What do the terms "BL", "AP", "CP", and "CSC" mean in Odin?

Question

I'm trying to Use Odin to download a OS to my phone (Trying to put Raspbian. Raspbian runs on the raspberry pi which has an ARM processor my android phone also has one so hopefully it'l work.) (does something like an ISO file work? i dunno i'm gonna try and see)

when i use Odin i see these file types "BL" "AP" "CP" "CSC" what are they??

i have no idea but i really want to know and i want to know if my android phone has something like a BIOS where i can chose to boot from a USB flash drive(this might sound really silly.)

my phone has USB-OTG support but if it depends on some sort of drivers will they work in a bios (if android phones have one)please help!!

oh and ive already rooted my phone.

So you still believe Raspbian will magically work - sorry but that just can't be the case. Unlike PC OS where one copy of OS installer can get most things running on most PCs, software for embedded devices (including both phones and boards like Pi) are incredibly limited in the drivers they come with, and only supports their target hardware. Plus, manufacturers won't allow booting from external and/or unsigned (by themselves) sources (they've been working hard to lock things down to the opposite). — Andy Yan, Jun 11 '17 at 14:51
@AndyYan is there no way to do something like this? I mean you've basically got a computer in your hands. — , Jun 11 '17 at 15:38
You don't - manufacturers deliberately prevent you from doing so. Only the most popular phones get ways to circumvent the lockdown, and even that is getting even harder and rarer (case in point, Qualcomm variants of Galaxy S7/S7E are virtually invincible). — Andy Yan, Jun 11 '17 at 15:54
@AndyYan that's kinda sad to hear but thanks for everything!!! Learned ALOT :) — , Jun 11 '17 at 17:09
Why did the author of the application waste so much precious space with so many letters? "B", "A", "C", and another "C" would do just fine! — Jaroslav Záruba, Dec 05 '20 at 04:38

score 33 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 13 '17 at 18:25

33

CSC (Consumer Software Customization): It is specific to geographical region and carriers. It contains the software packages specific to that region, carrier branding and APN setting.
PIT (Partition Information Table): You only need it if you screw up your partition table or if the firmware specifically requires it because of a change in the partition table layout.
BL (Bootloader): As its name implies, this option is used to flash the Bootloader of the device.
AP (Application Processor or PDA): Android.
CP (Core Processor): We call it Modem.

edited Aug 13 '17 at 18:25

Kutsan Kaplan

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answered Jul 11 '17 at 14:49

user228145

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Thanks. Last time Samsung Pay was not working when I did with Odin. I did only AP that time. Now did CSC too. It works. I assume Samsung Pay + KNOX checks CSC also to ensure official status and not just AP. Thanks for your answer, now I know. – Rahul Aug 13 '18 at 06:45
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Which part contains Recovery Mode and Download Mode? – endolith May 11 '20 at 04:54
SMS application is crashed. should I download CSC only? – Tajuddin Khandaker Aug 21 '20 at 07:49
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AP is what you select when you're installing a recovery image, which is separate from Android, correct? – endolith Aug 26 '20 at 20:35
Android partition! not Application Processor – pazel1374 Jan 21 '24 at 08:34

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 20 '17 at 09:13

According to this XDA-Developers forum post and this Droidguiding article:

BL stands for bootloader
AP represents the system partition (possibly stands for Android partition); under previous Odin versions, this was called "PDA"
CP represents your modem
CSC stands for Consumer Software Customization, this specifies the features your Android device gets according to its geographical location and carrier

What do the terms "BL", "AP", "CP", and "CSC" mean in Odin?

2 Answers2

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