Hello all!

I'm new here.

I have a Samsung Galaxy A01 that has not yet been activated. It's a Verizon pay-as-you-go phone.

I want to see if I can learn how to put Ubuntu Touch on this phone and get it ready for daily use.

The Galaxy A01 is a spare. I don't use it. My daily driver is a Nokia Tella V2.

It might take me some time and quite a bit of learning, but I think I can do this. Depending on the success of the Galaxy A01 project, I might follow up with the Nokia Tella V2.

I see a couple of Samsung models in the list, so I was thinking of starting by comparing the stats between those models and mine to get a feel for what is the same and what is different.

Anyway, that's why I'm here. Does anyone have any pointers on where to start? I would appreciate it if someone could link me to some good documentation.

Thanks in advance!

@arubislander said in I didn't fall off the face of the Earth...:

if you have adb access

I actually don't know how to do this. I searched and found this instruction that sounds pretty solid:
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-boot-to-recovery/

Still need to crack the Win7 laptop, but that shouldn't be a big deal.

I also read on that page that Samsung phones require the phone to be connected via USB in order to access recovery mode. Maybe Nokia is similar?

If this is true, then I might have another option to try for my Galaxy A01. That would be super sweet.

Thanks again!

Update about the Galaxy A01:

I plugged the phone into a USB cable and rebooted it holding down the UpVolume and Power buttons and it went straight into recovery mode. This is good.

I tried the same with the Nokia and it didn't do anything different when I had it plugged in. I'll have to follow the process.

@opolork

Thank you! I look forward to learning my way around this forum.

First things first...gotta find the dark theme.

Anyone know where the dark theme is located? I've looked around but I can't find it.

@keneda

I tried to respond to your question in the other thread but I don't have the privileges to reply to my post.

Anyway, I cut the link because of this:

@lakotaubp said in Hello all and happy 2023!:

@b4t54ndw1ch Also I have removed your link as it looks like a phone selling site making your post look like spam. Plus links to direct sites we have no control or are unrelated to us are never a good idea.

Also, I even though the email was from Samsung, I have not personally checked the link yet.

Anyway, I just made a pic and edited the link so there would be no worry of anyone clicking on it.

I'm pretty sure you cracked the code though. The link you posted looks good.

@lakotaubp

I'll take a look at it. Thank you for the pointer!

Right now, I'm working with what hardware I already have on hand. Although the idea of working with one of these cheap, two-year old phones might not sound practical to some folks, well, I don't plan on buying a fancy phone any time soon but I'd still like to use Ubuntu Touch if I can.

Also, I think people would use it if they knew about it, if I get it done right.

I recently mentioned an interest in porting one or more of my phones for Ubuntu Touch.

Since that particular time when I joined this forum, I've been reading through the Comptia A+ 10th edition and studying for my certification. I'll be reading the 11th edition next, after I finish reading the 10th.

I'm around Chapter 10: Essential Peripherals, and somewhere later in the book, Android devices are discussed in great detail.

While I do have access to pretty much everything I need to get started rooting my phones and unlocking bootloaders and such, I'll feel a little better after having read more about the inner workings of Android devices.

I've done it before, but that was back around 2011 or so. It's been a while.
I'm more of a hacker on things of this nature, so it will be better for me to have a more formal education before bricking my phones.

Wish me luck! I'll be back before you know it.

@arubislander

Thank you! I'll check it out.

My current conundrum is that I normally use Pop!OS (Linux) as my daily driver, but all of the phone utilities seem to be set up to run in Windows.

I dug out my old Win 7 laptop, which should do fine for this, but I forgot the admin password so I cannot run anything as root right now. I only remember my user account password.

I'm trying to make a Windows 7 USB boot stick so I can use the product key on the bottom of the lap-top and start over. I'll just reload the entire OS and create new admin and user accounts and passwords.

...then...

