[Installation][ROM] a/b partition changes everything - Moto Z2 Force Guides, News, & Discussion

[Installation][ROM] a/b partition changes everything - Moto Z2 Force Guides, News, & Discussion

I just got my Moto Z2 Fore today, it auto updated to Oreo, so i didnt have to use abd and the boot loader was unlocked minutes after delivery. As i ran errands it was connected to WiFi and as soon as I put my SIM in, i wasnt paying attention. I'm coming from a day old LG V30, which i T-Mobile JUMPed from a Galaxy Note8, which i miss very much, just could deal with the fact that the boot loader cannot and WILL NOT ever be Unlocked. So i came back to Moto as a customer...
Anyway, before the Note8, i had a Google Pixel XL which also has a/b partitions, SEE HERE I noticed a Lineage OS thread that was opened by someone other then the DEV and no one could get it too flash. What i'm going to show you may require TWRP to be rebuilt and its a new way to get use to flashing custom ROMs. Unfortunately, we believe this kinda killed the development for the Google Pixel XL. This is why, and i regret, selling my Pixel XL. It was a back up, developmental device.
When we had to flash a Custom Lineage Based ROM,we first had to fastboot flash a TWRP .img and we had a TWRP flashable zip that was required to flash after a ROM or we would loose Recovery, and on the Pixel we had to flash the ROM on slot A and Gapps on slot B, Its not like the last 50-60 Androids that i've rooted and recovered, and flashed custom ROMs too...ion the Pixel X w/ a/b partitionsL, we had to flash like this :
I'm not sure how much our devs know about the a/b slots, but i thought i'd show ya what i know. I hope this doesnt effect the development of this device...
*edit*
Cleaned up post...

As one of the very few devs actually working on this device...I strongly suggest you take this thread down, so you don't screw someone in the future. The information you posted is inaccurate, and irrelevant to this device. Here's the process...
Flash twrp
Wipe everything, including system
Reboot to recovery
Transfer ROM and flash
Once you flash your ROM the recovery will be overwritten by the stock boot.img
With older twrp, reboot to bootloader
Type fast boot set_active other. This will switch slots for you. The bootctrl Hal is janky on this device and doesn't flash the ROM to the right slot.
fastboot -w, this wipes everything again
Reboot system
With newer/official twrp this is not necessary as the twrp img tell the device to flash to the opposite slot
Profit

Oops. Here's a better ss

Infect_Ed said:
As one of the very few devs actually working on this device...I strongly suggest you take this thread down, so you don't screw someone in the future. The information you posted is inaccurate, and irrelevant to this device. Here's the process...
Flash twrp
Wipe everything, including system
Reboot to recovery
Transfer ROM and flash
Once you flash your ROM the recovery will be overwritten by the stock boot.img
With older twrp, reboot to bootloader
Type fast boot set_active other. This will switch slots for you. The bootctrl Hal is janky on this device and doesn't flash the ROM to the right slot.
fastboot -w, this wipes everything again
Reboot system
With newer/official twrp this is not necessary as the twrp img tell the device to flash to the opposite slot
Profit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Post Cleaned. Thanks for clearing that up, i seen everybody attempting the LOS 15 build and no one having any luck so i thought i'd throw my 2 cents in....

How can I get this ROM, you would have the link. Thank you.

You can't yet. It's still in early stages. There is a lot of bugs. I'll make an official thread once it's ready.

As infect_ed stated: LOS is still "unofficial" and has too many bugs to be released. There are places you can get the unofficial builds but too many things that make a phone a phone are hacked together and don't work 100%. Until the bugs are worked out, it won't be official.

Related

Bootable(only) TWRP development

Our phone needs a bootable only TWRP, this is a fact.
This is because of the a/b partitioning but, more, since of the "new" recovery-in-boot.IMG design which links kernel & recovery presence in an unwanted way...
And a bootable TWRP is the "official solution" developed by TWRP Team for Pixel 2/2 XL - the more similar device up to date - to overcome this issue in better way. I fully agree with their solution and I had thought of it even before of their official release...
A LOT of development has been done on this phone during only last month, better installable TWRP, better kernels, better installation methods developed for them, both for first install and for upgrade too, BUT the lack of a boot-only TWRP, something easily (& ever...) accessible with a simple fastboot boot twrpboot.img command is every day more evident...
For some reasons this has been achieved (even if still with limitations...) on Pixels (with available sources obviously...) but, to date, not for our device...
I would like this thread will become the reference thread to all which would want to contribute on this development, a place to report achieved results and faced issues so that others could try to help & overcome them...
We still have a restricted team of developers, but most of them are *great* on their work... I'm sure that only with a bit more teamed up work, this is a result we could achieve in weeks... probably before Christmas!
So, just to start, everyone which has tried to develop (or study...) this, could report what type of issues has faced to date...

I will still have twrp on my boot image. When I was testing kernels without twrp and I got a horrid kernel panic, stock recovery just wiped the device rebooted, wiped, repeat. When I had a bad kernel panic alpha testing on twrp, it would just boot to twrp in tact then I could flash the old kernel. If everything was too messed up, just reflash twrp. All kernels I have made besides the ones that gave those issues work perfect in twrp. Even the ones where bogoMIPS freq was used instead of our frequencies. (38.0 MHz). I like the idea of not having to hook my device up to a computer to boot into recovery.

Uzephi said:
I will still have twrp on my boot image. When I was testing kernels without twrp and I got a horrid kernel panic, stock recovery just wiped the device rebooted, wiped, repeat. When I had a bad kernel panic alpha testing on twrp, it would just boot to twrp in tact then I could flash the old kernel. If everything was too messed up, just reflash twrp. All kernels I have made besides the ones that gave those issues work perfect in twrp. Even the ones where bogoMIPS freq was used instead of our frequencies. (38.0 MHz). I like the idea of not having to hook my device up to a computer to boot into recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I understand this, BUT there are a lot of other scenarios where having a bootable TWRP could save the day and/or at least make things simpler....
On the other hand, you are the first developer I know who is quite ever going without root!
(So you can't be taken as the "average user"... )

enetec said:
Yes, I understand this, BUT there are a lot of other scenarios where having a bootable TWRP could save the day and/or at least make things simpler....
On the other hand, you are the first developer I know who is quite ever going without root!
(So you can't be taken as the "average user"... )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am confused...(I am I am long time enthusiast, pls forgive my naivety!)
I can reboot into twrp without issue using current method in this forum. Is "bootable twrp" referencing where / how twrp is implemented on this device? What are we missing as users and fans of all the great room devs out there by using our current method?
Ty for any insights in advance.

3's&7's said:
I am confused...(I am I am long time enthusiast, pls forgive my naivety!)
I can reboot into twrp without issue using current method in this forum. Is "bootable twrp" referencing where / how twrp is implemented on this device? What are we missing as users and fans of all the great room devs out there by using our current method?
Ty for any insights in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The bootable refers to the command fastboot boot boot_a your-filename.img or fastboot boot boot_b your-filename.img . For the Moto Z2 Force, it has to be compiled differently than a boot image intended to be flashed as with the command fastboot flash boot_a your-filename.img , or fastboot flash boot_b your-filename.img . The reason it now has to be compiled differently is that our boot image is combined with recovery. If you try to fastboot boot a fastboot flash type, it would boot normally into Android OS--if all went OK. If you fastboot flash flashed a fastboot boot type, the device would boot into recovery instead of normal Android OS. Both fastboot boot and normal boot result in the kernel and ramdisk being written to RAM--to volatile memory; the difference is whether the data originally came from the device's non-volatile storage or external PC via USB-C cable.
Alternatively, there are two main forms of zip installers for a combined boot image, which are intended to be flashed inside TWRP or an apk like FlashFire (FlashFire does not play nice with already Magisk rooted Z2 Force, in my experience): a zip flash that flashes the entire boot.img (ramdisk + kernel), or a zip flash that only replaces half of the boot image (the ramdisk). For combined boot images, the ramdisk-only type that does not replace kernel is the more common of the two flash zip types on the site TWRP.me . In fact, I have never seen an official installer that also replaced boot image kernel on the official site.
As mentioned above, the fastboot boot type is not meant to be fastboot flash flashed; rather, it is primarily meant to be a platform utilized to flash the TWRP zip installer. You will see some devices on TWRP.me that have both fastboot boot type and zip flash type, and the aforementioned technique is why both are provided. Take a look at Pixel 2 XL (codenamed Taimen) on TWRP.me, and you'll see this method supported.

