Installing /e/OS on Fairphone 2

I recently replaced my 8 year old FP2 with an FP4, and would like to install /e/OS on the old FP2, to use this with apps I don’t want on my new phone.

On the FP2 I am running Android 10 with Fairphone Open build number 23.02.0-rel.0. I have enabled Developer options.

I have read the installation instructions for FP2 on both the e.Foundation website and this guide on the Fairphone site. I have also looked at another related thread on the community forum.

These are all slightly helpful, but also confusing, because they mix together instructions that are relevant for an installation using a Windows PC, and Linux/Unix instructions, so when I run into a problem, the solution generally involves Linux, which I don’t use and am totally unfamiliar with (also Unix coding replicators like Git Bash).

I am trying to run the installation from a Windows laptop. Initially I tried from a Windows 7 machine, with no success (phone not recognised using adb devices command).

I have now tried using a Windows 10 laptop, and got as far as the device being recognised with adb devices (I cleared the “unauthorized” status) and getting the phone to bootloader mode using the adb reboot bootloader command.

I am unable to get the phone recognised using fastboot devices at this point, and any other commands (e.g. flash…, adb reboot recovery) get a “no devices/emulators found” message.

I have tried downloading and installing USD drivers for the FP2 on my laptop, but Windows 10 insists I have the most up to date driver (MTP), and will not install any of the Google USB drivers I have downloaded.

I tried installing Git Bash but I have no idea how to get this to work, there is no adequate explanation of even basic commands (such as change directory), so this option is not worth pursuing.

I have installed e/OS on my FP4 and this was reasonably painless (still took 2 days and required me reverting to my Windows 7 laptop to complete the process), but this came with a Windows installer so not so hard.

Are there any unambiguous installation instructions written entirely for Windows machines (i.e. that don’t ask you to enter “subo” as part of a command line) that anyone could point me towards ?

As an alternative I could try and install the original Fairphone Google OS, which is not my preferred option, but if this is easier and doesn’t require extensive programming language knowledge, I can try that.

Any help gratefully received.

You need fastboot driver most likely, see here

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Thanks very much, that seemed to work, but now I have a new problem.

I updated the fastboot driver as per the guide, and my laptop now recognises the FP2 as a fastboot device.

Following the installing /e/ on the FP2 guide I flashed twrp 3.2.3-0-FP2.img onto the phone and TWRP screen appeared. I took a backup onto the internal storage of the FP2 (to move it onto my laptop later) and also installed the TWRP app, then restarted the phone.

Now when I power on I get a Android Recovery Cannot load Android system message, with options to Try again or Factory data reset.

I have tried rebooting several times, same message.

I have tried Factory reset three times, same message.

I have powered on with the Volume Down button into fastboot mode and plugged it back into the laptop, then tried “fastboot reboot recovery” from the command screen in Platform Tools folder. Same message.

I can’t seem to reboot into recovery mode (with the Volume Up button ?).

I have tried to reboot to bootloader and recovery using fastboot from the command screen, the phone just stays in fastboot mode.

I haven’t tried “fastboot boot recovery twrp.img” to reboot into TWRP recovery yet.

Any suggestions on how to resurrect the FP2, or have I bricked it ?

Fastboot=bootloader

Why did you install the TWRP App?

Just manual install FPOS and then you can go from there. Sure TWRP is lost then and if you havent moved your back-up already thats gone as well.

I dont think thats a valid command

So phone turned off and than you restarted by power plus Vol-up till it vibrates?

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Thanks for responding so promptly.

I don’t know why I installed the twrp app, think I had read somewhere on a forum that it was the best way to update twrp later if that was useful. Obviously not a good idea.

Having left the phone off for a while, I can now power it up in Android Recovery mode.

I tried “Reboot system now” and got the same result as before. But I have got it back into Android Recovery mode again now.

Should I now try a manual install of FPOS, and then install /e/OS, or just go stratight to /e/OS ?

If I should install FPOS first, which is the best version to install ?

Thanks.

I don’t see a reason why you should install FPOS first.
Just start /e/OS installation using fastboot and it should overwrite/install everything.

Thanks everyone who provided support. I have finally managed to restore e/OS/ onto my Fairphone 2 running Android 10.

I realised eventually that the phone had defaulted back to Android recovery, overwriting twrp, so I needed to reinstall twrp. Steps were as follows:

  • Restart phone by holding down power and volume up key.
  • Re-install twrp (I used version 3.2.3-0-FP2) using the instructions here.
  • Installed /e/OS/ for Fairphone 2 using the instructions here (see section 3).
  • Note – I needed to install this file: e-2.1-r-20240606407290-dev-FP2.zip not the file with the same file name prefixed by IMG.

I wasn’t able to backup my old settings using twrp to an SD card as my FP2 isn’t reading the SD card slot (a problem for another post), but otherwise everything else worked out fine from following the above instructions.

I wasted a lot of time trying to work out how to use Git Bash, or how to convert Unix commands into Windows equivalents (short version – you can’t). I’m sure these are great instructions if using Linux or familiar with Git Bash or similar Unix emulators, but didn’t work for me with Windows.

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