[Android General] Dorittora:
Hello guys, this is my first contribution, so I apologise if I mess up anything 😓 this is my entire journey of rummaging through the XDA and the internet with no tutorial to root and install MicroG on my current niche little dumb(?)phone (Samsung Galaxy Folder 2, korean single SIM variant), after many failed attempts and bootloops.

Now, you may be thinking... there's Google Play on the Korean version! why even bother? The problem was that the battery was HORRENDOUS on this device, and one of the main offenders were google services, which monitors and runs your device in the background. Just a half-ish day of usage with less than 20-30% of battery was unacceptable, I had to do something about it. I also didn't like the idea of supporting a company like google when there are plenty of awesome open-source communities that make ad-free services and apps you can send your love to! With this updated (hopefully) tutorial you SHOULD be able to root and have a google-less device that still runs Libre Maps instead of Google Maps and whatnot :)

THIS DOES NOT WORK APPARENTLY WITH THE CHINESE VARIANT (G1650N) AS THIS MESSES WITH THE TOUCH SCREEN DISPLAY, FOR CN PHONE USERS DO NOT USE THIS TUTORIAL! I have heard of people downgrading their CN phones to android 6 to install the TWRP. but I have no clue if theirs have worked either (very few info on the internet)

Now, I have compiled all my files into one MediaFire link, so everything is accessible with a click of a button. Saves you time from installing from old forums back in 2015-2017! (I wish I didnt lol). Remember, because I wasn't able to get the original stock ROM, I was PLAYING WITH FIRE. Always always ALWAYS backup first right after you boot into TWRP, you will thank yourself later. And remember- DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! I'm a self-taught hobbyist and no way a professional!!!

GALAXY FOLDER 2 STUFF

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

Without further ado... let's get right into it!

First you will need the Odin software (like flashing any Samsung device), to flash TWRP recovery on your device. Open Odin.exe and the TWRP 3.1.0 tar file for the Galaxy Folder 2. In the "AP" section, drop in the TWRP tar file, plug in your device using a micro usb cable, and hit start. It should take a min or two to flash the recovery on your device. After it's done flashing, immediately press the Vol up button + Power (the end call button in the Folder's case). I was able to successfully boot into TWRP after this. I confirmed everything was working as intended: touch screen, backup/restore etc (now is a good time to back up your Boot, System and EFS. You should back up preferably to an external micro SD card and/or PC, it will take a few minutes to back up everything and store it to your SD card. If you're storing your backup via PC use the ADB platform tools like the ADB pull command to pull the files. The backups are stored in /data/media/0/TWRP/BACKUPS/[insert number here]/.

Now, one mistake I did was rebooting back to the system of my phone, because I have caused a bootloop. However I found a solution. I think this has something to do with Samsung detecting TWRP and locking the device (dm-verity). I was panicking, but I eventually installed the latest version of Magisk (v27) zip file via TWRP (Go to Install, and use ADB push command from your PC or MicroSD to transfer it to your phone, and flash it) and the bootlooping completely went away.

Now, to disable all google services I used Universal Android Debloater (UAD.exe) to get rid of any Google services (com.google.android.gms) and other junk like Gmail, GMaps, Youtube and other miscellaneous spyware/bloat installed by Samsung (you can search online for clues on what to delete and what not to but do so at your own risk, try to uninstall the google stuff first).you could use ADB but I wanted a better UI to see what I'm doing properly. The later steps will (supposedly) delete google services anyway, but I did this just to be safe from any potential clashes. The following list is what I've disabled from the phone with no issues (so far):