@jhofseth .... I could never explain it in a better way! :silly::good:

To come back IT... @jhofseth I know you have studied a lot this thing in these weeks, so I have a question for you...
If you take a boot.img containing a TWRP recovery like one we already have, and try a fastboot boot TWRP.IMG it should boot to its included kernel and then to system (if possible...), right?
This way we can test a new kernel without flashing it but it isn't our goal...
Well, when already flashed on phone we can choose between reboot to kernel/system or TWRP by adb commands or by extensions like Gravity Box...
Is it so hard/possible/thinkable to modify one of our boot.img so that it is in some way "forced" to boot to its TWRP in any case?
(and so even when loaded with a fastboot boot command...)

enetec said:
To come back IT... @jhofseth I know you have studied a lot this thing in these weeks, so I have a question for you...
If you take a boot.img containing a TWRP recovery like one we already have, and try a fastboot boot TWRP.IMG it should boot to its included kernel and then to system (if possible...), right?
This way we can test a new kernel without flashing it but it isn't our goal...
Well, when already flashed on phone we can choose between reboot to kernel/system or TWRP by adb commands or by extensions like Gravity Box...
Is it so hard/possible/thinkable to modify one of our boot.img so that it is in some way "forced" to boot to its TWRP in any case?
(and so even when loaded with a fastboot boot command...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would work on this if someone explains in detail why our current setup is an issue. I have ran into plenty of kernel issues when building bad kernels and twrp as recovery was better than stock recovery (as stated above). Please, I want this if there is a real reason for it. Our stock recovery just factory resets the device, so a recovery with other options is kinda nice.
Temp booting a kernel: use AIK and inject kernel into a boot image.
New TWRP update, just flash the boot image (which might have new boot image as well) and just reflash kernel. It is better than needing to hook the phone up to a PC every time you want to boot TWRP...

enetec said:
To come back IT... @jhofseth I know you have studied a lot this thing in these weeks, so I have a question for you...
If you take a boot.img containing a TWRP recovery like one we already have, and try a fastboot boot TWRP.IMG it should boot to its included kernel and then to system (if possible...), right?
This way we can test a new kernel without flashing it but it isn't our goal...
Well, when already flashed on phone we can choose between reboot to kernel/system or TWRP by adb commands or by extensions like Gravity Box...
Is it so hard/possible/thinkable to modify one of our boot.img so that it is in some way "forced" to boot to its TWRP in any case?
(and so even when loaded with a fastboot boot command...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that is one way to test, but sometimes that will fail even when the kernel works. For example, sometimes if you fastboot flash, sometimes you also have to flash latest Magisk again right away in TWRP, or it won't boot into Android OS. That would be impossible with fastboot boot (i.e., unless you patched boot image first with Magisk manager apk, or some other tool), because you would be unable to flash latest Magisk (or SuperSU 2.82 beta SR5). So, sometimes fastboot boot would fail to normally boot into Android OS--even though the kernel may be completely OK.

Uzephi said:
I would work on this if someone explains in detail why our current setup is an issue. I have ran into plenty of kernel issues when building bad kernels and twrp as recovery was better than stock recovery (as stated above). Please, I want this if there is a real reason for it. Our stock recovery just factory resets the device, so a recovery with other options is kinda nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are plenty of scenarios where a bootable TWRP could be hassle saving / needed BUT you ask for a single one and I'll give you one... Or two! :laugh:
I want to be free to install the kernel I want with TWRP version I want.
Now this is not possible (if not with weird/tricking installations! ).
E.g.: let's imagine to want to install latest *stock* kernel with latest TWRP.
I have kernel, I have TWRP flashable zips ( @jhofseth made some which are fantastic...) BUT no (simple) way to merge them.
More: as you like to have tweaked kernel BUT without root, there is plenty of people who like to not have TWRP flashed on their systems BUT still being able to make backups and/or flash zips... (e.g. we have already seen some incompatibility between CF-Root and TWRP in past...) and/or remain free to take OTAs... & so on...
I could continue for hours, but these are already valid reasons IMHO...
Pixel 2 developers are not stupid... they have choosed this solution for valid reasons...

enetec said:
There are plenty of scenarios where a bootable TWRP could be hassle saving / needed BUT you ask for a single one and I'll give you one... Or two! :laugh:
I want to be free to install the kernel I want with TWRP version I want.
Now this is not possible (if not with weird/tricking installations! ).
E.g.: let's imagine to want to install latest *stock* kernel with latest TWRP.
I have kernel, I have TWRP flashable zips (@jhofseth made some which are fantastic...) BUT no (simple) way to merge them.
More: as you like to have tweaked kernel BUT without root, there is plenty of people who like to not have TWRP flashed on their systems BUT still being able to make backups and/or flash zips... (e.g. we have already seen some incompatibility between CF-Root and TWRP in past...) and/or remain free to take OTAs... & so on...
I could continue for hours, but these are already valid reasons IMHO...
Pixel 2 developers are not stupid... they have choosed this solution for valid reasons...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Answer (I have done this before I flashed TWRP and it worked wonders): root a boot image, go into system, adb shell, su, dd if=/dev/block/sde17(sdf17 for slot B) of=/sdcard/boot.img You now have a rooted bootable image, return to stock image. now you can use Flash Fire to make backups and flash stuff....
You can flash any kernel to TWRP. you want the stock kernel to flash? I can make a flashable zip with the stock kernel by Motorola if needed. It isn't hard tbh...

jhofseth said:
Yeah, that is one way to test, but sometimes that will fail even when the kernel works. For example, sometimes if you fastboot flash, sometimes you also have to flash latest Magisk again right away in TWRP, or it won't boot into Android OS. That would be impossible with fastboot boot, because you would be unable to flash latest Magisk (or SuperSU 2.82 beta SR5).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you think a "booted" TWRP wouldn't be able to correctly flash zips?
I don't see reasons for this...
jhofseth said:
...
So, sometimes fastboot boot would fail to normally boot into Android OS--even though the kernel may be completely OK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact I wrote "if possible"... BUT anyway this is of no interest. We *only* need to boot to TWRP, we are not interested in boot to an "unflashed kernel" if you understand what I mean...
We have only to force it to boot *ever* in TWRP. Kernel parts not used by TWRP (if some are needed on our phone, like some Mediatek devices need...) could be omitted at all (as done on bootable TWRP for Pixels2 if I don't go wrong...).

Uzephi said:
Answer (I have done this before I flashed TWRP and it worked wonders): root a boot image, go into system, adb shell, su, dd if=/dev/block/sde17(sdf17 for slot B) of=/sdcard/boot.img You now have a rooted bootable image, return to stock image. now you can use Flash Fire to make backups and flash stuff....
You can flash any kernel to TWRP. you want the stock kernel to flash? I can make a flashable zip with the stock kernel by Motorola if needed. It isn't hard tbh...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This are exactly the *weird/tricking* solutions I was talkin'about...
(Edit: let me add I don't like this a bit... Root how? Command could be mistyped & flashfire for backups is an orrible & unsafe solution... Just imagine do all this with valuable data in danger... )
All is possible. BUT these are NOT solutions for average user. And every single one requires a different solution/set of commands.
This is not for average user. I repeat it.
You & @johfseth are *NOT* average users... you are fu**ing good developers* and can't evaluate all scenarios with your (advanced) skills & capabilities...

enetec said:
All is possible. BUT these are NOT solutions for average user. And every single one requires a different solution/set of commands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have offered to give a bootable rooted image to other people in my kernel thread. The thing is, if ANYTHING is edited, OTA won't work, so bootable TWRP won't be feasible, unless you just backup your system and not edit anything.
If the average user can't follow a dd if/of command, would you want them to have to "fastboot boot (image)?" they might flash it, then their boot image needs to be flashed back or it won't boot. There are downsides for bootable TWRP as well. Because we don't know the decryption keys, you still have to wipe data. If you don't decrypt with the zip or SU, you can't update, etc. Decrypting modifies system which in turn makes you not able to get OTAs. It's a vicious cycle. The keys as per DeesTroy change with each boot image, so we would have to make a TWRP that has all keys, then comes to what devices do we support. Currently, the two who are actively developing and have worked on TWRP or assisted with it's boot kernel have only two devices, Sprint and T-Mobile. We wouldn't be able to debug any other model for it's decryption key.
To reiterate: to have working bootable TWRP with all the idiosyncracies you are asking for, we'd have to go through the java code like DeesTroy did and get it working. I am not fluent in java. I can make a bootable TWRP, but you'll have to be decrypted, because I know C and Python which is what kernels and most ROMs use. I don't know much about Java to find the decryption keys for each device.
Edit: for easy analogy: let's say computer languages are like human languages. I know two languages that are anglo-saxan in heritage, but you are asking me to read something latin based. I might know some things in it, but it's all greek to me still... XD
Edit 2: Looking at the TWRP for Pixel 2, the only reason they have a bootable image is to flash TWRP to both boots per their OP. It wasn't suggested to temp boot it for flashing purposes or backup purposes. It was implemented to have it in both boot partitions per the TWRP OP linked here

enetec said:
Why do you think a "booted" TWRP wouldn't be able to correctly flash zips?
I don't see reasons for this...
In fact I wrote "if possible"... BUT anyway this is of no interest. We *only* need to boot to TWRP, we are not interested in boot to an "unflashed kernel" if you understand what I mean...
We have only to force it to boot *ever* in TWRP. Kernel parts not used by TWRP (if some are needed on our phone, like some Mediatek devices need...) could be omitted at all (as done on bootable TWRP for Pixels2 if I don't go wrong...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand, I was mainly referring to fastboot stuff, not within TWRP. Any within TWRP stuff was related to Magisk, not the inability of TWRP to flash once TWRP was loaded, but the importance of re-flashing Magisk and the consequences of not re-flashing Magisk. It was really just centered on the importance of re-flashing Magisk. Anything related to kernels stemmed from someone's question about testing kernels. Just minor stuff, but someone asked.

Uzephi said:
...
Edit 2: Looking at the TWRP for Pixel 2, the only reason they have a bootable image is to flash TWRP to both boots per their OP. It wasn't suggested to temp boot it for flashing purposes or backup purposes. It was implemented to have it in both boot partitions per the TWRP OP linked here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And this is *ALL* we need IMHO!!!
Is this doable in your (or others...) opinion?
EDIT: and anyway it probably will work fine to flash something and/or to fully backup a system *including* stock boot.img highfive & only excluding encrypted /data (the same encrypted /data our flashed TWRP is unable to manage too... so, what's the point on it? )

Anyway, we are really going OT here... this is not "Could a bootable TWRP be useful?" thread (it's *obvious* it is... ) this is a "What are the issues we have to face & fix to get a working bootable TWRP?" …
So my questions are basically two:
- is there a method to modify (read: force...) a boot.img with TWRP inside like ones we already have so that it boots to TWRP and not to system?
- can Pixels2/2XL bootable-only official TWRP (sources should be available...) be modified to make it work on our (similar...) device?

I would like to keep OTA (at least until there is a lineage os) and must encrypt my z2. Will the bootable TWRP decrypt the system password and allow backup? If I go with a modified boot.img with TWRP, then can I get OTA updates? or must I wait until someone modifies the OTA boot and publishes it? Can I keep one partition with the OTA and the other with a custom rom image?

kendallgreen said:
I would like to keep OTA (at least until there is a lineage os) and must encrypt my z2. Will the bootable TWRP decrypt the system password and allow backup? If I go with a modified boot.img with TWRP, then can I get OTA updates? or must I wait until someone modifies the OTA boot and publishes it? Can I keep one partition with the OTA and the other with a custom rom image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To get OTA, both slots have to have an unmodified boot image, oem image and system. If anything got modified, OTA will fail

Just to link some very useful info(s) posted elsewhere...
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=74665682&postcount=347
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=74667790&postcount=350

ZUK Z2 Pro persist.img files flashable by twrp / adb

Hi mates,
here we go with the persists.img for Lenovo ZUK Z2 Pro.
So if you deleted them by accident you can try to reflash these:
new added file host for all files: https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=243937
persist.img ZUI 1.9.104:
https://mega.nz/#!0dxzwRrD!0DjKphWCRU-vv4yb1clTqrppVPGzbdaLEc4P7ItX6Ek
persist.img ZUI 2.3.044:
https://mega.nz/#!9QAE3J4I!wMNuXJ9430ihNKUgAmfJJqaB7a13v8qHtTGhCb-3hOE
persist.img ZUI 2.5.462:
https://mega.nz/#!MVZEnQCb!KvKYcHFdxvQEjlRC3zKsvQH316YY3iyNJEV3HE63cDU
persist.img ZUI 3.1.194:
https://mega.nz/#!oURh0ARA!JvliKwO6-bvdobG1qZoXg9CrH1u0zmtLsjFuoCIBoFk
persist.zip FLASHABLE zip ZUI 4.0.233 ST:
https://mega.nz/#!8RJ3hCpS!8cjVHyoOoa6yg9uvgTht71WB1CVCNoQi07GEZMxUR6M
All credits to @crisps
WARNING: these files are not tested. All use to your own risk.
Anyway if you accidentially deleted your persist partition it is worth a try
Flashable by fastboot or twrp. Note: Twrp 3.2.0.0 is not giving you the option to flash persist img. Use a previous Twrp version or flash by adb/fastboot.
TWRP 3.1.0.0 for Z2 Pro:
https://mega.nz/#!ABACiBKD!jPpLuguCoPU58Wq667D3H-YnsoyyXQ505ih0sapAOUY
Enjoy
_______________________________________
HowTo flash with fastboot:
- Download correct adb and fastboot drivers
(look into sticked thread "how to flash stock rom")
- put Persist.img in same folder like your adb/fastboot installation
- reboot your phone into fastboot mode
(hit volume when phone starts, select fastboot)
- open command line in the folder where your drivers / ADB-Fastboot installation is located.
- enter command:
fastboot.exe flash persist Persist.img
- you can reboot phone by select via volume buttons(not recommended) or type command:
fastboot reboot
!!! Dont / never ever / at no time ever select "reboot to ffbm"
Dont touch that!!!!
So my suggest is to enter command:
Fastboot reboot
(avoid missclick to that ffbm mode)
_____________________________________
experiences:
persist.img of 3.1.194 is not good with AEX 5.0. Produces black screen / blue led freeze.
persist.img of 2.3.044 is good with AEX 5.0
_____________________________________
experiences by crisps:
persist.img of 3.1.194 no problem with LineageOS by cosme 20171125

OP link added to 1.9.104 and 2.5.462 persist.img.
Added link to Twrp 3.1.0.0 where you can flash persist.img to persist partition.
With twrp newer than 3.1.0.0 the option to flash to persist partition is no longer available.

added new file host in post #1

What are those containing?
Is there any benefit to upgrade the image?

These are containing core drivers for sensors (correct me if im wrong).
No real benefit, flash only if you screw up your phone by formatting persist partition.

yep, use these persist partitions only if you deleted them by accident or experience problems with sensors.
Not necessary to use them if there is no problem.

Jb boin said:
What are those containing?
Is there any benefit to upgrade the image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a problem with AEX, getting BLODs since 5.0. I've never used qpst and went straight from ZUI 2.5.462 to AEX. Tried all the basebands with no result(well I'm on the latrest 3.5.444 now for a couple hours still no BLODs). The recommended baseband doesn't allow me to unlock the phone as if UI restarts right after pattern entering and then asks me to draw it again. I wonder whether flashing 3.1 could help and aren't there newer persis images?

dimitar.petrunov said:
I have a problem with AEX, getting BLODs since 5.0. I've never used qpst and went straight from ZUI 2.5.462 to AEX. Tried all the basebands with no result(well I'm on the latrest 3.5.444 now for a couple hours still no BLODs). The recommended baseband doesn't allow me to unlock the phone as if UI restarts right after pattern entering and then asks me to draw it again. I wonder whether flashing 3.1 could help and aren't there newer persis images?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So between this post and the one where you asked me about not needing to do QPST/QFIL flashes any more since there's unofficial Treble support in the AEX thread, I get the feeling you're hoping someone will tell you that there's a simple answer that doesn't involve using QFIL to flash a factory ZUI QPST package.
There isn't.
What you're realizing is that you need to update more than just /system, /boot, and /persist... there's a lot of potential partitions that could've been messed up or accidentally wiped or overwritten, depending on which recovery you've been playing with and what the many various custom ROM installer scripts tell it to do... and the best way to make sure that ALL the partitions are healthy and have current, works-well-together data in them is by using QFIL to flash a current ZUI package (3.1.194 as of this writing) then use the factory recovery to install the latest ZUI Oreo OTA. With this phone, it's not an optional step; using QFIL to go back to a standard, factory image is literally step 1 in any of the upgrade or troubleshooting guides.
It's time to make sure you have it installed, USB drivers working, a good USB 3.0 type C cable that works reliably for data transfer, 7-zip installed, and at least 2 gigs of drive space available so you can decompress ZUI 3.1.194 into a folder at the root level of your drive. This isn't a phone you can work on without a computer unless you're ready to only stay on official ZUI releases with a locked bootloader & no root so that you can't accidentally mess anything up trying to get custom ROMs to work. If you want to re-lock your bootloader in that case, be sure you download the ZUI 1.9 QPST package and start from that instead of 3.1.194.
It's not that scary, and I'm happy to answer questions in PM if you need some help.

Terminator.J said:
So between this post and the one where you asked me about not needing to do QPST/QFIL flashes any more since there's unofficial Treble support in the AEX thread, I get the feeling you're hoping someone will tell you that there's a simple answer that doesn't involve using QFIL to flash a factory ZUI QPST package.
There isn't.
What you're realizing is that you need to update more than just /system, /boot, and /persist... there's a lot of potential partitions that could've been messed up or accidentally wiped or overwritten, depending on which recovery you've been playing with and what the many various custom ROM installer scripts tell it to do... and the best way to make sure that ALL the partitions are healthy and have current, works-well-together data in them is by using QFIL to flash a current ZUI package (3.1.194 as of this writing) then use the factory recovery to install the latest ZUI Oreo OTA. With this phone, it's not an optional step; using QFIL to go back to a standard, factory image is literally step 1 in any of the upgrade or troubleshooting guides.
It's time to make sure you have it installed, USB drivers working, a good USB 3.0 type C cable that works reliably for data transfer, 7-zip installed, and at least 2 gigs of drive space available so you can decompress ZUI 3.1.194 into a folder at the root level of your drive. This isn't a phone you can work on without a computer unless you're ready to only stay on official ZUI releases with a locked bootloader & no root so that you can't accidentally mess anything up trying to get custom ROMs to work. If you want to re-lock your bootloader in that case, be sure you download the ZUI 1.9 QPST package and start from that instead of 3.1.194.
It's not that scary, and I'm happy to answer questions in PM if you need some help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been over a day without a blod now with latest baseband. I don't want to qfil anything because I'm sceptical of the outcome.

dimitar.petrunov said:
It's been over a day without a blod now with latest baseband. I don't want to qfil anything because I'm sceptical of the outcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And that's your choice, but if you've been flashing partitions piecemeal since ZUI 2.5.x and AEX 5.0 instead of a clean QFIL flash & bring-up to eliminate potential unknown causes of instability, please don't waste time submitting bug reports or asking for help with blue LED hard crashes since there's no way to know what state your phone is in.

Terminator.J said:
And that's your choice, but if you've been flashing partitions piecemeal since ZUI 2.5.x and AEX 5.0 instead of a clean QFIL flash & bring-up to eliminate potential unknown causes of instability, please don't waste time submitting bug reports or asking for help with blue LED hard crashes since there's no way to know what state your phone is in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I have only reflashed the firmware partition until now, which according to your own criteria makes me eligible for bug reporting. Jokes aside, here's why I believe it doesn't make sense what you recommend. It's been reported that the only way to recover from nonworking device sensors is by going back to zui 1.9 which you don't do. So your partitions have to be in a mixed state since you start from zui 3.1. Since your device works I assume you never ran into sensor problems and respectively reflashing zui 3.1 on your phone just gives you the illusion of a clean slate start( since there is nothing wrong with your phone in the first place)
Having said that, I haven't had a blod since firmware .344 which makes me think I'm right about that.

