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

potet · 3 Oct 2020, 10:16

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!

flohack · 3 Oct 2020, 15:05

Hmm strange problems seem to happen here. The installer is beta, so it might contain a few bugs, but none of what you described should happen.

The order from being in TWRP should be:
If bootstrap was selected:

Booting into fastboot mode either automatically or manually
Flashing recovery into boot and recovery partitions
reboot, goes into boot which is temporarily holding a recovery image
No bootstrap was selected:
Reboot to already installed recovery

Common:

Download latest roofs and system image
Push with adb to /cache folder/partition
Push command file for installer
Reboot to recovery once more
Recovery detects command file, and will move files into place - This will take a longer time
Reboot to final boot image
It can also stay on the boot logo forever then, since it will run an fsck on the newly created image.

Nerfiaux · 4 Oct 2020, 00:10

Hi, I did try to install ubuntu touch on my nexus 6P, with the installer.
I have all the prerequisites : the latest 7.1.2 flashed and USB debug activated
Rebooted with adb reboot bootloader.
then i flash the TWRP recovery.
Wiped and format all.
If we could have more precision on which partition to wipe or not and which to format, it would be great
Then I launched the installer.
Everything went well so far.

On the reboot of the phone I could see the robot blinking but I could not see the progress bar.
Finaly it reboots and I get stuck on the goolge Logo with the padlock unlocked :crying_face: !!!

What can I do ?

I did try the procedure several time by reflashing the 7.1.2 stock rom.
I can tell that if you wipe the cache with twrp you have to repair it otherwise you get the same thing than "potet"

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

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!

trashcat · 4 Oct 2020, 22:43

Just reflashed ubports using the installer. No problems on my end!

trashcat · 5 Oct 2020, 02:50

I've found that importing contacts from Google doesnt really work. It works at first but shortly after import they all disappear.

flohack · 5 Oct 2020, 10:42

@trashcat Yeah Google problems is a big deal, but this is not a problem of a device port. Its affecting all devices.

flohack · 5 Oct 2020, 10:43

@Nerfiaux since idk what things being encrypted by Goole´s stock ROM format all partitions that can be formatted with TWRP. Just to be sure

flohack · 5 Oct 2020, 20:24

Guys from the early days: Anyone who used halium-install willing to try the installer? If its uccessful, you would however need to clean up 2 files from the /data directory on the data partition. And to do this, you need the unlocked recovery. The installer will lock the recovery, so its probably best to do it before the installer does its magic.

lgtrombetta · 5 Oct 2020, 20:39

@Flohack I was thinking on trying it. Which two files am I supposed to remove from /data?

By the way, is the userdata partition preserved?

Also, why does the recovery get locked?

flohack · 5 Oct 2020, 22:02

@lgtrombetta Basically its rootfs.img and system.img both in /data directory. We have to use the classic install method for the OTA upgrades to work, and that moves that content into /system. The nice thing about it is that you have approx 2GB more space on userdata partition now.

The userdata partition is preserved, note that Ubuntu Touch stores all user-modifyable content in 2 folders actually, user-data and system-data both in /data again.

The recovery is locked as it seems someone wanted to increase the protection level of the phone, but tbh it makes not much sense if the bootloader is still unlocked - So, grab the unlocked recovery from here, and replace it to get access: https://ci.ubports.com/job/Device Compatibility Images/job/halium-angler/14/artifact/halium-unlocked-recovery_angler.img

Depending on the channel you choose in the installer you can have weekly or daily updates of the rootfs now! devel is built at least once per day, sometimes even more often, RC is built every Wed I think. So you can now participate in the latest gossip if you like

Nerfiaux · 5 Oct 2020, 23:09

@Flohack Thank you, I think the main issue was that i did not choose the edge release channel.
When I did select it all went well !:thumbs_up:

First time I use ubuntu touch.
I knew Meamo, Meego, Android, iOS, Sailfisos,PostMarketOS, quite impressed with ubuntu touch.
Thank you for your work !

I have an issue on WiFi.
On android I had to insert a european SIM card so that the country region for Wifi would change and allow me to select SSID on channel over 11.
I have inserted sim card but I don't see my access point on channel 13...
What can be done ?
Any info on the fingerprint feature ?

flohack · 6 Oct 2020, 05:58

@Nerfiaux Ohhh I should mentioned that! Yes sure, the channel selection, will fix that now...

But: arm64/hybris channels are the ones which should work actually. Edge is a very experimental channel, and it might break your phone frequently

flohack · 6 Oct 2020, 06:10

@Nerfiaux Ok so for WiFi: Thats a problem we dont know how to solve. Android has some magic there. We might be able to somewhat configure that off the locale you have selected, but yes, that would be a really static thing. So for the moment no solution for channel 13, sorry.

Fingerprint: UT supports unlocking with fingerprint, but nobody rewrote the middleware driver for that so far. I will have a look when I have time. It works actually already for Android-9-based devices And for the notorious Meizu Pro 5, but thats closed-source unfortunately.

potet · 6 Oct 2020, 06:28

Speaking of WiFi, one of the bugs Im experiencing (development channel) is that the wifi connection occasionally drops when the device is idle for some hours. It will cease to be connected, and my solution has been to reboot. Not sure if this is a known bug, leg me know if you would like some diagnosis or another.

rocket2nfinity · 6 Oct 2020, 09:58

@Flohack Installed beta installer, erased rootfs.img and system.img. Then ran installer with -f angler.json and it worked like a charm. Did not wipe data or cache since mine was already on your ubuntu build. Much impressed.

Any word on Anbox for N6P?

rocket2nfinity · 6 Oct 2020, 09:59

No channels to select it seems, other than the one you installed with...

On edge, bluetooth works. Rotation and all sensors do not - no gps, no rotation, no accelerometer. Will re-install all apps, reboot, and see if it clears.

Edit: Re-installed switching to DEV. Interesting. All sensors and rotation now work, but Bluetooth no longer does. Hotspot does not work. Still can't fetch other channels.

Camera works except video. Flashlight works, but camera flash does not when taking pictures.

flohack · 6 Oct 2020, 11:50

@potet Yeah I have the same, I am currently almost never using WiFi because of this. Its basically a crash in the (for whatever reason Huawei chose to use a) PCI Express link between CPU/SoC and WiFi chipset. The driver wants to suspend or wakeup the WiFi card but smth goes terribly wrong. Sliding the WiFi enable switch from the indicator should fix it, no need to reboot.

flohack · 6 Oct 2020, 11:51

@rocket2nfinity Bluetooth seems hit-or-miss at startup, its a reace condition, and not depending on the channel I think. So after enough reboots it should also work in devel

And yes, sensors are broken currently in edge, that affects all devices.

Rondarius · 6 Oct 2020, 15:52

@Flohack @rocket2nfinity Is it possible to keep settings, apps, contacts etc if I use the installer or should I backup the phone? It's my daily driver.

Keneda · 6 Oct 2020, 17:38

@Rondarius
With installer you should be able to keep your device settings, data and app, yes (by not choosing the "wipe" options).
But you should backup still, as you never know what can happen with skynet kind ^^