[Samsung Galaxy Gio GT-S5660] TripleRipple:
Thank you for the replies Peteragent5 and Darkshado. Again I really do appreciate your time and your support of those out there interested in learning more about android based devices.

Good question Darkshado....let me try to clarify things again. I apologize as I tend to ramble. I would rather give more information than not enough.

Yes that is the goal. Or at least I would like the ability to do that. I understand it is not entirely accurate though as with the installation of CWM it is not really stock.

Well of course I started with the Out-of-Box Stock Samsung/Bell Canada ROM on the phone based on Gingerbread 2.3.4. I rooted it of course. Then I installed CWM that supported both RFS and EXT4. I believe 5.2.0.7 by Phiexz as mentioned in my first post. To be honest, since I am a noob and I wanted to get started so quickly, I cannot honestly remember which version of CWM I used originally. It may have even been px-CWM-v2.zip. Regardless of the version it obviously supported Stock Samsung/Bell Canada RFS based file system and I used that to make the Nandroid based backup within CWM of the existing Stock ROM on the phone.

After that point I thought I would be safe to start playing with Community-made ROMs CWM-flashable installs based on the GT-S5660 although of course I had the GT-S5660M Canadian version. So I went forward and tried [ROM] Enhanced236 - stock 2.3.6 (06.08.2012 update) http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1654317 as I wanted something close to original version of Gingerbread that came Out-of-Box with the phone but was upgraded to fix and issue I had with version 2.3.4 of Gingerbread.

The main drive for doing this was to assist my wife with an issue she has on her Bell GT-S5660M running on the SaskTel telco in SK. There is an issue with her SMS/texting. She always has to turn on/off Settings, Wireless and Network, Mobile Networks, Use Packet Data to get texting to send out. Receiving is fine. It seems to be a known issue when the phone is used with Telus or SaskTel networks in Canada. From what I understand the phone with 2.3.4 of Gingerbread is not affected on the Bell and Rogers network in Canada. It seems to be related to a bug in the phone at the particular Gingerbread version 2.3.4 from what I read. Since Kies did not have an update for the Bell based phone beyond version 2.3.4 I thought it is time to check out custom ROMs. After trying her SIM card with the Enhanced236 - stock 2.3.6 everything worked perfectly on my test phone for texting. So I took a Nandroid backup via CWM of that ROM. Then I tried [DEV] CyanogenMod 9.1 / CyanogenMod 10 by MacławStudios http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1414173 to see what the Jelly Bean hype was about and again made a CWM backup of the ROM to maintain my settings.

I had a friend over and I was showing him what I had learned so far and I was showing all the capabilities of CWM. Then I told him I could even restore back to original factory ROM as well although I had not tried it yet thinking CWM was full proof. I tried it and it failed in front of him. So then I thought...wow...I do not understand as much as I think. That is when I stumbled on the difference between RFS in Stock Samsung ROMs and EXT4 in the Community-made ROMs. Sorry I know that is quite a bit of background information but it helps to show where I am coming from in terms of wanting to accomplish to here.

So I read a bunch and realized that the only way to go back was to flash back to Stock with ODIN. So that at that point I tried your Stock ROM GT-S5660M_MUGKG3_stock_rooted_ROM and the one from sammobile for the GT-5660M from Bell GT-S5660M_BMC_S5660MUGKG3_S5660MUGKG3_S5660MBMCKG3. I thought then I could simply install CWM again (the version that obviously supports RFS and EXT4 5.2.0.7) and then restore the original Stock Nandroid backup I made of the original Out-of-Box ROM. As mentioned in the previous post I saw the rfs in the file names of the back before the .tar extension.

That is when the failures in restoring via CWM occurred noted in the first post (E:format_volume: format_rfs_device failed on /dev/block/stl12 Error while formatting /system!). I thought this would work for sure. That is when I started to think if I could get this all to work I would convert the stock ROM with a custom kernel to running exclusively on EXT4 so that if I ever wanted to go back to 2.3.4 I could do it easier with out having to use ODIN and going back to stock RFS file system. So I guess really I do not want to go back to Stock but the Stock Files in EXT4 formatted form...which I understand would require a custom kernel. Regardless I am not able to restore the original backup so obviously there is something I am missing. That is where I would like to start. I thought as long as I can not get the original backup to restore....then I do not understand enough to continue on the journey. Hence to post requesting assistance.

I am not exactly sure what you mean here. Once I flashed the Stock RFS Samsung/Bell Canada ROM back via ODIN in some cases it would not boot. It was in a boot loop stuck on the Samsung logo. I went into normal recovery mode (Not CWM recovery mode since I did not reinstall it yet at that point) and I would perform the Wipe Data and Wipe Cache functions within recovery to get it out of the boot loop. I always made sure the OS fully loaded and functioned before moving to the next step of what I was trying to do. It was at that point I would install CWM again and then find out the original backup I took would not restore with the same error (E:format_volume: format_rfs_device failed on /dev/block/stl12 Error while formatting /system!).

I read a bit about this but I did not completely understand it. Is there a thread you can point me to in regard to this? Ultimately the goal is just to be able to restore to stock (or stock converted to EXT4 with a custom "close to original" kernel like CF-Root) if and when I want to in the easiest fashion.

Yes I can understand that it is a bit of an odd request and not one that many would really be that interested in...but I am simply from the point of view of just seeing if it is possible. Once I get something in my head I want to prove or disprove it is possible. But I need knowledgeable people like you to offer suggestions and share past experience. I do not mind performing the work....I just need some help from time to time. I have been employed in the IT field for over 15 years but I am more of Windows guys.... but I am not afraid to play with anything and learn. Please do not bash me on the Windows/Microsoft thing....it pays the bills.

Again the goal is to keep everything within CWM so that you do not really need to go back to a computer. It might take some work and effort to get there though. I am not sure who else would be interested but it then could be shared with the masses on this forum. Again not sure of the value to everyone.

GREAT!!!...I am game to try it. Again if you have a post of step by step on how to achieve this it would be appreciated. I believe I saw a post of yours when I was performing my research about this but it may not be exact for what we are trying to accomplish here. Perhaps it is though.

Well based on the posts I have read on your dissection of the partitions on the GT-S5660, you are one of the great resources to assist on this. I noticed that the CSC.rfs in not in your GT-S5660M_MUGKG3_stock_rooted_ROM but it was included in the S5660MUGKG3_S5660MUGKG3_S5660MBMCKG3_home from samsmobile. So I am not sure where that version came from if it was leaked or what. I would guess that my original Out-of-Box CSC.rfs has been overwritten by the S5660MUGKG3_S5660MUGKG3_S5660MBMCKG3_home version if there happen to be any differences. My wife's phone is still available so I could still extract the original file from her phone. Maybe that would not help though....I am not really sure what is contained in the CSC.rfs if it is phone, ROM specific...etc.

Anyway regardless I appreciate the time anyone has put in reading or thinking about my post. Again thank you for your time and effort. This is really a great forum full of great information.

ps. How much do I dislike the ReCaptcha spam blocker when trying to post? Very much!!!....you have to hit refresh about 100 times before you can actually make out some words you can type.....FAIL. I see it on numerous sites....really annoying...I like the pattern based ones that you put together way better.