FP3: From 0.23 Android 9 to /e/OS 1.x - seeking clarity

Oh, oops - going back to those instructions, I see I first need to figure out what the “Git Bash UI” is, whether it’s on my Windows already, and if not, how to get it there. Here goes…
Edit: Ok, that wasn’t hard, but there sure were a lot of pre-setup options. I went with the defaults, except I chose “use the standard Windows console” because MinTTY sounded like yet another thing to find and download and install…

Done!
It worked. My phone is not a brick, and I have /e/ 1.6 (Nov 2022) on Android 11.
Whew!
My heartfelt thanks to all of you for taking the time to help! And: good on you for having helped any future readers too :slight_smile:

So, this is what I ended up doing. Should I mark this reply as the solution? So many different posts helped me to get through it…
And maybe the thread can be closed now, but maybe that’s not my decision.

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Yay, congrats!

My suggestion was more aimed at a “just in case” scenario but ultimately it’s usually best to follow guides closely to avoid user errors. But your troubleshooting is key for those not using Linux so that’ something to look for.

I hope this thread serves to others having the same difficulties as we did trying to update. The instructions are not all that difficult to follow but to know which ones, and in what order, that makes this while process tedious and risky… Anyway glad it all worked out!

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Gosh, I forgot about that part, and installed Stable R on my non-Murena phone.
Seems to work ok, so far… (fingers crossed)

I have a pixel 4a which is not selled by Murena or similiar and it is also on a Stable R, you do not need to worry. Congrats to the successful upgrade.

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A long ago time that part was true, but not anymore.
Either they forgot to edit it when they loosened this policy for a bunch of devices, or stuff was reintroduced at some point later based on old documentation templates (which happened a few times).

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Just be aware that with stable versions, rooted debugging is not available, which limits your options when it comes to backup and restore.

I would seriously consider installing the dev version instead. It should be pretty straightforward

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Does this still break Safetynet passing, or was this resolved?
(https://doc.e.foundation/support-topics/root-e-os#why-cant-i-root-from-developer-options-on-stable-builds)

Sorry I have no idea. I can do without Safety net passing. I’m not going to do without a working backup / restore solution :slight_smile:

That certainly is a point worth considering, but before I did this update I tried to find a way to back up my phone and had no joy even though I did have a dev build.

What it came down to was: TWRP is apparently no good with FP, and the android_backup_project page at Git Hub is utterly unintelligible to me. So I did without. The e-cloud has my photos and notes, I emailed myself my contacts and calendar (vcf and ics), and it’s not like I have a million apps to configure all over again.

In fact the reconfiguring effort is so modest that I’m actually considering getting the dev build instead (I do like keeping options open) and redoing all the customizing and configuring I’ve done today since completing my install of the stable build. :slight_smile:
Maybe tomorrow…

You could sideload dev 1.7 when it arrives, as long as your bootloader is still unlocked. Data is kept and switch to dev without reinstalling. I only tried it once for trying purpose. On a not daily driver

That is a fair point. It took me a while - and a lot of trial and error - to work out how it works and how to use it. I have just created a wiki page that explains it in a simple way.
https://codeberg.org/petefoths-projects/unofficial-l4m-builds/wiki/Using-'Android-Backup-and-Restore`-project

I hope it’s helpful, but it is a first draft and any feedback would be very welcome

This makes me want to try it!

This sounds interesting - if I only knew what ‘sideload’ meant.* From your post further up, it sounds like the sideloaded OS version “overwrites” the existing one? But the word “sideload” suggests side-by-side, so maybe the “overwrite” idea is wrong.
And you think it’s advisable to wait for 1.7 before doing this? (I think there’s some other page where news on projected release dates can be followed, so I’ll look for that.)

*Slightly OT: Is there was a glossary here somewhere for low-tech people like myself? If not, I’d actually enjoy creating one, if that sounds like a good idea - it would be a way to give back a little to the project, too :slight_smile:

On the phone there is a setting under system-> “gesture and navigation”->“on/off-menu” not sure on the english term, there you can set a “reboot menu” when you try to power down the you can choose to go to recovery. In the recovery you can find sideloading. Sideloading you can us to flash. So you can take a zip from /e/ image ROM download and flash it on your phone.

Technically you could do it right now. I tried on the FP3 with the same version. It was v1.6 at that moment. So it was more off a swap from stable to dev.

That’s a great idea. Having spent much of my career working with phones and computers, I know there’s a lot of knowledge and vocabulary that I take for granted, and it’s difficult for me to assess how much others may or may not know or understand.

As a professional translator (DE → EN), this quite common tendency has provided hours and hours of fun for me when translating technical manuals. :grin:

Thank you for the details! I’m afraid I still haven’t understood the procedure, though. Maybe you could tell me in German? (Should this be in a PM?) If I wind up doing it, I can post a follow-up with my actions and results in English.

Isn’t that more the issue with locked and unlocked bootloader? Dev-builds with locked bootlader also do not have a good backup solution (don’t know how well seedvault works). However broken safety net limits e.g. usage of banking apps which has to be considered as well…

On dev builds users can enable Rooted Debugging in the Developer options.
And with this ADB can access the phone as root (the adb root command can be run successfully), getting access to the whole storage directory tree, not only to the limited view of “Internal Storage” + external SD card, if there is one.
And with this users can try to use Android Backup and Restore Tools (ABRT), see here.

No. I don’t have any devices on which the bootloader can be re-locked. On these devices, Rooted debugging can be enabled in dev builds and cannot be enabled on stable builds.

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