How to Update Samsung Galaxy Vibrant with Android 4.0 ICS Firmware

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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is said to be the best version of Android. If you have already toyed around with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, for sure you gave it a thumb up because of ICS. What more can you ask for? You have great hardware and feature-rich ICS — a perfect combination.

The sad thing about this though is that we get to drool over the Galaxy Nexus, but many of us are not yet ready to buy it because we still have our existing Android smartphones. Our only hope right now is for the makers of our existing smartphones to release an ICS update so we can have a taste of what the buzz is all about.

When it comes to “hopeless” situations like this, our trusty Android community of developers would always come to the rescue. We all know how brilliant these people are, and we’ve already benefited from their works. And, indeed, they are doing some work with Ice Cream Sandwich right now.

One of the solid proofs of their hardwork is the ICS custom ROM that can be installed on the Samsung Galaxy Vibrant. It is not yet perfect, but it is a work in progress which seems to hold a lot of promise. So, if you have a Samsung Galaxy Vibrant, you can taste ICS by following the instructions below.

Things You Need

• A PC running Windows Vista or Windows 7
• A fully charged Samsung Galaxy Vibrant
• Root access on the Galaxy Vibrant
• Backup of your phone data, in case you encounter issues

Steps in Installing Ice Cream Sandwich

1. Download the following three files to your computer:
1. ICS custom ROM for the Galaxy Vibrant. You can get it 

1. here.
2. Galaxy Vibrant kernel. You can get it here.
3. Superuser app, which you can get from here.
1. After downloading the files, copy all three into the root directory of the Vibrant’s SD card. Do not rename or modify the files. You’ll need to connect your device to your computer via a USB cable so that you can copy the files.
2. Reboot the device into recovery mode. You can do this by turning off the device and while it’s off, press and hold down the Volume Down key and the OK button. While both buttons are pressed and held down, press the Power button.
3. In recovery mode, you need to do two things: “Wipe data/factory reset” and “Wipe Cache partition”. To scroll to these options, you just have to use the volume rocker and to select an item, use the Power button.
4. Thereafter, select “Install zip from sdcard”, then select “Choose zip from sdcard,” then navigate to the directory where you save the downloaded ZIP files, and then pick ICS_4.0.3_r1-RC2.11-i9000.zip. This will start flashing the ZIP file to your phone. Flash the other two files (ICS-RC2.1-i9000-Glitch.zip and Superuser-3.0.7-efghi-signed.zip — in that order) in the same manner described in this step.
5. The flashing process will take some time, so be a little bit patient.
6. After all three files have been flashed, reboot your device.

Congratulations! Your Samsung Galaxy Vibrant now runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich firmware, which ought to reinvigorate your phone and give you bragging rights. What is it like to use ICS on your Galaxy Vibrant?