Installing Dokdo Project ROM v7.3 on Samsung Galaxy S3 SHW-M440S (Korean 3G version)

The latest Dokdo Project ROMs (which use parts of CM 12) bring Android 5.0 to various smartphones from Korean manufacturers such as Samsung, Pantech, and LG.

Updates for my old Samsung Galaxy S3 ended with Android 4.3, but thanks to this ROM, I can now use Android Lollipop with a phone I bought in 2013. Although the stock ROM for SGS3 doesn't support Bluetooth LE, the Dokdo 7.3.0+ ROM supports Bluetooth and Wifi perfectly!

To install custom ROMs on this phone requires that it be rooted, however. To root the SHW-M440S, I used the cache and recovery images from CF Auto Root, namely CF-Auto-Root-m0skt-m0skt-shwm440s.zip. After extracting cache.img and recovery.img from the zip archive, you need a way to transfer these files to your Samsung phone's internal flash ROM. (It goes without saying that you must have USB debugging mode enabled in the Developer Options)

Enter Heimdall. Most people on Windows OS simply use Samsung's internal tool called Odin to flash their phones. Unfortunately, Odin is software leaked from Samsung and is not officially supported and only runs on Windows. Heimdall, however, is open source and runs on Linux.

First use Heimdall to dump your Samsung phone's existing profile info with the following command:

heimdall download-pit --output filename.pit

Here is some sample output:

$ heimdall download-pit --output shw-m440s.pit

Heimdall v1.4.1

Copyright (c) 2010-2014 Benjamin Dobell, Glass Echidna
http://www.glassechidna.com.au/

This software is provided free of charge. Copying and redistribution is
encouraged.

If you appreciate this software and you would like to support future
development please consider donating:
http://www.glassechidna.com.au/donate/

Initialising connection...
Detecting device...
      Manufacturer: "SAMSUNG"
           Product: "Gadget Serial"

            length: 18
      device class: 2
               S/N: 0
           VID:PID: 04E8:685D
         bcdDevice: 021B
   iMan:iProd:iSer: 1:2:0
          nb confs: 1

interface[0].altsetting[0]: num endpoints = 1
   Class.SubClass.Protocol: 02.02.01
       endpoint[0].address: 83
           max packet size: 0010
          polling interval: 09

interface[1].altsetting[0]: num endpoints = 2
   Class.SubClass.Protocol: 0A.00.00
       endpoint[0].address: 81
           max packet size: 0200
          polling interval: 00
       endpoint[1].address: 02
           max packet size: 0200
          polling interval: 00
Claiming interface...
Attempt failed. Detaching driver...
Claiming interface again...

Next, open the .pit file with a hex editor so you can learn the names of internal partitions (I used emacs in hexl-mode). For the SHW-M440S, the partition names are in ALL CAPS:

RECOVERY, CACHE, BOOT, BACKUP, etc

but I have read that international versions of Samsung phones sometimes use lowercase partition names.

Now that you know the partition names, write the CF Auto Root recovery.img to RECOVERY and cache.img to the CACHE partition using heimdall:

heimdall flash --RECOVERY recovery.img --CACHE cache.img

Your SGS3 should then automatically reboot into recovery mode and a red pirate Android bot will appear in the background as the root exploit is applied. Then the phone's original recovery will be restored and the cache erased before the phone reboots into the stock ROM. You will notice that there will be a new app, SuperSU and that you can now use su in adb shell once you give permission on your phone's touch screen.

Now turn off the phone and go back into Download Mode (Vol down + Home Key + Power). heimdall detect to make sure the SGS3 is being detected:

$ heimdall detect
Device detected

Now that the SGS3 is rooted, it is possible to install a custom recovery that will allow you to install custom ROMs to the phone's internal memory. Download recovery-clockwork-6.0.4.6-i9300.img (the i9300 version works just fine with the SHW-M440S) to your linux box and flash it into the recovery partition using heimdall.

heimdall flash --RECOVERY recovery-clockwork-6.0.4.6-i9300.img


Now reboot into recovery mode (Vol Up + Home + Power) and wipe data, Dalvik cache, cache, and select install from zip if you have saved the custom ROM on an external microSD card. Or you could simply use adb sideload if your phone in recovery mode is connected to a Linux machine via USB cable. I just used sideload to transfer files from my Linux machine to my SGS3:

adb sideload dokdo-7.3.0-OFFICIAL-m0xx.zip
adb sideload dokdo_gapps_5.1.X.zip

I then selected the dokdo ROM for install from zip, followed by the Google apps package gapps.