✏ Installing Fairphone Open OS using Fastboot (Step-by-step Guide) (outdated)

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WARNING

This will erase all data on your Fairphone 2. Make a backup or don’t care.

1 What is Fastboot?

Fastboot is two things (to keep things simple)

  1. A way to start up your FP2. This allows you to connect to your FP2 from a computer with Fastboot
  2. Software on your computer you use to connect to a FP2 in fastboot mode.

2 How to install adb and fastboot on your computer

The information displayed in this section is taken from the guide on wiki.lineageos.org (CC-BY-SA), except the preferred Linux instructions. Adding adb and fastboot to the PATH has the advantage that both commands can be executed anywhere from a terminal/command prompt.

2.1 On Windows

  1. Download the Windows zip from Google.
  2. Extract it somewhere - for example, %USERPROFILE%\adb-fastboot

2.1.1 Windows 7/8

  1. From the desktop, right-click My Computer and select Properties
  2. In the System Properties window, click on the Advanced tab
  3. In the Advanced section, click the Environment Variables button
  4. In the Environment Variables window, highlight the Path variable in the Systems Variable section and click the Edit button
  5. Append ;%USERPROFILE%\adb-fastboot\platform-tools to the end of the existing Path definition (the semi-colon separates each path entry)

2.1.2 Windows 10

  1. Open the Start menu, and type “advanced system settings”
  2. Select “View advanced system settings”
  3. Click on the Advanced tab
  4. Open the “Environment Variables” window
  5. Select the Path variable under “System Variables” and click the “Edit” button
  6. Click the “Edit Text” button
  7. Append ;%USERPROFILE%\adb-fastboot\platform-tools to the end of the existing Path definition (the semi-colon separates each path entry)
  8. Install the universal adb driver and reboot

2.2 On macOS

  1. Download the macOS zip from Google.
  2. Extract it somewhere - for example, ~/adb-fastboot
  3. Add the following to ~/.bash_profile:
    if [ -d "$HOME/adb-fastboot/platform-tools" ] ; then export PATH="$HOME/adb-fastboot/platform-tools:$PATH" fi
  4. Log out and back in

2.3 On Linux or Unix

2.3.1 The preferred way

  1. Open a terminal window
  2. Depending on your distribution do the following:
  • On Fedora issue
    sudo dnf install android-tools
  • On Ubuntu and Debian issue
    sudo apt install adb fastboot
  • [Add instructions for your favourite distribution here by editing this Wiki]

2.3.2 The alternative way

This may be needed if your distribution doesn’t have adb and fastboot in its repositories.

  1. Download the Linux zip from Google.
  2. Extract it somewhere - for example, ~/adb-fastboot
  3. Add the following to ~/.profile:
    if [ -d "$HOME/adb-fastboot/platform-tools" ] ; then export PATH="$HOME/adb-fastboot/platform-tools:$PATH" fi
  4. Log out and back in.
  5. You may also need to set up udev rules: see this repository for more info.

3 How to start the FP2 in Fastboot mode

3.1 From the Fairphone device

  1. Disconnect your FP2 from your computer
  2. Shutdown the FP2
  3. Press and hold down the Volume down button while pressing the Power button

3.2 From a computer with adb installed

  1. Connect your FP2 to your computer if not already connected
  2. Enable USB Debugging in your phones developer preferences
  3. Check connectivity to your phone by issuing
    adb devices
    from a terminal or the Command Prompt
  4. This should display your device’s serial number together with the word device.
  5. Reboot the phone to Fastboot mode by issuing
    adb reboot bootloader

The black startup screen with the logo of Fairphone and Android will appear and stay. This means the phone is now in Fastboot mode.

Now that you have Fastboot working and you are able to connect to it from your computer, we can proceed to the next step: flashing your Fairphone 2 with a fresh copy of Fairphone Open OS!

4 Installing the latest version of Fairphone Open OS on your FP2 using Fastboot

Source: code.fairphone.com

  1. Download the manual update package from this page
  2. Change into the directory where the package is downloaded
  3. Extract the package:
  • On Windows: Use your favourite packing application (e. g. 7-Zip)
  • On macOS: Do the appropriate steps (please update this step with useful information by editing this Wiki!)
  • On Linux or Unix: Issue unzip fp2-sibon-xx.yy.z-manual-userdebug.zip from a terminal (where xx resembles the year, yy the month and z the version)
  1. Connect the phone to a computer if not already connected
  2. Boot your phone into fastboot mode (as described above)
  3. Start the installation
  • On Windows issue
    flash-for-windows.bat
    from the Command Prompt
  • On macOS issue
    flash-for-mac.command
    from the Terminal application
  • On Linux or Unix issue
    sudo sh flash-for-unix.sh
    from a terminal

NOTE: The file name changes when a new version is released, therefore change the name of the file accordingly.

5 How to leave Fastboot mode

In case you want to leave Fastboot mode with unfinished business the following might be for you.

5.1 From the Fairphone device

  1. Hold down the Power button for 10 seconds
  2. Your FP2 will restart in normal mode (this might take longer than normal, so sit back and wait)

5.2 From a computer with fastboot installed

  1. Connect your FP2 to your computer if not already connected
  2. Check connectivity to your phone by issuing
  • On Windows issue
    fastboot devices
    from the Command Prompt
  • On macOS issue
    fastboot devices
    from the Terminal application
  • On Linux or Unix issue
    sudo fastboot devices
    from a terminal
  1. Reboot the phone:
  • On Windows issue
    fastboot reboot
    from the Command Prompt
  • On macOS issue
    fastboot reboot
    from the Terminal application
  • On Linux or Unix issue
    sudo fastboot reboot
    from a terminal

Your Fairphone 2 should now reboot and be completely fresh, without the G Suite (formerly Google Mobile Services).

I hope you made it and I hope you liked my first tutorial on the Fairphone forum!

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