Epic 4G Gingerbread Rumors and Speculation Thread

[aristarchus]

I'm pretty happy with my custom ROM (ACS 1.1 with genocide) Froyo for a now, probably for a long time, the developers are great over on xda.

Samsung releases sources pretty early, so give the developers something to work with and I'm sure we'll have a working version, and long before it becomes "stock."

 

[tomy2001]

Sadly, I have a feeling that if we ever get true Gingerbread it'll likely come from Samsung. The list of things that don't work in that Alpha is longer than the list of things that do, and with only 3 devs working on it part time, I don't see CM getting a stable release out any faster than Sammy.

Someone should talk to the developers who are working in the Gingerbread proyect for Epic 4g and ask them what they need in order to make it happen before Samsung. Maybe we should donate some money to them. I believe a lot people would give some money.
What do you think about my idea?

 

[tomy2001]

Sprint and Sammy won't release a new gingerbread update for Samsung Epic any time soon. First, they need to make money on the Nexus 4G. A lot of people who have Epic will buy the New Nexus 4g. For three reasons:
1. Nexus 4g will have Gingerbread.
2. Nexus 4g won't have Sammy or Sprint crap on it.
3. Nexus 4g will be one of the first phone to get a new update from Google.
Plus, people who do not like keyboard but like the epic will get Nexus 4g. Moreover, people who do not have a good Smartphone such as: Black berry users, Palm Pre(web OS) users and windows users.
Nexus 4G will be a big time hit on the Now Network.
Finally, if I had money; I would get it as well.

 

[drekosh]

Someone should talk to the developers who are working in the Gingerbread proyect for Epic 4g and ask them what they need in order to make it happen before Samsung. Maybe we should donate some money to them. I believe a lot people would give some money.
What do you think about my idea?

I thought the biggest hurdle left for CM7 is the 4G radio. If anyone has some knowledge about cell phones that isn't being put to use; please contact them and offer to help. As for donating; I would never tell someone not to donate to the developers of this community but I don't think it would make much of a difference in getting this done any quicker. From what I've seen it seems like they are working pretty hard to get CM7 up and running properly on the Epic.

 

[tomy2001]

I thought the biggest hurdle left for CM7 is the 4G radio. If anyone has some knowledge about cell phones that isn't being put to use; please contact them and offer to help. As for donating; I would never tell someone not to donate to the developers of this community but I don't think it would make much of a difference in getting this done any quicker. From what I've seen it seems like they are working pretty hard to get CM7 up and running properly on the Epic.

I agree with you. I am very Thankful to Devs that are working in every single proyect. All the smartphones have a lot of potencial but neither the mobile companies nor the smartphone maker have a real commitment of releasing good software without bugs. Sometimes I believe they do it on purpose in order to extend the life of the product. For example, Samsung release Epic on 08/31/2010. They released Froyo until March 21 of 2011. No one is here to help the customers( I am talking about companies) they are here to make money as much as they can.

 

[JonOvalle]

I really believe the closest were going to get to Gingerbread anytime soon is CyanogenMod 7. Seeing how Sprint/Sammy have basically bombed on Froyo I don't see them doing any better if they attempt Gingerbread for an official OS on the Epic.

Not that the Epic isn't capable of it, its just Sprint/Sammy just doesn't seem to have a real interest in working out the bugs. Its only taken a few weeks and the devs have really done an excellent job cleaning up the mess that Sprint/Sammy left behind. They haven't stopped either, the same dev that fixed the keyboard lag/camera FC's and aided in many other things is now working on resolving GPS issues still lingering with Froyo and he hasn't made his "punch list" public be he has stated his work is not done by any means fixing what Sprint/Sammy call an "official" build.

Just a thought too... Notice how there was a 1 month period between EB13 and EC05. Only a week or so into EB13 we had the keyboard lag/camera FC fix in place. Interesting how Sprint/Sammy didn't catch this at release or testing but amazingly at least the Camera FC fix made its way into EC05, why? Don't kid yourself if you really believe they fixed it on their own.. I'm sure Sprint/Sammy's people took a look at what the devs did to fix this and incorporated it into EC05.

