Great difficulty to install v2.7 on Google Pixel 8 Pro

  • Vendor Name: Google
  • Device name: Pixel 8 Pro
  • Device CodeName: husky
  • Version of /e/OS: 2.7 u

I recently bought the smartphone Google Pixel 8 Pro. Android 14 (March period) was installed on it. When trying to install /e/os v2.7 (husky) according to the instructions Install /e/OS on a Google Pixel 8 Pro - “husky”, my first problem was that the “Enable OEM unlock” in the Developer options was grayed out. A quick internet search revealed that updating to the latest Android version fixes the problem. The /e/OS-instructions contain the tip that:

Before installing /e/OS on the Google Pixel 8 Pro husky for the first time, install the latest stock OS version 14 build on the device

I asked myself how I could install exactly the latest stock OS version 14 build on the device. I could find no further reference to this in the above mentioned /e/OS-Instruction. So I used the update function in Android, which installed the latest Android 15 version.

After than I followed the further instructions and everything worked quite well so far…
After I had unlocked the bootloader and flashed the additional partitions, the next hurdle for me was to switch to recovery mode. After input

entering fastboot --set-active=a

I switched to boot__a and then I also entered recovery mode.
I carried out the factory reset together with the format data.
When executing adb sideload <downloaded_file_name>.zip, the program aborted at 47% with the following error message:

Error:  recovery : Signature verification failed
Error:  recovery : error: 21
Install from ADB completed with status 2.
Installation aborted

I have already published this post here. They explained to me there that the Android 15 update was the cause of this error and that I could fix it by installing a Google factory image.

I wondered if it would be that easy as I had changed the status of the smartphone by following the steps in the /e/os-instructions (“Flashing additional partitions” and “Installing a custom recovery using fastboot”). Unfortunately, I didn’t get any answers to these questions. So I just tried it out withe the latest stock OS version 14 build (14.0.0 (AP2A.240905.003, Sep 2024) for “husky” and Pixel 8 Pro).

The flashing of the factory image was not successful either. The command

fastboot --slot=other flash bootloader bootloader-husky-ripcurrent-14.5-12100691.img

was remarkably fast - only 0.6 sec. Afterwards I noticed that the following warning at the beginning:

Warning: skip copying bootloader_b image avb footer (bootloader_b partition size: 0, bootloader_b image size: 18118264).

After I entered the commands “fastboot set_active other” and “ fastboot reboot bootloade” twice and then rebooted, only a white Google still image appeared.
I asked myself if the warning significant? And if so, how do I get more space on bootloader_b or should I switch to bootloader_a?

I then tried it out with the latest Android 15 version. The same error messages appeared. So I think I was right with my initial concerns that you can’t easily play a factory image on the smartphone after you’ve already completed the steps in the /e/OS instructions: “Flashing additional partitions” and “Installing a custom recovery using fastboot” plus the failed attempt “to install /e/OS using /e/OS recovery”.

No one could help me in the previous post and I was told to try here.
I wonder where I did something wrong or thought wrong? What do I need to know or what can I do to install /e/OS on my smartphone from its current state?

Thank you very much in advance :pray:

I think that you may well be correct that this is likely the blocker.

If I look at husky-ap2a.240905.003-factory-3d55ebeb.zip (Source Factory Images for Nexus and Pixel Devices  |  Google Play services  |  Google for Developers) the factory flash-all.sh contains only these “active” lines.

fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-husky-ripcurrent-14.5-12100691.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
sleep 5
fastboot flash radio radio-husky-g5300i-240308-240517-b-11857457.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
sleep 5
fastboot -w update image-husky-ap2a.240905.003.zip

However the Full OTA image, husky-ota-ap2a.240905.003-b20862e1.zip (Source Factory Images for Nexus and Pixel Devices  |  Google Play services  |  Google for Developers) if extracted by this method [Walkthrough] Extract eRecovery and boot images using payload-dumper-go contains

~/TEST-husky/Extracted_OTA/extracted_20250203_113604$ ls
abl.img  bl2.img   boot.img  gcf.img      gsa.img        ldfw.img   pbl.img      pvmfw.img        system_ext.img  tzsw.img    vbmeta_system.img  vendor_boot.img  vendor.img
bl1.img  bl31.img  dtbo.img  gsa_bl1.img  init_boot.img  modem.img  product.img  system_dlkm.img  system.img      vbmeta.img  vbmeta_vendor.img  vendor_dlkm.img  vendor_kernel_boot.img

Perhaps a download of the Full OTA image would give you the opportunity to reverse the /e/OS changes you already made.

fastboot flash boot <boot>.img
fastboot flash dtbo <dtbo>.img
fastboot flash vendor_kernel_boot <vendor_kernel_boot>.img

Working “in between” Android 14 and Android 15 may carry some risk. I would think carefully whether it is best to go for the downgrade which I have researched, or to use similar to restore and test Android 15.

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That helped. I was able to install the last stock of Android 14 with it. Many Thanks ! :slightly_smiling_face:

After each fastboot flash <…>.img command, a warning appeared again that there was not enough memory available. But that was probably not relevant.

I had taken another look at the Google instructions and only now did I realize that under Windows you just had to run the flash-all.bat - that was probably too easy for me. :wink:

The smartphone could be started and operated with Android 14. I find it interesting that the OEM lock is grayed out again in developer mode. But this may also be due to the fact that the bootloader is still unlocked.

In connection with the initial installation of /e/OS 2.7, this bug occurred very frequently for me - on various devices. I was usually able to avoid the error by first installing the previous version 2.6.3 and then updating to /e/OS 2.7 via OTA update.

Please make sure you carefully follow all the “Requirements” etc mentioned at the top of the page Install /e/OS on a Google Pixel 8 Pro - “husky”. Perhaps check out the links here again. It is often helpful to have the phone online while trying to enable OEM Unlock.

There is also the trick that you can “Check for updates”, but don’t allow the update. Ensure Automatic updates is off.

That is very interesting and would explain a lot. My gut instinct tells me that this is also true in this case. A month ago I had /e/OS 2.6.3 installed on a Pixel 7 Pro without any problems.
But I want to try again with /e/OS 2.7 and save this tip as another option - many thanks.

This was the case - the phone was online.

Android 14 is still installed, without further updates.

Now I was able to install v2.7 successfully - yeah. :man_dancing: :grinning:

How did I proceed?:

First I have enabled USB debugging on my device.
Then I typed:

adb reboot bootloader

The Device state was “unlocked” and the Boot slot was “a”.

From now on I followed the /e/OS-instruction from “Flashing additional partitions” onwards.

This time, the instructions could be implemented one-to-one without improvising and I didn’t have to change slots to get into the recovery mode. The appearance of the recovery mode was completely different compared to the last time. There was a white background and the font was much larger and the menu was in the center of the display. The installation then went through without any problems.

Thank you aibd for your patient help! :pray:

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