I did a little more searching about the Nokia 2 V Tella and it seems to be that in addition to the obvious stuff in the developer menu, there are also some pieces of software required to run the actual feat.

https://www.hardreset.info/devices/nokia/nokia-2-v-tella/recovery-mode/

It involves downloading Nokia drivers, Android fastboot, and a TFM Tool. Then unzipping with 7zip (another download) and running all this stuff a manner...then connecting the phone via USB...flashing some firmware...reboot and make a selection, reboot again and hold a button combo...whoomp, there it is.

Something like that. So, my first order of business is to crack my Windows 7 install so I can turn that laptop into my rooting computer.

It took me a while to find the ISO, but I think I have downloaded the correct one. I really had to dig to find it, as MS has pulled all of the obvious locations. Anyway, the DL should be finished by now so the next step is to make a boot stick and see if I can reload the OS completely fresh.

I think I'ma do that tomorrow.

I will also check out that link you sent because that might be much easier than the thing I found.

I appreciate the suggestion. Thank you!

@b4t54ndw1ch

Update: I finally cracked my Windows 7 computer and got my admin privileges back. Now I have a phone rooting computer.

The basic problem was that I had forgotten my admin password and couldn't do anything as root. Also, I don't have the install CD.

I had to find the image online buried in a repo somewhere. Then I had to DL a program called 'Rufus' to make a stick that would boot a Windows OS...something special that Rufus (and a few other programs) does that makes something say 'this is a Windows install'.

I had to take all this stuff over to my mom's computer and make the bootable USB sticks there because I cannot run Rufus without an admin password. Also, Rufus is a .exe and will not run on Linux.

The boot stick was successful and I was able to use the product key on the bottom of the laptop to reinstall a fresh copy and set a new password.

Now to get back to running some rooting software tests...

@arubislander said in I didn't fall off the face of the Earth...:

if you have adb access

I actually don't know how to do this. I searched and found this instruction that sounds pretty solid:
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-boot-to-recovery/

Still need to crack the Win7 laptop, but that shouldn't be a big deal.

I also read on that page that Samsung phones require the phone to be connected via USB in order to access recovery mode. Maybe Nokia is similar?

If this is true, then I might have another option to try for my Galaxy A01. That would be super sweet.

Thanks again!

Update about the Galaxy A01:

I plugged the phone into a USB cable and rebooted it holding down the UpVolume and Power buttons and it went straight into recovery mode. This is good.

I tried the same with the Nokia and it didn't do anything different when I had it plugged in. I'll have to follow the process.

@arubislander

Thank you! I'll check it out.

My current conundrum is that I normally use Pop!OS (Linux) as my daily driver, but all of the phone utilities seem to be set up to run in Windows.

I dug out my old Win 7 laptop, which should do fine for this, but I forgot the admin password so I cannot run anything as root right now. I only remember my user account password.

I'm trying to make a Windows 7 USB boot stick so I can use the product key on the bottom of the lap-top and start over. I'll just reload the entire OS and create new admin and user accounts and passwords.

...then...

I did a little more searching about the Nokia 2 V Tella and it seems to be that in addition to the obvious stuff in the developer menu, there are also some pieces of software required to run the actual feat.

https://www.hardreset.info/devices/nokia/nokia-2-v-tella/recovery-mode/

It involves downloading Nokia drivers, Android fastboot, and a TFM Tool. Then unzipping with 7zip (another download) and running all this stuff a manner...then connecting the phone via USB...flashing some firmware...reboot and make a selection, reboot again and hold a button combo...whoomp, there it is.

Something like that. So, my first order of business is to crack my Windows 7 install so I can turn that laptop into my rooting computer.

It took me a while to find the ISO, but I think I have downloaded the correct one. I really had to dig to find it, as MS has pulled all of the obvious locations. Anyway, the DL should be finished by now so the next step is to make a boot stick and see if I can reload the OS completely fresh.

I think I'ma do that tomorrow.

