@SuzieQ:
as i see you are on DTD7 baseband … which may mean that you are not using the “latest” version of samsung rom … this point to a version from 04/2020 … and “bit 9”
do you have experience with later “bit” …latest would be “Bit D”
the reason for asking is, that it is not possible to downgrade from a higher bit …
Correctly noted, @ak.13
I wrote in the introduction “Samsung Firmware Android 10, build date April 2020” and wanted to see if this has any (negative) impact (Please take a look at Posting #28).
Experience with (later “bit” …) aka December 2020 release I’ve with my Galaxy S9+ ‘star2lte’.
Yeah, Samsung has added quite a few layers of security and additional rollback lock into its updates over time. That was an additional reason not to update the above April 2020 build to December 2020.
Hi SuzieQ,
Yes and No.
No because I think I misunderstood sections of this thread to be that I could install the Samsung firmware after installing /e/OS. Therefore I would be able to get Samsung apps like Dex, smart shift, and Find working.
Yes because I see now that the Samsung firmware flash is to get from the current /e/OS to e/OS Q. Unless the /e/OS installer application will be able do that upgrade once /e/OS Q is ready for production roll out.
Samsung apps like Dex is proprietary software through and through and only works with original Samsung Stock Android. My DEX Station now only serves as an S9 cradle and charger … :(( … :)))
Was finally able to upgrade to /e/OS Q. It took about 5hrs, but most of that was me making newbie errors and switching to Windows 10 and Odin because I didn’t fully understand how heimdall-frontend works in Linux.
The pain and bulk of the 5hrs really came from trying to install TWRP once I had flashed stock Android 10. For some reason, the command line:
fastboot flash recovery twrpimagename.img
would always return “waiting for device” so I ended up using Odin to flash TWRP and rooting the S9+ with Magisk Root and Disable_Dm-Verity_ForceEncrypt. The first attempt saw me trip the 7-day ‘OEM Unlocking’ lockout because I hit reboot instead of the back. Then fumbled around in TWRP till I found out how to set TWRP to accept the adb sideload command from the computer and wiping the cache in TWRP for /e/OS Q to boot properly.
Anyway happy I went through all that if for nothing more than the learning and pleased with how /e/OS Q performs relative to the Oreo I was on before.
Thanks again
It’s normal because Samsung devices don’t answer to fastboot command but to heimdall command.
$ heimdall print-pit
And then
$ heimdall flash --RECOVERY twrpimagenzme.img --no-reboot
/[HOWTO] install /e/ on a Samsung device from a GNU/Linux PC successfully
/e/ OS ‘Q’ doesn’t require a rooted device to work properly. What makes a newbie root his device?
Misunderstanding, @SuzieQ, misunderstanding. I am guilty of it as well (on my S6) as it was my understanding that this was a necessary part of the process. Of course, my understanding was incorrect, but there it is. 
Yup! Exactly how I felt after the 5hrs. It was like literally all I had to do was install TWRP and sideload /e/OS Q. Instead newbie brain said TWRP will not install without root privileges even though it was already installed to root the phone in the first place.
Just bookmarked and saved that link to pdf for next time. Thanks. I completely missed that guide during my search yesterday
That’s what makes learning fun, when success triumphs at the end, isn’t it?
Okay Tom, thanks for sharing your experience in clear presentation way.
I’ve tried several installation variants, but certainly not all of them. For example, when flashing /e/ OS ‘Q’ on the Galaxy S9 and S9+,
I did not use no-verity-opt-encrypt-6.1 (exception: GSI ROM installation),
but successfully already used TWRP 3.5.0_9-0
On the Galaxy S9+, I also successfully installed eRecovery as an alternative.
The failure message ‘Error’ with Eroor code ‘1’ can have several causes. The lines before the visually prominent ‘ERROR 1’ contain clues to this. What was the text hint?
I’ve just installed on a Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016) ‘a3xelte’ the TWRP Recovery 3.5.0_9-0 along with LineageOS 17.1 version January, 5th 2021 to then update with an OTA update to the current LOS 17.1 version of 7.2.2021 with Android Security Patch Level 5. February 2021. TWRP 3.5.0_9-0 did its job without any problems and did not give any error messages. So much for “Conclusion: twrp-3.5.0_9" not being suitable for devices with Android 10.”
