Carbon ROM (Android 4.4.4) for Galaxy S4 mini 3G, LTE and Duos

The Galaxy S4 mini may not ever receive an official stock 4.4.4 firmware from Samsung, but you can easily have the latest Android version thanks to AOSP roms. In this case, xda member f4k still appears to be working on unofficial builds of Carbon ROM for our S4 mini and the latest build happens to be based off Android 4.4.4 KitKat.


Carbon Rom is another aftermarket firmware like CyanogenMod, AOKP, etc, based of the AOSP (Android Open Source Project). This unofficial build comes pretty light with a very low number of pre-installed applications. In terms of performance, it does well and everything else that I personally tried out appears to be working flawlessly but still keep in mind that you might encounter some small bugs when attempting to use some of the features.

For a complete list of features and more information on this rom, check out their page.

Disclaimer:

By not following the installation steps properly, you may end up bricking your phone. Before you proceed and install this rom, be sure to make a nandroid backup for safety. S4MiniArchive and the developer(s) will not be responsible for your damaged phone.

Installation:

1. Download the rom zip file from the above download link to your sdcard
2. Download the Gapps package in order to have Google apps
3. Power off your phone, boot into CWM Recovery by holding Volume up + Home + Power keys simultaneously
4. Choose wipe data
5. Choose install zip
6. Choose choose zip from /storage/sdcard/1/ (choose zip from external sdcard for older recoveries)
7. Choose the rom zip file then choose Yes to confirm
8. After rom has been installed, again choose choose zip from /storage/sdcard/1/ (choose zip from external sdcard for older recoveries)
9. This time flash the gapps zip file
10. After you are done, go back and choose reboot system now

Source: xda