[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] easyrider77:
Ok I wasn't sure where to put this so I apologize if this is in the wrong area.

Now on to my mission.

I have scoured the net trying to find a simplistic and basic method of getting a recovery from a rom, in this case it would be either from VILLUMINATI 4.4 kitkat rom, or from hood pope rom, both useing CWM recovery 6.0.3.9.

From what I have read and my limited knowledge of linux and programming I have come to this conclusion regarding this.

The boot.img is the kernel+ramdisk (not sure on that part) but I am after the kernel is all which has the recovery in it, correct me if I am wrong on this.

I am brand spanking new to this kitchen stuff and taking things VERRRRY slow and VERY simple one step at a time, so I may seem rather stupid to you all, but I assure you it's just I have tried Linux and commands and such and well it's just not for me I guess, so I am trying to make this a simple project as possible.

I know what a zimage file is, I know that there is a kernel recovery such as cwm or agat, the rom, and the modem or baseband, 3 separate things, but work all as a whole, aside from that I get lost with all the programming stuff.

A bit of info:

I want to extract or split a boot.img file and get the kernel from it so as I can use the recovery from it.

The phone I currently own is a Samsung Epic 4g Touch.

I have run numerous roms on it, the latest being CM 10.1 (4.2.2 android), hood pope (4.3 android) and the latest for this phone VILLUMINATI cm 11 (kitkat 4.4)

I am useing windows7 ultimate

Useing Cygwin along with dsixda's Android Kitchen with the needed addon packs or modules

I have used the kitchen for simply extracting the boot.img file so I could grab the kernel.

Now on to my questions

First off is there a 6.0.3.9 recovery out there for the epic 4g touch model sph-d710 and if so does anyone have a link for the d/l? (this would be the easiest and most hassle free solution). I have searched high and low and still can't find anything.

The kernel, gets renamed to zimage I am guessing?

When I try and extract from either hood pope or VILLUMINATI I get errors and it says the zimage file is empty.....I'm guessing it wasn't sure what to do with the kernel file, dunno. That leaves me at a dead end really.

End result of what I want to do......I am after a recovery that is newer than 4.2 for this model phone (SPH-D710), so as I can flash the newer 4.4 kitkat without having to go the dreaded long route that works right now.

Long route:

-Install el29 direct boot

-boot to recovery, flash the hood pope rom that has the newer recovery in it, and bypassing gapps right now because all I am after is the newer recovery

-reboot to recovery (not reboot system)

-once back in the "NEW" 6.0.3.9 recovery, I can now flash the new 4.4 kitkat

-wipe date/factory reset

-wipe cache

clear dalvik

-flash VILLUMINATI kitkat rom

-flash 4.4 gapps package

-reboot system now

The above round about way works fine, but it would be quite a bit easier if I had a newer recovery, then I could go from stock TW 4.1.2 directly to 4.4 kitkat, without having to go thru the hoops.

I hope this all made sense, and I hope someone has a solution.

I didn't post the errors I get, but if they are needed to further get help needed, please let me know and I will re-run the kitchen and copy the error messages I get.