Pixel 4a: Easy Installer installed "dead" Version s-dev. What now?

/e/OS Devices Google
1

Hi everyone,
First of all: Thank you to all you guys who help others in this forum, you’re great!

Ten days ago I used the Easy Installer to install /e/OS on my Pixel 4a (and I love it!). The image chosen by the installer was e-1.17-s-20231113351092-dev-sunfish. It works flawlessly, but today, after spending a huge amount of time installing, setting up and customizing everything, I realized that the “s-dev”-branch seems to be dead. Looks like it has been dropped in favour of the “t-dev”-branch and doesn’t receive any more updates. I have no idea why the installer chose this version in the first place, but now I am stuck right after a fresh install.

My question is: What do you guys recommend I do? Switch to stable “r” or to dev “t”?
And, more important: Is there a way to install a new version without losing all data on my phone? Like a dirty install?

Thank you for your help,
Chris

2

Can you boot into the Recocery?

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3

Yes, it’s the “e-recovery”

4

I would download a /e/ version from here > Downloads for sunfish
Then move this file to a USB stick and run an installation via e-recovery adb sideload.

5

oh, I see, you mean it is possible to just dirty flash a different version?

6

I would first try to make the initial version executable again.

7

Sorry, we might have a misunderstanding here. I meant “stuck” in the sense that the version I installed will not receive any updates. The phone is booting and working normally. I just want to switch to either “r stable” or “t dev” because “s dev” is dead.
Sorry, I didn’t make that clear enough…

8

Ah, okay.

“s dev” to “r stable” = not a good idea!
“s dev” to “t dev” = that will work fine.

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9

Thanks, then I’ll go with t-dev. Can I just dirty flash the new version via adb?

10

Yes, via adb sideload. Either with PC host machine or directly on the device with USB stick.

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11

Okay, I’ll definitely try it tomorrow and report back here. Thank you for your help, @Xxpsilon !

12

It is not always the case, but it is possible from S to T

Also without using adb on a computer,
you can download directly “e-1.19.1-t-dev” in the device internal storage
then reboot to recovery-e and apply the update from internal storage

13

Installing from USB-stick (need OTG adapter), from SD-CARD, from internal storage is possible without computer, and don’t use adb sideload.
installing via adb sideload is another procedure, that need a computer.
All mentioned methods need to boot the device in the “custom recovery” mode.

14

Pardon, I mistook “adb sideload” for “Apply Update”.

By the way: The Pixel 4a (sunfish) like other Google Pixel devices, does not have a microSD card slot.

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15

Hey,
since I don’t have an OTG-adapter and sideloading from internal memory is not possible with the current version of the e-recovery, I decided to go the adb-sideload-from-PC-way. It seems that everything went well, I followed the install guide, which says:

  1. Press enter key on the keyboard to start the sideloading The screen will show the progress percentage…This might pause at 47%
    >> that happened

  2. Give it some time

  3. The PC console will now display Total xfer: 1.00x
    >> that happened

  4. The phone screen will now display some text with a message similar to
    Script succeeded result was [1.000000]
    >> that didn’t happen, the last message on the phone’s display is:
    step 1/2
    step 2/2
    is that okay? Or do I have to wait longer?

16

and thank you for your patience, @Xxpsilon and @piero!

17

hmmm… it’s been an hour now… still stuck at step 2/2… what can I do? Try to sideload again? Simply reboot? Did I miss something?

18

Sometimes “Script succeeded” is not seen.

Time to go for Reboot now.

If no luck it is worth running the sideload again, no point in waiting more than 3 minutes or so after seeing “success” on the PC.

If this fails I think you will need to sideload the contents of the “recovery and boot img” https://images.ecloud.global/dev/sunfish/ (which first needs unzipping) so that you sideload the contained .zip files.

19

YESSS!! Thank you @Xxpsilon , @piero and @aibd ! It worked like a charm, now I’m on t-dev and everything’s running smoothly! You’ve been very supportive of a noob like me, great community!

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