Flashing Firmware

Flashing Unofficial AOKP Nougat (Android 7.1.2) and Xposed on Galaxy S4 GT-19500

Posted by Kulani Mahadewa on February 11, 2019
Posted in: Flashing Firmware. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Hi ! 🙂 This is a guide to install a stable custom ROM of Android 7.1.2 Nougat on Galaxy S4 GT-19500 device. The custom ROM is an Android Open Kang Project (AOKP) downloaded from xda developers.

Prerequisites:

“ROM Firmware Required: Lollipop Bootloader and Modem, TWRP 3.1.1 as Recovery”- xda develeopers.

  • Currently, my device is having Lollipop 5.0.1. You can follow my previous guide to install Lollipop on GT-19500.
  • Download the twrp-3.1.1-0-i9500.img.tar to PC, for the installation of TWRP 3.1.1 as recovery.  (Note* : it is requried to have this particular version of TWRP for this flashing)
  • Download the aokp_ja3gxx_nougat_unofficial_2017-06-11_0903.zip to PC, which is the custom ROM we are going to flash.

Step 1: Install the TWRP 3.1.1 recovery using Odin software on PC.

  • Turn Off the device –> Press Volume Down+Power+Home for the Download/Odin mode on device –> Plug the USB cable to PC –> open Odin software –> Select AP –> Select the img.tar file –> Start. (For a complete guid, please refer to my previous post)

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Step 2: Flash ROM using the ADB Sideload option on TWRP 3.1.1.

(Note*: I assume your PC is setup with Android SDK tools and can use adb commads)

  • Turn off the device –> Press Volume Up+Power+Home for the Recovery mode.
  • Select “Advanced” -> “ADB Sideload” -> “Swipe to Start Sideload”
  • Now plug the device to the PC.
  • Open command prompt and peform the command.
adb sideload aokp_ja3gxx_nougat_unofficial_2017-06-11_0903.zip

Note*: If you get “error: Closed”, then try the following commands

adb devices
adb usb
adb sideload aokp_ja3gxx_nougat_unofficial_2017-06-11_0903.zip

Once the sideload is completed, the device will be rebooted and the new ROM will be installed.

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Step 3: Install Xposed

  • Download the xposed-v88-sdk25-arm.zip for Nougat to PC from the xda devleopers.
  • Use TWRP 3.1.1 recovey’s ADB Sideload to install th zip.
adb sideload xposed-v88-sdk25-arm.zip

adb sideload

Once the sideload is completed, it will show an option to “Reboot System”.  Select the system to reboot. It will take some time to reboot to complete the installation of the xposed framework.

Cheers !! 🙂

 

 

 

Installing Xposed on Galaxy S4 GT-19500 Android 6.0.1 CM13

Posted by Kulani Mahadewa on January 31, 2019
Posted in: Flashing Firmware. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Hii ! 🙂 I come here just after installing fresh  Android Marshmallow (based on AOSP) on my Galaxy S4-19500 and nano Gapps. I followed the xdadevelopers forum to obtain the correct version of the Xposed packages. The xposed installer apk was not available there, so I downloaed it from a different website. I will give the details below.

Step 1:Installing the Xposed Framework on the device.

  • Download the sdk23 xposed framework which is compatible for Android Marshmallow devices.
  • Next, use the adb to push the zip file to the /storage/emulated/0/Download location.
adb push <path to zip file> /storage/emulated/0/Download
  • Turn off the device –> boot to the TWRP recovery mode (Volume up+power+home). Or from the command line you can use the command
adb reboot recovery
  • Select “install” –> select the zip file from Download–> Swipe to flash the file.

Alternatively, you can sideload the zip file when you are in the recovery mode

Select “Advanced” from recovery menu -> “ADB Sideload” -> “Swipe to Start Sideload”
From PC: adb sideload <path to zip file>
  • Once finshied flashing and rebooted the system, you will not see any visible changes. Because the xposed installer app is required for the management of xposed.

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Step 2: Installing the Xposed Installer apk on the device.

  • Download the xposed installer apk.

For Marhmellow: xposed installer 3.1.1

If you installed a wrong version , can uninstall using following command.

adb uninstall de.robv.android.xposed.installer
adb install '/root/Downloads/de.robv.android.xposed.installer_3.1-38_minAPI15(nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apk'
  • Your device needs to be rooted. If you haven’t done it yet, download the King Root apk and use it to root the device.
  • Next, install the xposed installer. When you open the app you may see as the app is not active as follows.
  • Reboot the system and it will show as active.

Cheers !! 🙂

 

Flashing Custom Firmware Android 6.0.1 CM13 on Galaxy S4 GT-19500

Posted by Kulani Mahadewa on January 30, 2019
Posted in: Flashing Firmware. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Hi 🙂 Here, I  am sharing my experiences on flashing a custom firmware on  my Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-19500 device including the installation of Open Gapps packages. Currently, I have the Official Firmware Lolipop 5.0.1 on my device. The custom firmware I’m going to flash is the Android 6.0.1 CM13 which I obtained from the website https://www.teamandroid.com/roms/ .

