I got the newly released Rogers Samsung Captivate, which is quite the upgrade from my rapidly aging iPhone 3G. My first impressions after just over 24 hours with the phone are good. However, the fact that it came running Android 2.1 (Eclair) rather than the newer 2.2 (Froyo) release bothered me. Though if you check the phone’s status, it says it’s running 2.1-update1, and it appears to include some of the features from 2.2. No Matter, what fun is a gadget you don’t risk turning into a brick within the first day of owning?
Here are the steps I took to reflash the device with a leaked version of the 2.2 ROM from AT&T, then root the device and remove all the AT&T bloatware and generally end up with a decent setup. As is typical of these sorts of posts it must be said that these steps worked for me, have not been tested on any other devices than my own, and may turn your phone into a brick, a nuclear killing machine, or less likely, a rabbit.
Step 1. Reflashing the device to the leaked AT&T 2.2 ROM.
You’re going to need the requisite drivers. I use Windows 7 64bit, and these worked for me, but your mileage may vary. You can find the Captivate drivers here. The USB drivers come in 32bit and 64bit flavours. I found I needed both the Captivate and USB drivers. Next, follow these instructions:
- Download the Android 2.2 Froyo update from designgears (the exe Odin flasher)
- Make sure your Captivate’s USB cable is plugged into the computer but not the phone.
- Open the .exe file on your Windows PC
- Put your phone into download mode by turning it off, holding down the volume keys and plugging the phone into your computer with the MicroUSB cord
- The .exe from designgears should now recognize your phone.
- Click “Start” to begin!
- Once it’s done, let it reboot itself up!
You should now be running Android 2.2! The above info was found on talkandroid here and androidforums here.
Step 2. Get Your Phone Working Properly With Rogers.
The phone will come back up with voice services working, but no MMS or data. In order to make data and MMS work, you need to set the Access Point Name (APN) settings in the phone’s config. APN Settings can be found under Settings > Wireless > Mobile Networks >Access Points. Set the following:
- Name: Rogers
- APN: rogers-core-appl1.apn
- MMSC:http ://mms.gprs.rogers.com
- MMS Proxy: 10.128.1.69
- MMS Port: 80
- MCC: 302
- MNC: 720
- Everything else blank
You should now have a working data connection! The above info was found on the XDA Developer forums here and the GeoSpatial blog here.
Step 3. Root Your Galaxy
Time to take full control of your device. The app to accomplish this is hosted on the XDA Developers forums. Specifically, the thread about the app is here, and the actual download link is here. You’ll probably need to register on the forums to get access to the file. The details are contained in the thread, but really it’s just a matter of plugging in your phone, opening the application, and selecting ‘Root’. I remember when hacking a device required keyboard input at the very least…
Step 4. Remove That AT&T Bloatware
I gotta say, I don’t usually have many kind words to say about Rogers. But at least the firmware they ship with is reasonably clean of bloat. I think my stock firmware came with five non-vanilla Android apps, including the Samsung app, and the Rogers ‘My Account’ app which is actually reasonably useful. The AT&T ROM ships with probably a dozen bloatware apps, plus an annoying splash screen. Here’s how you clean that bloat off your phone:
I found I needed to select the ‘problems’ option in Titanium Backup and let it install it’s own copy of busybox!
- Open up Android Market and search/download “Titanium Backup” (the free version is fine)
- Make sure your phone is not “Mounted” with USB
- Press the Backup/Restore button
- Click on each app and press un-install if you’d like to get rid of it. Do not delete apps off of this list, unless you know it is safe! This deletes these potentially forever… so be sure about things!
Delete-able:- AT&T Navigator
- AT&T Radio
- AT&T Maps
- AT&T Music
- AT&T Mobile Hotspots
- Mobile Banking
- Mobile Video
- Where
- YPmobile
- AT&T FamilyMap
- Mini Diary
- MobiTV
- Write and Go
- Instant Messenger
- Where
Reboot your phone and that should be the end of any AT&T related bloatware, aside from the splash screen at bootup. The above info was cleaned from briefmobile here.
