[FAQ] Q & A on Rooting/ROMs/Methods

[Donmeister85]

acs syndicate standard comes preloaded with launcher pro and runs great

Just gotta say, you WILL NOT be disappointed with the Epic 4G. It is an awesome phone and can be had a a great price. ACS SyndicateROM Frozen has got to be one of the best ROMs out there in my opinion, so I'd give that a shot if you want to try out some of the ROMs for this device.

Also, I ditched TW after about a month. Just kinda blah for me. And interesting, looking at some of LG's new phones coming out, looks like that got some kind of TW concoction going on their end. Weirdness...

I mostly use LauncherPro Plus, but as of this week, I decided to give ADW Launcher a try and it runs great! Only thing I miss are the LPP widgets. To each their own. Both launcher are great in my opinion and are far better than TW will ever be.

With all of that said, I still haven't found a decent vehicle mount for my Epic, so can't really comment on that.

Good luck with your purchase, and seeya in the forums!

 

[QMaverick]

Thanks, everyone for the input.

I might stay stock, rooted with ext4, and launcher pro plus (since I bought it before) for the time being and see how I like it.

Does anyone overclock? Is it necessary? My Droid is running Gingerbread clocked at 1.1 ghz...and I do really like it, but the processor/gpu is way better on the Epic, so it may not be necessary as of yet.

 

[Darkshneider]

Ive personally dont need to OC the Epic but I have done it. Mine is one of the few that can handle 1.4ghz . Just try it out and see if you need it. As mentioned above, SRF 1.1 runs great and you can OC it with the stock kernel that comes baked in, or flash the VisionKernel and watch it fly!

 

[palmpreboss]

rooting

im new here and was wondering if i should leave my epic stock or rooted? any answers are helpful and thanx in advanced..

 

[ragnarokx]

Read this: http://www.androidcentral.com/root

 

[blondies67]

Looking for a litle help. I have the epic updated to EC05 and have rooted it. Not know better, I have Rom Manager installed on it for the rom. Would like to change prolly to Ace. What is the best way to go about this with taking Rom Manager off and what steps do I need to take. Thanks in Advance!

 

[ragnarokx]

What method did you use to root? You'll need ClockworkMod installed and an EXT4 filesystem.

Sent by a little green robot

 

[blondies67]

Guess I got a mess. When I initially rooted, it did not work, but I think I had rom manager, bonsai and cwm installed. I also must of used something called 3e recovery installer. Then today, I worked with it again, purchased rom manager premium and installed cm7 from it's menu. My problem is, that when it shuts down, it will not completely turn back on, just returns to a black screen with samsung on it. After doing, more reading, I find that rom manager is not the best for the epic, so would like to try to do this correctly and get it fixed. Oh, what a mess!! Thanks

 

[k0nane]

Guess I got a mess. When I initially rooted, it did not work, but I think I had rom manager, bonsai and cwm installed. I also must of used something called 3e recovery installer.

You've been going to some strange places for your software. The modified Recovery 3e isn't even available for the Epic. And you're correct - ROM Manager right now is trash.

Grab Odin and the EB13 TAR, and flash your device back to stock. Then use the one-click root of your choice (2.5.5 for CWM2.5 and RFS, or 3.0.0.6 for CWM of the same version and EXT4), and flash the ROM of your choice. Don't touch any roots or recoveries not posted in the Epic forums here or on XDA in the future, and don't touch ROM Manager until a well-known Epic dev certifies it fully (don't hold your breath).

That should get you back up and running.

 

[blondies67]

Thanks for your help! I will give it a try!

 

[Paul627g]

@blondies67

Here is the link to Odin that k0nane mentioned. First procedure will give you stock EB13, Second procedure will give you stock Eclair 2.1 (DI18)
[How to] Factory Restore (or Fix a Bricked Phone)

You can then choose your next direction as k0nane again mentioned. Procedure #1 will do root with CWM 2.5.1.0 (Basic root and give you ability to do do wireless tethering, Titanium/MyBackup Root/remove bloatware). Procedure #2 will give you root and install EXT4/CWM3.0.0.6 which will then allow you to run any custom ROMs like Syndicate, Bonsai/midNIGHT, etc..
[Root] Samsung Epic 4G Official Froyo EC05 w/Optional EXT4 - Updated 4/1

Any other questions just ask... Take k0nane's advice and ours, and stay away from ROM Manager.

 

[blondies67]

Thanks so much for the instructions and links. I was just looking for them. I will be staying away from Rom Manager. Should I uninstall it when I'm finished along with Bonsai when I'm finished?

 

[Paul627g]

Thanks so much for the instructions and links. I was just looking for them. I will be staying away from Rom Manager. Should I uninstall it when I'm finished along with Bonsai when I'm finished?

If your going to use Odin, which you probably should just so you get a fresh start then that will wipe your device clean. Your sdcard will remain untouched so don't worry about that... Odin will erase everything for you so no need to worry about uninstalling things. Just make any backups of things you many want to save and restore again later with Titanium/Mybackup Root before you do use Odin.

Once you do choose to Odin back to whichever version of Froyo you can grab the EC05 manual "update.zip" corresponding to whichever version of Froyo you Odin to.. I'm not sure if they are still pushing the OTA update to EC05 yet.
Sprint Samsung Epic 4g Official Froyo EC05 [update.zip method/Custom Odin Packages]

 

[blondies67]

I don't see the a download that K0ane stated as EB13TAR, just Froyo EB13. Is this the same file?

 

[Paul627g]

I don't see the a download that K0ane stated as EB13TAR, just Froyo EB13. Is this the same file?

Yes if you visited that thread link I sent you [How to] Factory Restore (or Fix a Bricked Phone).

That is what those are called is ".tar" files. That is what Odin uses. So yes EB13 (tar file).

 

[blondies67]

Ok, found it. At what point should I update to ECO5? Would you please state what order I should attempt this in. Sorry, just sorta new at this stuff. Thanks again!

 

[Paul627g]

Ok, found it. At what point should I update to ECO5? Would you please state what order I should attempt this in. Sorry, just sorta new at this stuff. Thanks again!

After you Odin back to EB13, you will reboot. Once that is completed you can wait around for a few minutes and see if the OTA is pushed to you or just download the EC05 update.zip method I also provided the link to and just update it manually.

Then you can root, etc. after your rebooted/upgraded to EC05.

 

[blondies67]

Well, I have odin back, updated back to ECO5, used one-click root with ext, flashed with SyndicateROM Frozen 1.1.0 and the phone reboots, vibrates and shuts off, reboots, vibrates, shuts off and does not stop. Help!!

 

[Paul627g]

Well, I have odin back, updated back to ECO5, used one-click root with ext, flashed with SyndicateROM Frozen 1.1.0 and the phone reboots, vibrates and shuts off, reboots, vibrates, shuts off and does not stop. Help!!

Boot back into CWM. Wipe everything 3x and flash it again.

 

[TexasEpic4G]

All of the info in here is very good and easy to understand = Thank You very much for taking the time to help everyone ( especially those of us who are new to rooting and ROMing )