[OTA Updates] S7 Active SM-G891A (MM & N firmware update files)

[nachofriend]

Did you update through an OTA with ATT or using a sideload? If you used the OTA, can you look to see if the last few characters of the baseband are QL6?

I'm preparing to sideload this onto mine device, but confirmation that this is official would be great. Thanks!

I did OTA from ATT.

QL6 is correct.

 

[gqukyo]

Looks like there's a new update, but as always, not sure if it's the official path as it's not on ATTs support pages yet. Weighs in at 46.3 MB and brings the baseband up to S2BQL6. Anyone want to try to load it and see what it does?

Same Russian site?

 

[faronium]

Same Russian site?

No, I grab it directly from ATT's servers. You need a command line with the curl utility or to know how to change the user agent of your browser to enable the download. The link is then:

https://xdmd.sl.attcompute.com/agents/48838/1488/SS-G891AUCS2BQK4-to-S2BQL6-UP

Google "user agent switcher" for whatever browser you use and use the tool to set the user agent to 'Python-urllib / 1.17'

I learned this from the 4pda.ru site for the phone that seems to have changed. It used to list all of the available updates and had a how-to on downloading from ATT.

I've summarized this earlier if you search through my posts and my summary came from reading this thread in full which you should do as well.

 

[Godmonkey80]

Please upload the update file for outside US.

 

[gqukyo]

Yes I've been following this thread, that's why I asked if the Russian had it. Didn't want to do what you suggested. Lol. But thanks, guess we have no choice now.

 

[khaliullov]

Yes I've been following this thread, that's why I asked if the Russian had it. Didn't want to do what you suggested. Lol. But thanks, guess we have no choice now.

Just uploaded it to the cloud: SS-G891AUCS2BQK4-to-S2BQL6-UP.zip

 

[Godmonkey80]

Thanks.

 

[khaliullov]

Thanks. I was met adware after update from sd card with zip file (not from att server). I want grab file from att server for safety reason .

You are talking rubbish. OTA updates are digitally signed and could not contain any modifications (see "Digital signature" wiki). All firmwares contains public keys for OTA updates and system checks digital signature of update before appling an update. If this check not pass - update will be canceled.
Let's make America great again!

 

[gqukyo]

Dang it, now I'm stuck in recovery mode. Never happened before but now when I boot up into recovery mode, it stays on the Downloading... screen forever and no key presses do anything. I've powered off and back on normally and everything works. I'm not sure what happened. Googled but didn't find anything. It's not bootlooping either, just stuck on that one screen.

*Ignore me, I haven't done this in a while and was actually in Odin recovery mode... lol Move along now... lol

 

[faronium]

Thanks. I was met adware after update from sd card with zip file (not from att server). I want grab file from att server for safety reason .

So, in one post you are asking for someone to upload the file and in another post you say you want to download directly from AT&T's server. I've summarised the instructions for downloading from ATT and khaliullov has uploaded it to his cloud site. And then you complain that you don't want tampered update files even though it's been described here and elsewhere that tampering with these updates will make them invalid your phone will reject the update. It's now your turn to work on this yourself and get it working. I suggest downloading from the mail.ru repository and being done with it. If you are keen, download from both the ATT site and the mail.ru site and compare the hashes on the two files (there are android apps that calculate hashes). You will almost certainly see that the files are identical. And if not make sure the download completed properly.

 

[o_01uk]

Hey guys, I'm in the UK and have purchased this model from the USA as it is ideal for me as I work outdoors.
I absolutely love the phone just one small thing bugs me that all the fancy features do not work as in video calling, Volte and wifi calling.

I know I'm not an expert on roms etc but would it not be possible to edit sections on the CSC file to say mimic the carrier in the UK I'm on versions of the s7?
I know they are two different devices but the roms must be very similar and share the same basic setup?

Just a thought I had.

 

[zsolti256]

Hey Guys, any way to update without letting it wipe my whole phone? Every update wipes it for me
Or any very good backup apps?

Also How do you know where the update files are on the ATT site?

 

[faronium]

Hey Guys, any way to update without letting it wipe my whole phone? Every update wipes it for me
Or any very good backup apps?

Also How do you know where the update files are on the ATT site?

