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I've been reading threads and am seeing some conflicting information.
Some people say you have to downgrade first.
Some people say you can't root it at all.
Not sure what to believe? Really would like to buy one now that they are on sale.
Thank you so much.
CircularApex said:
I've been reading threads and am seeing some conflicting information.
Some people say you have to downgrade first.
Some people say you can't root it at all.
Not sure what to believe? Really would like to buy one now that they are on sale.
Thank you so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no root for 7th gen fire(s) on any firmware version
sd_shadow said:
no root for 7th gen fire(s) on any firmware version
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you
Well, dang! Hope someone finds a way soon
miztrniceguy said:
Well, dang! Hope someone finds a way soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't hold your breath. Recent FireOS builds benefit from an effort to clean up sloppy (Android) code by Google and others following several high profile security lapses.
sadly, in my brief search about installing stock android on a Fire 7 didn't reveal that the results were talking about older versions, not the current version I got delivered today for $30.
---------- Post added at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------
Currently perusing thread by Savvytechwinner about bloatware removal tool to see if compatible
miztrniceguy said:
sadly, in my brief search about installing stock android on a Fire 7 didn't reveal that the results were talking about older versions, not the current version I got delivered today for $30.
---------- Post added at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------
Currently perusing thread by Savvytechwinner about bloatware removal tool to see if compatible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unlikely unless your device arrived with FireOS 5.4.0.1 or lower. Keep in mind Amazon's generous return policy while considering alternatives. You'll be able to install Google's Play Store which is something if you can live with FireOS and a heavy suite of preinstalled apps.
For the statistics:
I bought a Fire Gen 5 from Amazon.de Warehouse that came with 5.3.3.0
Davey126 said:
Unlikely unless your device arrived with FireOS 5.4.0.1 or lower. Keep in mind Amazon's generous return policy while considering alternatives. You'll be able to install Google's Play Store which is something if you can live with FireOS and a heavy suite of preinstalled apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure what it had at first, but as soon as I connected to wifi during setup it updated to 5.4.0.0
I tried several times to interrupt the process but could not. It briefly flashes a "not now" right after you put in wifi password, but doesn't work. 3 times I powered down during the downloading process, booted to recovery, factory restore, and started over. i didn't try pulling power to wifi, but I might at a future date to see what happens. In the mean time I was able to install Google Play.
What version did you receive?
bought a blue one on friday that has 5.4.0.0 preinstalled ??
I turned off the WiFi at the router while it was downloading the update (eg right after it started the process) and it popped up a dialog that said that my connection was slow and it would continue downloading in the background. I still had to turn the WiFi on to complete the setup process after I got that far, but I kept turning it off between steps (and in particular right after it finished the whole thing about getting account details and all.) It never updated the system. So mine is still at the 5.4.0.0 it arrived running. It wants to update, but can't seem to if I'm keeping it busy. Hopefully it won't sneak and do it later. So I guess this method at least works to get you started.
It seems there is a firmware binary for downgrading via adb sideload on the recovery. I'm not sure how safe this is (and mine is still on 5.4.0.0, so I have no reason to flash 5.4.0.0 to it.) KingRoot says a root is available, but it sticks at 1% so I guess it's not working. I'm trying the "updated tools" posted in this forum here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/help/fire-7-2017-7th-gen-downgrade-debloat-t3699937 and so far everything is saying "success." It doesn't include a root option though. It does say it blocks the OTA updates? It uses adb uninstall from the user level, so I'm not sure how effective that is. Guess it can't hurt anything anyway. Isn't 5.4.0.0 rootable? EDIT: KingRoot now no longer shows a root option. With OTA updater removed I can't get to the system section that shows the current OS version (since they don't have a proper "about" page with actual details.) Maybe it did manage to sneak that update through. (I think it was 5.4.0.1 that it was trying to do first.) EDIT2: Kept retrying KingRoot and suddenly the root option appears again. I think maybe the method it uses is unreliable or something. This time around it didn't freeze at 1% but still did take a long time there. In fact, it's very slow the whole way through (I haven't the slightest clue what it's doing. Normally rooting doesn't take very long on any device, but I guess it depends on the exploit used. It seemed to me more like this was downloading a significant amount of data rather than trying exploits though.) Didn't work though. I saw someone else say it can't be rooted from anything past 5.3.3 something? I guess you can't downgrade to that though or people would already be doing it.
(To be clear, I'm not a fan of KingRoot -- I consider it bloatware and potentially dangerous -- but it seems a lot of Amazon Fire users are using it, so I have to presume it at least is somewhat reliable for them.)