Hi @TomK, you may certainly be correct (it may be intended for devices running less than Android 10, I do not know that!), but I just verified that I have twrp-3.5.0_9-0 loaded on my S9, which I used to flash /e/OS Q without incident. Not sure what may have changed between twrp sub-versions “-0” and “-1”…
Also, I did not use no-verity-opt-encrypt-6.1.
Just some anecdotal evidence which you or others may find helpful.
Thank you all for this nice thread. I am thankfull for all the beginners questiones and those who shared their knowledge.
I proudly made the upgrade and became a beginner+ and like to give back some information.
I installed /e/on starlte in december with the easy installer.
Before upgrading I made several backups with nandroid and adb.
Then I tried to upgrade TWRP and ran into the 'waiting for device’s error. Flashing recovery with Odin did the job.
Searching for a Samsung firmware, some sites require an account others are so damned slow … .
Newest vs. older firmware? Somehow I decided to go with the newest one and to try my luck. Downloaded the German DBT version from January and flashed it with the newest Odin version. Samsung was starting and everything seems to be fine.
Flashing TWRP with fastboot still doesn’t work. Okay but than flashing TWRP with Odin hasn’t worked either. Mmmh, I couldn’t see an error in Odin but it wasn’t obviously not I installed. Several attempts with flashing the firmware without any changes. Searching the web I saw in samfw that they pointed to another Odin Version. 3 o’clock in the morning I thought, come on give it a try,
installed the older Version 3.13.1 of Odin, flashed firmware and then successfully flashed TWRP.
After installing /e/ I was so happy to see the e splash screen. It started to encrypt my phone immediately. It seems that this is standard now. Rebooting into recovery I was asked for a password which I don’t have. But somehow it is possible to get into the standard screen and to restore the data partition from my nandroid backup.
Everything (except some few apps) was there and the phone is up and running without any problems.
@littlejoa, thank you for your vividly described experiences. This makes reading fun. We were all once beginners and I still learn every day with pleasure to it.
Flashing with fastboot commaandos generally does not work on Galaxy devices because Samsung does not support it and has its “own language”. Whether Odin 3.13.1 or 3.14.4, all versions work for me.
Android 10 and LineageOS 17.1 encrypt by default. Yes, it’s now mandatory. It is intended to be a security feature. However, there are ways to disable this mandatory encryption and enable it only when needed. The TWRP password prompt can simply be ignored by switching back to TWRP Main menu.
Now all /e/ OS ‘Q’ users can hope that the Galaxy S9 / S9+ will be supported by /e/ for a longer time - because the Lineage-Team has officially stopped support unexpectedly for me.
An article on SAMMOBILE talks about “Samsung will continue to provide security updates for another year. The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are currently on a monthly cycle for security updates. They will eventually be downgraded to the quarterly cycle.”
My sources are talking about not expecting the once premium devices to get a major upgrade to Android 11 yet. The Android 10 update with OneUI 2.5 that was distributed last year once again brought powerful improvements on the firmware level as well. Thus, I was able to transport my Galaxy S9+ into the Android 11 spheres via GSI AOSP Android 11 without much effort.
My sources, who have very often been right with their predictions in the past, quote numbers in contrast to SamMobile: Android security patches are still expected monthly until the end of 2021 and quarterly thereafter until the end of 2022.
The fact that /e/ can build OS ROMs without lineage /e/ and also backport security patches from higher Android versions was proven by /e/ with the Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge under Android 7.1.2 Nougat. By the way, a few enthusiasts in the Lineage community continue to do so.
All in all, the signs are good for these two Galaxy’s - also because of their Treble GSI compatibility and because there are and always will be enthusiasts like the GSI genius phhusson aka Pierre-Hugues HUSSON, who build an absolutely Google free GSI code and make it available as open source.
Hi @SuzieQ. Could you tell me where is the magik to ‘Disable force encryption’ ?
When using ‘adb reboot recovery’, TWRP is asking me for a decrypt password I don’t own, and I’m stuck… (I’m trying to edit /system/build.prop to enable VoWifi…)
Please try this first: