[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] creepyncrawly:
This is a Heimdall/Odin flashable pre-rooted stock UCLL6. This is the exact version that was released over Kies, and contains the bone stock kernel, plus rooted system, modem, cache.img and hidden.img. There are no bootloaders in this package. With this package, you can root stock ICS without incrementing the flash counter.

If flashing this from another base, you should perform a wipe data/factory reset before flashing this, or the phone may hang on the Rethink Possible screen during boot.

This Rooted package does not include busybox. If you need busybox, you can install it from the Google Play Store.

To flash with Heimdall command line, extract the individual files from the tar and flash the components with heimdall from the commandline as follows:

heimdall flash --kernel zImage --factoryfs factoryfs.img --modem modem.bin --cache cache.img --hidden hidden.img

Download and install the latest version of Heimdall Command Line for your operating system from here. (Latest version 1.3.2 at this writing.)

It is unknown whether the kernel in this firmware distribution contains the eMMC cap erase bug. We can only speculate. There were many reports of damage from the leaks that led up to the first ICS release, UCLE5, but the UCLE5 kernel itself did not produce very many reports of damage. I only saw two reports that could have been memory damage due to the cap erase bug, and only one of those seemed to be even half way conclusive. So it is possible it was even fixed in that release. UCLL6 appearantly fixes some of the other kernel problems that were present in UCLC3 such as the sleep of death, so it may very well be a clean kernel with regard to the cap erase bug, but this can not be verified by the developers on xda without original source, which is not available.

If you are at all worried about this, it certainly would be the safest route to use a custom safe kernel. And as a bonus, the custom kernels are likely to perform much better than stock.

Three different ways to install a customized kernel containing ClockworkMod Recovery onto your Rooted phone without incrementing the flash counter.

You must use an ICS kernel if you want the system to boot up, and it must work with Samsung firmware, and be the no-mic-swap version. If you install a Gingerbread kernel the phone will not boot.

The main Kernel options are: Siyah v4.3.3 by Ktoonsez | Siyah v5.1.1 by AJ Newkirk (use the one without mic swap)

How to Install a customized kernel containing ClockworkMod Recovery onto your Rooted phone from your phone, using Mobile Odin Lite or Mobile Odin Pro

This is the preferred method to install a customized kernel onto your phone. In addition, Mobile Odin is a very useful tool that will allow you to install custom software directly on your phone without using a computer.

Mobile Odin Lite (free) can be downloaded and installed directly on your phone, or it can be downloaded to your computer and installed with adb. Alternatively, you can purchase Mobile Odin Pro for under $5.00 and install it directly from the Google Play Store. It's easier, and you'll support the developer!

To use Mobile Odin Lite, download the file attached to the OP of this thread. You may need to be a registerd member of xda forums to download this file. Download directly on your phone, or to your computer and move or copy it to your phones sdcard. Using any file manager such as MyFiles or Root Explorer, select the file and install it. You can also install it from your computer using the following adb command:

adb install MobileODINLite-v2.45.apk

Download the file containing the kernel you want to flash, and extract from it the zImage, which contains the actual kernel.

Transfer the zImage to the root of your phone's internal or external sdcard, using a usb cable or another method such as dropbox.

On your phone, open the Mobile Odin program. If you installed Mobile Odin Lite, when it prompts you to install the add-in, click cancel. If you installed Mobile Odin Pro, you will have already downloaded and installed the add-in to activate all the features in the program. With Mobile Odin Lite, you will still be able to install the kernel.

In Mobile Odin, click on Kernel or Install Kernel, find and select the zImage on your internal or external SD card, and then click on Flash Firmware.

Mobile Odin will flash the kernel and then reboot the phone. You have now installed a custom kernel containing clockworkMod Recovery without changing the flash counter.

If you want to confirm installation of the new kernel, reboot into recovery to verify that you now have ClockworkMod Recovery. (The stock kernel has 3e recovery.) Or install CPU Spy from the Google Play Store (before you root) and compare the Kernel Info it displays with the same info from the stock kernel.

To reboot into recovery on the SGH-I777: With the phone powered off, hold down the vol up + vol down + power buttons continuously until the initial boot screen appears a second time.

If you installed Mobile Odin Lite, and you don't want to keep it, you can uninstall it now. If you want to keep it and activate all its features, download the add-on MobileODIN_FlashKernel_I777-v1.0.apk from here and install it on your phone with adb using the instructions above.