Anyway, at least with all this it has the Play Store, an optional debloat that removes Amazon apps (I may put the app store back just in case, but most of it is a bit excessive IMO,) it removes the ads, and it offers a means of changing the default launcher (sort of. It hijacks anyway. The end result is close enough if a bit messy I guess.)
BTW, as a tip from someone who's used to seeking out lower firmware systems in general, don't buy straight from the source or a "fast" place that goes through stock quickly and doesn't keep a lot at a time (since everything is so automated) like Amazon. Go to a brick and mortar store like Walmart, Target, etc etc. Even online they are more likely to have backstock that has been sitting on a shelf for an unknown length of time. There are never any guarantees, but this does increase your chances of getting something older.
Nazo said:
I turned off the WiFi at the router while it was downloading the update (eg right after it started the process) and it popped up a dialog that said that my connection was slow and it would continue downloading in the background. I still had to turn the WiFi on to complete the setup process after I got that far, but I kept turning it off between steps (and in particular right after it finished the whole thing about getting account details and all.) It never updated the system. So mine is still at the 5.4.0.0 it arrived running. It wants to update, but can't seem to if I'm keeping it busy. Hopefully it won't sneak and do it later. So I guess this method at least works to get you started.
It seems there is a firmware binary for downgrading via adb sideload on the recovery. I'm not sure how safe this is (and mine is still on 5.4.0.0, so I have no reason to flash 5.4.0.0 to it.) KingRoot says a root is available, but it sticks at 1% so I guess it's not working. I'm trying the "updated tools" posted in this forum here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/help/fire-7-2017-7th-gen-downgrade-debloat-t3699937 and so far everything is saying "success." It doesn't include a root option though. It does say it blocks the OTA updates? It uses adb uninstall from the user level, so I'm not sure how effective that is. Guess it can't hurt anything anyway. Isn't 5.4.0.0 rootable? EDIT: KingRoot now no longer shows a root option. With OTA updater removed I can't get to the system section that shows the current OS version (since they don't have a proper "about" page with actual details.) Maybe it did manage to sneak that update through. (I think it was 5.4.0.1 that it was trying to do first.) EDIT2: Kept retrying KingRoot and suddenly the root option appears again. I think maybe the method it uses is unreliable or something. This time around it didn't freeze at 1% but still did take a long time there. In fact, it's very slow the whole way through (I haven't the slightest clue what it's doing. Normally rooting doesn't take very long on any device, but I guess it depends on the exploit used. It seemed to me more like this was downloading a significant amount of data rather than trying exploits though.) Didn't work though. I saw someone else say it can't be rooted from anything past 5.3.3 something? I guess you can't downgrade to that though or people would already be doing it.
(To be clear, I'm not a fan of KingRoot -- I consider it bloatware and potentially dangerous -- but it seems a lot of Amazon Fire users are using it, so I have to presume it at least is somewhat reliable for them.)
Anyway, at least with all this it has the Play Store, an optional debloat that removes Amazon apps (I may put the app store back just in case, but most of it is a bit excessive IMO,) it removes the ads, and it offers a means of changing the default launcher (sort of. It hijacks anyway. The end result is close enough if a bit messy I guess.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- no root exploit is available above FireOS 5.3.1
- FireOS 5.3.2.1 and above cannot be rolled back to a rootable build
- KingRoot is a POS that has no idea it is running on FireOS; the algorithm that tests for various vulnerabilities is unreliable at best; runs the entire gambit of suspected Android 5.1.1 exploits many of which are irrelevant
- you will need to perform a 'factory reset' from stock recovery or sideload FireOS 5.4.0.0 to restore any of the apps/functionality the debloat script killed; you'll loose the OTA block and have to go through the same WiFi toggle hoops documented above; you can also block access to access to Amazon's OTA update servers if you scare up the current URL/IPV4/IPV6 list (always changing)
Nazo said:
BTW, as a tip from someone who's used to seeking out lower firmware systems in general, don't buy straight from the source or a "fast" place that goes through stock quickly and doesn't keep a lot at a time (since everything is so automated) like Amazon. Go to a brick and mortar store like Walmart, Target, etc etc. Even online they are more likely to have backstock that has been sitting on a shelf for an unknown length of time. There are never any guarantees, but this does increase your chances of getting something older.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep - purposely snagged a handful early build 5th gen Fire's at a flagging B&M 6 months after they were released. All were rocking FireOS 5.0.1 which supports booting TWRP. First boot was to a custom ROM; never saw FireOS.
Davey126 said:
- no root exploit is available above FireOS 5.3.1
- FireOS 5.3.2.1 and above cannot be rolled back to a rootable build
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I thought I had confirmed elsewhere, but I really hoped I was wrong.