I will also check out that link you sent because that might be much easier than the thing I found.

I appreciate the suggestion. Thank you!

@lduboeuf

Thanks!

So far, I've learned that I cannot unlock the bootloader on the Galaxy A01 in any traditional way because of the Verizon software. Still, I'll try to find a way later, as it is just a hunk of hardware with a program flashed onto it.

I'm able to unlock the bootloader and access the android system recovery options on my Moto e6, so that's a step in the right direction.

My regular phone is a Nokia 2 V Tella and although I have the bootloader unlocked in the developer mode options, I cannot seem to figure out the proper key combination to boot into recovery mode. The suggestions I've tried so far do not work. I'll figure it out soon.

I recently mentioned an interest in porting one or more of my phones for Ubuntu Touch.

Since that particular time when I joined this forum, I've been reading through the Comptia A+ 10th edition and studying for my certification. I'll be reading the 11th edition next, after I finish reading the 10th.

I'm around Chapter 10: Essential Peripherals, and somewhere later in the book, Android devices are discussed in great detail.

While I do have access to pretty much everything I need to get started rooting my phones and unlocking bootloaders and such, I'll feel a little better after having read more about the inner workings of Android devices.

I've done it before, but that was back around 2011 or so. It's been a while.
I'm more of a hacker on things of this nature, so it will be better for me to have a more formal education before bricking my phones.

Wish me luck! I'll be back before you know it.

Also, note in the source code there are at least two different button groups.

Button Group 1

Button group 2

I haven't dug any deeper than this as there is likely nothing wrong with the site.

I tried to respond in the other thread but could not.

@lakotaubp said in Received a message from Samsung Open Source about the Galaxy A01 Linux kernel...:

@b4t54ndw1ch CAN please log out of the Forum restart the browser you are using login again and see if that fixes the problem as a first move. Thanks.

I tried. It didn't work. This is a pic of exactly what I'm seeing on my side:

Also, there is no reply button at the top nor on any of the subsequent threads. This only worked because I'm exploiting the Quote function.

I hope this is helpful.

My hunch is that it's some sort of permissions level that controls a style sheet element or something similar...the visibility and activation of the button. Probably a 'trust level' thing.

If (trustLevel === beenHereAWhile) {
showReplyButton();
}
else {
hideReplyButton();
}

However it's done, something like that is my guess.

@lakotaubp

I'll take a look at it. Thank you for the pointer!

Right now, I'm working with what hardware I already have on hand. Although the idea of working with one of these cheap, two-year old phones might not sound practical to some folks, well, I don't plan on buying a fancy phone any time soon but I'd still like to use Ubuntu Touch if I can.

Also, I think people would use it if they knew about it, if I get it done right.

@keneda

I tried to respond to your question in the other thread but I don't have the privileges to reply to my post.

Anyway, I cut the link because of this:

@lakotaubp said in Hello all and happy 2023!:

@b4t54ndw1ch Also I have removed your link as it looks like a phone selling site making your post look like spam. Plus links to direct sites we have no control or are unrelated to us are never a good idea.

Also, I even though the email was from Samsung, I have not personally checked the link yet.

Anyway, I just made a pic and edited the link so there would be no worry of anyone clicking on it.

I'm pretty sure you cracked the code though. The link you posted looks good.

The other day, I wrote to Samsung Open Source. I sent them a link to the Ubuntu Touch site and explained what I wanted to do with my currently unused A01, and how users worldwide would be able to use it on their A01's when I'm finished...etc..."I just need the Linux kernel. Can you please help me out?"

I got an automated email yesterday morning stating that my request was under review, etc...and I expected a long, flowery, hard 'no'.

But this morning I woke up to find this email:

So, if anyone else is interested in helping with an A01 port, I can provide the full details of the link to the source code in a DM.

Also, for persons who get stuck on this sort of stuff...take a chance. Write to the people and ask a question. Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised.