[UNOFFICIAL] TWRP 3.0.0-0 for the Pixel C (dragon-ryu) :: Current: 02-11-2016-1

This is UNOFFICIAL TWRP for the Pixel C. That said, the TeamWin team greatly helped me in getting this working. But at the same time, neither TeamWin nor me take any responsibility whatsoever for any undesired outcome resulting from any kind of use of this project and project files! If you don't exactly know what you're doing then just walk away and do something good. Don't touch any options of which you don't exactly know what they're for!

What works:

* So far, everything; encryption support should work, but some feedback on this would be welcome

Problems:

* The GUI will be sometimes slow, sometimes super slow. This is probably due to the high screen resolution of the Pixel C.

How to install:

- Unlock bootloader
- In the bootloader, run "fastboot flash recovery <.img file>"
- Reboot into Pixel C bootloader
- Boot into recovery (or later on/from Android through "adb reboot recovery")

If the recovery doesn't stick after booting into Android:

- Do the install procedure as above
- Do NOT reboot into Android
- Press Vol-Down + Power until you see the bootloader menu
- Select "Boot into Android Recovery"
- When in TWRP, mount system
- Using TWRP's File Manager, or using adb, delete the file "/system/bin/install-recovery.sh"
- Reboot

After doing this, OTAs won't work any longer, but they wouldn't work anyway after installing TWRP. Just so you know

DOWNLOAD

twrp-3.0.0-0-dragon-ryu-02-11-2016-1.img
SHA1 hash: 3e97aae6cc18975683eda2bd3732faaecec14166

Changelog

:: 01-19-2016-1

- Removed screen timeout by default, since the GUI is very slow and the screen unlock slider is very hard to use

- Added an option to fix the Fastboot Full Cap flag directly from TWRP; you find the option in "Advanced". If the Pixel C should ever not let you flash in fastboot, boot into TWRP, select Advanced -> Fix Fastboot, swipe to confirm, and you're set.

:: 02-11-2016-1

- Rebased on twrp/android-6.0 branch (i.e. upgraded to TWRP 3.0.0-0)

The recovery is based on the Pixel C stock kernel.

doumer said:

hooray thanks! just to clarify: I need encryption disabled to use twrp or just to flash SuperSU?
I'm currently using phhusson's noverity boot-img to boot and with a modified vendor img root is working fine while encryption is enabled ... just having to boot via fastboot every time is a bit awkward. And since I don't know what happens if the device got stuck and reboots itselfe without the modfied boot it would be awesome to have at least a nandroid backup

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Hey... You can use TWRP even with encryption enabled, you just can't write anything to /data.

However for the next build I'm going to enable TWRP's decryption option and see if it works with the Pixel C. If it does I'll post a new build this evening (European Time).

I tried the systemless SuperSU on a decrypted /data partition but it wouldn't work (bootloop), clearly there's a lot of ground to cover here, but like I said maybe the decryption functionality will help us here.

EDIT: I'm also working on a boot.img with disabled forced encryption. Looks like we're going to get proper root very soon.

Khaon said:

Hello thank you for this. Yesterday I tried to build as well twrp but it wasn't fully working.
I just imported this config with TW_INCLUDE_L_CRYPTO := true && TW_INCLUDE_CRYPTO := true

I didnt copy paste the twrp.fstab I added but added its path to BOAR_smthing.

Also I used omnirom's android-6.0 revision with dragon's device tree.

The recovery seems to boot, as

Code:

adb devices

returns XXXXXx recovery.

Also I can reach the device's shell with adb shell. Just the screen stays black.

I was wondering if I missed something. Is your device tree available online ?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Not yet. I'm going to upload it later on to the TWRP devs for official inclusion.

You need to merge the minui patch so TWRP can use DRM for video on the Pixel C; there is no fb0 device.

dkryder said:

there were some new boot images out today. i flashed one of them. when i boot to recovery the sdcard is not able to be mounted. do you have any suggestions on what i need to do or look at in order to get it fixed?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Because /data is (force-)encrypted. I uploaded a new TWRP build with various fixes but decryption doesn't work.

What I also found out is that the boot image for the Pixel C is NOT an Android boot image (!), but a ChromeOS one. This puts a lot of things in doubt, for example I am not sure if systemless SuperSU can handle this.

But, I'm working on all that (working on boot img without forced encryption right now, but so far it doesn't want to boot completely)

OK, so, I'm running the device unencrypted now, but there are many issues still to resolve.

OK guys, if you really want actual SuperSU, and other root stuff, and decrypted /data, here's how it works but it's complicated and will only work tethered as far as I can tell.

First, download this boot image: dragon-boot-encryptable-01092016-1.img

Now here are the steps:

- make sure you have a stock boot.img handy in case something goes wrong (as usual I can not take responsibility but chances of bricking are extremely slim if you know what you're doing)
- boot into fastboot
- flash the above boot image to boot ("fastboot flash boot dragon-boot....")
- flash the TWRP recovery (latest version) ("fastboot flash recovery twrp-dragon-...")
- hold power+vol down pressed.. the device will turn off, keep it pressed even as it turns off, it will turn on again and you are in the coreboot menu
- select "Android Recovery" which will start TWRP
- in TWRP, select system as read only when it asks ("never write onto the system partition").. my boot image does not disable dm-verity which seems to be still in effect, so if you change /system, the Pixel will refuse to boot (even though it's unlocked... no idea)
- once in TWRP, go to "Wipe" and then choose at the bottom "Format Data" (just wiping will not work)
- when that's done stay in the recovery
- get SuperSU 2.66 from somewhere and flash it through TWRP (using sideload for example)
- when it's done, go to "Backup" in TWRP and only backup boot (the kernel) - no password - no compression
- somehow copy the backed up kernel from the device to your computer ("adb pull" for example), but in no case let the Pixel boot into Android
- when that's done, tell TWRP to boot back into the bootloader

Now get ready to be real quick...

- boot (just boot, not flash) the TWRP backed up boot image (it's 32MB large and called boot.emmc.win, but it's all good): "fastboot boot boot.emmc.win" (and now you have to be rather quick)
- It will boot up for a second and then go back to the "The OS will boot in 30 seconds screen"
- Again press power+vol down and hold it, even as the device turns off, until you're in the coreboot bootloader
- There, choose fastboot again
- And once again boot the boot.emmc.win image ("fastboot boot boot.emmc.win")

- Now let it boot up
- If everything went OK you should be in Android, with decrypted /data, and SuperSU should be installed and working

If you want to avoid being encrypted again (although SuperSU should survive that) you will have to boot tethered everytime using that boot.emmc.win image.

Known Issues: Somehow because /data is decrypted, "Security" settings in Android will crash. Hopefully you don't need anything in there. You might also want to skip setting a lock pattern or pin when doing the initial setup, it might crash too.

So far, I tried installing AdAway using root which worked just fine.

If someone figures out how make this untethered: you da real MVP!

OK so I've managed to install Xposed, was pretty straightforward except for the tethered boot. Still looking into making it untethered.