Having trouble unlocking the bootloader on FP3 during /e/ OS Instal

[Milosardinas]

Hi FP Planet,
Me and my brandnew second-hand FP3 we want to share a google-free life, so i jumped into the recent announcement of collabarating /e/ and Fairphone,
So, big adventure bigin, once all technics vocabs understrood i felt quite confident to start our liberation, using the Guide Unlocking the bootloader FP & Tuto install /e/

My device is detected by adb no prob, enable unbogged USB , enable EOM unlocked
then C:\Users\Utilisateur>adb reboot bootloader

Device rebooting, good! But then after this next cmd line its freezing, nothing happen on the device

C:\Users\Utilisateur>fastboot oem unlock
< waiting for any device >

i’ve tried with :
-In a terminal, run the following command (replace ‘code’ with the unlocking code you received in step 1. Get your unlock code):
fastboot oem unlock ‘code’
fastboot flashing unlock
fastboot oem unlock

when i’m restart until there whit this cmd
C:\Users\Utilisateur>fastboot devices
and try while device in fastboot mode, nothing shows up…

Android driver ,Changing ports , Changing cable , Reboot PC & FP3 , Start over tutos using Factory configuration , Request FP support , Request /e/ support

I’m devastated, hope a support FP Angel as (@NicoM perhaps?) could get me out of this mess or cul-de-sac -love this word dono why

Infinite Thanks for reply Je parle aussi
Almost Forgot!
[ *Android 9 update April 5th
*PC Win 7
*Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 30.0.0-6374843
Installed as C:\Users\Utilisateur\adb.exe ]

[Ingo]

When you try the fastboot commands, does the screen of the FP3 actually show that it’s in fastboot mode?

[Milosardinas]

Yes ! th for reply ! icant solve this problem alone, and for a newbie i went much more as far as i imagined
got the proof just here,
nothing when :
C:\Users\Utilisateur>fastboot devices
and when i try C:\Users\Utilisateur>fastboot oem unlock
< waiting for any device >
and its freezing, have to exit cmd, restart over

[Ingo]

It looks right in the sense that it’s in fastboot mode and should be seen from PC with fastboot devices.
I didn’t have that problem and at the moment no idea what to try.

[Milosardinas]

Yep, support on /e/ told me to :

When device is in Fastboot mode
could you try the command

fastboot devices

since device is in fastboot mode it will not be detected by adb devices command. Also check the cable or try a different port.

Maybe i’ll try to uninstall adb + driver delete path variable environnement and restart all over again…><

[msl]

I had the same problem. The USB 3 port was the problem, with USB 2 it worked.

[NicoM]

Salut Milosardinas !

I agree with previous posts, your problem most probably is not linked to your phone. It can be either:

• the cable
• the fastboot software on your computer
• USB port on your computer
• USB port on your phone

Try to check each of these.

Good luck!

[Testman]

Hi Milosardinas,

did you find a solution for the issue? I have exactly the same problem.
My Windows 10 PC detects the device perfectly, if it is not in Fastboot mode.
But as soon as I enter the fastboot mode, the phone is not found by the laptop.

Which driver is missing so that the phone is detected also in Fastboot Mode?

[AnotherElk]

Here’s a generic driver/ adb/ fastboot repair to try …

@AnotherElk

• Disconnected the phone from the computer.
• In Control Panel - Programs and Features:
  Uninstalled everything with “MTP” or “ADB” in its name.
• Rebooted Windows.
• In Control Panel - Device Manager:
  Enabled View - Show hidden devices, and then uninstalled every possible ADB, MTP and smartphone device, hidden or not.
• Rebooted Windows.
• Connected the phone again

@AnotherElk

• Downloaded the current Android SDK Platform Tools, it’s better to use these anyway.
• Unzipped the ZIP file to C:\platform-tools (you can unzip it to wherever you like).
• Added this path to the Windows “PATH” environment variable, so adb and fastboot could be run from everywhere again without always having to prefix them with C:\platform-tools\ .

[vmalep]

Hi there,

I also experienced trouble installing /e/ OS. I was following the instructions here:
https://doc.e.foundation/devices/FP3/install

And I was stuck at the command “fastboot -w” with the following error:

vmalep@l390y:~/Downloads/eOS$ fastboot -w
wiping userdata…
Invalid erase-block-size 512: must be a power of 2 and at least 4096.
Invalid logical-block-size 512: must be a power of 2 and at least 4096.
mke2fs 1.45.5 (07-Jan-2020)
/tmp/TemporaryFile-BjfriE: Unimplemented ext2 library function while setting up superblock
/usr/lib/android-sdk/platform-tools/mke2fs failed with status 1
mke2fs failed: 1
error: Cannot generate image for userdata

I eventually solved the problem replacing “fastboot -w” with “fastboot flashing unlock”. This command wipe the user data and reboot the FP3 with the initialization wizard. I stopped it and booted back in fastboot mode. I was then able to install /e/ OS (resuming with the “fastboot -w” command).

Best luck,
Pierre

[AnotherElk]

This is known for a certain batch of faulty fastboot commands in Linux,
Edit: /e/ added an additional hint to the install guide to avoid this trouble.

[Vaantallane]

For me the problem was that I had used usb-c port in back of my computer
multiple hours of unnecessary troubleshooting with usb-c to usb-c cables.

[Romeo_Kienzler]

I had to do

sudo fastboot …

[tonyclancy]

+1
“sudo” made the trick