That should be it for now. If you figure out how to remove the splash screen from the phone, please let me know in the comments. Also, some of the above instructions were cribbed liberally from the linked sites. This was done entirely to make life easier for anyone trying to get a relatively unmolested version of 2.2 running on their Samsung Captivate from Rogers. I’m very thankful to everyone who wrote the linked posts and articles. I’ve only had an Android device for just over 24 hours now; without them sharing their knowledge I wouldn’t have gotten this far.
15 Responses to “Updating The Rogers Samsung Galaxy S (Captivate) To Android 2.2 (Froyo)”
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Just found this article. Having gotten a Captivate a few days ago, I’m already looking forward to updating it.
One question though, once the 2.2 is applied, does it brand the firmware as i897?
Yeah, some strings are set to i897 after applying the AT&T firmware. Really, this only appears in the Bluetooth Device Name field, and possibly in some default signatures (“Sent from my Samsung Captivate i897…”). I suspect they’re just reading out of a text file somewhere, but haven’t bothered to go find which one yet.
Having used it briefly, I’d actually recommend avoiding the AT&T firmware. Go straight to the Cognition firmware. It’s much better. You can find it here.
great little how-to… I have personally been running the Cognition firmware as well , however I have experienced some random poweroff’s. have you had anything like that?
Micro~
Not at all. I’ve found cognition to be very stable. I didn’t play around with the rogers rom all that extensively, but even my gps is usable. My only beef is this damn AT&T logo at bootup. It might also be in the cognition rom though for all I know. I want the nice samsung boot animation back.
Thanks for the walkthrough. Now…Here goes nothin’….
Thanks for the walkthrough, everything went smooth so long as you connect to USB slots at the BACK of the computer. Apparently people were having trouble getting their computer to recognize the storage device because most front USB ports are not fully USB 2.0 compatible and that’s the same issue I ran into… total waste of 30min trying to get the thing to work. In any event, interestingly enough, my GPS does not work now!
I’ve yet to try cognition but Mike, was your GPS working right off the bat with 2.2 or did you go straight to cognition?
I actually didn’t have an opportunity to test out the GPS while I was on the AT&T firmware. I was actually on the AT&T firmware for less than 24 hours. That said, there are known issues with the GPS and these third party ROMs.
Thanks, I’ll give cognition a whirl when I find the time, hope that fixes it. Froyo’s quite a nice little update!
Mike, I’ve been doing some research on using clockwork to install cognition but it would seem that I need to flash with the JI6 kernel before I can get cognition to work? Is this what you had to go through? I was struggling with clockwork as it wouldn’t backup my current rom and through some hefty searching I came across a thread that supposedly fixes the issue. I just want to be sure you went through the same process before I venture into this further. Let me know, I check back every once in a while.
Thanks!
Shawn, I used the Odin version of the Cognition installer. The basic clockwork doesn’t have support for 2.2 yet. The version that is installed when you use the Odin Cognition installer has been modified to have some 2.2 support I believe, though I’m unfamiliar with the exact details.
Been using the The lastest 2.3b3 for about 24 hours … no issues … GPS still not I would say very good .. however it DOES work …
Any GPS or map issues after updating to 2.2 with a Canadian based phone? Voice control? Is there anything that hasn’t worked properly for you?
Shagni, like I’ve said in the other comments, GPS can get screwy after moving from the Rogers ROM. However, I just did a road trip using my phone, which went Rogers ROM -> AT&T 2.2 ROM -> Cognition 2.2 beta. The GPS was usable, but could take minute or two to get a good lock on. Voice control was fine. Really, only the GPS suffers.
Hey Mike,
Have you been having any problems with the phone app? It crashes for me every time I try to make a call.
I have not had any issues like that. Have you tried a factory reset?