Samsung Galaxy A5 2015 (samsung-a5)

Features
Flashing	Works
USB Networking	Works
SD card	Works
Battery	Works
Screen	Partial
Touchscreen	Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration	Works
Audio	Works
Camera	Broken
Camera Flash	Broken
Connectivity
WiFi	Works
Bluetooth	Works
GPS	Works
NFC	Works
Modem
Calls	Works
SMS	Works
Mobile data	Works
Miscellaneous
FDE	Works
USB OTG	Works
Sensors
Accelerometer	Works
Magnetometer	Works
Ambient Light	Broken
Proximity	Broken
Hall Effect	Works
Haptics	Works

Samsung Galaxy A5
	; Samsung Galaxy A5
Manufacturer	Samsung
Name	Galaxy A5
Codename	samsung-a5
Model	SM-A5000 - SM-A500W
Released	2014
Type	handset
Hardware
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)
CPU	4x 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU	Adreno 306
Display	5 inch 16:9, 720 x 1280 AMOLED
Storage	16 GB
Memory	2 GB
Architecture	aarch64
Software
Original software	Android
Original version	4.4.4
Extended version	6.0.1
FOSS bootloader	yes
postmarketOS
Category	community
Pre-built images	yes
postmarketOS kernel	Mainline
Unixbench Whet/Dhry score	1028.8
Optional Generic Port	Generic MSM8916 (qcom-msm8916)

This page is about the dedicated port of this device. There is also an optional generic port available for this device - see Generic MSM8916 (qcom-msm8916).

Contributors

minecrell
maccraft123 (only wiki page)

Users owning this device

Alexeymin (Notes: SM-A500F (not FU) replaced battery, almost like new now)
ArMor (Notes: SM-A500H Dual Sim)
Baonks81 (Notes: 3G SM-A500H Dual Sim 2GB/16GB)
Blender Addict (Notes: SM-A500FU, previous daily driver)
Bolilingmeng89006 (Notes: a5ltezt)
Citrullin (Notes: (4x SM-A500FU available to borrow in Berlin))
Danct12 (Notes: SM-A500H Dual Sim)
Darkness (Notes: SM-A500M)
Debiansh (Notes: Notes: SM-A500FU Running postmarketOS with Phosh, not working display brightness, Camera and USB-OTG. I made a polish review: https://www.internet-czas-dzialac.pl/recenzja-postmarketos/)
Exkc (Notes: Dead)
Grimler
KenOokamiHoro (Notes: SM-A5000 (China), Boot from SD card not works.)
Knuxify (Notes: (SM-A500FU))
LayerDE (Notes: keyboard burned in)
Lewis Collard (Notes: A5U (EUR))
Maccraft123
Minecrell (Notes: SM-A500FU, with weird replacement screen :))
Omame
Operachi (Notes: PostmarketOS)
Pojntfx
Powwu (Notes: Sxmo)
Rich Morin (Notes: compatibility and deployment testing)
RoDen (Notes: SM-A500F/DS, Plasma Desktop & Mobile)
Sado1
Samcday
Stupidenbyace (Notes: SM-A500FU, No OS Flashed)
UltrasonicMadness (Notes: SM-A500FU, daily driver)
ValPackett (Notes: Headless (no display panel) at least for now but runs pmOS)
Wann (Notes: broken touch screen, but working)
WonderfulShrineMaidenOfParadise

Architecture

Some variants are released with Kitkat 4.4, which doesn't boot arm64 kernel, so upgrade to Lollipop 5.0 or later first.

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.

Download lk2nd-msm8916.img from Releases page on Github.
Boot your phone to bootloader (Odin/Download) mode by holding Volume Down and Home while powering up.
Follow lk2nd instructions to install lk2nd. Basically flash it to the boot partition (heimdall flash --BOOT lk2nd-msm8916.img)
Follow Qualcomm_Snapdragon_410/412_(MSM8916)#Installation to install postmarketOS.

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

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!

Screen

Screen works partially. While displaying the UI works fine, adjusting the brightness doesn't work.

Touch keys

See Tm2-touchkey.

Flash LED

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

Partition layout

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 14.68 GiB, 15758000128 bytes, 30777344 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt

Device            Start      End  Sectors Name    
/dev/mmcblk0p1     8192    38911    30720 apnhlos 
/dev/mmcblk0p2    38912   156543   117632 modem 
/dev/mmcblk0p3   156544   157567     1024 sbl1   
/dev/mmcblk0p4   157568   157631       64 ddr     
/dev/mmcblk0p5   157632   161727     4096 aboot   
/dev/mmcblk0p6   161728   162751     1024 rpm     
/dev/mmcblk0p7   162752   163775     1024 qsee    
/dev/mmcblk0p8   163776   164799     1024 qhee    
/dev/mmcblk0p9   164800   170943     6144 fsg     
/dev/mmcblk0p10  170944   170975       32 sec     
/dev/mmcblk0p11  170976   192511    21536 pad     
/dev/mmcblk0p12  192512   212991    20480 param   
/dev/mmcblk0p13  212992   241663    28672 efs     
/dev/mmcblk0p14  241664   247807     6144 modemst1
/dev/mmcblk0p15  247808   253951     6144 modemst2
/dev/mmcblk0p16  253952   280575    26624 boot    
/dev/mmcblk0p17  280576   311295    30720 recovery
/dev/mmcblk0p18  311296   337913    26618 fota
/dev/mmcblk0p19  337914   352231    14318 backup
/dev/mmcblk0p20  352232   358375     6144 fsc     
/dev/mmcblk0p21  358376   358391       16 ssd     
/dev/mmcblk0p22  358392   374775    16384 persist 
/dev/mmcblk0p23  374776   393207    18432 persdata
/dev/mmcblk0p24  393208  5275639  4882432 system  
/dev/mmcblk0p25 5275640  5685239   409600 cache   
/dev/mmcblk0p26 5685240 30777303 25092064 userdata

Plasma Mobile

Plasma mobile currently works on A5 2015, but you should set custom scaling factor to 2.

kscreen-doctor output.1.scale.2 should work.

To run this command from ssh session add the following env variables to the above command:

XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/10000 QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland kscreen-doctor output.1.scale.2

Plasma works smoothly, but there are some graphical glitches sometimes.

Touch key work on Samsung Galaxy A5 2015 (samsung-a5) but may not work on Samsung Galaxy A5 Duos (it confimed to not work on Samsung Galaxy A5 Duos SM-A5000)