Hi,
I am posting this here to assist anyone that finds themselves in this situation as I was unable to find any information to assist solving it prior to solving it.
- I attempted to install GrapheneOS on a pixel 8 that i had purchased 2nd hand that did not have the carrier bit active and had been factory reset, and then setup and updated to latest google security patch.
- I followed the CLi install guide and while i am using an endeavourOS system followed the guide as if it was Arch
- the the first issue i came across was the curl command to obtain the image and sig was unsuccessful, which i suspect came down to not configuring the openSSH, or maybe my vpn or firewall (i got files but they were empty) regardless i did not spend any time attempting to rectify that as i used a "wget" command which worked.
-the next error i came to was when i ran the flash-all script, while it appeared to start to work it generated an error something along the lines of "error writing to partition b" (sorry i didn't save the specific error wording) and then got stuck doing nothing waiting for device but the device had been untouched. (ie not unplugged, rebooted, buttons pushed)
I then found myself in a soft brick boot loop due to corrupted data, (freezing on main initial google screen)
- I attempted then to use the webusb install method via chromium again following the guide exactly, though as if i was an arch user
- that resulted in a slightly more severe soft boot loop were i couldnt see the device via adb devices or fastboot and i could no longer access the bootloader,....which after a bit of trial and error i sussed out the nuts and bolts... which is as follows:
-when your device is hung on the google screen holding down power and volume up button for 5 seconds give or take rebooted the device.
-immediately after the device begins to reboot, releasing the previously held buttons and holding down the power button and volume down keys boots it to a rescue mode
-when in rescue mode holding down the power key and tapping the volume up key opens the recovery menu
-Once I had sorted that I wiped/reset the device, downloaded the factory image from https://developers.google.com/android/ota, selected the "apply update from ADB" in recovery console and side loaded the factory... that successfully unsoftbricked it.
-I then used the same process to boot to the recovery and selected the "Enter Fastboot" not the fastboot that it boots to if you just hold down power and volume up.. but a different fastboot state accessible through the recovery...(i dunno if its actually a different state or just has a different UX) but it looks different.
-I then ran the flash-all.sh script but as admin (sudo) and everything worked as expected and i am now the pleased and curious user of a first time pixel 8 GrapheneOS user
Thanks to all that have made it possible WHoo HOO!!!