[Galaxy S3 Neo Original Android Development] helloyello:
[MENTION=8750475]Humaxxx[/MENTION]

Nochmals vielen Dank für die Antworten, ich schätze deine Zeit und Hilfe.

Es wird auch für mich einfacher sein, auf Deutsch auszutauschen, aber die Mehrheit der Users hier sprechen Englisch, und ich möchte sie einfach nur respektieren. Außerdem ist dein Wissen für alle nützlich. ;)

(that was only a warm thank you in German)

You pretty much convinced me now to move on LOS16, it looks to provide everything I need.

I'm pretty old on xda-developers, at least 10 years, got a lot of help with my first HTC Artemis - HTC P3300 "smart phone PDA", learned how to upgrade the M$ Windows and I'm thankful for all the knowledge I got from these forums. I'm a casual SmartPhone user and didn't interact too much with the forum, thus, I lost 3 usernames (including the E-Mail addresses on which these were registered) and had to create "helloyello". In this respect, I've been watching closely all the ROM developments you mentioned for the S3 Neo (also learned here on XDA how to root it), but was never convinced about those. No disrespect for the efforts the developers put in them, quite the contrary - appreciation,but more concerned about a lot of things that didn't work, not much transparency about the development (source code) and no official status. Playing with such ROMs is OK, but not using them on my main phone.

Some details and confirmations on your answers:

- I meant the SW buttons, good to know they are not enabled by default and even if, I'll be able to disable them and use the HW ones instead

- yes, it's a GT-I9301I with a Sony Camera - used *#34971539# and got - B08QT

- on the potential vulnerabilities and firmware blobs, I need to check how and what is affected, but AFAIK, HW providers (Broadcom, Qualcomm) sent patched blobs upstream to Google(Android) and those blobs are updateable, no need for Samsung in this chain. I need to find a tool/app to learn more about the S3Neo WiFi/BT chip and it's stock ROM firmware and then use google to check for vulnerabilities and firmware updates, verify them with LOS16. I'm only concerned about the connectivity chips, those are the dangerous/hackable ones.

- there is no official Xposed for LOS16 (Pie 9), but only some closed source experimental stuff available here on XDA. Thank you, but no, thank you. Official Xposed is at Oreo 8 - 8.1 now, but I learned about the open source EdXposed, which I could use and load the new XPrivacyLua module.

- cannot provide external URLs - EdXposed is available on github -> ElderDrivers/EdXposed

Not sure I need Xprivacy at all, given I only care about apps not touching my camera, microphone, contacts, accounts, clipboard and phone functions (calling/sms), well, not allowing them on the Internet is also beneficial as a second/redundant restriction layer before AFWalll+.

Will see what LOS16 has to offer on App restrictions, you're right, I need to check first what's available.

Then, AFWall+, Greenify & co have all Xposed modules and it is encouraged to enable them, as it "works better/faster" than just allowing root. Maybe I can survive only with giving them root rights.

- thanks for the tip with "Do not disturb mode" in LOS16

- I'll flash the Greek ROM, just to be on the safe side. I already have it available.

- thanks for the advice with the EFS. Frankly, although I consider myself an expert in Linux (over 20 years experience) I have no clue about how Android is booting, how the partitions are organized, etc. I tried to learn more, but I was unable to find some proper knowledge, just endless "philosophical" discussions on forums (not only here).

- in this respect, I have no clue what twrp is. Is it only the recovery partition (functionality), will it also substitute and act as the boot loader (partition? if any? isn't the original boot loader signed?) I also have no clue how to flash it with odin, fearing I might brick the phone. This is also why I asked if I'll be ever able to revert to "pristine" stock ROM.

I flashed a lot of phones with odin, but only stock ROMs, always loaded the file under AP and only left AutoReboot enabled in options.

(some more)Questions:

- should I also load and flash twrp under AP in odin, like any stock ROM image, and only make sure I untick all Options (incl AutoReboot)?

- what twrp-3.3.1-1-s3ve3g file should I flash? The img or the tar file? (sorry for the rather dumb question, just want to be safe)

- then, after flashing twrp, I'll disconnect the phone, manually shut it down (power button), and enter recovery mode Home+VolUp+Power?

- from here I'll try an EFS backup - or a full backup if EFS is not available - I presume the backup will be written on SDCard, in which case it should be big enough to fit - 16 GB should suffice, or ?

- is "full wipe, wiping everything except "SD-Card" and "USB-OTG"" really needed? Isn't flashing LOS16 doing the wipe? Just asking! :)

- then, flash LOS16 - will I be able to do it from a menu item in twrp? I presume I need to use the original lineage-16.0xxxxxxxx-s3ve3gxx-signed.zip in zip format, do I also need to put the lineage-16.0xxxxxxxx-s3ve3gxx-signed.zip.sha256 file on the SDCard?

Again, many thanks (in advance) for all the help. :)