If you pick through this thread you will find the answer to how to prevent the wipe after update. The bottom line is watch your phone closely as it updates. Eventually you will see a line to the effect of "Script succeeded: result was [/system]". As soon as you see that, press and hold power, home, vol+up, vol+down until the phone reboots. I've done this a few times and it works. When the phone boots for the first time, it will say Nougat updating and will be sluggish for a sec but it will settle down. This was discovered and is described in this post:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=71758322&postcount=255

Also, samsung's cloud backup does a pretty good job.

To find the files, I brute force search for them based on the naming conventions that user khaliullov spelled out on a russian website. Basically, the filenames contain the android version, the bootloader version, the year and the month and the version of the update. I cycle through these by hand once a month looking for downloads with any size. ATT has been updating monthly pretty well. Occasionally, like for the December update, there will be numerous versions of a given month's update at which time one needs to be careful to get the non-beta and non-alpha versions as these may not have an upgrade path.

Cheers

 

[jembot]

Hey guys, I'm in the UK and have purchased this model from the USA as it is ideal for me as I work outdoors.
I absolutely love the phone just one small thing bugs me that all the fancy features do not work as in video calling, Volte and wifi calling.

I know I'm not an expert on roms etc but would it not be possible to edit sections on the CSC file to say mimic the carrier in the UK I'm on versions of the s7?
I know they are two different devices but the roms must be very similar and share the same basic setup?

Just a thought I had.

See this old post:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=74551312&postcount=815

 

[Droid_Razr]

Recent update won't stick, fails after reboot even after wipe.

 

[zsolti256]

If you pick through this thread you will find the answer to how to prevent the wipe after update. The bottom line is watch your phone closely as it updates. Eventually you will see a line to the effect of "Script succeeded: result was [/system]". As soon as you see that, press and hold power, home, vol+up, vol+down until the phone reboots. I've done this a few times and it works. When the phone boots for the first time, it will say Nougat updating and will be sluggish for a sec but it will settle down. This was discovered and is described in this post:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=71758322&postcount=255

Also, samsung's cloud backup does a pretty good job.

To find the files, I brute force search for them based on the naming conventions that user khaliullov spelled out on a russian website. Basically, the filenames contain the android version, the bootloader version, the year and the month and the version of the update. I cycle through these by hand once a month looking for downloads with any size. ATT has been updating monthly pretty well. Occasionally, like for the December update, there will be numerous versions of a given month's update at which time one needs to be careful to get the non-beta and non-alpha versions as these may not have an upgrade path.

Cheers

In the post it mentions adb sideload in recovery. Are they talking about selecting update.zip? Or can I only cancel the wipe if I do it though usb adb sideload? Havent done it that way

 

[faronium]

In the post it mentions adb sideload in recovery. Are they talking about selecting update.zip? Or can I only cancel the wipe if I do it though usb adb sideload? Havent done it that way

I've only done it when applying the update through recovery using the phone alone (my phone's USB port is rusted/salted to oblivion, so I cannoct connect directly). I don't know what would happen with sideloading through adb.

 

[faronium]

Note that U2BRA5-UP and U2BRA6-UP have landed on the AT&T servers. They are 527MB each, so likely a major update although not a full android version worth of upgrade. We have seen dual, large upgrades like this before that didn't become the officials, so I wouldn't go out and sideload these just yet unless you don't mind potentially putting your phone on a dead-end upgrade path.

Note also that I'm checking for U2C and U3C potential upgrades as these would be Oreo. Probably still a couple of months off though. Interestingly, the Active seems to get updates before the S7/S7 Edge variants so we'll have it before they do. Regardless, AT&T continues to keep a fairly regular update schedule which is commendable in my opinion.

 

[miniminus]

thats great news love that you keep this thread informed, and that AT&T are still keeping this updated ..
and that you are, as i was hoping, checking on U2C/U3C

 

[faronium]

I went ahead and sideloaded the U2BRA6 update with success. The result is Jan 1 security patch level with Spectre/Meltdown fixes. The latter are indicated under About Device -> Security software version -> SMR Jan-2018 Release MS.

You may want to wait on updating until official as always. The linux kernels on my PC's have had to undergo numerous updates (intel chips) as the fixes for those vulnerabilities have evolved. So, the current update that I installed may still be a testing update. YMMV.

Have fun.