How to put a ROM on read-only /sdcard, while adb shell not working (HTC One X)
If your version of CWM recovery has the “install zip from sideload” option in the main menu (looks like such recovery version for HTC One X exists), you can use this option to install from a zip file which is stored on your computer without copying it to the SD card:


Select the “install zip from sideload” option in the recovery menu.
Run the following command on your computer:

adb sideload UPDATE.zip


where UPDATE.zip is the zip file you want to install.


You may need to update your ADB executable if it does not understand the sideload subcommand.

Note that currently there is no confirmation when the “install zip from sideload” command is selected, and also no way to abort the sideload mode once it is entered, therefore if you enter the sideload installation mode without a way to give the adb sideload UPDATE.zip command, the only way out would be to pull the battery (on some phones holding the power button for 10­­–15 seconds to force a reboot also works). Or, if you entered the sideload mode, but do not actually want to install a zip package, run something like adb sideload /dev/null, or use any small file which is not a zip package.

The sideload option is primarily made for phones which do not have internal FAT32-formatted storage, but should also work on other models. One important limitation is that the zip file is temporarily downloaded into the phone RAM (it is placed into /tmp/update.zip, which is in ramfs), therefore, depending on RAM size of your phone, you may not be able to install large packages this way.