- KingRoot is a POS that has no idea it is running on FireOS; the algorithm that tests for various vulnerabilities is unreliable at best; runs the entire gambit of suspected Android 5.1.1 exploits many of which are irrelevant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I always avoid it if I can, but thought if anything out there would have it it would be that. Presumably once root is established (assuming it's a true root) it's no longer needed. Well, since it doesn't work it's not needed either. Already uninstalled, lol. I trust it about as much as I'd trust a snake oil salesman who says he also is running a new bank system with my money.
- you will need to perform a 'factory reset' from stock recovery or sideload FireOS 5.4.0.0 to restore any of the apps/functionality the debloat script killed; you'll loose the OTA block and have to go through the same WiFi toggle hoops documented above; you can also block access to access to Amazon's OTA update servers if you scare up the current URL/IPV4/IPV6 list (always changing)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, blocking it isn't as easy as you think. Many routers (sadly, mine included) do not have any options to block stuff like this. That would, of course, be too easy. Naturally you could block DNS addresses with root on Android, but that... needs root... But the OTA update tool is more harm than good regardless. The only single thing it does that isn't actually harmful is just showing the current system version. All the rest is just harmful. At least from the perspective of someone who doesn't want a super locked-down device.
I don't think I'd ever want to, but given that those apps are still technically present (hence the reason a factory reset restores them) I do wonder if you can't just access them directly from the ROM itself? I suppose if you could get to the actual APK files you could install those. But stuff like the Amazon AppStore has an official downloadable APK, so there's no real problem there.
Yep - purposely snagged a handful early build 5th gen Fire's at a flagging B&M 6 months after they were released. All were rocking FireOS 5.0.1 which supports booting TWRP. First boot was to a custom ROM; never saw FireOS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kind of depressing that we'll probably never see an unlocked bootloader, much less a true custom ROM.
Nazo said:
I don't think I'd ever want to, but given that those apps are still technically present (hence the reason a factory reset restores them) I do wonder if you can't just access them directly from the ROM itself? I suppose if you could get to the actual APK files you could install those. But stuff like the Amazon AppStore has an official downloadable APK, so there's no real problem there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem arises during installation as ROM sees a variant is already installed but does not have permission to update/replace it. Same for read/execute access. Relevant permissions are associated with Android user profiles which are inaccessible with the level of access permitted on a locked down device.
The batch script uses uninstall. Would it be better to simply disable? I don't like the idea that something might let the OTA updater run though. In my experience some apps -- particularly certain system apps -- can still background run after disabling them. (For example, on a device that didn't support NFC I was disabling the NFC service because, well, why do I need a NFC service on something with no NFC? Yet even with it disabled it was always running every time I ever checked.) I don't relish the idea of starting over, but it would be better now before I've seriously started rather than later.
Nazo said:
The batch script uses uninstall. Would it be better to simply disable? I don't like the idea that something might let the OTA updater run though. In my experience some apps -- particularly certain system apps -- can still background run after disabling them. (For example, on a device that didn't support NFC I was disabling the NFC service because, well, why do I need a NFC service on something with no NFC? Yet even with it disabled it was always running every time I ever checked.) I don't relish the idea of starting over, but it would be better now before I've seriously started rather than later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't disable most 'system' apps on a Lollipop era unrooted ROM. And - as you observed Android has full permission to reenable any app. Uninstall is the best workaround for a device with limited user permissions. For obvious reasons Amazon blocked the behavior/command in FireOS 5.4.0.1 and above. It is unlikely their engineers will look back to older releases with an eye toward reversing OTA blocks on a minuscule community of devices.
I guess the best thing to do is to edit that batch file to not completely remove a few basics like the Amazon app store itself. I didn't really understand why it removed everything Amazon entirely, not just the actual bloaty stuff. EDIT: I guess this is worth the effort anyway because it's removing stuff like the standard Android contacts even. Not sure why they'd do that. BTW, if anyone else decides to do this it seems "Venezia" is the package for the Amazon app store.
EDIT2: Waugh! I got a bit tap happy there after a factory reset. I tried to hit the "continue" button more than once because it was so slow to load the next page I thought I mistapped. When it got to the wifi selection screen there was at least momentarily the "not now" button available and because I had tapped that extra time in that exact spot it actually went through to the "not now" button and let me skip the setup... So now it doesn't even have a configured WiFi and still let me get to the home screen and everything. This is sort of a better way to anyone who can manage it.
Maybe this method actually requires an initial setup -- maybe it sets some bit somewhere that doesn't clear with a factory reset. Since you can factory reset from the recovery menu, I imagine you could try this if it manages to download the update and reboots to apply it. (Well, I guess the question is if it applies before or after the reboot, but I'd have to assume after since it must surely modify things that are in use.)
