Samsung Galaxy A5 2015 (samsung-a5)

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Samsung Galaxy A5
Samsung Galaxy A5
Samsung Galaxy A5
Manufacturer Samsung
Name Galaxy A5
Codename samsung-a5
Model SM-A5000 - SM-A500W
Released 2014
Category community
Pre-built images yes
Original software Android
Original version 4.4.4
Extended version 6.0.1
postmarketOS kernel Mainline
Hardware
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)
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
Type handset
Unixbench Whet/Dhry score 1028.8
Features
USB Networking
Works
Flashing
Works
Touchscreen
Works
Display
Partial
WiFi
Works
FDE
Works
Mainline
Works
Battery
Works
3D Acceleration
Works
Audio
Works
Bluetooth
Works
Camera
Broken
GPS
Works
Mobile data
Works
SMS
Works
Calls
Works
USB OTG
Works
NFC
Works
Sensors
Accelerometer
Works
Magnetometer
Works
Ambient Light
Broken
Proximity
Broken
Hall Effect
Works
Misc
Camera Flash
Broken
Memory Card
Works
Haptics
Works
FOSS bootloader
Works
This device is based on the Snapdragon 410.
See the SoC page for common tips, guides and troubleshooting steps

Contributors

Users owning this device

Architecture

Some variants are released with Kitkat 4.4, which doesn't boot arm64 kernel, so upgrade to Lollipop 5.0 or later first.

Installation

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-msm8916.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-msm8916.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

Icon 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.

Flash LED

Currently WIP. It can be controlled with SG Micro SGM3140 charge pump LED driver[1].

Display sleep issue in X11

Note The following issue was solved in postmarketOS "edge" channel when upgrading kernel "linux-postmarketos-qcom-msm8916" to version 6.5.2-r0. In the postmarketOS "stable" channel v23.06 this issue still persists as it uses kernel "linux-postmarketos-qcom-msm8916" version 6.3-r0.

This device is known to have this common issue where in X11 user interfaces like Xfce4 and MATE, when the screen blacks out after a while of inactivity it can't be woken up anymore. As a workaround, set display sleeping time to "never" in the power management settings. To solve this issue properly, work on the Qualcomm DRM Driver is needed. See the github issue on the our msm8916 kernel fork to learn more.

Partition layout

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 14.68 GiB, 15758000128 bytes, 30777344 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt

Device            Start      End  Sectors Name    
/dev/mmcblk0p1     8192    38911    30720 apnhlos 
/dev/mmcblk0p2    38912   156543   117632 modem 
/dev/mmcblk0p3   156544   157567     1024 sbl1   
/dev/mmcblk0p4   157568   157631       64 ddr     
/dev/mmcblk0p5   157632   161727     4096 aboot   
/dev/mmcblk0p6   161728   162751     1024 rpm     
/dev/mmcblk0p7   162752   163775     1024 qsee    
/dev/mmcblk0p8   163776   164799     1024 qhee    
/dev/mmcblk0p9   164800   170943     6144 fsg     
/dev/mmcblk0p10  170944   170975       32 sec     
/dev/mmcblk0p11  170976   192511    21536 pad     
/dev/mmcblk0p12  192512   212991    20480 param   
/dev/mmcblk0p13  212992   241663    28672 efs     
/dev/mmcblk0p14  241664   247807     6144 modemst1
/dev/mmcblk0p15  247808   253951     6144 modemst2
/dev/mmcblk0p16  253952   280575    26624 boot    
/dev/mmcblk0p17  280576   311295    30720 recovery
/dev/mmcblk0p18  311296   337913    26618 fota
/dev/mmcblk0p19  337914   352231    14318 backup
/dev/mmcblk0p20  352232   358375     6144 fsc     
/dev/mmcblk0p21  358376   358391       16 ssd     
/dev/mmcblk0p22  358392   374775    16384 persist 
/dev/mmcblk0p23  374776   393207    18432 persdata
/dev/mmcblk0p24  393208  5275639  4882432 system  
/dev/mmcblk0p25 5275640  5685239   409600 cache   
/dev/mmcblk0p26 5685240 30777303 25092064 userdata

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.

Note Touch key work on Samsung Galaxy A5 2015 (samsung-a5) but may not work on Samsung Galaxy A5 Duos (it confimed to not work on Samsung Galaxy A5 Duos SM-A5000)

Ambient Light/Proximity Sensor

The driver for tmd3782 ambient light/proximity sensor is not available.

Mobile Data

2G and 3G are working. 4G is not working. Need to got to Setting, Mobile Data, Network Mode and select 2G, 3G (Preferred)

Dual SIM

Samsung Galaxy A5 Duos supports dual SIM but Samsung Galaxy A5 doesn't.

Photos

See also

References