E cannot be installed on FP3+

/e/OS Devices Fairphone
1
  1. After “fastboot flash system_a system.img -S 522239K” I get:
    • Sending ‘system_a’ (320512 KB) OKAY [ 9.824s]
    • Writing ‘system_a’ FAILED (remote: ‘buffer overreads occured due to invalid sparse header’)
    • fastboot: error: Command failed
  2. Then I figured out that there is something like an easy installer. Why is there no hint for that at https://doc.e.foundation/devices/FP3/install? Now I cant use that easy installer anymore because my phone is stuck in fast boot.
2

Make sure to use the fastboot command from the current Android SDK Platform Tools.

Which OS are you using on the computer?
What does fastboot --version say?

(Older fastboot commands might not support every feature needed nowadays, and there were some fastboot commands with certain incompatibilities around in some Linux distributions for a while.)

3

Thanks.
Ubuntu 20.04
fastboot version 30.0.4-6686687

4

Sounds good.
Any other computer in sight to try?

The Fairphone 3/3+ is a so-called A/B device which has two slots for the OS, A and B.

You might be stuck in Fastboot Mode on one slot now, but perhaps the other slot might still boot and you could use the Easy Installer then.

Find out which slot you’re on currently with fastboot getvar current-slot.
If it’s “a” … fastboot --set-active=b.
If it’s “b” … fastboot --set-active=a
Then fastboot reboot.

If for whatever reason it might be “INVALID” … set a or b (doesn’t matter much then) and just try to run the install commands again. Or try to boot, your choice then.

5

You are a genius. Thanks. Slot b is now booting like for the first time. Hopefully it works with the easy installer when finished.

… okay, easy installer found the device and is now downloading a gigantic file … (easy installer wanted me to switch on some settings my fairphone does not have but in the end it said the phone would be compatible)

6

As far as I’m aware, the Easy Installer uses its own fastboot command.
Fingers crossed :slight_smile: .

1 Like
7

Great. That worked. Thanks a lot!

What do I do now with slot A that still has that damaged e installation?

1 Like
8

Nothing. At least you don’t have to do anything with it.

Either the Easy Installer installed to both slots (I don’t know whether it does, but it’s standard procedure for stock OS installs) and there is no damaged state on slot A anymore, or the next /e/ update will overwrite whatever is on slot A now with the updated OS version and then switch to slot A with a reboot (that’s how updates work on A/B devices).

9

Sounds good. Thank you for your time. That was some good help.