I friend and his girlfriend both have identical Mi A1 (stock, unmodified, except bootloader unlocked).
Both always successfully OTA upgraded in the past (up to Oreo July Android security patch level V9.6.4.0).
Now both were presented with the August security patch level V9.6.5.0 OTA upgrade.
One of the devices upgraded successfully.
The other one downloaded upgrade successfully, but gets an error during install.
Style "something went wrong". My friend tried twice.
Does this ring any bell?
I can always try to help him with fastboot or twrp V9.6.5.0 stock zip or with V9.6.4.0 to V9.6.5.0 OTA zip
(all posted in other thread in MiA1 forum) .
But, I thought about asking for potential similar experiences here first.
Have a nice day.
Unmodified but did he ever boot twrp?
Be sure to check both partition A/B. For example, It is possible to have TWRP Recovery in Partition A and Stock recovery in Partition B.
Assuming current active partition is in Partition B, then while updating the OTA, it'll build the image in Partition A, then it'll reboot and try to flash via Recovery, but the Recovery is TWRP, and error is thrown.
For my case, my failed case is because I did not uninstall Magisk, be sure to uninstall Magisk
@myself379 and @.:Addicted:.
I thought about non stock recovery partition too (be it in A or B or both).
I once booted TWRP recovery-3.2.1-2-oreo.img over USB to make a TWRP backup. I did not allow TWRP to install itself, but maybe it did, one never knows there is a bug ... I will soon have opportunity to check next time my friend comes to visit me again with his device.
Keep you informed.
Dior DNA said:
@myself379 and @.:Addicted:.
I thought about non stock recovery partition too (be it in A or B or both).
I once booted TWRP recovery-3.2.1-2-oreo.img over USB to make a TWRP backup. I did not allow TWRP to install itself, but maybe it did, one never knows there is a bug ... I will soon have opportunity to check next time my friend comes to visit me again with his device.
Keep you informed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you booted twrp & mounted system rw & not read only, thqt may be the cause.
Reflash system & boot partition to both slot through fastboot.
.:Addicted:. said:
If you booted twrp & mounted system rw & not read only, thqt may be the cause.
Reflash system & boot partition to both slot through fastboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, I always ignore the system rw warning with TWRP.
Not sure though how that would influence stock recovery to not flash OTA, if, say, that system rw mount happened weeks ago in TWRP booted over USB from fastboot. Would TWRP have written something in system?
I can indeed flash system & boot partition through fastboot. I guess you mean: flash old system & boot partition right?
In the future, when booting TWRP over USB from fastboot, I will disallow system rw mount (which indeed is not needed just for taking TWRP backup),
Thanks for help.
Dior DNA said:
Correct, I always ignore the system rw warning with TWRP.
Not sure tough how that would influence stock recovery to not flash OTA, if, say, that system rw mount happened weeks ago in TWRP booted over USB from fastboot. Would TWRP have written something in system?
I can indeed flash system & boot partition through fastboot. I guess you mean: flash old system & boot partition right?
In the future, when booting TWRP over USB from fastboot, I will disallow system rw mount (which indeed is not needed just for taking TWRP backup),
Thanks for help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As soon as you mount system as R/W, OTA will fail. It doesn't matter if you write something to the partition or not.
Also first reconfigure TWRP and then reflash the stock system, as TWRP remembers its settings and next time you boot into TWRP, your system partition will be mounted as R/W and you are in the same situation again..
_mysiak_ said:
As soon as you mount system as R/W, OTA will fail. It doesn't matter if you write something to the partition or not.
Also first reconfigure TWRP and then reflash the stock system, as TWRP remembers its settings and next time you boot into TWRP, your system partition will be mounted as R/W and you are in the same situation again..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for reaction.
It must be my poor understanding or imagination .
I have never flashed TWRP : the recovery is stock, in fact everything is stock. I only booted device once via fastboot over USB in TWRP (to make a TWRP backup). If just during that TWRP boot system was mounted rw, how would that affect OTA update weeks, months or years later on an otherwise always stock device?
Dior DNA said:
Thanks for reaction.
It must be my poor understanding or imagination .
