Install LineageOS on gts4lv

Basic requirements

1. Make sure your computer has adb and fastboot. Setup instructions can be found here.
2. Enable USB debugging on your device.

Pre-Install Instructions

1. Connect the device to a Wi-Fi network.
2. 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.
3. Download this VBMeta image .tar file.
4. Power off the device, and boot it into download mode:
   • With the device powered off, plug in the device while holding Volume up + Volume Down + Power.
   • Now, click the button that the onscren instructions coorelate to “Continue” and/or “Unlock Bootloader”, and insert the USB cable into the device.
   • Device will restart, repeat steps 1 and 2.
   • Verify that “OEM Unlock” is still enabled and continue to step 5
5. Download and install the necessary drivers.
   • Download the newest Samsung drivers from here. You will need to create a Samsung account and login to download them.
   • Install SAMSUNG_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones.exe.
6. Download this version of Odin.
7. Extract “Odin_3.13.1.zip”.
8. Run Odin3 v3.13.1 found in the newly extracted “Odin_3.13.1” folder.
9. Check the box labeled next to the button labeled “AP”, and then click the “AP” button.
   • In the menu that pops up, select the newly downloaded custom VBMeta .tar file.
10. Check in the top left of thne Odin window that you see a valid device, it will show up as something like COM0.
    check

    Tip: The COM port, or the number succeeding COM, may be any valid number.
11. A blue transfer bar will appear on the device showing the recovery image being flashed.
12. Your device will reboot, you may now unplug the USB cable from your device.
13. The device will demand you format userdata, please follow the onscreen instructions to do so.
14. Run through Android Setup skipping everything you can, then connect the device to a Wi-Fi network.
15. Re-enable Development settings by clicking the “Build Number” option 10 times, in the “Settings” app within the “About” menu, and verify that “OEM Unlock” is still enabled in the “Developer options” menu.

Important Information

Samsung devices come with a unique boot mode called “Download mode”, which is very similar to “Fastboot mode” on some devices with unlocked bootloaders. Odin is a Samsung-made 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.

Installing a custom recovery using Odin

1. Enable Developer Options by pressing the “Build Number” option 10 times, in the “Settings” app within the “About” menu
   • From within the Developer options menu, enable OEM unlock.
2. Download a custom recovery - you can download Lineage Recovery. Simply download the latest recovery file, named something like lineage-18.1-20220112-recovery-gts4lv.img
3. Rename the downloaded image to “recovery.img”, open a Command Prompt in the folder where the file was downloaded, and TAR the file by running tar -cvf recovery.tar recovery.img.
   check

   Tip: Make sure to not accidentally name the file recovery.img.img when file name extensions are hidden.
   check

   Tip: You can open a command prompt in any folder by right-clicking on empty space while holding Shift and selecting “Open Command Prompt here” or “Open PowerShell window here” from the context menu.
4. Power off the device, and boot it into download mode:
   • With the device powered off, plug in the device while holding Volume up + Volume Down + Power.
   • Now, click the button that the onscren instructions coorelate to “Continue”, and insert the USB cable into the device.
5. Download and install the necessary drivers.
   • Download the newest Samsung drivers from here. You will need to create a Samsung account and login to download them.
   • Install SAMSUNG_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones.exe.
6. Download this version of Odin.
7. Extract “Odin_3.13.1.zip”.
8. Run Odin3 v3.13.1 found in the newly extracted “Odin_3.13.1” folder.
9. Check in the top left of the Odin window that you see a valid device, it will show up as something like COM0.
   check

   Tip: The COM port, or the number succeeding COM, may be any valid number.
10. In the left side of the Odin window, you will see an “Options” tab, click it, and then un-check the “Auto Reboot” option.
11. Check the box labeled next to the button labeled “AP”, and then click the “AP” button.
    • In the menu that pops up, select the newly downloaded custom recovery .tar or .tar.md5.
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    Tip: The filename may vary depending on your device, and the version of your custom recovery.
12. A blue transfer bar will appear on the device showing the recovery image being flashed.
    info_outline

    Note: The device will continue to display Downloading... Do not turn off target!! even after the process is complete. When the status message in the top left of the devices’s display reports that the process is complete, you may proceed.
13. Unplug the USB cable from your device.
14. Manually reboot into recovery, this may require pulling the device’s battery out and putting it back in, or if you have a non-removable battery, press the Volume Down + Power buttons for 8~10 seconds until the screen turns black & release the buttons immediately when it does, then boot to recovery:
    • With the device powered off, hold Volume Up + Power.
    info_outline

    Note: Be sure to reboot into recovery immediately after installing the custom recovery. If you don’t the custom recovery will be overwritten on boot.

Installing LineageOS from recovery

1. Download the LineageOS installation package that you would like to install or build the package yourself.
   • Optionally, download an application package add-on such as Google Apps (use the arm64 architecture).
2. If you are not in recovery, reboot into recovery:
   • With the device powered off, hold Volume Up + Power.
3. Now tap Factory Reset, then Format data / factory reset and continue with the formatting process. This will remove encryption and delete all files stored in the internal storage, as well as format your cache partition (if you have one).
4. Return to the main menu.
5. Sideload the LineageOS .zip package:
   • On the device, select “Apply Update”, then “Apply from ADB” to begin sideload.
   • On the host machine, sideload the package using: adb sideload filename.zip.
     check

     Tip: Normally, adb will report Total xfer: 1.00x, but in some cases, even if the process succeeds the output will stop at 47% and report adb: failed to read command: Success. In some cases it will report adb: failed to read command: No error which is also fine.

6. (Optionally): If you want to install any add-ons, repeat the sideload steps above for those packages in sequence.

   info_outline

   Note: Add-ons aren’t signed with LineageOS’s official key, and therefore when they are sideloaded, Lineage Recovery will present a screen that says Signature verification failed, this is expected, please click Continue.
   info_outline

   Note: If you want the Google Apps add-on on your device, you must follow this step before booting into LineageOS for the first time!
7. Once you have installed everything successfully, click the back arrow in the top left of the screen, then “Reboot system now”.

Get assistance

If you have any questions or get stuck on any of the steps, feel free to ask on our subreddit or in #LineageOS on Libera.Chat.