PS. After this factory reset I see that it definitely never let an OTA update through. It's still on 5.4.0.0. Well, I suspected as much but couldn't verify before. Since it has no wifi even configured this time around it doesn't even know there is an update waiting just yet. I'll fix that soon enough.
EDIT3: I made a modified version of that batch file where I tried to identify things a bit more and be slightly less extreme in my removals. I used pm hide on a few where it's slightly more questionable since it's not as hard to fix as an uninstall (though, as discussed it's questionable whether they'll actually STAY disabled.
I read that "hide" is a bit more thorough in many ways though and the ones I used hide on I think are slightly less likely to bypass the disabling.) I don't see why the original creator removed some very basic Android apps like the e-mail and clock apps. There are alternatives, but these are as small and minimal as it gets, so it seems pretty weird and extreme to remove them. (I would definitely say it would be better to disable even if you don't want them.) While I was at it I did a hide only version since that's "safer" overall, though a lot of stuff may still bypass it obviously. (It may be best to actually remove the updates rather than hiding them.) I didn't feel like making a more thorough one that actually asks on each or something. (Going for minimal work here, lol.) The hide version seems to not work though atm and I have no idea why. (It only shows the status for a few things and most of the icons are still there despite a lack of any errors.)
Input is welcome since I just modified their batch file as simply as I could and was very unsure about a lot of things.
@Nazo - a couple quick comments regarding your previous post:
- in recent FireOS builds queued OTA updates get applied early in the boot process before UI is presented
- pm hide is not durable and easily reversed; I believe Amazon crippled the command in FireOS 5.3.x.x and above (possibly a rev or two earlier)
Davey126 said:
- in recent FireOS builds queued OTA updates get applied early in the boot process before UI is presented
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That wouldn't be before recovery though surely. (Actually, if I were to guess I'd assume it's a recovery automatic update type thing? I don't know if holding the button for the recovery menu would beat this or not, but I would assume so since otherwise you could have a permanent brick if a boot loop occurred in a broken update or something.)
- pm hide is not durable and easily reversed; I believe Amazon crippled the command in FireOS 5.3.x.x and above (possibly a rev or two earlier)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems so. It looks like pm hide basically doesn't work at all to put it simply. A couple of apps were disabled and that's it. In the end only uninstall has any sort of reliability whatsoever. Too bad it's such a messy solution. I really wish someone would figure out a way to root this thing.
I have to ask this. I needed a new phone a month ago, and I chose to wait for this one instead of getting a Note 9, and now I still don't have a usable phone and have less than 20 days to return this one. When I did my research about my next phone I was told that Sony phones are developer-friendly and tend to have a clean Android experience, on top of that, this phone has a 3.5mm jack with a great DAC. Now I come to find out that not only does this phone come with bloatware/spyware, even though you can root it, in Android 10, OEMs have the system locked down as read-only, and while Magik can gimmick /system to remove apps, there is no way to delete apps installed in /oem.
Placing apps in a directory that is impossible to change is inexcusable, especially when they are:
1) A game no one wanted which will be irrelevant in 6 months
2) A FREE TRIAL APP
3) A social media application not everyone uses
It isn't by mistake that Sony did this, and it tells me that the pittance they get from Activision, Jay Z, and Microsoft matters more to them than I do as a customer. Some will say that it is possible to simply de-activate the apps, at least unlike Facebook, there are no background services still running and collecting your data, but I say that is irrelevant. I own my phone; I should be able to control what's on it.
I was still running Android 8 on my One Plus 3T that recently died, so I'm not familiar with how Android works today. We went from simple to hard, to harder. There is A/B, no more stock recovery, and apparently fastboot is dead and is replaced by a blank bootloader flash mode that only lets you know you are in it with a tiny blue LED? I don't know how viable TRWP and Linage are on a phone like this, which is why I am asking. There is only one thing I know for sure right now: I don't have much time to wait for custom ROMs built from the ground up to develop and mature.
You can disable verity and delete them. However, even if you could remove them, they'll just keep coming back with updates. Just disable them and move on with life.
LineageOS is pointless because you're going to lose the Sony camera. Why spend $1,200 if you're going to do that? At that point, just get a Pixel 4a for $350.
Some will say that it is possible to simply de-activate the apps, at least unlike Facebook, there are no background services still running and collecting your data, but I say that is irrelevant. I own my phone; I should be able to control what's on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You totally can. Again, this is about dm-verity, which most custom roms disable and spoof to appear enabled. However, if you're gonna do this on the official rom, it'll be your job to pretty much delete every single piece of bloatware every time you update your phone. It's much easier to simply disable the packages because the disable setting is retained through updates.
