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PatchTuesday
Expert Member
Samsung Galaxy A05 - Full phone specifications
So interestingly enough, this particular Samsung has access to root, via Magisk or Twrp / Orange Fox Recovery, as well as some custom rom's available.
Most notably - lineage-22.1-20250127-UNOFFICIAL-a05m based on Android 15 ASOP
Note this voids your warranty since it trips Samsung Knox. Therefore everything you try is at your own risk, I wont / cant accept responsibility for your actions. I don't offer any support on potential issues you might run into. If you okay with tinkering and researching stuff yourself though, you should be fine. With that said, this is just a little experiment I thought I'd document.
I was able to get my hands on one for fairly cheap, just to play around with and see what the experience is like vs the S25 I currently have, so not a big deal if I do somehow manage to screw it up royally. Luckily Download Mode and Odin work fairly well in the event of complete failure.
Just roughly documenting the steps I took as a reference point incase I have to ref it later...
So first I enabled Developer options, then unlocked the bootloader by selecting OEM unlock (this option only showed up after i connected to WiFi for some reason). The OEM unlock will factory reset your phone.
Just a note, I flashed my phone with the latest avail firmware first, but you can do it in the order detailed below to save time.
Get OF Samsung Firmware https://samfw.com/firmware/SM-A055F/XFA
Make sure you have the Samsung Drivers installed - https://developer.samsung.com/android-usb-driver
Make sure you have Google ADB Drivers installed - https://developer.android.com/studio/run/win-usb
Download 7zip - https://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Download Odin Tool 3.13.1 - https://samfw.com/firmware/SM-A055F/XFA
Once the phone is unlocked you can choose to either load a custom recovery or keep it as stock as possible with the option of applying root.
Option 1. Root with default recovery
Once the firmware has downloaded, extract all contents of the file using 7zip to a folder of your choice.
You are looking for a file along the lines of "AP_A055FXXS8" with the extension .tar.md5
Mine is called AP_A055FXXS8CXL2_A055FXXS8CXL2_MQB90651087_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT_meta_OS14.tar.md5, and I copy that to the default download directory on the phone using from the PC. Installed https://magiskmanager.com/ directly on the phone as an APK (you might have to allow file manager the rights to install from unknown sources - but it will prompt you to do so)
In Magisk, I clicked install > "Method ; Select and Patch a File > used file explorer and selected AP_A055FXXS8CXL2_A055FXXS8CXL2_MQB90651087_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT_meta_OS14.tar.md5"
Magisk did its thing, the output file was in the Downloads folder on the phone as well, so copied it from there back to the PC.
The file was called magisk_patched-28100_dgg2J.tar
I then turned the phone off and opened Odin on the PC
In Odin its fairly simple, just Click AP and then point it to the file Magisk created.
I held volume up + volume down and plugged the cable in (which was still attached to the PC) and the phone booted to download mode.
Pressed vol up again to confirm I want to enter download mode on the phone and it showed up in Odin as a com device (if it doesn't, its due to drivers)
Clicked Start in Odin and it takes a few minutes since its a 9GB file its writing back to the phone
Note : If you want to flash the entire phone with Samsung Firmware at this step rather, you can select all corresponding files in Odin
Its the same procedure as the AP part, but select each one as per the name.
These are the original files you downloaded and unpacked with 7zip (except for the AP file of course)
BL >>>> BL_A055FXXS8CXL2 etc
AP >>>> magisk_patched-28100_dgg2J.tar
CP >>>> CP_A055FXXS8CXL1 etc
CSC>>> CSC_OJM_A055FOJM8CXL2 etc
Then click Start. Once the phone reboots you can unplug the cable and go through the settings again.
You'll see Magisk as an app that needs updating the first time you run it.
That's it. Enjoy the unsecure but rooted A05. What you want to use it for is your business lol
Edit 2025/04/16
I was able to load the FNB banking app, it doesn't just force close like on LineageOS.
I was able to do this by using the following ;
Installed KitsuneMagisk v27.2 instead of Magisk
Renamed/Hid the Kitsuneapp by naming it something else within the app
Enabled MagiskHide from within the app and added the following to the list (that hides root from apps)
- Google Play Services (com.google.android.gms)
- FNB banking app (za.co.fnb.connect.itt)
- Whatsapp (com.whatsapp)
For good measure I also installed the following modules that should help pass play integrity checks
- PlayIntegrityFix_v18.7
- Tricky-Store-v1.2.1
To be clear, this allowed me to Open the FNB app to the point where it prompts for login credentials. So it asks for location to be activated.
Another thing I wanted to note is that with the use of Orange Fox Recovery, i was able to remove the bootloader warning messages that pop up when you start the phone. So it no longer prompts you to press the power button.
Its fairly easy to do as well, but if you flash OFR, you need to factory reset the phone in order for the recovery to access the data partition. However you can just use OFR to update the "up_param.img" file by loading OFR and then going to reboot options and choosing reboot to Fastboot mode.
OFR - https://sourceforge.net/projects/samsung-galaxy-a05/files/Custom-Recovery/
Direct link - https://sourceforge.net/projects/samsung-galaxy-a05/files/Custom-Recovery/OFOX-a05m.zip/download
Download link for up_param.img - https://sourceforge.net/projects/samsung-galaxy-a05/files/OneUI-Ports/Universal-X-6.1-AI/2024-11-20/
Direct link is - https://sourceforge.net/projects/sa...sal-X-6.1-AI/2024-11-20/up_param.img/download
On your PC, run the following command
fastboot flash up_param C:\location\to\\up_param.img (ie C:\Temp\up_param.img ) full command would then be =
fastboot flash up_param C:\Temp\up_param.img
Once the phone restarts, the bootloader is unlocked message disappears. You are only left with
Set Warranty Bit: Vbmeta
Set Warranty Bit: Boot
When the phone starts up
Option 2. Root with custom Recovery
{ Working on this now, will write it up once im done}
Option 3. Lineage OS with custom Recovery and Root (if you want it)
{ Working on this, will write it up once im done}
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