Can't get fastboot connection

Help Fairphone 5
1

Hi everyone,

To start, I’ll point out that I’m currently running iodeOS rather than the stock Fairphone OS on my FP5. I’m wanting to change this, but I’m stuck on the first hurdle of unlocking my bootloader as I can’t currently get a fastboot connection. When I run the fastboot command on my PC, I simply return nothing, as no devices are found. I can get an ADB connection when my phone is fully booted, but when I run the “adb reboot bootloader” command to get to the fastboot screen I lose it.

To get the obvious out the way, I have enabled developer options and ticked the “OEM Unlocking” option, as well as tried every option on the “Default USB configuration” setting.
I have been through every USB cable I can find in my house, of varying qualities, types and speeds (including two Thunderbolt cables). The only way I can even get an ADB connection is by using a Thunderbolt cable in my laptop’s USB4 port. All others have failed, either in my PC’s various different USB ports (3.2, 3, and 2, both type A and C) or my laptop’s (3.2 type A and USB 4).

I am using NixOS Linux on both my machines, but have also tried booting an Ubuntu live system on my laptop and had the same result (including the being able to get an ADB connection via the thunderbolt port, and subsequently no fastboot).

When I check dmesg it appears I don’t even get anything popping up at all when I plug my phone in.

I did originally install iodeOS myself (rather than buying one of their pre-installed phones) but I re-locked the bootloader afterwards, so this did work around 6 months ago. I should not that I have previously returned this phone to be repaired, as I have in the past had issues with it charging correctly off anything slower than a PD65W port. I have also swapped the USB port out for a fresh one due to this.

Anyone else had this same issue, and is there a fix?

Thanks!

2

recomended is USB-A version 2 but version 3 should work,

what are the output for

fastboot --version

and

fastboot devices
3

Hi, again tried both USB’s on my PC to no avail :slight_smile: I have some USB-2 ports on my PC both front and back and I’ve tried all of them.

~> fastboot --version
fastboot version 35.0.2-android-tools
Installed as /nix/store/0nphigbpj6cgxi6dldzph0i5xwlk4ggk-android-tools-35.0.2/bin/fastboot

fastboot devices returns absolutely nothing and just goes back to a prompt.

4

is not the latest, but should works.

i suspect you cable

5

I have, without exaggerating, tried over a dozen cables. Some of them have never been used before and some of them have been tested as working with other devices. At this point I’m not convinced it’s the cable.

EDIT:
35.02 is the latest android-tools according to their github, however I have also tried platform-tools 36.02-14143358 which was directly downloaded from their site.

I don’t think Fastboot/ADB is the issue here, as I can’t even get a USB connection to show up in dmesg, suggesting something is wrong on the phone side (even if it is a cable, which I’m not convinced is the case).

6

try fastboot devices with another device

7

Tried with my Xperia 10 III, I got:

HQ6515I36ID fastboot

Which suggests the cable is working correctly.

I can get a similar result using fastbootd on the FP5, but not with the main fastboot.

8

Wow the problem description exactly describes my problem too, can’t get USB connection by all USB cables but a Thunderbolt one. Like you describe this Thunderbolt does not work on fastboot.

Google Pixel 9 connects with cable. USB host is a MacBook with

fastboot version 37.0.0-14910828

Any new ideas here?

9

Absolutely none. I’ve e-mailed Fairphone support and they’ve told me to send the phone back in to be repaired. That’s about the only solution I have right now (Which I’m trying to avoid, as I’ve already done it once for similar issues)

10

What about checking bootloader status by copy this command, and paste it into the terminal and press enter :

11

I get no output whatsoever to any fastboot commands, unless I do them while on the fastbootd screen. As far as my computer is concerned, when in the bootloader screen my phone is not connected at all. In fact if I run dmesg –follow from my terminal and plug my phone in, absolutely nothing happens (While it reports an expected output when the phone is turned on, or when I’m on the fastbootd screen).

12

Update from my side:

I exchanged USB port and now i get a connection with other USB cables it did not work before. I also get adb connection with these cables where only the thunderbolt one worked.

But i still don’t get a fastboot connection with the thunderbolt cable, perhaps there is an incompatibility.

Buying a new USB port was a wild guess as i have read a lot about broken USB ports on FairPhone 5. Perhaps you can try this too, was about 25EUR including shipping and only a few minutes screwing.

edit: Charging is now also a lot faster. Not needed for me, but perhaps slow charging is also an indication.

13

Swapping out the USB port was the first thing I tried :grin: but no it didn’t fix anything.

I have already returned this phone once for repair for similar issues (being unable to charge it with a normal USB charger and only from a fast charger) and I bought a new USB port to try and fix this. I then swapped the old one back in when I sent the phone back to be repaired. Then I used the new USB port again to fix the issue for this thread.