Do you have experience using Windows Odin / Frija freeware to find & flash
Samsung firmware onto Android phones?

I'm considering testing out the patched Samsung Odin firmware burner.
<https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/patched-odin-3-13-1.3762572/>

The latest version of the patched Odin Samsung firmware burner seems to be
<https://forum.xda-developers.com/attachments/odin3-v3-14-1_3b_patched-zip.5158507/>

Name: Odin3 v3.14.1_3B_PatcheD.zip
Size: 1400560 bytes (1367 KiB)
SHA256: 62440CCD4B66BAD9843A76D49954A3A4488E2D463774203CBA7621E877C756FF

Unzipped:
Name: Odin3 v3.14.1_3B_PatcheD.exe
Size: 3167744 bytes (3093 KiB)
SHA256: 6E4707BA3C84E475453B8AA2F73747D6957A13B74C0C4CB7ADC7853F26697C77

Odin3.ini
[Option]
Title=odin
FactoryResetTime=1
OptionEnable=1
Warning=1
[APOption]
RePartition=0
AutoReboot=1
FResetTime=1
FlashLock=0
TFlash=0
NandErase=0
[CPOption]
PhoneEFSClear=0
PhoneBootUpdate=0k
[ButtonOption]
Bootloader=1
PDA=1
Phone=1
CSC=1
UMS/PATCH=1

However there is also a patched Odin version on the Samsung firmware page.
<https://samfw.com/Odin/Odin3_v3.13.1_3B_Patched_Samfw.com.rar>
Name: Odin3_v3.13.1_3B_Patched_Samfw.com.rar
Size: 1080120 bytes (1054 KiB)
SHA256: 796DBCD0A2262228AF0492B69BCFF0555CDC9AFE422045BC295BB2ABF74FF107

Unpacked:
Name: Odin3 v3.13.1_3B_Patched_Samfw.com.exe
Size: 3172864 bytes (3098 KiB)
SHA256: 1E84628BD5EF44EB6A00954A7DE5445375C953879F889EF82CB73DB0358CEEAF

Odin3.ini
[Option]
Title=odin
FactoryResetTime=1
OptionEnable=1
DeviceInfo=0
Warning=0
PacketSize=1048576
RtnForSprint=0
[APOption]
RePartition=0
AutoReboot=1
FResetTime=1
FlashLock=0
TFlash=0
NandErase=0
[CPOption]
PhoneEFSClear=0
PhoneBootUpdate=0k
[UIOption]
LED=0
[ButtonOption]
Bootloader=1
PDA=1
Phone=1
CSC=1
UMS/PATCH=1

Which firmware burnder do you use for your Samsung phone?
And where do you obtain your firmware builds from anyway?

Does the burner you use depend on whether you use Frija or SamFW to obtain
your firmware? Or is there a reason to use the different Odin variants?
<https://github.com/SlackingVeteran/frija/releases>
<https://samfw.com>

Windows Frija (Frija is apparently the wife of Odin in Norse mythology.)
<https://github.com/SlackingVeteran/frija/releases>
<https://github.com/SlackingVeteran/frija/releases/download/v1.4.4/Frija-v1.4.4.zip>
Name: Frija-v1.4.4.zip
Size: 6533283 bytes (6380 KiB)
SHA256: 1067F48DE201E26596F473613CB2CEAC31F1A10550CE6AE352827CCE9FA23161

Unpacked:
Name: Frija.exe
Size: 3445248 bytes (3364 KiB)
SHA256: 76C6E277C9E2D167FCFCF4077D13481111C1750909CDAEFB195480609BC16516

I'm brand new to Odin, Frija, and burning Samsung firmware onto a phone.

If you frequently burn firmware into your Samsung phone, and if you use the
patched Odin to do that, can you provide advice on which one that you use?
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
which, in this case, is to flesh out what's the best version of Odin now.

On 2022-12-06 11:44, Andy Burnelli wrote:
> Do you have experience using Windows Odin / Frija freeware to find & flash
> Samsung firmware onto Android phones?

You get that if you have be using freeware utilities to "flash firmware"...

....that this is something that ordinary people really don't want to do...

....right?

Andy Burnelli used his or her keyboard to write :

> If you frequently burn firmware into your Samsung phone, and if you use the
> patched Odin to do that, can you provide advice on which one that you use?

The leaked Samsung Odin tool works for flashing stock firmware on Windows.
https://samsungodin.com
For other platforms you can use Heimdall to flash Samsung firmware.

But you have to know what firmware to get first, and where to get it.

I use Android checkfirm to check if newer Samsung firmware is available
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.illusion.checkfirm

The example they give at https://github.com/Bluesion/CheckFirm is this
three component sectioned off Service provider software version
"G998BXXU4BVB1/G998BOXM4BVB1/G998BXXU4BVB1" which indicates the
build version/CSC version/baseband version (CSC meaning the Consumer
Software Customization which contains the country and carrier specific
stuff like which apps are pre-installed, which bands are available, 4G/5G,
VoWiFi, VoLTE etc.)

The first few letters of the service provider software version indicate the
model version (G998B = S21 Ultra).

The last few letters (e. g. G998BXXU4BVB1) can be read as follows:
U4 B V B 1
U4 = Boot loader version
B = Android version
V = Year
B = Month
1 = Minor revision

For this example that interprets to this according to the checkfirm site.
U4: bootloader version 4 (you can't use any firmware with a lower version
than what you have)
B: Android version 2 (for the S21 Ultra that shipped with Android 11, B is
Android 12)
V: 2022 (W = 2023, X = 2024, etc.)
B: February (A = January,..., L = December)
1: minor revision 1 (this is a hexadecimal that can be 1¡VF, with F being
version 16)

You can also check for firmware updates at
https://fota-cloud-dn.ospserver.net/firmware/DBT/SM-G998B/version.xml
https://doc.samsungmobile.com/sm-g998b/dbt/doc.html

Those are examples for a specific device (replace DBT with your CSC code
and SM-G998B with your model version. It will list all firmwares with the
newest firmware number at the top.

There are many ways to find and download the latest Samsung firmware
https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/
https://updato.com/firmware-archive-select-model/
https://github.com/zacharee/SamloaderKotlin/releases
https://samfrew.com/
https://samfw.com/

But I use Bitfrost to determine my firmware version & download it for me.
https://github.com/zacharee/SamloaderKotlin/releases

Bitfrost is much like Frija in that it will find & download it for you.
https://github.com/SlackingVeteran/frija/releases/tag/v1.4.4

Either Bitfrost or Frija will do for most people.

There is also the samloader tool designed to find samsung firmware
https://github.com/nlscc/samloader
But it will require WSL on Windows to work.

You may also need adb, fastboot & sqlite3 from Windows platform tools.
https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools_r33.0.3-windows.zip

Using adb & fastboot you can put your phone in fastboot mode
Fastboot Mode
$ adb devices
$ adb reboot-bootloader
$ fastboot flashing unlock

You might also want to take a look at magisk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magisk_(software)
https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk