[Galaxy S 4 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] impactor:
Here's some more specifics:

As indicated, I did that in Windows and in Linux and the process stops at the same stage, which suggests driver version irrelevant.

In case this assumption is wrong: on Windows it is Kies 2.6.2.14014_7 and driver 2.11.7.

FTM	I9195XXUBNB3

EVR	I9195XXUBNB3

and one of the old I9195XXUBMJ7

Downloaded from here: http://samsung-updates.com/device/?id=GT-I9195 and samfirmware.com

Not corrupt, as suggested by several different firmwares tried.

Yes, I unpacked them manually in order to remove knox. Like so: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2549357

Also, author of that guide did the whole rom-deknoxing by himself for me, too, and the result was the same.

The rest of your questions relate to CWM flashing method.

I tried some, and I tried no modifications. Same result.

update, or updater? Here is the later one:

show_progress(0.1, 0);
format("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/mmcblk0p21");
mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/mmcblk0p21", "/system");
package_extract_dir("system", "/system");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/cat");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/chcon");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/chmod");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/chown");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/cmp");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/cp");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/date");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/dd");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/df");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/dmesg");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/du");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/freshsebool");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/getenforce");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/getevent");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/getprop");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/getsebool");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/grep");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/hd");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/id");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/ifconfig");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/iftop");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/insmod");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/ioctl");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/ionice");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/kill");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/ln");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/load_policy");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/log");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/ls");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/lsmod");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/lsof");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/md5");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/mkdir");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/mount");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/mv");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/nandread");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/netstat");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/newfs_msdos");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/notify");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/printenv");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/ps");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/reboot");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/renice");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/restorecon");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/rm");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/rmdir");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/rmmod");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/route");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/runcon");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/schedtop");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/sendevent");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/setconsole");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/setenforce");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/setprop");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/setsebool");
symlink("mksh", "/system/bin/sh");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/sleep");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/smd");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/start");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/stop");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/sync");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/top");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/touch");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/umount");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/uptime");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/vmstat");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/watchprops");
symlink("toolbox", "/system/bin/wipe");
set_perm_recursive(0, 0, 0755, 0644, "/system");
set_perm_recursive(0, 2000, 0755, 0755, "/system/bin");
set_perm(0, 3003, 06755, "/system/bin/ip");
set_perm(0, 3003, 02750, "/system/bin/netcfg");
set_perm(0, 3004, 02755, "/system/bin/ping");
set_perm(0, 2000, 06750, "/system/bin/run-as");
set_perm_recursive(1002, 1002, 0755, 0440, "/system/etc/bluetooth");
set_perm(0, 0, 0755, "/system/etc/bluetooth");
set_perm(1000, 1000, 0640, "/system/etc/bluetooth/auto_pairing.conf");
set_perm(3002, 3002, 0444, "/system/etc/bluetooth/blacklist.conf");
set_perm(1000, 1000, 0640, "/system/etc/bluetooth/auto_pair_devlist.conf");
set_perm(1002, 1002, 0440, "/system/etc/dbus.conf");
set_perm(1014, 2000, 0550, "/system/etc/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-run-hooks");
set_perm(0, 2000, 0550, "/system/etc/init.goldfish.sh");
set_perm_recursive(0, 0, 0755, 0555, "/system/etc/ppp");
set_perm_recursive(0, 2000, 0755, 0644, "/system/vendor");
set_perm_recursive(0, 0, 0755, 0644, "/system/vendor/firmware");
set_perm(0, 2000, 0755, "/system/vendor/firmware");
set_perm(0, 2000, 0755, "/system/vendor/lib");
set_perm(0, 2000, 0755, "/system/vendor/lib/hw");
set_perm_recursive(0, 2000, 0755, 0755, "/system/xbin");
show_progress(0.1, 10);
show_progress(0.2, 0);
package_extract_file("boot.img", "/dev/block/mmcblk0p13");
show_progress(0.2, 10);
unmount("/system");

Stock.

Thanks for taking the interest in it.