Where does Odin come from ?

js22 · Mar 29, 2011

So maybe its my background in Linux, but there's something that just creeps me out about Odin. I tried searching here and on Google, and all I can find are links (mostly broken) to download it from various cheesy file sharing sites.

Does anybody know where the software actually comes from? Who wrote it? Is it legal, or was it swiped from Samsung?

It seems weird to me that a software community that is based so much on open source software relies so heavily on such a shady system.

Am I missing something?

Dani897 · Mar 29, 2011

i believe it is used at samsung repair centers to flash multiple phones similtaniously.

Radukk · Mar 29, 2011

js22 said:
So maybe its my background in Linux, but there's something that just creeps me out about Odin. I tried searching here and on Google, and all I can find are links (mostly broken) to download it from various cheesy file sharing sites.

Does anybody know where the software actually comes from? Who wrote it? Is it legal, or was it swiped from Samsung?

It seems weird to me that a software community that is based so much on open source software relies so heavily on such a shady system.

Am I missing something?

For Samsung engineer internal use. leaked with ROMs.

And saved tons of bricked Galaxy S. Thanks Samsung.

amtrakcn · Mar 29, 2011

I think Odin is a Samsung internal maintainance tool. There are other tools to write the phone throuhg download mode under Linux.

TRusselo · Mar 29, 2011

oh hey i dont think anyone mentioned that it came from samsung maintenance.....

TayzGpa · Mar 29, 2011

Is there an Odin for the new 2.2 for I897?

AdamOutler · Mar 29, 2011

Yes there is a 2.2. Just look for "Odin3 2.2 Captivate" on google.

amtrakcn · Mar 29, 2011

TayzGpa said:
Is there an Odin for the new 2.2 for I897?

Odin is not specific to any ROM.

You can use either the oldest Odin3 1.0 or the newest Odin3 1.81 to flash any ROM. Just some difference in features and UI layout.

To OG, I don't see a problem not to use an opensource way to write the firmware into the device through the device specific mode. BL isn't opensource and you still get the choice of CWM.

Pirateghost · Mar 29, 2011

AdamOutler said:
Yes there is a 2.2. Just look for "Odin3 2.2 Captivate" on google.

The ODIN one click 2.2 is the OLD JI6 leak and not the actual KB1 release

js22 · Mar 29, 2011

Okay, so the fact that its leaked (as opposed to released) from Samsung explains why it isn't hosted on a respectable site.

Again, I'm not used to the Micro$oft side of things, but it seems to me like running some binary you stumbled across on an unknown website might not be the best of ideas. Do Windows uses ever get computer viruses ?

How hard would it be to write a program called Odin that grabs your IMEI, sticks malware on your phone, or maybe just "accidentally" fails while writing your bootloader ? How do you know that the latest random "Odin" binary you stumble upon on the web isn't exactly such a program ?

One of the great things about open source (besides the price !) is that you (or at least somebody somewhere) knows exactly what you are getting. I haven't actually used heimdall (no affiliation with author) but I'm surprised that this or some equivalent open-source approach isn't more widely used amongst the xda crowd.

I guess that even with an open-source flashing program you still need the binaries for the bootloaders, the pit file, and so on. But (as I understand it) at least in theory you could legally, safely obtain these from your own phone before you start flashing stuff.

Stevewmn · Mar 29, 2011

js22 said:
Okay, so the fact that its leaked (as opposed to released) from Samsung explains why it isn't hosted on a respectable site.

Again, I'm not used to the Micro$oft side of things, but it seems to me like running some binary you stumbled across on an unknown website might not be the best of ideas. Do Windows uses ever get computer viruses ?

How hard would it be to write a program called Odin that grabs your IMEI, sticks malware on your phone, or maybe just "accidentally" fails while writing your bootloader ? How do you know that the latest random "Odin" binary you stumble upon on the web isn't exactly such a program ?

One of the great things about open source (besides the price !) is that you (or at least somebody somewhere) knows exactly what you are getting. I haven't actually used heimdall (no affiliation with author) but I'm surprised that this or some equivalent open-source approach isn't more widely used amongst the xda crowd.

I guess that even with an open-source flashing program you still need the binaries for the bootloaders, the pit file, and so on. But (as I understand it) at least in theory you could legally, safely obtain these from your own phone before you start flashing stuff.

Odin, Heimdall and all of the various ROMs, kernels modems and whatnot linked in messages in XDA forums share the same safety mechanism - the XDA community. If one of the popular ROMs was crashing phones there would be shouting in all the forums about it. So that wouldn't work at all. What we need to watch for are more subtle attacks like botnet sleepers in the ROMs or something else gathering user data and passing it along for more sinister uses than Google's usual data gathering.

TRusselo · Mar 29, 2011

js22 said:
Okay, so the fact that its leaked (as opposed to released) from Samsung explains why it isn't hosted on a respectable site.

Again, I'm not used to the Micro$oft side of things, but it seems to me like running some binary you stumbled across on an unknown website might not be the best of ideas. Do Windows uses ever get computer viruses ?

How hard would it be to write a program called Odin that grabs your IMEI, sticks malware on your phone, or maybe just "accidentally" fails while writing your bootloader ? How do you know that the latest random "Odin" binary you stumble upon on the web isn't exactly such a program ?

One of the great things about open source (besides the price !) is that you (or at least somebody somewhere) knows exactly what you are getting. I haven't actually used heimdall (no affiliation with author) but I'm surprised that this or some equivalent open-source approach isn't more widely used amongst the xda crowd.

I guess that even with an open-source flashing program you still need the binaries for the bootloaders, the pit file, and so on. But (as I understand it) at least in theory you could legally, safely obtain these from your own phone before you start flashing stuff.

the same logic could be used for any program for any operating system.
i remember over a decade ago when i was just a kid getting a virus from a fake edonkey download. viruses can be anything...

and viruses are not specific to windows (microsoft), its just the most likely OS viruses will come accross, so to do maximum damage it is written for that OS. just because you dont run windows doesnt mean you CANT get viruses, it just means there are less written for your OS.

ASIDE from that....
there is the Odin flashing program
and the Odin One click downloader. (2.1 ONLY)
2 programs both from samsung.
Safe place to get them??? HERE ON XDA!!! (the place you learned about them.. huh)

modest_mandroid · Mar 29, 2011

Trusselo said:
the same logic could be used for any program for any operating system.
i remember over a decade ago when i was just a kid getting a virus from a fake edonkey download. viruses can be anything...

and viruses are not specific to windows (microsoft), its just the most likely OS viruses will come accross, so to do maximum damage it is written for that OS. just because you dont run windows doesnt mean you CANT get viruses, it just means there are less written for your OS.

Had a coworker that loved Apple products like a religion once. Dude would go through all the talking points that he culled from tv commercicals with me daily about how PC's are rife with viruses and it's impossible for a mac to get one. He never gave me a solid reason for why it's impossible, other than "because you would have to compile it yourself (for some unknown reason)".

Dani897 · Mar 29, 2011

yeah the whole mac doesnt get viruses thing is simply based off the fact that macs rarely get viruses, the reason for that is explained above. the system may be more secure (or maybe it's not, if it isn't they wouldn't let you know that) you can't prevent downloading a file that you tell the computer to download. no computer system knows it's a virus before it is running on the computer. they can give warnings about file extensions but it really doesnt prevent anything.

mac users are either very knowledgeable and familiar with terminal but prefer mac for some reason, maybe a particular software package they want to run that isn't available on linux. or maybe they dont want the hassle of compiling from source, or some of the installation meathods you see in linux software that is not in the repositories associated with the distrobution.

they may do some type of editing to video or audio and run a software package not available on linux and that doesnt run as well on windows. ive seen that.

or they are people that are led by media who either believe the hype. or are trying to make some kind of statment.

with user friendly linux disrtos like ubuntu and mint there is little advantage to mac unless you have a specific software package you plan to run and linux isn't one of your options. but people are afraid of linux. mac seems more friendly even if the ui completely sux, i guess the ui prevents unskilled users from flooding the screen with windows by opening more when you click the icon, thus keeping things clean but i personally hate it with a passion!

amtrakcn · Mar 30, 2011

It's impossible to check anything software before you use it. Odin is actually from samfirmware.com which is a trustable site to get Samsung ROMS. And Odin itself is a Samsung software. After long time usage it's reliable (and improving reliability with newer version).

Also from my experience with old Moto phones and HTC phones, all the flashing program are like Odin. Nothing really surprised me when I started using it.

Pit, BL(boot.bin, Sbl.bin) is not related to Odin, it's inside the ROM package, usually is PDA.

I would trust Odin more because it's from the manufacture. Also my friend from i900 told me they use Odin too. So it seems Odin is Samsung's standard firmware writing tool.

js22 said:
Okay, so the fact that its leaked (as opposed to released) from Samsung explains why it isn't hosted on a respectable site.

Again, I'm not used to the Micro$oft side of things, but it seems to me like running some binary you stumbled across on an unknown website might not be the best of ideas. Do Windows uses ever get computer viruses ?

How hard would it be to write a program called Odin that grabs your IMEI, sticks malware on your phone, or maybe just "accidentally" fails while writing your bootloader ? How do you know that the latest random "Odin" binary you stumble upon on the web isn't exactly such a program ?

One of the great things about open source (besides the price !) is that you (or at least somebody somewhere) knows exactly what you are getting. I haven't actually used heimdall (no affiliation with author) but I'm surprised that this or some equivalent open-source approach isn't more widely used amongst the xda crowd.

I guess that even with an open-source flashing program you still need the binaries for the bootloaders, the pit file, and so on. But (as I understand it) at least in theory you could legally, safely obtain these from your own phone before you start flashing stuff.

mrhaley30705 · Mar 30, 2011

Will Odin work on any brand phone, or is it specific to Samsung?

Sent from a place my wife doesn't know about yet using XDA App

nickm50 · Mar 30, 2011

modest_mandroid said:
Had a coworker that loved Apple products like a religion once. Dude would go through all the talking points that he culled from tv commercicals with me daily about how PC's are rife with viruses and it's impossible for a mac to get one. He never gave me a solid reason for why it's impossible, other than "because you would have to compile it yourself (for some unknown reason)".

Next time your talking to him tell him OSX is just FREEBSD (version 5.xx, its an old version) with a gui change, that he paid for

That should create a nice debate for you!

Although you can make any Linux distro resemble OSX in about 2 minutes, and most mac users wouldn't know the difference.

nickm50 · Mar 30, 2011

mrhaley30705 said:
Will Odin work on any brand phone, or is it specific to Samsung?

Sent from a place my wife doesn't know about yet using XDA App

As far as I know its for Samsung only. I use it on My GF's Samsung Spica as well!

sepherian · Apr 3, 2011

i just convinced myself that it came from a magical land, so i wouldnt be scared of screwing my phone with a program with such a shady background

Johnnie5000 · Apr 4, 2011

ryanmahan said:
i just convinced myself that it came from a magical land, so i wouldnt be scared of screwing my phone with a program with such a shady background

+1
I actually learned something reading this thread.

Where does Odin come from ?

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