TWRP for Samsung Galaxy A32 5G (a32x/A326B)

Notice

Just a quick notice, I cannot work on this phone anymore due to me not owning it anymore. I will (of course) leave this repository here in case anyone needs the TWRP build or the build instructions in the future. :)

Issues / Todo

• Check if all the mount points are correct
• Fix issue with kernel not compiling (Currently using prebuilt kernel extracted from original OS)
• In fastboot mode, ADB is working but Fastboot is not

Building

Step 0 - Minimum Requirements

• Relatively recent x86_64 processor (Like after a 2nd gen Intel processor)
• 16GB RAM
• 40GB HDD Space
• Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS
• An A326B Phone with it's bootloader unlocked, and ADB enabled (I will not be covering this here)

Step 1 - Preparing the build environment

Install the dependencies:

sudo apt install git-core git git-lfs python3 python3-pip gnupg flex bison build-essential zip curl zlib1g-dev libc6-dev-i386 libncurses5 lib32ncurses5-dev x11proto-core-dev libx11-dev lib32z1-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libxml2-utils xsltproc unzip fontconfig heimdall-flash

For repo to work properly, the python executable needs to be Python 3. To do this in Ubuntu 18.04.6:

sudo rm /usr/bin/python
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python

APT provides an old version of repo that isn't really functional now. To install the latest version of repo:

sudo wget https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo -O /usr/bin/repo
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/repo

To use repo, you need to initialize git:

git config --global user.email "Enter your email here"
git config --global user.name "Enter your name here"

Create a build directory:

mkdir ~/twrp
cd ~/twrp

From now on, this whole guide takes place in this build directory.

Step 2 - Downloading the base TWRP sources

Initialize repo.

repo init -u https://github.com/minimal-manifest-twrp/platform_manifest_twrp_aosp.git -b twrp-12.1

Now, download the sources.

repo sync

Note: This will take a while as it has to download roughly 30 GB.

Step 3 - Apply the a32x Kernel and Device tree

Create the folder .repo/local_manifests/ if it does not exist already.
Take the a32x.xml from this repo and put it in .repo/local_manifests/
Resync the repo with repo sync
Note: This won't take nearly as long because it only has to download 2 new repositories.

Step 4 - Build the recovery image

Run the AOSP environment setup script:

source build/envsetup.sh

Configure the build:

lunch twrp_a32x-eng

Compile the recovery image:

mka recoveryimage

Note: You can change the output directory by running the command below before Step 4:

export OUT_DIR=out_directory

Note: This could take up to an hour depending on processor speed.

Step 5 - Flash the recovery image

The compiler will tell you where the recovery.img is, but if you didn't change the output directory, it will be in out/target/product/a32x/recovery.img
Copy the recovery.img to an empty folder.
Download the vbmeta.img in this repo to the same empty folder.
With the phone in android, boot it into download mode: adb reboot download
Now flash the vbmeta.img and the recovery.img to the phone:
sudo heimdall flash --vbmeta vbmeta.img --recovery recovery.img
The phone will automatically reboot back into android.
Congratulations! You have now flashed TWRP to your phone.

Step 6 - Booting into TWRP

With ADB: adb reboot recovery
Without ADB: Hold the volume up button and the power button. Once the phone powers on, let go of the power button.

NOTICE

I am not responsible for you bricking your phone.
Also please backup the phone's ROM or at least have a ROM you can flash back onto your phone in the case of a brickage.

References

afaneh92 from forum.xda-developers.com - For the original project, and the vbmeta.img (I don't know what vbmeta is, but it is required)