Newbie having problems with installing on Samsung S7, device is not found

Using /e/OS Setup
,
10

Ok Piero, thanks for trying to help me.
But I am confused, where is this? We have some different options. The screen below?
The installer also talks about these steps in the next (or so) screen, but not like you say, it never says “volume down” + “power” button…
At least from what I remember.
I’ll just have to try different alternatives, like last time…

By the way, I tried to turn off the phone at this step, because the installer says so. Then I get a prompt “USB device not recognized, failed…”…
But ok, I think you mean at the next step, because I always managed to get to the screen below and one step beyond it, when it starts a black DOS-like screen on the computer.

eos op problem 1
eos op problem 11920×1080 73.4 KB

11

I think you mean at this screen below. This means that the Installer tells me different from you.
Ok, I’ll try your method, because I know following the Installer does not work.

Yep, tried it and it does not work. Are you sure about the button combinations you wrote?
Check what the Installer says in the photo,
I just get back to the blueish screen that says “Warning, a custom OS can…”, where you then press volume up to get to the Downloading screen.
Can’t get beyond this. What is “teamwin”? Something like a clock that counts to 100 appears sometimes. Then the phone restarts to a black screen that looks like a Bios setting screen, first option is “Reboot system now”, followed by “reboot to bootloader”, at the bottom there are white letters saying:
fail to open recovery_cause(No such file or diretctory)#
#Reboot Recovery Cause is unknown#
File-Based OTA
Supported API:3
#MANUAL MODE v1.0.0#
Successfully verified dmverity hash tree

Not sure what that means, of course, or if it is important. Neither do I know where things went wrong.

eos op problem 2
eos op problem 21920×1080 96.9 KB

12

Two screens I get stuck on.
The second, not sure what that is, sometimes it gets stuck at like 92%, sometimes it moves on to another screen. Tried to get back to the black “DOS like” screen, but could not.
This is just crazy. Can’t stop, because I want to see how much more crazy it can get.

eos skit 2
eos skit 21000×693 134 KB

13

“Can’t stop, because…”

How did you get on with the crucial step provided by @piero ?

14

Hi JeppeW!

I was in your shoes a few days ago, and in the end the solution was closer than I thought. The issue was that the guide provided here was simply not working for my phone (due to subtle model differences that render the guide useless in some cases), and it looks like the easy installer is also not working for you. The satisfaction when it finally worked was great and I hope you manage to sort it out with the following few ideas, without using the easy installer :

Is your phone rooted ? If yes, does your S7 have Exynos or Snapdragon CPU ? you can check this online easily by looking up the exact model in Settings>About Phone>Model Number = SM-93XYZ

If it’s Exynos and your phone is rooted, you can try to browse with your phone to the TWRP download page, download the latest .apk for your S7 phone and open the .apk file, which will start installing their app. Follow the app install instructions.
When that’s done, download the latest /e/ OS zip file from the this e.foundation website, and copy/paste it on the root folder of your phone’s SD card.

restart your phone in recovery mode with the magic power+vol down etc combo, which will start TWRP if you followed the app’s install instruction and it installed correctly.
Click on ‘Install’, and navigate to the /e/ OS .zip file on the SD card of your phone. If TWRP asks you to install anything else (SuperSu for example), decline. When you’ve selected the .zip and confirm the install, this should install /e/ on your S7.

Hope this might help

15

Even if you use Macrosoft OS on your PC, have a read to this guide :

16

Hi fs12345,
Thanks for your detailed try to help me!
Ok it sounds promising, you were in my shoes and now it works for you.
Yes it must be that the installer does not work for my phone. I have given up on it.

The next steps you mention sounds difficult, I have never had an Android phone and know absolutely nada about them.
Ok, I did some research and don’t know if it is rooted, but I would think not. I have not touched it, it is factory reset. What to do then, root it? I wonder if I would be able to do that…

One thing, which may be totally stupid, but does the phone have to connected? Mine is not online. I was hoping to do it without connecting it. I have an iPhone now and no intention to ever use Android with Google, I have no gmail and don’t want. After getting e/OS/ running, the plan was to insert my simcard and use it with my mobile operator. Was I wrong here?

