Motorola - Moto X4 - payton - Documentation Suggestions

[Manoj]

…Enter suggestions to improve documentation in this category. Do not raise bugs or issues here…

[tcecyk]

user report difficulties when using fastboot with a payton - apparently the interfacing USB can make a differences, as in the threads:

About installing /e/ from Linux. At all possible for Motorola devices?

As it turned out, replacing the problematic machine brought on success. With the following configuration it is possible to execute fastboot without it blocking: HP EliteBook 820 (G2) Debian Bullseye, Linux 5.10.0-8-amd64 As sole kernel on bare metal, without hypervisor or competing virtualization. So it seems to not be an issue with Linux as such, but something more intricate which I do not intent to spend any further time on investigating. My strongest suspect is that the problem might be…

[HOWTO] an Unified Install Guide Project for /e/

nice work ! I just installed /e/ on a Moto X4, it was such a pain …until I used an old DELL laptop, with USB3 but it was working like a charm I was stuck for hours to copy the TWRP.img with fastboot, but if I read something about testing with another PC hardware I would saved hours ! https://doc.e.foundation/devices/payton/install

I guess other newer Motorolas can be affected by this too

[Poipoi]

to my understanding, it’s more a general problem when using fastboot, I read many problem like mine to only with motorola manufacturer

[azbaz]

Would it be possible to add a comment regarding re-locking the bootloader after manual installation of /e/ OS? I would like to get rid of the boot warning and so would like to re-lock the bootloader, but I’m not clear what would happen if I did that. I presume it would be one of:

1. The phone would be bricked
2. /e/ OS would be prevented from loading but could be re-installed once the bootloader was unlocked again
3. /e/ OS would be completely unaffected and would now boot without any warning messages

I haven’t dared try this in case of option (1), but it would be nice if the documentation said what would happen!

[tcecyk]

you’d need to build and sign the image yourself then before relocking. See the payton links at https://hub.libranet.de/wiki/and-priv-sec/wiki/verified-boot#Motorola

The benefit after locking a user-signed boot chain: instead of an orange warning for an unlocked devices, you’ll see the yellow warning. Not the award one is hoping for I guess, but the verified boot chain is an achievement.

For cosmetics, on my Motorola G4 with no implemented android-verified-boot (AVB) I changed the splash screens to what I liked - [HOWTO] Moto: replace the startup screen warning

[azbaz]

Thanks for the quick and helpful reply - I’m impressed!

I’ll have to study the links about image signing, but I suspect I’ll just change the splash screen as you suggest.

[anon79353891]

Greetings,

I attempted the CLI install located here for the latest version of T:

https://doc.e.foundation/devices/payton/install

I got as far as step 5 of " Temporarily Booting a custom recovery using fastboot" and it got stuck on the Android one screen. I also followed this before I ran fastboot reboot recovery:

" Tip: Outdated fastboot releases dropped legacy A/B support, so it might attempt to flash to boot__a / boot__b rather than boot_a / boot_b if you try to flash boot. In this case, you must update fastboot to a release newer than or equal to 31.0.2. Alternatively, you can manually specify which slot to flash to based on what slot fastboot failed to flash to. For example, if fastboot fails to flash to boot__a, you must flash to boot_a."

It only flashed the one slot, so I flashed the other slot as well. Then I did fastboot reboot recovery because the power button doesn’t respond on this and I might as well test the device with it since I have it. I plan on letting the battery drain until the phone shuts itself off and trying to boot again. Any other assistance would be great.

Edit: It was very difficult for me to see on the site I linked, but there are actually 2 _ characters. It also doesn’t specify that it was only supposed to flash one slot if that is the intended result. Overall, the guidance is confusing. It would be easy for someone to be confused about what should be done based on how it is written.

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the unGoogled mobile OS and online services

[Tech-e1]

You should go to recovery manually not with commandline. If youre within fastboot just toggle the volume button until you get to recovery. Then press power button. If phone is already off, hold volume down and power.

Assuming your android platform tool suite is up-to-date
the slot is unlikely to be an issue.

The copy partition file step should protect your slot against inconsistencies

[anon79353891]

Because the power button doesn’t work (which is a known issue for this model because it breaks away from the system board), using button combinations that require the power button are not possible. As a result, I am scrapping the screen and surround, but still have a good back panel, cameras, fingerprint sensor, and the button could probably be soldered back onto the board. The battery may also still work.

I would still like to get some clarity on what exactly needs to be done with the Moto X4 because I know someone that may want to run /e/ on theirs.