[Galaxy Tab  Android Development] thepittbull:
About the updater and bootloops... my POV.

Great post @kk! I'm also coming to the same conclusion that you had. I've got a feeling that it's due to the various other mods that came out earlier that could be affecting the updater. I mean, to be fair, these is considered the early days of GingerBread on our Tabs, and to those that have used Overcome since it's earlier days on Froyo might attest, it takes a while before things really settle down. Bearing in mind, this is the first kernel on GB that AB86's released.

There's this anxiousness to get to ext4, the newer CPU governors etc on this new platform, that I can't blame users for trying out other mods. But sometimes, it hard to cater to different configurations. With that in mind, during testing, we only tested against a pure RC1 and Beta2 setup, as we've got quite a limited amount of time before release.

I give you an example of how I tested the ROM, pre-release:

First, of course, would be to test the updater on my existing setup, with all my gunk from day to day use. Best example of a typical user. My setup? I have about 308 apps installed, with over 4,000+ SMS/MMS messages, and three gmail account set to push. That's my daily driver. So, to quote a famous analogy, best to "dogfood" it.

So if the update goes well. I'll back up like how I wrote according to my guides, and would restock to Beta2. Update it there again. If it works, I'll restock again to Beta2 and restore my titanium backup of 308 apps. (This part is slightly time consuming...) and update again. Then I repeat the process with RC1 again.

And then I repeat it with the Gold Updater (Un-themed).

So basically for the updater, I'll basically test them out for about 5 times for each updater, in various setups, just to make sure it works cleanly before I give AB86 the thumbs up on my testing. Then of course, I'd do the tests for the Full ROMs. (These are easier, as there's less variables...)

Usually I'd do these test regime twice (in two days) if time permits, but basically that's the testing regime that I subject it to, before I'm confident of it. On top of it, there's the other testers that'll chime in too, with their experiences.

Testing does take time, as you can imagine, which is why, to a certain degree, we can't test against other variables like other people's mods etc. What we can roughly say with a clear conscience, is that, if you're updating/flashing from a pure Overcome base... 98-99% of the time, it should be fine, with the 1-2% being the "Act Of God"/Gremlims variable that we can never insure against.

When there's other mods that come into play, all bets are off.

Anyway, in case some others jump and say that I'm against other mods etc... that's not what I'm saying. I'm all for testing other mods and stuff -- that's the joy of being on XDA. If not, we'd all be running on stock, would we?

My point is this: It's just that there's too many variable when a person add different mods, for us to take into account for in the updater. So in such cases, when there's a mod involved, and it bootloops after an update, a full install (hopefully done with a restock... it just adds another few more minutes anyway!) would be the best advice.

And always backup before you flash anything...