I started trying to install /e/OS on a new (to me; secondhand factory reset) Samsung Galaxy S7 this morning, but the easy installer seemed to have trouble detecting the device. I am new to /e/OS and really not a techie; I’ve read the instructions and need additional help.
I don’t know how long it should take for the easy installer to detect the phone, but it was trying for at least half an hour before I closed the program. According to the guide,
For Samsung phone, there is a external tool called “wdi-simple.exe” provided with easy-installer. It will be called during the process when required and install the driver your need to work with heimdall.
However this tool doesn’t appear to be on my computer–Norton didn’t alert me to that file as illustrated in the troubleshooting as it did with the installer setup file. I put “wdi-simple.exe” into my Windows search and nothing came up.
I went through all the steps before then except at the beginning of the process where the guide says
No kind of prompt came up telling me how to do this or what it means and when I clicked on the link, it downloaded a file to my computer that Windows didn’t know what app to open it in. No idea what that is or does.
Would really appreciate some help, as I’m not sure where to go from here. I’m using Windows 10. The phone isn’t one I’ve used before (in fact I’ve been strictly iPhone for about a decade) but my computer did seem to connect with it okay.
The image shows that Windows sees a Galaxy S7 so, as you see no “Problem device”, then there is no evidence so far that you have a driver issue. Your log shows that Easy Installer does not find the device with the command adb devices.
Do you have the device online and with a SIM card? If no and the device is freshly refurbished, then the first thing I would guess is that if the phone may be Prenormal (or perhaps otherwise locked in some way). Do you see evidence of this in your Odin mode screen? This is explained in the “Know your hardware” link.
Maybe what i suggest below doesn’t help because there is something strange with the phone like mentioned. But this is what I would suggest:
Try to flash the recovery TWRP with the program Odin and with TWRP you can flash the /e/OS ROM. It’s Important when you are at the step of flashing that recovery in Odin, that you let the phone auto-reboot (untick the box). When it does, directly use the buttons on your phone to get into recovery mode. Otherwise the system of the phone will overwrite TWRP with the stock recovery.
With TWRP, you can than flash the /e/OS ROM. I have done this thing last weekend and I succeeded. If you have questions, you can contact me.
Problem device "