I'm not trying to attack you by the way, and I still want to help make sure you've got a working QPST/QFIL setup on your computer because I do believe it'll help make sure you have the best experience going forward. But I'm also appreciating the discussion, and I hope some other folks will chime in (and we can take it elsewhere in the forums if needed - I know it's getting a little off-topic).
dimitar.petrunov said:
Well, I have only reflashed the firmware partition until now, which according to your own criteria makes me eligible for bug reporting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've installed custom roms. Without QFIL in-between. That touches more than just /system, /data, /boot, /dalvik-cache, or /cache. It touches /persist where your device sensor configs live, it means you're modifying NVRAM areas like /modem-st1 and /modem-st2, and now, with the Treble-compatible TWRP fstab mounting /factory as /vendor, you're modifying /factory. There's probably many more. But you're not resetting them to a known-good factory state in-between, which is the entire point of this discussion.
dimitar.petrunov said:
Jokes aside, here's why I believe it doesn't make sense what you recommend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What everyone recommends. Go look at troubleshooting and how-to guides throughout the Z2 Pro forums here and on zukfans.eu. It's all about starting with a QFIL flash which will reset your device's partitions to a known factory state before custom ROM installation. How much time have you spent looking at the files included in a QPST package, or digging into the XML to see what they're flashing? They've got a full GPT blank partition map included; it wipes out and re-loads whatever Lenovo thinks needs to get wiped out to factory flash a phone.
dimitar.petrunov said:
It's been reported that the only way to recover from nonworking device sensors is by going back to zui 1.9 which you don't do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been reported that you might be able to flash just a persist.img that corresponds to your last-flashed ZUI version to recover from non-working sensors, but it's safer to just QFIL flash the whole thing. And I literally just flashed 1.9 before 3.1 three nights ago, and re-unlocked my bootloader. So I *DO* do that.
Like I have already said, what I disagree with is the generally proposed troubleshooting/clean flashing advice of starting with 1.9 and then doing OTA updates... more steps = more points of potential failure, especially when you're transferring over the internet from servers in China. I feel like it's superstition that we're passing along because it usually works; it's true that it's a slightly more complete troubleshooting option because it also restores a locked bootloader, which all later factory QPST packages don't touch. But if I have no reason to believe that my bootloader is messed up, as I have no problem getting into & out of it or using fastboot commands, then it's also a big waste of time. My advice continues to be that if you're trying to do super-super clean or need to troubleshoot, you should QFIL flash 1.9 then QFIL flash 3.1, rather than only flashing 1.9 then downloading OTA updates and risk those being corrupted in-transit or wasting the time/download bandwidth to get and apply several updates over & over again. As far as I can tell looking at the QPST installation packages, it's just as thorough (other than bootloader), with fewer opportunities for something to go wrong.
dimitar.petrunov said:
So your partitions have to be in a mixed state since you start from zui 3.1. Since your device works I assume you never ran into sensor problems and respectively reflashing zui 3.1 on your phone just gives you the illusion of a clean slate start( since there is nothing wrong with your phone in the first place)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't start from 3.1, I just understand that since it's literally blowing a new GPT partition map over the storage and filling them with the appropriate images, it's not a mixed state and it is a clean state. But since it had been a while since I last touched my bootloader, I decided to start with 1.9 before going to 3.1 before going to 3.5.316 OTA before unlocking bootloader & going to custom ROM + 3.5.344 baseband via TWRP-flashable zip.
dimitar.petrunov said:
Having said that, I haven't had a blod since firmware .344 which makes me think I'm right about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good, I'm glad it's working better now, but that shouldn't make you think you're right about avoiding QPST/QFIL. The BLoD could be from the bluetooth radio freaking out, could be from someone using a poorly-configured thermal-engine.conf that has an artificially low temp limit and it thinks it's overheating, could be from using a custom kernel with aggressively low voltages for given clock steppings, could be from failure to change clock states trying to come out of deep sleep at a certain time (like alarm going off, ugh, that one's awful). It's the Z2's general "I think I have a hardware failure and I'm going to hard crash to avoid potential physical damage by trying to continue", and I'm glad you're not getting it now with the latest radio firmwares.
Again, not trying to pick on you, but I think you're doing yourself a disservice AND wasting peoples' troubleshooting efforts if you're not willing to start with a QPST/QFIL flash, and I'm hoping I'm giving a good explanation as to why.

Actually I suffered from non-working sensors and full wipe (or you can say total factory reset) by QFIL of ZUI 1.9 solved it. I softbricked my phone between these two states trying to solve it without QFIL btw.

@Terminator.J thanks for the input. Still I'm coming from the fact that If I've only flashed AEX and AEX is the culprit of my partition problems then reflashing it once again won't solve them. And AEX is the only ROM I've ever flashed on this phone. I haven't understood you correctly about ZUI 1.9, my appologies. I haven't reported BLODS in the ROM's thread only asked if anyone experiences it since I'm aware of my personal setup. Btw If I remeber correctly NYE version was BLOD free on my phone too.
@Oriwen That's exactly what I wonder how is it possible to wipe your persist partition by flashing a custom rom? Since the cure is going to zui 1.9 and then flashing the same ROM how do you not loose your persist partition again? I'm trying to understand why flashing has such side effects or is just because of flashing random partition images like the ones in this thread?

dimitar.petrunov said:
@Oriwen That's exactly what I wonder how is it possible to wipe your persist partition by flashing a custom rom? Since the cure is going to zui 1.9 and then flashing the same ROM how do you not loose your persist partition again? I'm trying to understand why flashing has such side effects or is just because of flashing random partition images like the ones in this thread?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I probably flashed recovery partition badly, rewritten wrong partition and boom .... thats only possible culprit for me as far as I know.

dimitar.petrunov said:
@Terminator.J thanks for the input. Still I'm coming from the fact that If I've only flashed AEX and AEX is the culprit of my partition problems then reflashing it once again won't solve them. And AEX is the only ROM I've ever flashed on this phone. I haven't understood you correctly about ZUI 1.9, my appologies. I haven't reported BLODS in the ROM's thread only asked if anyone experiences it since I'm aware of my personal setup. Btw If I remeber correctly NYE version was BLOD free on my phone too.
@Oriwen That's exactly what I wonder how is it possible to wipe your persist partition by flashing a custom rom? Since the cure is going to zui 1.9 and then flashing the same ROM how do you not loose your persist partition again? I'm trying to understand why flashing has such side effects or is just because of flashing random partition images like the ones in this thread?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All an installer script (any of them - rom, gapps, magisk, supersu, whatever) has to do is touch something in /persist. And there's legitimate reasons to do that, like survival scrips for things that you want to persist across a system wipe/update (someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I know it's for more than just sensor configs), like google apps install info.
It seems like a number of folks either got too happy with wiping things in TWRP trying to clean their phone (rather than using QFIL to flash a factory QPST image, which does all the partitions!) or otherwise some custom ROM or systemless root or botched flashing attempt put garbage data into /persist. Some of the TWRP versions available, like the LR.Team ones, allow you to wipe a LOT more than just /system, /data, /cache, /dalvik-cache, /boot, and internal storage... the Chinese one will let you mount & wipe /persist, /efs, and a bunch of others you reeeeeally don't want to touch. Or maybe it just gets crusty with several months' worth of various installations (again, not just a ROM, but any installation script could actually touch it) doing different things to it and leaving ultimately incompatible data.
The cure doesn't cure /persist by wiping it, but by making sure that it only has good data in it (particularly the configs for the sensors), and that those config versions match the drivers that depend on those configs. So if you've got configs from an ancient (ZUI 1.9 = Android 6 marshmallow) version in /persist but drivers for that hardware from Oreo (taking the ZUI 3.5 blobs), it's likely that some things aren't going to behave correctly, wouldn't you agree? When someone's having trouble with their setup, QFIL of the latest full factory package (which includes fresh /persist partition images), followed by as few OTA updates as needed, is the fastest way to get good data back in all the places so you can start loading a custom recocovery & ROM from a known-good state.
Yeah, you're right; AEX 5.2 and earlier (including NYE beta and some other non-Treble custom ROMs worked okay with the ZUI nougat basebands (like the ZUI 2.5.462 you had), and they were even recommending coming from 3.1.194 because the early 3.5 DEV basebands were unstable. But in AEX 5.3 & up it REALLY needed an oreo (3.5.x) one in order to work... I was running into that same problem of constant BLOD crashes right after a QFIL flash of ZUI 3.1 and fresh TWRP 3.2.1 & AEX 5.3 install from there. Reflashing ZUI 3.1 via QFIL then updating with the 3.5.316 OTA package via factory recovery, then loading TWRP , wiping, & installing AEX 5.3 again took care of it and 5.3 has been basically solid for me in all the important ways since then (and with the latest 3.5.344 baseband update).
Again, please feel free to PM me if you'd like to compare more notes on things or are having issues... I really do want to be a resource for you & everyone here in making the most of these phones, and avoiding some big headaches. Setting up QPST/QFIL is a little headache, but it helps prevent much bigger ones in the long run.

weimerd said:
Hi mates,
here we go with the persists.img for Lenovo ZUK Z2 Pro.
So if you deleted them by accident you can try to reflash these:
new added file host for all files: https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=243937
persist.img ZUI 1.9.104:
https://mega.nz/#!0dxzwRrD!0DjKphWCRU-vv4yb1clTqrppVPGzbdaLEc4P7ItX6Ek
persist.img ZUI 2.3.044:
https://mega.nz/#!9QAE3J4I!wMNuXJ9430ihNKUgAmfJJqaB7a13v8qHtTGhCb-3hOE
persist.img ZUI 2.5.462:
https://mega.nz/#!MVZEnQCb!KvKYcHFdxvQEjlRC3zKsvQH316YY3iyNJEV3HE63cDU
persist.img ZUI 3.1.194:
https://mega.nz/#!oURh0ARA!JvliKwO6-bvdobG1qZoXg9CrH1u0zmtLsjFuoCIBoFk
All credits to @crisps
WARNING: these files are not tested. All use to your own risk.
Anyway if you accidentially deleted your persist partition it is worth a try
Flashable by fastboot or twrp. Note: Twrp 3.2.0.0 is not giving you the option to flash persist img. Use a previous Twrp version or flash by adb/fastboot.
TWRP 3.1.0.0 for Z2 Pro:
https://mega.nz/#!ABACiBKD!jPpLuguCoPU58Wq667D3H-YnsoyyXQ505ih0sapAOUY
Enjoy
_______________________________________
HowTo flash with fastboot:
- Download correct adb and fastboot drivers
(look into sticked thread "how to flash stock rom")
- put Persist.img in same folder like your adb/fastboot installation
- reboot your phone into fastboot mode
(hit volume when phone starts, select fastboot)
- open command line in the folder where your drivers / ADB-Fastboot installation is located.
- enter command:
fastboot.exe flash persist Persist.img
- you can reboot phone by select via volume buttons(not recommended) or type command:
fastboot reboot
!!! Dont / never ever / at no time ever select "reboot to ffbm"
Dont touch that!!!!
So my suggest is to enter command:
Fastboot reboot
(avoid missclick to that ffbm mode)
_____________________________________
experiences:
persist.img of 3.1.194 is not good with AEX 5.0. Produces black screen / blue led freeze.
persist.img of 2.3.044 is good with AEX 5.0
_____________________________________
experiences by crisps:
persist.img of 3.1.194 no problem with LineageOS by cosme 20171125
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By flash Twrp:
Witch partition i select?
Boot
Recovery
Système image
Firmware