There is A/B, no more stock recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to pretty much every single device since Pixel 3. This is a Google thing, and has nothing to do with Sony.
apparently fastboot is dead and is replaced by a blank bootloader flash mode that only lets you know you are in it with a tiny blue LED?
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Click to collapse
Okay, I'll give you this one. Sony did a piss-poor job here. It took me several hours to figure out that:
Vol. Up + Insert USB cable = blue led = fast boot, for which you need to manually install the Google fastboot driver.
Vol. Down + Insert USB cable = green led = download mode, for NewFlasher flashing.
The only indicator is the blue/green LED, which indicates the various modes.
For future reference, I flashed the RU region firmware and it only came with 1 bloatware: Yandex. Best thing about it is, you can uninstall Yandex. So basically I have the 1 II without bloatware! (Except Facebook, but I use it anyway)
YandereSan said:
You can disable verify and delete them. However, even if you could remove them, they'll just keep coming back with updates. Just disable them and move on with life.
LineageOS is pointless because you're going to lose the Sony camera. Why spend $1,200 if you're going to do that? At that point, just get a Pixel 4a for $350.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of, thanks for being cool with your response
Second, I bought this phone for a few reasons, and the camera isn't one of them. For any given phone I want:
1) For it to be unlockable so I can install whatever recovery/kernel/OS I want on it. There aren't many phones like that anymore, at least not in the US.
2) Hardware that will last me at least four years.
3) A 3.5mm headphone Jack with a good DAC.
4) A good, large, color-accurate display.
5) Fingerprint reader.
5) Expendable storage (or a LOT of onboard storage and OTG as a compromise).
I have been using the menu button on the left and back button on the right for eight years now, and I can't fix that on this phone
You totally can. Again, this is about dm-verity, which most custom roms disable and spoof to appear enabled. However, if you're gonna do this on the official rom, it'll be your job to pretty much delete every single piece of bloatware every time you update your phone. It's much easier to simply disable the packages because the disable setting is retained through updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, the only updates I care about are security updates. If we get lineage or some other mature ROM that can do most of what I want, I'll ditch stock., I only need stock for now. If I do end up updating stock and getting those apps back, I don't mind spending another 5 minutes removing them after the update. I don't like disabled apps for three reasons:
1) If it doesn't disable background services. If you just disable Facebook, Facebook's other services will still keep tracking you and selling your personal information.
2) They still appear in the app menus and stuff, which I hate. It pisses me off seeing COD and a TRIAL for something I'll never, ever, use.
3) I am 99.9% some vulnerability can't exploit them, but I can be 100% sure if they aren't there.
As for why this is all the way it is, I did learn after the fact that it is mostly Google's BS and not Sony. Still, it sucks. I hope I can maybe flash DM variety and disable it on stock.
If I can disable DM variety I'm keeping the phone. If I can't and it doesn't seem like we'll get TWRP and Lineage then I guess I'm getting an Exynos Note 9. I really don't want to though, but those OEM apps WILL haunt me every time I use my phone, touch my phone, think about my phone, or am otherwise reminded I own this phone. Maybe I'm crazy, but that's irrelevant, because that's how it is.
I tried to flash dm variety and disable verification, etc, and it didn't unlock the system, so until TRWP comes to Android 10, it looks like stock in the US is out.
iArvee said:
For future reference, I flashed the RU region firmware and it only came with 1 bloatware: Yandex. Best thing about it is, you can uninstall Yandex. So basically I have the 1 II without bloatware! (Except Facebook, but I use it anyway)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are a god. I looked at the Russian firmware and it doesn't look like it's been dirtied by crazy Putin. You can systemlessy remove all the apps you don't want. I got Magisk and Xposed working on it. I also have 4G on t-mobile, and it lists 5GNR as an option, which the US version did not. To note, I do not have VoLTE or Wifi Calling (not that I care).
I'm going to try and flash the HK dual sim variant just to see if I can unlock the mythical sex sim slot, and also if also fits the bill. I realized that to test dual sim you need a dual sim tray. There is no way to get the Q51 tray to work for this. It doesn't seem that people are selling replacement parts for this phone yet, so right now I can't buy a Q2 tray to test it. I'll circle back around to this in a few months when it becomes time to flip the phone for a Q2, just to see if maybe I don't have to do that.
Thanks everyone for the replies. We could maybe use this as a general TRWP/LineageOS update thread, though I suspect someone will make a new thread as those pass certain milestones.
My Razer Phone 2 has, I believe, a bad battery. It shuts down without any warning whatsoever, often with as much as 40-50% remaining battery power (according to the battery indicator in the status bar). When plugged in, it operates completely normally.
