Several hours ago, an Android 4.3 system dump was leaked for the Nexus 4. As it turns out, even though the bootloader and the radios weren't included, the system dump is totally bootable. I'm running it right now. If you want to try it out, it's easy to do so, but be prepared to have your bootloader unlocked and flash some zips via a custom recovery. If you don't know what any of this means, I suggest you get familiarized with Android flashing first.

The Story (read this first)

The dump was leaked as a TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project) backup. At first, it turned out that restoring this backup straight in TWRP 2.5+ worked. Then gmillz (others may have done this too) created a flashable zip that you can flash in any custom recovery. This zip is pre-rooted. I flashed this. There's now a second version of the flashable zip, also by gmillz, that is deodexed and is running an insecure kernel (meaning you can do adb root). I flashed the non-deodexed one in step 3 and haven't flashed this one but I don't see a downside to flashing this one instead. You do not lose data when flashing either of these - they install right on top of whatever you have running on your Nexus 4 (not Nexus 7, not Nexus 10, not Nexus XYZ - Nexus 4 only). Some people, myself included, couldn't actually get root to work even though the zip was pre-rooted. Some people did, but some of us didn't. Don't fret though, after trying a few things, a working root is achieved by flashing another zip by Chainfire specifically crafted for Android 4.3. Bam, you're done - say hello to Android 4.3.

A Few New Things

Ron will be ripping up the Android 4.3 leak later on today in great detail, but so far I've noticed these things:

Here are some interesting strings from the build.prop:

ro.build.version.sdk=18 ro.build.date=Sat Jun 15 20:02:08 UTC 2013 ro.build.description=occam-user 4.3 JWR66N 711294 release-keys ro.build.fingerprint=google/occam/mako:4.3/JWR66N/711294:user/release-keys

Download and Install

Disclaimer: Android Police isn't responsible for any harm to your device - proceed at your own risk. : Android Police isn't responsible for any harm to your device - proceed at your own risk.

So now that you've gotten a little taste of 4.3, let's flash it onto your own Nexus 4. And let's go ahead and make sure it's rooted as well.

Note: In order to flash this, you don't actually need to be rooted - all you need is an unlocked bootloader which allows flashing a custom recovery. Also, as I mentioned before, you don't lose your data.