Samsung refuse to release KitKat sauce - EDIT: dropped!
Posted on 2014-01-17, 67 comments, 313 +1's, imported from Google+/Chainfire

NOTICE: This content was originally posted to Google+, then imported here. Some formatting may be lost, links may be dead, and images may be missing.

Shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone seeing Samsung's past performance, but still. Due to some of the strangeness going on while working with the Polish 4.4 Note3 update's kernels, I wanted to look at the sauce. As it wasn't listed yet on Samsung's Open Source Release Center, I put in an official request for sources. Their response was as follows:

Thank you for your interest in our product.

We only publish Open source code of official version. 

It would be appreciated if you can understand our situation.

Please accept our apology for not being able to handle your request up to your satisfaction.

What they probably mean is that they wont release the sources until they do a full roll-out (right now is a small test roll-out, I guess ?). Regardless, this is complete BS - they have rolled out the firmware, they are obligated to release the sources when asked for them. Needless to say, I do not have any understanding for their situation, nor will I accept the apology.

Of course, there's a lot to say about all this, and in no way do I expect my post to change anything. I just thought it worth noting that Samsung still thinks the GPL does not apply to them ... :)

EDIT: Sources are now available. Not sure who to thank, +James Duncan , the guys at SFLC, or just Samsung's OSRC personnel, but it's there - hurrah!

+1313
Seán Flannery commented on 2014-01-17 at 10:40:

Ummm sauce..... #drool

Frank Nestel commented on 2014-01-17 at 10:42:

Maybe my next phone will not be a Samsung any more. Still time to wait and check.

Chainfire commented on 2014-01-17 at 10:45:

+James Duncan I don't have any commits in the Linux kernel, so I can't make a claim, unfortunately :)

Thokozani Mzobe commented on 2014-01-17 at 10:45:

Definitely not buying a Samsung next. I even wanted to sell the note 3 this week because of Knox....rooted and tripped it. Officially hate Samsung!

Abhijeet Mishra commented on 2014-01-17 at 10:46:

Er, doesn't Samsung always provide the kernel source right on time? I thought they did. O_0

James Freeman commented on 2014-01-17 at 10:48:

+Seán Flannery I totally want some kit Kat sauce.

:-P

Kevin Schmidt commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:05:

That's the reason why I'm never going to buy a Samsung phone again.

Chainfire commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:09:

+James Duncan knock yourself out - here's some more details about the exact firmware: http://www.sammobile.com/2014/01/13/breaking-android-4-4-2-kitkat-rolling-out-to-galaxy-note-3-sm-n9005/

Michael Killigrew commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:09:

I want some kit kat sauce to on my s3mini is it poss?

Dirk Weissenburg commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:10:

I feel ashamed, holding a GSIII in my hands... ?

Michael Killigrew commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:12:

Me to but we all aint rich these days times are hard lol

Dave Muller commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:13:

+Russell T

Dirk Weissenburg commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:13:

+Michael Killigrew Next time a Nexus! ?

Michael Killigrew commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:14:

I wish lol

Scott Steinhart commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:15:

Samsung lost my business months ago. I've owned a Samsung phone of one model or another for the last 3 years. No more. I'm done. 

Sen ectus commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:16:

It normally takes a few weeks for them to roll out the sources after an official release... Give it some time.

Maniek Marian commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:21:

After updating my n3 to kit kat i got problems with apps getting access to sd card...

Dirk Weissenburg commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:23:

+Sen ectus It's not about their update-policy here. It's about that Samsung isn't playing by the rules.

Bruno Felice commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:27:

Samsung is the new Apple lol

Sinan Çetinkaya commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:33:

Someone must sue Samsung for its lawless behaviour.

Célia Michenaud commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:49:

The Polish are gonna be glad to learn that their official updates are considered unofficial by Samsung....

Steve Donaghy commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:50:

As much as I love my Note 3, all this bullshit from Samsung has made me regret buying anything of theirs. From Knox to this, I'm getting more and more fucked off at them each day.

Now if only HTC would pull the finger out and not fuck up their "phablet" phones....

