Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 (samsung-skomer)
|
Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 GT-S7710 | |
| Manufacturer | Samsung |
|---|---|
| Name | Galaxy Xcover 2 |
| Codename | samsung-skomer |
| Model | GT-S7710 |
| Released | 2013 |
| Type | handset |
| Hardware | |
| Chipset | ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 |
| CPU | Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 |
| GPU | Mali-400 MP1 |
| Display | 4 inch 5:3, 480x800 60? Hz TFT, 24 Bit (16777261 colors) |
| Storage | 4 GB EMMC + microSDHC + USB OTG |
| Memory | 1 GB LPDDR2 |
| Architecture | armv7 |
| Software | |
Original software The software and version the device was shipped with. |
Android (TouchWiz) 4.1.2 |
Extended version The most recent supported version from the manufacturer. |
Android (TouchWiz) 4.1.2 |
| FOSS bootloader | yes |
| postmarketOS | |
| Category | testing |
Mainline Instead of a Linux kernel fork, it is possible to run (Close to) Mainline. |
yes |
| Device package |
|
| Kernel package |
|
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
|
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 |
Works
|
Audio Audio playback, microphone, headset and buttons. |
Broken
|
Camera |
Broken
|
Camera Flash |
Works
|
| Connectivity | |
WiFi |
Works
|
Bluetooth |
Broken
|
GPS |
Broken
|
| Modem | |
Calls |
Broken
|
SMS |
Broken
|
Mobile data |
Broken
|
| Miscellaneous | |
FDE Full disk encryption and unlocking with unl0kr. |
Works
|
USB OTG USB On-The-Go or USB-C Role switching. |
Untested
|
| Sensors | |
Accelerometer Handles automatic screen rotation in many interfaces. |
Works
|
Magnetometer Sensor to measure the Earth's magnetism |
Works
|
Proximity |
Works
|
Haptics |
Works
|
Primary Bootloader Whether it is possible to replace stock bootloader with U-Boot. |
Broken
|
|---|---|
Secondary Bootloader Whether it is possible to chainload U-Boot from stock bootloader. |
Works
|
Mainline Whether latest upstream versions of U-Boot are not broken and it is possible to use them. |
Works
|
Internal Storage Whether it is possible to boot from internal storage (e.g. eMMC or UFS). |
Works
|
SD card Whether it is possible to boot from SD card. |
Broken
|
USB Host Whether it is possible to boot from a USB storage or connect a keyboard. |
Works
|
USB Peripheral Whether it is possible to use device as a peripheral in U-Boot, e.g. for fastboot mode. |
Works
|
Display |
Works
|
Buttons Whether it is possible to navigate in boot menu or grub with volume and power buttons. |
Works
|
| This device is based on the ST-Ericsson U8500. See the SoC page for common tips, guides and troubleshooting steps |
Contributors
Users owning this device
- Bastindo (Notes: Works)
- Chaosleo07 (Notes: oh god oh fuck i can't find my charger)
- GeraltvonNVIDIA (Notes: Kernel 6.1.0 on Plasma-Mobile)
- Linusw (Notes: Final ST-Ericsson product based on U8500)
- Madhaxbro (Notes: GT-S7710, runs U-Boot + pmOS v25.06. Repartitioned for pmOS. Ready for testing. Fancy and indestructible calculator. GNOME actually works fine on this thing!)
- Newbyte (Notes: I don't know how many I have, I wouldn't strictly mind giving away one if you want to work on improving it)
- Zekiu (Notes: deleted a bunch of partitions 'cause i didn't know you can install on a microSD :P)
Model variants
Galaxy Xcover 2 "Skomer"
- GT-S7710 (Global) - Works.
- GT-S7710L (Latin America) - Untested?
Boot modes
Fastboot (U-Boot) - hold during boot, or (in U-Boot Fastboot) - execute $ fastboot reboot bootloader on a connected USB host
Recovery (using U-Boot) - hold during boot, or (in U-Boot Fastboot) - execute $ fastboot reboot recovery on a connected USB host
Recovery (using Samsung bootloader) - hold ++, or (with USB debugging enabled) - execute $ adb reboot recovery on a connected USB host
DFU (Odin/Download) mode - hold ++, or (with USB debugging enabled) - execute $ adb reboot download on a connected USB host
Installation
The mainline kernel can only be booted through U-Boot, not directly with the Samsung bootloader. U-Boot is installed as intermediate bootloader on the boot partition, so it does not replace the Samsung bootloader entirely.
Boot into Download Mode and follow the the NovaThor U8500 U-Boot installation instructions to install U-Boot.
Finally, just follow the Installation guide. It should be recommended that you use an external SD Card to install the rootfs to, because the internal storage is pretty small on this device.
Desktop environments
Phosh
If you are running phosh, and the scaling is wrong so that you cannot type in the password to unlock the initial login screen, this can be fixed by changing this file /usr/share/phosh/phoc.ini like this:
[output:DSI-1] scale = 1
Mainline kernel
Linux 6.10
- FDE is working.
- Bluetooth is broken.
