Legacy Treble - BV5500 (MTK6580) - Treble-Enabled Device Questions and Answers

Legacy Treble - BV5500 (MTK6580) - Treble-Enabled Device Questions and Answers

So, I purchased the BV5500 (Not the Pro) and I was able to find a TWRP for it and I even patched that TWRP to a 3.3 version. All good. The phone shipped with 8.1 and is Treble enabled....except that it isn't. (It is a MT6580P with A Only, 32 Bit)
It's technically "Legacy Treble". I have yet to find a ROM in the 8.x lineup that will work on this device. I can flash the ROM but /system remains empty.
After googling through various ROM pages I found a small tidbit on a ROM page describing briefly about Legacy Treble then Google's own page.
So, are all us 8.1 owners basically stuck with a outdated system, unable to get any ROMs? It seems like Google left older devices in the dust, exactly what Treble was supposed to avoid!

So I dug a bit further into this. Yes, some builds do work, but not with twrp. Have to use fastboot to flash. very buggy

Related

Has anyone tried a treble ROM on the Tab s4?

There are unfortunately no ROMs specifically for this device yet, but has anyone tried to use a generic treble ROM on this device?
Thanks in advance

I have tried several treble ROMs, the majority don't even boot. Lineage os worked but was buggy. The more stable one was Havoc, if I remember correctly.
I was interested in the Q developer ROM but it didn't work. I'm back to the stock pie Rom, since there is no Netflix HD support on those treble roms.

gtaadicto92 said:
I have tried several treble ROMs, the majority don't even boot. Lineage os worked but was buggy. The more stable one was Havoc, if I remember correctly.
I was interested in the Q developer ROM but it didn't work. I'm back to the stock pie Rom, since there is no Netflix HD support on those treble roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Mate, I've been trying to flash a working GSI rom but had no success so far(have an SM-T830). In the past have built ROMs for Tab A 10.1 and flashed them many times with TWRP and Odin so I just cannot understand am I retarded to not being able to flash a working one or what? Have managed to put TWRP 3.3.0.0 and TWRP 3.3.0.1 on the device. Have tried my own arm64_aonly image first. Then an original AOSP one, then a Lineage OS version, at the moment I am just downloading Havoc. The result (apart from the havoc) was always the same. The flashing went through successfully and when I rebooted into system the very fist image came up and boot looped from there. I am always able to go back to TWRP and try another image or through odin can restore the factory image but none of the GSI images seem to be working. So, here is my question. As you managed to get a Lineage and Havoc working, can you tell by looking at it what am I doing wrong please:
1.: OEM unlock
2.: TWRP install with odin
3.: Boot straight into TWRP to prevent being overwritten
4.: TWRP: format data
5.: Flash system image (arm64_aonly)
From here have tried so many things like,
- booting straight into system
- booting back to recovery
- flashing the force_decryptor or how the hell is that called
- formatted data again as the decryptor suggests
The result was always the same, boot looped from the very first image. It seems like that the image is not getting flashed and even if TWRP says was flashed right it is just not there. I'm literaly pulling my hair as it was so easy and straight forward with the Tab A 10.1, but with this ….. thanks for your answer in advance

anyone have any luck with treble GSIs? i can only get arrowos to boot and even then i cant install gapps.

droidbot1337 said:
anyone have any luck with treble GSIs? i can only get arrowos to boot and even then i cant install gapps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used AOSP 9.0 and LineageOS 16 with OpenGApps Pico and both work but are very buggy.

After hours of trying to figure this out myself i ended up finding two ROMs that work for me. I was running stock Android 9 with september's security updates when testing these out:
Roms that i tried, that did NOT work:
BlissOS
ArrowOS
Lineage16
The ROMs that DID work for me were:
phunsson's Treble Experimentations
microG ufOfficial
The only 2 bugs that i've seen so far have been a small graphical glitch of quickettings not staying within the bounds of the pulldown and MTP not working at all. These are both present in both ROMs (The microg ROM uses phhusson's rom as the base). Neither of these bother me all that and i'm very happy to be able to move to microg and not have all the google/samsung bloat hogging my tablet and constantly trying to ping their motherships.
Here's a great list of Generic System Image (GSI) ROMs that you can click scroll through and try downloading and flashing to your device to see if you have any luck.
My process of installing phunsson's GSI ROM:
Reboot to TWRP,
Do a factory reset (Wipe > "Swipe to Do Factory Reset")
Install Image
Reboot
Took about a minute and a half displaying the bootanimation before it got to the home screen for the first time. If it's loading for more than 5 minutes then that ROM definitely isn't going to work with your device.
Hope this helps someone out there trying to get away from their bloated Samsung One UI.

motomotomotoG said:
After hours of trying to figure this out myself i ended up finding two ROMs that work for me. I was running stock Android 9 with september's security updates when testing these out:
Roms that i tried, that did NOT work:
BlissOS
ArrowOS
Lineage16
The ROMs that DID work for me were:
phunsson's Treble Experimentations
microG ufOfficial
The only 2 bugs that i've seen so far have been a small graphical glitch of quickettings not staying within the bounds of the pulldown and MTP not working at all. These are both present in both ROMs (The microg ROM uses phhusson's rom as the base). Neither of these bother me all that and i'm very happy to be able to move to microg and not have all the google/samsung bloat hogging my tablet and constantly trying to ping their motherships.
Here's a great list of Generic System Image (GSI) ROMs that you can click scroll through and try downloading and flashing to your device to see if you have any luck.
My process of installing phunsson's GSI ROM:
Reboot to TWRP,
Do a factory reset (Wipe > "Swipe to Do Factory Reset")
Install Image
Reboot
Took about a minute and a half displaying the bootanimation before it got to the home screen for the first time. If it's loading for more than 5 minutes then that ROM definitely isn't going to work with your device.
Hope this helps someone out there trying to get away from their bloated Samsung One UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did AOSP 10.0 work for you? I haven't been able to get it to boot. Strangely AOSP 9 and LOS 16 are the only ones I've had luck with.

@last1youlove whoa! You got LOS to work? What kind of magician are you? That one never booted for me. The only ROM I got working was ArrowOS and it has a few bugs. I really want to get HavocOS to work but it's a no-go!

droidbot1337 said:
@last1youlove whoa! You got LOS to work? What kind of magician are you? That one never booted for me. The only ROM I got working was ArrowOS and it has a few bugs. I really want to get HavocOS to work but it's a no-go!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange, How did you go about installing it?

last1youlove said:
Did AOSP 10.0 work for you? I haven't been able to get it to boot. Strangely AOSP 9 and LOS 16 are the only ones I've had luck with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not. I just really wanted an AOSP based ROM and i had gotten to the point where i had reflashed the stock firmware 3 times through ODIN because I messed up 1 thing or another. So once i got a functional ROM that worked great I just decided to stick to it. Also I don't think Android 10 has Xposed support yet, and i need that in order to enable Signature Spoofing for MicroG's FakeStore.

