I hope you all have a Joyful Holiday season with your family and loves ones. ~ ~ ~ Stay safe ~ ~ ~
[Guide] Root Pixel 4 XL with Magisk Android 12.1
- Thread starter Homeboy76
- Start date
I hope you all have a Joyful Holiday season with your family and loves ones. First "oh no did I brick my device?" post of the year!
I was on Android 11 with an unlocked bootloader, magisk root on the stock rom, and tried doing a clean install, without the "Magisk Restore Images" step, because Magisk hadn't backed them up, and found myself with a device that doesn't have WIFI or mobile. Luckily, I had a backup of my persist.img, but my phone doesn't appear to like that persist.img anymore.
Note: I had modified my modemst1 because my device is from US and the Turkish government wanted me to pay ~$300 to not block it, so I changed my IMEI for the Turkish line to the IMEI of an old phone that belonged to a relative, and kept my US line with the original IMEI.
Here is what I tried:
- Right when Android 12 booted for the first time, mobile was gone, but WIFI was just flaky. It listed the networks and even started downloading my backup. That was followed by a boot loop, which may have been because of a button issue. I followed the instructions for flashing boot.img with --slot all. Again, WIFI was only flaky but after a few reboots it was gone entirely.
- Reflashed the stock 12 several times, didn't help.
- Reflashed the stock 11 version I was on, didn't help.
- fastboot erase/flash persist consistently fails with "Not allowed to flash" and "Not allowed to persist" even when I have root. This is very strange.
- dd if=<persist.img path> of=/dev/block/sda2 - seems to work but doesn't fix anything. Attempting to turn on the WIFI makes the UI unresponsive.
- Installed TWERP hoping it would provide a way to flash the persist.img but didn't really help. But it showed the persist partition size to be 0 bytes, which was a very interesting finding, confirming the persist partition corruption.
3 questions:
- Am I not flashing my persist.img correctly? If so, why not? I had backed it up with dd.
- I am guessing I might have to start looking for a Pixel 4XL persist.img, but where do I look for that? I am guessing all Pixel 4XLs have the same but the stock image downloads don't come with the persist.img for some reason.
- Is there anything else I should do?
I was on Android 11 with an unlocked bootloader, magisk root on the stock rom, and tried doing a clean install, without the "Magisk Restore Images" step, because Magisk hadn't backed them up, and found myself with a device that doesn't have WIFI or mobile. Luckily, I had a backup of my persist.img, but my phone doesn't appear to like that persist.img anymore.
Note: I had modified my modemst1 because my device is from US and the Turkish government wanted me to pay ~$300 to not block it, so I changed my IMEI for the Turkish line to the IMEI of an old phone that belonged to a relative, and kept my US line with the original IMEI.
Here is what I tried:
- Right when Android 12 booted for the first time, mobile was gone, but WIFI was just flaky. It listed the networks and even started downloading my backup. That was followed by a boot loop, which may have been because of a button issue. I followed the instructions for flashing boot.img with --slot all. Again, WIFI was only flaky but after a few reboots it was gone entirely.
- Reflashed the stock 12 several times, didn't help.
- Reflashed the stock 11 version I was on, didn't help.
- fastboot erase/flash persist consistently fails with "Not allowed to flash" and "Not allowed to persist" even when I have root. This is very strange.
- dd if=<persist.img path> of=/dev/block/sda2 - seems to work but doesn't fix anything. Attempting to turn on the WIFI makes the UI unresponsive.
- Installed TWERP hoping it would provide a way to flash the persist.img but didn't really help. But it showed the persist partition size to be 0 bytes, which was a very interesting finding, confirming the persist partition corruption.
3 questions:
- Am I not flashing my persist.img correctly? If so, why not? I had backed it up with dd.
- I am guessing I might have to start looking for a Pixel 4XL persist.img, but where do I look for that? I am guessing all Pixel 4XLs have the same but the stock image downloads don't come with the persist.img for some reason.
- Is there anything else I should do?
Are you guys getting GPay working? I installed the Jan update and switched to magisk canary with safety net 2.2.1. I passed safety net, device is certified, banking apps all good. I denied Play store, Gpay, and Play Services. I noticed that Play services unchecks after reboot. Where am I going wrong? I'm not finding any recent info.
I got GPay working! Here is how.
Clear the cache and data for Google Play services, Google Play Store, and GPay. After which, I removed and reinstalled Google Pay and then added the payment method back in.
I had done this originally but not the uninstall & reinstall. That's what did it.
Clear the cache and data for Google Play services, Google Play Store, and GPay. After which, I removed and reinstalled Google Pay and then added the payment method back in.
I had done this originally but not the uninstall & reinstall. That's what did it.
Hi there, I understand your situation and I'm kind of in the same boat. Though I've figured out to fix the wifi and system ui crashing. I guess need some help from you though because we also have that stupid govt tax system. I'll send you a Private message and we can try to figure it out. Text me asap. Thanks
Now that Magisk no longer can be installed on inactive slot, does that mean I can no longer apply OTA and maintain root? There is new OTA Android 12 QPR3 Beta 1 and I want to know if is there a way to apply it.
The option to install via inactive slot was re-introduced into Magisk with version 24.0. You should have that option again on the latest Canary, Beta and Stable versions.
Could someone please share the boot image for 12 (SP2A.220305.012)?
*EDIT*
I got it from the full update zip from the OP, thank you @Homeboy76 for this thread. The OP should have far more likes...
*EDIT*
I got it from the full update zip from the OP, thank you @Homeboy76 for this thread. The OP should have far more likes...
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In addition to what others have said....It sounds like you are rooting this phone for the 1st time? But in case you are not, make sure that any Magisk modules you may have installed that need updating are disabled.
Also, @badabing2003 makes a good point about file transferring. John Wu even recommends using the adb push method in his instructions because sometimes using the native file transfer can corrupt a boot image.11
That did download. It seems like stable is working though. Like you said I'm rooted. Should I unhide Magisk before updating in the future? I appreciate your help, and the guide. Even GPay is working. It's always a struggle but I guess that's what makes it fun. At least a challenge.1
I think it is sensible to unhide Magisk before updating it in the future. -
14[Guide] Root Pixel 4 XL With Magisk Android 12.1
Android Security Bulletin—May 2022
Pixel Update Bulletin—May 2022
Introduction
This Guide is for Pixel 4 XL owners that want to Root their phone, and enjoy the benefits of rooting it. The Guide is divided into three parts: Information, Instructions, and Other.
~ ~ ~ Part I - INFORMATION ~ ~ ~
- Disclaimer
- Prerequisites
- NEW
- Update(s)
- My Other Guides
- Credits/Thanks/Recognitions
- Open a Command Prompt/Boot Fastboot Mode/Boot Recovery
- Test fastboot
- Unlock Bootloader/Return Phone to Stock/Lock Bootloader
- Install/Update Factory Image keep data or wipe data
- Take the OTA Update and Maintain Root
- ADB Sideload
- Extract/Flash boot.img
- Root/Reroot with Magisk and Pass SafetyNet.
- Set Magisk App Update Channel/Update Magisk
- Install/Update Magisk Modules
- Custom ROMs
- Mods
- T.W.R.P. Backup/Restore
4@Homeboy76 Just wanted to give you a heads up. With the latest Magisk Beta (21.2) that came out yesterday, the patched output file is no longer named "magisk_patched.img". He added a suffix to the name so each time you patch the stock boot image a different output name will result. Thought you might want to modify #7 to address this change3For those on latest Canary 23014 (Zygisk with GPay added to deny list),to pass safetynet and enable contactless payments
1) Clear data for both GPay and Google Play Services. Unfortunately this also meant adding cards back in GPay app (basically reverify already added cards in your GPay profile)
2) Apply SafetyNet fix 2.2.0 (latest).
On the bright side no longer need Riru, Riru core, LSPosed etc. etc. Just SNF 2.2.0 + Systemless hosts like old times.3
Yes, it's fine. I've been using Stable version 23.0 since the first beta was released and am currently using it on yesterdays official release of Android 12 stable. Everything is fine for me.
People on other Pixels, specifically the Pixel 5 (and maybe others) have reported that they have to disable dm-verity (and maybe another thing or two) before rooting or it will just land you in the bootloader when trying to boot. However, on my Pixel 4 XL I did not have to do anything. Just patched the boot image as usual and everything is fine for me.
Of course, your mileage may vary.3So, I've been out of the flashing game for a long minute but I had to do something about all the ads I was getting. Blockada seemed to work okay but always left something to be desired. I missed Adaway, so....
I had a hard time getting Magisk installed in Android 11 on my Pixel 4xl. I followed this well written tutorial to a tee but when I flashed magisk_patched.img to boot, then "fastboot reboot," it would kick me back to fastboot after the "G" screen and spit out the error "no valid slot to boot." Three times in a row after clean flashing the factory image too!
I did end up getting it working. What I ended up doing was instead of "fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img --slot all" I "fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img" and for whatever reason that seemed to work.
I did not take the OTA update if it matters. I had intended to wipe the device with a clean install of Android 11, then Magisk (just for ad blocker) from the get so, I'm guessing slot b wasn't used? I'm honestly not really sure how it works.
Even then though, I had some trouble getting the order right from flashing the factory image to being rooted, so this is also what I found.
First, unlock the bootloader of your device, then clean install Android 11 and get it set up. Download Magisk manager canary, then adb push the boot.img from your computer to your device. Use Magisk manager to patch it, then adb pull magisk_patched.img back to your computer. From there, fastboot flash boot your magisk_patched.img and you're golden. Fastboot reboot should put you back in to Android and then Magisk manager will recognize root.
I had tried several times to use a boot.img I had already patched some days earlier but it never seemed to work. It would boot okay, once I figured out not to "--slot all," but Magisk would never recognize it was rooted unless Magisk manager patched it and I flashed that particular patched file. If I tried to flash any other patched file, Magisk manager wouldn't recognize root. Even recently patched boot.img's that were flashed to the device (not the days old one I had pre-prepped) wouldn't work. Magisk manager only seemed to recognize patched boot.img's that were made by it in that particular install. If I tried to use a boot.img from any other Magisk Manager install it wouldn't recognize it. Weird? I dunno, but, I got it up and running!
Thanks Homeboy76 for making this tutorial. Without it I would have been lost. :good: - Disclaimer
