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Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Value Edition (samsung-serranove)

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Note This page is about the dedicated port of this device. There is also an optional generic port available for this device - see Generic MSM8909 (qcom-msm8909).
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Value Edition
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Value Edition
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Value Edition
Manufacturer Samsung
Name Galaxy S4 Mini Value Edition
Codename samsung-serranove
Model GT-I9192I, GT-I9195I
Released 2015
Type handset
Hardware
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)
CPU 4x 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU 400 MHz Adreno 306
Display 4.3 inch 16:9, 540x960 60 Hz Super AMOLED, 24 Bit (16777216 colors)
Storage 8 GB EMMC 4.5 + microSDXC + USB OTG
Memory 1.5 GB 533 MHz LPDDR2 / LPDDR3 single-channel
Architecture armv7
Software
Original software
The software and version the device was shipped with.
Android 4.4.4
Extended version
The most recent supported version from the manufacturer.
Android 4.4.4
Optional software Android (LineageOS) (Unofficial)
FOSS bootloader yes
postmarketOS
Category community
Pre-built images
Whether pre-built images are available from the postmarketOS Installation page.
no
Mainline
Instead of a Linux kernel fork, it is possible to run (Close to) Mainline.
yes
pmOS kernel
The kernel version that runs on the device's port.
Mainline
Unixbench score
Unixbench Whetstone/Dhrystone score. See Unixbench.
886.7
Optional Generic Port Generic MSM8909 (qcom-msm8909)
Device package device-samsung-serranove
Kernel package linux-postmarketos-qcom-msm8916
Firmware package firmware-samsung-serranove
Features
Flashing
Whether 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
Whether charging and battery level reporting work.
Works
Screen
Whether the display works; ideally with sleep mode and brightness control.
Works
Touchscreen
Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Partial
Audio
Audio playback, microphone, headset and buttons.
Works
Camera
Broken
Camera Flash
Broken
IR TX
Broken
Connectivity
WiFi
Works
Bluetooth
Works
GPS
Works
NFC
Near Field Communication
Untested
Modem
Calls
Works
SMS
Works
Mobile data
Partial
Miscellaneous
FDE
Full disk encryption and unlocking with unl0kr.
Works
USB OTG
USB On-The-Go or USB-C Role switching.
Works
Sensors
Accelerometer
Handles automatic screen rotation in many interfaces.
Works
Magnetometer
Sensor to measure the Earth's magnetism
Works
Ambient Light
Measures the light level; used for automatic screen dimming in many interfaces.
Broken
Proximity
Broken
Hall Effect
Measures magnetic fields; usually used as a flip cover sensor
Works
Haptics
Works


Introduction

Also known as the Galaxy S4 Mini Plus, this little phone was available in Europe and has a very similar design to the Galaxy S4 Mini.

The display and back enclosure for all 2013 models are incompatible with it. The device codename appears to be "Serrano v2". It recieved no software updates since release, and a curse to run ARMv7 only.

This is peak Samsung. Be aware of that.

Note Note: Even though MSM8916 SoC is capable of aarch64, the firmware of this device was never updated with aarch64 support. Therefore, this device can only boot mainline on armv7 at the moment. See #Development for fun.

Contributors

Users owning this device

  • Bastindo (Notes: White GT-i9195I, works, good condition)
  • Jakko
  • Kreyren (Notes: Mint condition including the original box and flip case, projected to be used as a part of every day carry emergency kit and subject to NixOS contribution)
  • Madhaxbro (Notes: GT-I9195I, runs lk2nd + TouchWiz Android + TWRP. Ready for testing. Weak battery. Limited UI choice for now, occasional mobile data issue. Classic design. Well supported.)
  • Minecrell (Notes: GT-I9195I)
  • TryzenAlpensky (Notes: GT-I9195)


Model variants

Galaxy S4 Mini Plus / Galaxy S4 Mini Value Edition (VE) "Serrano v2?"