A comprehensive guide to installing custom GSI ROMs on the Mi 8 Pro

As so many others have pointed out, it is pretty hard to get any custom GSI ROMs running on the Mi 8 Pro / Explorer Edition (Equuleus). I was also absolutely oblivious to the fact that the Mi 8 Pro would require different ROMs than the Mi 8 when I bought my handset as I always check if there are custom ROMs available before I buy a new phone and there are some for the Mi 8. As far as I can tell there are no custom ROMs specifically adapted to run on our phones, but luckily enough, it is GSI-compatible or "treble-enabled". So as sad as it is that there are no real custom ROMs you can install, there is a major upside to our situation - theoretically any GSI ROM might run on it, which offers far more options than are available for the phones I have been using before I got my Mi 8 Pro. The big question is: How on earth do you get them to run on the Mi 8 Pro? If this is as puzzling for you as it was for me at first, you have come to the right place - After days and days of trial and error and growing despair, I have found a way to get both Oreo and Pie ROMs to boot and function up to a level that I'm comfortable working with and as this site has helped me so much over the years, I thought I could at least share my findings, hoping that others would be able to benefit a bit as well.
Having said that, I'll start with a list of features that won't work, so if you need them, feel free to move on (or maybe even help me find a way to get them working?). I would love for other forum members to help us expand and refine this guide (especially when it comes to the list of working ROMs) as I plan to keep this thread updated for some time.
A big shout-out goes to nealed , whose post on GSI ROMs got me started and who was OK with me laying out my information in a separate post. :good:
Not working (as of now):
In-Screen fingerprint sensor
IR face unlock ("normal" face unlock works fine)
VoLTE
Many stock Xiaomi / Mi apps won't work - you will have to find modded apks if you want to use Xiaomi's stock apps (such as the Compass app, which I rather liked but haven't found a working version for yet)
Fixed in newer Pie ROMs:
Note that Pie GSI ROMs based on earlier Phh-Treble Vanilla (AOSP 9.0) versions come with a weird ambient display bug (at least on our device). If you decide to have your ambient display set to "always on" it will flicker on and off all the time (which is why I have disabled it, it's driving me crazy when the phone is just lying on my desk and constantly stealing my attention - what does work though are the options "New notifications" / "Show when charging", so that's what I ended up with.)
Another problem with Pie ROMs I ran into was that the Android phone service would simply crash whenever I tried to manually select my network provider. I could see all available cell phone companies in my area but as soon as I would try to switch to a different provider than the one automatically chosen, the Android phone service would immediately crash.]
If none of this is an issue for you, you can expect a smooth and stable Android on our extremely powerful handset. You will be working with a ROM that can be highly customized and will also probably refrain from sending all your data to Xiaomi (which is one of the major reasons I wanted to have a rooted custom ROM and decided to accept that that also means I can't have all the features the phone normally offers - such as the very flashy fingerprint sensor).
Step-by-step instructions on how to install a custom GSI ROM
As a matter of fact, you should be aware that all data that is currently stored on your phone is lost when following this guide, so make sure you have a backup and don't ask me what you can do if you didn't create one! (short answer: nothing)
This guide also assumes you have already waited long enough and successfully unlocked your bootloader using a working Mi Account. If not, have a look here.
Step 1: Flashing an official ROM
Flashing tool - MiFlash
The easiest way to flash an official ROM that doesn't come with loads of system hogs or other "features" you don't want to have, is using MiFlash 2017.4.25.
Official ROM
Next, you will need to download a flashable global MIUI ROM. A list of all available ROMS can be found here.
Depending on which Android version you are going to install later, you want to download
Android 8.1 / Oreo: V10.0.1.0.OECMIFH (fastboot link / .tgz-file)
Android 9.0 / Pie: Try this more recent version first: V11.0.5.0.PECMIXM (fastboot link / .tgz-file). Note, however, that most of the ROMs in the GSI list have been installed on top of V10.2.2.0.PECMIXM (fastboot link / .tgz-file), so give that a try if V11.0.5.0.PECMIXM isn't working out for you.
Android 10.0 / Q: So far, we haven't been able to get any Android Q GSI ROM running on the MI 8 Pro, but there is an official MIUI Android 10 ROM available if you want a stock Android Q device:V11.0.3.0.QECMIXM (fastboot link / .tgz-file). Any ideas on how to get Android 10 GSI ROMs running on the Mi 8 Pro are much appreciated.
Once you have downloaded your ROM, extract it into a directory - I found that MiFlash was having some troubles working with directories whose directory names contained spaces, so I'd recommend simply extracting everything that is contained in the .zip-file into a directory such as "C:\flash", this way I had no trouble flashing any ROMs.
When that is done, you can start MiFlash and select the directory that contains your ROM files.
The next step is important if you want to make sure your bootloader stays unlocked (which you do): you need to select "clean all" at the bottom right of MiFlash so that flash_all.bat is selected. The default option is "clean all and lock" which is not what we want.
Should you have forgotten to change the option you simply have to unlock the phone again afterwards but as that requires a connection to the Xiaomi servers and a Mi Account that lets you do so, it's anything but ideal.
To make your phone talk to MiFlash, put your powered-off phone into bootloader mode by simultaneously pressing the power button and the volume down button and connecting it to your PC via a USB-C cable (preferably the one that came with the phone, but others should work too).
You're good to go - click on "flash" in the MiTool and watch it do its magic. It will take some time - just be patient - after 5 - 10 minutes the phone should automatically boot into MIUI and you're one step closer to installing the ROM you actually want to have on your phone.
Step 2: Installing TWRP recovery
Finding a working TWRP recovery for our phone (ideally in English) is like trying to find a miniature-size needle broken into three parts in a giant haystack. Unfortunately, our phone isn't officially supported by TWRP (yet?) so you won't find anything on their website.
What can be found, is a mixed bag, but after many many attempts of locating a proper source for TWRP image files, I finally came across this forum post.
To cut a long story short, for Android Oreo (Android 8) and Android Pie (Android 9) you want to download
TWRP 3.3.1-0607 (Firedance Edition)
as it is one of the very few versions for our device that are actually able to decrypt your data once you have set a PIN in your Android system. There seems to be a bug with some current TWRP versions that keep you from accessing your data once you have set a screen-lock PIN in your system (which is a requirement to use such features as face unlock).
So if you use a version that can't decrypt your phone (even when entering the correct PIN to enter TWRP) and you encounter a bootloop, you're out of luck: You can't access your system either from recovery or from within the system (If you have come across this post because you're in exactly this situation, you should be able to solve the problem by flashing TWRP 3.3.1-0607 on your phone to regain access).
For Android Q (Android 10) / MIUI 11, this version seems to be working:
TWRP-3.3.2B-0301 (Chinese Version)
Once you have downloaded the .img-file, the best thing is to put it into a directory that already has adb.exe and fastboot.exe in it. If you don't have such a directory, you can very easily create it by downloading and installing Minimal ADB and Fastboot.
Choose any install location you like, you will have to place your TWRP image file in your install location folder afterwards.
To prepare your phone, power it off and then put your powered-off phone into bootloader mode by simultaneously pressing the power button and the volume down button and connecting it to your PC via a USB-C cable.
Next, either start Minimal ADB and Fastboot or manually open a command prompt (cmd.exe) in the directory you have just created and enter the following two commands:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery equuleus-331-607.img
Code:
fastboot boot equuleus-331-607.img
Note that sometimes after flashing TWRP, the phone will boot into recovery twice - don't worry if you only see the TWRP screen and your phone starts rebooting straight afterwards. This is only an issue on first boot.
Congrats, you have now installed a working version of TWRP for the Mi 8 Pro. You can now also manually boot into TWRP by simultaneously pressing the power button and the volume up button on your powered-off phone.
Step 3: Installing a custom GSI ROM of your choice
Once you have a working TWRP recovery, you can install any GSI ROM that might run on our device (scroll down to my second post on this page for a list of working ROMs or click here to jump to it instead) - Prerequisite: Your ROM needs to be an ARM64 / A-Only ROM as this is the only kind of ROM our device can run.
Here's how to go about it:
Boot into TWRP, connect your phone to your PC via USB and transfer the ROM img.-file you want to install
Wipe > Factory Reset
Wipe > Advanced Wipe > System (This will prompt TWRP to ask you later if you really want to reboot - "No OS Installed! Are you sure you wish to reboot?" - which you can simply ignore, TWRP doesn't recognize that a new OS is installed after a system wipe)
Install > Install Image, select your chosen image, choose "System Image" as target partition and swipe right.
If you just want to test the image and not use any Google functionality, you can reboot now (Ignore "No OS installed") - However, this will mean that on most ROMs that don't already come with Google Apps included you won't have any Google functionality (i.e. no face unlock, no Play Store, ...) and you won't get it either if you try to install it after having already booted into your new system - so you probably want to move on to Step 4 before you reboot (unless your ROM already comes with Google Apps).
Step 4: Flashing Google Apps / Enabling Google functionality (Optional)
I'm assuming that since you're reading a guide on installing custom ROMs on an Android smartphone that it will be absolutely no news to you that instantly after installing a custom ROM and BEFORE booting into it for the first time you HAVE to install the Google functionality you want to have as there is no way of adding it afterwards. You simply have to do it right after flashing your ROM.
To flash Google Apps, you have to download them first on https://opengapps.org/.
Select the ARM64 option for the Android version you have just installed (either 9.0 (Pie) or 8.1 (Oreo)) and choose the package that best suits your need. I always go for the "Nano" package as it includes everything you can't install by yourself from the Play Store later on. This means you can also uninstall any Google App that isn't included in this package if you don't need it any longer. The bigger packages come with many more apps but if you install them now before you boot into your OS for the first time, they get turned into system apps and can't be easily uninstalled later.
Once you have downloaded the Google Apps package of your choice, you can transfer it to your phone via Windows Explorer if it's still connected via USB and in TWRP (which it should be in anyway ). Now just go to Install, select the .zip-file you have just transferred to your phone and swipe right.
Problems you might run into when installing your Google Apps:
This message or similar messages might appear in TWRP when you try to install your Google Apps package, even though you are using the correct version for your ROM (Pie ROM and Pie Google Apps, for example):
This Gapps pkg is for Android 9.0.x ONLY
Please download the correct version for your ROM: 8.1.0 (SDK 27)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this happens, go to the Reboot Menu in TWRP and select Recovery to reboot into TWRP. Once you've done that, Google Apps should install without problems and recognize that you do indeed have the right Android version installed.
Many times, the System partition will also be too small to also accommodate the Google Apps package, so you will be greeted with the following message:
Insufficient storage space available in System partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this happens to you, here's the fix:
Go back to the main menu in TWRP
Wipe > Advanced Wipe
Select System
Tap on Repair or Change File System
Tap on Resize File System
Swipe to Resize
Go back to the main menu, installing Google Apps should work without problems now
Voilà. You have just successfully gapp'ed your phone .
Step 5: Rooting your ROM (Optional)
Thanks to Magisk, rooting is incredibly easy these days. All you have to do is head over to the Magisk releases page on Github and download the latest .zip-file.
Once it's downloaded, install the .zip-file via TWRP and reboot into your OS.
For Magisk to work, you also need to have the latest Magisk Manager apk installed, which you also find on the above Github page, however I found that all GSI ROMs already have this included anyway (It appears to be included in Phh-Treble AOSP) - so all you need to do is really install Magisk in TWRP.
The preinstalled Magisk Manager will probably be outdated and ask you to update, which it can do itself. So most times, you won't even have to download the Magisk Manager apk yourself.
Step 6: Installing a working Xposed Framework (Optional)
As easy as it has become to root a phone these days, it is becoming increasingly harder to get Xposed to work as active development has been rather stalled lately. Luckily enough, someone was kind enough to unofficially get Xposed to work on Android Pie, however, this time it's a Magisk module.
Getting it to work on the Mi 8 Pro is a different matter. I have found that only certain versions do actually work and offer the Xposed functionality I have gotten so used to. If you install the specific versions I'm mentioning here, Xposed should work without problems (But as always, not all Xposed modules are still under active development and therefore won't work with Android Pie or this new unofficial version of Xposed).
To get Xposed up and running, you need to have Magisk installed already (see Step 5).
I'm currently running AOSP 9.0 (v123) and these more recent Riru package versions run fine (If you have trouble with these, check the links below) - I could only install them directly via Magisk but not in TWRP:
Riru - Core (19.7)
Riru - Ed Xposed 0.4.6.2.4529 (YAHFA)
You will also need this app installed to manage your Xposed framework and to activate Xposed modules:
The latest Ed Xposed Manager which you can download here.
For older custom Android Pie ROMs, these Riru packages were the only versions that I could successfully get working:
Riru - Core (17.1)
Riru - Ed Xposed 0.4.1.2_beta (YAHFA)
The older Riru packages can be installed directly via TWRP or in Magisk, but since you have to reboot afterwards if you install it from inside your OS, you might as well just install the two .zip-Files from TWRP directly after installing Magisk in TWRP.
The latest Ed Xposed Manager is simply an apk, so you will have to install it after booting into your system. Easy as Pie. Have fun EdXposing your system to new functionality .
Step 7: Special fixes
As I've layed out before, custom ROMs are prone to come with certain functionality missing or malfunctioning. This is especially the case with GSI ROMs that weren't developed with our specific device in mind. Nevertheless most functions will work without bigger problems right away. Some problems might still arise, but luckily there are solutions.
Sending and receiving SMS messages
After I had installed my GSI ROMs, it took me a while to realize I wasn't getting any text messages (they're not that frequent any more anyway). This is because I had to change my preferred network setting (for whatever reason). If you set it like this, everything should work as expected:
Preferred network type
4G (Recommended)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bluetooth Media Streaming
I also didn't realize right away that there was a Bluetooth problem. Calls were working fine, people could hear me talking, I could hear them talking. Things got a bit weirder, when I tried to listen to music streaming from my phone to my Bluetooth speaker - it simply wouldn't work. Nada - no matter what I tried. Luckily I came across a .zip-file that worked wonders. If you install the FixGsiBTSound.zip file in TWRP that I was able to find in this XDA thread, Bluetooth media is streaming without any problems and calls continue to work.
Unfortunately, I still have to change Bluetooth Audio Codec to AAC in the Developer options every time I connect my speaker if I want to listen to music and get driving instructions via Google Maps at the same time. It automatically reverts back to SBC but after I've made the change I can have several apps stream audio at the same time, which might be a problem with my speaker that only supports SBC but I didn't have this problem with my old phone.
By the way, none of the other fixes in the thread mentioned above (specifically the VoLTE fix) were working for our phone when I tried them.