Read OP

"persist" lenovo z5
Hi everyone, I could get the file persist.img for lenovo z5. I am trying to use twrp but always the error because of the persist folder

new flashable persist sensors zip from ZUI 4.0.233 ST online, see first post.
Enjoy mates, all for Z2 Pro only.
Tested with latest twrp and RedWolf twrp. Tested with Android 8.1 and upcoming versions.
All credits to @crisps who did all the work and let me upload it

[STOCK] [H872] [11g] T-Mobile G6 Stock Collection

T-Mobile G6 H872 11G Stock Collection
Based on OEM 11g KDZ. Extracted and Repacked.
DISCLAIMER
Proceed at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage to your device.
SysBoot ROMs were test flashed over 11g and 20a bootloaders. 11h has not been tested.
11G Firmware is ARB01
Flashing LAF WILL REMOVE TWRP from your laf partition and restore stock DL Mode
FILE BREAKDOWN
The following Zips DO NOT include stock LAF.
You must flash the provided LAF separately if you wish to go back to stock DL mode

Bootloader: 11g Stock Bootloader ONLY
SysBoot: 11g Boot and System ONLY (Modem, Bootloader not included). These zips are adb sideload compatible.
FullStock: Full 11g Firmware Installation
StockLAF: Individual LAF image for returning to stock DL mode
TWRPLAF: Individual LAF image for replacing stock DL mode with TWRP
Magisk: You know. You must flash this after flashing any of the above packages if you want to stay rooted.
INSTRUCTIONS
Make a FULL TWRP Backup using 3.2.3. Link to thread is below.
Boot to TWRP and do a Format Data to remove encryption from your device.
Reboot back to Recovery after Formatting in order for TWRP to mount System.
Advanced Wipe - System, Data, Cache and Dalvik
Flash your chosen Zip using TWRP
You must have TWRP on recovery to flash LAF images.
It is recommended that Sysboot Images be flashed AFTER Bootloader or FullStock
If you Flashed SysBoot with Patched Kernel and Root, you are good to go. Otherwise, flash Magisk to maintain root access.
Wipe Cache/Dalvik
Reboot to system.
Your phone may reboot once or twice during the initial boot to system. This is normal.
Your phone may hang a while on the boot logo. This is also normal. If hang persists for too long, hold vol-down+power until phone powers off to reboot.
DOWNLOADS
Stable v1.0
Project Files have been moved to SourceForge
TWRP 3.2.3 for H872 by @Eliminator74 - Thank you for all the work you have done for the G6!
Magisk + Magisk Manager
Bootloader - md5:43dcc7f82c501147da6500efdd594d5c
SysBoot ROM - md5:2ac20008794eb74523a442da7b8bafdc
SysBoot Deodexed - md5:b92fcb7649bddf934ff9be0246c9fab6
SysBoot w/Patched Kernel + Magisk Root - md5:ae4bab194a69b2044f3aee69ba495464
FullStock ROM - md5:e919fe16852b5f0b830a48cda914003a
StockLAF - md5:ce70b36e4d293e183544a18409a526de
TWRPLAF - md5:f8ea4e93dc417d2d31f5cb8b77530bfa
These files are long overdue. I hope you all find them helpful. Please let me know if you run into any problems with them. Thanks!
Other H872 Projects
H872 11H Stock Collection
H872 20A SysBoot ROMs (Stock and Rooted)
H872 20D Stock Collection
Announcement
I have officially moved to the V30 and no longer own the G6.
I will still be active in this community, but since I don't have the device any longer I will not be able to test any packages or issues that might arise.
All of my current projects have been tested. If anybody runs into problems, you can still let me know and I'll do my best to support my stock packages.
Thanks guys!
-weakNPCdotCom
XDA:DevDB Information
[STOCK] h87211g, ROM for the T-Mobile LG G6
Contributors
weakNPCdotCom
ROM OS Version: 7.x Nougat
ROM Kernel: Linux 3.x
ROM Firmware Required: TWRP 3.2.3
Based On: 11g KDZ
Version Information
Status: Beta
Current Stable Version: 1.0
Stable Release Date: 2018-09-30
Current Beta Version: 0.9
Beta Release Date: 2018-09-30
Created 2018-09-29
Last Updated 2018-10-19

Thx))) I was very much waiting for this.
I'm now at 20a. if I flash the bootloader only, then the fingerprint scanner will work on custom firmwares? Does the custom LAF work?

DmytroPitenko said:
Thx))) I was very much waiting for this.
I'm now at 20a. if I flash the bootloader only, then the fingerprint scanner will work on custom firmwares? Does the custom LAF work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
very welcome. if you flash the bootloader only it will leave whatever laf you have untouched, and yes fingerprint scanner will work with custom ROMs like AOSP Extended.
However, I have not tested running stock 20a with the 11g bootloader. But it doesn't sound like that's what you are wanting to do
*edit*
if you have already flashed a custom Rom and FP doesn't work, simply flashing the 11g bootloader zip will fix it. it is not necessary to reflash the rom
also, not sure why anybody would want to, but 11g bootloader with stock 20a rom will not work. it will hang on the boot logo indefinitely which can be dangerous for your phone. so please make sure you are using a custom Rom or stock 11g with this bootloader

Any way to flash one of these stock images. Rom itself. If you can't get into twrp? Check my post from last night in the root thread and you'll see what I'm on about.
Phone boots but system ui stops which keeps me from getting in. Lost twrp from recovery somehow. All I did was apply a then through substratum and it all went South from there.
Not hounding ya just thought I'd prefer over here and see what you been up to.
When I run step 1 in that root thread I get no hash match and something about with laf or lafbak not being present. Haven't fully fired up the pic too see if I can post the output from that here. (Honestly, was never that good with logs lol)
I'm curious though if flashing your laf (how in the heck it happened is beyond me) if it's possible through adb or lgup would put me back to right.
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

Ken C said:
Any way to flash one of these stock images. Rom itself. If you can't get into twrp? Check my post from last night in the root thread and you'll see what I'm on about.
Phone boots but system ui stops which keeps me from getting in. Lost twrp from recovery somehow. All I did was apply a then through substratum and it all went South from there.
Not hounding ya just thought I'd prefer over here and see what you been up to.
When I run step 1 in that root thread I get no hash match and something about with laf or lafbak not being present. Haven't fully fired up the pic too see if I can post the output from that here. (Honestly, was never that good with logs lol)
I'm curious though if flashing your laf (how in the heck it happened is beyond me) if it's possible through adb or lgup would put me back to right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you still have root? if so you can extract the laf.img file from the StockLAF zip and use adb shell to push it to the dev blocks
put the laf.img file on your sdcard and rename it to laf.bin, and run these
adb shell
su
dd if=/sdcard/laf.bin of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/laf
dd if=/sdcard/laf.bin of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/lafbak
that will restore stock laf

weakNPCdotCom said:
Do you still have root? if so you can extract the laf.img file from the StockLAF zip and use adb shell to push it to the dev blocks
put the laf.img file in the folder with adb.exe, rename it to laf.bin, and run these
adb shell dd if=laf.bin of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/laf
adb shell dd if=laf.bin of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/lafbak
that will restore stock laf
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have to have root eh? So I'd need dl mode back to flash the kdz to get root but can't unless the kdz restores laf in the process which if it did this wouldn't be required I'm thinking.
Sorry man just thinking through things.
When y'all are putting in " /by-name/ " it would be h-872 right? Stupid question I know but I've never seen it mentioned straight out anywhere
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

Ken C said:
Have to have root eh? So I'd need dl mode back to flash the kdz to get root but can't unless the kdz restores laf in the process which if it did this wouldn't be required I'm thinking.
Sorry man just thinking through things.
When y'all are putting in " /by-name/ " it would be h-872 right? Stupid question I know but I've never seen it mentioned straight out anywhere
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you need to restore stock laf another way if you dont have root. Root is needed for ADB shell.
and no, /by-name/ is the actual folder name. I think it's a directory of symlinks, but i might be wrong. Basically it lets you access a partition or mount point by name. in this case the names of the mount points would be laf and lafbak

weakNPCdotCom said:
Yeah you need to restore stock laf another way if you dont have root. Root is needed for ADB shell.
and no, /by-name/ is the actual folder name. I think it's a directory of symlinks, but i might be wrong. Basically it lets you access a partition or mount point by name. in this case the names of the mount points would be laf and lafbak
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. Figured it was something like that. Always meant to ask somebody, just never did
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

weakNPCdotCom said:
FILE BREAKDOWN
The following Zips DO NOT include stock LAF.
You must flash the provided LAF separately if you wish to go back to stock DL mode
[/CENTER]
Bootloader: 11g Stock Bootloader ONLY
SysBoot: 11g Boot and System ONLY (Modem, Bootloader not included). These zips are adb sideload compatible.
FullStock: Full 11g Firmware Installation
StockLAF: Individual LAF image for returning to stock DL mode
Magisk: You know. You must flash this after flashing any of the above packages if you want to stay rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for this weaknpc! This is really saving my a*s. Quick question. If I flash the FullStock version, will I have to unlock the bootloader again? I am using the AEX rom (have twrp 3.2.3 on laf and recovery I believe) and just want to go back to the full 11g firmware. If this works I wont even worry about flashing the laf partition (I would only do that for using LGUP+11g kdz).

