Readonly Filesystem (Nexus 5) and broken power button

Keneda

@creuzdos Can't you simply repair hardware?

dobey

@keneda said in Readonly Filesystem (Nexus 5) and broken power button:

@creuzdos Can't you simply repair harware?

It can be repaired, but I would hardly use the word simply to describe the act.

dobey

@creuzdos I think you need to mount /system first, as it's not mounted yet in recovery, IIRC.

Beyond that, I'm not sure.

Keneda

@dobey
OK you're right, for me it's quite simple, i'm the hardware kind of guy lol.

Keneda

@creuzdos
If you want to try the fix :
https://protyposis.net/blog/replacing-the-nexus-5-power-button/

dobey

@keneda Even as a hardware geek, it is still quite difficult. It is a very tiny button which must be placed just right, and requires liquid solder paste and hot air rework station to do correctly. It's not a simple solder job.

Keneda

@dobey
I know i can do it, i already did that kind of solder work.

It's just a proposal if he feels he can do it (and have tools for that), or know someone that can do it for him.

Creuzdos

@keneda Thank you very much. If you want the full story :
I bought 2 replacement buttons on the internet. I tried to do it myself first... it was a total disaster Then I brought it to a local repair shop. It cost me 35€. And it worked 2-3 months and broke again...
So now I just want to have a usable phone to play with UT.

@dobey Ok, I managed to flash my Nexus with an android rom. I could edit the files and it worked perfectly as expected. Then I reinstalled Ubuntu touch. I did not check the "wipe system" checkbox hoping the /system files would stay but unfortunately they have been replaced. I'm trying again tomorrow.
Thank you and good night

Keneda

@creuzdos said in Readonly Filesystem (Nexus 5) and broken power button:

I bought 2 replacement buttons on the internet. I tried to do it myself first... it was a total disaster Then I brought it to a local repair shop. It cost me 35€. And it worked 2-3 months and broke again...
So now I just want to have a usable phone to play with UT.

Ok i understand

However, i must tell, never again go to those so-called "phone repair shops" that pop up from here and there, they're 99% owned by incompetents, always go to real electronician repair shop (hard to find i know).

Hope you will succeed in software workaround.

Creuzdos

Here is a little update.
Day 3 : I have installed multiple times android, paranoid android and ubuntu touch
I have used twrp recovery img and modified /system/usr/keylayout/gpio-keys.kl
as I said yesterday it works absolutely as expected on paranoid android but everytime I come back to ubuntu-touch (even when I uncheck every checkbox inside the ubport-installer )
the file /system/usr/keylayout/gpio-keys.kl is the default read-only file.

If anyone has a tip to help me set the /system partition writable or replace this file one way or another. If it is not possible, what i'm going to do next is probably go try paranoid android to play with in the next few days / weeks.

Is it possible to get a zip with the ubuntu touch ROM for NEXUS 5, so i can install it through twrp like i did with the other android systems ?

Thank you all for your help and keep up the good work.

AntiDroid

@creuzdos I may be wrong but couldn't you boot into TWRP, use

adb push path/to/new/file /sdcard

from your host to get the new file on the device and then use the file manager under advanced in TWRP to replace the one that keeps being over written with the one you placed in /sdcard?

Keneda

@antidroid
Go to \system with file manager, after image made writable with UTTT, then check infos for folders and files in here : all is read only, you will not be able to paste anything here, you can copy files from, then paste in writable folder like "downloads", but that's all.

Keneda

@creuzdos said in Readonly Filesystem (Nexus 5) and broken power button:

@dobey In recovery mode, the /system directory contains only a lost+found directory and i can't find the file /system/usr/keylayout/gpio-keys.kl

Did you try acces this file with ADB from recovery after enabling Developer Mode from system settings under Ubuntu Touch? (System settings -> About -> Developer mode -> enable -> adb reboot recovery -> adb shell)

AntiDroid

@keneda said in Readonly Filesystem (Nexus 5) and broken power button:

@antidroid
Go to \system with file manager, after image made writable with UTTT, then check infos for folders and files in here : all is read only, you will not be able to paste anything here, you can copy files from, then paste in writable folder like "downloads", but that's all.

That I why I gave instructions for doing it via the file manager in TWRP. Because in TWRP everything can be written over.

Keneda

@antidroid said in Readonly Filesystem (Nexus 5) and broken power button:

That I why I gave instructions for doing it via the file manager in TWRP. Because in TWRP everything can be written over.

First sorry i misreaded you and though you were asking him to do that with uTouch file manager.

Second, are you sure he will be able to do that without enabling dev mode first?

AntiDroid

@keneda Once you have the bootloader unlocked I thought you could do whatever you want to the file system once booted into TWRP and that is why people want to encrypt stuff. But I have not modified actual UT files this way so you may be correct that you need to enable developer mode before entering TWRP. I also do not know how you would find the actual location since in TWRP you see the entire file system including Android bits and partitions. And again I may be entirely wrong.

Keneda

@antidroid I don't have anything in recovery (no twrp nor any other menu thing), so i don't know neither, only way on MX4 is adb.

We'll see when he answers ^^

Edit : if i refer to thread and Dobey, \system is part of androïd stuff.

AntiDroid

@keneda Sorry I assumed most people flashing things would know about TWRP.

TWRP stands for Team Win Recovery Project and they have a recovery for almost every Android device out there. You download the correct TWRP for your device (Check XDA for recommended one) then while in fastboot from the command line you run

# change path and TWRP to match your file location and name
fastboot boot path/to/TWRP.img

It will boot the device into TWRP recovery where you can do all kinds of stuff like flash new roms or edit files or wipe directories. (DO NOT install TWRP when it asks you to. that is for Android only)

EDIT: These are the versions of TWRP for hammerhead but you will likely need a certain one that was made for the Android version your UT is based on and by the look of this Halium page. it is Android 5.1 . This where you need to check XDA to find out which one goes with Android 5.1.

Keneda

@antidroid
I know XDA, i've been a long time there for that device : https://forum.xda-developers.com/f/lg-optimus-3d.1073/
That's because of that device not being updated by LG that i dumped androïd and went to uTouch with my actual MX4.
I know TWRP, there is not one for MX4.

I have a canonical MX4, made for utouch, with bootloader unlocked (unlike ALL others MX4, wich bootloader is quite un-unlockable), and specific custom recovery (not the same as flyme one).

In this canonical custom uTouch MX4 recovery, nothing else than adb is possible.

I will not try to do anything to this phone software, other than updating uTouch, i don't want to mess with it.

Anyway, we're going off topic.

Creuzdos

Update Day 4 : I installed e OS (from e foundation). Everything works well as expected.
But when i read @AntiDroid 's comment I had to try to push the file with TWRP.
So I wiped eveything again, reinstalled UT using ubports-installer, went to developper mode, reboot in recovery with TWRP.
And ... I can push my gpio-keys.kl to /sdcard but when i go to the file manager in TWRP, again i can only see a lost+found directory under /system when i mount System in TWRP (i tried different versions of TWRP).