Hello

[hefftone]

This is my first smartphone. I really dig the android and the captivate. I had a LG VU that I'd modded quite a bit. After having this for a couple of months, I'm ready to start making some changes. Already rooted, but thats about it....First I want to pull off all the AT&T crap, but leave all the samsung stuff.

I've been lurking for a while, but i'm having a hard time with the how to's....stuff is so split up, i have a dozen tabs open trying to figure out what to do....For example, i still don't know what odin is.

 

[Martimus]

Welcome to the Android Forums!

One thing to keep in mind when removing bloatware from some Android phones is that sometimes the OTA updates released by the carriers first check for their existance. If AT&T does this (I know that Verizon does), then removing the bloatware will result in the inability to install any future OTA updates. In this case it's sometimes better to just rename the bloatware to something else. This way you can rename it back before attempting to install the OTA update and then rename it again afterwards.

Here is a thread that might asssit you in understanding odin:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-captivate/140190-whats-odin.html

 

[hefftone]

I'm having a hard time getting up to speed with alot of the things I see mentioned. i understand what a rom is, and how it works,.....but SDK, Odin, Sideloading, Using Titanium Backup, Busybox.... it's so spread out, I can't get a handle on setting it up. I have most of it downloaded, but I don't really know what to do.

I used the "unleash the beast" update, and it worked nicely. I like to try some roms.... but I need a primer on whats what. Where can I look for a laymans summary.

 

[Martimus]

SDK - System development kit. That's an application development software package for a PC that allows you to emulate (for the purpose of developing software) the Android environment on a PC.

Sideloading - Normally you load software onto an Android device through the Android Market. There are several markets available but the principal is pretty much the same. To sideload an app would be to bypass the market and install an application apk file directly on the phone. The app could be downloaded from a web site or saved on a SD card.

Titanium Backup - Titanium is basically just a third party backup app for Android. It allows you to backup installed apps and data to a backup folder on your SD card. Titanium backup requires root access on the phone because it needs to access installed apps on the system partition.

Busybox - Bustbox is basically an app containing a bunch of Linux/Unix utilities.

http://androidforums.com/ally-all-things-root/235909-what-busybox.html