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CM9 Install Guide

Note: You are strongly advised to read the CM9 Status, guides on this site and these instructions carefully before proceeding.  CM for Epic Touch is provided with no warranty.  You are installing this software at your own risk.  This site and Cyanogenmod is not affiliated with Sprint or Samsung.  You may be violating your warranty.


Download CM9 and gapps-ics zips and put in /sdcard
Be sure to verify the md5sum to be sure you got the right one.
  • CM9 Beta 1 [1][2][3]
    md5sum       69913fc1b13134b442f8f645aebc7eba
  • CM9 nightly builds [goo.im]
    • Newest code, some days stable, other days unstable, report problems in Google+.
  • Optional:  gapps version 20120429 md5sum   7c524e1e078164f681e0aa6753180b2c


***SUMMARY LEVEL DIRECTIONS***
You can now flash with one of the verified safe recoveries* available, or if you have a question about it, you can always use the Direct Boot CWM5.
(These directions are intended for people who have done this before.  More detailed directions follow below this section titled 'Complete install directions').

Before you Install CM9: Preparation
  1. Install AppBak from Market, run it and save a list of all your apps.
  2. Install SMS Backup and Restore from Market, run it and backup your SMS history.
  3. Install Call Logs Backup and Restore from Market, run it and backup your call log history.
  4. If you are coming from a different custom rom, you may want to boot into CWM5 recovery and make a full Backup.  You will need this backup later if you decide to go back to your previous ROM and data.
Wipe ALL Data and Cache 
Warning: Currently CM9 does not tolerate CM7 or other /data.  Many apps will Force Close crash if you restore data from a previous ROM.


Initial Install
  1. Use one of the verified safe recoveries* available, or if you have a question about it, use the Direct Boot CWM5.
    • Warning: Only use a safe recovery to flash CM9. Otherwise, you risk bricking your phone. If you don't know if the recovery you are about to use is safe, err on the side of caution and use the Direct Boot CWM5
  2. Wipe data and cache.
  3. Flash cm-9-*.zip.
  4. Flash gapps*.zip.
  5. Reboot phone.
  6. After you setup your Google account, reinstall the three apps from Market in order to restore most of your apps, call log and SMS history.
  7. Warning: Do not restore backup data of system apps!
    • If you restore a bad backup with cached settings in telephony.db in data/data/com.*.*.telephony it can break MMS.
    • It seems that restoring backups can also break Calendar sync.
Upgrades
Upgrades from previous versions of CM9 involve: 
  1. Download the new rom and gapps IF IT IS A NEW VERSION with your epic browser or transfer from a computer.
  2. Flash the updated rom and then gapps (if upgrading gapps to a newer version).
  3. Reboot.
You do not need to wipe anything, nor flash the google apps again (there's a script that backs up and restores them on install).  Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to even wipe cache and dalvik-cache when upgrading between CM9 versions.  You only need to wipe if you are doing a major upgrade, switching to a different ROM entirely, or attempting to fix bugs caused by bad backups or corrupt app data.





HOW TO VIDEO (If you like this sort of install guide):







***COMPLETE INSTALL DIRECTIONS***
(NOTE: YOU MUST BE ON A GINGERBREAD BASED ROM FOR THIS TO WORK)


Before you Install CM9: Preparation
  1. Install AppBak from Market, run it and save a list of all your apps.
  2. Install SMS Backup and Restore from Market, run it and backup your SMS history.
  3. Install Call Logs Backup and Restore from Market, run it and backup your call log history.
  4. If you are coming from a different custom rom, you may want to boot into CWM5 recovery and make a full Backup.  You will need this backup later if you decide to go back to your previous ROM and data.


Warning: Only use this CWM5 recovery to flash CM9. Otherwise, you risk bricking a phone


1. To begin you will need to download a few files:
2. Disconnect the Epic from the computer if it is already connected via USB. 

3. Locate and install the Samsung USB Drivers for Epic 4g touch you downloaded above.

4. Transfer gapps* and CM9 ROM file above to either your SD Card or the internal storage of your phone.  There are many ways to do this but the easiest is probably to plug your epic into your computer and on the Epic select from the notification bar "Select to Copy Files to/from your computer" and then select "Connect USB Storage".  On your computer you should see a new drive letter(s) in file explorer related to your epic.  Copy the gapps and CM9 ROM files to that drive.

5. Unzip ODIN 1.85.zip to a directory on your computer.  It doesn't matter where.

6. Double Click Odin3 v1.85.exe file and accept the UAC windows security screen.  Unselect everything except 'Auto Reboot'.  Then click the PDA button and select the CWM5 file from above (E4GT-EL29-directbootCWM.tar.md5).

7. Shutdown your Epic.

8. Restart in download Recovery Mode.  To do this press and hold VOLUME DOWN UP and then press and hold the POWER BUTTON at the same time.  Keep both pressed and let go when you see the Warning Recovery screen.  Then select 'VOLUME UP' to continue. 

9. Plug your phone in if it isn't already.  It is already is then great.  You should see a screen that says 'Downloading...'.  

10.  Go to your computer's ODIN program that is already running.  You should see a YELLOW box with something like "0:[COM8]".  The COM # is not important...  Just as long as you see the box.  If you do not, try re-plugging your epic into a different USB port on your computer.  If you try all the USB ports and still cant get it to work, reboot your computer and restart this step after restarting ODIN 1.85.exe.

11. Click 'Start' in ODIN.  ODIN will succeed and your phone will automatically reboot and you will see a boot screen with a yellow warning sign.

12. We will now start the phone into ClockworkMod recovery.

13. In recovery, you will want to do the following:
  • Enable Back Button: You need to scroll past the top menu item (wrap) in either direction 3 times until you see the words 'back menu button enabled'.  Basically when cursor is at the top do VOL+,VOL-,VOL+,VOL-,VOL+,VOL- each time wrapping around from top around to bottom.  Annoying! :)
  • Using volume buttons to navigate and power button to select, perform the following:
    - wipe data/factory reset  -> confirm
    - wipe cache  -> confirm
    - Advanced -> Wipe Dalvik Cache -> Confirm -> Go Back
  • Flash your ROM: Go to 'install zip from sdcard'  -> 'chose zip from sdcard'  OR 'choose zip from internal sdcard' (this depends on where you copied the gapps and rom files to in step #4)  ->  select the CM9 ROM File from step #4 (called something like update-cm-9-*********'.  Will take a couple of minutes
  • Flash gapps: Repeat above and install gapps zip.
  • done.  select back until you see 'reboot system now' and select it.
14.  You now have a complete and fresh install of CM9.  Congrats!

15.  After you setup your Google account, reinstall the three apps from Play Market in order to restore most of your apps, call log and SMS history.


Warning: Do not restore backup data of system apps with titanium or any other backup utility!
    • If you restore a bad backup with cached settings in telephony.db in data/data/com.*.*.telephony it can break MMS.
    • It seems that restoring backups can also break Calendar sync.



Upgrades
Upgrades from previous versions of CM9 involve: 
  1. Download the new rom and gapps IF IT IS A NEW VERSION with your epic browser or transfer from a computer.
  2. boot into recovery (VOL+ and POWER)  
  3. install the rom and then gapps if upgrading gapps to a newer version
  4. done.
You do not need to wipe anything, nor flash the google apps (there's a script that backs up and restores them on install).  Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to even wipe cache and dalvik-cache when upgrading between CM9 versions.  You only need to wipe if you are doing a major upgrade, switching to a different ROM entirely, or attempting to fix bugs caused by bad backups or corrupt app data.





Next Steps