Asgard

Asgard downloads Samsung firmware from the Firmware Update Server (FUS). Use it to check releases, download and decrypt a package, or extract an archive, image, logical partition, or file inside a partition.

It also applies OTA updates to base firmware and checks local packages and images. Most commands support JSON output for scripts.

Install

Requires Python 3.10 or newer.

python3 -m pip install asgard-fus
asgard --help

Use a virtual environment if your Python installation blocks package installs. Run asgard COMMAND --help for that command's options.

Check a release and download it

You need a device model and a CSC, the region or carrier code. Replace the example codes below with your device's codes, such as SM-A566B and EUX.

asgard checkupdate SM-A566B EUX
asgard download SM-A566B EUX --decrypt --resume -o ./downloads

The download command decrypts the package as it arrives and saves a ZIP in ./downloads. If the transfer stops, run the same command again to resume. Omit --decrypt to keep the encrypted package.

Browse release history or compare two CSCs:

asgard history SM-S721B EUX
asgard compare SM-S721B EUX ZTO --json

To choose an older release, copy its full four-part version from history and pass it with --firmware. For example:

asgard download SM-A566B EUX \
  --firmware A566BXXSECZI2/A566BOXMECZI2/A566BXXSECZI2/A566BXXSECZI2 \
  --decrypt --resume -o ./downloads

compare accepts --firmware-a and --firmware-b to compare specific releases.

Extract an archive or image

List the package's archives, then inspect the files inside AP:

asgard download SM-A566B EUX --list-entries
asgard download SM-A566B EUX --archive AP --list-entries

Select an archive by name or a quoted glob pattern:

asgard download SM-A566B EUX --archive BL -o ./downloads --resume
asgard download SM-A566B EUX --archive '*.zip' -o ./downloads --resume

To extract a file from AP:

asgard download SM-A566B EUX \
  --archive AP --file super.img.lz4 -o ./images

Asgard decompresses LZ4 members and expands Android sparse images. Add --keep-sparse to retain the Android sparse form. Archive and image extraction already decrypt the incoming data, so these commands do not need --decrypt.

Extract logical partitions

List the partitions in super.img or super.img.lz4:

asgard download SM-A566B EUX --archive AP --list-partitions

Use the names from that list to select partitions. Repeat --partition to extract several in one pass:

asgard download SM-A566B EUX \
  --archive AP --partition system_a --partition vendor_a -o ./images

The command writes system_a.img and vendor_a.img. To extract every logical partition:

asgard download SM-A566B EUX --archive AP --unpack-super -o ./images

Asgard reads compressed data in order. Reaching a partition near the end of a super image can require downloading and decoding the data before it. A small output does not necessarily mean a small transfer.

Without --resume, partition extraction streams the source without saving a local copy. With --resume, Asgard caches the source stream on disk before extracting partitions, so it can reuse that data after an interruption.

Read files inside partitions

Use --path with a full device path. Repeat it to extract several files:

asgard download SM-A566E SER --archive AP \
  --path /system/build.prop --path /vendor/build.prop -o ./files

This writes ./files/system/build.prop and ./files/vendor/build.prop without saving the decoded partition images. Finding the image in a compressed AP archive can still require downloading earlier archive data.

Asgard reads ext4, F2FS, and EROFS filesystems, including chunked and LZ4-compressed EROFS files. It handles system-as-root layouts and resolves unsuffixed partition paths against slot A, then slot B, when needed. It reports an error for unsupported filesystem features, encrypted files, or multi-device images.

Transfer speed and resuming

Downloads use up to six connections by default, including archive, image, partition, and OTA base-image extraction. --threads N changes this limit; use --threads 1 for a single connection. Small transfers and metadata reads use fewer connections.

Extraction fetches separate byte ranges in parallel and delivers them in order to the decoder. Each connection can buffer up to 16 MiB ahead, so the default network buffer holds at most 96 MiB. ZIP decoding, LZ4 decoding, and partition copying can overlap through buffered worker threads.

HTTP 429 or 503 responses reduce concurrency. Workers share the cooldown and honor Retry-After. After the cooldown, Asgard increases concurrency when measured aggregate throughput improves.

For a resumed package download, keep both the partial data file and its .resume.json file. You can change --threads between runs.

Remote readers cache recently decrypted data, fetch bounded blocks for metadata, and fetch sequential extraction data through ordered ranges. Transfer speed also depends on the CDN connection and network route; increasing the worker limit does not guarantee a faster download.

