[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] DuoDSG:
Afternoon, y'all. Let me cut to the chase:

My objective:

To install the custom ROM located at this link (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2591895). I don't want to lose my root functionality/benefits by taking the OTA 4.3 update (Titanium, Greenify, etc), but I want to be able to use apps like DashClock which don't work with 4.1.2.

My phone specs:

Model SCH-i535

Android Version 4.1.2

Baseband Version i535VRBMF1

Kernel Version 3.0.31-1152558 (se.infra@R0710-11 #1)

Build Number JZO54K.i535VRBMF1

Hardware version 1535.10

Phone

IS ROOTED

, and I used the Casual root tool located here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2332825

[*]Apps I am using during this process (specific to root, backup, etc): Titanium Backup Pro (full backup made, including update.zip), ROM Manager, Root Checker, SuperSU

[*]Although I had a ton of frozen bloatware/system apps (all safe, I checked thoroughly before I did this a few months ago), I have unfrozen everything.

Previous experience:

Before this S3, I had an HTC Thunderbolt which I successfully rooted and installed a custom ROM onto. So I have *some* experience, but I am no zen master.

Problems I've run into this time around:

Phone is rooted, but I am pretty sure the bootloader is NOT unlocked. Rootchecker confirms that the phone is rooted, and apps that require root access work just fine.

Related to the above point, when I run Casual (as I did just a few minutes ago), this is the log that appears in the window:

-Waiting for device...

Waiting for ADB device connection. When your OS recognizes the device, we will continue. Don't touch anything.

-Device found.

-Pushing exploit...

4298 KB/s (1283460 bytes in 0.291s)

-Pushing root tools...

2990 KB/s (96260 bytes in 0.031s)

4692 KB/s (1867568 bytes in 0.388s)

5424 KB/s (1872015 bytes in 0.336s)

-Rooting phone...

-This may take a few minutes.

Failure.

-installing superuser to system partition

-once root is confirmed you can flash the Insecure aboot

done

-Script Complete

This "FAILURE" is what catches my eye. I can't tell if the phone is "half-rooted" (no unlocked bootloader), or if it's just that Casual sees that my phone is already rooted so it doesn't bother trying to do it again (which is fine, I can understand that point, if it is true).

ClockworkRecovery Mod fails when trying to backup my current ROM (unlocked TouchWiz, no custom ROM installed yet). When I push "Backup Current ROM" in ROM Manager, it reboots the phone (crashes) and puts it into recovery mode, but there's nothing to recover. So my screen goes to the Yellow Triangle of Death screen and gives me a red error message in the top-left corner saying "secure kernel: fail". I had to reboot the phone using Volume Down+Home+Power, and it goes right back to a normal startup. This is what leads me to believe my bootloader is still locked, and I can't find a way to overcome that. I NEVER see the CWM menu to wipe cache, data, etc.

Titanium Backup failed to backup my SMS messages (everything else went fine). It gives me an XML error right away. I used a different app to back them up, which gave me no problems. Not sure if this is related to the larger problem, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

What I'm asking:

I'm wanting to make sure that I've got all my bases covered. I know I've done my backups through Titanium Backup correctly, but I do remember that with my Thunderbolt I had to copy down some ID numbers related to the phone so I could sync it after installing a custom ROM (I haven't read any mention of this with the S3, so I'm a bit worried that I'm missing something).

CWM not working correctly is what's throwing me off- I don't want to get my phone stuck in bootloops like before. I want to backup my current setup, clean the cache/data/etc, install the ROM and then restore my apps and data.

I want to avoid resorting to ODIN and putting my phone back to stock (and risk getting the OTA 4.3 update, which I refuse to do) to be able to load this ROM, but if that's what I need to do, then so be it.

Any help, insights, etc would be immensely appreciated! I've read countless threads over the last few months (and especially in the last week), and the fact that there isn't much documentation regarding MF1 when it comes to installing bootchains and ODIN makes me feel like I'm groping in a dark a bit.

Many thanks!