[Oreo][Stock][Rom] TWRP Flashable Stock Builds

[NZedPred]

About this project
This project provides repackaged Stock Oreo roms that can be flashed by TWRP. Modifications from stock are listed below.

As we are now moving into the Oreo world, I've decided that now is a good time to make a few changes to how things were done previously with Nougat. Please pay attention to the next few sections.

Modifications from stock

• Note - It seems that I can't get DM-verity nor forced encryption disabled. The location of the fstab.qcom file is no longer in the Boot image. I found a similar file in the system image, but changing that appears to have had no effect. In order to disable these, use Magisk. UPDATE - Resolved since soak test 2, and soak test 1 with Aroma installer
• DM-verity is disabled
• Forced encryption of the data partition is disabled. It is still possible to encrypt the partition if you wish (optional with Aroma installer)
• The partition table and boot loader are not included, which makes it safer to up/down-grade.
• Do not attempt to apply standard OTAs over these builds. They'll probably fail, worst case they will brick your phone

Differences from previous Nougat builds

• These roms are suitable for all channels. Previously there was separate firmware for different regions (e.g. retin had a separate build from retus), but as a general rule you are safe with any region's firmware.
• I have now started using the Aroma installer for Oreo builds. Some of the below is now customisable at install time. Aroma installer zips will have "-aroma" in their filename.
• The modified boot logo will no longer be included in the rom download. A separate zip will be provided to just flash the modified logo.
• EFS will be erased on install! If your persist is intact, EFS will recreate itself. With the amount of exposure that the lost IMEI issue has had, all should be very familiar with the importance of backing up persist and EFS. And those that have had a compromised persist, will know that they should be hanging on to their EFS backups for dear life. Full details of the issue and solution (for those with intact persist) is here: Fix Persist, resolve IMEI=0, Volte, 4G, Explanation, Requirements From my perspective, the EFS is erased installing OTAs for a reason. I don't know what it is myself, but the folks at Motorola build it into their OTAs and they know far better than I do.
• As a mitigation to the risk of people forgetting/losing their EFS and / or Persist backups, I will have a very crude backup system integrated into the zips. However, it will take some skill / knowledge to restore from these backups, and they should not be relied upon over the long term. Refer to the second post for more details.

Important information if downgrading to Nougat and Custom Oreo roms
The Oreo roms will change the ownership of specific files and folders in the /persist folder. As a result of this, stock Nougat will have issues such as lost IMEI, no Volte, no 4G, etc. In order to overcome these issues, either follow the instructions in the link above, or flash the following zip in TWRP.
potter-stock-persist-fix.zip

Additionally, the latest Nougat builds with the Aroma installer will apply the persist fix when installed.

Another potential issue is that, as a result of various partitions being updated, the new Oreo blobs may not be compatible with existing Nougat roms (stock or custom), or even current Custom Oreo roms. This may result in issues such as the fingerprint reader not working, etc.

UPDATE: Some custom roms are now using the Oreo blobs. However, if you require the older Nougat blobs, you can downgrade through one of the following methods:

1) install one of the latest Stock Nougat TWRP flashables. This will ensure that all affected partitions are compatible with Stock Nougat and Custom Oreo roms. You can get these from this thread here:
[Nougat][Stock][Rom] TWRP Flashable Stock Builds

2) install one of the firmware-only zips from the below folders. Note that if this results in other odd behaviour, you may need to install and boot into a full stock Nougat firmware as above. The main benefit of these zips is that they are much smaller, ~50MB rather than ~1.4GB.
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=273039
potter-firmware-92-14.zip is for retin, retla, retbr
potter-firmware-93-14.zip is for retus, retapac, reteu

Out of respect for the purpose of this thread, please keep questions about whether or not to use Nougat or Oreo firmware for particular custom ROMs in the thread for the custom ROM you are trying to use. I do not support other custom ROMs - the maintainers of those custom ROMs should provide guidance.

Usage
Steps to flash

• Ensure you have the latest TWRP
• Download an appropriate zip from one of the links below
• Copy to the phone or SD card
• BACKUP YOUR DATA, INCLUDING EFS AND PERSIST
• Flash the zip via TWRP
• Optionally flash Magisk etc - NOTE - in order to disable dm-verity and forced encryption you must flash magisk before rebooting Resolved since Soak Test 2 and Soak Test 1 Aroma installer, Magisk is optional
• Reboot
• Profit?

How you can help with new builds
If your phone gets an OTA notification for a build that has not been released, please pull it and share it in this thread:

• When the notification is received, allow your phone to download the OTA
• Power off and boot into recovery
• Go to Advanced -> File Manager
• Navigate to /cache
• There will be a file Blur_Version_x.y.z.potter.blah.zip - Note - Oreo OTAs may not be named this way, they may be named according to the version of the rom that is currently installed
• Copy it to internal storage or the sdcard
• Copy to PC (optional)
• Upload to Mega, Google Drive, wherever
• Share the link

You can also remove the file from the /cache folder to prevent any auto-updates from happening.

Latest versions

• The 85-13 series is released to most channels except retus, and the last update was to 85-17-2.
• The 85-17 series is released to the retus channel.
• However, all releases can be used with all channels.
  

Official Oreo OPSS28.85-17-6-2 (Oreo 8.1, 1 February 2019 security patches) - Aroma Installer
Android File Host - potter-twrp-flashable-OPSS28.85-17-6-2-aroma.zip

Official Oreo OPSS28.85-17-6 (Oreo 8.1, 1 February 2019 security patches) - Aroma Installer
Android File Host - potter-twrp-flashable-OPSS28.85-17-6-aroma.zip

All versions that I have created will be placed in this folder (or the Archive sub-folder) at Android File Host:
Android File Host - Potter TWRP Flashable Stock Oreo

Modified Boot Logo
Optional, only needs to be flashed once. Replaces the warning screen with the standard logo. Can't hide the N/A. If you want to hide the N/A, go to the themes forum.
potter-logo.zip

Kernel Sources
Kernel sources are provided by Motorola:
https://github.com/MotorolaMobilityLLC/kernel-msm/


XDA:DevDB Information
Potter Oreo TWRP Flashable, ROM for the Moto G5 Plus

Contributors
NZedPred
ROM OS Version: 8.x Oreo
ROM Kernel: Linux 3.x

Version Information
Status: Stable

Created 2018-08-17
Last Updated 2019-12-28

 

[NZedPred]

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 'very crude backup system integrated into the zips'?
This is a script that is run at the start of the install. It's purpose is very simple - it creates "dd backups" (i.e. bit-perfect images) of the modemst1/2 and persist partitions. They are stored in your sdcard as "backup_yyyymmddHHMMSS_modemst1.img", etc., where yyyymmddHHMMSS represents the date and time the script was run.

For this to work, your data partition must be mounted. I haven't included any checks for this (I'm not really a shell script person - it would take me hours to get this sort of thing right) - this is what puts the "crude" in "very crude backup system". UPDATE - the aroma installers now check that data is mounted, and abort the install if not. