Samsung Galaxy S9 (samsung-starqltechn)

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.	Broken
Internal Storage Whether it is possible to boot from internal storage (e.g. eMMC or UFS).	Untested
SD card Whether it is possible to boot from SD card.	Untested
USB Host Whether it is possible to boot from a USB storage or connect a keyboard.	Untested
USB Peripheral Whether it is possible to use device as a peripheral in U-Boot, e.g. for fastboot mode.	Untested
Display	Untested
Buttons Whether it is possible to navigate in boot menu or grub with volume and power buttons.	Works

Features
Flashing Whether it is possible to flash the device with pmbootstrap flasher.	Broken
USB Networking After connecting the device with USB to your PC, you can connect to it via telnet (initramfs) or SSH (booted system).	Works
Internal storage eMMC, SD cards, UFS...	Works
SD card Also includes other external storage cards.	Works
Battery Whether charging and battery level reporting work.	Untested
Screen Whether the display works; ideally with sleep mode and brightness control.	Works
Touchscreen	Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration	Untested
Audio Audio playback, microphone, headset and buttons.	Untested
Camera	Untested
Camera Flash	Untested
Connectivity
WiFi	Broken
Bluetooth	Broken
GPS	Untested
NFC Near Field Communication	Untested
Modem
Calls	Partial
SMS	Works
Mobile data	Works
Miscellaneous
FDE Full disk encryption and unlocking with unl0kr.	Works
USB OTG USB On-The-Go or USB-C Role switching.	Untested
Fingerprint Fingerprint reader.	Untested
Sensors
Accelerometer Handles automatic screen rotation in many interfaces.	Untested
Proximity	Untested
Haptics	Works
Barometer Sensor to measure air pressure	Untested

Samsung Galaxy S9
	; SM-G9600 with SXMO running Firefox (WIP kernel from dsankouski repository)
Manufacturer	Samsung
Name	Galaxy S9
Codename	samsung-starqltechn
Model	SM-G960
Released	2018
Type	handset
Hardware
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 (SDM845)
Display	1440x2960 (Super AMOLED, 5.8")
Storage	64/128/256 GB (UFS 2.1)
Memory	4 GB (LPDDR4X)
Architecture	aarch64
Software
Original software The software and version the device was shipped with.	Android (One UI) 8.0 (Samsung Experience 9.0)
Extended version The most recent supported version from the manufacturer.	Android (One UI) 10 (One UI 2.5)
Nura
Category	community
Pre-built images Whether pre-built images are available from the Nura Installation page.	yes
Mainline Instead of a Linux kernel fork, it is possible to run (Close to) Mainline.	yes
Optional Generic Port	Qualcomm SDM845 (qualcomm-sdm845)
Device package	device-samsung-starqltechn
Kernel package	linux-postmarketos-qcom-sdm845
Firmware package	firmware-samsung-sdm845

This page is about the dedicated port of this device. There is also an optional generic port available for this device - see Qualcomm SDM845 (qualcomm-sdm845).

Contributors

Dsankouski

Maintainer(s)

Dsankouski

Users owning this device

Ceater (Notes: SM-G960U (AKA Snapdragon model/US model) received from T-Mobile, has been paid off for a while but T-Mobile's unlocker is not working right.)
Davitek (Notes: Running PostmarketOS!!)
Dsankouski
Eepymeowers (Notes: US variant, unlocked BL, Android 16)
Ghatto404 (Notes: all buttons gone except volume rocker)
MaxShevPovar
Retrocountry (Notes: (almost) Running PostmarketOS!)
Vicenre22 (Notes: my S9 has Windows 10 ARM installed)
W-Floyd (Notes: Attempting WiFi, BT, screen brightness, camera bringup)
Zephyr1112 (Notes: Backup device, OneUI 2.5 A10, 4/64GB)

How to enter flash mode

Hold Power + Volume Down + Bixby until the screen shows the vendor logo. Use Odin or Heimdall to flash.

Installation

Prerequisites

Upgrade

Before installing Nura, it's recommended that you upgrade your device to the latest release of Android. This is not a requirement, but is heavily recommended.

Unlock the bootloader

Before installing Nura, you have to unlock your bootloader.

In Settings > About Phone, scroll down and tap Build number 7 times.
In Settings > System > Developer options, enable "OEM unlocking".

WARNING: Unlocking the bootloader will irrevocably trip the Knox flag, making Samsung Pay no longer usable.

Manual build

The vendor is Samsung, the codename is "starqltechn".

Follow the pmbootstrap article, until you have done the install action (note that --fde stands for full-disk-encryption - this can also be left out).

$ pmbootstrap install --fde

Reboot back into flash mode as explained above.

By default, the rootfs will be flashed to system, which doesn't leave much free space for your applications and data. If you don't mind factory resetting the device, you can instead flash to userdata by specifying the partition like below.

$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs --partition userdata --method heimdall-bootimg --no-reboot
$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel --method heimdall-bootimg --resume

The phone should now reboot into Nura.

Post install

pd-mapper

Kernel option CONFIG_QCOM_PD_MAPPER was disabled in 6.13 due to 'some weird race conditions', and we stick with userspace pd-mapper. Since starqltechn relies on the msm-firmware-loader package to link the phone's firmware (as opposed to dedicated firmware package in the majority of SDM845 devices), starqltechn has non standard firmware location, and pd-mapper should be built with firmware class parameter path support.

Build instructions:

Clone dsankouski pd-mapper repo
Checkout support_msm_firmware_loader branch
make
Copy pd-mapper to phone at /usr/bin/pd-mapper

Call issue

There is an issue with phone calls where the sound system will cut off the microphone after ~5 seconds. If you switch the ALSA profile while on call, the microphone will turn on again after another ~5 seconds.