Update Galaxy Note 2 to Official Android 4.4 with Heimdall

Overview

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New Galaxy Note 2… and once again OTA and Kies updates didn’t work :S

Some weeks ago here in France (but I suppose today is everywhere), Samsung rolled out the new Android 4.4.2 for the Galaxy Note 2 GSM (N7100) devices. If you have problem updating and/or checking for updates always return “Your device has the latest version installed” you can update it using Odin or Heimdall. The first one is simpler to use, but not available on Mac/Linux… better yet, today there’s jOdin, a Java version of Odin that works on any system. I tested it on my MacBook and, even if the devices was correctly detected, I wasn’t able to update it… and I thought it felt dangerous to update with a tool that behaved strangely.

Update Procedure

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To update your Galaxy Note 2 using Heimdall you can proceed as follows:

• Download the firmware you want to install (the latest available for French phone is the N7100XXUFND3 XEF)
• Install Heimdall (if you don’t have it).
• Check if your phone is correctly recognized:

sudo heimdall detect

• Download the PIT file (partition table of your phone):

sudo heimdall download-pit --output /tmp/note2.pit --no-reboot

• Extract the tar.md5 file (rename it to tar.gz if you have problem)

• Push all the ROM’s files on your device via heimdall:

heimdall flash --pit /tmp/note2.pit --verbose --SYSTEM system.img --BOOT boot.img --RECOVERY recovery.img --CACHE cache.img --HIDDEN hidden.img --RADIO modem.bin --TZSW tz.img --BOOTLOADER sboot.bin

Wait 5/10 minutes (you can see the progress operation in heimdall) and your telephone should automatically reboot.

NOTE: This procedure does not increment the Mod ROM Counter nor the Knox Flag. It’s an update like the Kies one.

NOTE: With this procedure you do not lose your data.

Firmware Details

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Model name: Galaxy Note 2 Model: GT-N7100 Country: France Version: Android 4.4.2 KitKat Changelist: 1280411 Build date: 8 April Product Code: XEF PDA: N7100XXUFND3 CSC: N7100OXAFND3 MODEM: N7100XXUFND3

What’s New

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• Smoother interface: even if the pin pad (to unlock your phone) it is smaller then before and sometime difficult to use

  

• Faster performance: I don’t have enought
• White status bar icons: I prefer the colored icons
• Full-screen album art and a camera shortcut on the lock screen: I think this is the reason behind the smaller pin pad
• Wireless printing and NFC tap-to-pay support: Wireless printed was already present in the previous versions but, in this version, you can decide to deactivate the printer services you don’t use (available HP and Samsung)
• Options to set default messaging and launcher apps: good way to set default apps and now you can decide to use only Hangouts for messages and not receive messages twice.
• Transparent status bar: it was already present in the previous version
• Better stability: I don’t have enough hours on this version, but right now it’s ok without a phone reset. To check the battery drain it seems ok but sometime I see an abnormal drain.

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