I'm coming from an EVO 4G to this, it's coming in the mail today. I'm not getting the whole ODIN thing to flash Roms, radios ect... can't you just flash a custom recovery and than flash what ever you want to from your recovery?
Odin is like an RUU but instead of having a separate one for each build, it is one program that allows you to flash many things from ROMs to kernels to modems (radios). Odin is an indispensable tool and will save your ass if you ever have a problem.
That said, yes, we do have custom recoveries like clockworkmod and we can flash various things directly from recovery just like in the EVO days. Just be careful because some things are specifically meant to be flashed with odin and others with recovery, so make sure you're flashing the right thing.
First thing you need to know is that the kernel and recovery are packaged together on this phone unlike on the Evo.
To get a custom recovery you'll need to ODIN a kernel packed with custom recovery. From there most things you will want to flash will have both ODIN and recovery packages available. Also ODIN can often be used unbrick a phone if you have a bad flash.
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i currently have the evo 4g and am considering a switch to the epic. i am very familiar with flashing custom roms, splash images etc on the evo, but i know that samsung phones have a different method.
can anyone lay out these differences for me or link me to somewhere that does?
thanks
Honestly I think the epic is a simpler device to root/ flash roms with. Epic does not have the nand locked down so a simple one click root method found in the dev stickies is all that's needed. It roots the phone and installs clockwoek recovery all in one shot. After that you just pick which rom/kernal you want and flash it through clockwork. No need to flash seperate wimax/radio files because they're included in the kernal of whichever rom you choose or kernal you decide to flash. And your done. Clockwork also has backup/ restore options just in case you mess something up. You have the clockwork 2.5 which is the stock file system (RFS) which only a few devs still use and the latest clockwork 3.0.0.5/6 which uses EXT4 file system which increases the overall speed of the phone. This is what most devs are moving too just because of the speed increase. Sorry can't realy link you to any specific threads because of the xda app but hope this helps a bit.
Just a side note, any zips flashed through clockwork (themes,bootanimations,etc) have to be compatible with the system you are using. Like I said before most devs are going the 3.0.0.5/6 route so all zips will be compatible. Reason I say all is because you can also flash 2.5 zips through 3.0.0.5/6. But you can't flash 3.0.0.5./6 compatible zips through 2.5 clockwork. Hope this makes sense. The dev section has both threads stickied at the top so you can decide for yourself. Personally I use 3.0.0.5/6 ext4 with syndicate frozen rom/twilight kernal. Fast and very stable for me.
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so im guessing a wipe is still required in between roms. and is the rom memory ext 4 or is that partitioning the sd card?
drew16 said:
i currently have the evo 4g and am considering a switch to the epic. i am very familiar with flashing custom roms, splash images etc on the evo, but i know that samsung phones have a different method.
can anyone lay out these differences for me or link me to somewhere that does?
thanks
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It is very similar with one huge exception. ODIN. With HTC devices, everything seems to come with the ROM zip file. With the Epic, if you are up or downgrading android versions, you need to an app called ODIN on your PC. Odin basically allows you to push files to your device via your PC allowing you to revert back to stock or install different modems for different android version (2.1, 2.2 etc)
For instance if you purchase an Epic with 2.1 preloaded and you want to flash a custom built ROM based on the new 2.2.1 release coming out tomorrow, you would have to flash the modem via Odin by putting your phone into "Download mode", plugging your phone into your computer, running Odin, then flash the modem.
After that, you can use a recovery Rom like clockwork to wipe and flash the custom ROM. If you just flashed the ROM without using Odin you would either boot-loop, stay stuck at the Samsung splash-screen, or boot into the Rom with no functioning radios. I have had all of these happen before but fortunately you can do more then just flash modems via ODIN you can restore back to stock making our phones virtually brick proof. Odin really is a pretty kick ass part about having an epic.
drew16 said:
so im guessing a wipe is still required in between roms. and is the rom memory ext 4 or is that partitioning the sd card?
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Depending on what version of Clockwork you flash you phone will either be formatted to EXT4 or stay at RFS. That is the formatting of the NAND chip not the SD CARD. Returning to stock via ODIN wipes the recovery rom and reverts the phone back to RFS.
thanks for the info! im guessing the modem your referring to is essentially the radios... or is it a stock update that must be added before a custom rom?