How to Install a customized kernel containing ClockworkMod Recovery onto your Rooted phone from a pc, using Android Debug Bridge (Windows, Linux and Mac OS)

Download and install the Android Software Developer Kit (SDK) from here. You may need to run SDK Manager with administrator privledges.

You need to have the USB drivers for SGH-I777 installed on your computer. (It will be "Samsung USB Driver for Mobile Phones" in Control Panel\Uninstall Programs.) Download and install the latest drivers from this thread. (x86 and x64)

You will need busybox. If not already installed, download and install busybox from the Google Play Store.

Download the file containing the kernel you want to flash, and extract from it the zImage, which contains the actual kernel.

Move or copy the zImage into the platform-tools directory (on older installations it is the tools directory) where adb.exe resides. This will be something like (on Windows) c:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools.

On your phone, first enable USB Debugging (Menu\Settings\Applications\Development\USB Debugging) and then plug in your USB cable, connecting your phone to your computer.

Open a command prompt. Change directory to the tools directory, then enter the following at the command line:

adb push zImage /sdcard/zImage
adb shell
$ su
# dd if=/sdcard/zImage of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p5
# exit
$ exit

The dd command requires superuser permission on the phone represented by a # prompt. After you type su and hit enter, look for a superuser window on your phone and give the permission. If the permission request doesn't pop up, open superuser on your phone to force the phone to prompt for superuser permission. After approval, the adb session will be listed as Unknown in superuser.

After you've finished, the code in the Command prompt window will look something like this (your command prompt and some numbers will be different):

C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools>adb push zImage /sdcard/zImage
4279 KB/s <4776784 bytes in 1.090s>
C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools>adb shell
$ su
su
# dd if=/sdcard/zImage of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p5
dd if=/sdcard/zImage of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p5
10153+1 records in
10153+1 records out
5198492 bytes transferred in 2.558 secs <2032248 bytes/sec>
# exit
exit
$ exit
exit

Reboot the phone. You have now installed a custom kernel containing clockworkMod Recovery without changing the flash counter.

If you want to confirm installation of the new kernel, reboot into recovery to verify that you now have ClockworkMod Recovery. (The stock kernel has 3e recovery.) Or install CPU Spy from the Google Play Store (before you root) and compare the Kernel Info it displays with the same info from the stock kernel.

To reboot into recovery on the SGH-I777: With the phone powered off, hold down the vol up + vol down + power buttons continuously until the initial boot screen appears a second time.

How to Install a customized kernel containing ClockworkMod Recovery onto your Rooted phone from your phone, using Android Terminal Emulator

Download and Install Android Terminal Emulator onto your phone from the Google Play Store.

You will need busybox. If not already installed, download and install busybox from the Google Play Store.

Download (onto your PC) the file containing the kernel you want to flash, and extract from it the zImage, which contains the actual kernel.

Transfer the zImage to the root of your phone's sdcard, using a usb cable or another method such as dropbox.

On the phone, open a terminal session with Android Terminal Emulator.

A few points to be aware of:

Android is a version of linux so you are using linux commands. Linux commands are case sensitive, so you must for instance type "zImage" and not "zimage", if that is the way the file is spelled on the sd card.

Since this will be the first time you have used superuser.apk with the terminal, you may need to approve it on you phone. After that, superuser permission will be remembered.

When you first open a terminal session, you will be at the root of the phone, or essentially "/". The $ prompt means shell access, the # prompt means root file access.

You need a # prompt to complete this Step.

If your keyboard goes away, use the menu button options to get it back.
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In the terminal session, type su and then enter. You will get a superuser request. Once you approve it, you will get the # prompt.

Then type the following:

dd if=/sdcard/zImage of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p5

Press enter, wait till the zImage is copied over to the named block. (takes about 2 or 3 seconds)

To close the root session, type "exit" and enter. Use the back button to close Android Terminal Emulator.

Reboot the phone. You have now installed a custom kernel containing clockworkMod Recovery without changing the flash counter.

If you want to confirm installation of the new kernel, reboot into recovery to verify that you now have ClockworkMod Recovery. (The stock kernel has 3e recovery.) Or install CPU Spy from the Google Play Store (before you root) and compare the Kernel Info it displays with the same info from the stock kernel.

To reboot into recovery on the SGH-I777: With the phone powered off, hold down the vol up + vol down + power buttons continuously until the initial boot screen appears a second time.