ryanrod said:
Thank you for this weaknpc! This is really saving my a*s. Quick question. If I flash the FullStock version, will I have to unlock the bootloader again? I am using the AEX rom (have twrp 3.2.3 on laf and recovery I believe) and just want to go back to the full 11g firmware. If this works I wont even worry about flashing the laf partition (I would only do that for using LGUP+11g kdz).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I could help, man. No, none of these will lock your bootloader. They wont touch your recovery partition either. If for any reason you want to go back to stock recovery let me know, I can pack a zip to flash that from your LAF TWRP if you still have it.

weakNPCdotCom said:
Glad I could help, man. No, none of these will lock your bootloader. They wont touch your recovery partition either. If for any reason you want to go back to stock recovery let me know, I can pack a zip to flash that from your LAF TWRP if you still have it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome. Yeah, I am going to give it a flash tomorrow morning. I do not think I will need the stock recovery at this time, but thanks for offering! I have been stuck with the whole twrp on LAF issue, not being able to use LGUP, and this just a godsend to get back to 11g. Thanks again! :good:

weakNPCdotCom said:
Glad I could help, man. No, none of these will lock your bootloader. They wont touch your recovery partition either. If for any reason you want to go back to stock recovery let me know, I can pack a zip to flash that from your LAF TWRP if you still have it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IT WORKED!!!! THANK YOU :good::good: This phone is finally fully useable for me again!
I also saw your post about moving to the V30. Will be investigating that phone at some point.. You rock my friend.

ryanrod said:
IT WORKED!!!! THANK YOU :good::good: This phone is finally fully useable for me again!
I also saw your post about moving to the V30. Will be investigating that phone at some point.. You rock my friend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are most welcome! But important FYI, I discovered an issue in the original FullStock zip that was causing the laf partition to be flashed over with stock. I am posting an update to the project with another handy file for people with TWRP on recovery. If you downloaded FullStock prior to this morning, you will probably want to reboot to recovery and flash it.
Flashing h87211g_TWRPLAF.zip from custom recovery will put TWRP back on your LAF partition.

If I were to downgrade if able to, would that have a chance? I still am getting stuck in fastboot mode unless I'm hooked up to the pic and let lgup do it's thing.
It detects the device, does it's thing, reboots it and gives me a factory reset phone back just no dl mode.
It's not bricked yet lol.
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

weakNPCdotCom said:
You are most welcome! But important FYI, I discovered an issue in the original FullStock zip that was causing the laf partition to be flashed over with stock. I am posting an update to the project with another handy file for people with TWRP on recovery. If you downloaded FullStock prior to this morning, you will probably want to reboot to recovery and flash it.
Flashing h87211g_TWRPLAF.zip from custom recovery will put TWRP back on your LAF partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, so the flash did not go exactly as planned, there was some issues getting into recovery. Let me give you a run down of what I did.
1. Boot into twrp recovery using a reboot app (requires root) from a working rom. (This is really the best way I can get into recovery besides using adb) 2. wiped the system/data/cache/dalvik cache partitions. 3. Flashed the FullStock zip. 4. Flashed magisk and it was unsuccessful (it was not able to mount system or vendor partiton I believe).
I did not realize you need to reboot into recovery from twrp recovery, then flash magisk for it to work. I thought it may have flashed anyway. Needless to say I booted into the system and I had no magisk so no root. When trying to boot back into recovery using the hardware buttons, I could not get into recovery. It took me to the factory reset screen. Usually at this point if you select, yes factory reset the device, it would boot into twrp (I think this is some initial mask that lg puts on the recovery partition? ), but this time it was just a orbiting rainbow colored cicle animation. At this point I was saying "oh fu*#!". Then once that animation was over the phone began boot looping. I thought I bricked the phone at this point. Then I tried getting the phone into download mode by holding the volume up and inserting the usb cable. I got the download mode graphic, and then a second later, bam I was back into twrp! Lol. Crazy. I guess twrp was still on laf after flashing FullStock! So, I think that maybe your FullStock zip flashes the stock recovery partition and not the stock laf partition.
Now I was in twrp I was back in business. This time I did the steps correctly and magisk did flash, however I did not format data so now I was getting the encrypted data issue when booting into the system. Then on the third attempt I booted back into twrp using the download mode trick and this time I got it all right. 1. fully format data partition to clear encryption 2. wiped the system/data/cache/dalvik cache partitions. 3. Flashed the fullstock zip. 4. reboot into recovery using the option in twrp 5. Flashed magisk successfully. 6. Reboot into system 7. Phone booted fine, no encryption issue, magisk manager sees magisk is installed and I have root.
So this is where I am now. The phone works fine and I have root. I am afraid to flash that laf zip with twrp becuase if I am correct, there is some specific hash that has to match the device when twrp is on laf. There are steps regarding this for the root method for the H872. Maybe it works on your phone, but I don't want to assume it will work on mine. I would not like to brick this thing, lol. Maybe I don't know what I am talking about...
Also, everything on this rom works great except for bluetooth audio! For some reason bluetooth audio is super super low even at max volume. When I had 11g before, it wasn't like this so I don't know what the heck happened! Through the headphones you get a prompt asking if you want to raise the volume above the limit but nothing like that for bluetooth. Does anyone know how to fix this? (Btw, I thought magisk viper4adroid might solve the issue but it does not work for me with this rom. I tried it and it just crashed system ui after reboot, almost got in a bootloop from it. Luckily I was able to disable the module after another boot)
So, if I can't fix bluetooth volume, I will be running this for a while, then I will flash the stock laf to get real download mode back and do a full kdz flash using lgup so I am truly back to stock. Then I will follow the H872 root process from the ground up, etc.
Either way thanks for this npc. At least I am able to have 11g! Thanks for your hard work. :good:

ryanrod said:
Ok, so the flash did not go exactly as planned, there was some issues getting into recovery. Let me give you a run down of what I did.
1. Boot into twrp recovery using a reboot app (requires root) from a working rom. (This is really the best way I can get into recovery besides using adb) 2. wiped the system/data/cache/dalvik cache partitions. 3. Flashed the FullStock zip. 4. Flashed magisk and it was unsuccessful (it was not able to mount system or vendor partiton I believe).
I did not realize you need to reboot into recovery from twrp recovery, then flash magisk for it to work. I thought it may have flashed anyway. Needless to say I booted into the system and I had no magisk so no root. When trying to boot back into recovery using the hardware buttons, I could not get into recovery. It took me to the factory reset screen. Usually at this point if you select, yes factory reset the device, it would boot into twrp (I think this is some initial mask that lg puts on the recovery partition? ), but this time it was just a orbiting rainbow colored cicle animation. At this point I was saying "oh fu*#!". Then once that animation was over the phone began boot looping. I thought I bricked the phone at this point. Then I tried getting the phone into download mode by holding the volume up and inserting the usb cable. I got the download mode graphic, and then a second later, bam I was back into twrp! Lol. Crazy. I guess twrp was still on laf after flashing FullStock! So, I think that maybe your FullStock zip flashes the stock recovery partition and not the stock laf partition.
Now I was in twrp I was back in business. This time I did the steps correctly and magisk did flash, however I did not format data so now I was getting the encrypted data issue when booting into the system. Then on the third attempt I booted back into twrp using the download mode trick and this time I got it all right. 1. fully format data partition to clear encryption 2. wiped the system/data/cache/dalvik cache partitions. 3. Flashed the fullstock zip. 4. reboot into recovery using the option in twrp 5. Flashed magisk successfully. 6. Reboot into system 7. Phone booted fine, no encryption issue, magisk manager sees magisk is installed and I have root.
So this is where I am now. The phone works fine and I have root. I am afraid to flash that laf zip with twrp becuase if I am correct, there is some specific hash that has to match the device when twrp is on laf. There are steps regarding this for the root method for the H872. Maybe it works on your phone, but I don't want to assume it will work on mine. I would not like to brick this thing, lol. Maybe I don't know what I am talking about...
Also, everything on this rom works great except for bluetooth audio! For some reason bluetooth audio is super super low even at max volume. When I had 11g before, it wasn't like this so I don't know what the heck happened! Through the headphones you get a prompt asking if you want to raise the volume above the limit but nothing like that for bluetooth. Does anyone know how to fix this? (Btw, I thought magisk viper4adroid might solve the issue but it does not work for me with this rom. I tried it and it just crashed system ui after reboot, almost got in a bootloop from it. Luckily I was able to disable the module after another boot)
So, if I can't fix bluetooth volume, I will be running this for a while, then I will flash the stock laf to get real download mode back and do a full kdz flash using lgup so I am truly back to stock. Then I will follow the H872 root process from the ground up, etc.
Either way thanks for this npc. At least I am able to have 11g! Thanks for your hard work. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry that you had a little trouble. It actually makes sense that you needed to format data. I will update the instructions to start things off with that step.
The actual, proper procedure, would be to format data, reboot back to recovery, wipe system, data, dalvik and cache and then flash FullStock and Magisk.
I'm glad you still had TWRP on laf. Maybe I was looking at an old updater-script. I do know, however, that I removed the recovery flash from the rom so that never should have been replaced. What I think might have happened with you is the Stock firmware's recovery repair feature. Since Magisk didnt flash correctly and you booted to OS, it would have tried to repair stock recovery.
As for the TWRP LAF zip, it is an exact image of the LAF partition after it was processed by @runningnak3d's root procedure. So there shouldnt be any checksum issues at all. It should be totally safe.
The bluetooth thing is probably the most puzzling to me. I extracted all of the images in these roms directly from the stock KDZ. Your system should be a mirror image of any device flashed with LGUP.
Try flashing the SysBoot ROM on top of what you have now. The file structure in that rom is different. Instead of extracting a system image to your system block (the way fullstock does) it actually flashes all of the individual system directories to their designated blocks. I have a feeling that it may fix your issue.
Thank you very much for the information. If you end up doing anything else let me know how it turns out. If I can help you not have to flash the KDZ then I'll be happy. That was my main goal in creating these packages.