I have both phones and I think they are about the same really simple to work with if you can flash one the other will be no problem just an extra button to deal with on the epic
I am new to the whole android seen and I am having trouble figuring out how to flash a rom. I want to put http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1527041 this rom on my epic 4g and currently have calkulins stock rooted fb17 rom installed. can anyone tell me how to flash it or point me in the right direction of some instructions. My last smartphone was a htc touch pro, things were a lot easier back in the winmo days.
Recommended Steps
Do you have CWM installed already?
Either way:
1) Use ODIN to flash a Gingerbread ROM such as EL26.
1a) If you don't have CWM installed you'll want to flash it now. This can also be done by ODIN. If you have installed, simply go to recovery after reboot.
2) Flash the ROM you specified.
You can find more on how to do this safely in the following link:
How Not To Brick Your E4GT
If I may make a suggestion: You said you are new to Android. You may want to just stay with ODIN tars for now, at least you become a little more familiar and comfortable with the phone. There is a FC07+Rooted .tar file for ODIN if you would rather try that instead. If you choose to go with a rom that packs CWM please make sure you read that link so you at least are aware of what is going on and how to try and minimize your risk.
Good luck!
Maybe this is by design and I'm just missing something. I got a new e4gt and proceeded to root it using instructions found on epic4gtouchroot.com. Basically I used odin to flash a stock EL29 ROM and then install team Rogue's CWM.
All went well with this process so I proceeded to the next step, which was to download and install a custom ROM. I installed the VeNuM ICE 5.5 since I'm a comic book nerd as well as a computer geek.
This wasn't my first time rooting. I've been rooting my EVO for a year of so, and I've rooted my Wife's Nook Tablet too, so I was a bit shocked to see that the Team Rogue CWM recovery program went bye-bye after flashing the VeNuM ROM.
I downloaded ROM manager and tried to flash the latest CWM recovery program from there, but that dind't work. I haven't tried to download the touch recovery, but I was able to reinstall the Rogue CWM recovery program, which then hosed up my ROM. I actually thought I bricked my phone for a minute, but I was able to go back into Rogue Recovery and re-flash the VeNuM ROM.
All went well and I'm back into my phone, but now again when I reboot into recovery mode, I have "Android System Recovery <3e>" like an abridged version of CWM. I don't have near as many options and wonder what's going on.
I never lost my recovery mode before when flashing a ROM. Is there some sort of custom recovery included with this ROM, or am I doing something wrong?
hi. im pretty new at this also, but i think i know the answer to this. well. not really the answer, but i know how to get clockwork recovery back onto the venum rom you are using now. you need Odin3-v1.85 (just google it) and the clockwork recovery StockCWM-EL26.tar (google). Then you put your phone in odin mode, volume down and power from powered off state, run the program, check the PDA option and browse for the stockcwm file, plug in usb and hit start. That'll put the recovery back on your phone.
But as I've been reading, a lot of times, you cannot just download the rom onto the phone or sd card and flash new roms using the cwm recovery. something about the gingerbread and ics and different kernels. .... =D
Please read the "How not to brick your e4gt" or how ever it goes in general. You need to stay away from rom manager and any touch recoveries. To answer your question, rogue recovery went away because the Venum ICE rom has the stock recovery packed in because of all the custom recovery/bricking issues we've been having with ICS. So the Dev left out custom recovery included with his rom
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
I'm not sure what recovery Venum comes with but this might be by design since custom CWM recovery is not installed by design on most ICS roms.
First of all read through this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1525495
You chose to flash ICS; if you had chosen Gingerbread this would not be an issue so please read on... ROM manager should NOT be used with ICS. Since you are new, the only CWM recovery you should be using is the stockcwm-el26 posted here: http://chris41g.devphone.org/index.php?dir=EpicTouch/Stock+Repack/EL26/
Lastly and most important:
Flashing ICS can be a very dangerous thing for your phone if done improperly. Even flashing back to Gingerbread from ICS can go wrong.
