We’re loving ICS on our Galaxy S i9000 and while its cousins in US — Vibrant, Captivate, etc. — were left behind in race to Android 4.0 rom port, those cool dudes are catching up now too. Using the Galaxy S port, ASOP Android 4.0 rom is now available on Captivate too, while one for Vibrant is also in works. Sadly, no progress is visible to us on Fascinate and Epic 4G.

Anyway, to install Ice Cream Sandwich on Captivate, I suggest you upgrade to Android 2.3 (if you haven’t) and have ClockWorkMod recovery installed, too — it’s very much required. Use Google if you need help on this.

Warning: Warranty may be void of your device if you follow the procedures given on this page. You only are responsible for your device. We won�t be liable if any damage occurs to your device and/or its components.

Credits for the Android 4.0 ICS port on Captivate go to:

  1. onecosmic – who started it on Galaxy S i9000 and helped porting work on Captivate i897
  2. DemonWav – who initiated the porting process on Captivate

Official Development page:

Current ROM version: Alpha7 (Nov 25, 2011)

What Works:

Both cellphones:
Hardware Acceleration
Audio
calls, sms, 3g (with a ugly patch but it works.)
Touch
Wifi
SDCards (internal and external)
Market
Contacts sync
Calendar sync
camera
panorama mode
face unlock — Not really, no FFC
Gps

What doesn’t work:

Bluetooth
Camera (video recording)

How to Install Android 4.0 ICS on Captivate i897

Hey, this guide is a shorter version of the long and complete guide I wrote for Installing Ice Cream Sandwich on Galaxy S i9000. And made a video too for that (the one you see above). So I suggest you to take a look at that guide too if you get problems following the steps below. Btw, your phone (i897) doesn’t require flashing of a kernel, which i9000 requires.

  1. There is one single page for downloads of ICS port for all Galaxy S and variant devices. Link to download page. Go there and download the Android 4.0 rom file meant for your device. The current version is Alpha7 and the file to be downloaded is Alpha7Captivate.zip. (Always check the latest rom version available for your phone on the download page, and then download and use that rom file below)
  2. Transfer the rom to your phone.
  3. Power Off phone.
  4. Reboot into recovery by holding both volume keys and then pressing power key.
  5. Flash the rom using install zip from sdcard option.
  6. While your phone is still in recovery mode, pull battery and after some 2 seconds put it back.
  7. Reboot into recovery mode again the way you did in step 4.
  8. Do Wipe Data/Factory Reset
  9. Do Wipe Cache Partition
  10. Now, flash the rom file two more times (without any worries) as you did in step 5.
  11. After you’re done flashing, select reboot system now to reboot your phone.
  12. The phone should boot up properly with Android 4.0 running coolly.
  13. If it doesn’t boot up and gets stuck at boot logo (kernel screen), then go back to recovery and do steps 7 and 8 again and reboot (don’t do step 9 again).
  14. It should boot up fine now. And if it doesn’t, blame your luck and simply repeat steps 4 to 9 again.
  15. If you experience force close on market app, go to settings » applications » manage applications » all » Market » clear data. This should fix it.

If 3G isn’t working, do this:

If you boot up and you can’t get a 3G connection, download this and this and put them in your sdcard. Then boot into CWM and flash the 3genable script, then the superuser. Reboot, then set up your APN and install script manager from the market. In script manager, find /system/etc/init.d/99enable3G, select it and select run at boot, run as root, and run at network change. Save and exit, then reboot.

Let us know your thoughts, observations and problems (if any) in comments below. Enjoy!