As with all of my posts, this information is provided solely for my own reference -- use at your own risk. I encourage you to do more research before taking any action.
The standard disclaimer about me not being responsible for bricking your phone or voiding your warranty is hereby given. It is my understanding that you void the warranty on your phone by taking any one of the steps described below -- even if you eventually flash back to your carrier's stock ROM and/or unroot.
This whole ROM process was more of a pain than I'd realized, especially since the instructions were spread out, and not necessarily up to date/applicable to my stock ROM. As this was my second time through (see my first effort here), loading Ultimate seemed easier.
Why mess with a good thing?
Coming from the iPhone 3G, I was generally pleased with my 2.1 Android phone. However, I didn't like the stock AT&T applications being forced upon me and I wanted access to more configuration options. Maybe the biggest peeve was that my Gmail contacts were imported regardless of the groupings I created in Gmail. I think that rooting and/or loading another ROM may have addressed those issues, but 2.3 offers enhanced voice tools and (possibly) better performance.
From what I've it seems as of the end of January 2011 that AT&T won't be providing a 2.2 upgrade anytime soon. And I like getting under the hood. So here goes...
Setting up accounts
For some of the downloads I wanted/needed, I had to register on two sites:
http://forum.xda-developers.com
http://forum.androidcentral.com
These were both pretty good sources of info as well. xda-developers is tops.
Backing up and rooting the phone
See this post for information on what to do before you give the new ROM a go.
Recovery Mode
This may have changed in more recent versions of the Captivate, but some of the instructions just said to hold both volume buttons and the power button. Most of them neglected to tell me to release the power button when the AT&T screen appears so I just kept rebooting.
Installing the new ROM
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=884364
Following the directions in the link above didn't work 100% for me, probably because of a change in Clockwork. (I already downloaded the Clockwork Recovery app, so I didn't need to do that again -- and now you can get it in the app store.) Starting with step four, do as follows:
- To get the device into recovery mode, hold the up/down volume rocker and the power button
- As soon as the AT&T screen appears let go of the power button and continue to hold the volume rocker
- On the Android system recovery screen, use the volume rocker to highlight "reinstall packages"
- Click the power button
- Possibly after a reboot you'll be directed to Clockworld Recovery. Use the volume rocker to highlight "choose zip from sd card".
- Click the power button
- On the Apply update from .zip file on SD card screen select "choose zip from sdcard"
- Click the power button
- On the Choose a zip to apply screen select your ROM (Ultimate.zip for me)
- Click the power button
- On the Confirm install? screen, select "Yes - Install <your ROM file>"
- Click the power button and let the ROM installation run
- On the Apply update from .zip file on SD card screen, use the volume rocker to highlight "+++++Go Back+++++"
- Click the power button
- On the ClockworkMod Recovery screen highlight "reboot system now"
- Click the power button
- The first startup after a flash can take a while, and it usually makes me nervous since it takes some time. In this case, I hit the power button after waiting a minute and that seemed to move things along.
Configuring the new device
Installing this ROM didn't wipe my applications! So not a lot to do except enjoy the Gingerbread launcher.
Removing the files I'd placed in the phone's root directory
Delete the ROM and root .zip files from the root directory on your phone. No harm if they remain, but you don't need them anymore.
