and it worked!
I began looking here to see what I need to do, but I was left really confused. flashing roms, and researching XDA developers site (which I wasted like an hour on). Posts saying it is very complex and dangerous...
But low and behold, despite that it took me 90 mins to update to 2.2, and it's REALLY FREAKIN COOL. I got impatient on 2.2 yeah.
This is what I did: (poor grammar -> 3 AM)
1) Root. ~ 90 seconds
Tons of instructions on this forum to do so, I just followed these instructions:
http://androidforums.com/captivate-...unleash-beast-v0-1-easiest-way-root-more.html
2) ~ 30 seconds
Download Rom manager (free) from market on your phone, and press the first button "flash clockwork mod" button and choose samsung captivate.
3) ~ 1 minute
Download cognition rom from here: (you can use other ones, but I'm just showing what worked for me)
Download Cognition!
i picked v2.3b7 OC/UV
4) ~ 10 seconds
move rom to phone
(connect using USB, drag and drop to internal sdcard, the .zip file! )
5) ~ 5 seconds
open Rom Manager, and click "install ROM from sdcard".
hit "wipe data" and click okay.
6) ~ 5 seconds
use volume buttons to navigate to "reinstall packages" and hit phone's power button
7) ~ 5 minutes
wait.
BY THE WAY: I am not an expert. I am probably the biggest noob on this forum so I won't be able to help if somehow you try this and it fails. I'm impatient and stupidly daring. This whole process could have taken a grand total of 8-10 minutes if I just knew what to do in between steps...
So I am making this post for anyone else who wants to manually update their captivate without really knowing what to do. And for people who aren't to worried about "bricking" their phone.