Safest firmware upgrade strategy for an Android phone?
I have a new Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S4) which is already prompting me to approve a firmware update. According to articles that I've read, Android 4.3 should become available for it in October or soon thereafter. Should I proceed with the current update first, or will it be possible/preferable to move straight to 4.3 after it's released? How reliable is the update process for these devices? I'm trying to weigh risks/benefits and to avoid getting a brick. Incidentally, under "about device -> status", it shows "Secure boot status: Samsung", which I would take to mean that it's verifying signatures against a Samsung public key. Web searches suggest that this may not be the case however, as people with phones in that state have reported installing unofficial firmware. I suppose I'll find out if I decide to install non-default firmware at some point. Interestingly, the software for doing so is local in origin: http://www.glassechidna.com.au/products/heimdall/
On Mon, 9 Sep 2013, Jason White <jason@jasonjgw.net> wrote:
I have a new Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S4) which is already prompting me to approve a firmware update. According to articles that I've read, Android 4.3 should become available for it in October or soon thereafter.
It happens all the time. I've never seen an Over The Air (OTA) update cause any sort of problem. Updates that require a factory reset may cause great inconvenience (issues of compatability and performance in addition to all settings being lost) as I experienced when upgrading a pair of Sony-Ericsson Xperia X10i phones from Android 2.1 to 2.3. But OTA updates are minor changes, you should expect to not notice any difference.
Should I proceed with the current update first, or will it be possible/preferable to move straight to 4.3 after it's released? How reliable is the update process for these devices? I'm trying to weigh risks/benefits and to avoid getting a brick.
The risk of bricking it is negligible as long as you don't do anything stupid like remove the battery half way through. Charge it fully before you start and it's no big deal. I recommend not waiting, updates may have fixes for serious security problems. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
The risk of bricking it is negligible as long as you don't do anything stupid like remove the battery half way through. Charge it fully before you start and it's no big deal.
Thanks. It proceeded without any problems. My main concern (for future updates) is that I don't have a recovery strategy in the event of a failure. Unfortunately there's no "boot from an alternative medium, then re-install" procedure for phones and tablets.
I recommend not waiting, updates may have fixes for serious security problems.
That's what I had suspected. In this case, the baseband software was updated as well as parts of Android itself. The kernel version is still at 3.4.
On Tue, 10 Sep 2013, Jason White <jason@jasonjgw.net> wrote:
Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
The risk of bricking it is negligible as long as you don't do anything stupid like remove the battery half way through. Charge it fully before you start and it's no big deal.
Thanks. It proceeded without any problems. My main concern (for future updates) is that I don't have a recovery strategy in the event of a failure. Unfortunately there's no "boot from an alternative medium, then re-install" procedure for phones and tablets.
Make a warranty claim if that happens. Seriously the updates are tested extensively on exact hardware. It's not like upgrading Debian on a random PC where you can't be sure that anyone else has done it before on the same combination of parts. They only release updates after testing them which is why sometimes you just don't get updates. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
participants (2)
-
Jason White -
Russell Coker