Oneplus Nord manual installation problems

Hi,
I bought a second hand Onplus Nord because it was listed as one of the devices which could be installed with the easy installer. However, there is a bug in the easy installer, It seems not to recognise that it supports the device, so I thought I could install /e/e manually. I got as far as “ensuring all firmware partitions are consistent”.
When I try to sideload the copy-partitions-20220613-signed.zip package, I get stuck.
On the device I have to select Apply update, but when in recovery mode, I have only 4 options: “Format data”, “Reboot device”, “Power off” and “advanced”. Should I not be in recovery mode to sideload the mentioned file? My pc doesn’t see the device in recovery mode, so I thought maybe I should sideload in fastboot mode. The device is recognised fastboot mode. it returns “7c21823w” fastboot when I type “fastboot devices”. But when I try to sideload in fastboot mode I get this:
adb sideload copy-partitions-20220613-signed.zip
adb: sideload connection failed: no devices/emulators found
adb: trying pre-KitKat sideload method…
adb: pre-KitKat sideload connection failed: no devices/emulators found

I’m a bit confused. I managed to install /e/ on several devices (Swift, Moto G4, moto ge 6, Moto g7 power) and I always had to install Twrp. In the documentation for the Oneplus Nord as I understand a different recovery is used (recovery-e-1.6-r-20221129238947-stable-avicii.img), right? Since there is no option “Apply Update” in recovery mode, I don’t know what to do. By the way, I can only reboot to fastboot mode or recovery. And standard the device boots to recovery.
Can anybody help please :pray:?

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

Do you not find adb sideload as a sub-menu out of Advanced? I do not have a device with /e/ Recovery to hand but I know sideload is possible with /e/ Recovery – I have used it !

long answe short: you could install TWRP as well, and since it will probably be overwritten anyway after installing the system there isn’t a reason not to do so. And there are several Youtube HOWTOs for that. There you’d have to select “advanced/adb sideload” and just go on with the installation procedure…

Thnx for your time.aibd.

Do you not find adb sideload as a sub-menu out of Advanced?


This is the screen I get in recovery mode. When I tap advanced, I get 2 options: “reboot to fastboot mode” and “Reboot to recovery mode”
At the bottom of the screen it is mentioned that this is version 1.2. When I start up in recovery mode, I first get a screen with Chinese signs and the option "English, and whe nI tap English, Get get an error message: “kindly reminder System error, after select language, please select Online update (keep data) to recovery system, thanks!”
I don’t know what this means and if it is important, but there is no option to select online update.

Ahhh … sorry, that cannot be /e/ recovery as I had assumed …working from

one would do this “Installing a custom recovery using fastboot
then do “Ensuring all firmware partitions are consistent”

You should be ok to install by fastboot a recovery.img – like (recovery-e-1.6-r-20221129238947-stable-avicii.img)

You know this is ok … there is no working system so the phone just defaults “correctly” to recovery.

Edit, with reference to this thread https://community.oneplus.com/thread/1483582 I think we can say that this is the “original” OnePlus recovery.

@ hinrtot
Thnx for your effort.
I tried to install TWRP, but now, when I reboot to fastboot mode, my device is suddenly not recognised anymore. That’s new. I had problems with the pc not recognising my Moto G7, so I was very happy that was not the case this time, but alas…

Hi aibd,
recovery-e-1.6-r-20221129238947-stable-avicii.img is what I installed. I followed the instructions for installing /e/e on the Nord and downloaded and installed this recovery.
I think that mayby the reason the device is no longer recognised by my pc is caused by the fact that the Oneplus os is no longer present? I had a lot of problems with this when I installed /E/ on my Moto G7. That’s why I bought the Oneplus Nord, in the hope that the Easy installer would work, saving me (and you uys ;-)) lot’s of time. It had something to do with the USB drivers. I will look into that before I can follow the suggestion of hintot to install TWRP.

wait! Just to make clear we’re talking about the same thing:

“Fastboot mode” → hopefully recognized by [fastboot devices], but not via [adb devices]
Recovery and “Apply Update” or “ADB sideload” → hopefully recognized by [adb devices] but not via [fastboot devices]

I am expecting that you can engage fastboot mode from Phone off Power + Volume Up ?

