Completely Reset Phone? - Vibrant General

Hello, I have had no problems flashing various roms on my Samsung vibrant, but I would like to reset the phone completely. As in delete everything as if it were stock. Now that I've found the settings I wanted, I'd like to start from scratch and flash the latest root, OCv4 kernel, and vibrant 6 (I love the swype keyboard and vibrant 7 removes it).

Its very easy to add swype back into vibrant7. I have done it on mine multiple times. As far as complete stock reset you will need to look up odin and get all the accompanying stock files to flash with. If you need more detail search on odin flash stock rom or words like those I dont happen to have the link handy

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Noob Question: General rule of thumb

Back in the old days when I was flashing my HTC Magic, it was a breeze to flash one ROM after another without a glitch. But now I am wondering the rule of thumb when it comes to flash different ROMs on Vibrant.
I have been using Axura 2.1 for a week now and even though I am extremely happy with it, there will be a time when I want to flash something else. When that happens, what is safest way to go? Since I used CWM to flash Axura, I have never used Odin. No idea what a PIT file is etc. etc. Can you please guide me to the right thread? What happens to the OCLF once you want to flash another ROM? Do you need to undo it so it won't cause a brick? Anything else I need to know?
Thanks a bunch!
Always disable a lagfix (and I prefer to not use them) before flashing ANYTHING.
You can swap from rom to rom relatively safely without using ODIN. I tried 3 rom's yesterday and didnt notice anything wrong with any of the roms.
If you do have an issue, you can use ODIN. I have videos in the sticky's, and the development bible sticky makes it very easy to find the files too. Just ODIN to JFD (stock) and then root it again... flash clockwork again... then flash the new rom.
some people say to odin back to stock between roms, but this is unnecessary. i've flashed over 15 roms on my vibrant without touching odin, just using clockwork, with no problems.

Tips and tricks when Odin and Kies dont work

Ok, I want to leave a message on here for future noobs like me with a Galaxy S
i9000 but it might work for others too.
My issue when flashing custom roms is that I have not been able to access my galaxy from my computer via usb since literally day 1 (when it did work once).
I spent a week trying to connect to Kies on multiple computers (vista and Windows 7). Tried via Android SDK, even tried hiemdall. I almost tried in ubuntu also but I never did get that working as I really don't know linux well enough. I've now given up...
So then I saw that you can do flashing all on the phone with the clockwork mod. With clockwork, my first rom flashed, well, like clockwork! But then I had some issues with lag and hang ups and reception and I decided to switch to another rom (seearms jl2 based rom - good stuff so far).
However this rom install went sideways... It said that it had installed ok but on reboot it stalled on the Galaxy I9000 screen and froze. Luckily I could still use the 3 button recovery to boot to clockworks but the hitch was that I HAD NO OTHER ROM to flash back to.
I had done a backup through clockworks but when I tried to restore it said the systems.img file was missing so it skipped it and the end result was the same freeze.
Normally everone says to reflash at this point with odin but that was not an option for me. So this is where I got lucky. The SeeARMs rom included Steam recovery module (though I thought it was the stock 3 button recovery menu for a while - I was panicking a little). I highly recommend seeing if you can get steam because it allows access to the External SD card for flashing which can be a lifesaver. Ahh, finally I could get the old rom on that, reflash it and go one with my life. My theory being that at least the issues would be aligned with the this rom and it worked.
So the lessons I learned:
1) Always have your new rom and your old rom on the interanal SD card in case of issues.
2) check your nandroid backup - even try testing it? - they don't always work perfectly with every device.
3)I highly recommend finding out if Steam or similar will work if you cannot access the USB connection and load things on when things go wrong.
Some tips I saw that also worked for me
1) flash a new kernel before you flash a new whole rom.
2) if things go sideways, try redownloading or retransferring the file to make sure there were no errors.
I did both and then reflashed (with my old rom Voodoo Doctor, SeeArms Rom and Darky's 8.1 rom on the card just to have options) and all was good!
PS: the steam recovery knocked off the first letter of the file when executing for some reason so I had to make 2 copy's of each rom I wanted access to ie Darkysrom.zip and arkysrom.zip just look for that error when you are doing this.
Good post - hopefully it'll help someone out who's stuck.
Hopefully
I'd like to stick some of that in on the thread for your rom but I need put another 7 half relevent messages out there before I am worthy... I understand the rule but I'd rather only post where it is meaningful...
GF

