@ROM
Glad you’ve made it. I only knew what needed clarification because I’m freshly after struggling with the process myself, so I know where folks are likely to get stuck and frustrated.
As for your initial impressions… The greatest job the /e/ team did is full degooglification. This is their ONLY advantage over LineageOS, and everyone else for that matter. All the bells and whistles (/e/ email accounts, service integration, the ridiculous iOS rip-off look) are unnecessary distractions, perhaps an attempt to attract less aware crowds, I don’t know.
For this full degooglification, though, I’m happy to pay the price of having to live with certain technical issues and logistic workarounds here and there.
The /e/ app store – I wouldn’t even bother, just use F-Droid and Aurora. To get rid of the iOS look and feel, get another launcher, my choice was Lawnchair and I couldn’t be happier. If you decide to go away from /e/, I suggest giving LineageOS a try, although S9 isn’t officially supported anymore and you will have to settle for unofficial releases (worked fine for me for the few days I used it).
Good luck! 
Hi, a year ago I got an old Nexus 5 and was able to install /e/ on it as a trial, then I bought a second hand Xiaomi Mi 6 and it was a disaster, I couldn’t manage to install /e/ (stuck in loop), got very frustrated and end up selling the phone. After a break, a feel courageous enough for a secon trial and thought buying a second hand Samsung Galaxy s9. My question is: what android version as to be in the phone in order to install /e/ without loops or strange things? And the next one: were you able to install it following the instructions? (I’ve read some threads and something wasn’t really clear @cosmin You ended up not installing that “patch” and installing the ARI9 from the SD card, and afterwards flashing the /e/ image via sideload?
With which StockROM Android version is your S9 SM-G960F/DS/N | G960FXX… currently running?
@graz Have you bought the device yet? If not, have a look at the device’s page and check the “Models Supported” section.
About the software, I’m not sure what version I had. I had all the updates installed and then I did a factory reset.
In the end I did install the patch - it was the only way I could move forward.
I flashed everything through adb, I didn’t use the SD card at all.
I don’t think it matters, as long as your model is supported by /e/.
Why do you think it matters? I asked a similar question here.
@archie @cosmin, I didn’t buy it yet, so I don’t know which stock version they come with. I can ask it in the shop. And I’ll check the “Models Supported” section first, I didn’t know about that. and also thanks for sharing your installation details @cosmin
With my catastrophic Xiaomi experience, apparently that was exactly the problem. I asked Manoj and he told me this:
That’s why I don’t want to risk it again and be sure to have the right Stock ROM before installing /e/. Anyway, after my frustrating attempt, to be honest I’m still having doubts about buying a second hand S9 and making another trial or just buying the S9 with /e/ preinstalled, evein if it is quite more expensive (almost double!), specially because I’m not a very Samsung fan, but it seems like a “safer” or “easier” phone to try to install it, at least easier than Xiaomi.
→ Help installing /e/ on Galaxy S9
©rhunault /e/ support | Migration to e-Pie will make things easier in the near future.
@graz: This is weird – as far as I know, when you install a new ROM, you’re writing it over the existing ROM, thus unconditionally wiping the latter.
@Manoj: Would you mind elaborating on why you think there is a version dependency between the existing and new ROM?
@archie: I think answering your question here makes more sense given the discussion: I went stock Pie > LOS Pie > /e/ Oreo.
Each Stock OS comes with its own firmware. What we observed when we were testing upgrading our devices to Pie was once we flashed stock Pie if we tried to revert to the previous version of the ROM - stock oreo or nougat the device went into a bootloop. There were changes made to the partitions which made it incompatible with our older OS versions. This we saw in almost all Xiaomi devices.So ideally you should move forward with the OS to avoid boot loops or weird device behavior. Though there were exceptions for e.g. in Fairphone we did not see such issues going back and forth on OS versions. Xiaomi also has anti rollback implemented on some models like whyred which will brick the device if rolled to a previous OS.
Seems like something manufacturer-specific, then?
