The Samsung Captivate is a great device for the budget market, but the software updates are limited by the manufacturer, Android and the phone carrier networks which it runs over. That means there’s little to do after you get to know the current features you have in the version of Gingerbread. There is one glimmer of hope and that’s with opening up the internals with root access and a custom recovery image. Only then can you start installing custom ROMS and further enhancement the OS. If you find there aren’t many ROMS available from third-party developers, you can still enjoy a number of third-party apps available from the Google Play store. With these applications you can overclock the CPU to improve performance, improveme battery life, remove bloatware for extra performance and more.

BEFORE WE BEGIN 

• You must have the device running Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. You can check what version of Android your operating system is running by navigating to Settings > About Device.
• You must have a Windows computer. You cannot use a Mac OS X or Linux because we are using the Odin tool. The Samsung developers only use Windows for the tool.
• You don’t have to worry about reserving most of your battery because the USB charging will take over once plugged into the computer.
• You are flashing a custom kernel on your device. The kernel we are using is the corn kernel. Those who don’t want a new kernel shouldn’t go ahead with the installation.
• the following comes with a warning for all users. Some people strike issues when flashing the files. We do not recommend installing this on your daily drive just in case your device doesn’t work like it once did.

HOW TO INSTALL CLOCKWORKMOD RECOVERY ON THE SAMSUNG CAPTIVATE I897 

1. Download the CornKernel_UCKK4_v705.tar
2. Download the Odin 1.85.rar
3. Extract the Odin folder to the desktop.
4. Start the executable Odin file so it’s running on the computer.
5. Boot the Captivate in Download Mode.
6. Connect the smartphone to the computer with the USB cable.
7. Wait for Odin to pick up your device and change the ID: COM port color.
8. Click the PDA button and upload the cornkernel tar file.
9. Leave all other settings inside Odin as default.
10. Do not check the re-partition box.
11. Click the start button and hope for the best.

Now you have root access and a custom recovery image installed on your Sammy Captivate, you can start flashing all the custom goodies available.