[Q] Another 'help a friend' thread - Samsung Epic 4G Touch

Hello all, I hope I won't get too much flak for creating this thread but I'm hoping to save some time and effort if some of you are willing to help me out here.
My buddy had asked me recently if I could help him use his phone as a hotspot when he goes on vacation, and I suggested that he install a custom rom to get that function since for some reason a Sprint rep told him he couldn't do it (not sure on the whole story with that...).
Anyway, I'm not really a newbie on rooting/flashing as I have an older Galaxy S1 device that I constantly work on, but on the other hand that's about the only device I have experience with.
My questions are:
1) Is rooting/installing a custom rom the best way for him to use his phone as a hotspot? It seems to be built into every rom that I've had on my device.
2) What are the most popular (and stable) roms available for this device? I'm asking because I won't see him enough to flash updates and he's not really the type to do that.
3) Are there any serious risks to rooting/flashing this device? I'm spoiled with my older Galaxy S1 phone that has no problem going from rom to rom like it was it's job. He'll probably be upgrading soon, but I still don't want to break it.
Thanks for any input. Oh and I don't know if this matters, but I'm almost positive he's on stock ICS right now.

1. The hotspot app won't work on stock because he needs the plan with sprint to use it. There are 3rd party apps out there that can use your phone as a hotspot. Most roms have the wifi hotspot check disabled so you can use the app the rom came with. Be warned if sprint catches you tethering too much data they could cut you off.
2. Maybe look into the blu kuban rom. It's very stable, awesome battery life, and looks awesome. It also has a built in updater in case there is an update.
3. If you read the instructions you should be fine. There's really no downside besides the emmc brick bug which can render your phone useless but most (if not all) kernels have this patched. Also remember that this phone has the recovery image packed with the kernel.
Hope this helps.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

If you install stock/rooted gb27 jb you can use the EmperorX 4g hot spot mod.
Look up Emperor X in apps and themes, its not too complex to get working.
****** Edit ******
Use this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=38199950
It works very well.
Pp.:beer::thumbup:
Sent from a bean shooting Epic Touch ......in your eye ....phone.

The blu kuban rom looks good, but I didn't see any JB roms that looked all that great (feel free to correct me) and I see that Cyanogenmod doesn't officially support this device for some reason. Are there any mostly stable 4.1 or 4.2 roms that you would recommend or is ICS the way to go?
edit: I wasn't looking in the 'original development' forum and just noticed there's a lot of good 4.2 roms that I'm used to like slim, AOKP, etc, now my question is if I wanted to flash a new rom is it the same as I do on my phone- wipe data/cache/davlik then flash rom/gapps and reboot? Is it that simple on this phone too?

Crawshayi said:
The blu kuban rom looks good, but I didn't see any JB roms that looked all that great (feel free to correct me) and I see that Cyanogenmod doesn't officially support this device for some reason. Are there any mostly stable 4.1 or 4.2 roms that you would recommend or is ICS the way to go?
edit: I wasn't looking in the 'original development' forum and just noticed there's a lot of good 4.2 roms that I'm used to like slim, AOKP, etc, now my question is if I wanted to flash a new rom is it the same as I do on my phone- wipe data/cache/davlik then flash rom/gapps and reboot? Is it that simple on this phone too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have CWM 5 (gb or cm9) or CWM 6 (AOSP-based jellybean) you can just flash rom and gapps in recovery
If you do not have CWM 5 or 6 (anything touchwiz ICS+), you should use Mobile Odin or (less conveniently) PC Odin to flash the EL26+cwm kernel, then boot to recovery by holding vol+ and power. You can flash anything in EL26 recovery without incident

Related

A Few Questions about ICS Roms...