Currently 14 Android 9-Pie versions are listed: from December 2018 update to November 2019 security update. What PDA code (build version) did your 9-Pie firmware have?
I didn’t take note of that.
The s9 I saw is apparently 960f/ds, and comes with android 9. Could the latter one create some bootloop or any other problems when flashing e?
I’m not sure I understand you correctly. But if your SM-G960F comes with Android 9 firmware version 9/10/11/12-2019, then - yes, I assume that. But opinions are different like the experiences of the /e/ users, e. g. → here and → here.
The ephone support team (ephone_support@e.email), which is responsible for the premium refurbished smartphones with /e/ pre-loaded, should be able to provide us with binding information. They sell Samsung S7 / S7 Edge and S9 / S9+
A better situation can be expected from spring 2020: v1-pie /e/ branch & “LOS 17.0 for /e/ will be after we upgrade present set of devices and v1 which is scheduled for spring 2020”
Hi @archie, thanks for taking the time to explain and for showing other users experience. To be honest, after reading them, I feel quite discouraged again to try to flash it on my own. Maybe its best for me to wait until the /e/asy installer is developed so non tech savvy people like me can flash without so many issues.
@graz, changing the operating system isn’t witchcraft. Nevertheless it requires careful work and it’s advisable to know what you are doing.
The current problem is that since the beginning of 2018, Samsung has been constantly increasing the security features of devices with Android 8.0.0 or higher with every update. According to Samsung, this of course only serves to protect the user, but of course also to make it more difficult for the user to change operating systems.
The fact that especially Samsung devices like the S7, which currently still work with /e/ OS e-0.7-n (nougat) and cannot cope with the updated bootloaders from Oreo 8.0.0, will change when the above mentioned upgrades are available. In a few weeks the issue will be off the table!
But until the release of e-pie, you have the possibility to use a stablies unofficial Lineage-16.0-for-microG “herolte” from Jan. 2020. LOS 16.0 has no problems with Oreo 8.0.0 bootloaders …
Hi,
I’m new to /e/ and was looking forward to install /e/ on my new S9 however the post of graz made me hesitate to do so. The response from archie confused me a bit since graz was talking about an S9 while the response mentions an S7.
Now if I understand correctly the problem is that if your device runs a recent stock Android version it comes with a bootloader version that is incompatible with the latest /e/ version, or partition changes are made as Manoj states. Is this true for both the S7 and the S9?
My S9 has a firmware version from 2019-11 and I think this contains bootloader version 7. I assume that I’m not able to install /e/ or end up in a bootloop. Is that correct?
I do wonder though would Updates to the Dev and Stable branches fix things?
Thanks in advance for any clarification.
Hi @0x7C0 updates to Dev and stable branches are still on the same OS which is Oreo. If you are coming from a higher OS version it may have issues on some devices. You would have to wait for an /e/ OS official or unofficial build of the same OS level as your current stock ROM.
@0x7C0, what applies to the Galaxy S7 SM-G930F (e-0.7-nougat) does not necessarily apply to the Galaxy S9 SM-G960F (e-0.8-oreo). But I am looking for clarification.
But as @Manoj speaks from his experience, it can be »If you are coming from a higher OS version it may have issues on some devices.« Last certainty is only given when the operating system change to /e/ OS ROM was successful.
This information → here the conclusion can be drawn that /e/ OS ROM e-0.7-oreo (S9 · SM-G960F) and StockROM Android 9-pie S9 (G960FXXS7CSJ3) are much better compatible than /e/ OS ROM e-0.7-nougat (S7 · SM-G930F) and StockROM Android 8-Oreo S7 (G930FXXS7ESL9).
These are the same requirements as for @ Fab2B. Accordingly, the chances are good that a successful OS change to /e/ OS e-0.7-o- dev (oreo) can be accomplished.
My exact baseband-version is G960FXXU7CSJ5 and I think I’m gonna give it a shot this weekend. Thanks for the effort!