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Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Value Edition (samsung-serranove)

From postmarketOS Wiki

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 variants. The display and back enclosure for all 2013 models are incompatible with this device.

It recieved no software updates since release, and a curse to run ARMv7 only.

This is peak Samsung. Be aware of that.

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 AMOLED
Storage 8 GB EMMC 4.5
Memory 1.5 GB 533 MHz 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


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-I959xx. - Incompatible!
  • Also some China and US variants.

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.

Audio

Only PulseAudio is working. Automatic device switching is unreliable. See Systemd/audio for details.

Audio input devices

  • Primary microphone (Mic1) - Works.
  • Secondary microphoe (Mic2) -Works.

Audio output devices

  • Earpiece playback - Works.
  • Speaker playback - Works.
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)#Audio.

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.

Battery

Battery variants

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

Charger

Works.

Fuelguage

Works.

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.

Camera

Currently unsupported. You are welcome to try it!

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

Image sensors

  • Needs more research.

ISP

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

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.

Modem

Calls

Calls are working. You may need to switch the audio device manually when using PulseAudio. Also see #Packages.

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

SMS

SMS is working. Text messages can be 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?

Mobile data

Requires APN credentials to use. Mobile data is currently unreliable. It drops randomly and will require a reboot to work again. Also, disabling and reenabling the cellular connection after noticing, will require you to both reboot and unlock your SIM, twice. Needs investigation. 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 non existent 3G network while active. Or, possibly by code pieces meant for 3G devices. Needs more testing.

Wireless connectivity

Bluetooth

Works. Has no known? issues.

FM Radio

Currently unsupported. See #Notes

GPS

Works. Needs more testing.

IR transmitter

Currently unsupported. See Infrared. Needs investigation.

NFC

NFC on I9195I remains untested, 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.

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

WiFi

Works. 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks are supported.

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

  • Proximity/Light sensor is not working. Needs a driver. And more research.
  • Camera: Needs more research. Unclear if it could work, the ISP seems to work partially.
  • Infrared transmitter: Driver should be added if missing. Needs investigation.
  • Broken RTC? hwclock -w fails with /dev/rtc0 missing. Needs investigation. Also see Shutdown-clear-rtc-wakealarm.
  • FM Radio: Appears to be unsupported. Needs more research.

Development

  • 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

  • Fix pmaports#2332 (To be decided, if it turns out to be a mesa bug then it would have to be fixed otherwise minor issue)
  • Scaling in /etc/phosh/phoc.ini is unnecessary at this point. It mostly fights with the new options in gnome-settings.
  • Investigate the modem issue mentioned above. Possible regression. Needs more testing. See #Mobile data.
  • Complete the missing flash LED driver.
  • Should we change the name for this board to Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Plus (samsung-serranove)? This one is simpler and fits well.

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: Works. 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.

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.
  • The UI is desiged for mobile and works well.
  • Plasma does not like to exist.

Useful software

Bootloader builds

Recovery builds

Android builds

Packages

Device support

Links

Source code

Instructions

Specifications

Similar devices

References