I have an Samsung Alpha SM-G850A that is the fastest and most responsive of my several old Galaxy phones. No one has worked an easy install for this particular phone, and apparently never will. So my question is: Can anyone tell me the closest Samsung phone spec wise to this phone so I might try to use THAT established install sequence on this phone? If I could get this phone running eOS with no issues, I would probably get rid of my iPhone6. If this sounds like a plausible action, I would appreciate a suggested Samsung version to try. What I can tell you about this phone is the following:
Model # SM-G850A
Android Version 4.4.4
Baseband version G850AUCU1ANH8
Kernel Version 3.4.0-2629325
Build # KTU84P.G850AUCU1ANH8
Thats all folks. Sure would love to boot this Gem and see an e screen.
It was indeed an AT&T phone. But the question was - is there a Samsung phone that is close enough to this Alpha SM-G850A to even be worth a try. I’d like to not brick the phone, but if it happened it would not be the end of the world.
Hi Ells, when I search Alpha SM-G850 I see it is a Snapdragon but that there is a LineageOS for it, so potentially /e/ might be able to be built. However when you add A -> SM-G850A the challenge would be to crack the bootloader.
I saw an AT&T reference that they would not unlock their phones but don’t take that as definite. I cannot advise the best strategy for speaking to them!
You could spend time searching how you could hack the lock but that is well beyond my knowledge. Sorry.
Hi aibd, this is a step in the direction I am hoping to go. Thanks! I have an unlock code from AT&T but cannot use it till I find some way to get a non-AT&T SIM to put in the phone. They allow 5 attempts to unlock and if unsuccessful it becomes AT&T forever. I am thinking of visiting an AT&T store with a print out of the email from AT&T with the unlock code to see if they can provide the needed SIM. When that is accomplished I will re-visit e-community for more advice. This is a good step forward.
Hi, you probably have missanderstood. It is not simply the carrier SIM lock, and the carrier network lock, but the device bootloader lock you have to unlock…
Now you have me worried that I have rushed in where angels fear to tread!
Is the SM-850W close enough? I really don’t know.
Here is the LineageOS link, it is not very recent. An enquiry there might be a next step.
Is there information in About phone to confirm it is sltecan? Even if it is, I found zero for sltecan in www.lineage.microg.org. Being a Snapdragon I see that it would be a big challenge to build /e/ for it.
No that IS the topic and the ultimate answer. On that Link page it specifically calls my model, the SM-G850A, as completely locked bootloader, and that it cannot work.
