Flashing LineageOS is not working

Help Fairphone 2
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I never thought I would ever need to write a topic about help for flashing a LineageOS again, but I was proven wrong.

Disclaimer: I am expirienced with flashing devices with LineageOS. I have done many, I have done different.

First after I received my fresh Fairphone 2 I tried flashing the OTA supported TWRP as described here. I successfully flashed TWRP via fastboot, rebooted into recovery, blue screen. (Although the phone is recognized via MTP)

Fun fact: Never thought I would encounter a blue screen ever again either. Linux for about 3 years now…

So I tried flashing the Open Source Fairphone OS first knowing they have TWRP delivered with it. It worked (although the OS itself is a mess, but thats a different story)

Then I tried flashing LineageOS with the now working TWRP. (after factory reset that is) Everything worked fine. (despite two “unknown command” errors which cannot be found in TWRP log) I flashed the modem and microG after flashing LineageOS just to be sure everything is in place, reboot into system… You can think about what happens next, right… Blue screen. :confounded:

After that I tried unlocking oem in developer options. Unlocking via fastboot (obviously none of it worked, because fp2 is already unlocked, duh…) But I always end up with this mysterious blue screen.

I am more than frustrated to see that every attempt to use custom software, which is stated to be working, fails… Please if anyone had similar problems, tell me your story!

Regards,
Chris alias Lazalatin

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I never had a blue screen. I think this is pre-OS.
Pinging @z3ntu

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If this case is unique to people, who flashed LineageOS already, I would assume that this may be a hardware-related problem. That would lead me to the conclusion that only the fairphone support can help… (and in solution a new phone. sadly) But maybe @z3ntu does know more about that :slight_smile:

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I messed around a lot with my phone OS-wise for fun and for months now, never got the trouble you describe.

I guess Fairphone support will be no big help with a TWRP version not coming with Fairphone Open OS and with OSes other than Fairphone OS or Fairphone Open OS. They just don’t officially support community-driven alternatives, understandably.

Factory reset in Fairphone Open OS, which doesn’t do much? …

Oh, and always good for testing:

https://forum.fairphone.com/t/howto-use-twrp-without-flashing-it-e-g-for-backup/23747

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You got me wrong here. I was assuming that something is wrong with the hardware in which case Fairphone support would be able to help me. But this is to be proven yet, so I quit making fast assumptions.

I remember reading that post. Of course it does not do much, but It does not hurt :wink:

Tried that, but every TWRP image I can get for fp2 is failing with:

downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  0.486s] 
booting...
FAILED (remote: bootimage: incomplete or not signed)

But thanks for your input, anyways!
What is really messing with my mind is, that FairphoneOS itself has no issues, Open OS works partially and delivers a working TWRP but every attempt to flash a newer TWRP myself or flash another OS with the TWRP from the Open OS fails with that blue screen…

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You get this with the signed TWRP image from the HowTo?
Really puzzling.

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Nevermind, I did try with the versions I got from TWRP website and from the LineageOS How-To. Using the signed .img from your link again shows me a blue screen after boot into recovery. So no success with that either.

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I can safety guess that your FP2 is shiny new? Which FP OS version it came with?

I may have a theory, but as it involves some sensitive, non-public Fairphone info (yet), I’ll contact the person who trusted me that info and ask for permission to share it in the public. It has to be with hardware and would explain your situation, if I’m not wrong.

Could you try an older FP Open 5.1 release in the meantime? The last 5.1 manual ZIP is here: https://storage.googleapis.com/fairphone-updates/a88b516b-d990-4219-aef1-c23b3c30c104/fp2-sibon-17.04.0-manual-userdebug.zip (don’t forget to wipe your data first, as it’s not backwards compatible). You should see an equally blue screen once booted, if my theory is true.

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Yes, I am sure, because my delivery was delayed due to the display shortage with Fairphone2 models. This device was delivered with the most recent FairphoneOS FP2-gms-17.07.6.1

EDIT: I will tried out and most interestingly the outcome is even worse. The device rumbles on turning on but the screen stays dark the whole time. No startup splash, nothing. I will return into fastboot mode and reflash the recent Android 6.0 FairphoneOS.

EDIT2: I forgot to wipe beforehand. Stay tuned…

EDIT3: Wiping is not possible due to the fact that I can not get into recovery or use adb while the phone is detected. So this is all I can tell now.

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Ok, fine, that fact should prove my theory correct. I’ll return with the info later when I get the permission to share, or some FP staff will reply here with it. Sorry for the delay involved, I don’t want to leak anything to the detriment of Fairphone.

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Thats fine to me. Thank you all for your time and work!
I am looking forward to hearing from you.

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Oops. It seems like my theory does not correspond with your issue after all because the information I had was about a development process not deployed yet. So… I’m out of ideas now, :confused:

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Well, same here. I am quite sure I tried everything in order.
But just to be sure I will retell my try here, maybe someone notices an error.

  1. I tried flashing the TWRP with OTA Fix as it can be found in this thread via fastboot. This attempt failed, as the screen turns blue when booting into recovery, but the phone is recognized via MTP.
  2. I tried flashing a TWRP without this Fix, directly downloaded at TWRP Project website. Same result.
  3. I learned that Open Source FairphoneOS is delivered with TWRP preinstalled. Its Version is older (3.0.2-0 instead of 3.1.1-0 from point 2), but works like a charm. So I flashed the Open Source FairphoneOS, which works.
  4. I tried flashing LineageOS for FP2 as described in this thread using the TWRP I flashed at point 3. Trying to boot the flashed LineageOS also ends up with that blue screen from points 1&2.

So I finally decided to stay with OpenSource FairphoneOS because I am in control of my device then and can make a living without Googles “Services”. But I would like LineageOS 14.1 to run on my device, because I started to like it on my tablet. Maybe someday, someone has an idea about this. Maybe I forgot to make a vital step while flashing, I have no idea…

But anyway: Thanks for your investigation @Roboe :slight_smile:

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It doesn’t seems like that. As you don’t have issues with official software, FP Support won’t give you further support, naturally.

Better ask known community developers to help you debug that. Could you @z3ntu look at this? I’m not sure how to get logs or dmesg or something to debug low-level thingies.

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Just to be shure: You didn’t forget to do a factiry reset within TWRP, before flashing the LineageOS on to your device?

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If adb is available while booting, the output of adb logcat would be the most important.

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I did reset beforehand, thanks. Forgot to mention that :wink:

Unfortunately when having flashed the recent LineageOS version I cannot access the device via adb because lack of authorization.
Is there a way to authorize my laptop prior to booting the (newly flashed) system?

EDIT: I know I can add my adb pubkey to the FP2 /data partition, but in order to boot a new system /data should be wiped right?

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If you enter the following command from the recovery, it will disable the adb key authorization: sed -i 's/ro.adb.secure=1/ro.adb.secure=0/' /system/build.prop

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Okay, I really do not know what exactly is happening, but I am not able to flash the recent lineageOS version with the TWRP delivered with the FPOpenOS version anymore. So no testing and no logcat, sadly. I read in the thread regarding the LineageOS port, that there are new blobs now coming with sibon-17.07.6? Maybe the now blobs can help with the issue?

EDIT: AFAIK recent lineageOS builds are shipped with blobs from sibon-17.04.8 so maybe an update of the blobs could help?

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