List of working GSI ROMs
This post is meant to give an overview of ROMs that can be installed and booted into on the Mi 8 Pro as long as you follow my installation guide.
To give a more complete picture, I have also included the ROMs I couldn't get to boot into a working OS.
The Mi 8 Pro is an ARM64 - A Only device, so make sure you only try to install ARM64 - A Only GSI images.
I first ended up using AOSiP (August 19, 2019 version) after having given MSM Xtended a try. However, after half a year my screen started flickering, so I reflashed a stock MIUI to send my phone back for repairs, which is when I discovered that the screen still seemed to be working. This might have been just a coincidence and the screen may still have some issues that are just not showing, but it is, of course, also possible that a custom GSI ROM could mess with your hardware.
I'm now using AOSP 9.0 (v123) with Magisk, Substratum and EdXposed and I'm really happy with it. If you're interested in why, you can read more about it here.
Please help me expand this list - feel free to test other or newer ROMs you can find via these lists on Github and on XDA .
Android 9.0 (Pie)
AOSP 9.0 / Phh-Treble
v123 - reported working with MIUI 11.0.5.0.PECMIXM by Laurisss :good:
Image file 1: system-arm64-aonly-vanilla-nosu.img.xz (11.12.2019 / without Google Apps preinstalled)
Image file 2: system-arm64-aonly-gapps-su.img.xz (11.12.2019 / Including Google Apps)
v119
Image file 1: system-arm64-aonly-vanilla-nosu.img.xz (23.08.2019 / without Google Apps preinstalled)
Image file 2: system-arm64-aonly-gapps-su.img.xz (23.08.2019 / Including Google Apps)
XDA page
All releases: See this page
AOSiP
Image file: AOSiP-9.0-GSI-arm64_aonly-20190819.img (19.08.2019)
All releases: See this page
ArrowOS
Discovered by PCrazee :good:
Image file: system_arm64_a.zip (27.01.2020)
XDA page
All releases: See this page
Bliss OS
Image file 1: Bliss-2019-04-11-arm64-a-stock.img.xz (11.04.2019 - without Google Apps)
Image file 2: Bliss-2019-04-05-arm64-a-gapps.img (05.04.2019 - Google Apps preinstalled)
This OS only started on second boot (boot animation loop on first boot); the camera app was not functional and it seemed a bit unstable on the Mi 8 Pro
XDA page
Release page: Check it out here
Descendant
Image file: Descendant_4.0.1_arm64_aonly (06.08.2019)
This image file can be "dirty-flashed", i.e. if you follow my installation guide, don't wipe the system partition as you normally would when installing a GSI ROM
XDA page
All releases: See this page
FlokoROM
Image file: system-arm64-aonly-vanilla-nosu.img.zip (09.06.2019)
All releases: See this page
Lineage OS 16.0 (AndyYan)
Image file: lineage-16.0-20190811-UNOFFICIAL-treble_arm64_avN.img.xz (11.08.2019)
Newer images available - if they work for you, let me know and I will update this section
XDA page
All releases: See this page
MSM Xtended
Image file: MSM_Xtended-20190820-arm64_a.img.xz (20.08.2019)
There are newer versions, if they work on the Mi 8 Pro, please let me know
XDA page
All releases: See this page
Pixel Experience (Unofficial)
Image file: PixelExperienceP-arm64-aonly.zip (24.03.2019)
This is an older version, but unfortunately the only version I could get to boot - if you find a newer one that works on the Mi 8 Pro, please let me know
XDA page
All releases: See this page
Zirconium AOSP
Image file: ZirconiumAosp-9.0-IGNITE-arm64-a-20190319.rar (19.03.2019)
Release page: Check out this page
/e/
Reported working by PCrazee :good:
Image file: e-pie-20190827-UNOFFICIAL-treble_arm64_aeN.img.zip (27.08.2019)
XDA page
More releases: See this page
Android 8.1 (Oreo)
Please note that I only tested three ROMs to see if I could get Oreo ROMs working as well. As there is no support to hide the Mi 8 Pro notch in Oreo ROMs and as I managed to get Xposed working on Pie, I quickly abandoned Oreo again .
Nevertheless, please let me know if there are any other Oreo GSI ROMs out there that you got working on the Mi 8 Pro so I can expand this section.
AOSP 8.1 / Phh-Treble
Image file 1: system-arm64-aonly-vanilla-nosu.img.xz (06.07.2019 / without Google Apps preinstalled)
Image file 2: system-arm64-aonly-gapps-su.img.xz (06.07.2019 / Including Google Apps)
XDA page
Release Page: Check it out
Resurrection Remix (phhuson)
Image file: system-arm64-aonly.img (20.05.2018)
XDA page
Android 9.0 (Pie) (Non-working)
I couldn't find a working version Pie version for:
AOSP Extended
HavocOS
nitrOS
Resurrection Remix
Android 8.1 (Oreo) (Non-working)
I couldn't find a working Oreo version for:
Treskmod