Please do not do any further flashing of ICS without reading and understanding the process of flashing ICS safely!
Also, please feel free to ask lots of questions until you are comfortable with the entire process. That is why we are here.
Edit: Sorry for the very strict tone throughout. You have a very nice WORKING phone and we see a lot of newbies flashing over to ICS without a full understanding of what can go horribly wrong. We also see users asking for help here daily because they have bricked their phone (many times with no hope for repair or recovery).
Maybe I'm just lucky?
Ok, so I read a little more (two straight days of XDA has left me a bit un-productive at work) and I see now the difference between the Samsung phone and the HTC phone I had before. Samsung does partitioning a bit different, or maybe it's just ICS, but either way as you explained in your post, the recovery has to be packed into the ROM. Makes sense now. I was thinking that the recovery was a different eeProm chip, therfore flashing a ROM shouldn't affect the recovery, now I know that's not the case.
After I read, a bit more, I actually did what it's been suggested not to do, and that's install ROM manager. From ROM manager I installed the custom recovery and have successfully booted to this several times without incident, and in fact have flashed both another ROM (VeNuM Anakonda), a Theme for this Rom, and the S Voice update 4 exe file. I don't seem to be having any trouble using Rom manager to boot into recovery mode.
Venum ICE was a bit much for me, way too many bells and whistles that I could potentially blow up my phone with which still could happen. Anyway, I like the Anakonda rom and will probably stick with it a while. I can't get s Voice to stabalize, but that seems to be the only problem I've got, so I'll live with that.
BBJon said:
Ok, so I read a little more (two straight days of XDA has left me a bit un-productive at work) and I see now the difference between the Samsung phone and the HTC phone I had before. Samsung does partitioning a bit different, or maybe it's just ICS, but either way as you explained in your post, the recovery has to be packed into the ROM. Makes sense now. I was thinking that the recovery was a different eeProm chip, therfore flashing a ROM shouldn't affect the recovery, now I know that's not the case.
After I read, a bit more, I actually did what it's been suggested not to do, and that's install ROM manager. From ROM manager I installed the custom recovery and have successfully booted to this several times without incident, and in fact have flashed both another ROM (VeNuM Anakonda), a Theme for this Rom, and the S Voice update 4 exe file. I don't seem to be having any trouble using Rom manager to boot into recovery mode.
Venum ICE was a bit much for me, way too many bells and whistles that I could potentially blow up my phone with which still could happen. Anyway, I like the Anakonda rom and will probably stick with it a while. I can't get s Voice to stabalize, but that seems to be the only problem I've got, so I'll live with that.
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Coming in late to this thread but I would like to re-iterate what was said about ROM manager and pretty much everything tdunham said. Because you have been, so far lucky, does not mean that luck will continue. Best advice is to remove it and not use it. If you read through some more posts you will see that the bricking doesn't always happen on the first, second, third flash. It can all of a sudden appear. We've had VERY experienced developers brick their phones, so to think you won't just because you've been lucky is not wise.
But some of the comanailities are clear - using ICS recovery to wipe/restore and using ROM manager. Just thought I'd point that out.
If you're coming over from a different phone (HTC etc) check out Qbking77's videos. They are very informative too.
Good luck and have fun.
I'm glad that the op did some reading and had some extra help here. Our phones can be confusing but with extra reading it can be figured out. We try to list the kernel that's in the rom and these are all listed in the development section in some form or another with explanations of what they have, ie cwm or rogue recovery... In addition most of our roms list a change log that you can read that will tell what each version of the rom has in it in case you would rather use an older version. And we keep the older roms posted too... anyway happy flashing !
I've bricked my phone a few time messing around with different ICS roms and kernals. I go back and odin EL29 rooted...start all over from scratch. Try using new recovey kernals posted on ACS. I'm on FE22 with the ACS recovery and am having no issues with flashing zips and making backups as well restoring.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
There are some repacked recoveries that Steady used to make for ICS before he disappeared. Those were never and still aren't safe for flashing ROMs though. It's safest to Odin/Mobile ODIN CWM EL26 tar whenever you need recovery and then flash whatever and then reflash an ICS kernel without recovery so that your phone boots
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
CWM Rogue Recovery doesn't seem to be sticking on my E4GT. Flashed CM9 Alpha 3 from stock rooted rom. When Alpha 4 was released, I tried to boot into CWM Recovery and ended up with stock recovery. Ended up having to odin back to stock and start over to get Alpha 4 running. Same problem now that Alpha 5 is out there, tried to boot into CWM Rogue Recovery and get stock recovery.