Steep Learning curve these last couple of hours

Excuse the long thread title lol..
I've been gently lowering myself into all this tampering with my phone as I've always been a bit of a tinkerer with everything i've ever owned.
So back in march my phone, an unbranded handset on o2 uk was on 2.2.1. My first foray into modifying my handset was to flash the jvk gb firmware. I then rooted it using cf root. All very simple. I then flashed it using cwm with Simply honey 3.2 and then the latest 3.5. No issue.
So this afternoon, I flashed it with the "unspoken ones" kernel just cos I could lol. Something didnt seem right though. There was a bit of lag and I got one or two forced closures so I decided to restore one of the cwm backups I had. Thing is, it hung upon reboot at the i9000 screen, for about 10 minutes so I pulled the battery. Now I couldnt get it restarted. Panic set in. This was my first proper issue and I just wished I was back in march on 2.2.1 again.
As said, couldnt get it started so went hunting some advice. Install a base stock rom with 3 files and a 512 pit. I struggled. Could I find 3 files ? Nope. Not on samfirmware. Every file I downloaded was one file. JP1 JPU JPY. All 1 file. So. As JPY was the firmware I was on originally, I chose the 1 file version, put the phone in download mode and flashed it via odin. It worked !!! And then I plugged it into kies and up popped the box, I have an firmware update ! JPO GB! So i installed that. I'm quite surprised that I got the update because you always see lots of threads regarding people being unable to update by kies once they have modified their phones. Why did mine work? Because the handset in unbranded perhaps ?
Anyway, I wanted to get back to the Simply Honey rom because it ran really well and the battery life is fantastic but Simone hasnt done a version based on JVO yet as far as I could tell so I thought, I know, I'll root with cf root, again and try that backup again using cwm. And it worked, and here I am back where I was earlier today ! Ace ! lol
Sorry about the essay but I'm sure that there are some questions in there worth answering.. ?...and also to serve as a bit of help to those that find themselves in a dodgy situation. Just calm down, search for the advice, it is out there and do as it says and everything will be cool
Posted from my restored and working handset...
the files you download from samfirmware are rar files (have a .rar extention). This means you need to decompress them into a folder and the "three files" will be in there. You need a rar extractor app. You can use 7-zip which is free.
You need odin (or ezodin or heimdal) to flash the stock rom but I am sure you know that already. There are a few guides around for all tools.
There is a lot of information here, especially in the "sticky" posts. If you feel like learning what you are doing rather than copy instructions (as I think you do), it may be a good idea to go through them.
Anyway you got your phone working in the end so that's good!
simple solution when an install hangs is only to reflash the kernel in odin: that restarts the phone.
cwm is not invincible and the restored rom is there but the phone hangs on the boot because of the kernel hiccup. Reflashing the kernel to the one you now want will allow the phone to boot and access the rom that matches -- you do have to ensure the recovery version rom and the kernel you are flashing are in sync.
Persist. You only really panic the first time this happens -- after that you know it is a possibility and how to fix it.
Worst case scenario: pull the battery, reinsert, go to download mode and reflash the kernel and base rom of your choice. At least now you have a clean phone!
Two things are important to remember: (1) always do a backup before installing a new rom or kernel and (2) use titanium backup for all applications -- easy to restore everything.
Also I find it easier to use google calender and my internet email as bases for dates, appointments and contacts -- that way if I loose everything on the phone I can quickly reload my data by sync with online accounts once I have the phone "rebuilt".

[Q] Restore SGS (europe) to default firmware

I've grown tired of CLM chrashing all the time, and I want to go back to the latest possible european firmware. This, however, proved to be quite the challenge. This is our story so far:
1. Our hero starts up Odin and (appearently does not) revert his SGS to it's orignal state. Instead, he gets BSOD, but manages to boot the phone into download mode because he's a hacker.
2. Our hero randomly finds Darkys mod. He installs the mod, and everything actually works. Except that Darkys is way worse, and our hero longs for the days of speedmod kernel stock firmware.
3. Our hero reads somewhere that it's a good idea to factory reset his SGS, so now he cant boot into anything but boot into download and recovery. The phone is, however, very not bricked anymore.
4. This is were the hero asks the league of justica (or XDA) for help. He wants the following:
A link to the latest firmware for european Samsung Galaxy S, i9000, and some sort of guide to which files to use where in Odin (or heimdall). The problem is, all the guides I've tried so far linked to firmware that was inconsistent with what ODIN requested (it had no .pit file etc).
Can anyone of you champions of justice and peace help me with this?
Hey man.
Why haven't you looked a bit in the development section? There are plenty of stock firmwares over there
Here's the link with everything you need: click.
I suggest you flash JVT, it's the best stock ROM, as far as I know.
I hope I was able to help you. Bye

Kies with CM13, other custom ROM possible?

I'm trying to get Kies to work with a custom ROM. I've tried several roms over the past few days trying to find one that performs great and feels good to me but I just realised that Kies won't give my info back.
There's a few important things I backed up which I need... It's my own fault for not paying attention when I got giddy with ROM swaps, but I'd sure appreciate some help.
Kies, smart switch, and Odin don't work with cm Roms.
It would be simplest flash stock, restore from kies, save what you need on a non-proprietary format, and then flash a custom rom.
I may flash to stock anyways, then root and remove the garbage programs I don't use.

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