Root New to Android and just got a Captivate. Best Rom and things to do?

[Tenacious--M]

I am new to Android and just got a Captivate. I understand its pretty glitchy with the Samsung software and am wondering about a couple of things:

1. I hear a lot about rooting. What does this actually do for me? Is this loading a new Rom? Or are those two seperate things?

2. Which is the best software Rom to load on it with the best performance and least glitches? Is getting stock 2.2 Froyo on it an option or does it have to have the TouchWiz interface?

3. Whats the easiest way to load it?

4. Can I save the stock Samsung ROM in case I need to return and replace my captivate (warranty)?
This will definitely get me started in the right direction. Thank you!

 

[Segfault]

Android is basically a tiny unix system. Rooting your phone give you the ability to do stuff that requires root or superuser access. Obviously you don't need this for any typical phone stuff. Two of main things that you need to be rooted for are doing full backups of the phone and taking screenshots. You can also modify any file on the system and change system settings.

Installing a ROM means installing a whole brand new version of the phone software. You can do this a couple of ways. The first way doesn't require root the phone ( I think), you use a program called Odin that basically overwrites whats on the phone over a USB connection. Its what someone at AT&T would use to reset your phone back to stock. The other way is more common, you install a program called Clockwork recovery that lets you installed ROM images using the built in recovery mode thats on the phone. After you installed clockwork recovery you then copy the ROM image over to your phone's sdcard and reboot it in recovery mode. Once the phone boots you get a menu where you can installed the ROM image. Its less painful than it sounds.

I think using clockwork is easier.

I'm not sure if you can save the ROM image you have but I think you can download a copy from somewhere that you can install with Odin.

The only ROM image I have tried is Cognition beta with Froyo. This usually comes with Touchwiz and LauncherPro. I don't know if there is a ROM that has the stock android interface.

I also don't think there is a stock 2.2 froyo image out there at all yet. There are plenty of versions built on a leaked Froyo beta version thats pretty good. I've been using a build based on that for the last month and its worked fine for me.

 

[Tenacious--M]

Will the cognition rom root my phone as well or is that a seperate thing I need to do? Should I first Root , do the Titanium Backup and then mess with the rom?
Also, once I have Cognitions rom installed, I wont be able to check for software update on the phone , correct? I will have to download future releases from his site?

 

[Infinite-t]

Will the cognition rom root my phone as well or is that a seperate thing I need to do? Should I first Root , do the Titanium Backup and then mess with the rom?
Also, once I have Cognitions rom installed, I wont be able to check for software update on the phone , correct? I will have to download future releases from his site?

The Cog. ROM will root your phone, but if you use clockwork, you will need to be rooted anyway, which is super simple. IF you are going to get into hacking and ROM swapping, be sure you do your homework. Know what you are doing and how you are doing it and what to do if it goes wrong. Be aware that you WILL void the warrenty by even rooting. Make good backups of your apps and app data. Make a backup of your current ROM and put it ON YOUR COMPUTER (if your phone gets wiped, you could lose anything stored on it). Once you flash a different ROM, you will not be able to "see" AT&T OTAs because it looks for a specific ROM on your phone to see if you need the update or not. But 2.2 (the next big update) is not likely to be OTA anyway.

I wont go in to detail on how to do it all, not because I am trying to be an a$$, but because if you really want to do it, there is already good instructions out there to do it, and I want to encourage people to read up on what they are doing before they put their phone "under the knife".

 

[Tenacious--M]

Thanks! You are helping a ton. I just want to make sure I go about this right. Maybe I will start with just rooting and not mess with the ROM currently. What is the advantage to a different ROM?

What is the best way to root? Are there different roots or is rooting all the same, just different procedures. I saw this one and it sounded simple:

[PROGRAM] Updated:One Click Root/UnRoot (Mac and PC) - xda-developers

Once rooted and when Samsung releases 2.2 will I be able to download and keep my root or will I have to root again?


Oh, also how do I backup the original rom in case I need to return my captivate?

 

[Tenacious--M]

The Cog. ROM will root your phone, but if you use clockwork, you will need to be rooted anyway, which is super simple. IF you are going to get into hacking and ROM swapping, be sure you do your homework. Know what you are doing and how you are doing it and what to do if it goes wrong. Be aware that you WILL void the warrenty by even rooting. Make good backups of your apps and app data. Make a backup of your current ROM and put it ON YOUR COMPUTER (if your phone gets wiped, you could lose anything stored on it). Once you flash a different ROM, you will not be able to "see" AT&T OTAs because it looks for a specific ROM on your phone to see if you need the update or not. But 2.2 (the next big update) is not likely to be OTA anyway.

I wont go in to detail on how to do it all, not because I am trying to be an a$$, but because if you really want to do it, there is already good instructions out there to do it, and I want to encourage people to read up on what they are doing before they put their phone "under the knife".

Thank you for the info! How do I save the ROM on my pc? Is there a way to save a full image of my phone to my pc (with rom and all apps/data/settings?)

Or do I have to do the Clockwork recovery and Titanium Backup to do that the best way?

That being said, if I have already rooted, debloated and installed apps on my phone can I still save the ROM or is it too late since Ive installed all that stuff?

 

[slmhofy]

good places to start.

Download Cognition!

and here if you haven't already found it.

Samsung Captivate - xda-developers

 

[Infinite-t]

Well, there are many ways to root your phone.

The a reall easy method, and the one I use is the OCLF 2.0 app in the market. All you do is download it, launch it and select root. It will do some stuff and spit some words on the screen, then tell you to reboot the phone in recovery mode.

