Heimdall/Recovery Installation¶
Warning: flashing another operating system like Replicant may void your warranty and will erase the data stored on the device.
This guide assumes your phone is supported by Heimdall and installation is to be done using recovery.
Download the files¶
- Refer to your device page to find a link to the latest images (Last images part of the table).
- Download the images and the md5 checksum
- Download and install heimdall (version 1.4 RC1 or later)
- System permissions are needed to access the device with heimdall. You can either lunch heimdall as root, for instance using sudo, or setup udev rules for your user.
Copy the files to the device¶
Using the internal memory¶
- Mount usb storage from the current system of your phone
- Create a directory at the root of the usb storage
- Copy the downloaded images and md5 checksum to this directory
Using a µSD card¶
- Mount the µSD card, make sure it's fat32
- Create a directory at the root of the µSD card
- Copy the downloaded images and md5 checksum to this directory
Device specificities table¶
Each device has its own set of keys to enter different boot modes and specific partition names.
Moreover, a specific partition name has to be specified to heimdall when flashing.
| Device |
Keys for Download mode |
Keys for recovery mode |
Kernel partition |
Recovery partition |
| Galaxy S |
Volume-, Select, Power |
Not available |
kernel |
Not available |
| Galaxy S2 |
Volume-, Select, Power |
Not available |
kernel |
Not available |
| Galaxy S3 |
Volume-, Select, Power |
Volume+, Select, Power |
BOOT |
RECOVERY |
| Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 |
Volume+, Power |
Volume-, Power |
kernel |
recovery |
| Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 |
Volume- |
Volume+, Power |
kernel |
recovery |
Prepare the phone¶
- Turn the phone off, disconnect any USB cable
- Hold the key combination for Download mode (release only when in Download mode)
- You should be in Download mode. If not, remove the battery and retry the steps above
- You might need to confirm that you want to download a custom OS
- Once the Download screen is waiting, plug the USB cable
Flash the images¶
- Flash the recovery image using heimdall:
If the recovery partition is available for your device, you can install recovery to the recovery partition:
heimdall flash --[RECOVERY PARTITION] path/to/recovery.img
If it is not available, flash recovery on the kernel partition:
heimdall flash --[KERNEL PARTITION] path/to/recovery.img
- The phone should reboot and heimdall indicate that the operation was successful
- If you flashed to the recovery partition, hit the recovery mode keys quickly, or you'll have to power off the phone and hit the recovery mode keys then
- Wait until recovery boots
- You should be in recovery mode. If not, remove the battery and retry the steps above
- Select flash images
- Choose the location of the images (internal sdcard is the phone's internal memory, sdcard is the µSD card)
- Confirm flash
- Get back to the general menu
- Select wipe data/factory reset
- Confirm wipe
- Get back to the general menu
- Reboot
Your device should now be running Replicant!