[Galaxy S6 General] avidichard:
Introduction

I have spent too many hours trying to find the perfect ROM to install on my Samsung Galaxy S6 phone. My goal was to find an ultra debloated ROM without any Samsung or Google stuff with the bare minimum. Turns out, it's impossible. I also wanted to use something new that went out of the normal boring stuff we are used to see. The ROM and Kernel selection is just enormous. I also needed to address a very specific issue which is to maintain the cell phone up to date with the latest ROM it can take to be stable and usable while being able to install the latest version of apps from Google Play. I have a SIM card but I never recieve any phone calls on it and it's an international card that I cannot use without high fees. It's basically used when my wife, from another country, needs to contact me via SMS. So phone calls using the default call app is just useless for me.

Apps that I excessively use

So here is the list of apps that I use, or shall I say, OVER-use:

Facebook Messenger (video calls)

Grandstream Wave - GS Wave (All my phone calls using SIP service)

Camera app (My wife is in another country for now so pictures and videos is our way of communicating)

Microsoft Launcher (the only free launcher having a good balance between customization and those notification dots)

Banking apps (2 major ones, 1 credit card app, PayPal and Xoom)

Games (2 to 4 mostly from AI Factory and 1 from Facebook app)

Facebook, Reddit and Discord

GMail

Total Commander + LAN plugin

Magisk (latest available version on GitHub)

AdAway (latest available version for ROM version installed, removes pretty much all the ads in my games and apps)

Google Play (Obviously)

Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge browser (depended on my mood as long as I was NOT using the infamous Google Chrome or Samsung Browser)

Open Camera (Only on AOSP roms or Stock roms higher than v7.0)

Problems / Issues / Bugs / Missing configs

After all of my tests, here is the list of all problems I have encountered under which ROM versions:

No floating video call window when call is unfocused. When unfocused, other person sees black screen until I get back the video call in full screen focus - Facebook Messenger (Stock rom v7.0) this issue does not happen on roms higher than v7.x, floating video call is possible with v8.x and higher roms.

Dark mode unavailable or requires heavy tweaks to fake or achieve a similar effect in OS, example, dark mode in the system settings menus - System configuration menus (Stock rom v7.x)

Camera's picture taking is not syncing with flash, therefor, picture is taken WITHOUT the flash leading to dark pictures - Default camera app (Stock roms higher than v7.0 and all AOSP roms)

Lower than usual voice recording audio - Facebook Messenger (sending a voice recording), Default camera app (all AOSP roms)

Unable to see the internal storage of my device in Windows Explorer - LineageOS roms (some custom roms do work that are not pure LineageOS)

Bluetooth connecting but no audio is directed to the device - Facebook Messenger and all other system sounds and music (AOSP roms higher than v7.x)

Bluetooth causes Facebook Messenger to drop connection when in use with BT device. Once disconnected, call ceases to drop - Facebook Messenger (AOSP roms)

Apps and system a tiny bit less responsive - Facebook game Words with Friends, Home screen and configs (Stock rom v7.0)

Contacts not syncing - GS Wave (AOSP roms with Open GApps Pico and Nano)

Username and passwords not automatically filled from stored passwords in Google account - Facebook, Reddit (All roms)

GMail dark mode and dark mode option unavailable - GMail (Stock rom v7.x)

Some games do not install or simply unavailable from Google Play - Super Mario Run (Highly debloated Stock rom v7.0)

Initial setup crashes after configuring the first time wifi connection, Google's update checking fails (AOSP roms with Open GApps)

When resizing the DP from 360 to 480 in the developper options, keyboard does not stretch to the entire screen width - System (Stock rom v7.x)

Lack of keyboard customization such as enabeling the numbers row instead of integrating them in the letter keys with long touch - System (all AOSP roms)

Random reboots or total system freeze. Very minimal and rare, not enough to remember too much about it, but still happened - System (Stock rom v7.0 other than SamStock)

Tests

My phone: Canadian Flat SM-G920W8

As of today, I have tested Ultimate Nougate, Oreo, Unofficial Lineage OS 14.1-17.1, FlynOS, NexusOS, S8 ports Note 8 ports, ViperOS, Marduck, SamStock, DotOS plus many other derivatives of LineageOS 16 and 17.1. If a rom was not mentioning compatibility with W8 version, I'd try using a compatible Kernel which seems to make the roms work and boot properly but most of these tests were performed with roms that stated supporting the T or W8 variants.

