Just put Android 2.3 (gingerbread) on my EPIC 4g

Ahhhhhhh! What a relief it is!

I now am running the Gingerbread 2.3 version of Android on my Samsung EPIC 4g! It took about 3 days of angst and eventual assistance by Randy to get it done but I am now running on THunderHawk V2.3.4 from RandomRomhttp://randomking.romgeeks.com/ and it is really great. I have not had the reboots some have experienced although, before I got it all done, I did have a few but I also had no data service and no bluetooth even though it appeared that I had it all installed correctly.

I finally dropped back to ground zero, started over from scratch following the instructions on RandomROM's site and now it works great! So far, no glitches and boy is it fast compared to Froyo!

A few notes I picked up about doing an upgrade.

1. Be sure you pre download everything that MIGHT be needed BEFORE you start the process. Unfortunately, this does not mean that you will actually have everything. It just means that you should have everything, particularly the BIG files that you may need.
2. No one thing puts on everything. There are parts and each part has to go on individually. Some packages may include several parts but usually, the related websites just point you to where other parts are.... and may be wrong.
3. Just because a file has a specific name as a file on another site eg. MODEMEH17.bin, does not mean that they are exactly the same. I downloaded the same file from two different locations and the first one (of course) did not work but passed the hash check test so no clue it was not right. The second one was longer and actually worked when I finally got it and installed it.
4. Try to get a clear sense of how it all goes together before you start picking up the pieces to fit them together. There are Kernels, modems, File systems (RFS and EXT4) that have to be converted, Uploaders to choose from (ODIN or HEIMDALL) and installation packages to choose from like oneclick. Each of these requires different things of you BEFORE you start to change anything.
5. BACKUP! before you do anything AND BACKUP! at various stages along the way. After you have backed up to your SD card, then BACKUP! the Sd card to your PC in case it is formatted or otherwise changed. Titanium backup is excellent and will allow you to restore your "STUFF" as needed once the installation is finished.

After the installation is complete, putting your "STUFF" back on is a mixed bag of choices: APPS sources, like Android market and AMAZON APPS, will remember what you have previously installed once you have your setup and sync info finished in the EPIC. You can just pick the ones you want from your MY APPS list within the market.

Was it worth the effort? I can now say it was but until it was all settled out, I was constantly thinking "I wish I had understood this process better before I started pushing buttons." The one thing that I did not know going in was exactly how to restore back to what I had before I started to change the system. That is something that should be crystal clear to you before you start.