  • GT-I9192I (Global, 3G, Dual SIM) - Untested?
  • GT-I9195I (Global, 4G, NFC) - Works.

Any more? Needs more research.

Note Note: It may not be easy to obtain a 3G variant. It should exist. Also, 3G is getting dropped in some countries.

Galaxy S4 Mini (Duos) (LTE)

  • Any other GT-I919xx. - Incompatible!
  • Some more variants. - Incompatible!

See #Similar devices for more details.

Note Note: Some parts appear to be the same for this device. The SoC is different. Needs investigation.

Boot modes

Fastboot (lk2nd menu) - hold Volume Down during boot, or (only for lk2nd Fastboot) - execute $ fastboot reboot bootloader on a connected USB host, or (also lk2nd) - select it on the bootloader menu by pressing Volume Down or Volume Up three times, then confirm using Power

Recovery (using lk2nd) - hold Volume Up during boot, or - enter Fastboot mode and select it on the bootloader menu by pressing Volume Down twice, confirm using Power

Recovery (using Samsung bootloader) - hold Home+Volume Up+Power, or (with USB debugging enabled) - execute $ adb reboot recovery on a connected USB host

DFU (Odin/Download) mode - hold Home+Volume Down+Power, or (with USB debugging enabled) - execute $ adb reboot download on a connected USB host

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.

See #Firmware tools for more details.

Audio

Only PulseAudio is working. Automatic device switching is unreliable when using it. See Qualcomm Snapdragon 410/412 (MSM8916)#Audio for instructions. Also see Systemd/audio for more details on PulseAudio.

Note Note: Playback issues may occur when playing FLAC files at high bitrates. Needs more testing/investigation.

Audio input devices

  • Primary Microphone (Mic1) - Works.
  • Secondary Microphone (Mic2) - Works.
  • Headset input (3.5 mm) - Works. (?)

Audio output devices

  • Earpiece playback - Works.
  • Speaker playback - Works.
  • Headset output (3.5 mm) - Works. (?)

Note that the pop up volume bar is always empty in phosh. Could be a UI bug.

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!

Bluetooth Audio

Works. Has no known? issues.

DSP

See Qualcomm_Snapdragon_410/412 (MSM8916)#Switching rproc mode for instructions.

Display

Display variants

  • Needs more research.

At least one common aftermarket display has been verified to work, using the packaged driver. This cannot be guaranteed for all replacement parts that appear to work.

Brightness

Works.

Warning WARNING: Beware "burn in" when using an (AM)OLED display on high brightness! Permanent discoloration can occur after consistent long use. Especially on some low quality OLEDs.

Touch keys

Works. See Tm2-touchkey for instructions.

Battery

This device uses removable 1900 mAh Li-Ion batteries. Larger cells should work fine after calibration. Needs testing.

Warning WARNING: Be careful with degraded batteries. They may cause issues. Also note that some UIs will not power the device off automatically on low charge.

Battery variants

  • BI919BBE (I9195I, NFC) - 2015? No manufacture date printed on label.
  • B500BE (I9195x, NFC) - 2014 More dates?
  • Probably more. (Includes non-NFC variants.)

Charger

Works.

Fuelguage

Works.

Camera

Currently unsupported. You are welcome to try it!

Note The camera subsystem requires a lot of work. Needs more investigation.

Flash LED

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

Note Note: Driver seems to be abandoned as of 2025. Needs to be completed.

Image sensors

Needs more research.

Note Note: Sensors from samsung-serranolte could work, or be the same. Needs investiation. And testing.

ISP

Currently unsupported. See Qualcomm Snapdragon 410/412 (MSM8916)#Camera.

Modem

Calls

  • 2G (EDGE) - Working.
  • 3G (HSPA) - Untested? Likely to work...
  • 4G (VoLTE) - Unsupported. May need investigation, probably a modem limitation

Calls are working. You may need to switch the audio device manually when using PulseAudio. Input volume controls seem to be missing. Also see #Audio, #Packages.

