GSI ROMs for FP4 (WIP)

[VirusBurst]

Hello there ^^

I’m asking myself whether there are any experiences with GSI ROMs for the Fairphone 4?
I switched from Fairphone OS to LineageOS 20 because of… features…

How to flash

0. Get an up-to-date fastboot on your computer (fastboot —version should give version >= 29)
1. Get vbmeta.img from https://dl.google.com/developers/android/qt/images/gsi/vbmeta.img
2. Get A/B arm64 GSI

Naming scheme for GSI ROMs

{arm|a64|arm64}_{a|b}{v|g}{N|S}-{vndklite|secure|personal}

arm: ARM 32-bit (deprecated since Android 12)
a64: ARM 32-bit with 64-bit binder
arm64: ARM 64-bit

a: “A-only”, i.e. system-as-system (deprecated since Android 12)
b: “AB”, i.e. system-as-root

v: Vanilla, i.e. no GAPPS
g: With regular GAPPS
o: With Android Go GAPPS
(f): With built-in MicroG and FLOSS replacements of GAPPS (not offered here)

N: No Superuser
S: Built with PHH Superuser (app needed)
(Z): Built with eremitein’s Dynamic Superuser (not offered here)

vndklite: For VNDKLite devices or for read-writeable /system on regular devices
secure: Superuser removed and system props spoofed, for better chances of passing SafetyNet
personal: With personal mods, for reference

Sideload => SLIM means with GApps but reduced… depends on maintainer, which one are preloaded…

3. From running Android, do adb reboot bootloader and select fastboot
4. fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img
5. fastboot reboot fastboot
6. fastboot flash system system-xxxx.img
   6bis. If fastboot tells you there isn’t enough place, do fastboot delete-logical-partition product, fastboot delete-logical-partition producta, fastboot delete-logical-partition productb and run the fastboot flash command again
7. On your phone, the screen should have a button “go back to recovery”, select it, then select “factory reset / wipe data” (for clean flash)
8. Reboot and enjoy
9. If you want to flash additional ZIPs, boot to TWRP => Wipe => Advnace Wipe => select System => Repair or change file system => Resize File System => DONE

ROM	Flash method	Base ROM (what was before)	Results
AncientOS v7.1 vanilla	clean flash	LineageOS 20 w/o Magisk	(Works fine, daily usage aborted for personal reasons)
AncientOS v7.1 vanilla	dirty flash	LineageOS 20 w/ BitGApps & Magisk
crDroid GSI v9.9	dirty flash	LineageOS 20 w/ BitGApps & Magisk
crDroid GSI v9.9	clean flash	LineageOS 20 w/o Magisk	(Boots up but after unlocking the touchscreen stops responding)
crDroid GSI v10.0	clean flash	STOCK (FP4-TP1V-factory)
SparkOS v13.7	dirty flash	LineageOS 20 w/ BitGApps & Magisk

[yvmuell]

the search function might give answers

LeOS - a PHH AOSP based GSI custom ROM

Hi Community and @harvey186 recently I have finally installed /e/OS on my FP4, having my previous FP2 with /e/OS as a backup in this “transition phase”. But I want to give LeOS a chance. It is based on the latest version of Android, if I understand this right: »LeOS-S is based on PHH AOSP / latest version«. At least the installation seems to be easy, too – even for me ;-): Accordingly, my question: has anybody experiences using this combination or just using LeOS? … or what…

[VirusBurst]

Generic System Image (GSI) list

And the other one here? I mean, I could flash every day or week a new GSI ROM, but that’s just me…

Who knows, if someone else did that already like the idea of soldering a 2nd SIM card slot to the left solder pads and implement a small switch to switch between eSIM or 2nd physical SIM ^^

[danielzhang130]

my GSI for FP3 could theoretically work on a FP4, or any other phone, because it’s a GSI

Android 13 with gapps for Fairphone FP3(+) (Treble GSI)

Current version Android 13 release 18 security path December 2022 Status It works on my FP3+ ™. Use at your own risk. You can report issues here Issues · danielzhang130/aosp_changes · GitHub, but I’m not going to guarantee a reply. Download link Screenshots [Screenshot_20221230-102516][Screenshot_20221230-102649] [Screenshot_20221230-102758][Screenshot_20221230-110138] [Screenshot_20221230-110245][Screenshot_20221230-110236] [Screenshot_20221230-110320][Screenshot_20221230-110340] …

[VirusBurst]

Weird… I can’t edit my first post… meeh!

I’m currently experimenting with GSI ROMs and so far, I BELIEVE to understand how GSI works
(Please correct me, I didn’t read the technical stuff YET, I’m only talking about experiences!)

I’ve noticed that nowadays, there is a /vendor partition and there seems to be many hardware related stuff inside like drivers, config files and so on…

I have a tablet with /vendor which I had to modify to slim down the stock Android…

Now I’m abusing my old Sony XZ2C for testing and so far, every GSI works fine…
I’m thinking about to test soon how dirty flashing works out for people, who doesn’t want to config everything again although I would NEVER recommend doing this if you don’t use AOSP or LineageOS before (these ROMs are mostly used as a base for custom ROM and they are pretty bare…)

I also won’t test many GSI ROMs because I only have ONE main phone… I try to get hold of a FP4 for cheap for development purposes! But feel free to test some GSI ROMs and report your experiences

Wish me luck!

[yvmuell]

Made it a wiki if you want to edit the first post still

[VirusBurst]

@yvmuell Do you know, how I can resize the system partition? It need space for GApps installation

[yvmuell]

no I dont know, maybe this helps

Softbrick after repartition

That tutorial is for a completely different device… How far did you get in the process and did you follow this step? Save the output of the command above (this is very important to restore original partition table if you will run into issues in the next parts) Do you have logs of the exact commands you used?