XA2 bricked/boot loop after flashing Magisk

I guess I shouldn’t have done this, but I needed to have root to transfer some apps from my previous phone without the need to install/use G… play store.

So I have a XA2 H3113 with latest /e/ OS 0.14(?) Android 10.
I followed the install instruction to boot temporarly twrp with fastboot flash boot twrp-3.5.0_9-0-pioneer.img. I then unlocked the device with my pattern and flashed latest Magisk zip.

Now the phone hangs with the Sony device logo showing.

  1. What have I done wrong?
  2. How can I solve this? Without loosing the invested time in configuring /e/ at best… :-/

Damn it…

EDIT: To my surprise I can boot into recovery and it is still TWRP o.O

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

TWRP got flashed to boot_b
I then switched from b to a inside TWRP because I wanted to try.
Did not help.

I then flashed /e/ recovery (to a).
Now my “device is corrupted” with a red triangle. Oh cmon… ^^

For any flashing activities it’s best to remove pin/pwds etc from device as part of your phone prep.

Red triangle is about as far as you go unfortunately. I think you will have to return to stock android nine and start again.

Oh jsus… I repaired it.
Flashed twrp again. Booted into it. Flashed uninstall magisk zip. Changed from a to b. Flashed /e/ recovery. Device starts again :sweat:

Do I need to do something to boot_a or just leave it as is?
Anybody can tell me how to installe Magisk the safe way on this device? ^^

Phew, well done!

You could leave the other slot as it is. There will be a version 0.15 update in a week or two (eta) which you should be able to download as an OTA and it will auto-install to the other slot.

Magisk I can’t help you with.

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For what is the /e/ recovery there? Didn’t see a backup option there?
This is my daily driver and as much as I like updates I don’t want to install any before now knowing to be able to revert back in case somethings breaks.

EDIT: How comes the bugtracker (linked to on the installation tutorial) does not show any bugs?

twrp is temporarily flashed over the boot partition (as opposed to being installed) as a tool to get your rom on the phone. eOS comes with it’s own recovery as part of the install and overwrites twrp. eRecovery can be used in the first place for flashing e, no probs. This is what I did this time around. If you want to do something using twrp in the future, just fastboot flash boot again.

Updates will always install to the other (inactive) slot. If there is a problem it should abort and revert to the active slot. Sometimes (but hopefully not) things go wrong and it just hangs or bootloops and in this scenario you can power off the phone and change back to the other slot with fastboot commands.

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In A/B devices like the XA2, the custom recovery is installed on the boot partition as it doesn’t have a recovery partition. So when you install Magisk you must not change that partition before.

Use “fastboot boot” instead of “fastboot flash boot” when booting twrp. It should work then.

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This is correct. Sorry if my previous post caused any problems :grimacing: and thanks for pointing out my mistake. One word in the wrong place could cause a lot of trouble. I can’t edit my last post now unfortunately.