Pixel 3a XL ordered

halucigenia

I am having issues with my trusty old Meizu Pro 5 and decided to get something that supports halium and waydroid so I chose a Google Pixel 3a XL.
I managed to get a good deal on one from Amazon UK with a 20% off offer they have at the moment, to be delivered by NextDayMobiles in the next couple of days (so much for their name ).

I will probably be on the forum a lot more trying to get this one set up so, thanks in advance for the help that I am sure to get here.

Moem

Congratulations! I do hope it's not one of those Verizon phones where people have trouble unlocking the bootloader. But since you bought from the UK, you are most likely in the clear.

JamesSunderland

@halucigenia you did well, I am using it with satisfaction. On 3a.

MrT10001

@halucigenia It is a good device for UT. It still has a random reboot issue with Focal which will get resolved on the next OTA update.

To install UT, unlock the bootloader and downgrade Android to the required version from here - 9.0.0 (PQ3B.190801.002, Aug 2019).

To downgrade, flash using Chrome browser and the Android recovery tool (by far the easiest way I have found in my experience) and in advanced options tick:

Force flash all partitions
Disable verification
Disable verity

which will ensure there will be no hanging at the Google boot logo.

Be patient and allow the installer to do its thing and follow the instructions.

And, of course any questions, pop back and ask here.

Apart from the odd reboot, my Pixel 3aXL works well with UT, even with the cracked screen!

Rinkeby

@MrT10001

hey

Any ETA on the next OTA?

MrT10001

@Rinkeby No, but it shouldn't be long from what I have been told.

JamesSunderland

@MrT10001 dev channel seems pretty stable indeed

Keneda

@JamesSunderland
It is not...
Regularly they are problems there, some make device unbootable, with reinstall needed in the end.
No one should use Dev channel for daily device.
It's not called Dev channel for pleasure. It's for Devs, and alpha testers.

JamesSunderland

@Keneda said in Pixel 3a XL ordered:

@JamesSunderland
It is not...
Regularly they are problems there, some make device unbootable, with reinstall needed in the end.
No one should use Dev channel for daily device.
It's not called Dev channel for pleasure. It's for Devs, and alpha testers.

Indeed, I was only trying to say that looking at current dev builds seems a good sign for a release of OTA 3

halucigenia

NextDayMobiles did deliver the next day.
So I have it and have done the install already.
I had a problem connecting the device before flashing and that was down to not knowing that I had to set the USB preferences to file transfer. :man_shrugging:
I had to use fastboot flashing unlock to unlock the bootloader.
I could not get the online Android flash tool to work at all after I had managed to set the device to developer mode and unlocked the bootloader.
So I just ran the ./flash-all.sh provided with the Android 9 image.
I used the app image of the UBPorts installer.
I had a little trouble getting the UBPorts installer to recognise the device but it worked after closing it and re-opening it.

Looking forwards to using it in earnest.
What's the best next steps?

arubislander

@halucigenia depends on what channel you installed.

halucigenia

channel 20.04 stable.
Seems to be working OK.
I don't use the phone much but I can make and receive calls on my pay as you go Three UK sim fine.
One of the reasons for doing this was to be able to hear incoming calls better, it could just be me, or maybe the caller that I could hardly make out, but it seems loud enough in testing.

And I got my custom ringtones and notification audio clips installed without faffing about with copying files which I had to do originally, so that is better now.

halucigenia

OK, I am thinking about convergence now. I was using a specific usb to hdmi cable on my Nexus 4 and a Microsoft WiFi monitor cable on my Meizu Pro 5.
What options do I have on the Pixel 3a XL?

arubislander

@halucigenia You mean desktop mode on an external monitor? Your device should support Aethercast just like the Meizu Pro 5 does.

halucigenia

@arubislander Thanks, I tried my old Microsoft cable and it connected great.
Time to set up Libertine now...