Warning WARNING: Calls have no active noise reduction. High input volume may create extreme distortion and echoes!

SMS

Works. Text messages are being recieved and listed twice. (ModemManager) This is purely visual and can be ignored. Needs more research.

Note This could be a firmware safety feature. It may be worth integrating for verification.

MMS

Requires APN credentials to use. Untested?

USSD

Works. Needs more testing.

Note Note: USSD output currently has no UI in GNOME Calls. Codes get passed to the modem and they do work.

VVM

Untested. Unsupported for this modem/device? Needs more research.

Mobile Data

Requires APN credentials to use. Mobile Data is currently unreliable. It drops randomly and will require a reboot to work again. Needs investigation. Also, disabling and reenabling the cellular connection after noticing, will require you to both reboot and unlock your SIM, twice. Observed using Linux 6.12.1-msm8916 on I9195I with 4G LTE (also EU 5G) SIM. Can become annoying. Especially when it happens twice in a row! Phosh does warn you after a minute.

Note Note: This could also be related to use of weak batteries. It seems to happen more frequently below 50% charge. Could also be caused by changing to a nonexistent 3G network while active. Or, possibly by code pieces meant for 3G devices. Perhaps the modem is overheating? Needs more testing.

Wired connectivity

  • Micro USB 2.0 - Works.
  • Headset (3.5 mm) - Works.

Wireless connectivity

Bluetooth

Works. Has no known? issues.

FM Radio

Currently unsupported. See #Notes

GPS

Works. Needs more testing. See Qualcomm Snapdragon 410/412 (MSM8916)#GPS for instructions.

IR transmitter

Currently unsupported. Needs investigation. See Infrared for instructions.

NFC

Untested on I9195I (Is it?), since neard is not packaged in armv7 at the moment. Everything seems to be in the sysfs. Needs a battery for I9195, I257M, or I9195I to work. See NFC for instructions.

Note Note: GT-I9192I could still include the required controls. Needs investigation.

WiFi

Works. Supports 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks.

Sensors

Compass/Magnetometer

  • Compass is untested. Needs more research.
  • Hall effect sensor is working.
  • Magnetometer is working.

Light/Proximity

  • Light sensor is not working.
  • Proximity sensor is not working.

Needs investigation. Missing driver.

Rotation/Accelerometer

  • Gyroscope is working. Needs more research.

Storage

  • EMMC 4.5 - Works.
  • micoSDXC - Works.
  • USB 2.0 - Works.

Working. Supports microSD Cards and USB 2.0 storage devices. (Requires OTG adapter.)

CPU

Suspend

Suspend is not yet fully implemented. It's recommended to disable suspend. This should be done automatically for most UIs. See Qualcomm_Snapdragon_410 (MSM8916)#Suspend for instructions.

Note Note: Has only been veriefied to work on Phosh. Should work on most.

Clock speeds

Like other MSM8916 devices, the highest CPU clock speed is 998MHz for now. Setting the governor to performance can improve usability. To make this permanent, add cpufreq.default_governor=performance to the cmdline in /etc/deviceinfo and regenerate the initramfs. See #Useful software, Qualcomm Snapdragon 410/412 (MSM8916)#Troubleshooting.

GPU

Video

Hardware accelerated Video playback is almost unusable. Even at the device's native resolution. Needs investigation. Caused by driver or battery?

Hardware Acceleration in Firefox

As of 04.01.2024 it was observed on phosh that firefox-esr has a broken UI on launch, this has been linked to the hardware acceleration currently tracked on #2332!pmaports and including a hotfix and on https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/10374.

OpenGL ES 3.0 bugs

In v25.06, GNOME and Plasma are affected by the same glitches as Firefox.

Note that edge seems to have this fixed already. Needs more testing. Additonal software can be affected as well. See Qualcomm Snapdragon 410/412 (MSM8916)#GPU.

