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Samsung Galaxy J6 2018 (samsung-j6lte)

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Samsung Galaxy J6 (2018)
J6 running Phosh
J6 running Phosh
Manufacturer Samsung
Name Galaxy J6 (2018)
Codename samsung-j6lte
Released 2018
Type handset
Hardware
Chipset Samsung Exynos 7870 Octa
CPU Octa-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU Mali-T830 MP1
Display 720 x 1480 OLED
Storage 32/64 GB
Memory 3/4 GB
Architecture aarch64
Software
Original software Android
Original version
The version the device was shipped with.
8.0
Extended version
The most recent supported version from the manufacturer.
10.0
postmarketOS
Category testing
Pre-built images
Whether pre-built images are available here.
no
Mainline
Instead of a Linux kernel fork, it is possible to run (Close to) Mainline.
yes
Features
Flashing
It is possible to flash the device with pmbootstrap flasher.
Works
USB Networking
After connecting the device with USB to your PC, you can connect to it via telnet (initramfs) or SSH (booted system).
Works
Internal storage
eMMC, SD cards, UFS, ...
Works
SD card
Also includes other external storage cards
Works
Battery
Charging and battery level reporting works
Partial
Screen
Display works. Ideally with sleep mode and brightness control.
Partial
Touchscreen
Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Works
Audio
Audio playback, microphone, headset and buttons.
Broken
Camera
Broken
Camera Flash
Broken
Connectivity
WiFi
Works
Bluetooth
Works
GPS
Broken
Modem
Calls
Broken
SMS
Broken
Mobile data
Broken
Miscellaneous
FDE
Full disk encryption and unlocking with unl0kr.
Untested
USB OTG
USB On-The-Go or USB-C Role switching
Untested
Sensors
Accelerometer
Auto screen rotation works in desktops e.g. Phosh or Plasma Mobile
Works
Ambient Light
Works
Proximity
Works
Haptics
Works


Samsung Galaxy J6, also known as Samsung Galaxy On6, is an Exynos 7870 device released by Samsung in 2018.

Contributors

  • naproxen

Users owning this device


How to enter flash mode

When the phone is powered off, insert the USB cable while holding the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons to boot into download mode. A turquoise colored screen will appear, asking for confirmation. Press Volume Up to confirm. Your device is ready for flashing via a front-end such as Odin or Heimdall.

To boot into recovery, hold the Power and Volume Up buttons.

Installation

Prerequisites

Make sure your phone:

  • Has its bootloader unlocked.

Preparation

Choose the following in the pmbootstrap init wizard:

Vendor: samsung
Device codename: j6lte

To proceed with the installation run:

$ pmbootstrap install

This will begin preparing your installation in your host computer.

Flashing

After the installation process is completed, get your phone booted into download mode, Then run:

$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel

The kernel gets flashed to your device. Now, the device will reboot automatically. Hold the key combination to reboot into download mode. Then run:

$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs

The rootfs is flashed and the device gets rebooted. It should reboot to postmarketOS now.

Notice If there are any problems with flashing the rootfs via Heimdall, you may attempt an installation via recovery.

Partial features

Battery

The fuelgauge driver (reports the charge percentage) works fine, but there's no charger driver which is responsible for reporting charge status and control.

Screen

Display works with simple-framebuffer, so brightness control is non-functional. Samsung DECON/DSIM driver for Exynos 7870 is a work-in-progress, which will properly initialize and use the display.

Problems

USB Networking

At least on some operating systems, the host doesn't receive network packets from the device, unless the host sends packets to the device. Due to this behavior, SSH (among other things) doesn't work well. A workaround is to have ping -Aq <IP> run in the background while you interact with the device (replace <IP> with the device IP address).

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi behaves very erratically (practically unusable) when the SDIO is probed in DMA mode. The driver fails to communicate with the SDIO, reporting timeout errors. As a workaround, the SDIO is forced to be probed in PIO mode.

Debugging (retrieving kernel logs)

Read this.

Downstream Kernel

A port based on the downstream kernel exists which has been archived in favor of the mainline kernel. More information is available in older revisions of this page.

See also

pmaports!4658 Initial merge request

pmaports!5785 (Downstream → Mainline)

Device package

Kernel package