/

Note: You can copy the .zip packages to your device using any method you are familiar with. The adb method is used here because it is universal across all devices and works in both Android and recovery mode. If you are in recovery mode, you may need to ensure /sdcard (sometimes called Internal Storage) is mounted by checking its status in the Mounts menu. If you have booted regularly, USB debugging must be enabled.

If you are not already in recovery, boot to recovery mode now.

Hold Volume Down & Power simultaneously. On the next screen use Volume Down to scroll to recovery and then use Volume Up to select.

In Team Win Recovery Project, select menu choices by tapping on the appropriately labelled button.
Optional (Recommended): Select the Backup button to create a backup.
Select Wipe and then Factory Reset.
Select Install (if you’re running Cyanogen recovery this is Apply Update).
Navigate to /sdcard and select the CyanogenMod .zip package.
Follow the on-screen notices to install the package.
Optional: Install any additional packages you wish using the same method (if you are installing multiple packages, install CyanogenMod first and then install any subsequent packages on top of it).
Once installation has finished, return to the main menu and select Reboot, then System. The device will now boot into CyanogenMod.