Flashing Cyanogenmod 11 on the Samsung Galaxy S3 Neo+ GT-I9301I
Repeatedly I went to a lot of pain flashing my S3 Neo because I did not write down how I did it the last time, but not again!
This tutorial assumes you know what you are doing, you can brick your device, blablabla, read the disclaimer on the firmware sites.
It also assumes:
- You still have the original firmware on your phone (otherwise you can skip the Heimdall and TWRP steps)
- Your phone is charged over 50% (better safe than sorry)
- You have an microSD-Card in your phone
- You have an USB cable at hand
- You use Linux as OS
- You made a Backup of all important data, ALL DATA WILL BE LOST
I was using Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS.
Compile Heimdall
I built Heimdall some month before, so I had already all dependencies installed. If you run into error messages compiling, keep in mind that you have to install probably some dependencies.
Quote from Linux/README from Heimdall Repo:
1. First make sure you have installed build-essential, cmake, zlib1g-dev,
qt5-default, libusb-1.0-0-dev and OpenGL (e.g libgl1-mesa-glx and
libgl1-mesa-dev).
git clone https://github.com/Benjamin-Dobell/Heimdall cd Heimdall mkdir build cd build cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .. make heimdall
Voilà you got heimdall
Download all android images/software you need
I like to get stuff together completely before I start, because it sucks when the mirror you desperately need is down in the wrong moment.
So create a directory where you put all the files, e.g. in your home-directory.
mkdir ~/android_firmware
TWRP (Custom Bootloader)
You need this only if you have still the stock ROM on your device
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56085899&postcount=2
Download the file from „Odin method“
it is called recovery.tar.md5 and check the md5sum md5sum recovery.tar.md5
compare it with the one mentioned on the download mirror page.
Untar the recovery.tar.md5 file
tar -xvvf recovery.tar.md5
the recovery.img file is what you need later
CyanogenMod 11.0 for the Samsung Galaxy S3 Neo ( GT-I9301I, GT-I9301Q and GT-I9300I )
Get the firmware
cm-11-20150424-UNOFFICIAL-s3ve3g.zip
and check the md5sum:
md5sum cm-11-20150424-UNOFFICIAL-s3ve3g.zip
Camera Sensor Fix
It freaked me out at my first try that the camera did not work. If that’s the case you might need this fix:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=57818464&postcount=267
Camera_fix.zip
Google Apps Minimal
I did NOT use the GAPPS mentioned on the xda-developers site, it didn’t work for me. During install I read something about for „Android 5.0“ scroll by, so it probably is a version to new for that image.
I used:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2779598
gapps-kk-20150412-minimal-edition-signed.zip
Again check the md5sum:
md5sum gapps-kk-20150412-minimal-edition-signed.zip
Flashing
Put all files on the SD-Card
cm-11-20150424-UNOFFICIAL-s3ve3g.zip
gapps-kk-20150412-minimal-edition-signed.zip
Camera_fix.zip
Flash the TWRP Bootloader
Press VOL_DOWN + HOME + PWR
Wait until you are prompted to press VOL_UP, Press VOL_UP
Wait until the screen is loaded
Plug in the USB-Cable
execute
sudo ./heimdall flash --RECOVERY ../../../recovery.img --no-reboot
I experienced that it does not work always. Sometimes USB errors came. For me the Heimdall-master from github worked. It may be chance, it may be you have to make sure you wait long enough so the download mode has really fully loaded before you plug in the USB cable into the computer. Just try it several times if it doesn’t work the first time. Always unplug the USB in between the tries.
Now important! Samsung resets its own bootloader if you don’t boot directly into recovery mode after flashing an alternative bootloader.
So when the flashing progressbar is finished, shut off the phone by pressing PWR until it shuts off
Now press VOL_UP + HOME + PWR until booting Recoverymode written in tiny blue font on the top of the phone appears.
Now inside the recovery mode loader
The TWRP loader has nice buttons, if you have to navigate by VOLUP/VOLDOWN it may be the Samsung Original Loader.
So, inside the TWRP loader:
- first do a factory reset
- Then choose install and browse through the directories (e.g. one level up and choose external_storage or similar)
until you find the zip files - Install cm-11-20150424-UNOFFICIAL-s3ve3g.zip
- Install gapps-kk-20150412-minimal-edition-signed.zip
- Reboot and check if the camera works
- If the camera does not work boot into Recovery-Mode again and install the Camera_fix.zip