Install PixelExperience on herolte

keyboard_arrow_left Back to the overview

Basic requirements

  1. Read through the instructions at least once before actually following them, so as to avoid any problems due to any missed steps!
  2. Make sure your computer has adb. Setup instructions can be found here.
  3. Enable USB debugging on your device.
  4. Make sure that your model is actually listed in the “Supported models” section here (exact match required!)
  5. Boot your device with the stock OS at least once and check every functionality. Make sure that you can send and receive SMS and place and receive calls (also via WiFi and LTE, if available), otherwise it won’t work on PixelExperience either! Additionally, some devices require that VoLTE/VoWiFi be utilized once on stock to provision IMS.
  6. PixelExperience is provided as-is with no warranty. While we attempt to verify everything works you are installing this at your own risk!

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.

  1. 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.
  2. Download and install the appropriate version of the Heimdall suite for your machine’s OS
    • Windows: Extract the Heimdall suite zip and take note of the new directory containing heimdall.exe. You can verify Heimdall is functioning by opening a Command Prompt or PowerShell in that directory and running heimdall version.
    • 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.
  3. Power off the device, and boot it into download mode:
    • With the device powered off, hold Volume Down + Home + Power.
    • Now, click the button that the on screen instructions correlate to “Continue”, and insert the USB cable into the device.
  4. For Windows users only: install the necessary drivers. A more complete set of instructions can be found in the Zadig user guide.
    1. If nothing relevant appears, try uninstalling any Samsung related Windows software, like Samsung Windows drivers and/or Samsung Kies.
    2. Run zadig.exe found in your extracted Heimdall directory.
    3. Choose Options » List all devices from the menu.
    4. Select Samsung USB Composite Device or MSM8x60 or Gadget Serial or Device Name from the drop down menu.
    5. Click Replace Driver, then selecting Install Driver from the drop down list built into the button.
    6. If you are prompted with a warning that the installer is unable to verify the publisher of the driver, select Install this driver anyway. You may receive two more prompts about security. Select the options that accept the warnings and allow you to carry on.
  5. On your machine, open a Command Prompt or PowerShell (Windows) window, or Terminal (Linux or macOS) window, and type:
    heimdall print-pit
    
  6. 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.

Installing a custom recovery using heimdall

  1. Download the custom recovery.
<div class="alert alert-warning" role="alert"><div class="alert-icon"><i class="material-icons">warning</i></div><div class="alert-text" markdown="span"><b>Important:</b> Other recoveries may not work for installation or updates. We strongly recommend to use the one linked above!</div></div>
  1. Power off the device, and boot it into download mode:
    • With the device powered off, hold Volume Down + Home + Power.
    • Now, click the button that the on screen instructions correlate to “Continue”, and insert the USB cable into the device.
  2. On your machine, open a Command Prompt or PowerShell (Windows) window, or Terminal (Linux or macOS) window, and type:
    heimdall flash --RECOVERY <recovery_filename>.img --no-reboot
    
  3. A blue transfer bar will appear on the device showing the recovery image being flashed.
  4. Unplug the USB cable from your device.
  5. 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 + Home + Power. When the blue text appears, release the buttons.

Installing PixelExperience from recovery

  1. Download the PixelExperience installation package that you would like to install or build the package yourself.
  2. If you are not in recovery, reboot into recovery:
    • With the device powered off, hold Volume Up + Home + Power. When the blue text appears, release the buttons.
  3. Now tap Wipe.
  4. Now tap Format Data and continue with the formatting process. This will remove encryption and delete all files stored in the internal storage.
  5. Sideload the PixelExperience .zip package:
    • On the device, select “Advanced”, “ADB Sideload”, then swipe to begin sideload.
    • On the host machine, sideload the package using: adb sideload filename.zip.
  6. Once you have installed everything successfully, run ‘adb reboot’.

Get assistance

After you’ve double checked that you followed the steps precisely, didn’t skip any and still have questions or got stuck, feel free to ask on our Telegram group.