~/blog/flash-custom-rom-on-samsung-note-9
Published on

How to flash a custom ROM on a Samsung Note 9

504 words3 min read
Authors
  • avatar

Pre-requisites

  • Make sure your computer has adb. Setup instructions can be found here.
  • Enable USB debugging on your device.

Flash TWRP recovery

Preparing for installation

Samsung devices come with a unique boot mode called “Download mode”, which is very similar to “Fastboot mode” on some devices with unlocked bootloaders. Heimdall is a cross-platform, open-source tool for interfacing with Download mode on Samsung devices. The preferred method of installing a custom recovery is through Download Mode – rooting the stock firmware is neither necessary nor required.

  • Enable Developer Options by pressing the “Build Number” option in the “Settings” app within the “About” menu
    • From within the Developer options menu, enable OEM unlock.
  • Download and install the appropriate version of the Heimdall suite for your machine’s OS
    • Linux: Extract the Heimdall suite zip and take note of the new directory containing heimdall. Now copy heimdall into a directory in $PATH, a common one on most distros will be /usr/local/bin. For example cp heimdall /usr/local/bin. You can verify Heimdall is functioning by opening a Terminal and running heimdall version.
    • macOS: Mount the Heimdall suite DMG. Now drag heimdall down into the /usr/local/bin symlink provided in the DMG. You can verify Heimdall is functioning by opening a Terminal and running heimdall version.
      • OR run sudo cp /Volumes/Heimdall/heimdall /usr/local/bin/ from a terminal
  • Power off the device, and boot it into download mode:
    • With the device powered off, hold Volume Down + Bixby.
    • After a few seconds, plug in the USB-C cable.
    • Now, click "Volume Up" to continue.
  • On your machine, open a Terminal (Linux or macOS) window, and type: heimdall print-pit
  • If the device reboots that indicates that Heimdall is installed and working properly. If it does not, please refollow these instructions to verify steps weren’t missed, try a different USB cable, and a different USB port.

Install TWRP

  • Download the latest version of TWRP (Note: Download the *.img file - for example twrp-**0_9-1-crownlte.img)
  • Power off the device, and boot it into download mode:
    • With the device powered off, hold Volume Down + Bixby.
    • After a few seconds, plug in the USB-C cable.
    • Now, click Volume Up to continue.
  • On your machine, open a Terminal window, and type:
heimdall flash --RECOVERY [recovery_filename].img --no-reboot
  • A blue transfer bar will appear on the device showing the recovery image being flashed.
  • Unplug the USB cable from your device.
  • Manually reboot into recovery:
    • Hold Volume Down + Power key until the phone turns off
    • Immediately press Volume Up + Bixby + Power until the TWP recovery screen appears

Flash a Custom ROM

  • Format data using TWRP
  • Download required ROM, GApps and Magisk as required
  • On TWRP, go to Advanced -> ADB Sideload and then Swipe to Start Sideload
  • On your machine, open a Terminal window, and type: adb sideload romFilename.zip
  • Repeat step four again for any additional add-ons (Magisk, GApps etc)
  • Reboot system

Update Custom ROM

  • Flash ROM
  • Reboot

Do not wipe anything!

References