Boot loop after failed GrapheneOS install?

zephastic

Hello Everyone,

I was helping a friend install graphine on a Pixel 5 long distance. She was typing the command and I was looking over her shoulder via a remote screen share session. I am hoping someone can help us get a phone out of a boot loop and stable so we can finish the flash process.

After first look everyting started ok and the flash-all.sh looked like it was working as indente unit the end when it started to reboot. The phone rebooted and would boot loop. After this I looked at the out put from the flash-all scrip and I saw a couple of errors reported:
Fist was

Warning: bootloader does not support slots, and slot b was requested.
Sending 'bootloader' (8762 KB) OKAY [ 0.263s]
Writing 'bootloader' FAILED (remote: 'No such file or directory')
fastboot: error: Command failed

At then end right before the phone rebooted to go into the next phase. I got the errors saying that there were missing files in the image

extracting boot.img (96 MB) to disk... took 0.855s
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
Sending 'boot_a' (98304 KB) OKAY [ 3.080s]
Writing 'boot_a' OKAY [ 0.313s]
archive does not contain 'init_boot.img'
extracting dtbo.img (16 MB) to disk... took 0.171s
archive does not contain 'dtbo.sig'
Sending 'dtbo_a' (16384 KB) OKAY [ 0.590s]
Writing 'dtbo_a' OKAY [ 0.112s]
archive does not contain 'dt.img'
archive does not contain 'pvmfw.img'
archive does not contain 'recovery.img'
extracting vbmeta.img (0 MB) to disk... took 0.000s
archive does not contain 'vbmeta.sig'
Sending 'vbmeta_a' (8 KB) OKAY [ 0.140s]
Writing 'vbmeta_a' OKAY [ 0.079s]
archive does not contain 'vbmeta_system.img'
archive does not contain 'vbmeta_vendor.img'
extracting vendor_boot.img (96 MB) to disk... took 1.027s
archive does not contain 'vendor_boot.sig'
Sending 'vendor_boot_a' (98304 KB) OKAY [ 2.970s]
Writing 'vendor_boot_a' OKAY [ 0.313s]
archive does not contain 'vendor_kernel_boot.img'
extracting super_empty.img (0 MB) to disk... took 0.000s
Rebooting into fastboot OKAY [ 0.070s]
< waiting for any device >
fastboot: error: Failed to boot into userspace fastboot; one or more components might be unbootable.
Rebooting into bootloader OKAY [ 0.066s]
Finished. Total time: 0.116s

I assume that the problem with the install is was there were missing IMG files that I wasn't aware off.
Currently the phone will boot into fastboot mode for more that a couple of seconds and then reboot again. Is there anyway for me to get the stay in fastboot mode so I can try to finish the flashing process manually.

bereft_penguin

zephastic Are you sure ADB and Fastboot were up to date, as well as the device? As the other user posted, the missing images are likely normal, I'm not intimately familiar with most of them. The web install is the preferred way to flash GOS, either from another android phone or a supported OS/Browser combination. Is there some reason you two couldn't use that? It is odd that it won't stay in fastboot, can you boot to the recovery mode and see if it stays there? Does it also bootloop out of fastboot mode when not plugged in? If that works, maybe try another cable. An official google cable is best, you can order a USB A to C cable from the google store if you don't have a device with a USB C port (or it has a broken implementation like some older TB3 laptops). Hope this helps

unwat

zephastic I got the errors saying that there were missing files in the image

The related thread mentioned in the other two comments: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/1645-cli-install-seemed-to-work-but-got-many-archive-does-not-contain

GrapheneOS user's response (I am presuming the lead dev):

Those images aren't used by any of the supported devices. CLI flashing process tries to flash all the possible images. It's expected to have in the output.

Seconded about using the web installer, trying another cable, or trying another computer. The last two (cable/computer) fix the majority of installation issues people experience based on what I've seen on this forum.

mythodical

If I recall correctly, the messages regarding missing .img files is normal, as not all firmware blobs are included with all Pixels.

I encountered similar issues with the bootloader when I tried to install GOS for the first time via Debian Sid. It didn't matter which USB port I used, nor which cable. The errors occurred with the web installer and manual installation. The solution that worked for me was to use Windows 10 and Chrome with the web installer. I also had success using the web installer via another Android device (Huawei P20 Pro) and Chrome for another GOS device. All of this to say that it might be your friend's installation source that is the issue.

zephastic

mythodical Cool Thanks for the confirmation for the logs. Now I know that's not a problem.

We did verify the signature of the image with signify-openbsd, so the image should have been ok. The reason we went the ADB route was because the Web Install didn't work for her. The page returned some error about not having USB permissions. We checked the user permissions and they seemed ok. That's why we went the ADB route. Usually flash phones with ADB and don't have a problem. I haven't not flash Graphine before just Lineage.

zephastic

bereft_penguin Yes we and just installed

PC:~/redfin-factory-2022121100$ adb --version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 33.0.3-8952118
Installed as /home/zoe/platform-tools/adb

She did try the browser and it returned the error "Error: Failed to execute 'open' on 'USBDevice': Access denied."
I checked her permissions and the seemed ok. I thought that it wasn't supported for Linux so I just went the adb route. I did not know about the supported os/browser combination page. If I knew about it, I would have dug deeper into why the browser didn't work.
I'll check into getting it into recovery, the USB cable and computer to see if there is a problem there.
Thank you very much!

MetropleX

unwat seconded about using the web installer, trying another cable,

It's always the cable. 😉