Hello everyone,
I want to update my phone to an ICS rom, but I am a little confused about the terminology and all the options available. I have a few questions:
1. What is the direction that the development is taking in terms of ICS roms? I mean, I am not really sure what "FC07" means and why it would be better than a different combination of letters and numbers.
In layman's terms, when will we see an ICS rom that could be considered "final" or free of bugs and on par with what Galaxy Nexus users have?
With that said, what is the best ICS rom today?
2. I want to customize my phone for faster internet speeds. I was considering switching to Verizon simply for faster network speeds, but the hassle might not be worth it. What tips do you have to help me achieve faster speeds and more reliable coverage on this phone?
Are there specific modems you would recommend for faster internet speeds?
What about custom PRLs? I was told that you can use a custom PRL to force Verizon 3g speeds on your phone, at risk of your contract being terminated.
Is it true that if I did use a Verizon custom PRL I would achieve speeds identical to if I had a Galaxy Nexus on Verizon?
Anyway, what combination of modem/custom PRL would you suggest to achieve the best coverage and fastest speeds on the E4GT?
3. I have heard a lot about changing the resolution of the Epic 4g Touch to simulate a 720p display, making the icons smaller. Would you recommend I do this? Does this work with the ICS roms?
4. A while back there were tweaks to improve the quality of the camera, especially for recording movies. I remember a hack for the international Galaxy S2 that did this. I think there was one for the E4GT as well.
Could you refer me to any camera tweaks to increase bitrate and so forth?
5. And finally, which kernel and overclocking apps should I use?
Thanks for taking my questions.
ICS ROMs
Having followed the ICS ROM discussion non-stop I hope I can answer the questions on that part. I'll leave the other questions up to smarter (and more experienced) people than me!
CW (common wisdom) suggests ROM IDs are:
F - Seems to indicate year - in particular, 2012.
May also indicate ICS as seems first introduced around same time.
C - Seems to indicate build month. (A-Jan, B-Feb, etc.)
07 - Seems to indicate build day. (3/7/2012)
FC07 is reported by many to be quite stable but I haven't heard anyone sign off an ICS build to be a daily use ROM. Calkulin's ROMs seem to be quite popular as well - he just released a new FC14 build.
There's reviews for most recent builds on YouTube if you want to get an idea of what is changed. Might help you before you decide whether to jump on ICS now or wait.
As for when one will go OTA - again, CW suggests at least 10 days after a build is approved by Sprint. (Found it in another thread, just don't remember which one.)
If you're thinking about going to ICS, please keep an eye on the thread linked below and follow the instructions when flashing ROMs. There are a lot of bricks going on - reading this may save your phone (and you some $$$)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1525495
Hope this helps!
To answer your question #1....Any of the leaked roms ie: FC07, FC14, are very stable and ready for everyday use for most. Also any of the Roms based off of those rooms like calks, Mijjz, and others. However, the best ICS from out there right now is aokp. Its almost stable with just a few minor bugs. It gives you a TON OF OPTIONS! Do be careful, lots of bricks happening!
Regarding question #2, in ,y experience, hacked Verizon prls sort of iffy. I've tried 11115 with roam control and half of the time it won't connect to 3g and when it does the speeds are mediocre.
Hope this helps! Oh also when going back to gingerbread from ics, USE ODIN TO FLASH AN EL29 TAR! Or else YOU WILL BRICK!!!!!!!
Hey guys. Thanks for all the info.
I just came from a G2x, and this process is way different.
I used Odin to root stock EL29, and then installed Rogue with the one-click. Right?
Now can I flash an EL29 ROM through Rogue? Can I also flash a different modem through Rogue, (i.e. FC07) and a "matching" ROM? And if I follow correctly, after that, if I want to change it, I have to Odin back to EL29 first?
Just trying to catch on to the different terminology.
[signature]
[signature]
Beekersguy said:
Hey guys. Thanks for all the info.
I just came from a G2x, and this process is way different.
I used Odin to root stock EL29, and then installed Rogue with the one-click. Right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good so far.
Beekersguy said:
Now can I flash an EL29 ROM through Rogue? Can I also flash a different modem through Rogue, (i.e. FC07) and a "matching" ROM? And if I follow correctly, after that, if I want to change it, I have to Odin back to EL29 first?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think you have a good handle on it. General rule of thumb is:
GB Kernel - CWM/CWMT/ODIN OK
ICS Kernel - Only use ODIN. CWM/CWMT will likely brick at wipe operation.
You might want to read over this thread if you haven't already:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1525495
Good luck!
So, if I understand correctly, I can flash different EL versions through Rogue recovery, but if I want to jump on ICS, I need to use Odin.
[signature]
Actually:
From EL you can flash anything - ODIN/CWM
From ICS/CM9 you need to flash using ODIN - even if it's just to get back to EL and then flash again using CWM.
Hope this clears it up.
garwynn said:
Actually:
From EL you can flash anything - ODIN/CWM
From ICS/CM9 you need to flash using ODIN - even if it's just to get back to EL and then flash again using CWM.
Hope this clears it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, thank you sooo much.
I just got this phone yesterday, and I've read a TON of stuff in this forum, and I just wanted to verify that I was generally on-track with flashing methodology.
I think I'll try a few EL29 ROMs for now.

