Help installing e/os on Fairphone 5

[lulublu]

Hello,
I just bought a Fairphone 5 and I spent the whole day unsuccessfully trying to install e/os. I tried various methods and nothing seems to work. Maybe someone can help me understand what I’m doing wrong ?
I tried :

• install guide (this one) on linux mint :
  → first fastboot couldn’t connect to the phone but I finally unlocked using sudo $(which fastboot) (no idea why but that worked)
  → then when running the install script, cannot seem to connect to the phone anymore
• web installer on linux mint and chrome → failed at the installation step (cannot remember the exact message)
• tried the same both methods on Windows 10 with the same results…

I don’t know what I can try anymore, please help !

Posted on the Fairphone forum as well https://forum.fairphone.com/t/help-installing-e-os-on-fairphone-5/118829

[mihi]

Maybe driver issue, look here:

[Solved] Windows does not see my phone in Fastboot mode

This post attempts to give a brief answer to problems similar to these:- Windows does not recognise my phone in Fastboot mode Windows: Waiting for any device in Fastboot mode See also, more detailed, [HOWTO] Fairphone 3/3+ stuck in fastboot/bootloader mode with the Easy Installer on Windows For the response Fastbboot command not found please see Post #2 Example situation; you are installing /e/OS and some Fastboot stage won’t work. Boot the phone into Fastboot mode. Run fastboot device…

[barrysatan]

Is it step 4 in the install guide it failed, and what was displayed on PC after you entered the command?

[voorstad]

Did you see this?

Fairphone - FP5 - FP5 - Documentation Suggestions

I just installed /e/os on a Fairphone 5, using the community build and manual installation steps. I too was puzzled on how to perform the last step (chmod…) as the command left me waiting to find the device and nothing happend. I luckily found your remark about sudo and root permissions and indeed, after first getting root access with sudo su, it was a breeze. Thanks! @Manoj : this definitely needs to be added to the guide. For the record, I am using the latest Fedora.

[msp]

@lulublu

→ first fastboot couldn’t connect to the phone but I finally unlocked using sudo $(which fastboot) (no idea why but that worked)
→ then when running the install script, cannot seem to connect to the phone anymore

The best method is to run the install script with root privileges.

[lulublu]

I just tried that : the device was recognized and the script started, but it stopped after a few seconds (I let it run for about 20 minutes).
If I stop the script and run it again (with sudo) the phone doesn’t seem to be connected anymore, but is still detected with sudo $(which fastboot) devices -l

I wonder if that could be a cable issue, unfortunately I only have this one. I’ll try to borrow one.

[msp]

@lulublu

cable issue

This is one of the most annoying things: Cheap USB-cables. I strongly recommend high quality USB-cables (e.g. Anker, …).

[lulublu]

OK so I tried multiple times rebooting the phone between each trial and it finally worked. I had a hunch that the screen saver and other USB devices could infer with the script (tried to print something between 2 trials and it didn’t work) so I deactivated the screen saver and unplugged my webcam and printer, as well as launching the script with sudo and it finally worked !
Thank you for guiding me through !

[mihi]

If you installed official (the other one is community), did you lock the bootloader properly? Doing it later will erase all data that which is very annoying to restore again.

[lulublu]

Argh no I immediatly jumped to setting the new phone up, I didn’t know this would erase all data (but not the OS ?)…

[AnotherElk]

@lulublu

I didn’t know this would erase all data (but not the OS ?)…

No, not the OS.
Unlocking as well as locking the bootloader will force a factory reset for security reasons.
An Android “factory reset” will delete user data, user-installed Apps and their data as well as settings, but will leave the installed OS untouched. After the reset the OS will restart with the initial Android user setup.