I opened a support case with Razer. They initially told me, based on my serial number, that my phone was under warranty (I didn't think it was, as I bought it more than a year prior). Now, they're telling me it's not, and want me to pay a $99 diagnostic fee, and if the battery is bad, there'll be an ADDITIONAL charge (I'm guesstimating at least $200) for parts and labor. Rather than pay all that (and, on top of everything else, they're EXTREMELY slow in responding to me, often taking more than a week!), I found someone selling an OEM Razer battery for a Phone 2 on eBay, that they describe as "open box" (whatever that means), for roughly $100. I found a Razer Phone 2 tear-down video on YouTube, which makes getting to the battery seem not too terribly difficult, so I bought the battery and will attempt to replace it myself.
Anyway, once I do that, I want to re-flash the software onto my phone, and start from scratch with it. I have this app on my phone called Font Changer Lite, which I use to change the font system-wide on my phone (it requires root). Lately, it's been informing me, if I attempt to open it, that it requires system write access, which it doesn't have, and so it immediately closes. It worked fine when I first got the phone and rooted it, and I'm not sure what happened. I'm thinking it might be a result of my phone having Android 9 on it, now. When I rooted it, it was running 8.1, and I don't remember how it got 9 on it (it won't take OTA updates, since it's rooted) - give me a break; I'm old here, LOL! ? I did install TWRP, so maybe it got on there that way (it's been a while, and I don't remember exactly what procedure I followed to install TWRP).
Anyway, can I flash 8.1 from Razer's factory images, without bricking the phone (considering it's running 9, now)? I had a Nexus 6 that I somehow temporarily bricked by flashing an older version of Android (I was able to eventually recover it), and I don't want to do the same to my Razer Phone 2! I'm thinking (hoping?) that my Font Changer Lite app will work OK running on 8.1.
Thanks.
Welp, apparently there's no downgrading from Android 9 to 8.1, on these phones. I was able to replace my battery (it really wasn't difficult, at all), and now the phone operates just fine, exactly like when it was new.
However, I tried to flash the newest 8.1 release, and the phone just wouldn't boot up - it was just stuck forever at the swirling energy screen. I then flashed the most recent Android 9 release from Razer's factory images page, and it booted right up! So, I'm on Android 9, now, rooted and with TWRP.
Of course, my Font Changer Lite app is again complaining it doesn't have write access to the system partition, and it the closes, rendering it useless (it's an old app the developer stopped supporting years ago). So, I deleted it, but I'm able to use Root Explorer to change the font system-wide, by simply renaming copies of my preferred font (FuturaHandwritten) to whatever font I want to replace in System/Fonts, and it seems to be working perfectly.
One question I do have is, my phone is now again alerting me there's a system update, but it won't take (I'm sure because I'm rooted, or have TWRP as a custom recovery). It's relatively small (it was either 80 or 800 MB in size - I don't remember which; far smaller than a full system update), and said it contained security updates through July, 2020.
Is there any way to take or apply this update, without flashing back to stock, and then having to re-root/flash TWRP, and then having to go through and completely set my phone up, again (there's a LOT of time-consuming customization I perform on my phone, like changing the fonts)? I really don't want to have to do that!
Thanks.
dmw_4814 said:
Welp, apparently there's no downgrading from Android 9 to 8.1, on these phones. I was able to replace my battery (it really wasn't difficult, at all), and now the phone operates just fine, exactly like when it was new.
However, I tried to flash the newest 8.1 release, and the phone just wouldn't boot up - it was just stuck forever at the swirling energy screen. I then flashed the most recent Android 9 release from Razer's factory images page, and it booted right up! So, I'm on Android 9, now, rooted and with TWRP.
Of course, my Font Changer Lite app is again complaining it doesn't have write access to the system partition, and it the closes, rendering it useless (it's an old app the developer stopped supporting years ago). So, I deleted it, but I'm able to use Root Explorer to change the font system-wide, by simply renaming copies of my preferred font (FuturaHandwritten) to whatever font I want to replace in System/Fonts, and it seems to be working perfectly.
One question I do have is, my phone is now again alerting me there's a system update, but it won't take (I'm sure because I'm rooted, or have TWRP as a custom recovery). It's relatively small (it was either 80 or 800 MB in size - I don't remember which; far smaller than a full system update), and said it contained security updates through July, 2020.
Is there any way to take or apply this update, without flashing back to stock, and then having to re-root/flash TWRP, and then having to go through and completely set my phone up, again (there's a LOT of time-consuming customization I perform on my phone, like changing the fonts)? I really don't want to have to do that!
Thanks.