*ahem*

com.android.bluetoothmidiservice

com.android.bookmarkprovider

com.android.calendar

com.android.calllogbackup

com.android.chrome

com.android.contacts

com.android.dreams.basic

com.android.dreams.phototable

com.android.managedprovisioning

com.android.mms

com.android.pacprocessor

com.android.providers.partnerbookmarks

com.android.providers.userdictionary

com.android.proxyhandler

com.android.sharedstoragebackup

com.android.sdk

com.android.vending

com.android.wallpaper.livepicker

com.android.gameservice

com.gd.mobicore.pa

com.google.android.apps.docs

com.google.android.apps.docs

com.google.android.apps.photos

com.google.android.apps.tachyon

com.google.android.apps.backuptransport

com.google.android.configupdater

com.google.android.gm

com.google.android.gms

com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox

com.google.android.gsf

com.google.android.gsf.login

com.google.android.marvin.talkback

com.google.android.music

com.google.android.onetimeinitializer

com.google.android.partnersetup

com.google.android.setupwizard

com.google.android.syncadapters.calendar

com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts

com.google.android.tts

com.google.android.youtube

com.hancom.officeviewer

com.ims.dm

com.osp.app.signin

com.policydm

com.qualcomm.atfwd

com.qualcomm.location

com.qualcomm.location.xt

com.qualcomm.qcomm_qml

com.qualcomm.qti.auth.sampleauthenticatorservice

com.qualcomm.qti.auth.securesampleauthservice

com.qualcomm.qti.services.secureui

com.samsung.aasaservice

com.samsung.android.app.accesscontrol

com.samsung.android.app.assistantmenu

com.samsung.android.app.colorblind

com.samsung.android.app.dtv.dmb

com.samsung.android.app.fileshareclient

com.samsung.android.app.fileshareserver

com.samsung.android.app.galaxyfinder

com.samsung.android.app.motionpanoramaviewer

com.samsung.android.app.vrsetupwizardstub

com.samsung.android.app.watchmanagerstub

com.samsung.android.asksmanager

com.samsung.android.bbc.bbcagent

com.samsung.android.bbc.fileprovider

com.samsung.android.beaconmanager

com.samsung.android.easysetup

com.samsung.android.email.provider

com.samsung.android.fmm

com.samsung.android.intelligenceservice2

com.samsung.android.mdm

com.samsung.android.providers.context

com.samsung.android.scloud

com.samsung.android.securitylogagent

com.samsung.android.sm

com.samsung.android.sm.devicesecurity

com.samsung.android.sm.provider

com.samsung.android.spv

com.samsung.android.svcagent

com.samsung.android.tzdata.update_m

com.samsung.android.video

com.samsung.android.weather

com.samsung.clipboard.service

com.samsung.faceservice

com.samsung.hidden.OPENmarket

com.samsung.hs20provider

com.samsung.klmsagent

com.samsung.knox.appsupdateagent

com.samsung.knox.knoxtrustagent

com.samsung.knox.kss

com.samsung.knox.rcp.components

com.samsung.location

com.samsung.preloadapp

com.samsung.safetyinformation

com.samsung.SMT

com.samsung.storyservice

com.samsung.ucs.agent.boot

com.sec.android.app.apex

com.sec.android.app.billing

com.sec.android.app.bluetoothtest

com.sec.android.app.chromecustomisations

com.sec.android.app.datacreate

com.sec.android.app.dictionary

com.sec.android.app.easylauncher

com.sec.android.app.factorykeystring

com.sec.android.app.app.fm

com.sec.android.app.hwmoduletest

com.sec.android.app.minimode.res

com.sec.android.app.parser

com.sec.android.app.personalisation

com.sec.android.app.popupreceiver

com.sec.android.app.ringtonebr

com.sec.android.app.samsungapps (you may need something from the samsung store before deleting though, read later notes)

