Samsung - Galaxy A73 5G - a73xq - Documentation Suggestions

eOSWiki Documentation Suggestions
1

…Enter suggestions to improve documentation in this category. Do not raise bugs or issues here…

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the unGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

2

Hi,

The Installing e/OS from recovery section of the install document is ambiguous.
At point 3 it starts talking about TWRP which is not mentioned before. I figured it refers to Team Recovery Project. But then I couldn’t complete the install of e/OS after spending half a day on this.

3

TWRP doesn’t even exist for Galaxy A73

4

It would certainly be helpful if all mentions of TWRP were replaced by e-Recovery. Meanwhile, that is how the page should be read.

Try the /e/OS Recovery (limited functionality)

e-Recovery (aka /e/OS Recovery) is a simplified Custom recovery suitable for install of the main /e/OS.

The downloads page /e/OS dev a73xq download links to both

  • the /e/OS ROM, currently named: e-2.2-t-20240716417775-dev-a73xq.zip
  • e-Recovery, currently named: recovery-e-2.2-t-20240716417775-dev-a73xq.img
5

Hi, I’ve downloaded the e-2.5-t-20241108446827-community-a73xq.zip image, unzipped it but did not find the vbmeta.img mentionned in the Pre-Install Instructions (Install /e/OS on a Samsung Galaxy A73 5G - “a73xq”). What’s the actual name of the image to run the tar command on it (tar --format=ustar -cvf vbmeta.tar vbmeta.img) ?
Moreover, I didn’t understand exactly one point. The “Pre-Install Instructions” already fully install e/OS/ (without need to additionnaly follow “Installing a custom recovery using Odin”) ?
Do those “Pre-Install Instructions” require rooting the device?
The difference between the “Pre-Install Instructions” and instructions in “Installing a custom recovery using Odin” are juste the type of image?
“Pre-Install Instructions” use the image:
e-2.5-t-20241108446827-community-a73xq.zip
And “Installing a custom recovery using Odin” use the image:
recovery-e-2.5-t-20241108446827-community-a73xq.img
Could you please make those points more explicit?
Thanks for your answer

6

I don’t see this. The preinstall instructions run to 17 points the final one being

Re-enable Development settings …

Please can you try the method outlined here [Walkthrough] Extract eRecovery and boot images using payload-dumper-go to extract vbmeta.img from the ROM.

tar --format=ustar -cvf vbmeta.tar vbmeta.img

Is using the the format shown under

tar --help

… so I understand vbmeta.img to be the “source file”.

No /e/OS does not expect or require root, but these pre-install instructions are a big and necessay step to prepare the device to accept the Custom ROM.

To answer the last part of the question I see the instructions in four parts.

  1. Sort out the downloads.

  2. Preinstall instructions, notice how this includes some “preparation”.

  3. Installing a custom recovery using Odin. The Custom recovery is recovery-e-2.5-t-20241108446827-community-a73xq.img. This part of the job can be the hardest, hence the detail which is included in pre-install. It only affects Recovery and does not touch system.

  4. Installing /e/OS from recovery. Now you are using your newly installed e-Recovery which is a Custom recovery to prepare system to receive the main ROM the filename of which is e-2.5-t-20241108446827-community-a73xq.zip.

7

Hi aidb,
First of all, thanks for your quick answer.
As regard the point “unzipped it but did not find the vbmeta.img”, I followed the instructions in the page you linked.
But I got the same error (“Failed to extract payload.bin from the archive”) as mentioned there for " Samsung S9 starlte":

user@host:./payload-dumper-go  -o OutputFolder -p dtbo,vbmeta,recovery e-2.5-t-20241108446827-community-a73xq.zip
Please wait while extracting payload.bin from the archive.
2024/12/01 09:42:00 Failed to extract payload.bin from the archive.

Does it help if I list the files in the unzipped image (e-2.5-t-20241108446827-community-a73xq.zip):

      • start - - -
        user@host:./e-2.5-t-20241108446827-community-a73xq$ ls -R -1s
        .:
        total 1772568
        98308 boot.img
        24576 dtbo.img
        4 dynamic_partitions_op_list
        4 install
        4 META-INF
        776 odm.new.dat.br
        0 odm.patch.dat
        4 odm.transfer.list
        268056 product.new.dat.br
        0 product.patch.dat
        4 product.transfer.list
        79872 recovery.img
        787856 system.new.dat.br
        0 system.patch.dat
        12 system.transfer.list
        8 unsparse_super_empty.img
        98304 vendor_boot.img
        414772 vendor.new.dat.br
        0 vendor.patch.dat
        8 vendor.transfer.list

./install:
total 4
4 bin

./install/bin:
total 12
4 backuptool.functions
8 backuptool.sh

./META-INF:
total 4
4 com

./META-INF/com:
total 8
4 android
4 google

./META-INF/com/android:
total 12
4 metadata
4 metadata.pb
4 otacert

./META-INF/com/google:
total 4
4 android

./META-INF/com/google/android:
total 2076
2072 update-binary
4 updater-script

      • end - - -

As far as I could understand the instructions in page about payload-dumper-go, I could not find any clear instruction about which files in my Samsung A73 image correspond to payload.bin or “dtbo,vbmeta,recovery” or how to get them.
But I noticed the files “dtbo,vbmeta,recovery” can be found in the lineageos A73 builds download page.
Does it help?

8

I cannot explain this but it looks like both payload.bin and vbmeta.img are absent.

Yes, I see, you could experiment … but that vbmeta.img is from lineage-21.0, Android 14. I am not sure if that could be a blocker on this device. Perhaps @piero might comment or suggest a suitable source file.

10

“dtbo.img and vbmeta.img” files must be aside “recovery.img”, in a “recovery-IMG-e-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.zip” that is missing (due to the outage desorganisation ?)

Take the LineageOS ones if available…

11

Piero, thanks for your answer (merci de votre réponse), but:
-I have a Murena Faiphone 5, and I want the same OS in both my cel phones (the Samsung galaxy a53 would be my “clone” backup phone, and it is in fact a good phone)
-and just because e/OS/ is just great, really great. I have been using it on a Samsung galaxy S9 (which is dying…) and on a old “backup” motorola for some years now and couldn’t be happier.
So, if you plan to provide an usable image, I prefer waiting. Because it may not be easy to install e/os/ on a lineageos.

12

I only refer to the missing “dtbo.img and vbmeta.img”,
not recovery and system…

13

So, Piero, if you have plans to provide “the missing “dtbo.img and vbmeta.img”” for the samsung galaxy a53, I’ll be very glad to wait!

14

As already advised, take the LineageOS ones if available…

15

Piero, thanks so much for your attention.
But just one more question, to be sure:
The “dtbo.img and vbmeta.img files available to download are for lineageos 21, that is, Android 14. e/OS/ recovery image corresponds to Android 13.
Is is ok?

16

I think yes because those files are device dependant, not android level dependant

17

You did demonstrate that you have dtbo.img from you unzipped ROM so it is only vbmeta.img you need to “borrow”.

18

Well Piero and aibot, great help. I’ll try to install e/OS/ with lineageos " vbmeta.img" and post here the results. Have a good day!