Ok the second word is off and the first word begins with F.

FINALLY downloaded the stock zip and put it on an SD.
Try and apply update/install it and I get:
"E:signature verification failed"

Does this mean Samsungs own standard rom isn't signed?
Right I need to go get a Gingerbread rom now and try that. When I get this back to normal eventually I will think about pooping in an envelope addressed to samsung. When I calm down after that I'll probably just email them my disgust then give the supermod kernel etc a try. I'm definitely not going through this hassle everytime google decides to update android.
You'd expect a bloody OTA update to just work. GGRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr r.........................

sorry, saw this too late. I downloaded my firmware from www.sammobile.com (you need to register but its free).

BTW - root will stop OTA update from running. I managed to hide my root for the previous minor upgrade (to GB 2.3.6) and the OTA worked fine. However, as I said, my attempts to do the same for ICS failed.

Forget OTA if you are rooted, use pc odin or mobile odin.

thanks. didn't think just rooting would cause such a problem. the minor update before worked fine. Spent most of last night after work waiting for stuff to download, for it not to work lol. Left a gingerbread rom downloading overnight, so will try that after work today. The big problem is I can't use odin and adb doesn't seem to work either. probably my 10 year laptop's fault, but I can't check. What I can use is the stock recovery (e3) thingy, but so far I can't get it to go past checking whether a rom is signed. I'm hoping this gingerbread is. it says it's the official stock one, but then I thought that ics one was too.
Does anyone know if I'm just being completely stupid (likely) and totally baarking up the wrong tree here, could I be doing something much simpler?

If I could even just get my data, pictures, videos and stuff, copied across then I'd happily just send it off to Samsung, but there doesn't seem to be a wy in that I know of.

Hi. sorry to bother eveyone again. Is there any way to tell if I am still rooted? If the stock gingerbread rom don't work then I will likely try the mobile odin thing you suggest. If I am still rooted that should be doable, if not is there a way to do it from recovery?

Open Terminal and give 'su' command - if working you're rooted (you should get a # prompt, too). Then you also try the 'whoami' command, should result in 'root'

Hi again. went in to try that and if I do adb devices it gives me a long number and says recovery. So it can see it in recovery mode. Once I enter a shell it decides it cannot see it anymore. If I enter odin mode it can't see it. If I try using odin on windows, it can't see anything at any time ( was always like that before anyway). So, I am unable to find out if I still have root. Outside of the shell, trying adb root tells me adbh cannot run as root in production builds, so I am thinking I cannot be root and that might be the 'root' ( ha ha) of the problem here. I am back to trying different roms to see if it will accept anything as 'signed' for now, unless anyone's got any other idea?

I don't understand what you guys are doing.
Here's the steps you need to follow:

A)
0- Back up all your media to your PC (movies, videos, photos, pictures, documents, music, voice recordings, etc etc)
1- Back up all your personal files (contacts, sms, call log, apn)
2- Root Gingerbread ROM (CF-Root, doesn't increase flash counter, no Triangle)
3- Back up all your Apps (Titanium BackUp Free)
4- Back up your EFS system folder (has imei etc, just to be safe)
5- Back up everything NANDROID

Then: Step B
-UnRoot the Gingerbread ROM (don't hide it and risk a buggy update)
-Apply the OTA to Official Samsung ICS (4.0.3)
-Use PC Odin to flash a SAFE (TouchWizz) kernel, choices include:
--Franco (v5), Speedmod
-Reboot
-TriangleAway (reset counter)

Now you have official Samsung TouchWizz ROM, Android 4.0.3, cwm recovery, safe Samsung kernel with root and busybox.

Finalize Official Samsung ICS Update: Step C
-Test if everything works
-Do a NANDROID backup (now you have TouchWizz ICS backed up, if you want S Pen/TWizz Apps)
-Issue updates for any Apps
-Back Up your Apps again with Titanium BackUp (for the ICS Samsung Apps)
-Restore all your media (after you nandroid, so its not too bloated)

And hopefully that will be a "good enough" experience for you, otherwise proceed below.

And if you want a better experience: Step D
--Use CWM to flash the (AOSP) ROM of your choice from recovery (eg ParanoidAndroid)
-Wipe wipe wipe (Dalvik, cache, factory reset)
-Use CWM to flash a SAFE (AOSP) kernel, choices include:
--Thor(v15), XPLODWILD, DAFUQ, or updated CF-kernel
-Fix permissions
-Reboot

Now you have a Pure Google/Stock experience, Android 4.0.4, cwm recovery, custom ROM and custom KERNEL with root and busybox.

Finalize your custom firmware: Step E
-(Optional) From CWM, flash Google Apps (Play Store etc) if they aren't included in the rom (most roms have it pre-installed)

-Download Titanium BackUp from Play Store
-Restore all your apps
-Restore all your personal files (contacts, sms, call log) (apn only if necessary)
-Test if everything works
--Play around with the ROM (features etc) and the KERNEL (test O'C, U'V, Stability and Battery Life)
-Nandroid backup (if you want)
-Restore all your media (after you nandroid, so its not too bloated)

By now, you've graduated Android 101, you should be able to do many other things, otherwise have the capacity to learn them

That's what I'd love to be able to do Kangal, but like a ***** I thought I was safe as I didn't have any custom roms or anything, so just tried the OTA update and I'm now stuck. Looks like the only thing that will work is putting a signed rom on an SD card and flashing it via e3 recovery. But can I find a rom that e3 believes is signed? Nope. Treid a few now
Will keep trying as I can't get anything else to work. I am open to any and all ideas though, or if someone knows of a rom or update or anything that is either signed, or can trick the signature verification.

Why do Samsung do any of this in the first place. Seems crazy.

Firstly, its not purely Samsung's fault.

Since you didn't change the flash counter / Yellow Triangle...it means you still have warranty. You can give it to Samsung, who will return to factory settings (everything wiped) and ship it back to you. Cost you 1-3 weeks (hopefully).

Otherwise, you can inject a custom kernel to it using PC Odin.
With the custom kernel, you can't load anything but at least you'll have custom CWM recovery. From there you can easily install a custom rom.

I don't think you can retrieve your data (contacts, messages, apps etc), though.

P.S. If you decide on PC Odin and it fails its too bad. You wont be able to send it in to Samsung as the mark left by Odin will be visible and they'll void the warranty.

Hey Guys,

Today I bought a new samsung galaxy note but I found out 2 things that surprised me:

1- First thing is that the phone has a label that says : " Made By Samsung"

2- Second thing is that the phone is new but it came with ICS 4.03.

Why is it that the phone is "made by samsung" ? And shouldn't the phone come with gingerbread and not ICS?

Please guys any help is appreciated because this made me worried.
Thanks,