17

Piero, I never got beyond the steps above.

And I am trying to use the Easy-Installer, are you talking about the, don’t know what to call it, the manual way using TWRP and Odin and all those things that seems incredibly complicated for a non mobile professional?
I am afraid I have no idea what they are talking about there: " from a terminal on the PC using the recommended adb sideload method", “unlock the bootloader, flash custom recovery”… And that is for a Linux PC? I don’t have Linux. That guide is totally incomprehensible for me.
I have been warned NOT to try to install with this method…

I was hoping it would work with the “Easy” Installer. If not, I will never be able to do it. Then, as I suspect now, e/OS/ is only for nerds of the telecom industry, not for normal people.

18

My intention is that you can understand what the easy installer is doing for you.
Please read the guide, and then, follow the easy installer steps, you will have success

19

The easy installer uses some low-level tools that can be executed manually, too.

What happens if you execute the following in a command prompt while the phone is connected via USB cable:

"C:\Program Files\easy-installer\bin\adb\adb" devices

Ideally this should detect your phone. And it should bring up the dialog that asks to permit access via USB debugging. As long as you haven’t got that dialog, you can’t proceed with any kind of installation, no matter if manual or with installer, not mater if /e/, CalyxOS or any other OS.

20

No problem, hope it might help.

you don’t need a SIM card in the phone for any of those steps, mine was inside but I started doing all of this in airplane mode so it didn’t make a difference.

It is definitely a bit tedious at the beginning, I’m an Android newbie like you and the hardest part for me was to realize that the guide didn’t apply to my LG G3 phone, then find ways to 1. root the phone, 2. install TWRP (a GUI appearing during reboot, that helps you wipe partitions/install new OS and more) as new recovery instead of the factory recovery partition, 3. wipe all data using TWRP then 4. Install /e/ OS from .zip, also via TWRP.

Hopefully in the near future there will be more video tutorials and demos to help go through those steps and make them a bit more accessible. good luck

21

Hi Ingo, thanks for trying to help!

I think the phone is detected. I managed the first part of the Easy Install, first time it downloaded something and every time I connect again it just says “your phone is compatible”.
I can get until that screen that asks for the magic power+home+volume (up or down?) trick.
That means means it has permission for USB debugging, or… ?

Tried the command line and it says:

  • daemon not running
  • daemon started successfully
    List of devices attached
    ce11160b0da4081904 device

No dialog was brought up. Not sure where that should happen?

22

Ah, this is a good sign. No idea why the confirmation dialog never came, but as the second line contains “device” it doesn’t seem necessary (usually it would show “unauthorized” if you haven’t permitted access; “unauthorized” would be a problem).

If the installer says that your phone is compatible that’s also good. The files to be installed only need to be downloaded once. So consecutive runs of the installer won’t download again, i.e. this is not an indication of a problem. :wink:

I don’t have a Samsung myself so I don’t know about the steps that follow. But the installer creates a logfile each time it is executed. That might contain information where it hangs/can’t proceed.
Details are in Howto troubleshoot issues with the easy-installer

23

Thanks again fs12345, your advice has tempted me to try to try…
Was about to give up.
First, my phone is probably not rooted and its Exynos. It means I have to “root it”. No idea what it is or how to do it but I can research. Already checked briefly, seems difficult and dangerous but I have nothing to lose.

But I am hesitating at some of the steps. I’d like to ask, download the .apk file, do I have to do that from the phone, how did you do it, and all this, in flight mode? .apk is the installer for TWRP I would suppose. This could maybe be done from a PC, transferred to the phone and installed from there…(?)