Linux 5.18
Working:
- Display
- GPU (Mali-400 MP using Lima)
- Touchscreen
- Broadcom WiFi
- Bluetooth (partial; needs to be set up manually)
- Accelerometer
- Magnetometer
- Proximity sensor
- USB
- Battery charging
Not working:
- Audio
- Camera
- GPS
- FDE (keyboard appears and is GPU accelerated with working vibrator, but device hangs a few seconds after unlocking)
- ...
Mainlining TODO
- Check functionality on the latest kernel.
- Possibly update this article.
- Fix #Bluetooth. Needs investigation.
- Get #GPS support working. Needs investigation.
- Possibly add more divers/DT nodes. Modem is 3G. Be aware of it.
- Also, look at behavior with weak batteries.
- Upstream as much as possible.
Audio
Currently unsupported.
Display
Works.
Display variants
- Needs more research.
Brightness
Works.
Buttons
Partial. Home button does not work.
Touchscreen
Works. Unknown?
Battery
This device uses removable 1700 mAh Li-Ion batteries. The cover can be locked in place, using a large flathead screwdriver or similar.
| WARNING: Be careful with degraded batteries. They may cause issues. Some UIs will not power the device off automatically on low charge! |
Battery variants
- EB485159LU (GT-S7710, 1.7 Ah) - 2014. More dates?
BMS
Unknown. Designed for 3.8 V Li-Ion cells. It is modular and should stay accurate when switching batteries.
Charger
Works. Unknown? Supports 5V 1A charging. May not stop charging, unlike Android kernels!
While charging now works with the mainline kernel as of linux-postmarketos-stericsson 5.17-rc1 in postmarketOS, it is good to note that if you somehow end up depleting the battery entirely, you risk bricking your device as it cannot charge if it cannot boot to the kernel, and it cannot boot to the kernel if the battery level is too low as it shuts down before it gets there. This is also the case in Android. If you end up in this situation, you can either get an external charger or a new battery. You can also boot DFU mode when connecting the USB cable as it allows the battery to be charged.
Fuelguage
Works. Unknown?
Camera
Currently unsupported. You are welcome to try it!
| The camera subsystem requires a lot of work. Needs more investigation. |
Flash LED
Works. Unknown?
Image sensors
Needs more research.
ISP
Currently unsupported.
Modem
Currently unsupported. Supports 2G and 3G.
SIM
This device uses Mini-SIM (2FF) cards.
Wired connectivity
- Micro USB 2.0 - Untested?
- Headset (AUX, 3.5 mm) - Untested?
- Video out (MHL, 11-pin) - Untested?
Wireless connectivity
Bluetooth
Broken. Supports Bluetooth 4.0, no LE?
Bluetooth troubleshooting
Bluetooth does not work. It should be fixable from the command line by executing:
# btmgmt public-addr 53:33:6d:69:6e:69
Instead, it returns this output:
Set Public Address for hci0 failed with status 0x11 (Invalid Index)
This needs further investigation.
Bluetooth does not have any Bluetooth device address (bdaddr or "MAC address") set after boot at the moment. To make Bluetooth work, you need to manually configure one:
# apk add bluez-btmgmt # btmgmt public-addr <bdaddr>
where <bdaddr> is a MAC address like 53:33:6d:69:6e:69.
The Bluetooth controller should then show up in bluetoothctl:
# apk add bluez # rc-service bluetooth start $ bluetoothctl
You can e.g scan for devices:
[bluetooth]# show [bluetooth]# power on [bluetooth]# advertise on [bluetooth]# system-alias skomer [bluetooth]# scan on
FM Radio
Currently unsupported. Needs investigation.
GPS
This device has a CSR CSRG05TA03-ICJE-R SirfStarV 5t GPS chip. It has been added to the device tree but no userspace tests have been successful.
Sensors
Compass/Magnetometer
- The magnetometer is an Alps hscdtd008a
Light/Proximity
- The Skomer has a Sharp gp2ap002s00f proximity sensor which only detects proximity and cannot provide ambient light measurement
Rotation/Accelerometer
- The accelerometer is a Bosch BMA254
Storage
Internal storage
- EMMC - Works.
Internal storage is 4 GB for all variants.
External storage
- micoSDHC - Works.
- USB 2.0 - Untested? Requires OTG adapter.
Supports microSD (T-Flash) Cards and USB 2.0 storage devices.
CPU
Suspend
Broken? The device may not wake up! It's recommended to disable suspend.
Useful software
Bootloader builds
- Latest official U-Boot build Required to boot mainline. Can also boot Android. Install to "
Kernel" partition!
Recovery builds
Firmware builds
- Latest official firmware builds on SamFW (Ads!) Downloads from official Samsung update servers. Has CloudFlare bot protection. (May not work!)
Firmware tools
- Latest version of samloader Tool for downloading firmware from official Samsung update servers. Written in python. Consider packaging it.
Packages
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.
Device support
device-samsung-skomer Deviceinfo.
linux-postmarketos-stericsson Mainline kernel fork. DT.
Links
Source code
Specifications
- DeviceSpecifications (Ads!)
- GSMArena (Ads!)
Wiki pages