Special apps and functionality
Google Camera with Night Sight
Installing a modded Google Camera app helps you get the most out of your camera, especially when using Night Sight or the Playground that aren't available to most non-Pixel devices out of the box.
In order to enable the special Google Camera features, the Camera2Api needs to be enabled. This can be done by going into Magisk and downloading and installing Pix3lify which enables some other Pixel features (I found that running my phone with AOSiP and Pix3lify also gave me a much nicer Pixel-like experience to the one that Pixel Experience offered (this applies at least to the version of Pixel Experience I could get to work on the Mi 8 Pro).
To get a working modded Google camera
Open Magisk Manager and download and activate the module Pix3lify, then restart
Download a modded Google Camera apk such as BSG's MI9SE V4_P2 which can be found on this page.
There are many Google Camera mods out there and you can find a pretty extensive list here.
However, BSG's MI9SE V4_P2 was the only mod that had both the camera (including Night Sight) and the video camera working correctly, even though it doesn't seem to offer all the functionality that other Google Camera mods seem to provide.
Should you find any other modded version that might be working even better on the Mi 8 Pro, I'd be happy to hear from you.
Augmented Reality / Playground support
Even if you have Google's ARCore (Google Play Services for AR) installed on your device, it doesn't mean it's up and running. There's a built-in check that makes sure your device is officially supported and - you guessed it - the Mi 8 Pro isn't (whereas the Mi 8 is).
I'm assuming here that you've already have ARCore installed, but if you haven't, you can download and install this version: ARCore_1.12.19082605.apk.
The important steps to getting it to work, are:
Go into your Magisk Manager and install the module MagiskHide Props Config
Make sure you have a terminal app installed, I've had some good experience with Termux
Open your terminal app and enter the following commands
Code:
su
props
1 [COLOR="Silver"](Edit device fingerprint)[/COLOR]
f [COLOR="Silver"](Pick a certified fingerprint)[/COLOR]
22 [COLOR="silver"](Xiaomi)[/COLOR]
7 [COLOR="silver"](Xiaomi Mi 8)[/COLOR]
1 [COLOR="silver"](Android version 8.1.0)[/COLOR]
y [COLOR="silver"](change fingerprint)[/COLOR]
y [COLOR="silver"](reboot)[/COLOR]
From now on, your Mi 8 Pro will identify itself as a Mi 8, enabling ARCore and thus any Augmented Reality app.
You probably also want to enable your Google Camera AR feature:
If you're on Android Pie, download and install Playground_2.5build-2.6.190725076.apk
If you're on Android Oreo, download and install ARStickers_All_Pack_V1.5build-1.3.180720036.apk
Afterwards you are able to download "Playmojis" from within your Google Camera (More > Playground). However, sometimes you're out of luck and Google Play will stubbornly tell you that your device is not compatible with a selected package (e.g. Avengers: Endgame or Childish Gambino).
In this case, simply download the corresponding apk package directly from apkmirror.com and you should be all set.
More information on the Google Cam AR support can be found here.

Reserved

This looks great! I'll have to try it and see if I can get it to work.

yo-less said:
List of working GSI ROMs
Android 9.0 (Pie) (Non-working)
I couldn't find a working version Pie version for:
AOSP Extended
HavocOS
nitrOS
Resurrection Remix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had HavocOS (My favourite GSI ROM that I have tried) working n the Mi 8 Pro, as well as nitrOS. Never got RR to boot (bootanimation? didn't try to delete it) and never tried AOSP Extended.

nealed said:
I have had HavocOS (My favourite GSI ROM that I have tried) working n the Mi 8 Pro, as well as nitrOS. Never got RR to boot (bootanimation? didn't try to delete it) and never tried AOSP Extended.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply!
Are you saying you have had it boot using the steps I have outlined here? If yes, please let me know the exact version you got to boot, preferably with a link, and I will add it to the list of working ROMs. After I had finally figured out how to install GSI ROMs successfully in a way that can be reproduced, I went through the same motions every time I tried a GSI ROM and all the ROMs in my list were booting into the system, however, no version of HavocOS that I could find was booting up after going through the above steps and I tried several times and different versions, too, because some people seem to think it's a great ROM.

yo-less said:
Thanks for your reply!
Are you saying you have had it boot using the steps I have outlined here? If yes, please let me know the exact version you got to boot, preferably with a link, and I will add it to the list of working ROMs. After I had finally figured out how to install GSI ROMs successfully in a way that can be reproduced, I went through the same motions every time I tried a GSI ROM and all the ROMs in my list were booting into the system, however, no version of HavocOS that I could find was booting up after going through the above steps and I tried several times and different versions, too, because some people seem to think it's a great ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Havoc-OS-v2.8-20190811-phhgsi_arm64_a-Official.img was the one I had working. I have yet to find a consistent way of installing GSI ROMs. Havoc was the same. I had boot loops and also managed to boot the ROM, could not be sure that there were any differences in approach. I have tried with the latest september release of Havoc and could not get it working..
Back to LineageOS for me... Too many issues with GSI ROMs.. until I can get VoLTE OR Fingerprint working, I shall stay with LineageOS - it's really OK with MAgisk XPosed and Faceunlock... with VoLTE working well.

nealed said:
Havoc-OS-v2.8-20190811-phhgsi_arm64_a-Official.img was the one I had working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for letting me know the version you got to boot. I'll give it a try to see if I can get it to work using the method I've described here - if yes, I'll add HavocOS to the list of working ROMs.
I really liked the privacy features LineageOS offers but as far as OS customization is concerned I always felt it was lacking. And as I can live without VoLTE (Didn't even know what it was until I read that my new phone supports it ) and face unlock is working fine, I'm very happy with AOSiP for now, everything I use on a daily basis is working without any hitches and the system is super responsive.

yo-less said:
Thanks for letting me know the version you got to boot. I'll give it a try to see if I can get it to work using the method I've described here - if yes, I'll add HavocOS to the list of working ROMs.
I really liked the privacy features LineageOS offers but as far as OS customization is concerned I always felt it was lacking. And as I can live without VoLTE (Didn't even know what it was until I read that my new phone supports it ) and face unlock is working fine, I'm very happy with AOSiP for now, everything I use on a daily basis is working without any hitches and the system is super responsive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You list VoLTE as not working in your OP, but say you can'r live without it. Could you please detail how you got VoLTE working on your Mi 8 Pro with AOSiP please? OR any other GSI ROMs for that matter. Thanks.
Haven't had time to try it yet, but there is another dev version of HavocOS GSI: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ha...90914-phhgsi_arm64_a-Official.img.xz/download Unfortunately, it takes me a lot of time to get my phone back to the state I want it (encrypted, decryptable by TWRP, all SD Card content present, working) when testing as I often lose the encryption and have to copy all SDcard content back to TWRP restore.... if it was just as simple as that I woudl have no prroblem, but it's not. Anyway, for those willing to try, another HavocOS GSI that may or may not work on the Mi 8 Pro.
Also, I think it important to list the vendor image and firmware images used with GSI ROMs as these can have an impact on how things work .

nealed said:
You list VoLTE as not working in your OP, but say you can'r live without it. Could you please detail how you got VoLTE working on your Mi 8 Pro with AOSiP please? OR any other GSI ROMs for that matter. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's what I wrote:
And as I can live without VoLTE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So as I've outlined, I know of no way to get it to work at this stage but if anyone does, please let us know
Haven't had time to try it yet, but there is another dev version of HavocOS GSI: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ha...90914-phhgsi_arm64_a-Official.img.xz/download
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will test the ROMs you have mentioned to see if they work using the method I've described here.
Also, I think it important to list the vendor image and firmware images used with GSI ROMs as these can have an impact on how things work .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried to streamline the ROM installation process as much as possible, if you follow Step 1 of my guide, you should be all set and don't have to worry about flashing additional vendor or firmware images. It is, of course, possible to start experimenting with vendor images as well, but the process I've outlined here seems to work fine for all the ROMs I've listed.

