Jump to content

Samsung Galaxy A5 2015 (samsung-a5)

From postmarketOS Wiki
Revision as of 09:35, 12 February 2022 by WonderfulShrineMaidenOfParadise (talk | contribs) (Installation: {{lk2nd|samsung=true}})
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2015)
Samsung Galaxy A5
Samsung Galaxy A5
Manufacturer Samsung
Name Galaxy A5 (2015)
Codename samsung-a5
Released 2014
Hardware
Chipset Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410
CPU 4x 1.2 Ghz Cortex-A53
GPU Adreno 306
Display 5 inch 16:9, 720 x 1280 AMOLED
Storage 16 GB
Memory 2 GB
Architecture aarch64
Software
Original software Android 4.4.4
postmarketOS
Category community
Pre-built images yes
postmarketOS kernel Mainline
Unixbench Whet/Dhry score 912.7
Features
Flashing
Works
USB Networking
Works
Internal storage
No data
SD card
No data
Battery
Works
Screen
Partial
Touchscreen
Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Works
Audio
Works
Camera
Broken
Camera Flash
No data
Connectivity
WiFi
Works
Bluetooth
Works
GPS
Works
NFC
Works
Modem
Calls
Works
SMS
Works
Mobile data
Works
Miscellaneous
FDE
Works
USB OTG
Partial
HDMI/DP
No data
Sensors
Accelerometer
Works
Magnetometer
No data
Ambient Light
No data
Proximity
No data
Hall Effect
No data
Haptics
No data
Barometer
No data

Contributors

Users owning this device


Installation

There are several ways to install postmarketOS on Samsung Galaxy A5 2015. All of them require you to flash an alternative second stage bootloader called lk2nd.

First, install lk2nd:

🚧 This page is a work-in-progress. Some information contained within may be inaccurate or incomplete.

lk2nd is a secondary bootloader that provides a standard fastboot interface, which can be used to boot postmarketOS without Android boot flashed or pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel.

  1. Download lk2nd.img from Releases page on Github.
  2. Boot your phone to bootloader (Odin/Download) mode by holding Volume Down and Home while powering up.
  3. Follow lk2nd instructions to install lk2nd. Basically flash it to the boot partition (heimdall flash --BOOT lk2nd.img)
  4. Follow Qualcomm_Snapdragon_410/412_(MSM8916)#Installation to install postmarketOS.
Note Note: Enter lk2nd fastboot mode by pressing only Volume Down + Power (without Home). Pressing Home additionally will bring you to the Samsung Download mode.

Audio

Warning WARNING: The speakers are rather loud on 100% volume and may produce distorted sound that may damage your speakers after long use. Please make sure to use reasonable volumes - your ears and your speaker will thank you!

Screen

Screen works partially. While displaying the UI works fine, adjusting the brightness doesn't work.

Touch keys

See Tm2-touchkey.

Plasma Mobile

Plasma mobile currently works on A5 2015, but you should set custom scaling factor to 2.

kscreen-doctor output.1.scale.2 should work.

To run this command from ssh session add the following env variables to the above command:

XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/10000 QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland kscreen-doctor output.1.scale.2

Plasma works smoothly, but there are some graphical glitches sometimes.

Photos

See also