[Galaxy A3, A5, A7, A8, A9 Q&A, Help & Troubleshoot] masterkasun:
Hi!

First, I would like to explain the reason for making this thread. Even though we are getting more help for popular models across the forum, A9 Pro remains something almost untouched. This is true specially for the Chinese varient. So, I decided to accumulate everything to a single thread that I found through some serious hunting across the Internet. The model that I'm using right now is SM-A9100. Hence, the remaining content will be mainly focused on that model.

I bought SM-A9100 outside of China which came Play Store pre-installed. When I tried to run the updater it failed even without connecting to the server. So, there were no OTA updates for me. Later, I screwed up my device after flashing TWRP using Flashify(ADVICE - If you are flashing a custom recovery using a 3rd party app, NEVER reboot to the recovery using the software implementation after flashing. Do it manually using the button combination. Otherwise, you won't be able to boot on to the System).

Later, I downloaded CHC-A9100ZCU1API2-20160909110156 build and flashed via Odin along with TWRP. But, it was full of Chinese rubbish. When I tried to flash SuperSU via TWRP, it aborted the process giving "patching sepolicy failure" message. Then I rooted using Kingroot and replaced Kingroot with SuperSU using a script and Terminal Emulator. That is the way worked for me. Finally, I flashed gapps pico package via TWRP. Later, I could remove most of the Chinese bloat using System App Remover. But, I couldn't find a way to replace Chinese oriented Yellow Pages, Baidu search, Weather app, Web browser and Sohu news etc. So, I was desperately in a need of replacing this Chinese ROM with a compatible International one(Nougat).

At the time of writing, There is no Nougat ROM available for the Chinese varient and no sign of having one in the future either. So, the only option available is flashing a ROM built for A910F.

But, As I was informed, A910F firmware can't be flashed directly on A9100 due to different hardware configuration. I looked for the specifications of the device on GSMArena and spotted no difference until expanding the network bands section. Thats where things are different. The two varients sports different modems I guess. So, flashing a firmware of other varient won't give you a hard brick apart from some expected issues on network reception and connectivity. Some people have tried following builds based on A910F firmware.

A9 Pro Elite ROM

Nougat International ROM for A9100

Common reported issue for both builds is, Back and Recent apps capacitive keys are not working. I would like to give a fix I found for the issue that may work.

Dial *#2663# on your phone app. It will open an app window for firmware update. Just tap on Touch key FW update(Network connection may required).

[IMG="FW Update"]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oxq4leZj0PI7p7At7GypmzzLyU89oINr/view?usp=drivesdk[/IMG]

Since I haven't installed any of those ROM builds, I don't know whether this works. You can try it and report me whether it works.

It may be required to replace the modem firmware of those builds with the one dedicated for the Chinese varient in order to fix the network reception.

Get it from here and flash via Odin or FlashFire(I will show you in detail later).

My opinion : Since both models have Qualcomm chipsets, both should have Qualcomm modems configured for different bands(FDD or TDD) by the modem firmware. Since Qualcomm modem hardware usully supports almost evey LTE band, changing the modem firmware to allign the hardware to some specific bands may not affect your connectivity if your Service provider's band is included in the list. Correct if I'm wrong.

One of those above mentioned builds is based on Vietnamese XXV firmware and the other is based on Indian INS firmware. Even though you can get rid of Chinese by flashing any of those, you are more likely get into another country's bloat. I wanted a more Internationalized firmware. So, my problem is still not solved.

I looked for myself for a better firmware and found that Singapore XSP firmware to be good. There are a few reasons for picking this.

Open firmware and not carrier locked.

Defaut language is English.

Should be less bloated.

Still, I haven't even downloaded this ROM and I'm really looking at your feedback to proceed. I need answers for following questions.

Since I'm migrating from a Chinese ROM, should I need to perform re-partition or nand irase all or both with repair firmware flashing via Odin?

Or

Will a normal flashing via Odin be enough?

By using FlashFire, I can selectively flash only the components I need using the tar.md5 firmware file(i.e : boot, system, modem).

[IMG="flashfire 1"]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1309cje4K4mZ-cDXC--ez3c2H1f3hwJpW/view?usp=drivesdk[/IMG][IMG="flashfire 2"]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jGFULGRKOP9r3Xfp3pCmqgQH8FsOIroU/view?usp=drivesdk[/IMG]

Will this type of flashing be enough to get the full functionality?

Should I need to replace the bootloader as well?

Finally, I need to replace the boot logo(NOT boot animation) of the device with the boot logo of the International version. I was looking for a soft way to do this for a couple of days and didn't find a way. Some people say that the boot logo image is in the kernel and some say in the bootloader and some say in the param partition and so on. I'm totally confused. My boot logo has some Chinese and unlock symbol with the word "custom". When I flashed the firmware last time using Odin, It didn't change the logo.

This is optional. When I enter the download mode, it displays the warning message in Chinese. Is there any way to replace it with the one in International ROM?

I saw in some threads that to do this nand erase all should be performed. Anyway, that is optional.

If you reply to the contents of this thread, please mention the topic you reply on the top of your comment.

Thank you!