Apply an OTA update

Inspect an OTA ZIP and its targets:

asgard ota-info update.zip
asgard download SM-S938U VZW --ota update.zip --ota-list-targets

Apply it to the matching base firmware, or select only the targets you need:

asgard download SM-S938U VZW --ota update.zip -o ./updated
asgard download SM-S938U VZW --ota update.zip \
  --ota-partition 'system,vendor' -o ./updated
asgard download SM-S908B EUX --ota update.zip \
  --ota-file 'vbmeta*' -o ./updated

Asgard finds the base release in FUS history and downloads the images it needs. Pass --firmware if it cannot resolve a single full base version. To supply local bases, use --ota-base-dir DIR or repeat --ota-base-image PARTITION=PATH. For slotted images, Asgard prefers the _a base unless you supply an explicit image. It leaves local raw base images unchanged and decodes LZ4 or sparse inputs as needed.

--ota-partition and --ota-file accept comma-separated names and quoted glob patterns. Repeat either option for more selectors. With no selectors, Asgard produces every partition and full image in the OTA. Full-replacement targets need no base image.

Downloaded base images become the merge output. Use --ota-keep-base to retain separate copies. --resume reuses finished outputs, but an interrupted patch starts again from its base. Asgard produces images; it does not create an Odin package or flash a device.

The default OTA worker limit scales with available CPUs and memory, allowing roughly 768 MiB per worker. It uses one worker when it cannot measure memory. Set --ota-jobs N to choose a limit. Operations stream in bounded chunks where possible; overlapping in-place operations can need source buffers.

Asgard checks source data, available target hashes, and ZIP contents. Use --ota-force to replace outputs or override the declared base version. --ota-no-verify disables source and target hash checks. Asgard does not authenticate OTA signing certificates.

A/B payloads support REPLACE, REPLACE_BZ, REPLACE_XZ, SOURCE_COPY, SOURCE_BSDIFF, BROTLI_BSDIFF, ZERO, and DISCARD. Block OTAs support BSDIFF patches and move, new, zero, erase, stash, and free commands. Asgard rejects unsupported operations and payloads requiring generated verity/FEC data before downloading base images.

Decrypt a local package

asgard decrypt SM-A566B EUX ./firmware.zip.enc4 \
  --output ./firmware.zip --resume

For an older release, pass its full version with --firmware. ENC2 packages require both --enc-ver 2 and --firmware.

Save a device profile

Save a model and CSC under a name, then use that name in place of both codes:

asgard profile add my-phone SM-A566B EUX
asgard checkupdate my-phone
asgard download my-phone --decrypt --resume -o ./downloads

Inspect or remove saved profiles:

asgard profile list
asgard profile show my-phone
asgard profile remove my-phone

Profiles live in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/asgard when XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, or ~/.config/asgard otherwise.

Batch downloads

Put full package download jobs in a TOML or JSON file. Each TOML job gets its own [[downloads]] table:

[[downloads]]
model = "SM-A566B"
region = "EUX"
output = "./downloads/a56"
decrypt = true
resume = true
manifest = ""

[[downloads]]
model = "SM-S721B"
region = "EUX"
output = "./downloads/s721b"
threads = 4
limit_rate = "20M"

Preview the jobs before downloading:

asgard batch firmware.toml --dry-run --json
asgard batch firmware.toml

A job can use profile = "my-phone" instead of model and region, or include firmware to select a release. JSON files accept an array of jobs or an object with a downloads array. TOML batch files require Python 3.11 or newer; use JSON on Python 3.10.

Check files and write manifests

asgard verify ./firmware.zip
asgard verify ./super.img --json
asgard manifest ./firmware.zip -o ./firmware.json

verify calculates SHA-256 and MD5 hashes. Depending on the format, it also checks ZIP CRCs, TAR structure, AES block alignment, and Android sparse-image structure.

manifest records hashes and archive entries in JSON. Super-image manifests also include logical partition details. Add --model, --region, and --firmware to include device metadata, or add --manifest to a download or decryption command:

asgard download SM-A566B EUX --decrypt --resume -o ./downloads --manifest

Exit codes

Development

Install the project and its test tools from a checkout:

python3 -m pip install -e . pytest ruff
ruff check asgard tests
python3 -m pytest

The regression tests use a local HTTP server to check interrupted transfers, range validation, rate limits, authentication recovery, decryption, and extraction. They do not contact FUS.

Compare request counts, transferred bytes, and extraction time with an earlier Git revision:

python3 -m benchmarks.performance --baseline REVISION --latency-ms 50
python3 -m benchmarks.performance --parallel-stream-only

Replace REVISION with a commit or tag. The benchmark serves synthetic firmware locally; its timing depends on the configured latency and local hardware.

License

GPL-3.0-only. See LICENSE.