Samsung Galaxy S6 Boots up its First AOSP ROM

Samsung devices are widely recognized by Android enthusiasts to tout superb hardware but unfortunately acceptable software. Touchwiz – love it or hate it, you’re generally stuck with it if you buy a Samsung Galaxy device.

Thanks to the efforts of the development community on XDA, you can have the option to switch over to an AOSP-based ROM – if you’re willing to wait. Most flagship devices on the market have been blessed to operate on Snapdragon SoCs, making it easier for developers to port AOSP over to their hardware thanks to the extensive documentation provided to developers on the hardware. However, Qualcomm’s blunder with the Snapdragon 810 caused Samsung to drop its use of the SoC in favor of exclusively using its own in-house Exynos SoC.

Enthusiasts looking to use Google’s stock Android software in place of Touchwiz have generally had to wait many months for the developer community to port AOSP to their hardware, thanks to complications arising from a lack of documentation for Samsung’s Exynos brand of SoCs. That hasn’t deterred developers from tackling the issue anyways, and thanks to XDA Senior Member tdcfpp we now have our first AOSP-based ROM booting on the Samsung Galaxy S6.

According to a post by the developer responsible for the initial port, the major hurdle that they have yet to get past is getting multi-boot working because the developer cannot continue testing the port as it would require removing the Android HardwareComposer (enabling GUI rendering via the GPU) in order to check the FrameBuffer. Doing so would currently cause the device to enter into a bootloop, making further testing more difficult for the developer.

Clearly, the team’s work is far from over, but it’s important to show them your support if you’re interested in eventually tasting the Marshmallow-flavored fruits of their labour.

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