Galaxy S II

by **limdis** on Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:40 pm ([msg=63511]see Galaxy S II[/msg])

About a month ago or so I got my hands on one these. Now that the 'it's new and cool euphoria' has worn off I want to have some fun with it a bit. I was wondering if anyone else has played around with droid security with this phone or similar and know some do's and dont's before I get my feet wet. This will be my first pioneering steps in this direction and don't want to accidentally fuck up my phone

by **mShred** on Wed Jan 04, 2012 1:41 am ([msg=63516]see Re: Galaxy S II[/msg])

I have a Samsung Epic 4g which is a Galaxy S. I'm not sure how different I and II are. Or even the phone makes are, so I'm not sure how much I'd be able to help. But I know that xda is a great place for Android shit. I kinda wish HTS would have more people interested in it.
But I use Odin to interact with my phone, which allows me to flash ROM's to my Epic 4g. Idunno if that goes for all Galaxies or not.. And I'm too lazy at the moment to check. But what I DO know, is that you can not forever brick your phone. You just can't and you won't. So don't worry. I 'bricked' my phone the second day I had it. Obviously, I freaked like a bitch. But after countless hours into my precious wasted sleeptime, my research told me what I needed to do. In my opinion, it's the best way to learn the most out of your phone. Now, I'm not scared in anyway to tweak or flash anything on it. So don't worry about that. There are some good android forums out there, and I encourage you to try new things, especially at first. Once you figure out what you like, then you can worry about backing it up and losing all of you hard work.

I have the Samsung Epic 4g Gingerbread EI22 2.3.5 and recently rooted it. I tried several different custom ROMs for it and semi-bricked it a few times. Like mShred said.....this can be undone, as long as you can get into download mode. Using the program he mentioned (Odin), you just flash the stock firmware back to the phone. XDA developers is a great forum for all things cellular and there are a lot of videos on youtube. QBKing77 has a lot of rooting videos on youtube and he includes file links in his descriptions.
I personally didn't care so much for the "one click root" method, but that's just me. Here's a basic run down of rooting my phone:
The build number of Gingerbread.EI22 (Settings->About Phone) needs a GBkernel file to properly be rooted so I downloaded that file to my desktop. Also downloaded the ACSRecovery file to my desktop. I downloaded the superuser file to the sda card on my phone. Power off the phone, put it in download mode. Open Odin and add GBkernel into the 'PDA' slot. Only have 'reboot' clicked. Plug usb into phone & computer. Odin recognizes phone, hit 'start'. Receive 'Pass' message and phone reboots.
Power phone off. Put back into download mode and this time use the ACSRecovery file in the 'PDA' slot. Let run, reboots. Power phone off and put into 'recovery mode'. Using the ACS Recovery software, install the superuser zip file from the sda card. Reboot phone. Phone should be rooted.

If I didn't have the EI22 version, I could've skipped the first part and just used Odin for the ACSRecovery file, then in recovery mode installed the zip file from the sda card. Simple. Then I downloaded 'Rom Manager' from 'Market' and got the ClockworkMod file. Got Titanium Backup (whew!). I backed everything up to my sda card using Titanium Backup and then played around with different custom ROMs. You can download the custom ROMs to your sda card, use Rom Manager to install them or power your phone off and then in recovery mode, install it. The first custom ROM I tried wouldn't let my phone get passed the 'Samsung' screen on boot up, even after reinstalling the ROM, so....downloaded stock firmware to desktop, pulled the battery, put phone in download mode, used Odin to flash back to stock....then rerooted. Tried a second custom ROM....success! Well, I thought so, but kept having a lot of glitches with it until it went haywire so I tried a different ROM...success! Well.....after every possibly 'force close' message, I found that if you go into 'Rom Manager' and fix the permissions, it helps. After a reboot though, I was now getting a message that my internal storage space was full and the phone kept stalling.
Back to stock flash. Rerooted. Tried another ROM. Success! but....didn't care for it