(Warning: This approach works only for this particular Android device. As always warned by XDA developers, trying out it is all under your own responsibility. Your device may be bricked if things didn’t go well.)

Step 1: Root the device.

First, you have to root the device using KingRoot.apk.

  • Download the KingRoot.apk to the device (You can search it for online; an blue icon with a crown).
  • Enable “Unknown Sources” in the Settings, to allow installing the apk. You may still get “Bolcked by Play Protect” popup message. Press “Install anyway” at the bottom line of that message to continue installing.

Step 2: Install an Odin enabled TWRP recovery on the device.

Note*: Please refer to the Steps 2-6 in my previous post to install the recovery zip file using Odin without trouble.

Step 3: Obtain the Android 6.0.1 CM13 Custome Firmware.

Step 4: Prepare the device for the Installation.

  • Turn Off the device. Press buttons (Volume Up+Power+Home) to obtain the “Recovery Mode”. You will get the teamwin screen and the menu followed by that.

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  • First Select “Backup” and backup all your data and system.
  • Next Select “Wipe” –> In the “Factory Reset” page Swipe to perform the wipe of data, cache and dalvik.

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  • After that, Select “Install” –> Select the custom firmware zip file from the list of files –> Swipe to confirm flash.
  • Finally, once  the zip file installation is completed, select reboot system.
  • If the installtion was successfull, after the reboot the you will get the Cyangenmod Welcome page. Continue… the settings.
  • Verify the installation by viewing “about device” in the settings.

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Step 5: Installing Gapps on your Marshmallow device

You will see that the newly installed Marshmallow doesn’t contain apps like Gmail, Play Store, Chrome etc,. This is because the cm13 custome firmware we installed does not contain the gapp packages. Therefore, we will have to download it from an online website through you PC.

adb

  • After that, turn off the device –> Goto recovery mode —> Wipe the Cache –> install the zip file.

Note*: I tried to install the open_gapps_arm_6.0.stock version. However, there was a problem launching nexuslauncher package. Therefore, reflashed the Android 6.0.1 again and installed the nano version which was successfull. The nano version includes the google play app.

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Cheers ! 🙂

 

Flashing Official Lollipop 5.0.1 on Galaxy S4 (GT-19500) using Odi3 v3.13.1

Posted by Kulani Mahadewa on January 29, 2019
Posted in: Flashing Firmware. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

Hi 🙂 In this post I will give the full steps for flashing Android official Lollipop 5.0.1 on Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-19500). Of course, there are many guides on the internet helping with this. What is new in this post? is that, How to avoid troubled steps in the process. Because, when I do myself first, my phone was soft bricked several times. So I will help with avoiding and/or overcoming such troubles 🙂 .

Step 1: Download the firmware

Select the correct firmware based on the region you are in from this web site http://samsung-updates.com/device/?id=GT-I9500

Step 2: Install Kies

Along with the installing of Kies, it will prompt to also intall the USB drivers for Windows. Make sure you tick that !. Then you don’t need to worry about not detecting the device to the PC. At the same time, you can use Kies to troubleshoot your connection with the device, even after it is installed.

Step 3: Install Odin3

Download the latest odinv3 version from the website – https://odindownloader.com/, which is Odin3 v3.13.1

Step 4: Prepare the device (Odin mode on mobile)

Turn off the device. Then press the 3 buttons  (Volume down + Power + Home) at the same time and release them when the “Downloading…” is appeared on the screen.

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Step 5: Plug the device to your PC and verify the connection.

Once the device is in the “Odin mode”, plug the device to the PC using a USB cable. Next, open the Odinv3 software on PC.

Note*:  If the device is detected by the PC, the Odin3 software shows that by highlighing the first square with the port name as shown in the following figure. If otherwise, you will have to try changing the USB cable, USB port or troubleshooting with Kies. Do not proceed to the next steps without verifying the connection. Or else, your device may end up soft brick.

capture

Step 6: Start the flashing…

Now the device is detected by the Odin3 software, so you can proceed with the flashing.

  • First, select the “AP” on the interface and select the new downloaded firmware (md5 file) from the location you stored in the PC.

2

  • Next, Press Start on Odin3 software.

Note*: Once the process started, do not touch or disconnect the USB cable until the screen shows that it is done. Make sure the connection is not disturbed. Otherwise, you may end up softbricking your device. Even if you end up with the failure path, you can still ge started from the beginning. Enable odin mode on the device (step 4) …

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If the process goes smoothly, then you will get a screen as follows on the Odin3 software and the mobile. This process will take about 8 minutes to complete.

 

 

  • If the process completed successfully, then you will get the following screen on the odin3 software.

4

  • The phone will be rebooted automatically and will go through installation of the new firmware Lollipop 5.0.1.

 

 

Step 7: Verifying…

Once the device is done updating successfully you can goto the settings and check for the device information to verify the firmware version installed on the device. Its Android Version 5.0.1.

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Hope this was helpfull !

Cheers!! 🙂