Hey man, thanks for all the contributions.
so it turns out my Epic is getting exchanged because i guess there was someting wrong with the interna antna... beside that point.
i know you are the master or god of mods around here *respect*. i haved never rooted or tried mods but i am now convinced that its the way to go with m epic. i just want to know what yourbest pick is for me to root/mod to. i want fast, non buggy, no laggy kyboard, and just a nicelooking froyo on my phone...
friend, what would you suggst i try???

 

[Paul627g]

Hey man, thanks for all the contributions.
so it turns out my Epic is getting exchanged because i guess there was someting wrong with the interna antna... beside that point.
i know you are the master or god of mods around here *respect*. i haved never rooted or tried mods but i am now convinced that its the way to go with m epic. i just want to know what yourbest pick is for me to root/mod to. i want fast, non buggy, no laggy kyboard, and just a nicelooking froyo on my phone...
friend, what would you suggst i try???

First of all I would assume you will get a new phone that is either updated to EC05 already or you will update it via OTA (if available) or by using the manual "update.zip" method which can be found below.
Sprint Samsung Epic 4g Official Froyo EC05 [update.zip method/Custom Odin Packages]

Next you would need to root your phone once your on EC05. That can be done by following the link below. You said you would like to run a custom ROM. So the thread below you have two options for rooting, you would need to SKIP procedure #1 and go straight to procedure #2.

[Root] Samsung Epic 4G Official Froyo EC05 w/Optional EXT4 - Updated 4/1

Before you do begin the rooting process in procedure #2 you will need to pick out a ROM to run. Right now its really cut and dry on which ROMs to run. There is only a few out that have been proven to be stable.

ACS Syndicate Frozen ROM v1.1.0
Bonsai v4.0.1
midNIGHT v5.x (Bonsai base, customized)

There are a few others that are doing well also, but the three I listed have the best results among everyone so far. Most of the ROMs all have their own individual threads so you can read up more on what the features are, and what the users are saying about them.

We have a complete list of all EC05 based ROMs, themes, kernels, etc. available from the link below (Don't get overwhelmed, this is mainly a catalog of the main stream EC05 based options available)
[Index] Froyo EC05 ROM's, Kernels, Themes, & Other Mods [Updated 4/8]


Last but not least, I know by now your head must be spinning you can check my signature for my FAQ link and that can help answer alot of the basic questions, terms, etc. concerning rooting & ROMs.

Feel free to post any questions in the FAQ section or other corresponding sections.

P.S. Thanks for the compliment, but I am far from the master or god of mods around here. I just have learned my way around the boards and just a lot of trial by fire to get where I am. Helps to when I have had a good teacher like Ragnarokx.

 

[uscpsycho]

I posted tihs somewhere else but I had to get my handset replaced because of a hardware issue. My new handset didn't have Froyo so I asked them to flash it. They asked me if I was sure I wanted Froyo because they were having issues with it and another update would be available in a few weeks. This was two weeks ago.

I don't know what all the issues people are having with Froyo but my phone is MUCH better than it was with 2.1 and it's only crashed twice in two weeks.

My Froyo issues: Keyboard lag, Swype less accurate, no way to turn geotagging off just for the camera, phone call log includes text messages. Even with these issues, at this point I can say this is the best cellphone I've ever owned.

 

[JonOvalle]

Last but not least, I know by now your head must be spinning you can check my signature for my FAQ link and that can help answer alot of the basic questions, terms, etc. concerning rooting & ROMs.

Feel free to post any questions in the FAQ section or other corresponding sections.

Paul, one last question. I have always been afraid to root due to the whole Warranty thing. I usually take great care of all my electronics just in case anything bad happens. With the epic i pay the $7 for the monthly protection plan thing. If i root, do you think all of that will be worth zipp-o-?

 

[ragnarokx]

If you need to take your Epic in for repairs or service and you're rooted, all you need to do is flash back to stock using Odin. Takes all of 10 minutes and your Epic is returned to the same software state as when you bought it.

Sent by a little green robot

 

[uscpsycho]

If you need to take your Epic in for repairs or service and you're rooted, all you need to do is flash back to stock using Odin. Takes all of 10 minutes and your Epic is returned to the same software state as when you bought it.