Thanks for your clarifications Jens. I appreciate it.
yo-less said:
Here's what I wrote:
So as I've outlined, I know of no way to get it to work at this stage but if anyone does, please let us know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad, I need to learn to read English :laugh:
yo-less said:
I've tried to streamline the ROM installation process as much as possible, if you follow Step 1 of my guide, you should be all set and don't have to worry about flashing additional vendor or firmware images. It is, of course, possible to start experimenting with vendor images as well, but the process I've outlined here seems to work fine for all the ROMs I've listed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So all of these test results are with the 10.2.2 vendor. As the vendor partition plays a big role with GSI images, other vendor images may break / improve some functionality. It is important that this is understood and eventually documented with regards results of working / non working GSI images.

I have a question, why can't we just port Mi 8 (dipper) Roms? Is there anything hardware differences besides the fingerprint reader and front camera?

nealed said:
So all of these test results are with the 10.2.2 vendor. As the vendor partition plays a big role with GSI images, other vendor images may break / improve some functionality. It is important that this is understood and eventually documented with regards results of working / non working GSI images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would love for more users to report back their findings - the more community data we can gather, the better this guide will become over time. As it stands, I'm pretty happy that I've found a way of reliably getting all the ROMs I have listed to fully boot. When I started out, it was all trial-and-error, trying different firmware versions and GSI ROMs, also flashing different vendor images on top, and nothing seemed to work. Feel free to experiment with me and see if you can find different methods (including firmware / vendor images) of getting GSI ROMs to boot reliably.

eremeya said:
I have a question, why can't we just port Mi 8 (dipper) Roms? Is there anything hardware differences besides the fingerprint reader and front camera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not a ROM developer but I look at it that way: As much as it's not possible to install a Mi 9 ROM on the Mi 8 Pro, it's also not possible to install a Mi 8 ROM on a Mi 8 Lite or Mi 8 Pro. You can't even install a dipper TWRP image on an equuleus device, give it a try - you will see it won't work.
Ideally a ROM would detect what kind of device you have and adjust its code accordingly. But as of now, every device needs its own specifically tailored ROM. But GSI ROMs seem to try and give us a way out of this situation.
The question I'm asking myself is why there is virtually no custom ROM development happening for the Mi 8 Pro - this is the first time I own an Android device that can't be easily customized (or unlocked - but that's a different matter).

yo-less said:
I'm not a ROM developer but I look at it that way: As much as it's not possible to install a Mi 9 ROM on the Mi 8 Pro, it's also not possible to install a Mi 8 ROM on a Mi 8 Lite or Mi 8 Pro. You can't even install a dipper TWRP image on an equuleus device, give it a try - you will see it won't work.
Ideally a ROM would detect what kind of device you have and adjust its code accordingly. But as of now, every device needs its own specifically tailored ROM. But GSI ROMs seem to try and give us a way out of this situation.
The question I'm asking myself is why there is virtually no custom ROM development happening for the Mi 8 Pro - this is the first time I own an Android device that can't be easily customized (or unlocked - but that's a different matter).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might normally agree with your idea but the hardware is almost exactly the same except for the finger print reader and the front camera so in theory it should be fine except for those. A different example might be installing Poco phone roms on a Mi 8 or Mi 8 roms on a Mi 8 Ursa.

eremeya said:
I might normally agree with your idea but the hardware is almost exactly the same except for the finger print reader and the front camera so in theory it should be fine except for those. A different example might be installing Poco phone roms on a Mi 8 or Mi 8 roms on a Mi 8 Ursa.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not saying it's beyond possible to make it happen, all I'm saying is that it doesn't seem to work as the hardware is not the same - or have you been able to install a Mi 8 ROM on a Mi 8 Pro? I couldn't even get a Mi 8 TWRP running on a Mi 8 Pro, so I'm guessing the difference does matter.

yo-less said:
I'm not saying it's beyond possible to make it happen, all I'm saying is that it doesn't seem to work as the hardware is not the same - or have you been able to install a Mi 8 ROM on a Mi 8 Pro? I couldn't even get a Mi 8 TWRP running on a Mi 8 Pro, so I'm guessing the difference does matter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried with one rom and it failed to install. It gave an error about the zip not being signed or signed wrong. I modified a file in to ROM zip to remove references to dipper. (This is the process that is done to install Poco phone Roms on a Mi 8). I'm not sure how to modify the rom zip and re-sign it so it installs. Unfortunately I don't have much time right now to experiment as I'm busy with school.

eremeya said:
I tried with one rom and it failed to install. It gave an error about the zip not being signed or signed wrong. I modified a file in to ROM zip to remove references to dipper. (This is the process that is done to install Poco phone Roms on a Mi 8). I'm not sure how to modify the rom zip and re-sign it so it installs. Unfortunately I don't have much time right now to experiment as I'm busy with school.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like an interesting route, so if you follow it through and get it to work, please let us know how you made it happen.

Testing day yesterday, I am currently running HavocOS, with the just released chinese Xiaomi V11.0.2.0.PECCNXM vendor.
I believe that to get it working, SELinux needs to be set to permissive.
Steps taken to boot:
1. Flash 10.3.4 ROM using Xiaomi Flash tool - wiping and cleaning everything, including data and SDCard.
2. Boot and set passcode.
3. Reboot to Bootloader
4. Flash recovery-TWRP-3.3.0-0504-XIAOMI8UD-CN-wzsx150 TWRP.img to recovery partition
5. Boot recovery-TWRP-3.3.0-0504-XIAOMI8UD-CN-wzsx150
6. Factory Reset
5. Flash Havoc-OS-v2.9-20190914 (thread, download
6. Flash permissiver-v4 by erfanoabdi for GSI images
7. Boot
8. Upon reboot to recovery - wipe cahche / dalvik, reboot recovery, then reboot system
9. If you are sent back to recovery. Just reboot - it will boot eventually.
10 Subsequently, from TWRP, resize system partition and flash gapps (yes, you can do this and everything works fine. I have done this on plenty of occasions. It is also possible to invoke the android one time setup wizard if you need that to restore from a backup etc.).
11. Flash Magisk 20.0
12. Flash PolarKernel (see this section for download and details)
HavocOS allows:
Using gesture navigation (I use OnePlus gestures) - native feature
Using Face unlock with the option of dismissing the lock screen automatically - native feature
Hide the clock (great for our notched devices (for me anyway as I have a clock widget on the home screen anyway)) to gain valuable screen real estate - native feature
Battery circle icon - native feature
Great theme options built in
Many more features.
I am reaching out to some devs to see if I cannot cook this for our Mi 8 Pro. I would dearly love to get the under screen fingerprint working. On one hand others have tried and failed. On the other, I'm not sure how much effort has gone in to the trials - as this is not exactly the most popular device on the planet. Not many devs have it.
However, with fanix-uk working on LineageOS - and possibly the FP sensor - as well as the possibility of having VoLTE and infrared face unlock (as is present in LineageOS for Mi 8 Pro) working - this would be my perfect setup.
Despite not having VoLTE (I may do some tests today) I am considering staying with this setup as it really is great. Time will tell...

LineageOS 17 installation on OnePlus 7 Pro faile, no TWRP anymore

Hey,
I have to apologize, since I am new in this topic. I assumed it to be a bit easier. However.
I bought a OnePlus 7 Pro and went through some up and downs now. Finally I did the following:
I unlocked the bootloader
I updated to OxigenOS 10.X, X I guess was 3 or so.
I managed to find the right TWRP image that worked perfectly: https://forum.xda-developers.com/on...nt/recovery-unofficial-twrp-recovery-t3931322
I went into recovery TWRP and installed the zip, additionally magesk or so. Was somewhere suggested to do so.
I rebooted into OxygenOS. So far everything was working.
I rebooted into recovery mode, into the TWRP app.
Now my intention was to install LineageOS, I choose 17 because the OxygenOS 10, I heard was based on Android Q
I wiped out the storage as suggested in the corresponding manuals
I installed LineageOS 17 zip-file via TWRP
I rebooted => Result: Nothing works anymore.
What means Nothing: When I start the phone I come into the FastBoot Bootloader Menu. That's it. No recovery. No TWRP. No OxigenOS and for sure no LineageOS. For sure I can flush img files. But non TWRP image I have chosen worked again like before.
Having spent a day now in this topic as a newbie leavs me a bit weak and disappointed now. Since I probably miss a little bit the appropriate vocabulary I am not able to find something helpful in the net.
So, what am I looking for. I need to bring that phone back into something usable. Maybe into it's original state. Still prefer to have a LineageOS 1X with TWRP installed. It was a great 5 minutes experience. For installing LineageOS 16 I guess I would have needed OxygenOS 9 installed and not 10 (like after my update).
So is there any way to safe my phone?