Kevin Pierre commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:53:

I bought a Galaxy S1 and S3... These are probably my last Samsung phones since they suck and KNOX sucks as well

Ivica Peresa commented on 2014-01-17 at 11:58:

They will give you whey first official is out

Eduardo T. Quiñones commented on 2014-01-17 at 12:00:

Reading this post, reminds me of the pride of being a Nexus owner since day one

Jeremy Osborne commented on 2014-01-17 at 12:15:

+Maniek Marian was it a CM rom and you went back to TW?

Chrisjan Botha commented on 2014-01-17 at 12:17:

One of the reasons I now have Moto G, will just use Samsung GS3 until it dies and never buy Samsung again....

Maniek Marian commented on 2014-01-17 at 12:24:

+Jeremy Osborne i need s pen apps for my work...

talal mohammad commented on 2014-01-17 at 12:26:

Glad to be a sony fan.

Jeremy Osborne commented on 2014-01-17 at 12:27:

+Maniek Marian I was just asking because the same thing happened to me when I went from a CM based Rom back to TW. I had to completely wipe and format the internal and then everything worked

Stefan van Manen commented on 2014-01-17 at 12:54:

I remember some time ago that +Andrew Dodd asked for source for his Note 10.1 (N8013) and they answered that they don't provide sauce for leaked firmwares while his tab shipped with that firmware. Typical Samsung I guess.

Ray Garden commented on 2014-01-17 at 13:07:

The Polish version wasn't official release of KK 4.4.2? So only a test-build? Well, it runs smoothly already :-)

Expect that Samsung will share the Open Source Code immediately , as soon as the OTA's will be pushed with the Official Firmware. No big deal. Just be patient.....

Daniel Sinot commented on 2014-01-17 at 13:07:

That's why my next will be a Moto

alberto parra commented on 2014-01-17 at 13:20:

Tiempo de Motorola

Hamish Robinson commented on 2014-01-17 at 13:34:

Same thing with mediatek they won't release the source for any kernels, their pretty much just giving the finger to gpl cause in china they don't care about other peoples laws or rights

Tomas Brcak commented on 2014-01-17 at 13:35:

+Chainfire What do you think about Saferoot from k1mu (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2565758) ??? This method will not set flag to 0x1. 

John Kirk commented on 2014-01-17 at 13:42:

I've been given that response before too. But, in the case of my request, I

was asking for a version against a leaked build. Later, Samsung did release

the code to the next official build.

Juanjo Sánchez commented on 2014-01-17 at 13:46:

My last Samsung device was the Note 1. No more Samsung in my life (even TVs). Thinks like this make me hate brands.

Steven Cook-Stratton commented on 2014-01-17 at 14:02:

HTC still hasn't released kernel source for the One Max either after being asked multiple times...

Grace Flowers commented on 2014-01-17 at 14:03:

My next phone will be a Nexus. No more Samsung. 

Jeremie Lariviere commented on 2014-01-17 at 14:07:

Frustrating.

Andrew Dodd commented on 2014-01-17 at 14:17:

+Chainfire Good to see that Poland has joined the USA as a second-class citizen where official Samsung rollouts are considered to be "leaks" not meriting source release.

This is EXACTLY the same bullshit they tried to feed me when I brought up the fact that their source release for the GT-N8013 didn't match the UEALGB build at all and asked for the UEALGB source.  Their response was that UEALGB was a "leak" and they were not under any obligation to provide source code.

Mind you, UEALGB was the build preinstalled on every single Note 10.1 sold in the USA for the first month after release.

jason eurich commented on 2014-01-17 at 14:18:

Me personally, wish you +Chainfire would hop to LG and make some of these apps for them. But that is me. Other than that nexus is the way to go.

Les Middlestadt commented on 2014-01-17 at 16:17:

I love my Note 3 but I think it's my last Samsung phone. They've been copping an attitude for a while now. If I wanted attitude, I'd buy an iPhone.

Nasir Uddin commented on 2014-01-17 at 16:31:

As much as I hate what they're doing, I can't get away from the Galaxy line :/

Ian Fijolek commented on 2014-01-17 at 17:43:

Sounds like they need to re-read the GPL.