Sent by a little green robot

Does this mean you lose all your apps & data? Or the phone is just un-rooted?

I assume you lose everything.

 

[aristarchus]

Does this mean you lose all your apps & data? Or the phone is just un-rooted?

I assume you lose everything.

With a rooted phone you can backup everything and restore it after the repair... assuming you can repair... most of the time they will replace it if they can't fix it. Just copy your sd card before you bring it in.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[JonOvalle]

Ragnarokx, Since Paul said that YOU were ultimately the god of mods around here. I have a question, or more, i need a suggestion.
I want to root and flash what in your opinion would be the least buggy and the most efficient mod out now.
I want to take advantage of the hardware and i would also like to have less problems than this original samsung/sprint software, which really sucks btw.
Do you recommend anything around that ball park? maybe one solid option i cant go wrong with. lol.

 

[thebullfrog]

For shear stability ACE might be your best bet. A lot of people like SRF, but after a while I started having a lot of small issues with it, though performance was better than ACE. Right now I've beenb using MidNIGHT ROM and it blows SRF away in terms of performance, and seems to be on par with ACE so far in stability. I would personally recommend giving MidNIGHT a try first, if reliablility is your overriding concern then go with ACE, though it wont perform as well (still better than stock however).

 

[JonOvalle]

For shear stability ACE might be your best bet. A lot of people like SRF, but after a while I started having a lot of small issues with it, though performance was better than ACE. Right now I've beenb using MidNIGHT ROM and it blows SRF away in terms of performance, and seems to be on par with ACE so far in stability. I would personally recommend giving MidNIGHT a try first, if reliablility is your overriding concern then go with ACE, though it wont perform as well (still better than stock however).

Thanks dude. im going to try and find a pc so i can do this. My mac seems not to be the best to root my phone on.

 

[thebullfrog]

If you go with midnight, i strongly suggest the journaling ON version. I suspect the lack of journalling is what was causing my issues (i believe Paul had a similar experience) with SRF. Honestly it performs so astonishingly fast I cant imagine journalling off would make a noticable difference anyway, so may as well have that extra layer of safety. Also make sure you follow the devs directions, I didn't and took some shortcuts. So far no issues as a result, but still, better safe than sorry.

ACE is what i would call a "safe" ROM. it is very stable and reliable, a good choice for beginners as a result, or if reliability is of paramount concern. It wont make the harware shine like some others will, but its still a lot better than what Samsung did. Paul did a great job with it.

 

[JonOvalle]

If you go with midnight, i strongly suggest the journaling ON version. I suspect the lack of journalling is what was causing my issues (i believe Paul had a similar experience) with SRF. Honestly it performs so astonishingly fast I cant imagine journalling off would make a noticable difference anyway, so may as well have that extra layer of safety. Also make sure you follow the devs directions, I didn't and took some shortcuts. So far no issues as a result, but still, better safe than sorry.

Cool. Im going to try it. but what is journalling?

 

[thebullfrog]

just do a search for it, its been discussed to death. long story short, it slows the system down ever so slightly and protects against data corruption. having it off can give you a slight speed boost at the potential expense of system stability or risk of data loss from improper shut downs, ie: pulling the battery if the phone freezes.

 

[JonOvalle]

one last question...
Would you recommend ext4 or rfs??

 

[ragnarokx]

Does this mean you lose all your apps & data? Or the phone is just un-rooted?

I assume you lose everything.

Lose everything.

Ragnarokx, Since Paul said that YOU were ultimately the god of mods around here. I have a question, or more, i need a suggestion.
I want to root and flash what in your opinion would be the least buggy and the most efficient mod out now.
I want to take advantage of the hardware and i would also like to have less problems than this original samsung/sprint software, which really sucks btw.
Do you recommend anything around that ball park? maybe one solid option i cant go wrong with. lol.

Good suggestions above. If you want EB13 go with ACE. If you want EC05 go with Bonsai (midNIGHT is just a tweaked version of Bonsai) or Syndicate.

one last question...
Would you recommend ext4 or rfs??

EXT4. It's faster and has the most options available mod-wise.