Treble support on the Google Pixel XL

I was thinking about purchasing a Google Pixel XL due to the reasonable specs and good rom support. But I was just wondering if the device was treble supported before I decided to buy anything as it would help me out quite a bit. Also I am quite the enthusiast when it comes to custom roms and stuff.
If anyone has an answer i will be very grateful.
Thanks.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy A20e (SM-A202F/DS)

Got this
Check attached photo. I have been playing with one of these for a bit. I loaded up TWRP followed with the latest Resurrection Remix and the phone is so fun to use.

mindlery said:
Check attached photo. I have been playing with one of these for a bit. I loaded up TWRP followed with the latest Resurrection Remix and the phone is so fun to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you flash it? I've been trying to flash phh and lineage but it won't boot at all. Tried in both TWRP and fastboot.

Sorry i was not clear about my message. I'm not using any GSI images. I am using https://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-xl/development/unofficial-resurrectionremix-8-5-8-t4149771
I used to flash a lot of GSI's on another model and often i would need patches, custom kernel and some needed a clean flash of one first to get what i wanted after. I really like this ROM, but i have no problems going to stock if i screw up, which i will. So i'll go see if i can get a gsi on top of Rrmix. I'll be back.

I tried a couple gsi's and twrp gives a partition size error. (Too small).. What methods other than factory resetting and trying to install have you tried?
Pretty sure the version of TWRP used is specific. I tried RR with 3.4 and it was a mess. Now i'm using 3.2.3.1 and things are not perfect, but close enough for me.

mindlery said:
I tried a couple gsi's and twrp gives a partition size error. (Too small).. What methods other than factory resetting and trying to install have you tried?
Pretty sure the version of TWRP used is specific. I tried RR with 3.4 and it was a mess. Now i'm using 3.2.3.1 and things are not perfect, but close enough for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP 3.4.0.0 is only good because it brings decryption support - there's also a fork of 3.3.0.0 by NZedPred on the regular Pixel forum (but the port is built for the XL too) which brings the best of both worlds, 3.4.0.0 decryption and 3.2.3.1 stability.
The small system partition is a known problem with our Pixels, there are repartitioning scripts ... but here be dragons.

[GUIDE][A10/A11] Flashing and booting GSI on Galaxy Tab S7+

Code:
/*
* Your warranty is now void.
*
* I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards,
* thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please
* do some research if you have any concerns about features included in this ROM
* before flashing it! YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if
* you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.
*/
This is tested on my SM-T976B, but I think the same should work on other models as well.
1. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER
Just unlocking the bootloader will not trip the warranty bit yet, so you can still go back at this point.
The warranty bit will be tripped (0x1) as soon as you actually try flashing something unofficial via Odin. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Make sure you back up all the important files in your internal storage, as you need to disable encryption with Multi-Disabler in order to let TWRP access the data partition, which would require you to format the data partition (wiping everything in the process). Additionally, keep a few nandroid backups with you so you can recover yourself in case something goes wrong.
2. Requirements
- Bootloader unlocked
- ianmacd's TWRP
- Neutralized vbmeta*
- (Optional**) vendor.img from Android 10 stock FW (I used ATK3, but any A10 vendor should do)
- Multi-Disabler
* An empty vbmeta is not recommended. You need to patch the vbmeta of the stock FW you're currently on.
** UPDATE (2022-08-29): It seems Magisk now works with recent A11 GSIs using A11 vendor, so there's no explicit need to flash A10 vendor in the following tutorial steps, unless you run into issues. Thanks to @AnonVendetta for testing and confirming. Using a more recent version of Magisk is recommended.
3. Flashing
Since this device uses dynamic partitions. Flashing system images is not as straightforward as before but not impossible.
azteria2000's GSI Flasher provided a good example on how to use dd/simg2img to flash dynamic partitions using just recovery. This is extremely helpful, as TWRP currently doesn't support fastbootd, which would make flashing even easier.
(1). Extracting Android 10 vendor.img (Optional, unless you have issues with your current vendor)
While you can boot recent GSIs with Android 11 vendor, Magisk currently doesn't work with it. Android 10 vendor is required for Magisk to work properly.
The Android 10 vendor can be extracted from the factory image's super.img. You need to unsparse the image using simg2img then use lpunpack to extract it, and you'll obtain the vendor.img.
(2). Flashing GSI and (Optional) Android 10 vendor.img
The entire flashing process can be done from TWRP.
NOTE 1 (UPDATE 2022-08-29): Flashing A10 vendor is no longer necessary now, unless you have issues.
NOTE 2: At present, Multi-Disabler expects /system_root to be mountable r/w, which cannot be done with a non-vndklite GSI. As such, if you're about to flash /vendor at this step, use a vndklite GSI, or if you're coming from stock, flash Multi-Disabler before actually flashing GSI (a reboot is needed after flashing /vendor to make it accessible).
The corresponding block devices for system and vendor are as follows:
Code:
/dev/block/dm-0 - system
/dev/block/dm-1 - vendor
First set the block devices to r/w so you can flash images.
Code:
# blockdev --setrw /dev/block/dm-0
# blockdev --setrw /dev/block/dm-1
Now actually flash the images with dd. Change the "if" parts to point to where the GSI system image and Android 10 vendor image are.
Code:
# dd if=<GSI image here> of=/dev/block/dm-0 bs=1m
# dd if=<vendor image here> of=/dev/block/dm-1 bs=1m
In rare cases that the GSI image you're about to flash is sparsed, run the following command instead of dd. You need to point to your sparsed GSI image here.
The vendor.img you obtain from super.img is not sparsed and can be flashed directly using the dd command above.
Code:
# simg2img <sparsed GSI image here> /dev/block/dm-0
If nothing goes wrong, you've flashed the GSI as well as Android 10 vendor.
Android 10 vendor flashed this way will work even if you have upgraded past BUC1 (which blocked the downgrade to Android 10).
It's advised to reboot recovery before trying to access system and vendor, to avoid potential issues.
NOTE: If you flashed vendor in this step, DO NOT REBOOT TO SYSTEM JUST YET.
(3). Flashing Multi-Disabler
You need to flash Multi-Disabler to disable encryption of internal storage so TWRP could access it.
If you flashed the vendor.img when flashing GSI, you MUST flash Multi-Disabler again if you have already disabled encryption with it before.
After flashing Multi-Disabler, you can now try booting to see if the GSI of your choice works.
4. Important Notes
(1). Neutralizing Software (Platform) Watchdog
There's a software (platform) watchdog that by default doesn't get fed while running GSI, causing system to reboot about 100 seconds after boot due to "platform watchdog bite". See this issue and this issue for details.
It's possible to disable this watchdog after boot, by executing the following command using a root shell.
Code:
# echo 'V' > /dev/watchdog
You need to look for a way to execute the command above at boot to automatically disable the problematic watchdog so the GSI can function normally. There are several ways to do this, like putting the command into a Magisk module's service.sh so it gets executed when the Magisk module loads.
EDIT: I've filed an issue regarding the matter here. After some testing, it seems /dev/watchdog0 is the real culprit for our device. Disabling either /dev/watchdog or /dev/watchdog0 will work this around.
UPDATE (2021-09-11): I can confirm that DragKernel is not affected by this issue. The offending watchdog is not present and the system won't reboot after 100 seconds.
UPDATE (2022-08-29): The watchdog is mainly an issue if you use A10 vendor. You may not have issues with that watchdog if using A11 vendor but it's still recommended to get it disabled.
(2). Uncertified Device
Since phh-AOSP v303 and onwards, the device is considered uncertified which will prevent you from logging in to your Google account.
Manually registering the device is required for using Google Play Services, but for some reasons that didn't work for me, so I recommend using NanoDroid with microG if applicable (requires Magisk).
(3). Offline Charging Icon
With some GSIs, when powered off, plugging in the charger would make the tablet enter a screen with a white charging battery icon in the middle, that I couldn't easily get out of by pressing POWER button alone. Although I did manage to get out of that screen and boot to the system, I don't really know which button combination is required, and how long I should be holding them. So for now, charging while powered off is not advised...
(4). Potential soft bricks with Securize
UPDATE (2022-08-29): Should have pointed this out earlier that if you attempt to Securize on official phh-AOSP, the device will softbrick. Additionally, merely removing phh-SU is enough to cause the softbrick (thanks to AnonVendetta again for confirming).
While the cause is uncertain, it's quite likely that the tablet cannot work if not using any form of root (be it phh-SU or Magisk) due to Samsung's security mechanisms getting in the way.
5. Working Stuffs
- 120 fps working (by forcing FPS using Phh-Treble Settings).
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work fine.
- S-Pen works as a pointer device.
- Alternate Audio Policies (from Phh-Treble Settings) is needed to get audio out through USB Type-C.
- Front and rear camera appears working.
6. Not Working Stuffs
- MTP does not appear to work properly for some reasons. You'll need ADB for transferring files.
- USB Type-C audio adapters may or may not work depending on GSI, Kernel or maybe other aspects.
- Bluetooth audio currently has issues that cause the system to freeze.
7. Untested Stuffs
- Haven't tested telephony-related stuffs as I'm not using a SIM card on the tablet yet.
- Haven't tested fingerprint sensors as I'm not using it.
There are still some functionalities I haven't tested yet, but anyone is free to test if you want to use a GSI.
Special thanks to: ianmacd, phhusson, Bushcat, Vntnox, azteria2000, dron39 and many more...
Original GSI progress issue: here