I have never flashed TWRP : the recovery is stock, in fact everything is stock. I only booted device once via fastboot over USB in TWRP (to make a TWRP backup). If just during that TWRP boot system was mounted rw, how would that affect OTA update weeks, months or years later on an otherwise always stock device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mounting system as R/W will change some parameters, resulting in different hash than OTA update engine expects, hence it will abort the installation and show "installation error" message. User can easily verify if system was mounted, from terminal emulator with commands "sudo tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p25" for system_a and "sudo tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p26" for system_b. Look for "last mount time" - any recent date is "wrong". So even if you did not flash TWRP, but mounted system partition as R/W, your next OTA will fail and the only solution is to reflash stock system image. Once you're back to fully stock, consequent updates should not fail (at least not due to this reason).
_mysiak_ said:
Mounting system as R/W will change some parameters, resulting in different hash than OTA update engine expects, hence it will abort the installation and show "installation error" message. User can easily verify if system was mounted, from terminal emulator with commands "sudo tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p25" for system_a and "sudo tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p26" for system_b. Look for "last mount time" - any recent date is "wrong". So even if you did not flash TWRP, but mounted system partition as R/W, your next OTA will fail and the only solution is to reflash stock system image. Once you're back to fully stock, consequent updates should not fail (at least not due to this reason).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for explanation!.
OK one can figure out if system was ever mounted rw and fail. Fair enough.
Still a bit curious about which hash you talk, but probably some 'meta' hash.
Dior DNA said:
Thanks for explanation!.
OK one can figure out if system was ever mounted rw and fail. Fair enough.
Still a bit curious about which hash you talk, but probably some 'meta' hash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're really interested, I would advise checking OTA update engine's source code. I don't know such details (just too lazy to dig through source code myself)
_mysiak_ said:
If you're really interested, I would advise checking OTA update engine's source code. I don't know such details (just too lazy to dig through source code myself)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had already checked, of course, there are indeed meta hashes, that is where I got the word from, not that I understand it completely
Thanks all for help. My friend came by and:
I fastboot flashed F 9.6.4.0 system img onto a/b and then OTA to 9.6.5.0 went well..
I fastboot-ed into TWRP again (and made backup) but question to mount system rw was not asked.
I guess next OTA may fail again as I had not first reconfigured TWRP to disallow system rw (will do next time).
Have a nice day
So I've seen with installing custom ROMs that there are steps that basically say, "Do not wipe system" in TWRP. I have noticed in doing things the dumb way that I can wipe every partition but the only way it becomes unrecoverable is if system is wiped, this is even if I install a custom ROM in its place. Can someone help me understand what has changed with A/B partition or OnePlus security settings where OOS system partition must be intact to allow one to run a custom ROM?
The reason I ask is that unless it is a byte for byte overwrite then we leave OOS files on parts of the custom ROM storage partition and if it is bit for bit write why would erasing the partition matter?
What seems more important for custom ROM is to not wipe data before rebooting in TWRP to flash magisk. So a clean flash is now flashing the ROM, flashing TWRP then reboot in TWRP and then only wiping data and art. Then flashing magisk. This is important to keep decryption working. That means not using factory reset feature either, always wiping with manually selected partitions.
Anyway wiping system is useless as the flashing script wipes it anyway.
Just updated to Oreo December patch. Is it true no-verity-opt-encrypt-5.1 is no longer needed before Magisk for rooting? I vaguely recall reading something like it.
Also, is factory wipe after TWRP before Magisk really needed?
I wish I wrote down the process from the last update. Angry at myself for forgetting.
goodjuju said:
Just updated to Oreo December patch. Is it true no-verity-opt-encrypt-5.1 is no longer needed before Magisk for rooting? I vaguely recall reading something like it.
Also, is factory wipe after TWRP before Magisk really needed?
I wish I wrote down the process from the last update. Angry at myself for forgetting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on if you want your data partition encrypted or not.
By default the device is encrypted or will encrypt data after flashing fastboot firmware. If you want the partition to be decrypted format data after installing TWRP and flash Disable_Dm-Verity_ForceEncrypt_12.16.2018.zip after that. Boot your device, reboot to TWRP and flash latest magisk (18).
Normally Magisk itself should prevent the re-encryption but in my case that didn't happen.
