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Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 (samsung-skomer)

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Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 GT-S7710
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 device-samsung-skomer
Kernel package linux-postmarketos-stericsson
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
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
U-Boot
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


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 Volume Down during boot, or (in U-Boot Fastboot) - execute $ fastboot reboot bootloader on a connected USB host

Recovery (using U-Boot) - hold Volume Up during boot, or (in U-Boot Fastboot) - execute $ fastboot reboot recovery on a connected USB host

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

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 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!

Note 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

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

Recovery builds

Firmware builds

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

Links

Source code

Specifications

Wiki pages