Graphene OS – what are the chances of failing installation / bricking my phone?

nervousball

Hello all, I do have pixel 8 pro for a quite some time now – completely idling in the room and want to install Graphene OS on this phone. I did some reading on graphene os web installation for mac OS – watched some videos and I do have few questions in terms of potential error during installation or bricking my phone:

lets say I lose internet connection / my phone dies / cable breaks or laptop shuts off during installation, as example – when images are downloading or flashing or when bootloader is open in general

what will happen? All installation gets cancelled? Will phone reset and try to proceed from the last step in has yet reached or return to initial setup stage to the beginning?

I just want to avoid any potential risks and ensure all installation is smooth – I will of course ensure - phone and laptop batteries are fully charged, wifi is working properly, will use stock google pixel 8 pro usb c cable for installation, but, is there an actual way for me to brick pixel 8 pro phone apart from, from understanding:

unlocking bootloader → deleting current OS → closing bootloader? If not doing anything stupid like this, just in terms of encountering error in the process...

I assume there is a potential to encounter some random errors whilst carefully following web installation steps, so im wondering what will happen with the phone and overall process if errors occur...can I restart phone and start over?

Thank you for any advice

Aeon

nervousball

its virtually impossible to brick your pixel when trying to install GrapheneOS.

Worst case you end up without a valid operating system and need to manually boot into fastboot modus, but that is very very unlikely.

The whole process is as foolproof as technically possible.

de0u

nervousball lets say I lose internet connection / my phone dies / cable breaks or laptop shuts off during installation, as example – when images are downloading or flashing or when bootloader is open in general

Charge the battery well before you start.
Read up on the button presses to force the device off, and to get into the bootloader. If you want, you can practice them.
Walk through joining one of the GrapheneOS chat channels (e.g., set up a Matrix or Discord account).
Use the web installer, not the command-line installer.

With that preparation you will be essentially invulnerable. The web installer is very safe. If something odd goes wrong, force the device off, then force it into the bootloader, then start over. If that doesn't do it, get help (the chat rooms are a lot faster than this forum, but this forum can help too).

This is really very likely to work.

The easiest way to get in trouble is after the installation, so don't disable any system apps, don't remove any permissions from any system apps, don't disable any CA root certs, don't forget your PIN or passphrase.

nervousball

Aeon thanks for your response. i didnt really understood what fastboot modus is and doing this installation from website macOS browser method, hence asking for this stuff in advance as i wouldnt be able to tell what kind of errors/mistakes i could do or how to troubleshoot it..

if i follow official guide and encounter any error, what shall i do? disconnect / restart phone? best i could do is to cancel installation somehow..now imagine google OS is being deleted and replaced with graphene and is gettting glitches..

in other words, i got no idea what to do if i encounter bug or restart phone during installation

nervousball

de0u thank you man, for replying. made me less worried. im usually good with software and hardware on computers, but literally got no idea what im doing here as i never installed custom OS before, and just dont want to blindy follow commands like a sheep and damage phone, if likely

if i encounter any error - i will just restart the phone and try again via bootloader -> the most recent step where i failed, i guess...

yes i will be using web installation via macOS

the only question i got - IF something goes wrong, and when i force the device off mid installation, lets say downloading/flashing current images etc..does it mean that whilst im installing GOS, current stock OS are being deleted? lets say if i fail to install it, can i go back to google OS or i must finish installation of GOS? or this depends at what step i actually forced device off?

well..if forcing device off and trying it again -> installation just starts over, from the very beginning and not last step, there must be a timing where google stock ROM is being deleted?

LordDrakkon

If you make sure you have power management settings that allow Windows to disconnect USB devices to save power and make sure your laptop is fully charged. You should be good. I was able to do use the web installer successfully my first time to install GraphoneOS on my Pixel 9 Pro XL without a single issue. This is my first Pixel phone as well but I am used to flashing other devices, like my s23 Ultra.

nervousball

LordDrakkon thanks. this will be macOS browser installation which i believe is very similar.

