How to Find & Download Correct Stock Kernel & Firmware For Samsung Galaxy SII (S2)

Samsung Galaxy SII (S2) has to be one of the best all around Android mobile device available currently no matter from which perspective you look at it. We here at Inspired Geek love it for sure. In the past, we brought your more guides, tips&trick for this device than any other Android device. This includes the original rooting guide that was posted long time ago using the Odin and SuperOneClick tool. Later on, we brought a guide to root the Samsung Galaxy SII (S2) using insecure kernel flashing through the Odin to root the device. More recently, we brought you a rather comprehensive list of stock firmware and kernels just ready to flashed to your SGSII device in case you want to revert to the stock look&feel and functionality from may be a custom ROM that was installed on the device.

Based on the number of comments and tons of emails that we received it seems that while the guides were easier to follow, most novice users got stuck on how to actually find the correct kernel or firmware to flash on their device based on the list of the kernels and firmware provided. Actually its not very difficult to find in most cases as I will describe the method below. Although I cannot guarantee that this method to find out the correct firmware/kernel will work for all Samsung Galaxy SII (S2) devices out there. So lets get started…

• First navigate to the Settings -> About phone -> Kernel Version on your device and find out the kernel version. Note the string that is listed there. For example it might look something like .6.35.7-I9100XXKG1-CL349526. In this example what matters the most is the bold part of the string (KG1) while you can ignore the remaining start/end parts of this string.
• Now try to find the matching kernel, firmware, modem etc. matching (or closest) to this 3-letter substring (e.g. KG1). For example if you cannot find the KG1 firmware that is an exact match for your Samsung Galaxy SII (S2) then try your luck with the closest match KG2 for example.

I hope this will clear up any confusion for the novice users that might have trouble to find the correct stock firmware/kernel to flash on their Samsung Galaxy SII (S2). All credit goes to Chainfire to provide the excellent CF-Root method as well as instructions to download the matching the firmware/kernel for the SGS2 device.