MR PNUT commented on 2014-01-17 at 18:05:

I can't complain.......there's a lot of dev for the t mobile note 3

Travis Hall commented on 2014-01-17 at 18:10:

Just wanted to jump in and say yep its things like this that made me sell my s4 last week for the beautiful Nexus 5 I'm holding now

Roberto Fabrizi commented on 2014-01-17 at 18:15:

+Chainfire sadly not complying to gpl doesnt make any difference to big companies. I owned a S2 before moving to Nexus devices, I still own a Qnap Nas, etc etc, and all these companies regularly break GPL with their firmware releases, and ofc they have never payed a dime for it.

Cody Fontaine commented on 2014-01-17 at 18:51:

+James Duncan Imagine what +Chainfire could do if they gave him $150k for each violation!

Dejan Dimitrijevik commented on 2014-01-17 at 21:19:

That is why I buy nexus 5.

Travis Hall commented on 2014-01-17 at 23:26:

+Brandon Olofsson I'll say that's my second best choice. First was switching from being an iPhone dev into the OPEN world of android. 

Adekunle Adegbehingbe commented on 2014-01-18 at 04:58:

I'm so proud to be a Nexus 5 user. I'm so done with Samsung & their bullsh*ts

Ahmed Seif commented on 2014-01-18 at 10:16:

Please I want to open knox after root Note 3 N9005

Arek Mandrela commented on 2014-01-18 at 11:44:

Sources for KK 4.4.2 are online...

Chainfire commented on 2014-01-18 at 12:31:

Thanks for the heads up +Arkadius Mandrela 

MR PNUT commented on 2014-01-18 at 19:02:

Samsung release the kernel source for note 3 kit kat version Open Source Release Center

http://opensource.samsung.com/reception/receptionSub.do?method=search&searchValue=SM-N9005

Ray Garden commented on 2014-01-18 at 19:35:

Samsung release kernel source for the note 3 kit kat 4.4.2

Open Source Release Center

http://opensource.samsung.com/reception/receptionSub.do?method=search&searchValue=SM-N9005

MR PNUT commented on 2014-01-18 at 19:57:

+Raymond Grashoff did you just copy and repost my comment lol

Ray Garden commented on 2014-01-18 at 20:01:

+OSCAR JORQUEZ i saw that later Oscar. Did copied that from another post than yours....lol.

I told CF, in my previous comment (scroll back), to be patient....and now....here it is!

Andrei F. commented on 2014-01-19 at 04:42:

+Andrew Dodd I don't know how you guys formulate your FOSS requests, but you seem to be doing it wrong. I've done dozens of requests on OSRC and have always, promptly, correctly received an answer in every single instance.

And you can actually perfectly have follow-up conversations with their personnel if something is not clear or wrong; which is why such drama posts go way beyond my comprehension. 

Mohd Lukfi commented on 2014-01-19 at 17:05:

How to root sony z1 version 4.3

Andrew Dodd commented on 2014-01-20 at 19:19:

+Andrei Frumusanu My experience has been the exact opposite.

1)  Back in the old days with ICS on the I9100, I submitted an OSRC request around 3 days after ICS rolled out officially.  Source took 2-3 weeks to drop IIRC, and OSRC didn't actually respond until 1-2 weeks after source dropped with a form letter.

2)  In the case of the N8013, I sent a detailed explanation of the issue to a private contact some of us had at Samsung, specifically indicating that the OSRC release clearly did not match the released kernel binary (While the biggest symptom to a user was a broken wifi driver, an analysis of "strings" indicated they had changed a bunch of printk()s around, which definitively proved a mismatch).  Their response was that they had been informed N8013 UEALGB was a leak (in this case they were an intermediary).  When I disputed this, I was told to bring it up directly to OSRC via the official OSRC form, who never bothered to even respond.

Andrei F. commented on 2014-01-21 at 05:42:

+Andrew Dodd Well as I said, I don't know what happened 3 years ago, but I've only had positive experiences with them with the dozen of requests I made over the time. 

Cleveland Stamps commented on 2014-01-22 at 08:20:

Samsung has a lot of bs with them. Which is why my next device will probably not be Samsung. Looking towards oppo find 7. I stuck with them on galaxy Nexus, sg3 and 4 now I'm just sick and tired of technological oppression.

Mike Bacon commented on 2014-02-10 at 13:48:

I love my Sammy phones regardless. Really not worth switching over something this miniscule. IMO :)

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