lineageOS/devices/gt-i9295.md

Steps to flash microG LineageOS on Samsung Galaxy S4 Active

Prerequisites

• A Samsung Galaxy S4 Active (make sure it says gt-i9295 in the "About Device" settings)
• A computer (preferably Linux) with:
  • an USB slot
  • adb installed
  • heimdall-flash installed (on Windows you can use Odin)
• A micro-USB cable which can transfer data

Preparations

download latest TWRP image from https://eu.dl.twrp.me/jactivelte/

download latest lineageOS from https://download.lineage.microg.org/jactivelte/

download latest Magisk.zip from https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases

Enable USB Debugging

First, attach the phone to your PC. Use a good micro USB cable; make sure that you can use it to copy data.

enable developer options

enable USB debugging in developer options

allow USB debugging access for your PC

Flash Recovery

Run adb reboot bootloader

heimdall flash --RECOVERY twrp-3.*jactivelte.img --no-reboot

Now we don't want to boot into the system, we want into the new recovery directly - so turn off the phone with the power button, and then boot into recovery by holding the power button and volume up for a few seconds. Release the power button (but keep the volume up pressed) when you see the blue "Recovery" writing in the top left of the screen. If it says "RECOVERY IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING" in red letters, you need to hold "volume up" for longer. You can release the "volume up" button when the TWRP loading screen appears.

Then go to Wipe + Advanced Wipe to wipe the following partitions:

• System
• Data
• Cache
• Dalvik

Then go to Advanced/ADB Sideload, swipe to the right, and execute adb sideload lineage-*jactivelte.zip on your computer.

• When it shows something like Total xfer: 1.00x or adb: failed to read command: Success on the PC, and Exit code: 1.000000 in TWRP, it has suceeded.

Don't reboot yet, we still want to flash Magisk to root the phone.

First go to Backup and select only the Boot partition. Under "Select Storage", select "Internal Storage". Swipe to backup. Now copy the backup to your PC with adb pull /sdcard/TWRP.

Then go to Advanced/ADB Sideload, check "Wipe Cache" and "Wipe Dalvik", swipe to the right, and execute adb sideload Magisk-*.zip on your computer.

• When it shows something like Total xfer: 1.60x or adb: failed to read command: Success on the PC, and - Flashing new boot image in combination with - Done in TWRP, it has suceeded.

Reboot to start LineageOS!

Finish Installation

Go through the setup screen and choose what you want. You can be as restrictive as you want. Make sure to choose a Wi-Fi, so you can proceed with the next steps; you can also do this at any later time.

You should also choose a screen lock pin. Patterns are not very secure (you can often see them by holding the phone into the light at the right angle). Passwords are a bit inconvenient (but most secure). Do not use a fingerprint sensor, they are really insecure.

Tip: if you use LineageOS 17.1 or higher, you should disable the storage manager in the settings - it deletes videos & photos automatically after 90 days. This is a very weird default setting.

Device Encryption

Charge the phone to 100%.

Go to the Security Settings and encrypt the phone. During the process, it reboots once and asks you for the device PIN. It can take a while, but not soo long actually.

Secure the device encryption

You usually want to have a long password for your device encryption, which you only have to enter when the phone boots, and a shorter PIN for your lockscreen. By design, Android doesn't allow this; this is a workaround to make it possible still.

We will also install an app which shuts down the phone when you get the unlock code wrong 5 times in a row.

Wrong PIN Shutdown

Open the F-Droid app, wait until it is done with "Updating repositories".

Install the app "Wrong PIN Shutdown".

Now go to the developer settings, and enable root for Apps and ADB.

Open "Wrong PIN Shutdown", grant Admin rights until forever, activate the function, and set it to shut down the phone after 5 wrong tries to enter the PIN. You can try it out directly - if you enter your PIN wrong 5 times, does it shut down?

Change the encryption password to a long password

First you need to enable USB debugging again. You can enable the developer options at "About Phone", tap the "build number" seven times. After you enabled it, you can find the Developer options in the settings at "System > Advanced > Developer Options". Enable USB debugging and reboot into the bootloader mode:

Then go to the Security settings and set the PIN you want to use for your lockscreen.

Now you have to backup the files where it is saved. To do so, execute these commands with adb - you need to be connected to a PC with a proper USB cable:

adb root
adb pull /data/system_de/0/spblob/
adb pull /data/misc/keystore/user_0/1000_USRPKEY_synthetic_password_*  # the file has a different name; just remove the * and press tab before executing it
adb pull /data/system/locksettings.db

Now, go to the Security settings again, and change your PIN to the password you want to use for the encryption. Unfortunately you can use maximally 17 characters.

Now reboot (maybe this step can be skipped, actually).

Finally, you use adb again to restore the backup of the PIN, which changes your lockscreen PIN, but not your encryption passphrase:

adb push locksettings.db /data/system/locksettings.db
adb push 1000_USRPKEY_synthetic_password_* /data/misc/keystore/user_0/  # the filename will be different with your device
adb push spblob/ /data/system_de/0/

When you try to unlock your screen now, you will realize that you still have to enter the encryption passphrase. So reboot the phone; enter the encryption passphrase at startup, as desired. When the phone has booted, you can use the (shorter) PIN to unlock your phone.