Notes

Not working

Development

  • #Light/Proximity sensor: Needs a driver.
  • Camera: Needs more research. Unclear if it could work, the ISP seems to work partially.
  • Infrared transmitter: Driver should be added if missing. See #IR transmitter.
  • RTC: Broken? # hwclock -w fails with /dev/rtc0 missing. Needs investigation. Also see Shutdown-clear-rtc-wakealarm.
  • FM Radio: Appears to be unsupported. Needs more research.
  • #Flash LED: Incomplete driver.
  • Some components cannot be fixed, due to lack of firmware source code and signing keys from Samsung. Including the limitation to use armv7 instead of aarch64 (ARMv8) architecture. Possible exploit?
  • The panel for I9195 connects and the display image does work, the touchscreen is possibly only missing a driver. See #Similar devices for a list of possible configurations. Some of the drivers for serranolte could be added to make different panels work on serranove. Needs extensive testing. And more research.

Official Support Checklist

Hardware details (hwtest) for GT-I9195I

Category Model Path Status Value
framebuffer msmdrmfb /sys/class/graphics/fb0 Working
drm /sys/class/drm/card0-DSI-1 Working 540x960
magnetometer yas537 /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device1 Working -0.18, -0.53, -0.34 gauss
accelerometer lsm6ds3_accel /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device3 Working -3.49, -7,78, 4.89 g
gyroscope lsm6ds3_gyro /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device2 Working -0.08, 0.1, -0.17 rad/s
temperature yas537 /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device1 Working 28.1 deg C
vibrator pm8xxx_vib_ffmemless /dev/input/event6 Working
input pm8941_pwrkey /dev/input/event0 Working
input pm8941_resin /dev/input/event1 Working
input GPIO Buttons /dev/input/event2 Working
input GPIO Hall Effect Sensor /dev/input/event3 Working
input Zinitix Capacitive TouchScreen /dev/input/event4 Working
input tm2-touchkey /dev/input/event5 Working
input msm8916 Headset Jack /dev/input/event7 Working

Browser ratings

Firefox

Rating: Partial. Glitches make it difficult to use.

  • Performs well enough in terms of speed.
  • Very uncomfortable settings page, even with mobile-config-firefox installed.
  • Still has the graphics issue. May crash.

Chromium

Rating: Works. Somehow slick and clunky.

  • Best performance, runs great on old SoCs.
  • No phone UI, controls are tiny.
  • Actually has good touch navigation.
  • Needs the scaling set below 150%. Or else!
  • Submenus will extend outside the screen. Unless you like ant mode.
  • Two windows at once may crash your entire desktop. Understandable.
  • Parts of the GTK UI can become transparent. It remains usable, menus can be difficult to read.

Epiphany (GNOME Web)

Rating: Works. (Someone please unf*** WebKit!)

  • Full mobile UI, swipe navigation and proper scaling, clean and simple to use.
  • Best WebApp integration of any browser. (I mean any platform!)
  • As of v25.06, it has a horrible delay when scrolling. (Last year it was fast, on stericsson!)
  • Crashes sometimes. (Persistent graphics/rendering issue? It also happens with the free NVIDIA driver on PC, possibly related to some OpenGL ES 3.0 feature. I've not looked into this, could it be the same Mesa bug?)
  • Experimental support for Firefox addons can be enabled in dconf settings.

Angelfish

Rating: It does work, if you are not epileptic.

  • Runs fast, no complaints there.
  • UI is desiged for mobile and works well.
  • Plasma (Kirigami) does not like to exist on it. Also applies to most other Plasma apps.

Useful software

Bootloader builds

Recovery builds

Android builds

Firmware builds

Firmware tools

  • android-tools Used for Fastboot, ADB, sparse images (simg), and more. From SDK.
  • heimdall Tool for dealing with Samsung's Odin protocol. Used to install firmware.
  • Latest version of samloader Tool for downloading firmware from official Samsung update servers. Written in python. Consider packaging it.

Packages

Device support

Links

Source code

Instructions

Specifications

Similar devices

References