weakNPCdotCom said:
I'm sorry that you had a little trouble. It actually makes sense that you needed to format data. I will update the instructions to start things off with that step.
The actual, proper procedure, would be to format data, reboot back to recovery, wipe system, data, dalvik and cache and then flash FullStock and Magisk.
I'm glad you still had TWRP on laf. Maybe I was looking at an old updater-script. I do know, however, that I removed the recovery flash from the rom so that never should have been replaced. What I think might have happened with you is the Stock firmware's recovery repair feature. Since Magisk didnt flash correctly and you booted to OS, it would have tried to repair stock recovery.
As for the TWRP LAF zip, it is an exact image of the LAF partition after it was processed by @runningnak3d's root procedure. So there shouldnt be any checksum issues at all. It should be totally safe.
The bluetooth thing is probably the most puzzling to me. I extracted all of the images in these roms directly from the stock KDZ. Your system should be a mirror image of any device flashed with LGUP.
Try flashing the SysBoot ROM on top of what you have now. The file structure in that rom is different. Instead of extracting a system image to your system block (the way fullstock does) it actually flashes all of the individual system directories to their designated blocks. I have a feeling that it may fix your issue.
Thank you very much for the information. If you end up doing anything else let me know how it turns out. If I can help you not have to flash the KDZ then I'll be happy. That was my main goal in creating these packages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh yes this makes sense. Maybe it was a stock recovery repair due to magisk failure as you mentioned? I still don't understand why with these LG phones (ever since the G3 I think), when you boot into recovery using the hardware buttons, it asks if you want to factory reset the device. Then if you say yes, it doesn't reset/format anything, and it boots right into twrp recovery after that. So weird. I can boot directly into recovery just fine from a reboot app or adb from a running system without getting that factory reset screen...
I'm sure your laf zip with twrp works for the reasons you mention. Luckily I don't have to find out since my laf partition is fine and still has twrp!
Regarding bluetooth, I will give the sysboot flash a try and update you with the results. First I want to wait until my backup phone is running again. I bent the sim pins on the backup phone due to those ****ty plastic adapters that catch the pins (an old E980 w/ the larger sim size) so I ordered another sim reader to fix that. I also read in some forums that wiping cache and dalvik cache resolved others bluetooth issues with the G6. I will try that too.
Either way, I will update soon. I am happy to share my notes as I really appreciate the help!

@weakNPCdotCom
The actual, proper procedure, would be to format data, reboot back to recovery, wipe system, data, dalvik and cache and then flash FullStock and Magisk.
I'm rooted and running an old version of aex. I'm still getting the encryption message anytime I try anything without that rom. These last two posts. When you talk about formatting your saying in twrp correct? Or that forced format you can do with the buttons?
Basic point is I'd like to get rid of that encryption message and it looks like your instructions take place after we achieve root. I'm wondering if I should just kdz to 11g and root from there. Or would just flashing your full stock zip do it? I seem to be the only one having such an issue with it so I'm figuring I'm missing something somewhere that y'all are doing or whatever that's getting by me.
Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

Ken C said:
@weakNPCdotCom
The actual, proper procedure, would be to format data, reboot back to recovery, wipe system, data, dalvik and cache and then flash FullStock and Magisk.
I'm rooted and running an old version of aex. I'm still getting the encryption message anytime I try anything without that rom. These last two posts. When you talk about formatting your saying in twrp correct? Or that forced format you can do with the buttons?
Basic point is I'd like to get rid of that encryption message and it looks like your instructions take place after we achieve root. I'm wondering if I should just kdz to 11g and root from there. Or would just flashing your full stock zip do it? I seem to be the only one having such an issue with it so I'm figuring I'm missing something somewhere that y'all are doing or whatever that's getting by me.
Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What Encryption message are you talking about? The one in TWRP where it asks you for a Passcode?
So far, I have tried removing dm-verity and force-encryption from both the 11h and 20a kernels, but I have not been successful. The OS always ends up encrypting data. However, after I flash Magisk I no longer get any passcode prompts in TWRP. I am able to backup and restore system and data no problem.
The only thing I have not tried is a rom packed with dm-verity and force-encrypt removed and root built in. That is the next thing on my list once I get a deodexed 11h rom done.

weakNPCdotCom said:
What Encryption message are you talking about? The one in TWRP where it asks you for a Passcode?
So far, I have tried removing dm-verity and force-encryption from both the 11h and 20a kernels, but I have not been successful. The OS always ends up encrypting data. However, after I flash Magisk I no longer get any passcode prompts in TWRP. I am able to backup and restore system and data no problem.
The only thing I have not tried is a rom packed with dm-verity and force-encrypt removed and root built in. That is the next thing on my list once I get a deodexed 11h rom done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
weakNPCdotCom said:
What Encryption message are you talking about? The one in TWRP where it asks you for a Passcode?
So far, I have tried removing dm-verity and force-encryption from both the 11h and 20a kernels, but I have not been successful. The OS always ends up encrypting data. However, after I flash Magisk I no longer get any passcode prompts in TWRP. I am able to backup and restore system and data no problem.
The only thing I have not tried is a rom packed with dm-verity and force-encrypt removed and root built in. That is the next thing on my list once I get a deodexed 11h rom done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that's the message I get. So your saying not to worry about it for the moment? I only see it regularly on a stock rom when going into recovery not aex.
I just wanted to make sure. With the mess I been going through.
So, I can flash this stock build you have and if I wanted normal download back flash the laf zip and I'll have DL mode on laf, twrp on recovery and everything should Mount correctly and all that?
And if I go to flash something custom FP will work? I know I'm a pain I just want to "know" my setup isn't weird somehow. Probably over thinking it, but I think I'm good, except that when I rooted I was getting that message off & on, on the stock build of 20a. I'm hoping that running this build I can get that worked out. Maybe that deal is a 20a thing? Reading through the root thread it seemed to happen less to people on a lower numbered build and it would stop after the format.
I can make backups Burt I've yet to try to restore one.
Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

How to reset firmware

so i've tried a few roms, and couldn't get gpay working. im going to try a few things mentioned in other threads, but before i start that. i want to properly/fully reset my phone to the stock, to hopefully make sure i don't mess anything up in the future.
my first issue was installing twrp, i tried to `fastboot flash` the recovery, but nothing worked until i followed these steps: https://www.getdroidtips.com/download-and-install-twrp-recovery-for-redmi-k20-pro-latest/
im worried about what might be in the misc.bin in that zip. cuz i couldn't reboot into twrp recovery until i flashed that. does anyone know what that is? i think i just want to flash/reset? everything on my phone back to miui, make sure i update to the latest firmware etc. but, tbh, i find navigating xda difficult and can't seem to find the official firmware anywhere, or steps on how to reset the phone...
thanks for any help

Um, i think ur in the wrong category

thejacer87 said:
my first issue was installing twrp, i tried to `fastboot flash` the recovery, but nothing worked until i followed these steps ...
im worried about what might be in the misc.bin in that zip. cuz i couldn't reboot into twrp recovery until i flashed that. does anyone know what that is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The misc.bin file is basically just a script that tells the Device to directly boot into TWRP, because Xiaomi Devices / MIUI are configured to overwrite TWRP after a reboot. If you still feel uncomfortable having to flash the misc file, try "fastboot *BOOT* TWRP.img" instead of "fastboot *FLASH* TWRP.img".
If you wish to keep MIUI installed instead of an Custom ROM make sure to flash Magisk, as it patches the DM-Verity stuff that causes the Device to either get stuck in a Bootloop or replace TWRP with the Stock Recovery.
If you're planning to run an Custom ROM like LineageOS, AOSiP etc. you don't have to flash Magisk as long as your Device isn't encrypted. Rebooting from TWRP to System without flashing Magisk on an encrypted Device will encrypt your Data Partition and you'll have to format Data to be able to access the Internal Storage again. (Flashing Magisk in that case will prevent your Device from encrypting all your Data again after an ROM Flash.)

Fatal_Scythe said:
The misc.bin file is basically just a script that tells the Device to directly boot into TWRP, because Xiaomi Devices / MIUI are configured to overwrite TWRP after a reboot. If you still feel uncomfortable having to flash the misc file, try "fastboot *BOOT* TWRP.img" instead of "fastboot *FLASH* TWRP.img".
If you wish to keep MIUI installed instead of an Custom ROM make sure to flash Magisk, as it patches the DM-Verity stuff that causes the Device to either get stuck in a Bootloop or replace TWRP with the Stock Recovery.
If you're planning to run an Custom ROM like LineageOS, AOSiP etc. you don't have to flash Magisk as long as your Device isn't encrypted. Rebooting from TWRP to System without flashing Magisk on an encrypted Device will encrypt your Data Partition and you'll have to format Data to be able to access the Internal Storage again. (Flashing Magisk in that case will prevent your Device from encrypting all your Data again after an ROM Flash.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
k thanks for the info. what's the difference b/w the boot v flash for twrp?
is the misc.bin from that link i posted safe then? where did it come from? is there a thread here where files like that are posted/talked about?
i definitely plan to stick with either lineage or Pixel experience. i just want to get google pay going. so i think my next attempt will be to relflash magisk and look into that sql fix everyone mentions

thejacer87 said:
so i've tried a few roms, and couldn't get gpay working. im going to try a few things mentioned in other threads, but before i start that. i want to properly/fully reset my phone to the stock, to hopefully make sure i don't mess anything up in the future.
my first issue was installing twrp, i tried to `fastboot flash` the recovery, but nothing worked until i followed these steps: https://www.getdroidtips.com/download-and-install-twrp-recovery-for-redmi-k20-pro-latest/
im worried about what might be in the misc.bin in that zip. cuz i couldn't reboot into twrp recovery until i flashed that. does anyone know what that is? i think i just want to flash/reset? everything on my phone back to miui, make sure i update to the latest firmware etc. but, tbh, i find navigating xda difficult and can't seem to find the official firmware anywhere, or steps on how to reset the phone...
thanks for any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're planning to go back to stock MIUI and locked bootloader, I highly recommend using Mi Flash and flashing the original fastboot MIUI ROM which can be found here https://www.xda-developers.com/download-miui-11-xiaomi-redmi-note-7-pro-poco-f1/amp/. All you gotta to do is extract the ROM file which is .tgz to any folder, and in Mi Flash select that folder click on "clean all and lock" in the bottom right corner, and click flash. This should theoretically make your device "out of the box".
Keep in mind that this method requires a PC with all ADB and fastboot drivers, they can be downloaded from here https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2588979 .