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so i have att unlocked razer phone 2 and have camera issue ( when you start camera app screen is black for about 40seconds and then camera starts but autofocus is not working, back camera functions normal) and most annoying sometimes while in call people cant hear me well. on roms site theres only 2 roms for att. 8.1 and 9 tried 8.1 and stuck on powered by android screen. then installed 9 and it worked but my issues still there...
what if I flash rom for global version? will it brick?
or maybe any other suggestions on how to fix this issues?
Greetings ya'll, it's been some time since I've rooted, etc. TBH really don't want to dig through page after page for a few simple answers to my questions. First after rooting how secure and can I use Google Pay? Can I use simple banking apps? Plain and simple security in using banking apps and secure work-type apps is a priority for me. I remember several years ago some of these were an issue when rooting. LOL the last time I rooted was my Nexus 5 lol, then jumped to the infamous unrootable Pixel 2 XL Verizon version. Thanks in advance.
I'll ask the same! I do not want to change my system/reinstall OS every month. Getting too old for that. And what would be the battery life compared to the stock?
May need to install safteynet module in Magisk. Other than that I have no issues at all. Citi banking always alerts me that my devices is "Rooted and some features may not be available" but it still allows me to access my account.
rafsteam said:
I'll ask the same! I do not want to change my system/reinstall OS every month. Getting too old for that. And what would be the battery life compared to the stock?
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Battery life does not simply improve by rooting. That is up to the Rom and Kernel used. When rooting you're patching the original stock rom so the way your pixel behaves now is how it will continue to behave after root. You will also still have to install a new image every month if you wish to keep up with security updates.
The rooting process for all Pixels is exactly the same. You can follow the instructions in my Pixel 4a 5G guide; just use the appropriate files for your device (coral, not bramble). The only exception is that it doesn't matter what version of Magisk you use, although I would recommend 24 or newer, as the ability to patch inactive slot has been re-implemented.
Appreciate the link ... Going to get started on this....
**Edit** Post taken down**
Look for Senior Member/Dev(s) post for A12L(great job on PE+)
Esb1809 said:
Haven't seen any posts or heard anyone mention it yet but Pixel Experience on 5a is now official build(link below). Flashed it last night from A13 DP1 & pretty damn happy with all aspects (stability, set-up, looks/feel)
https://download.pixelexperience.org/barbet
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Thank you for posting new rom link. What differences you noticed between this rom and stock? Is battery life better?
pawlik79 said:
Thank you for posting new rom link. What differences you noticed between this rom and stock? Is battery life better?
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Honestly, for 90%+ of things/time it's almost identical to stock with tiny tweaks here & there. Biggest difference by far is exactly what they advertise as having... STABILITY. It just feels like a rock solid mirror image of A12 on a Pixel which is exactly what I was looking for, Magisk can tweak the rest.
For battery life, seems like it's definitely on par or better but I run LSpeed on all my devices so that's just my opinion, no proof.
Esb1809 said:
Haven't seen any posts or heard anyone mention it yet but Pixel Experience on 5a is now official build(link below). Flashed it last night from A13 DP1 & pretty damn happy with all aspects (stability, set-up, looks/feel)
https://download.pixelexperience.org/barbet
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Finally got this flashed with twrp and it's very stable. Passes safetynet out the box without magisk and face unlock is a nice addition. Hopefully they make an official thread for it soon
syrkles said:
Finally got this flashed with twrp and it's very stable. Passes safetynet out the box without magisk and face unlock is a nice addition. Hopefully they make an official thread for it soon
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+1. I additionally flashed with fsociety tribute kernel and love it.
flashed with unoffical twrp in adb sideload gave errors but i just ignored them. booted up no problems. went through setup. rebooted back to bootloader flashed fsociety tribute kernel with unoffical twrp adb side load. so far no problems.
anyone know how to get magisk to work?
rchris494 said:
flashed with unoffical twrp in adb sideload gave errors but i just ignored them. booted up no problems. went through setup. rebooted back to bootloader flashed fsociety tribute kernel with unoffical twrp adb side load. so far no problems.
anyone know how to get magisk to work?
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Reboot to twrp and adb sideload magisk.apk
interesting. i always changed magisk.apk to magisk.zip and tried to flash it. never tried adb sideload the magisk.zip. worked like a charm. thanks! now it makes me want to reroot my nvidia shield.
i was actually surprised how easy it was to compile their rom. their instructs are fairly straight forward. skipped the ccache stuff first time. 2nd time i enabled it with compressing made it a little slower. compiled on debian 11 both times with no problems. process is long with the ccache and compression. 1hr 30min to 1hr 40min on my duel cpu 32 cores total running at 3.6ghz and 160gb of memory with a wd sn750 1tb nvme drive.
i think i have found rom that i will stick with until a really customized one comes along. barely any google garbage loaded on it. anything else i can root with magisk and use system tools android to strip out the few remaining google garbage apps.