Help to cwm, install custom ics and root, for the 1st time!

I have the R800i and I've been using stock GB since day 1. On other devices, galaxy phone to mention, i use paranoid since i discovered it, the best to me.
I gave up looking for custom ICS roms around March as camera and other things were never working. I would have never thought to see paranoid on the play some day!
So I'm happy. But wondering... First thread didn't mention things not working, does it means EVERYTHING works well? Also, is the ram available bigger than stock gb? Cause this is a pain actually, barely no multitasking...
Last but not least: i didn't unlock bootloader but i installed cwm and hard at that time later we could install custom roms without unlocking bootloader... Is that the case now finally? Would make the process less long and risky... On galaxy is soo easy to flash customs!
Add: Is there a good touch recovery like siyah on galaxy s2? Again like siyah is there a kernel for the play that support dual boot? I'm probably just dreaming...
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
if u want touch recovery, u can use Doom's kernel, CWM with touch support is included although touch in cwm is pretty much gimmick, IMHO
but it means u have to unlocked your bootloader, which i think shouldn't be a problem for GSM user
as for ICS, there's several good ICS Rom, but i think ICS from Markphyton is the best for now, especially if u want everything working
It is true that you can install some roms without unlocking your bootloader, but not the ones that require another kernel. Every ICS rom does need another kernel, so you'll have to unlock it. Since it's an R800i, it shouldn't be too hard though. If you really don't want to unlock it, you can use a rom like Gin2JB, which looks like it's Jellybean, but is in fact Gingerbread. There is a kernel that supports dual-booting, created by KeiranFTW: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1508017
I should note that because the recovery partition (CWM) is inside the kernel on the Xperia Play, meaning you can't flash kernels from the phone. You will need a PC for that.
Thanks for the answer. I installed the jelly bean styled Rom last night, nice for now. Look at siyah kernel on the galaxy s phone, it has a great touch recovery!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Pm me and i will help you trought the process of unlocking the bootloader and flashing what ever you want falshed on your phone. The paranoid rom is infact my daily drive on my xperia play 800i as well. Tho i might trow some CM 10 on it again once camara is working on those cm10 roms.
Thanks for the support, but that be later finally. I installed gin jelly and i have to send it to warranty before i unlock.
Still it's like to know : how much free team do you have after installing paranoid? On stock custom you get about 200 mb
Also as i think i asked already, does everything work, well? Camera, all wireless, etc....
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Roms query

