【Guide】How To flash ANY Captivate ROM from Stock (including ICS)

[geeksquad2]

As a complete new guy I'm shy about flashing and even bought a USB jig from Montreal before I flashed anything. And I've been reading and reading and reading. This thread was clear and concise.

Five months ago, I managed to muddle my way to flashing my Rogers I-896 from stock 2.2 to FireFly 3.0 and even managed to install voodoo ext4 lagfix.

I like it, but I'm keen on trying a 2.3 rom. I think I've settled on dlev 4.2, but the GB kernal upgrade has been my hangup where I was unclear, so I've stayed with FF.

Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks for posting this.
It has helped answer a few of my questions.

EDIT: Just got me a THANKS button. I used it!

 

[aex90832]

Much better guide! js

 

[donmateo]

Thank you for redirecting me here TRusselo this has been a huge help. I was hoping you could answer one question for me. After reading several times I am still a bit confused about which kernel to use whether its the froyo cwm kernel or the gingerbread cwm kernel. I am planning on flashing from rooted stock 2.2 (which is what I am currently on) to the latest gingerbread version of miui.

 

[TRusselo]

The Miui instructions wants you on stock froyo. So use a froyo (2.2) kernel with cwm

 

[donmateo]

Great thank you so much! I was also wondering about the gingerbread bootloaders. I downloaded them and what I got was I897_BL_Odin.7z as a file in my downloads folder. However when I begin the process and select PDA for the first time that file isn't available for me to select like it says to do in the guide.

 

[TRusselo]

It should be a tar file. ... ? Try using 7zip to UN zip it and there should be a tar in there then. Sorry not at pc

 

[donmateo]

No worries I appreciate all the help your giving! I extracted the .tar file and am good to go. One last question with regards to Odin, should I have the auto reboot feature unselected for this process?

 

[TRusselo]

yes use auto reboot

 

[TRusselo]

bootloader link fixed to just tar package now to avoid that issue again

 

[donmateo]

So when I select the bootloaders in the PDA and click start, it does its thing, then it would auto reboot the phone? Or should I disconnect as soon as its done, pull the battery, put the battery back in and then reconnect it getting back into download mode? Sorry for continuing on this is my first time flashing and I can tell you've done this a time or two haha.

 

[TRusselo]

in either case that you just stated, the phone ends up rebooting, does it not?

and then the next step is?.... reboot into download mode!

actually flashing bootloaders, it's best not to touch your cable, unless you wanna brick. let it do its thing. bootloaders are the only dangerous thing to flash

 

[donmateo]

After attempting to flash the bootloaders I recieved this message in the message box

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> MD5 hash value is invalid
<OSM> i897.GB.Bootloaders.PDA.tar.md5 is invalid.
<OSM> End...

 

[TRusselo]

Hmm... the package must be corrupted. try downloading it again and if it still doesn't work I'll have to check when I get home.

md5 is a checksum method to make sure a file is not corrupted. google "what is md5" for more information

 

[donmateo]

Googled md5 and found an interesting read, very neat stuff. I did another download and decided to plug the phone into the computer at which point I was notified it was downloading the Samsung drivers. Very odd because I could have sworn I had already done this but I'm guessing this could be a cause of the problem. I'll give it another shot and keep you updated on the result

(Edit)

Got the drivers installed, redownloaded bootloaders, executed steps 4 through 6 but got the same result and same message.

 

[TRusselo]

windows will redo drivers for each usb port.i fixed the download link, never knew changing filename will break .md5. live and learn. unzip to find tar.md5 now

 

[TRusselo]

and the drivers that windows automatically downloads work just fine

 

[donmateo]

Awesome thank you for all the guidance. Before I flash there shouldn't be any similar problems with the cwm2 kernel as with the bootloaders should there?

 

[TRusselo]

no the kernel packages are not md5 tars just regular tars

 

[donmateo]

Just flashed the bootloaders, made it to recovery screen. Now select "reboot system now"?

 

[TRusselo]

No advanced> reboot to download the next step says get into download mode right?

it doesn't matter how you do it just getting do whatever it says to do