OnePlus 8 Pro cannot get past first stage of installation- 'Fastboot OEM unlock'

/e/OS Devices OnePlus
1

So Easy Installer failed which didnt surpise me to be honest.

So I’m using Command Prompt on Windows 10 and the phone is in USB debugging mode with the OEM Unlock option selected and USB ‘MTP’ transfer mode.

I followed step 1: ‘adb reboot bootloader’ and the phone goes into Fastboot mode with a big green START at the top. All good.

Step 2: ‘fastboot devices’ gives me User/User returned, which worried me, but I carried on regardless to ‘fastboot oem unlock’ and…nothing happens.

I tried manually rebooting the phone to see if it had actually unlocked the bootloader but I think nothing has happened.

I should add that the phone was updated to the latest Android 13 before proceeding. It’s a IN2023 EU model

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the deGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

2

When fastboot devices does not get device ID as response, best not to go on.

On Windows this is most likely a drivers issue. Windows is likely to provide a simple driver but for this job you need what is described perhaps as “combination driver”

Open a Windows Device manager window alongside your terminal. Look out for your phone becoming a “:warning: Problem device” as you switch it to Fastboot mode.

Now run Windows update with the “problem device” selected.

3

Thanks aibd

Yes the driver is the issue- there is a yellow triangle next to the Android device in the Windows Device Manager.
But when I right click on it and select ‘update driver’ the two search options- Windows Update and my local drives don’t find anything.

4

I avoid Windows so cannot help much more … does my recommended way produce a different result?

5

The Windows Update method made no difference. (EDIT: not true- see next post!)

However if I click on Properties of the ‘Android’ it says ‘Code 28- The Drivers For This Device Are Not Installed’ ‘Update the driver’

So I went and reinstalled the OnePlus 8 Pro drivers from OnePlus in case it meant that driver…but no change.

6

Searching online I found https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/stjiip/does_anyone_know_where_the_oneplus_8_usb_drivers/

7

Ah OK I checked your method of Windows Update with the selection active and then went to ‘Additional Updates’ and now I have unlocked the bootloader!

Thanks

Onward to next stage: ‘Flashing Additional Partitions’ …

8

Well I didn’t get far! Cannot flash the partitions as per the instructions.
(tried fastboot flash dtbo dtbo.img and always get ‘cannot load’)
Obviously this next stage (Partitions) is a huge problem looking around this forum…I don’t even know what ‘partitions’ are…

From the instructions:
1. First unzip the /e/OS Recovery file linked in the section marked Downloads for instantnoodlep . The following files would show up in the location where you unzipped the contents of the eRecovery zip file

    • dtbo.img*
    • vbmeta.img*

The problem is that unzipping that e/OS Recovery file does definitely does not give me two files called dtbo.img and vbmeta.img
It gives me six files all named something different.

But even if I go over to Lineage and get the files that correspond- they don’t flash either

Oh well, this is really hard.

9

So the files you find have more specific names …

Extract 
~$ cd TEST-instantnoodlep/
~/TEST-instantnoodlep$ ls
recovery-IMG-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.zip

:~/TEST-instantnoodlep$ unzip recovery-IMG-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.zip
Archive:  recovery-IMG-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.zip
  inflating: recovery-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img  
  inflating: recovery-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img.sha256sum  
  inflating: dtbo-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img  
  inflating: dtbo-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img.sha256sum  
  inflating: vbmeta-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img  
  inflating: vbmeta-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img.sha256sum  

~/TEST-instantnoodlep$ ls
dtbo-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img
dtbo-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img.sha256sum
recovery-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img
recovery-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img.sha256sum
recovery-IMG-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.zip
vbmeta-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img
vbmeta-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img.sha256sum

dtbo.img* → dtbo-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img
vbmeta.img* → vbmeta-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img

The files.sha256sum, you probably know, should be used to verify that your download is not corrupted in any way.

Perpas worth checking that you are running latest platform tools SDK Platform Tools release notes  |  Android Studio  |  Android Developers eg v35.0.2 (July 2024)

10

Thanks aibd

I did try flashing these two you list:
dtbo-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img
vbmeta-e-2.4.1-t-20241010439852-community-instantnoodlep.img

but no joy.

How does it know where these files are located on my computer?

I will check my installation of SDK Platform Tools though I did download it yesterday…

11

OK I managed it- by dragging and dropping the files to the Command Prompt window…so it knew where they were.

Why doesn’t the instructions mention this!!?

12

OK now I know to drag and drop all the downloaded files where it says ‘replace <…>’ in the instructions to the Command Prompt in Windows…all good.

I’m on the final stage of sideloading e/os 2.4

SUCCESS!! :grinning: :grinning: :grinning:

Thanks for your help aibd

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