[Samsung Galaxy S8+ Guides, News, & Discussion] partcyborg:
Greetings!

Allow me to present to you:

How to Dramatically improve your Rooted S8 Display Quality

And Eliminate the Green/Garbled Screen bug

NOTE: Some users are still experiencing the green/garbled screen issue after flashing.

However all reports of this have indicated that it is happening noticeably less frequently.

Update:

I am looking into this and will have some changes out shortly that will hopefully help. It is difficult for me to troubleshoot because I literally can not get it to happen to my phone anymore so it is difficult to verify improvements before shipping them out to you, but I am doing my best.

​

WHAT?!

I found the following today while digging around chinese phone firmware sites via baidu:

In case you can't tell what that is, it is a BRAND NEW "Combination" Firmware with the label AQI1. The combination firmware is a special factory image used by service workers and XDA members who want to do things like change their CSC or bypass a FRP lock. meaning its almost completely brand new! AQI1 stands for "September 2017", which means this is a brand spanking new image only a few days old!

WHO CARES?

Why is this important? Well it just so happens that the Combination firmware boot image (boot.img) is what we all flashed as part of the SamPWND root. The boot.img file contains the kernel and root filesystem ramdisk. We were running one from sometime around April, which is very old compared to the modern builds most of us flashed after rooting. Furthermore, the image we all are currently running is likely one of the first kernels rolled out for the phone, so its no wonder there was an issue like this that was not fixed (who cares if you get greenscreen in 5m of CSC update).

So all it takes is a simple flash in FlashFire of the AQI1 boot.img (provide at the bottom of this post), an operation that does NOT require a wipe of /system, /data, or anything really (although I recommend a cache wipe in recovery for good measure, but it is very likely not necessary). Your phone will just come back up with a slicker modern kernel and most of all NO MORE ANNOYING DISPLAY BUGS!!!

WHAT IT IS NOT:

Now that I have explained what this thread is about, I wanted to outline a few things it is NOT about, to make a valliant effort to stem off the flow of questions before they begin (ha!):

NOT: A new Stock ROM for Your Phone

THIS IS NOT A FULL OS BUILD! DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE THING AND FLASH IT EXPECTING AN UPGRADED OS.

This is ONLY the special factory / Combination CSC and diagnostic ROM that has been floating around forever, just a modern build.

It is also the ONLY AQI1 image I have found. Believe me I looked a bunch of places after I found it

NOT: Oreo Early Preview

Given the predictions that the next release from Samsung would likely be Oreo, there was some initial over excitement. This wound up being NOT the case and if you read at least current Samsung Oreo projections they are predicting AQB now.

NOT: A Fix for the 80% Battery Issue

I know this is completely futile to hope for but:

THIS DOES NOT FIX THE 80% BATTERY ISSUE!!!!

NO WE DO NOT HAVE A FIX FOR THAT OR ONE COMING ANY TIME SOON!

YES SOME PEOPLE ARE STILL TRYING!

PLEASE DO NOT ASK! OFF TOPIC FOR THS THREAD

NOT: Currently Tested by ANYONE

I tested this on my S8 G950U but I don't have an s8+ to test with. I imagine that it will work the exact same way but I can't be sure. Hopefully some of you early adopters can share your results with the thread so that we can build some confidence here

NOTE: This is for the s8+ G955 US Snapdragon models ONLY! Do NOT Flash this on your exynos, your Chinese/HK S8, your N8, your MOTO RAZR flip phone, whatever else you have. Kernels/boot.img files are very device specific and you will surely break it if not completely brick it. See the other thread if you have a regular S8 US Snapdragon model.

DISCLAIMER:

YOUR WARRANTY IS ALREADY VOID if you are paying attention and are doing this to fix bugs with the existing sampwnd root.

HOWEVER IT IS EVEN VOIDER NOW. FLASH THUS TO YOUR DEVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

and if you break it I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE! FLASH AT YOUR OWN RISK!

As I said I have not tested this anywhere as I don't have an s8+

STEPS

Download Boot Image

Use the URL here to Download the AQI1 boot.img file: G955USQU1AQI1 BOOT.IMG

Prepare Phone for Flashing in FlashFire

If you did not download it on your phone, copy it somewhere FlashFire can see it.

Flash it

Open up FlashFire

Hit the "+" button

Select the "Flash Firmware Package" option, NOT the "Flash Zip or OTA" option!

You should see a popup window thing that has a checkbox next to the word BOOT, with "boot.img, 22MiB" underneath.

Make sure the checkbox is checked.

Make sure that it says BOOT above boot.img.

I have no idea if its possible for this to get messed up, but BOOT implies flashing the BOOT partition so if it says something else you are headed towards brick town, abort immediately.

Press the Check mark at the top right corner once you have confirmed the two things above.

MAKE SURE EVER ROOT IS DISABLED!!!

Click on the "Reboot" box, and choose "Recovery". MAKE SURE PRESERVE RECOVERY IS NOT CHECKED!

Back at the main menu, click the lightening bolt next to the word FLASH. Confirm.

Wait for FlashFire to do its thing. Sometimes it takes a minute for FF to wake up and start flashing. Occasionally for me it never happens, if this happens DO NOT PANIC ITS FINE. Hold down power+volDown until you eventually wind up in upload mode, then just reboot normally and everything will come back fine.

When FlashFire finishes (it will go really fast, the image is only 22MB we arent flashing a 5GB system here), it will auto-reboot your device into the recovery men

Select Wipe Cache and Confirm

This will wipe cache which is fine and safe. Again maybe not needed, feel free to skip if you know what you are doing. If you mess up and factory reset your device tell me so I can laugh at you.

Reboot into a Clear New World

Select reboot and boot the system normally. If you formatted the cache partition above, it will take a little longer to start your phone. This is just the first time per normal.

Thats it! Welcome to the world of clear screens and bright colors. It could be a total placebo effect but I actually think this kernel drives the display better sometimes.

Please let me know what you think, and if this works for you. I will be here for a while to answer questions or fix anything i typoed above or whatever.

FYI: There is an s8 thread in the s8 forums, if you have one of those use that method. There absolutely are binary diffs between versions so SOMETHING is different, and Id rather not have your briked phone on my concious.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

[MENTION=3812611]elliwigy[/MENTION] and [MENTION=1551903]stf[/MENTION]_TimelessGoD and the rest of the SamPWND crew for getting us this awesome root in the first place

[MENTION=3812611]elliwigy[/MENTION] again for turning me on to the fact that this was a thing at all :)

[MENTION=7308704]jhofseth[/MENTION] for nerding out with me the last few nights on trying crazy **** to get a bootloader unlock which prompted me to dig at this in the first place

Most of all, the tons of you out who have made so many awesome mods, themes, apps, workarounds, tools, etc etc etc. What you have made I use every day and all of it makes me enjoy my device all the more. I could not be happier to have the opportunity to give back a little.

BONUS: Here is a link to the entire combination image if you want to take a look at the rest of it. Don't flash the rest of it if you don't know what it is, as it wipes everything and you will have to root from scratch again!

http://goo.gl/pYyg7s