Unable to lock bootloader after install - "failed to open zip file"

gos_matt

Hi,

Having issues installing grapheneOS on brand new, unlocked Pixel 7a. I searched forum for my error "failed to open zip file" but did not see any exact matches.

I initially tried following the web installer via Brave running in Kubuntu 22.04 (live image off a USB drive, admittedly some months out of date). Had more than 8 GB available in the mounted filesystem. When I got to "Download release" button it failed to download (some generic two word error, I forget).

I then switched to the CLI install, downloaded the latest stable image for Pixel 7a and verified it. After running ./flash-all.sh, nothing displayed on the terminal and nothing changed on the Fastboot Mode screen of the phone. In htop the fastboot process seemed to be consuming negligible CPU resources. After ten or so minutes I hit ctrl-C and took a break.

On another laptop (with installed-to-disk and up-to-date Kubuntu 22.04), I made a second attempt. Install seemed to work (terminal output, phone rebooted), but I saw these warnings/errors:

============
Warning: skip copying bootloader_b image avb footer (bootloader_b partition size: 0, bootloader_b image size: 15126280).
Warning: skip copying bootloader_a image avb footer (bootloader_a partition size: 0, bootloader_a image size: 15126280).
Warning: skip copying radio_a image avb footer (radio_a partition size: 0, radio_a image size: 79974540).
Warning: skip copying avb_custom_key image avb footer (avb_custom_key partition size: 0, avb_custom_key image size: 1032).

fastboot: error: failed to open zip file 'image-lynx-2023120400.zip': Invalid file

Then the final bootloader locking step failed:

============
~/lynx-factory-2023120400$ fastboot flashing lock
FAILED (remote: 'invalid android images, skip locking')

fastboot: error: Command failed

The phone now says:

============
Product revision: lynx MP1.0 B0
Bootloader version: lynx-14.0-10529422
Baseband version: g5300q-...
...
Device state: unlocked
Boot slot: a

...

I haven't made any more attempts yet, would appreciate any guidance.

de0u

gos_matt 8GB is not enough for the web installer, and the error reported from the CLI path is also plausibly consistent with insufficient storage, so maybe check that?

gos_matt

The laptop I used on the second attempt had >200 GB free.

de0u

gos_matt The laptop I used on the second attempt had >200 GB free.

Good. But depending on partitioning and other factors some step might still run out of space. Did you override TMPDIR as described on the CLI page?

gos_matt

Thanks... I tried the the TMPDIR override as well, did not help. But it's ok, I figured it out. That "image-lynx-2023120400.zip" file actually was corrupt! When I opened it with Ark, it told me it was not a valid zip file. I re-extracted everything again from the "lynx-factory-2023120400.zip" factory image I originally downloaded and verified, and it now had a valid image.zip file (same byte count as the corrupt one, but they were not identical according to diff). I was now able to successfully install Grapheneos and relock the bootloader. Phew! Kind of a crazy occurrence...

de0u

gos_matt That is indeed surprising! I'm glad it worked out in the end.