best part is it's on A12 so the unoffical twrp seems to work without too many problems.
rchris494 said:
i was actually surprised how easy it was to compile their rom. their instructs are fairly straight forward. skipped the ccache stuff first time. 2nd time i enabled it with compressing made it a little slower. compiled on debian 11 both times with no problems. process is long with the ccache and compression. 1hr 30min to 1hr 40min on my duel cpu 32 cores total running at 3.6ghz and 160gb of memory with a wd sn750 1tb nvme drive.
i think i have found rom that i will stick with until a really customized one comes along. barely any google garbage loaded on it. anything else i can root with magisk and use system tools android to strip out the few remaining google garbage apps.
best part is it's on A12 so the unoffical twrp seems to work without too many problems.
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How is the battery life? I have tested for a week and the battery life is not that great
jimmy16 said:
How is the battery life? I have tested for a week and the battery life is not that great
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i stripped out a lot of apps. chrome, play store ar, calendar, digital wellbeing, pixel launcher (replaced with nova 7), gboard (replaced with openboard), safety, record, android auto (worthless i drive a 78 k10 and have a 2 knob radio), google support services (backdoor for google) and a few other useless apps that i can't think of at the moment. all can be removed once rooted with magisk and i use system tools android (the only app i have found that removes them and not hides them) to strip out the system apps. i use greenify (gotta get the beta from app mirror to use it on 12) to kill the apps as soon as the screen shuts off. i loaded fsociety tribute kernel. no tweaks i think i bumped the max cpu 24 mhz just to smooth it out a little more. i don't use the phone a lot. connected to wifi most of the time. gone from 100% to 77% in 22hrs about. i have only had the rom installed for a little over 24hrs. the battery drain seems about the same as stock. i did a dirty flash of my build of pixel experience and had to reroot in that 22hrs. so most of that 22hrs is standby time. mostly i check my miner and the price of crypto every so often and clean up my junk emails.
i guess i will know more as the week goes on. i usually get about two days of my type of usage before i get down to about 36% or so and charge again.
my main reason for switching is because i could not update any apps on the stock rom. if i updated messages. the keyboard would disappear or not show up. just before i flashed to this one. i would get the text message notice and when i went to the app. there was no new message. i would have to close and reopen the app to see the message, maps if i started a nav and because i use 3 button gestures. i couldn't close maps when i was done or it would split screen and hang up so you couldn't use the phone. phone and contacts app would work about 1/2 the time. camera app i would be lucky if it opened. problem with all of these apps for me have been going on since the A11 first release. i kept flashing new stock rom after stock rom hoping they would fix their garbage rom. that never happened. it got worse not better each factory rom flash. not really a LineageOS fan. nothing wrong with it. just its on A11 and the unoffical twrp seems to work a lot better on an A12 so i figured i would give this one a shot.
Anyone else having any form of A12/L/QPR3/ROM reduce their WiFi features down to just a toggle that, in true Google fashion, doesn't seem to toggle anything??
After the enjoyable game of "who gets pissed & hangs up on who first", I know it's baffling the hell outta whatever grade school they outsourced their tech support to..
Updated to 2022/3/30 build using updater. Stuck at 50% finalizing update. After uninstalling Magisk finalizing update was completed. Reinstalling and patching boot.img to get root back caused boot loop. What did I do wrong?
EDIT: forgot to add that used factory img from previous February build to patch. Do boot.img change every build?
Esb1809 said:
Haven't seen any posts or heard anyone mention it yet but Pixel Experience on 5a is now official build(link below). Flashed it last night from A13 DP1 & pretty damn happy with all aspects (stability, set-up, looks/feel)
https://download.pixelexperience.org/barbet
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The question is, there are headphones, they have support for aptx adaptiv, a Google pixel 5a phone, the processor supports the codec, but there is no support in the system, can the PE developer include this codec in the firmware?
fackstrot said:
The question is, there are headphones, they have support for aptx adaptiv, a Google pixel 5a phone, the processor supports the codec, but there is no support in the system, can the PE developer include this codec in the firmware?
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I'm not affiliated with PE ROM in any way, other than posting the link to give people an option besides LOS18.1, so that'd be a question for the dev(s).
I know there were a few Magisk modules floating around on Github but support for A12+ would be the kicker, could be a quick fix...
**Also PE+ should drop any day now for the Pixel 5a but haven't had time to actually read up on what's different with PE vs PE+**
fackstrot said:
The question is, there are headphones, they have support for aptx adaptiv, a Google pixel 5a phone, the processor supports the codec, but there is no support in the system, can the PE developer include this codec in the firmware?
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you probably would get a better answer to that question in their telegram group. as this thread is started by a regular user not one of their developers.