[UNOFFICIAL BUILD] Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505/G, SGH-I337M, SGH-M919) (jfltexx)

Device info https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/jfltexx
Rom https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=300487

Please Note: This is an Untested build. Please try at your own risk.

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I’m really liking Pie on my S4 model SGH-M919. Is there any plan for /e/ official upgrade of Samsung S4 to Pie? The LineageOS for Samsung S4 is using Pie now.

Edit: or even an updated unofficial build with latest security patch would be much appreciated!

Ok, managed to build /e/ on my own, following the documentation. Not too painful at all! Note that the build failed initially due to the image size being larger than the space allowed on Samsung S4. So I tried again, omiting MagicEarth, and the build succeeded. Got the image installed on my S4, and then just installed MagicEarth from the App store. Easy. Now my S4 is running /e/ Android 9 Pie with the 5 Jan 2020 security patches. I’m happy! :smile:

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Hi @argon3030 congrats on being able to build your own ROM :slight_smile:
We are planning on upgrading all officially supported devices it will take some time though. As you may be aware the process has already started
Pl share the feedback of how Pie works on your S4 …check for the bugs which were there on the previous nougat / Oreo ROM’s and see if they have been resolved in the Pie build.

@argon3030, a joy shared is a joy doubled! Would you share it with me?

@Unknown’s build e-0.7-p-20191014-UNOFFICIAL-jfltexx works well. Nevertheless I would be interested in a newer version until it is officially presented by /e/.


Have you also been confronted with this problem?

@archje you can download my UNOFFICIAL build from here.

Note that you will manually have to install Open Camera and Magic Earth from the Apps store. Magic Earth was omitted, as the build was failing for being too large. Open Camera was included, but for some reason there is no icon for it. Manually installing it from the Apps store creates the icon and results in working Open Camera app.

To answer your question, no I have not experienced the shutdown behavior in the linked thread. My SGH-M919 has never done that before.

@Manoj I’ll see what I can do testing for bugs. One odd thing I’ve noticed is that with a 128 GB sd card which is formatted as “internal”, the card is not available for use until ~1 minute after the phone has started up. That means apps that try to autostart after a reboot, end up failing, and you just have wait a minute and open them again, and then it works. I suspect it’s just taking the phone a long time to fsck or mount the filesystem, due to its size. I’ve read that 128 GB cards were never officially supported on Samsung S4, but it does work with the full capacity available. My S4 is a 16 GB model, and with the 128 GB sd card, it reports 144 GB of usable capacity.

Thanks @argon3030, I’ll be happy to try out your image. Currently I’ve a very good working LOS16.0-UNOFFICIAL-jfltexx running. But it’s just not a /e/ OS. /e/ OS ROM 9-pie is my absolute favorite. I’m glad. Thanks again.

By the way: On various devices with custom ROM 9-pie 128GB microSD cards also work as internal memory expansion for me, although only 64GB are supported via stockROM.

@argon3030

I have an S4 with LOS with microG installed and when I turn on the phone, it also says the SD card is not connected. But the warning goes away after a while. If I remember correctly the official max size of an SD card for the S4 is 64GB.

Hi @argon3030 that is an interesting observation and may be helpful for the developers when they try to resolve the issue…Pl raise it on Gitlab providing all the details you have given above.

@Manoj , there appears to be no project group for the jfltexx device in gitlab. Is there a way to create one? Or should I file it somewhere else?

Hi @argon3030 you can raise the defect under the common gitlab project. Once it is in the system I will label it for the appropriate device and project for debugging.

Updated Pie build available for download.
Contains the Feb 2020 Android security patches. I’ve been running it on my personal Samsung S4 today, with no visible regressions.

I updated from my previous build using “Install” from within TWRP as described here.

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I’ve also installed the @argon3030 build e-0.7-p-20200226-UNOFFICIAL-jfltexx The first impression confirms that the time is ripe migration GT-I9505 to an official /e/ OS ROM 9-pie.

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Updated Pie build available for download .
Contains the March 2020 Android security patches. I’ve been running it on my personal Samsung S4 today, with no visible regressions.

I found out why the “Camera” app was missing from my previous unofficial builds. I was using the old “OpenCamera” name in the build string. It has been corrected in this build.

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@argon3030, thank you for your new e-0.7-p-20200316- build.

I find it amazing and gratifying to see the attention the “jfltexx” is getting from the developer community. Meanwhile even LOS 17.1 including microG Signature Spoofing is running on the Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4, released in 2013, April.

The last official LineageOS 16.0 "N"ightly of “jfltexx” was released on 25.03.2020. I find it amazing how smoothly official LOS 17.1 (without microG Signature Spoofing) runs on this particular device.Unfortunately OS ROM doesn’t correspond to the /e/ philosophy.


OS ROM Lineage-17.1-20200412-nightly-jfltexx-signed with Android security patch level April 5, 2020 now.

I’m not able to produce any further builds for the S4 unfortunately. The /e/ codebase has grown to the point where the build fails due to being too large for the S4’s memory. I have not been able to successfully build /e/ 0.9 Pie for this device since March.

Also worth noting is that I have personally switched to a newer phone for running /e/, a Pixel (sailfish) which has much faster and newer hardware. Right away I’ve noticed how much faster and smoother everything is. MagicEarth in particular, used to run kind of slow and would hang and crash occasionally on the S4, but it’s silky smooth and a really great experience on the sailfish.

I’m very sorry to hear that. From this I conclude that the chances for an official eOS migration higher than /e/ OS nougat are very low.

It’s amazing how fast LineageOS 17.1 runs on the old hardware of the S4 “jfltexx”. Of course, the machine has to put all its energy into computing, but the result is extremely respectable.

One advantage over the “sailfish” remains for the “jfltexx” - the Li-Ion battery, which can be replaced by the user in seconds.

@argon3030, thank you very much for your efforts.

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