No one said this will be easy: GT-i9506 with CM12 & no bloatware

I just wanted to replace the OEM-Samsung Lollipop with the latest CyanogenMod-version on my Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE (GT-i9506).
So the simple plan was to: root the device; replace the ROM with CM12; add the Gapps-package; reboot and be happy ..
.. in the end I tried so many different ways involving Linux Mint, OSX 10.9 and Windows 7 as host-system; flashing via adb, heimdall and Odin; different nightlies and kernels; several gapps-packages and seven hours lifetime .. but I learned a lot 😀

tl;dr:

• Win7: install Samsung driver; reboot, reboot, reboot
• root with CF-AutoRoot: guide // download – use “root checker” or some other app to verify the superuser-access before rebooting into download mode
• flash TWRP via Odin
• flash CM12-nightly: download
• flash gapps: download flash minimal GApps: download (is without the useless crap)
• wipe cache/dalvik
• reboot and setup everything from scratch (or with some backups … you created some, didn’t you? 😀 I used “Easy Backup & Restore” – worked perfectly. K-9 Mail can restore itself ..)

edit: 20150724 replaced Gapps with “GAPPS minimal”; restored all settings, SMS, contacts, …