I finally got this working on my SM-T970. Though I had some troubles getting it working by following your instructions exactly, it would still boot loop even after neutralizing vbmeta.img (perhaps I changed the wrong offset?). Though for some reason flashing magisk made it boot perfectly? I assume Magisk disables AVB entirely or something. Thank you for this guide, may this tablet live a long life thanks to treble!

sambow23 said:
I finally got this working on my SM-T970. Though I had some troubles getting it working by following your instructions exactly, it would still boot loop even after neutralizing vbmeta.img (perhaps I changed the wrong offset?). Though for some reason flashing magisk made it boot perfectly? I assume Magisk disables AVB entirely or something. Thank you for this guide, may this tablet live a long life thanks to treble!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i also got SM-T970 please help me to get back to android 10... Most of the game which play crashes in the middle for android 11 ... Can you please help me to do what you did ... i am new to this custom ROMs and flashing so help me..

As I know, you can't. All android 10 bootloaders are XXU1 - if you upgraded to XXU2 then nothing can be done.

ivanox1972 said:
As I know, you can't. All android 10 bootloaders are XXU1 - if you upgraded to XXU2 then nothing can be done.
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Click to collapse
Sorry, didn't notice there were new posts in my actual thread...
While you certainly can't flash XXU1 firmware via Odin once you upgraded to XXU2, you can follow the instructions to use dd in TWRP to flash the logical partitions. This is how I used to flash vendor image extracted from Android 10 FW, as due to SELinux policy issues, Android 11 vendor does not work well with GSIs on Samsung Qualcomm devices in general. Magisk won't work, and the tablet would semi-brick if you attempt to use Securize from Phh-Treble settings.
While I mostly use Android 11 GSIs, the same should work with Android 10 GSIs of your choice, but I haven't tested, as most A10 GSIs are no longer maintained. GSI image of your choice (/system) and A10 vendor (/vendor) are all you need, as GSIs do not care about /odm and /product so it's safe to leave them as-is.
A WARNING: I DO NOT recommend flashing A10 stock FW using this method as you're literally violating the rollback protection which has the risk of causing A HARD BRICK!!! Similar cases have happened on other devices of other vendors before.
ONE MORE WARNING: Due to the ongoing case of Samsung disabling cameras on Z Fold 3, I seriously advise against upgrading the device any further, especially in case a XXU3 firmware comes out in the future, as there are potential signs that such crippling behavior might spread to existing devices.

@LSS4181 thanks dor for deep explanation, but I'm afraid my level is not high enough to understand all of this. I am also tempted to try gsi but not want to risk lot...
So, can it be installed over stock android 11, new bootloader XXU2?
Thanks

ivanox1972 said:
@LSS4181 thanks dor for deep explanation, but I'm afraid my level is not high enough to understand all of this. I am also tempted to try gsi but not want to risk lot...
So, can it be installed over stock android 11, new bootloader XXU2?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't guarantee A10 GSI will work on such environment, but GSIs probably won't have issues with rollback protections. It's just stock ROM might have something that would do dirty stuffs in case such violation happens so I personally would not recommend such use case.
However, A11 GSIs will certainly work fine, just that with A10 vendor you need to use DragKernel as the stock one has a watchdog that'll reboot the system after 100 seconds.

@LSS4181 - thank you for the guide, I've had a T970 for nearly 1 year now, always wanted to run a custom rom on it!
I've tried your guide twice now, but it results in failures for me.
I've unlocked the bootloader, flashed TWRP (twrp-gts7xl-3.5.0_10-A11_3_ianmacd.img), running ATK3.
Not sure if TWRP for Android 11 and ATK3 being Android 10 makes a difference?
I extracted a vbmeta.img.lz4 from the ATK3 pack online, decompressed it to get the vbmeta.img, and wrote 0x03 to decimal offset 123.
(Tried to follow the instructions exactly)
I think it's the flashing/dd part.
After I dd the gsi img to dm-0, I can not reflash the multidisabler anymore. It tells me something like:
"Failed to mount '/system_root' (Invalid argument)"
Then, I can't even mount 'system' in TWRP, the checkbox is unselectable.
To get back to a working state, I have reflashed the stock rom (ATK3).
The GSI I tried to use was: system-roar-arm64-ab-vanilla.img.xz - from AOSP 11.0 v313
Is this the correct version to use (A, A/B etc?)
And how can I tell if the image file is sparsed or not?
Any input is appreciated, thank you!

zxczxc4 said:
@LSS4181 - thank you for the guide, I've had a T970 for nearly 1 year now, always wanted to run a custom rom on it!
I've tried your guide twice now, but it results in failures for me.
I've unlocked the bootloader, flashed TWRP (twrp-gts7xl-3.5.0_10-A11_3_ianmacd.img), running ATK3.
Not sure if TWRP for Android 11 and ATK3 being Android 10 makes a difference?
I extracted a vbmeta.img.lz4 from the ATK3 pack online, decompressed it to get the vbmeta.img, and wrote 0x03 to decimal offset 123.
(Tried to follow the instructions exactly)
I think it's the flashing/dd part.
After I dd the gsi img to dm-0, I can not reflash the multidisabler anymore. It tells me something like:
"Failed to mount '/system_root' (Invalid argument)"
Then, I can't even mount 'system' in TWRP, the checkbox is unselectable.
To get back to a working state, I have reflashed the stock rom (ATK3).
The GSI I tried to use was: system-roar-arm64-ab-vanilla.img.xz - from AOSP 11.0 v313
Is this the correct version to use (A, A/B etc?)
And how can I tell if the image file is sparsed or not?
Any input is appreciated, thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uh... I should have mentioned earlier. Multi-Disabler expects /system_root to be mountable r/w, which cannot be done with a non-vndklite GSI.
As such, to disable encryption, you'll initially need to flash a vndklite GSI, or simply just do that before you actually flash the GSI (stock ROM can be mounted r/w). As Multi-Disabler is only needed once per /vendor flash, you'll be able to use non-vndklite GSI afterwards.
EDIT: If you are experienced in modifying recovery zips, you can edit the Multi-Disabler install script and comment out the parts actually involving /system or /system_root.
EDIT 2: I just realized this... I recall that phh AOSP GSI is sparsed. You need to use simg2img command instead of dd to flash it.