This is done buy shutting off the phone. Hold down the Vol up AND down buttons, then push and hold the power button. The white AT&T screen will come up (continue to hold the buttons) and dissappear, then re-appear. Once it reappears let go of the power button. It should load into recovery mode. Use the volume up/down to navigate to "reinstall packages" and push the power button to select it. Your phone will do some more stuff, and then re-boot. Once it's booted, rooting should be successful. You will have an app in the drawer calles super user, that will confirm it worked.

The back up method I use is TiBu (paid version) to back up apps and app data. (Its stores that info on an internet server) so you dont actually need to put it on your PC or anything.

I use ROM manager (clockwork) to make a back up of my current rom. (then load that to my PC). I also use ROM manager to flash new custom ROMS.

As far as restoring, I usually use ODIN 1 click, which will bring your phone back to its "out of box" state. I also use ODIN to roll back before I re-flash a new ROM.

The benifits of a custom ROM are, I am currently using Froyo (Android 2.2) before it is even released for our phone. It also offers more features, tweeks and customizations, root and other things. The down sides are, they are un-official. The Cog. froyo beta (although pretty good) is built on a beta release of Froyo and done completely with out even the source code (Sammy hasn't released it yet). So sometimes there are minor bugs or issues. Some features are experimental and sometimes down work propperly. But, when there is a wide spread issue with it, they are pretty quick about putting out a fix (which means you also have to go thru the flashing/recovery process again tho). It isn't for everyone and requires some patience and common scence, but if you like to tinker, experiment, and live a little on the dark side, it can be fun and enjoyable. I really love having flash on my phone, for example, and it is very fast now too.

If you root now, you will have to re-root when you upgrade to 2.2. It will unroot you AND you should probably inroot before you upgrade anyway, just to be safe.

It's YOUR phone, so have fun with it. Just be responisble and have a good understanding of what you are doing and how to do it, before you do it

The XDA forum is a good source of custom ROMs and lots of info about them. This forum here, there is a handful of helpful people who know a bit about that stuff and willing to share info too.

 

[ryandelman]

Well, there are many ways to root your phone.

The a reall easy method, and the one I use is the OCLF 2.0 app in the market. All you do is download it, launch it and select root. It will do some stuff and spit some words on the screen, then tell you to reboot the phone in recovery mode.

This is done buy shutting off the phone. Hold down the Vol up AND down buttons, then push and hold the power button. The white AT&T screen will come up (continue to hold the buttons) and dissappear, then re-appear. Once it reappears let go of the power button. It should load into recovery mode. Use the volume up/down to navigate to "reinstall packages" and push the power button to select it. Your phone will do some more stuff, and then re-boot. Once it's booted, rooting should be successful. You will have an app in the drawer calles super user, that will confirm it worked.

The back up method I use is TiBu (paid version) to back up apps and app data. (Its stores that info on an internet server) so you dont actually need to put it on your PC or anything.

I use ROM manager (clockwork) to make a back up of my current rom. (then load that to my PC). I also use ROM manager to flash new custom ROMS.

As far as restoring, I usually use ODIN 1 click, which will bring your phone back to its "out of box" state. I also use ODIN to roll back before I re-flash a new ROM.

The benifits of a custom ROM are, I am currently using Froyo (Android 2.2) before it is even released for our phone. It also offers more features, tweeks and customizations, root and other things. The down sides are, they are un-official. The Cog. froyo beta (although pretty good) is built on a beta release of Froyo and done completely with out even the source code (Sammy hasn't released it yet). So sometimes there are minor bugs or issues. Some features are experimental and sometimes down work propperly. But, when there is a wide spread issue with it, they are pretty quick about putting out a fix (which means you also have to go thru the flashing/recovery process again tho). It isn't for everyone and requires some patience and common scence, but if you like to tinker, experiment, and live a little on the dark side, it can be fun and enjoyable. I really love having flash on my phone, for example, and it is very fast now too.

If you root now, you will have to re-root when you upgrade to 2.2. It will unroot you AND you should probably inroot before you upgrade anyway, just to be safe.

It's YOUR phone, so have fun with it. Just be responisble and have a good understanding of what you are doing and how to do it, before you do it

The XDA forum is a good source of custom ROMs and lots of info about them. This forum here, there is a handful of helpful people who know a bit about that stuff and willing to share info too.

Very good advice here. I too am running Cog 2.2 and while it is to me the best thing since sliced bread, I am a bit of an experienced "tinkerer" and am therefore not too concerned about turning my phone into a $200 doorstop.

The only advice I might argue against in the above post is the One-click-lagfix stuff. I am not big on installing "pre-packaged" lag fixes/roots because if they foul up your phone, it's truly hell tracing back through the steps of what went wrong where, en route to getting the device back into working order.

Just my $.02

-Ryan

 

[Tenacious--M]

If I have already rooted using the "Pimp my Captivate" guide, can I flash to Cog 2.2 right from this, or do I need to use ODIN and go back to stock first and then do it?

My captivate is shuting off at random and freezing up lots... very laggy/buggy...

 

[Tenacious--M]

Also, do if I got back to stock using ODIN do I need to re-root before I got to the Cog 2.2? Or does it do the root for me when I flash?

 

[peachpuff]

If you want your phone to fly get a rom that has the SetiroN kernel and convert your partitions to advanced jfs. Get either this one, this one or this one.

 

[Tenacious--M]

I went with Cognition and so far so good! Should I do a clockwork backup of the new ROM now that I have it? Can you have more than one backup? I did a clockwork backup of the original 2.1 before loading Cognition. So will I have that backup, plus the Cognition depending on what way I want to go on a restore?

 

[KonaZXIII]

It can't hurt to do both. Personally, I use Titanium to back up my apps, and use the sim (and Kies) for the contacts.. That seemed easiest to me. There are so many ROMs between the multiple forums and my PC (and Odin) that I don't stress overly about backing up the ROMs themselves. Not that I don't back them up, I just don't worry as much- it's easily recovered.