My first boot into a custom recovery on OnePlus One also failed ! As I was more used to Samsung I followed a variation on my own advice here and the recovery was engaged ok.


I can boot to fastboot mode as an option under "advanced in recovery mode. This is what I see when in fastboot mode.Options I can choose via the up and down volume buttos are:
Start, Restart bootloader, REcovery mode, Show barcode, Power off.
Powering up with the Volume upo and power buttons makes no difference.
I downloaded the latest drivers for the Oneplus Nord, but that didn’t help finding the device in fastboot mode.

a) I have a few threads bookmarked as “Windows drivers” + “waiting for any device” – here is one, is this your issue? FP3: From 0.23 Android 9 to /e/OS 1.x - seeking clarity - #16 by aibd

b) Are you saying

I am expecting that you can engage fastboot mode from Phone off Power + Volume Up ?

… does not work ?

c) Was you phone definitely on Android R=11 before you started ?

@hirntot
Yes, when I type fastboot devices I get 7c21…e fastboot, but when I type adb devices it returns nothing.This is when the device is in fastboot mode. What does that mean?
Yesterday (I think before I wiped data) adb devices returned my device when the device was in fastboot mode, but not when it was in recovery mode.
I tried connecting the device to my laptop and at first when I opend the device manager an error sign appeared for a USB device when connecting the phone and clicking on it returned: a request for the USB device descriptor failed (error 43). After disconnecting and reconnecting to a different usb port that error disapaered, but the device not recognised at all anymore.
So I went back to my pc.

Just answering a part of this for @hirntot … adb and fastboot talk different languages !
When in fastboot, you ask for fastboot devices he says “OK” and identifies himself.
When in fastboot you ask for adb nobody answers. !

At the moment we can only really talk fastboot to him.

Edit; Windows will have the problem from a different angle. It will not see a regular OnePlus nord so probably Windows cannot update drivers correctly.

Windows should be able to see your Fastboot device and hopefully update with a composite driver.

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If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about drivers. fastboot recognizes the phone; so far there’s everything right. now you need to find the option “ADB Sideload” before you think about drivers at all. and if “ADB Devices” doesn’t find anything when the phone is in the right mode, then we can worry about drivers.

please select “recovery mode”. if you already installed TWRP successfully, you should be landing in TWRP. then, please send another picture. if you don’t land in TWRP nor in /e/ recovery (there’s a white screen and the /e/ logo), your TWRP installtion failed.

It’s getting worse . I reflashed the recovery-e-1.6-r-20221129238947-stable-avicii.img. That seemed to work:


Then I wanted to reboot to recovery and I got this error message:

So appearantly something went wrong with flashing the recovery… I think I need to reboot to fastboot mode and try flashing Twrp, but htere is a problem. The only way to startup in fastboot is holding the volume up and down and power buttons. I then see the fastboot screen, but as soon as I let go of the buttons.this screen disappears and I get the destroyed recovery message again.

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wow. that’s a bummer. that’s the second OnePlus Nord within a week that had the very same problem that I personally know of. the other one almost gave up and finally could recover his phone ONLY by total reflashing directly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An5VQViUDb4

I would actually reflash stock OS again and then try again to install TWRP from scratch with
https://twrp.me/oneplus/oneplusnord.html
or with this (not very good) video tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiKUkPICmGM

don’t loose patience, everything’s going to work out in the end. and you learned some hacking after all…

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Hahaha, I’ve gotten used to seemingly endless trial and error with previous phones. I managed to reboot to fastboot and tried to flash Twrp this time, but no succes. Same recovery error message after rebooting to recovery. I’ll try your suggestion now.
Thnx

maybe ask @johannesp , he was the other one. you met each other before. at the topic OnePlus Nord (AC2003) Not supported - #3 by johannesp

:crazy_face:

… only if yes … there may be a “technique” to the reboot the instructions say

  1. Now reboot into recovery to verify the installation:
  • With the device powered off
  • hold Volume Down + Power

no, not at this point anymore. it’s definitely bricked - and at least at this point there’s nothing to do anymore… @johannesp tried everything I knew.

probalby a messed up partitioning, maybe caused by wrong/unexpected partitioning or Formatting before the start of the procedure (not android R? maybe?). guessing.