thejacer87 said:
k thanks for the info. what's the difference b/w the boot v flash for twrp?
is the misc.bin from that link i posted safe then? where did it come from? is there a thread here where files like that are posted/talked about?
i definitely plan to stick with either lineage or Pixel experience. i just want to get google pay going. so i think my next attempt will be to relflash magisk and look into that sql fix everyone mentions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BOOT will just let the Device temporarily boot into the Recovery (without making changes to the Recovery Partition) FLASH will write the Recovery Image to the Recovery Partition so you can boot to it whenever you want / need to.
I don't know if there's any kind of threads where certain files are talked about sorry, but I could be wrong though.
I don't know much about G Pay, I was gonna try it too but my Bank doesn't support it. I've seen quite a few people reporting success in getting it to work / making payments with it in local stores with the mentioned SQL Fix so if you're lucky it'll work for you too

Fatal_Scythe said:
BOOT will just let the Device temporarily boot into the Recovery (without making changes to the Recovery Partition) FLASH will write the Recovery Image to the Recovery Partition so you can boot to it whenever you want / need to.
I don't know if there's any kind of threads where certain files are talked about sorry, but I could be wrong though.
I don't know much about G Pay, I was gonna try it too but my Bank doesn't support it. I've seen quite a few people reporting success in getting it to work / making payments with it in local stores with the mentioned SQL Fix so if you're lucky it'll work for you too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just got gpay to work with the sql fix. thanks for the help

corrupt to the core

heya people! my razer 2 is screwed. I had trinity kernel originally, and i saw arter's was updated to april and trinity was march so i flashed arter's, someone else did it with no issue.
K so i flash arter, go to system, reboot, someone in tg group told me arter is sketchy and known to brick phones, so i wanted to go back to trinity, before tho, someone said i should clean flash my stock, so i tried. The thing is, the file comes from razer, and is a flash_all.bat the only problem was i couldnt use fastboot, so after talking to them i tried to just flash the boot.img to boot slot in twrp. Big mistake. Twrp no longer is a thing, fastboot doesnt work, cant go into download mode, when i boot up my phone it tells me my phone is corrupted and may not function, after that it takes me to default android recovery screen.
if i hit apply via adb, i get sys errors and **** and according to nfs group, my partition is completely corrupted (device not found) or something like that
so i called a repair place and explained it to him and he said hed have to look at it, so im gonna probably have to drive down there for him to tell me its screwed.
I tried applying via sd card, but when i insert the sdcard to my pc and try to write files, it says its write protected, and i dont see anything in properties about making it r/w so im really at a loss.
Is there ANYTHING i can do or am i gonna have to pray that this guy knows something?
dont thikn i can send to razer since i broke my warranty unlocking bootloader and rooting.
anything would help guys, i dont wanna have to go back to my razer 1 ;_;

ok well i didnt get any replies so i took it to a repair place, he said his tech guy wasnt in but he'd call me with updates as to whats happening. Shouldnt cost more than $75 so thats great.
if you have any ideas on what could be wrong id love to hear, maybe i can learn from my mistakes and be able to recover next time.

I'm not sure about the comments in the telegram group, but I don't think it was necessary to flash all the stock stuffs. Factory images may contain stuffs that you should never flash on a device that has already left factory and packaged. Usually you should only be flashing boot, system and vendor (plus userdata, if you want to wipe existing data as well). You may also consider flashing modem, dsp, bluetooth if baseband/firmware update on certain parts are needed.
Recovery is now part of the kernel image, so flashing stock kernel means you have stock recovery. Stock recovery is only useful if you accidentally issued Factory Reset from system, or pressed "Wipe user data" from bootloader (which happened when I was preparing the device for unlock/rooting for the first time), and got into an endless loop after that (since TWRP may not properly handle /misc stuffs).
Again, **NEVER** use Factory Reset from system, or Wipe user data from bootloader, if you use TWRP. Always wipe data from TWRP if you intend to do so.
At one point (r13) arter97's kernel had some issues which is supposed to have been fixed in r14. I haven't updated my kernel yet since last Trinity nightly (it's working great even after flashing MR3 vendor stuffs).

LSS4181 said:
I'm not sure about the comments in the telegram group, but I don't think it was necessary to flash all the stock stuffs. Factory images may contain stuffs that you should never flash on a device that has already left factory and packaged. Usually you should only be flashing boot, system and vendor (plus userdata, if you want to wipe existing data as well). You may also consider flashing modem, dsp, bluetooth if baseband/firmware update on certain parts are needed.
Recovery is now part of the kernel image, so flashing stock kernel means you have stock recovery. Stock recovery is only useful if you accidentally issued Factory Reset from system, or pressed "Wipe user data" from bootloader (which happened when I was preparing the device for unlock/rooting for the first time), and got into an endless loop after that (since TWRP may not properly handle /misc stuffs).
Again, **NEVER** use Factory Reset from system, or Wipe user data from bootloader, if you use TWRP. Always wipe data from TWRP if you intend to do so.
At one point (r13) arter97's kernel had some issues which is supposed to have been fixed in r14. I haven't updated my kernel yet since last Trinity nightly (it's working great even after flashing MR3 vendor stuffs).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm, im not understanding how flashing stock boot.img to boot partition would make recovery part of the kernel image? boot.img is the literal only thing i got to flash in twrp before it just died.
Like i said fastboot didnt work, and oddly enough, it doesnt work on my old razer 1 either, i tried rooting it the other day and it wont go to fastboot
Edit: according to an admin in magnetar group, dm-verity could be the reason, and he said i should've flashed something called "lazy flasher" after flashing the boot img. Never heard of it and never used it.

hadtosignuptoreply said:
hmm, im not understanding how flashing stock boot.img to boot partition would make recovery part of the kernel image? boot.img is the literal only thing i got to flash in twrp before it just died.
Like i said fastboot didnt work, and oddly enough, it doesnt work on my old razer 1 either, i tried rooting it the other day and it wont go to fastboot
Edit: according to an admin in magnetar group, dm-verity could be the reason, and he said i should've flashed something called "lazy flasher" after flashing the boot img. Never heard of it and never used it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Recovery is built into the kernel (which is common for recent devices). arter97 (or Trinity) kernel image includes TWRP in place of the stock recovery, so you get TWRP when you flashed the kernel. Stock boot.img comes with stock recovery, so if you flash stock kernel you lose TWRP.
Also, keep track of your reboot count and your current active slot. If your system fails to boot multiple times in a row, the bootloader may consider it damaged and switching to another slot (which usually contains the previous version of system/vendor/modem etc.) and may cause some issues if you're unlocked (or you were previously on a GSI).
As for fastboot issues, I once had a time that I could only conduct flash commands within a very tiny time window right after the phone booted to bootloader, although the problem has been lessened after reboot and I could now flash properly again. It's unknown when the problem would resurface that I'd need another reboot (given the distro I use, Manjaro, is constantly updating, I'd just update the system and reboot anyway if that happens).
Some fastboot versions may be buggy, or maybe USB interactions under Linux can be problematic in general (especially in handling plugs and unplugs). This is more apparent if a system is running constantly for a long time and a lot of devices has been properly (or improperly) plugged or unplugged over the course of its uptime. Maybe it's better if one conducts fastboot using rear USB ports (as front USB ports tend to have less voltage).
I never bothered with dm-verity and hardly ever had problems with it.

vnb
LSS4181 said:
Recovery is built into the kernel (which is common for recent devices). arter97 (or Trinity) kernel image includes TWRP in place of the stock recovery, so you get TWRP when you flashed the kernel. Stock boot.img comes with stock recovery, so if you flash stock kernel you lose TWRP.
Also, keep track of your reboot count and your current active slot. If your system fails to boot multiple times in a row, the bootloader may consider it damaged and switching to another slot (which usually contains the previous version of system/vendor/modem etc.) and may cause some issues if you're unlocked (or you were previously on a GSI).
As for fastboot issues, I once had a time that I could only conduct flash commands within a very tiny time window right after the phone booted to bootloader, although the problem has been lessened after reboot and I could now flash properly again. It's unknown when the problem would resurface that I'd need another reboot (given the distro I use, Manjaro, is constantly updating, I'd just update the system and reboot anyway if that happens).
Some fastboot versions may be buggy, or maybe USB interactions under Linux can be problematic in general (especially in handling plugs and unplugs). This is more apparent if a system is running constantly for a long time and a lot of devices has been properly (or improperly) plugged or unplugged over the course of its uptime. Maybe it's better if one conducts fastboot using rear USB ports (as front USB ports tend to have less voltage).
I never bothered with dm-verity and hardly ever had problems with it.
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ah ok. Well the repair guy called and said they didnt know what was wrong or how to fix it, i know i can at least get to bootloader, and to root my razer 1 again, i went to bootloader and fastboot worked. Before work tomorrow im gonna get that phone from the place and hope that i can flash what i need to get it working again. Assuming it will actually be able to read the device. Thanks for your input

Database Develop

welcome