Call for testing: Google/Huawei Nexus 6P (angler) owners

flohack

Good News! Nexus 6P is now finally installable with the UBports Installer!

Well after we fix a small thing - but its just a matter of a few days. With that you will be onboarding the OTA update channels and can finally keep up with latest changes without halium-install. Another goodie: It will install everything to the system partition, making more free space on data. Not that angler users need more space but who knows ^^

A Former User

@Flohack
Will there be any checkbox to choose whether to install 4 cores or 8 cores boot image ?
or it will be manual ?

flohack

@HMZ47 Theoretically we can have 2 devices listed but that is a problem for the final solution since it needs to duplicate everything just because of a different kernel cmdline. I will discuss with the guys what we can do here.

augustblake

I’m thinking of grabbing my brothers nexus 6p should. This is awesome.

phillipprado

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has been working on this port! I've been quietly watching the Nexus 6P Ubuntu Touch development for months now, and I can't wait to see this support land in the installer!

A Former User

@Flohack
Hi, I don't think it's a big deal but i want to mention it as a tester, when you enable keyboard sound, u can't control it, to be specific the keyboard sound stuck in the maximum volume no matter what the system volume level is.

flohack

@HMZ47 Ok that sounds like an operating system issue, can you confirm this with another device?

A Former User

@Flohack
unfortunately i can't, nexus 6p is the only phone i have that supports Ubuntu touch, hopefully other guys in this port with another device can confirm this.

lgtrombetta

@HMZ47 said in Call for testing: Google/Huawei Nexus 6P (angler) owners:

@Flohack
Hi, I don't think it's a big deal but i want to mention it as a tester, when you enable keyboard sound, u can't control it, to be specific the keyboard sound stuck in the maximum volume no matter what the system volume level is.

@Flohack @HMZ47 I can confirm this both in the N6P and in the pinephone.

flohack

A small but beautiful improvement made today: Date and Time is now persisted correctly across reboots, even without network connection. Before we were thrown to 1970 everytime ...

Note that I am not uploading a new system.img because I somehow cannot get Bluetooth to work reliably and I am looking into this now. Also I am waiting for the next installer release still, so unfortunately still no installable image.

trashcat

Hey, i was wondering if you still need testers for this port. I have an old 6P laying around ive ive already flashed ubports to it. Its acyually the device im typing this on. Im really interested in seeing this project succeed. Im not a developer but im willing to help in any way i can!

flohack

@trashcat Sure we love more testers ^^ I would ask you specifically to test the installer, as I made some progress now, and that would mean you can already try to use the UBports Installer instead of the manual way.

As a first step, please reset it to stock Android 7.1.2 from Google download page, as this contains vendor binaries that we need.

flohack

@trashcat Ah sorry now I read your post fully. Okay so if UT is already there, we can still test the installer. I will give you instructions when I am at home today

potet

I also haven't gotten around to installing it yet (busy times), but I did reset my Nexus 6P to the four-core 7.1.2 following your instructions. Even ended up having to use it as a daily driver for a while, so thanks for pointing me in that direction!

I now have a new daily driver, and would be happy to test the installer on the 6P if that would be helpful.

flohack

@potet Cool! You can also try the eight-core TWRP e.g.? Because current image that I am providing will be 8-cores...

potet

So I would have to reinstall TWRP, for eight cores this time? I'll give it a go.

trashcat

@Flohack no worries, I have no problem reflashing android to test the installer. The 6P isn't my daily driver so it's no problem at all.

flohack

Ok.. here it is:

How To install Nexus 6P with the Installer

NOTE: Installer is still in Beta, and the config is not officially approved. Therefore this method does only work for Linux!

Please download this beta version of the installer: https://github.com/ubports/ubports-installer/releases/tag/0.5.2-beta
Download this device config file: http://twoot.bin.org.in/nextcloud/index.php/s/fngSq5eFFoMBCYo
start the installer with -f angler.json (You must be in the same directory for that to work)

Prerequisites:

Install stock Android ROM 7.1.2 (Only needed if you are on a different version now)
Download latest Android platform-tools to have access to fastboot and adb commands (the ones from Ubuntu etc. wont work, as they re too old)
Device will reboot, and take an awful time to encrypt all partitions
Start from here if 7.1.2 was installed already: Download TWRP recovery for Nexus 6P
Reboot to bootloader (Vol-Down and PWR until the green droid appears), connect USB cable and unlock the bootloader with fastboot flashing unlock
Flash TWRP recovery with fastboot flash recovery twrp...img
Select Recovery with the volume buttons and boot into TWRP
Confirm writable mode there
Format all partitions (Wipe is not enough) to destroy disk encryption
Now you can startup the installer and proceed with the bootstrapoption ticked
Make sure you select any of the arm64/hybris/stable channels.

Note: There is unfortunately NO progressbar in the system-image updater (Yumi mascot with blinking eyes). Thats something that can be frustrating, and we hope to fix it one day.

A Former User

@Flohack is it gonna work fro BLOD users ?

because i tried it :face_with_tongue: and i end up with infinite bootloop, and the installer stuck at preparing system image .:frowning_face:

potet

I'm writing this from Ubuntu Touch on the Nexus 6p, so safe to say I got it working. Impressed so far. Thank you!

I did encounter some problems, and made it work on the third try. Unfortunately, these these issues were born out of my stupidity, to the point where I'm kind of surprised it's working right now. This probably makes bug testing the installer less fruitful - sorry about that.

In case you'd still be interested in my experience with thr installer, here it goes:

I decided to be lazy and not install the 8 core image first, to see what would happen. What happened was that the (desktop) installer finished without error, but with a warning before "all done":

warn: undefined {"service":"user-service"}

This resulted in the system booting straight into the ubports recovery, with no blinking mascot or anything.

I then decided to try to flash the 8 core version. This is where I was real stupid/tired, and I flashed it as recovery instead of boot.

Weird thing is, next attempt to install did work out better: No warning, and the blinking mascot showed up after the reboot. However, instead of booting thr system got stuck at an infinite splash screen (the Google one).

As true stupidity is doing the same thing several times expecting different results, this is what I did. I just ran the same exact commands as last time, flashing the boot image into recovery. Only difference is that I chose the 'edge' release channel, but I doubt that made any difference.

In conclusion, the weird part is really that it did work, rather than the bugs along the way. The only error I managed to produce was if I tried wiping ubports data from the ubports recovery screen (after both failed installs):

Wiping ubuntu data...
E:unknown volume for path [/cache]
Formatting /cache...
E:unknown volume for path [/cache]
E:unknown volume "/cache"
Data wipe complete

The only constructive thing I can say regarding the installer is really that expectations for what is supposed to happen could have been clearer: That you're supposed (I assume) to see the boot screen flashing on and going into black a few times while it installs the system. I didn't know if it was supposed to stay in recovery or linger on the splash screen, so I just left it for a while in both positions for good measure.

But now it works beautifully, despite my worst attempts!