Finally, went back to stock, rerooted, and stayed there. Phones been functioning just fine since. I used Titanium Backup and reinstalled everything from the sda card (life saver). Deleted stock apps and with root I can use my phone as a wifi hotspot without the extra monthly fees.
ROMs I tried (not in any order):
ACE
Thunderhawk
CleanGB
Syndicate Frozen

I'd suggest watching several videos the whole way through and reading some tutorials first but then...go for it!

by **limdis** on Wed Jan 04, 2012 8:43 pm ([msg=63541]see Re: Galaxy S II[/msg])

Awesome. I highly appreciate the thorough responses. Let the research begin 8-)

by **mShred** on Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:11 am ([msg=63548]see Re: Galaxy S II[/msg])

Defience wrote:
If I didn't have the EI22 version,... install it.

Ah so you just NOW started rooting your epic. I've been messing with flashing and all that good shit for months now. It was done a lot differently before gingerbread. It was rooted, then flashed CWM. There was no ACS recovery. At least there wasn't to the best of my knowledge, and I operated just fine without it. I liked it better before Gingerbread, and there were some good ROM's back for Froyo.
But yeah, qbking was my savior. Like we've both said, just mess around. You'll get the hang of your phone.

I've a GT540 Éclair (stock) with root privileges and an App2SD install (which one is simply a hardlink to an SD card partition if I get it right). I found that there are lots of interesting tools out there. Terminals, compilers, interpreters, etc. Fun stuff

mShred wrote:
Defience wrote:
If I didn't have the EI22 version,... install it.

Ah so you just NOW started rooting your epic. I've been messing with flashing and all that good shit for months now. It was done a lot differently before gingerbread. It was rooted, then flashed CWM. There was no ACS recovery. At least there wasn't to the best of my knowledge, and I operated just fine without it. I liked it better before Gingerbread, and there were some good ROM's back for Froyo.
But yeah, qbking was my savior. Like we've both said, just mess around. You'll get the hang of your phone.

Yep. A few years ago I was flashing PRLs on phones to the Cricket network but got away from it. I've jailbroken/unlocked a couple of iphones as well. When my Samsung Moment shattered, I bought the Epic from someone on Craigslists. I didn't want to try and root it until I was eligible for an update with Sprint, which I am now. I figured if I brick the phone I could go buy a brand new one at a discounted price.
As far as Gingerbread, in order to install Syndicate Frozen, I had to reinstall back to stock firmware which included Froyo EC05. I wish it would've stuck. /me shrugs
I don't actually mind stock but I figured if I'm root....I might as well go custom. Maybe when I do buy my new phone I'll try some custom ROMs again.
(Good topic)

by **mShred** on Thu Jan 05, 2012 5:36 pm ([msg=63556]see Re: Galaxy S II[/msg])

Defience wrote:As far as Gingerbread, in order to install Syndicate Frozen, I had to reinstall back to stock firmware which included Froyo EC05. I wish it would've stuck. /me shrugs
I don't actually mind stock but I figured if I'm root....I might as well go custom. Maybe when I do buy my new phone I'll try some custom ROMs again.
(Good topic)

Yeah a lot of the good ROMs are made for froyo. I think only one has been made for Gingerbread so far? Maybe not. The only thing I hate about ROMs is that they're usually pretty buggy, in addition to Android's already buggyness. Well that and you lose a lot by flashing new firmware.
This is a good topic. limdis, post back with any progress that you make.

mShred, are you currently using a custom ROM? I just sent QBKing77 a message for suggestions.

by **mShred** on Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:25 pm ([msg=63559]see Re: Galaxy S II[/msg])

Defience wrote:mShred, are you currently using a custom ROM? I just sent QBKing77 a message for suggestions.

Nah I'm just running Gingerbread with root and the ACSRecovery. I'm waiting for more EI22 ROMs to come out before I start testing. I've heard of the Legendary ROM but I've yet to look into it. I'll probably do that after work tonight. There's probably also a bare Deodexed ROM somewhere, but I'm not sure.
EDIT: Oh, and let me know what qbking77 says.