Hi everyone, can any of you advise on the most stable Rom for the glide, I'm on gb back to black, which is a good Rom but I have issue with the camera crashing and slow GPS who doesn't lol.
I had checked ice cream sandwich ROMs and although some report them to be stable there seems to be still some issues at hand, keyboard backlight aside which is easily fixable and route, some still seem to have issues with carrier, GPS and gallery.
Ice cream sandwich still seems to have problems with lag and high-definition games slowing down.
Is there a definitive ROM out there that is stable out there with minimal issues and if so which one.
Thanks in advance for any suggested Roms that are stable enough for daily use without any hardware issues.
If you ask me stay on gingerbread until dman releases ICS aosp because ICS has so many bugs just simple things that will get on your nerves
Sent from my SGH-I927 using xda premium
I find the latest osimood rom is very stable. I've tried a couple ics roms and always had an issue with this or that. the osimood rom is bloat free and there is a zip with all the stock apps if you need one or two.
also recommend the osimood rom based on 2.3.5. will wait for ICS rom based on CM9 or AOSP/AOKP with adracat kernel (wen it will be stable).
hope the development of that rom is in full swing and maybe a beta will pop out so we can test as well.
Thanks guys for the service typically I went to the thread to download but the link was down!!! posted a request for an uplink. i need the phone for business so if this ROM is stable then that's good enough for me, I'll skip ics if unstable as sat nav is not that compatible on ics according to the word.
Atb
Does the rooted ROM's lock my SIM-lock?
Hi all!
I just bought an unlocked (carrier free) Captivate Glide from eBay, and had it shipped to Sweden where I live.
I'm wondering about the prerooted roms described in the root-guide on this site... will any of them (AT&T or Rogers) lock my SIM-lock again?
The phone works fine with my Swedish SIM-card, but I need to be rooted to remap the keyboard so I can type Swedish letters on the hardware keyboard. Reson I ask is because I did not recieve an unlock code with the phone that arrived yesterday.
The phone came in an AT&T box so I guess it is a AT&T branded phone.
It is possible (and probably likely) that flashing a new rom will cause your device to re-lock. However, it's very easy to add root yourself without flashing a new rom. You just need to flash ClockworkMod Recovery, and from within CWM, flash the 3.2-RC3 superuser.zip from here.
Additionally, if you look around the forums there's a thread on how to bitflip files in your EFS folder to unlock your device that way - something you should look into if you want to flash the device up to 4.0.4 or one of the custom roms.
Thanx!
Thank you! I will look into that then. So it's possible to install CWM without having root through Odin..?
Hi certainly the osimood Rom has not re Iocked my phone none of the GB ROMs has done this to my phone. So it should new ok.
Atb
I tested many roms and none of them re-locked my phone (even official ICS from ATT). I bought unlocked glide on ebay too.
Thank you for this good piece of information.
Now I should be set to go.
Think I'll stay on stock for now and just install CWM via Odin and then Superuser via CWMR.
I'll wait for a better ICS rom with less issues i think. Shouldn't be that long i hope...
Thank you for your help!

Successfully Root SGS3 4.1.1 T999

Hello, first time thread poster here
I have a Wind Mobile SGS3 T-999V with 4.1.1 Jelly bean and Im still looking for a way to successfully root my device.
Ive looked around but most of these threads comments have problems and don't work after the new Jelly Bean update that rolled out last week.
Was just looking for advice on the best way to do it (MAC preferably but Windows works too) to root my SGS3, any compatible recoveries that work on the device and any advice on ROMs that will help me save battery, get rid of bloat ware and make my phone faster and more efficient.
Thanks a lot! :cyclops:
More information of my device can be given if needed!
P.S. I actually have a few friends that are awaiting ways to do this too so any info will help about 5+ people more so than just myself!
Im just the test dummy to see if the rooting method and ROMs work!
Root just as before, no difference with jb.
I still root the same way I did on ics and works perfectly.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
You can odin root66 from official firmware thread in stickies from development forum.
As to recovery there are two which I know of, twrp or cwm.
And as to rom, I recommend FrostyJB. Great rom with very good battery life (around 20h on mid-heavy use), most of bloat removed. With right kernel you can overclock it to work even faster, it's fast already. Try ktoonsez or trinity kernel. Both are confirmed to work.
Sent from my frozen SGH-T999
HajmeR said:
You can odin root66 from official firmware thread in stickies from development forum.
As to recovery there are two which I know of, twrp or cwm.
And as to rom, I recommend FrostyJB. Great rom with very good battery life (around 20h on mid-heavy use), most of bloat removed. With right kernel you can overclock it to work even faster, it's fast already. Try ktoonsez or trinity kernel. Both are confirmed to work.
Sent from my frozen SGH-T999
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot I tried the Root66 and it worked easily.
Will FrostyJB get rid of any of the SGS3 features such as smart stay and calling when you put the phone to your ear?
And also what do you find is the easiest way to install ClockWork Mod for it? Because ROM manager doesnt seem to have the recovery for WIND/T-MOBILE SGS3s
Thanks a lot for your help!
ajtja said:
Thanks a lot I tried the Root66 and it worked easily.
Will FrostyJB get rid of any of the SGS3 features such as smart stay and calling when you put the phone to your ear?
And also what do you find is the easiest way to install ClockWork Mod for it? Because ROM manager doesnt seem to have the recovery for WIND/T-MOBILE SGS3s
Thanks a lot for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Things like smart stay, motion, etc. are available in FrostyJB. Like in every stock (tw) based rom. But unfortunately DJ stopped his work on that ROM and there will be no new versions, but in current release everything is stable and works great.
I have installed cwm using rom manager. It worked great for me. Are you sure you are doing everything right?
Sent from my frozen SGH-T999