com.sec.android.app.sysscope

com.sec.android.autopreconfig

com.sec.android.daemonapp

com.sec.android.diagmonagent

com.sec.android.easymover.agent

com.sec.android.Kies

com.sec.android.proconfig

com.sec.android.preloadinstaller

com.sec.android.provider.badge

com.sec.android.providers.security

com.sec.android.providers.tasks

com.sec.android.qrreader

com.sec.android.rilservicemodeapp

com.sec.android.service.health

com.sec.android.soagent

com.sec.android.widgetapp.easymodecontactwidget

com.sec.android.widgetapp.samsungapps

com.sec.android.widgetapp.webmanual

com.sec.app.samsungprintservice

com.sec.app.transmitservice

com.sec.bcservice

com.sec.di.smartselfshot

com.sec.enterprise.knox.attestation

com.sec.enterprise.knox.cloudmdm.smdms

com.sec.enterprise.knox.sharedservice.keyguard

com.sec.enterprise.mdm.services.simpin

com.sec.enterprise.mdm.vpn

com.sec.factory

com.sec.factory.camera

com.sec.fwservice

com.sec.imslogger

com.sec.knox.bluetooth

com.sec.knox.containeragent2

com.sec.knox.foldercontainer

com.sec.knox.knoxsetupwizardclient

com.sec.knox.shortcutsms

com.sec.knox.switcher

com.sec.modem.settings

com.sec.phone

com.sec.spp.push

com.wssnps

You may be thinking, what the hell is this guy thinking by deleting contacts app, phone app and other stuff!? But my answer is to just go on F-droid APK app store and download FOSS contacts, messages, phone dialer and more! I'd rather do that than have the stock apps from an eternity ago that's never updated. Oh, but don't delete camera and camera related apps like gallery, and also the file manager. I also kept clock because I think the widget looks cool. I tried deleting the others and it messed up with the system. And before you delete the Samsung store, try to install the Photo editor app by Samsung. It unlocks the editing tool in the gallery for some reason (its connected) so you can edit some small changes to photos. Mystery as to why this app is separate to gallery... ah well.

Now that's done, we move onto the next step. go to Magisk and install the latest version (select 'direct install' after pressing 'install' on the Magisk box. After it's done updating and rebooting, install our Xtouchwiz and Xposedinstaller APKs into the phone. Currently no Xposed framework are in the device, so we reboot back to TWRP (vol up + power/end call) and install our Xposed framework modified by Wanam for android marshmallow samsung devices (xposedinstaller v87 somethingsomething .zip). install that (wait a min or two) and reboot. If you successfully got back into your device, and check Xposed installer. if you have a green checkmark detecting your xposed status, you should be ready for MicroG. Do note there will be a warning saying that there's known issues and might have potential problems. But I didn't find any so far, and since there's no support for later android versions for this phone it should be OK.

Before that though check on "Modules" and make sure XTouchwiz is checked. Now install these APKs: FakeGapps, com.android.vending-XXXXXX.apk, com.google.android.gms-XXXXXX.apk, and some navigation assistance apps in F-droid app store: F-droid, localNLPbackend, MozillaNLPbackend, NominatimNLPbackend and UnifiedNLP. Finally enable "FakeGapps" in Xposed Installer app under 'Modules' similar to how you enabled XTouchwiz. If the NLP backend apps asks for location permissions, grant it.

After you installed those APKs, there SHOULD be an icon on your screen that says "microG settings". click on it, and press "self-check". You should have "system spoofs signature" and have all the installed packages checked in the box. Now's a good time to enable permission on all the checkboxes. Unlike google, this does not drain the battery drastically IME so feel free to check as much boxes as you can so you don't get problems with apps later on. Check navigation apps (I used my local transport navigation app in Brisbane, Australia called Translink) and you should see all google maps have been replaced with LibreMaps. Feel free to install Aurora store from the F-droid app store to install google play apps without a google account :) And remember, don't forget to install stuff like Phone, Contacts, SMS, Calendar and all the basic stuff you need in F-droid! I use Fossify Cotacts, Music Player, Phone, SMS and for Calendar I use Etar open source calendar. For Emails I downloaded FairEmail (best email app fr fr) and for browser I used Fennec in Fdroid as well. All great and free!

If you have reached this far, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my tutorial! If you have any questions or see errors in my tutorial (i'm still an amateur, so any feedback would be great!), feel free to comment or message me and ill do my best to help or correct it. Enjoy your Samsung flip phone rooted and degoogled!

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My samsung galaxy folder 2 with Libremaps, navigating me to my local uni campus in Brisbane, AU.

View attachment 6087686

MicroG works! Everything can be enabled in Self-check.

View attachment 6087687

Thank you for reading!