From this step I would try the magic button trick that so far never worked, and TWRP should automatically start (and nothing else). From there I would navigate to a place in the phone where I had also previously downloaded the /e/OS file. (This /e/OS installer would also have to be downloaded from a PC and transferred to the SD card). If I understand correctly…

Ingo_FP_Angel,
I can only post once an hour or so, so I put two replies in one.
Thanks for your comment. I figured that I did not need to run the Easy Installer again and again, but I thought that there is some last step that did not work. I am not sure what the Installer is supposed to do after that, but I never advanced beyond the magic power+home+volume button trick. There should be something after this, right?
Yes there is a logfile, here is one after one of my attempts. I never got beyond this.

eos operativ system för mobiler är skit
eos operativ system för mobiler är skit1920×1080 102 KB

24

Ok, you are at the end of the point 6) of the guide : THE CRUTIAL STEP
Reboot to TWRP ( recovery mode )

/[HOWTO] install /e/ on a Samsung device from a GNU/Linux PC successfully

25

Yes the wifi was on, and using the browser you can navigate to the TWRP website and download an .apk file. When you go to your download folder on the phone, and tap this .apk file, it will be automatically recognized as an app that needs to be installed.
And indeed once this is installed, you can do the magic restart combo, and land on a screen that looks like this after recovery reboot : TWRP_sc

There you need to Wipe (clean cache + system iirc, this step matched what’s described on the /e/ installation guide for me), then back to the menu tap Install and browse to the zip you will have placed on the SD card…

the first step before all this would be to root, which on my phone worked with Kingoroot, who also distributes some .apks that you download and install, that will root the phone.

Sorry if some of the descriptions I give are a bit imprecise, I’m not so familiar with all the concepts and I’m a newbie, but I just spent 4 evenings on this and finally figured it out, and now have /e/ on my old LG G3 :slight_smile:

26

Rooting the phone is not needed for using /e/OS

27

Thanks again fs12345. You explanation seems to makes so much more sense than the pages on this forum. How come it seems much easier than on this page: https://doc.e.foundation/devices/herolte/install ?
There they talk about Odin, Heimdall, Installing a custom recovery, Installing /e/ from recovery, steps that I do not understand how they are related… Seems very complicated, involving installing several programs on a host computer and doing things that will certainly be a total mess if I try, like “install Heimdall and flash /e/OS”.

If I don’t need the “Heimdall” and all those, is it because I partially ran the Uneasy-Installer or did that accomplish nothing? I wonder what is the point of the Uneasy-Installer at all?
What I mean is, for you fs12345, were the steps you write about enough, no Uneasy-Installer and you did not need Odin and Heimdall?

If I am completely out of my depths here, please say “Jeppe, just stop and go get yourself a new iPhone”… I feel I have bothered you all too much already. I am thankful though for your will to try to help me so far.

Based on fs12345 logical steps and easy sounding tutorial, if I understand it correctly, these are the steps I should take:
Reroot with Kingoroot. Done from my PC with Kingoroot software.
Switch on wifi on phone, SIM card not needed.
Download /e/ from this website, save on phone SD card.
Go to TWRP website and download an .apk corresponding to the phone model.
Install TWRP, which should be automatically recognized.
Magic reboot with power+home+volume (not sure if up or down)
In magic screen, as in photo above, Wipe.
Tap Install on magic screen (which is TWRP I would guess)
Browse to SD card and install /e/ from zip,

If it works, celebrate! If not, continue to spam this forum with questions.
Completely different method from the almost totally incomprehensible tutorials in links above.

Piero, thanks again. Rerooting is not necessary?
That would be great. I don’t know in detail what it is and why it should be needed though. Something with administrator rights. If NOT needed for fs12345’s seemingly easy method above, then it would save some steps.
(by the way, I still don’t understand the point of your GNU/Linux link above, I understand nothing of what is written there…)

28

Hi piero, thanks for the feedback.

Indeed it seems that for the S7 it’s not necessary to root (cf guide), apologies if I caused any confusion for JeppeW.
It’s definitely needed for some phone models though, the first step of the guide for my model was this :

"Rooting your device

Important: The device must be rooted before proceeding any further."

1 Like
29

So the easy installer has already done most of the hard work.
Now it is waiting for you to restart communication.
Just concentrate on making that double switch.