Stock Jelly Bean on S III

My wife and I just moved to T-Mobile in the US. I got a Nexus 4 phone and my wife got the Galaxy S III. However, the UI on the S3 really sucks and the UI on the Nexus 4 is great. Is there a ROM available for the S3 that is just like the Nexus 4 aka Jelly Bean? If I do install a ROM what is the down side?
I do not know because I don't have a nexus but I would guess the UI you like is based on AOSP (Android Open Source) The most poplar rom that is based on AOSP is cyanogenmod (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1778217). The stock UI on the Galaxy S3 is called TouchWiz.
The downside? As with flashing any custom ROM your warranty is now void. There are ways of resetting your "Flash counter" (Triangle Away) but that is not guaranteed. CM is community supported and made by extremely talented developers but it is not perfect. Touchwiz is supposed to "always work" while CM has bugs.
Personally I really like TouchWiz but I also like CM which is why I generally switch between them daily.
Here are the general steps to flashing a custom ROM.
0. Read. Seriously. Read the guides and ensure that you know what you are doing the risks and what to do if something goes wrong.
1. Root phone. To Root I would suggest CF-Autoroot (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1963806).
2. Install custom recovery. For recovery I would suggest goo.im which installs TWRP (install goo.im from Play Store and hit install open recovery AFTER root)
3. Figure out what ROM you want and carefully read its installation instructions (usually simply a wipe and then flash AOSP ROM + GAPPS)
Hope this helps. Hit the thanks button if it did so I can get internet points.
Idyar said:
I do not know because I don't have a nexus but I would guess the UI you like is based on AOSP (Android Open Source) The most poplar rom that is based on AOSP is cyanogenmod (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1778217). The stock UI on the Galaxy S3 is called TouchWiz.
The downside? As with flashing any custom ROM your warranty is now void. There are ways of resetting your "Flash counter" (Triangle Away) but that is not guaranteed. CM is community supported and made by extremely talented developers but it is not perfect. Touchwiz is supposed to "always work" while CM has bugs.
Personally I really like TouchWiz but I also like CM which is why I generally switch between them daily.
Here are the general steps to flashing a custom ROM.
0. Read. Seriously. Read the guides and ensure that you know what you are doing the risks and what to do if something goes wrong.
1. Root phone. To Root I would suggest CF-Autoroot (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1963806).
2. Install custom recovery. For recovery I would suggest goo.im which installs TWRP (install goo.im from Play Store and hit install open recovery AFTER root)
3. Figure out what ROM you want and carefully read its installation instructions (usually simply a wipe and then flash AOSP ROM + GAPPS)
Hope this helps. Hit the thanks button if it did so I can get internet points.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know people who have used triangle away and odined to stock and sent it in for replacement. So that's no worry.
Also yeah, what the guy said above me. Sounds like you want cyanogenmod. And again like the guy above me, I love the UI of Samsung's touchwiz
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
makitso said:
My wife and I just moved to T-Mobile in the US. I got a Nexus 4 phone and my wife got the Galaxy S III. However, the UI on the S3 really sucks and the UI on the Nexus 4 is great. Is there a ROM available for the S3 that is just like the Nexus 4 aka Jelly Bean? If I do install a ROM what is the down side?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cm10.1
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Very clear! now, can you do this on a mac?
Thoughts on doing this on a mac?
I'm running SGH-t999 on tmobile, version 4.1.1.
Everything I've found seems like its for the last version 4.0.1, I'm willing to wait.
Also what about doing all of this on parallels? Is it crazy to do this in windows on a macbook air?
Thanks!

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