I am plaining on copping this bad boy so I need this info . . . . the first thing I am going to do when I get my virgin mobile samsung intercept home tomorrow is get it rooted . . . you already know . . . shout out to josh for the step-by-step how-to guild ! ! !

A week ago, I finally bit the bullet and dropped my 1st gen iPhone with AT&T ($70/month) and bought the Samsung Intercept for Virgin Mobile.  Virgin offers a $25/month no contract plan that includes unlimited data, text, and 300 minutes/month.  The phone itself was $250 at Target, which means it will pay for itself after about 6 months away from AT&T.  Well, I figured that at worst I’d have to suffer with service I didn’t like for 6 months and at best I’d have a great deal that would last me for a while.

I’ve been wanting an Android phone with a full qwerty keyboard for a while, but I quickly realized that Android phones are usually locked down by the service provider.  To open up an Android phone, you can first root it (that is, gain complete access over the current software) and then install new software by flashing it with a custom ROM (a.k.a. ROMing it).  My first attempt involved following these instructions
which ruined my phone.  Here are the instructions for my successful attempt.

The “root” account is the unix/Android equivalent to the “Administrator” account in windows.  Basically, “being root” or “having root access” means that you can do anything to the phone including completely destroying it by messing around with the wrong files.

Basically what is happening is that you’ll be loading a couple of pieces of software that exploit security holes and allow for installing new software, running the exploits to get root access, and then loading custom software.

Read this guide for context.

0. Download and get to know the Android SDK

ok, I figured this out as I went.  Basically, you need to get the adb.exe (a.k.a. as just “adb” on OSX/linux systems).  This is the program that makes a connection with your phone over USB.  Read, read read.  You’ll also need to put the phone in USB Debugging mode.

To get to USB Debugging:  With the phone unplugged go to Settings -> Applications -> Development and click “USB Debugging”.  Plug it in and proceed.

1.  Get temporary root with SuperOneClick.

Follow these instructions.

Note: This will work without the Android SDK, and you can use the SuperOneClick copy of adb for the flashing steps.

This will only give you temporary root (at least it was temporary for me), but it should be enough to let you flash the new ROM.

2. Copy flash_image to phone

You need to download the flash_update binary that’s in this project for the Samsung Moment.  It’s in /system/bin/flash_image

Just drop the flash_image file into the same directory as the adb executable.

Once you have the flash_image file, you can push it to your phone using the command:

adb push flash_image /data/local/tmp/

You’ll also need to make the file executable on the phone.  Use this command, to get access to the phone:

adb shell

If you see a “$” prompt, it means you aren’t logged in as root.  Try the command:

su

Once you’re successful you’ll see a “#” prompt.

The last thing is to change the flash_image file into an executable using the chmod command.  In the “adb shell” prompt, run this command

chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/flash_image

Now you’re ready to download and install custom software (aka ROMs) to your phone.

3. Flash the image. (This is the part that might brick your phone)

(You’re supposed to load recovery.rfs, but I didn’t get that to work, so I’ll skip it.)

First, download the new image that you want to load, I used squealjoy2.2 which is supposed to fix a couple of the bugs I’ve been seeing with VoIP.

Save the file to your computer and copy the zImage file from the system directory in the zip to the same directory that you’re using for adb.

Then, you’ll need to push the file to your phone

adb push zImage /data/local/tmp/

Finally you’ll need to actually flash the zImage file over your boot ROM (this is really the part that could kill your phone.  If you’ve gotten this far, it should be fine, but double and triple check that you’ve got the right ROM for your phone.  If you flash the ROM for another phone, it might be permanently bricked.  Here is the command (run from the adb shell) once you’re sure you’ve got it right

/data/local/tmp/flash_image boot /data/local/tmp/zImage

It should tell you it’s installed successfully.  Now, if you’re sure you’ve got it right, you can reboot your phone into the new ROM.  It worked for me on the first try, but if it doesn’t work for you DON’T REBOOT until it does or you’re able to load another working ROM.  The phone will use the old software until you reboot, so this could be your only chance to save it if you messed up the install.

I don’t mean to make you anxious, but I did brick my phone the first time I tried (using a sketchier method BTW) so I’m extra cautious about this.  Google is your friend for finding info about flashing/recovery, there are tons of forums working on this phone right now.

Ok, now that all of that is done, what do you do with the new rooted/modded phone.  Well, I’m still figuring that out.  I was able to tether via WiFi (this is against VM’s terms of use, so I wouldn’t make a habit of it, but it’s worth having in a pinch), which is worth it on it’s own, and I know there are some other benefits, but you’ll just have to explore that yourself.

EDIT: I updated the instruction for flashing the image, I had left of the “./” before the executable.  Android is different from DOS/Windows, it won’t try to run arbitrary files in the local directory so you have to specify the full path.  “./” is an alias for the local directory.  Thanks to Blair for helping me catch this. 2nd Edit:  Ok, I went ahead and just put the full path in to make it even simpler.

I should also add that I can’t guarantee this won’t ruin your phone.  Use at your own risk.  This worked for me, but it may be that it won’t work for everyone.  Flashing your phone may violate terms of use for Virgin Mobile and certainly violates any warranty provided by Samsung, so don’t try this unless you’re willing to risk ruining a $250 phone.

Check out this Virgin Mobile Sprint Samsung Intercept Review . . . PS the Virgin Intercept is the same EXACT MODEL and even runs on the powerful Sprint 3G Network (Unlimited Text x Email x Data x 300 minutes of Talk on an Android Phone for $25 per month . . . . . . . it’s bananas . . . how can you go wrong???? )

(554 days ago)

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