First test was to actually go through the Install process which Ultimate Oreo and 1 or 2 others failed. The amount of failed installs is very neglectible. Next was to actually boot into the OS. I got a few boot loops due to Kernel incompatibilities, again, just 1 or 2 failed REALLY and a few others were my fault for installing a wrong Kernel. So nothing to mention here too. Next was to actually be able to use the Camera app without doing anything else. All AOSP roms failed this. I simply opened the app, enabled flash and took a picture in a dark place. Picture has never been taken properly. Camera flashes correctly but picture is taken AFTER the flash turns out. Open Camera with the Camera API 2 enabled solved this issue.

Is was now left with rooting my phone. Note that most Stock roms and some AOSP roms have their own pre-built root which I utterly hate. Magisk is available and easily installable and works super fine so I do not need an old outdated version of Super SU or Magisk pre-installed. If the rom had Magisk pre-installed, I'd simply flash the Magisk app over it before booting to be at the latest version. I also needed to install Open GApps on AOSP roms and configure it. This was much easier to do when having a first time NO OPEN GAPPS intial boot. Basically, boot the first time without Open GApps, then reboot and install Open GApps and reboot to system, this resolves the wifi issue.

After all of this, it's time to let Google Play update everything it has to before starting to use Google Play and installing our apps. Turns out that I hate pretty much all of the launchers out there. They all have weird lacks. Lack of options, lack of configuration or no support for notification dots or a payment is needed to unlock this feature, lack of icon and folder lables. I tried the major ones and I even installed the hacked version available as torrents and I was not impressed by any one of them. Microsoft Launcher is the best one I know that offers enough options to configure what I want AND enables notification dots freely. The only last thing they could make available is the possibility to configure folder background colors and transparency and icon styles. To my opinion, that's all that's missing. I DO NOT use gestures so no comment on this.

Verdict

I absolutely NEED my bluetooth to work and I need this camera app to work flawlessly. This means that I am left with one single option. That is:

Stable Stock (Touchwiz based) rom version 7.0 (Nougat)

I tested some nice ones but again, I run into some issues, therefor:

MY RECOMMENDATION: SamStock ROM

ALTERNATIVELY, My Re-Pack of the above ROM: SamStock ROM (Lightly Debloated)

The only Problem I fell upon is the download which required me to use a separate download manager to download this rom from Android File Host. I also am displeased that SamStock DOES include his own version of Magisk integrated inside the rom so after rom installation, I have to flash MY version of Magisk immediately before booting. This rom is also completely Stock which means NO debloating, Everything is there, from Samsung apps to Google apps. Knox is the only thing that got removed. So this is also a very big file to download, almost 2gb when some roms go far below the 1gb size. So it's probably the most space greedy rom out there, but it's also the one I have the least problems with.

Why not the other roms such as Marduk? Because they are not 100% stock, they are moded stock roms with the author's personal touches and possible kernels. The customized roms brought some awkward issues at moments and made the phone unstable with some rare but random reboots and total freeze requiring me to hard reboot the phone using "Volume Down + Home + Power". Some others just had a weird issue where some apps and games were not available to download on Google Play while as with a same v7.0 rom like SamStock, these were available for download.

As for AOSP roms, the camera and bluetooth issues are just too major to make the roms usable on a daily basis. Open Camera DOES resolve the camera image issue but does not resolve the low volume issue.

I hope this will help any of you out there to clarify your decision on what to install. I did my job in trying pretty much all I could download from XDA for my version of the phone. I recon that some exceptions may happen and that you may have not run into any of the issues I listed. Please feel free to comment.

Reference and downloads

If you want a good list and explanations and valuable links for downloads, please checkout the website I dedicated for the Canadian model but also valid for other variants: http://dr.mywebcommunity.org/g920w8/

Website last update: 2021-09-01

Website update notes

2021-09-01

• Added my own "SamStock ROM (Lightly Debloated)" in the list

• Added "Recommended" tags in the "Downloads and links" section

• Added my recommended android launcher "Microsoft Launcher" in the apps list