XDA Developers have turned their sites on the Samsung Epic 4G and have released CynogenMod 7 for the Sprint 4G phone. The Gingerbread Mod is still in Alpha release and XDA developers Dameon87, nullghost, and DevinXtreme warn that the Mod is not fully functional. Users who choose to flash the ROM to their Epic 4G are advised that they will likely be able to make calls, send SMS text messages and data via bluetooth and WiFi, but that there are a few other things that aren’t working just yet. Users will not be able to use GPS or the Epic’s 5MP camera just yet. And hardware acceleration in the UI and in Video is still being worked on so it’s out of the mix as well. But hey, it’s small price to pay to get rid of TouchWiz, isn’t it?

“This software is considered ALPHA state. Some things will work, some will not,” says XDA Dev Dameon87. “You will likely encounter bugs. Do NOT flash this if you expect the software to be fully functional.”

With the warning that this is an Alpha 1 release and that bugs are to be expected, users can go to this thread to download the necessary file files. The files needed are: CM7 Alpha 1 : CM7-EPIC4G-ALPHA1.zip, gapps…10307-EPIC.zip (optional), and the DPAD Keylayout fix for ALPHA. Directions are to place it on the SDcard, wipe data, cache and Dalvik. Then flash the ROM and reboot.

The Samsung Epic 4G got headlines recently when Sprint was forced to suspend it’s Android 2.2 Froyo rollout due to hardware issues that caused the camera app to quit, data connection to be unavailable, and not being able to access the SD card data. Hard ###RTN resets were advised to clear all issues until Sprint could hammer out the issues. Then, a few weeks later Samsung had to release an EB13 patch to fix dropped keys issue with it’s slide out keyboard. So even official releases have problems.

[via XDA Developers]