@LSS4181 - thank you for the reply.
I am not sure if the images I was trying to us were sparsed or not.
Since you mentioned vndklite images, I tried those - `simg2img` told me that the hash/magic was not valid, so at least these ones are not sparsed.
But good idea to attempt to use `simg2img` if you are not sure about an image, it doesn't hurt to try.
I flashed phh's v313 ab vndklite image, my device was stuck on the samsung boot screen for about 10 minutes (the screen with "your device is unlocked" etc...) I then held some buttons to force reboot/power down. I powered back on and I finally saw the rom booting.
Vanilla AOSP was a bit boring, so flashed LOS 18.x (vndklite again) and that is great. Dark mode can be made BLACK which I really appreciate.
No issues with the watchdog/no reboot after 100 seconds.
I did try to install microg... tried to install (adb push) to /system/priv-data but must have done something wrong.
It gave me bootloops, tried to reflash the gsi twice but didn't seem to change anything...
I ended up reflashing stock again, repeated the whole process (apart from microg!) and my system is up working again.
I should go and ask on the lineage os gsi thread for advice about microg.
Thanks again for the guide.

zxczxc4 said:
@LSS4181 - thank you for the reply.
I am not sure if the images I was trying to us were sparsed or not.
Since you mentioned vndklite images, I tried those - `simg2img` told me that the hash/magic was not valid, so at least these ones are not sparsed.
But good idea to attempt to use `simg2img` if you are not sure about an image, it doesn't hurt to try.
I flashed phh's v313 ab vndklite image, my device was stuck on the samsung boot screen for about 10 minutes (the screen with "your device is unlocked" etc...) I then held some buttons to force reboot/power down. I powered back on and I finally saw the rom booting.
Vanilla AOSP was a bit boring, so flashed LOS 18.x (vndklite again) and that is great. Dark mode can be made BLACK which I really appreciate.
No issues with the watchdog/no reboot after 100 seconds.
I did try to install microg... tried to install (adb push) to /system/priv-data but must have done something wrong.
It gave me bootloops, tried to reflash the gsi twice but didn't seem to change anything...
I ended up reflashing stock again, repeated the whole process (apart from microg!) and my system is up working again.
I should go and ask on the lineage os gsi thread for advice about microg.
Thanks again for the guide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could always flash magisk and use the microg module, works perfectly for me

sambow23 said:
You could always flash magisk and use the microg module, works perfectly for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly what I ended up doing.
Originally I wanted to avoid the 'newer' style, using Magisk etc, it seems more complicated than just using a rom that is already rooted. For my use case of this device, I don't care about safetynet etc, don't care about keeping system untouched etc.
BUT! Flashing Magisk was so easy, no need to patch any images... I simply flashed the latest version of the Magisk apk via TWRP.
On restart, Magisk app wanted to finish the install itself... but failed? So I simply installed the same apk myself, and it's been working perfectly

Thank you @LSS4181 for the exquisitely detailed instructions! I think have enough experience with this stuff to be succesful, but have not yet bought this tablet to try it (currently using a rooted, debloated S6).
Questions:
Which vendor does it ship with? ATK3? I wouldn't do any upgrades when I got it, but would immediately start flashing.
Has anyone succesfully used XPrivacyLua (XPL) on this? I currently use XPL Pro, and I know that it depends on a working EdXposed (or Lsposed, which I've never used) which requires a working Magisk. From reading this thread, the Magisk part seems Okay, but what about Ed/L Xposed?
Thanks again.

TiTiB said:
Thank you @LSS4181 for the exquisitely detailed instructions! I think have enough experience with this stuff to be succesful, but have not yet bought this tablet to try it (currently using a rooted, debloated S6).
Questions:
Which vendor does it ship with? ATK3? I wouldn't do any upgrades when I got it, but would immediately start flashing.
Has anyone succesfully used XPrivacyLua (XPL) on this? I currently use XPL Pro, and I know that it depends on a working EdXposed (or Lsposed, which I've never used) which requires a working Magisk. From reading this thread, the Magisk part seems Okay, but what about Ed/L Xposed?
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
XPrivacyLua/LSPosed does work, I'm able to pass safetynet thanks to it

TiTiB said:
Thank you @LSS4181 for the exquisitely detailed instructions! I think have enough experience with this stuff to be succesful, but have not yet bought this tablet to try it (currently using a rooted, debloated S6).
Questions:
Which vendor does it ship with? ATK3? I wouldn't do any upgrades when I got it, but would immediately start flashing.
Has anyone succesfully used XPrivacyLua (XPL) on this? I currently use XPL Pro, and I know that it depends on a working EdXposed (or Lsposed, which I've never used) which requires a working Magisk. From reading this thread, the Magisk part seems Okay, but what about Ed/L Xposed?
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got my tablet early so it was on an earlier version than ATK3.
If your device ships with BUBB or before, you should be able to downgrade directly if you know how to use Odin.
Flashing ATK3 (or earlier) vendor via dd from TWRP is only needed if your device is on BUC1 or later, as from that version onwards SW REV has been incremented so you can't downgrade via Odin anymore.

sambow23 said:
XPrivacyLua/LSPosed does work, I'm able to pass safetynet thanks to it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which Xposed are you using? I'm not very familiar with Lsposed.

Thanks ag
LSS4181 said:
I got my tablet early so it was on an earlier version than ATK3.
If your device ships with BUBB or before, you should be able to downgrade directly if you know how to use Odin.
Flashing ATK3 (or earlier) vendor via dd from TWRP is only needed if your device is on BUC1 or later, as from that version onwards SW REV has been incremented so you can't downgrade via Odin anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for the detailed response. The info you've shared gives me confidence. Now I just need to convince myself that I 'need' to buy it.

@LSS4181: I've been running the stock Android 11 firmware since I bought the Tab S7+ SM-T970, about halfway into this year. Mine shipped with a version 2 bootloader, so there is no possibility of running stock 10 for me.
Then I saw your note about Bluetooth earbuds not working. This would be a big deal for me on a GSI. I don't want to use a USB C headphone jack adapter, since it would prevent charging while using them. And it would wear out the charging port by constantly inserting/removing.
What BT earbuds do you use? Does it happen on all GSIs that you've tried? I saw your recent issue on GitHub, and noticed that no one else has commented.
GApps is another big deal for me, a must have. I used to use MicroG on my daily driver devices, but stopped using it about a year ago due to issues that I was unable to find solutions for.
Can you elaborate a bit more on how to modify vbmeta and what to change? I'm not particularly skilled with the usage of hex editors, so not sure how to proceed here or what to edit.
I know there will probably be issues inherent to running to a GSI, but I'd like to change things up a bit and experiment. If I don't like what I see, I can always return to stock rooted. I'm not a big fan of stock firmwares, but so far it has been very stable for me. However, if I can get a custom ROM like AOSP, RR, LOS, etc running reliably, then I'd definitely switch. There are no features on stock besides Dex and Secure Folder, that are compelling enough to me me stay on it.

AnonVendetta said:
@LSS4181: I've been running the stock Android 11 firmware since I bought the Tab S7+ SM-T970, about halfway into this year. Mine shipped with a version 2 bootloader, so there is no possibility of running stock 10 for me.
Then I saw your note about Bluetooth earbuds not working. This would be a big deal for me on a GSI. I don't want to use a USB C headphone jack adapter, since it would prevent charging while using them. And it would wear out the charging port by constantly inserting/removing.
What BT earbuds do you use? Does it happen on all GSIs that you've tried? I saw your recent issue on GitHub, and noticed that no one else has commented.
GApps is another big deal for me, a must have. I used to use MicroG on my daily driver devices, but stopped using it about a year ago due to issues that I was unable to find solutions for.
Can you elaborate a bit more on how to modify vbmeta and what to change? I'm not particularly skilled with the usage of hex editors, so not sure how to proceed here or what to edit.
I know there will probably be issues inherent to running to a GSI, but I'd like to change things up a bit and experiment. If I don't like what I see, I can always return to stock rooted. I'm not a big fan of stock firmwares, but so far it has been very stable for me. However, if I can get a custom ROM like AOSP, RR, LOS, etc running reliably, then I'd definitely switch. There are no features on stock besides Dex and Secure Folder, that are compelling enough to me me stay on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sambow23 said:
Bluetooth audio works if you disable the a2dp hardware offload in the phh treble app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know if audio issues might be caused by using a different kernel (as I've switched to using DragKernel for this tablet). I don't recommend using stock kernel, though, due to a nasty 100-second watchdog that you need to manually disable after system startup (DragKernel has that removed from config).
I recall it's now possible to patch vbmeta using Magisk now. Simply provide the vbmeta of your FW version to Magisk and it'll patch it for you. I haven't tried, though, as I always do this by hand with a hex editor (it's just to change a single byte, which the recent Magisk versions would do).
Back then I couldn't get the device certified so I switched to microG which is working well. I recommend using NanoDroid as it comes with a modded Play Store which allows you to purchase apps as well as IAPs. The modded Play Store still works, despite being quite dated.
I don't really have anything blocking me from using microG now. If you need real GApps and know about the workflow for uncertified devices, you may try flashing a bgN flavor GSI as opposed to bvN (g means the GSI ships with GApps).

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