Doing a search shows that this seems to occur on other phones. They've resolved it by deleting a boot recovery file with Root Explorer. I was just hoping to confirm with someone that this method will work on the E4GT and the name and location of the file that needs to be deleted.
I'm assuming I'll have to odin back to stock and start the process over again and delete that file once I load up CWM Rogue Recovery again?
Thanks for the help.
CM9 comes with stock recovery. Look up EL26 kernel and learn to use it. Its your best friend for flashing on this phone. Also read up a little more on CM9 as it explains this.
This method will not work. With our phone, recovery has to be packed into the kernel, its not separate from other partitions like it is on other phones. This is why whenever you flash a new rom, your current recovery is replaced by the new roms packed in recovery. The reason its stock Android recovery is because of the bricking issue we've been having in ICS custom recovery so devs aren't including it into the kernel<rom.
So when you need CWM, flash the directboot CWM under the tools page in the epic4g touch CM blog spot website. You Odin that and it takes you straight to a sage recovery where you can flash the alpha 5 update. Understand?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
Thank you both for pointing me in the right direction. I realized that I would have to go back to the EL26 to flash new roms. I didn't realize that I would have to do that to flash over an existing rom with an update. Thanks for setting me straight.
hmmm....interesting. The CM9 instruction page does not mention that you need to Odin the DirectBoot CWM when upgrading. I can see why a lot of people are skipping that step.
Thanks for the heads up, I am going to upgrade to alpha 5 after work. I'll make sure to Odin the DirectBoot CWM kernel first.
mjs2011 said:
I can see why a lot of people are skipping that step.
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It is a new kernel modification that did not exist a couple weeks ago. The EL26 CWM kernel itself has been around since the end of last year. Being completely optional to use the new modded one you probably wont find it in instructions. I for example will never use it but others will find it easier because they do not understand why the phone goes into bootloops.
I flashed Super Galaxy Rom 1.2 the other day, not realizing it didn't have a custom recovery. I've tried everything to get one back on there, but nothing seems to work. I've read all the posts about using odin and/or heimdall to UNROOT the phone, but I really don't want to go that far. All I want is a custom recovery so I can go back to my previous rom, or another that has a custom recovery. ROM manager doesn't seem to want to flash CWM, which is the way I did it before, so I'm really kind of lost here. I have access to my Macbook, no Windows computer available. No need to unroot my phone, just want my custom recovery back that I had on SGR 1.1..
your gonna need to use odin of some sort but you can use mobil odin if you dont have access to a pc. Get it from the market and flash el26 kernal with cwm then you can flash the rom you want. You will not be able to boot into your current ics rom after flashing that kernal though untill you flash a new rom. Make sure you put the kernal in the pda slot of odin.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1662295&highlight=el26+kernal
Thats the link for the kernals just get the one that says reccomended for flashing ics roms due to emmc bug get the el29 or el26 just make sure when you get into recovery it is version 5.0.2.7
Thanks a lot rbTrucking. I've been a flash-aholic ever since I got this thing rooted a couple years ago. I've run into this once before, is there a reason why people don't put custom recovery into their roms? I definitely want to go back to GB for the battery life and overall stability of everything.
It all worked. Thanks a ton!!
TwinsFan said:
Thanks a lot rbTrucking. I've been a flash-aholic ever since I got this thing rooted a couple years ago. I've run into this once before, is there a reason why people don't put custom recovery into their roms? I definitely want to go back to GB for the battery life and overall stability of everything.
It all worked. Thanks a ton!!
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Click to collapse
No problem glad I could help! The reason they dont put custom recoveries in ics roms is because the kernal source hasnt been released yet and many people were bricking trying to flash with ics recoveries.