DeletedUser87

nervousball the device actually won't brick, that's really a thing of the past. I can't tell you when the Stock OS is fully deleted in the process, but most likely it will be deleted partition by partition (that's how Android works essentially, through various partitions containing certain code or data for certain tasks). If you have any problem during flashing, there's a lot of people here who will be willing to help you. If you get stuck at any point, don't hesitate to ask. I have been doing this (flashing) to quite a lot of phones with much more difficult steps (custom recoveries, userspace fastboot and so on) and GrapheneOS really offers the most easy installation method of all the ROMs I have encountered over the years. Don't be too scared, it's already designed for the least technical user in mind and I'm sure it will go well!

de0u

nervousball the only question i got - IF something goes wrong, and when i force the device off mid installation, lets say downloading/flashing current images etc..does it mean that whilst im installing GOS, current stock OS are being deleted? lets say if i fail to install it, can i go back to google OS or i must finish installation of GOS?

If you have a half-installed OS and something goes wrong, the device might boot-loop. Just force it off.

As long as "OEM unlock" is on, you can force the device into the bootloader and run either the GrapheneOS flasher or Google's flasher.

de0u

nervousball if forcing device off and trying it again -> installation just starts over, from the very beginning and not last step, there must be a timing where google stock ROM is being deleted?

Yes, but you can put it back with Google's flasher, even if neither OS is bootable, as long as "OEM unlock" is on.

As long as you stick to the web installers this is a highly-safe process. Lots of people can help if you get stuck, but you probably won't. It sounds as if you are careful and will follow directions, and that will likely suffice.

nervousball

DeletedUser87 thanks man! im quite technical when it comes to computers and following process, understanding stuff, but im not really confident on phones - never done flashing or custom ROM installation, hence dont want to be dum dum sheep and have no idea what im doing..

i guess if im stuck i will try to post a thread over here, people seem to be polite and very helpful, the only problem - they might not respond on time and i wont have capability to keep my phone on charge / waiting for hours with computer online, of course

nervousball

de0u thank you man, appreciate your patience and help

will give it a go

DeletedUser87

nervousball nah, it won't take hours. I'm around here a lot throughout the day, as are many other very technical users. Just @ me and I'll check in on you. I also have a burner Signal account you can message me on if you want to (although I'd rather stick to the forum here for good measure).

de0u

nervousball people seem to be polite and very helpful, the only problem - they might not respond on time and i wont have capability to keep my phone on charge / waiting for hours with computer online, of course

If you press and hold the power button for a long time (more than a minute) the device will likely power off. Or, if it is trying to boot, if you tap the power button as indicated it will pause. It should be fine to leave it paused connected to power indefinitely -- at least for several hours.

angela

nervousball what happened?

nervousball

DeletedUser87 signal! great minds!

i also use it :)
wonder how you workaround not to disclose your phone number, but i assume you use a "burner" phone number to register yourself on signal, shame they still require phone numbers..
thank you man for your hospitality, really appreciate it.

will keep it in mind in case anything goes wrong

NetRunner88

The flashing process (without additional time for Downloading the needed files) is around 15 to 20 minutes.
Depending of your internet speed you can achieve a fully functional device in less than half an hour.

The risk of having a brick isn't zero, but you must be very very very unlucky to fail and have a brick.

I have even done the stupid error of disconnecting a pixel during the flashing process (i wasnt paying attention) and was able to recover fully by restarting the whole process after rebooting the phone in bootloader mode.

DeletedUser87

nervousball Signal has usernames now. No doxxing possible anymore.

angela

nervousball

the chances are close to zero. in a typical week on this forum, there are zero posts about people who've bricked

it's so rare, probably three posts out of every 2000 posts and the bricks get resolved.

its not hard at all and someone who is very low skill could do it. it would take effort to brick if i tried using the installer. you would probably have to experiment to find a way to brick, it would be a challenge.

its not hard, it just feels that way because it's new

dregrinfuces

Just for posterity, I'll note that Side of Burritos just released a video on this entitled "I Tried to Brick My GrapheneOS Installation (So You Don’t Have To)." He went through various ways things might cause problems, but all worked out well:

https://youtu.be/ik0AiO0WtuU?si=JCNYSZamY4sUJ9eT