Samsung - Galaxy A52 4G - a52q - Documentation Suggestions

eOSWiki Documentation Suggestions
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To keep people updated here:

  • Both of my PRs have been merged. To fix the typo and the misleading “unplug the USB cable” before booting into recovery (that also affected many other devices). The online doc is now updated
  • I discussed with @Manoj about the main issues (missing vbmeta & recovery files + Odin crashing when using them). He says they should be fixed with upcoming version 3.6 of /e/OS: both .img files should be bundled inside the provided eOS zip file

Thansk @Manoj

NB: I only had the device in hands for the flash-party, so I won’t be able to check the new version by myself.

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@Manoj I checked file https://images.ecloud.global/community/a52q/e-3.6-a15-20260314594305-community-a52q.zip and it still does not contain any vbmeta.img file.

The content of both zip files are similar to the content of previous versions, and do not match the documentation.

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The vbmeta is in the recovery zip file

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Thanks @Manoj

You’re right that the recovery file does not have the same structure as with 3.5-a15 (which was an img file, not a zip). And it now contains a vbmeta img file. Sorry, I wrote too fast. So the dev team has indeed done something.

But the doc says the vbmeta is inside the /e/OS zip file, not inside the recovery zip:

Download the /e/OS build zip file from the section marked ‘Downloads for a52q’. Extract the contents of the /e/OS build zip file. You will find a vbmeta.img in the extracted files.

This could easily be fixed in the doc, but it’s inside a common file (htdocs/_includes/templates/before_recovery_install_samsung_qcom.md), that is used by several other devices: a52sxq, a71, a72q, a73xq, gta4l, gta4lwifi, gts4lv, gts4lvwifi, gts7l, gts7lwifi, m52xq, r8q. And, for some of them, the vbmeta is really inside the /e/OS zip file (it’s the case at least for /e/OS community gta4lwifi download , I did not check the other ones)

Aside from that, when I tested the vbmeta & recovery from the 3.3-a14 recovery in January, they were crashing Odin (see Samsung - Galaxy A52 4G - a52q - Documentation Suggestions - #14 by mossroy above). Was the dev team able to investigate on that?

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Were you able to test the vbmeta in v3.6 with odin

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No, I only had the device in hands during the flash-party

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Following the instructions I get stuck at the point where the adb sideload is performed.
ADB lasts until 47% then stops (which according to some sites is some fault that could be ignored, but not in my case). The device signals “ADB completed with status 2” and aborted. Frantically trying to find documentation, but not easy to find. The route via SD-card leads to the same error.

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Re 47% … the transfer goes on till the point 47% then the remainder of the process is install. ADB aims to complete with error 0, that is “no error reported”.

Error 2 might indicate the file being transferred was somehow unsuitable … so first step is to review all steps from the start.

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It seems I cannot get back into download mode, so starting from the top is out of the question…
I tried different .zip files but they all lead to the same error. Either via ADB or via SD-card.

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By review I simply meant “look again” … is there any possibility that something got missed? did anything go not as expected?

You can only reach Download mode from the phone powered off.

There is much talk in this thread about vbmeta was that straightforward for you?

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Vbmeta: extracted it from the recovery zip and follwed the instructions as in the install page Install /e/OS on a Samsung Galaxy A52 4G - “a52q”

Also, able to reach the recovery mode (indeed only with usb cable plugged). But as said, I get execution errors. I used the https://images.ecloud.global/community/a52q/e-4.0-a15-20260612634536-community-a52q.zip and its associated recovery .zip.

I notice that in earlier versions the zip is an img in /e/OS community a52q download

1000020111
10000201111847×4000 921 KB

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Your image is of Android recovery. e-Recovery looks like

1000014999
1000014999720×1520 83.2 KB

You need to go back and flash e-Recovery again and be sure to boot into the new recovery. It can take a little practice

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I saw that screen at one point in the process… and it was not clear to me that not seeing it was a problem.

It worked - thanks for the guidance!

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Now a follow-on question that may be a different topic. The device is now recognised as rooted, which means that my banking apps do not work anymore. Is there a way to mask/undo this? I read somewhere that the Samsung Knox cannot be circumvented?

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Yes, one is getting root ability on the phone with “Magisk”,
and then setup some magisk modules that hide the root ability.

I am not uptodate on that topic as i find easier to use my bank website

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