Motorola Moto E 2015 4G/LTE (surnia)

[impreza233]

That’s the Motorola Moto E 2015 4G/LTE, codenamed “surnia”. Since the middle of 2018 I had been working on that phone as an Halium porting (there had been some questions about that at this forum). Luckily, thanks to the forum user @bartbart2003 and the forum user @guf, we have been capable of booting and using Ubuntu Touch (UBPorts) on that phone, and we have resumed that project that I left because kernel panics and bootloops. Its specifications are here:

-Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916); 4-core Cortex A53 @1,2 Ghz
-1 GB of RAM
-8 GB of internal memory
-4,5” 960x540 screen
-Rest of specs: https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_e_(2nd_gen)-6986.php
-Models: XT1524, XT1526 and XT1527 (DO NOT confuse with XT1511 and XT1505, as that phones are only 3G and non-compatible with this port)

So, at this moment, we have that things:

Working:

Boot
Touchscreen
WiFi
Rotation, brightness, proximity sensors
Mobile network (mobile data, SMS, calls but NO AUDIO)
Hardware buttons (Power and Volume)
WiFi hotspot (buggy, WiFi stops working PERMANENTLY after starting it)
GPS
Vibrator
Notification LED
AppArmor
USB OTG
Time between reboots
microSD card
Offline charging (with graphics)
MTP access (read/write)

Partially working:

Camera (taking photos works with both cameras but video recording broken)
Audio in calls
Timekeeper (you have to store time manually due to the shutdown issue)

Not working:

Bluetooth
Shutdown/reboot from system
RAM management: no swap implemented at this moment
Anbox: It won’t be fixed by our part, because performance issues (mostly related with the very low RAM) make that Android apps would not fire up on this device. If someone manages to get anbox with apps working, please, say it on the thread for further inspection. It will be very appreciated.

At this moment, we have tested on that rootfs exposed, and it has worked:

-UT edge rootfs: http://ci.ubports.com/job/xenial-hybris-edge-rootfs-armhf/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/out/ubuntu-touch-hybris-xenial-edge-armhf-rootfs.tar.gz

-Plasma Mobile https://images.plasma-mobile.org/caf-rootfs/pm-rootfs-20190703-055501.tar.gz. See also https://docs.halium.org/en/latest/porting/install-build/plasma-mobile.html

-Halium-based rootfs https://docs.halium.org/en/latest/porting/install-build/reference-rootfs.html

The installation instructions are the next (assuming that you have the TWRP installed on the phone, or some recovery with Busybox support, and, of course, bootloader unlocked):

0-THIS WILL WIPE ENTIRELY YOUR DEVICE AND YOU WILL NEED TO CHANGE THE FILE SYSTEM OF /DATA TO EXT4 FROM F2FS IN TWRP BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. AND, IT IS A MUST REQUIREMENT DOING A NANDROID OF YOUR CURRENT ROM WITH TWRP: TWRP Home >> Wipe >> Advanced Wipe >> tick data >> Repair or Change File System >> Change File System >> EXT4 >> Swipe to change.

1-Download halium-boot

https://mega.nz/file/6TRRgAAa#YjtJ35nXxIMS_tVyaURRHuJfvjx3mxLFY1H6WWzD_Z4

Boot in Recovery Mode (Power + volume down buttons) and flash it with:

fastboot flash boot /path-to the image of halium-boot/halium-boot.img

2-Download system.img and halium-install.zip

system.img: https://mega.nz/file/GXBVAQyA#w68fYNKZ3He4Zg69QC9bkvQI8702ZAho4M4TVmKdfxg

halium-install: https://gitlab.com/JBBgameich/halium-install/-/archive/master/halium-install-master.zip

Decompress halium-install.zip in a place where you remember. After that, get into the folder via Terminal (in the shell type "cd/(path to the folder where you have the folder halium-install)/halium-install". Be here all the rest of the install instructions).

3-Download the latest rootfs from UBPorts:

https://ci.ubports.com/job/xenial-rootfs-armhf/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/out/ubports-touch.rootfs-xenial-armhf.tar.gz

4-Boot into TWRP recovery (or your recovery with BusyBox) and run this command (in the folder halium-install):

halium-install -p ut -v path/to/rootfs.tar.gz path/to/system.img

Put a password that you can remember when prompted. Wait, and it should flash all succesfully, if all goes well and there aren't error messages.

5- Finally, reboot the phone, it should boot Ubuntu Touch and it should appear on the bootscreen. The lockscreen password is the same as the password you made before in the halium-install script. You can remove it if you want in the Settings.

Repositories in GitHub:

@bartbart2003 (main): https://github.com/bartbart2003/android_kernel_motorola_msm8916 and https://github.com/bartbart2003/android_device_motorola_surnia / https://github.com/bartbart2003/android_device_motorola_msm8916-common

@impreza233 (mirror): https://github.com/impreza233/android_kernel_motorola_msm8916 and https://github.com/impreza233/android_device_motorola_surnia / https://github.com/impreza233/android_device_motorola_msm8916-common

Halium device manifest: https://github.com/bartbart2003/local_manifest_surnia / https://github.com/impreza233/local_manifest_surnia (mirror)

Halium project management page: https://github.com/Halium/projectmanagement/issues/97