A factory reset is not necessary but formatting data will erase your internal storage.
Wolfcity said:
Depends on if you want your data partition encrypted or not.
By default the device is encrypted or will encrypt data after flashing fastboot firmware. If you want the partition to be decrypted format data after installing TWRP and flash Disable_Dm-Verity_ForceEncrypt_12.16.2018.zip after that. Boot your device, reboot to TWRP and flash latest magisk (18).
Normally Magisk itself should prevent the re-encryption but in my case that didn't happen.
A factory reset is not necessary but formatting data will erase your internal storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Wolfcity. I will leave the partition encrypted. I am writing down a step by step OTA process including my personal tweaks this time! No more relying on my memory and posting silly questions.
Hello guys,
I want to flash pixel experience 9 on a friend's nexus 6p, but since I do not own this device I have some questions about the correct procedure up to flashing a custom rom.
Also please tell me if there are any important things I have to pay attention to in general when going through that entire bootloader, recovery etc thing, like what I should avoid to do, or check before to prevent bad things like bricking or IMEI loss.
What I found out so far:
At first I enable unlocking bootloader in dev options and unlock it with fastboot flashing unlock.
Q: I read that that command will wipe the phone. What exactly? System, data, internal storage, everything?
Then I flash modified twrp from pixel experience thread
After that I am supposed to flash the ROM but I have to do a "clean" flash.
Q: What exactly does that mean? Do I need to do a factory reset before flashing the ROM or should I flash complete stock ROM or just format data?
After flashing the Pixel ROM then I format data in twrp and thats it, right?
And what is this with that weird BLOD? As far as I understood its completly hardware related and can appear theoretically any time?
I just want to be sure that it can't be caused by flashing a custom ROM f.e.
The Pixel Experience Thread also says "If your phone only has 4 cores, download the BLOD patch".
Does that refer to all BLOD affected devices or the devices wich have only 4 cores by default?
The phone is currently on Oreo.
If you need more information (Bootloader version etc, tell me)
Thanks for your time,
Greetings,
7080
Yeah I need to know that too
The Clean flash thing and that Blod thing
If the phone is working by default - you dont need to inform about BLOD. When it suddnely bootloop the whole time - you should have an unlocked bootloader to be able to access your phone again.
Clean flash of any recent image:
1. flash last google factory image with ./flash-all.sh
2. Install twrp recovery (4core version if BLOD-device)
3. copy your android image you want to flash to the device, boot in TWRP (you can also copy it on the device when you are in TWRP mode)
4. wipe cache, system, data first in twrp. Then flash the image you want to have on your phone
5. wipe everything again in advanced wipe except the system partition.
6. reboot and have fun with your clean install
Hi.
I am new to the Nexus 6p.
I want to install Magisk and backup my ROM via TWRP.
I am running stock Oreo 8.1.0 with a password and fingerprint.
I have just unlocked and installed TWRP 3.3.3-1. When I first loaded TWRP it asked me to decrypt data, but I just cancelled it as I thought it wasn't needed. I take it this is wrong?
I have now tried to go back into twrp but I get the Android on its back saying 'no data'. So the twrp flash never stuck.
I am under some confusion whether I need to format userdata or not. The guides I am following are old and don't mention Oreo only Developer preview N. I would prefer not to but if it needs doing it needs doing.
Would removing my fingerprint before flashing twrp help?
Thanks.
Warren_Orange said:
Hi.
I am new to the Nexus 6p.
I want to install Magisk and backup my ROM via TWRP.
I am running stock Oreo 8.1.0 with a password and fingerprint.
I have just unlocked and installed TWRP 3.3.3-1. When I first loaded TWRP it asked me to decrypt data, but I just cancelled it as I thought it wasn't needed. I take it this is wrong?
I have now tried to go back into twrp but I get the Android on its back saying 'no data'. So the twrp flash never stuck.
I am under some confusion whether I need to format userdata or not. The guides I am following are old and don't mention Oreo only Developer preview N. I would prefer not to but if it needs doing it needs doing.
Would removing my fingerprint before flashing twrp help?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to boot back into twrp and format data the reboot back to recovery again and advanced wipe system data cache dalvik/art and internal storage if necessary, then flash a custom ROM .