Samsung Galaxy A7 2015 (samsung-a7)

From postmarketOS Wiki
Note This page is about the dedicated port of this device. There is also an optional generic port available for this device - see Generic MSM8916 (qcom-msm8916).
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2015)
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Manufacturer Samsung
Name Galaxy A7 (2015)
Codename samsung-a7
Released 2015
Type handset
Hardware
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939)
CPU 4x1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4x1.0 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU Adreno 405
Display 1080 x 1920
Storage 16 GB
Memory 2 GB
Architecture aarch64
Software
Original software Android
Original version 4.4.4
Extended version 5.0.2
postmarketOS
Category testing
Pre-built images no
Mainline yes
postmarketOS kernel Mainline
Unixbench Whet/Dhry score 1022.4
Optional Generic Port Generic MSM8916 (qcom-msm8916)
Features
Flashing
Works
USB Networking
Works
Internal storage
SD card
Battery
Works
Screen
Partial
Touchscreen
Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Partial
Audio
Works
Camera
Broken
Camera Flash
Connectivity
WiFi
Works
Bluetooth
Works
GPS
NFC
Works
Modem
Calls
Works
SMS
Works
Mobile data
Works
Miscellaneous
FDE
Works
USB OTG
Works
HDMI/DP
Sensors
Accelerometer
Works
Magnetometer
Works
Ambient Light
Broken
Proximity
Broken
Hall Effect
Works
Haptics
Barometer
Note Note: This page is about 2015 version of Samsung Galaxy A7.
This device is based on the Snapdragon 615.
See the SoC page for common tips, guides and troubleshooting steps

Users owning this device


How to enter flash mode

Press Volume Down, Power, and Home all at the same time to boot to Odin mode. After lk2nd is installed, press Volume Down and Power at the same time.

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].

3D acceleration

Instead of 60 fps in video mode[2], panel s6e3fa2-ams549eh01 runs at 30 fps in command mode. The framerate is reduced to 5/6x [3] on mainline, and it runs at only 25 fps now. Ideally, we should found a solution to covert the panel to video mode.

Touchscreen

There is no successful attempt on SM-A700H for now. 

$ dmesg | grep cyttsp5
[   14.031305] cyttsp5 6-0024: Error on deassert int r=-6
[   14.031344] cyttsp5 6-0024: Fail initial startup r=-19

Ambient Light/Proximity Sensor

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

Reboot Loop

There are some issues on the hardware, which cause endless reboot even you have a 100% charged battery.

See also

References

  1. ↑ arm64: dts: qcom: msm8916/39-samsung-a2015/fortuna/serranove: Add flash LED
  2. ↑ include/drm/drm_mipi_dsi.h
  3. ↑ drm/panel: panel-samsung-s6e3fa2-ams549eh01: Reduce the framerate to 50 fps
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