Teracube - 2e - Documentation Suggestions

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@Manoj, where should I submit problems with this procedure? My attempt to
fastboot flash system system.img
Resulted in an error because the system partition does not exist.

Pl can you share all details here of the steps you took …I can have the developer take a look at it and update the install guide as required.

Using these instructions link to Teracube_2e installation document.

My bootloader was already unlocked and I was using Ubuntu with adb and fastboot installed from the Ubuntu repositories.

I booted the phone into fastboot mode.

I ran these commands:

fastboot -w
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash vbmeta vbmeta.img
fastboot flash vbmeta_system vbmeta_system.img
fastboot flash vbmeta_vendor vbmeta_vendor.img
fastboot reboot fastboot
fastboot flash system system.img

On running

fastboot flash system system.img

I received an error stating that there was no system partition to write to and that the flash failed.

On inspecting the phone, I could not find a “system” partition, but there was a “Super” partition…

On inspecting the OEM ROM from this post https://community.myteracube.com/t/advanced-installing-an-android-image-w-sp-flash/1003, I also see that there is no “system.img” provided, which leads me to believe that there won’t be a system partition to write to.

I received my Teracube 2e this week.

Is fastbootd different from fastboot? I know I was in fastboot BC the phone screen reported that it was in fastboot mode.

Scary. Yes. However I was able to successfully install iodeOS via “adb sideload” per iodeOS instructions.

I am not learned enough to know why their side load installation succeeds.

Yes!

Improved Edit.
It is my experience with a fastbootd capable /e/ Xiaomi, that you cannot boot into fastbootd at will, certain conditions must be met before fastbootd will launch. Two links which explain fastbootd a little more. What is fastbootd? How to Enable and Boot? and this [Solved] issue Cannot boot into fastbootd OnePlus 8T.

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indeed fastbootd is different so fastboot reboot fastboot is needed to flash T2E, if this command line doesn’t work please upgrade your fastboot install to the latest version, the one provided on my ubuntu is not enough for example, they haven’t updated it for a long time

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Following the directions HERE. Enabed USB debugging, unlocked the bootloader no problem. Then proceed to download the build, unzip the file and open my terminal in this folder, then boot into fastboot and begin with the commands:

1. fastboot -w
2. fastboot flash boot boot.img
3. fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
4. fastboot flash vbmeta vbmeta.img
5. fastboot flash vbmeta_system vbmeta_system.img
6. fastboot flash vbmeta_vendor vbmeta_vendor.img
7. fastboot reboot fastboot
8. fastboot flash system system.img
9. fastboot flash product product.img
10. fastboot flash vendor vendor.img
11. fastboot reboot

Step 1 returns: ~/Documents/ROMs/eFoundation /Teracube 2e/IMG-e-0.16-q-20210526116675-dev-2e$ fastboot -w
wiping userdata…
Invalid logical-block-size 512: must be a power of 2 and at least 4096.
mke2fs 1.45.5 (07-Jan-2020)
/tmp/TemporaryFile-xe7Bmm: Unimplemented ext2 library function while setting up superblock
/usr/lib/android-sdk/platform-tools/mke2fs failed with status 1
mke2fs failed: 1
error: Cannot generate image for userdata

Steps 2-6 flash properly from what I can see in the terminal and on phone log.

Step 7 returns: ~/Documents/ROMs/eFoundation /Teracube 2e/IMG-e-0.16-q-20210526116675-dev-2e$ fastboot reboot fastboot
fastboot: usage: unknown reboot target fastboot (so from here I manually reboot the phone back into fastboot mode by powering it down with the button > holding the volume up and the power button till the “Recovery” menu, “Fastboot” menu, and “Normal” boot menu appears. I then choose “Fastboot” and proceed to step 8.)

Step 8: ~/Documents/ROMs/eFoundation /Teracube 2e/IMG-e-0.16-q-20210526116675-dev-2e$ fastboot flash system system.img
target reported max download size of 134217728 bytes
sending sparse ‘system’ 1/14 (131068 KB)…
OKAY [ 4.068s]
writing ‘system’ 1/14…
FAILED (remote: This partition doesn’t exist)
finished. total time: 4.076s

Wondering if these errors have anything to do with needing to disable AVB (Android verified boot) as discussed HERE ?

Also note that /e/ recovery does flash to a partition and I can boot into it after the steps above. (something need to be done with the partitions here?)

Any help would be appreciated. I am hoping to contribute to the /e/ community for this phone. @Phie @Manoj @aibd

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I believe I made some progress with communication with Gagan . He believes the 2e I got shipped had a SW proceeding SW6 and that I need to flash back to SW6 then flash /e/. I am in bootloop now but still have access to the recovery partition. I will work this out as soon as I have time and report back.

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This was not the issue. I flashed back to their SW6 and followed /e/'s Teracube 2e directions but still getting this error:

fastboot -w
wiping userdata…
Invalid logical-block-size 512: must be a power of 2 and at least 4096.
mke2fs 1.45.5 (07-Jan-2020)
/tmp/TemporaryFile-xe7Bmm: Unimplemented ext2 library function while setting up superblock
/usr/lib/android-sdk/platform-tools/mke2fs failed with status 1
mke2fs failed: 1
error: Cannot generate image for userdata

EDIT: I am stumped on this one but have successfully installed another ROM via a simple, standard ADB sideload through TWRP. Hope to get /e/ up and going on this device someday. Would love some pointers if anyone has any.

We see here that the fail comes from the “System” mke2fs.

I have a feeling you already have “latest” platform-tools (https://doc.e.foundation/pages/install-adb) - but I much prefer to uninstall any and all system platform-tools, so that confusion between the two sets of platform-tools cannot happen.

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I only have “System” installed. I learned my lesson after you schooled me last time. So you think a worthy try is to uninstall “System” and run try “Latest”?

I have a fresh Ubuntu install on this partition and it is up to date. No more Mint.

Well yes. You will need latest for a modern device.

There is a school of thought that you can run latest and system side by side but I disagree with that.

If I plan to use Latest I read the package manager guides then uninstall and purge the “system” android-sdk-platform-tools before following the instructions linked above, to provide “Latest”.

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Got it. Thanks. Im giving it a shot now.

Edit: Pretty sure you and I both have seen where this causes issues up close and personal :point_down:

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Well I’ll be damned! We will see how the rest goes:

fastboot -w
wiping userdata...
Erase successful, but not automatically formatting.
File system type raw not supported.
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  0.416s]
finished. total time: 0.416s

Edit: :point_up_2: I ran an adb command adb reboot fastboot (I believe) and it put me into fastbootd mode. This command was run there. Obviously wrong. I corrected this by manually powering the phone off and booting into fastboot mode using the buttons. Then everything went smoothly. Once again I am being schooled by @aibd and really appreciate his contributions. Thank you!

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I would like to hear your impressions on the Teracube as a device running /e/…warts and all!

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For anyone wondering, I purged “system” successfully from Ubuntu’s root directory with sudo rm -rf /lib/android-sdk. Do your own research first and view this only as a “hint”. This fixed my issue and then all commands came from the “latest” platform tools folder with commands all beginning with ./ . Maybe something to add to the directions or something similar?

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Pl can you check what the result for the “fastboot --version” is on your PC. Is it higher or equal to 31

Where do we raise those then? The install page links to this thread saying:

If you need help following this procedure or want to discuss any modification to it, please visit our dedicated topic on our community forum

(my emphasis)

I’ve just installed e on a brand new Teracube 2e. I boots fine but immediately tells me Bluetooth keeps stopping and then I can’t turn Wifi not Mobile data on either :frowning: