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Root 2.3 Hell -- How Do I Get Out of Here?

Newbie here that created a mess, and just want to reinstall 2.3 or to go back to 2.2, but after 6 hours of research and tinkering, still has no idea how.

I installed Gingerbread 2.3.3 because I thought it may get the GPS to work better (at all). It worked, but in the meantime, 1/4 of the programs force quit before even opening fully, the phone radio wouldn't turn on for 8 hours today, etc.

I believed I had correct instructions on how to reinstall Gingerbread from my Mac, but it requires ClockworkMod, which was somehow damaged to the point where ROM Manager says I have 2.5.1.2 but when I try to reboot it in that Clockwork, it gives me Android's default reboot page and error -- blue lettering on top, yellow on bottom.

Worse, I read a post DRockstar saying that Gingerbread will no longer work with a one-click-root program.

Please someone help me get a normal phone back. I just messed it up trying to get it to do all that was advertised. Please talk to me as if I'm no tech genius, and I'm on a Mac.

If I can talk to someone on skype or the phone and pay or bow to them to walk me through all this, I'd MUCH appreciate it.

...more details below if you need it.

I went to ROM Manager to try and open Clockwork Recovery and work from a backup, but although it recognizes Clockwork 2.5.1.2, when I reboot into Recovery, nothing shows up. Also weird is that when I click "Flash ColokworkMod Recovery" it no longer gives Epic 4G as an option, but instead gives only "Galaxy S i9000" and "Galaxy S i9000 (MTD)"

I used the awesome Epic All In One Root Recovery, and while it rooted my phone, it didn't help re-install Clockwork in a way my Epic recognizes it.

I did a renaming trick of Clockwork Mod to get it to be 3.0, so although it says I have 2.5, it's really 3.0. I know it worked, because it's how I installed Gingerbread.

I deleted a whole bunch of bloatware, which I think is what's causing a lot of the problems, but I did it all from the wiki of what was said to be ok to remove. I do have individual backups of those, as instructed.
Firmware
2.3.3

Kernel version
2.6.35.7

Build number
Gingerbread.ee03
 
the gingerbread leaks you guys have are prerooted, all it takes is just rebooting to recovery and flashing a new rom

The issue is that Clockwork recovery is not working. I'm not up on all the lingo, so please, for any advice you give me, show me a thread where it says just how to do it, or tell me yourself. Cheers
 
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I give up! Whom can I hire to have someone talk this through with me on the phone? This is really a nightmare, trying to move forward and only understanding about half of what I'm doing along the way.

Please contact me privately, asap, and we'll work out a fair compensation to talk me through how to get out of Gingerbread hell and back to 2.2 using my Mac or a friend's PC, if necessary. I've literally spent dozens of hours on something that would take you about a dozen minutes. For update as to my next guess, please see below.

http://androidforums.com/epic-4g-al...oting-samsung-epic-4g-what-you-need-know.html

... has directions on how to get into clockwork (and will probably answer most of your questions).

Might I recommend NOT using ROM manager, it doesn't work right for the Epic.

wish I had known that. I'd do what you and rounsy222 say, but problem is, when I hit volume down, power and camera, nothing happens other than getting the do-you-wanna-be-in-airplane-mode-or-power-off screen, even if I hold it for a while.

Do I understand correctly that I need clockwork mod 3 for gingerbread because gingerbread is an ext4 format?

I just don't get it. Here's what I think I need to do.

1. Somehow get back down to 2.2, using Odin.
Guess on how to do this:
Go to a PC, download Odin.
Install "drivers"?​

Online articles will tell me what to click.​
this will install Clockworkmod 2 onto it​
re-root the phone, which is not necessary but part of the package​
I can not do this via any one-click method on my Mac, because ext4 doesn't let you do that?​
It will also get me on the "EC05 modem"​

2. Hopefully with Clockwork Mod 2 now installed, it'll allow me to do the volume down, power and camera button combo to enter recovery mode.

3. Go to xda page Clockwork Mod Version 3.0.0.5/6 and download http://efragtv.com/android/OneClickRootCWM3-EB13.zip

4. Get on a pc and run the run.bat thing, which will give me Clockwork Mod 3


3. Then I "If you coming from the EC05 OTA (stock): Download the ROM and copy it to your SD card first, then use the CWM3 one-click, wipe data, and flash the ROM."
That's from Syndicate ROM Frozen steps to flash this ROM
(btw now whenever I run anything in terminal, it gives me something like

Original one click made by joeykrim and one click installer made by noobnl and firon
busybox by skeeterslint
Press any key to continue...Starting adb server
./run.sh: line 23: ./adb: cannot execute binary file
./run.sh: line 26: ./adb: cannot execute binary file
./run.sh: line 33: ./adb: cannot execute binary file
./run.sh: line 35: ./adb: cannot execute binary file
Phone is not connected. Press any key to continue.

I quit!
 
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I give up! My phone barely works now, won't even recognize my clockworkmod so I can work on this.

Can I hire you to talk through getting rid of Gingerbread, reverting to 2.2 and with me on the phone? This is really a nightmare, trying to move forward and only understanding about half of what I'm doing along the way.

Please contact me privately, asap, and we'll work out a fair compensation to talk me through how to get out of Gingerbread hell and back to 2.2 using my Mac or a friend's PC, if necessary. Hopefully there's time also to then move onto 2.3 and get SyndicateROM Frozen, but at this point I'll deal with the crappy GPS and battery just to have a functioning phone again.

I've literally spent dozens of hours on something that would take you about a dozen minutes. For update as to my next guess, please see this thread.
 
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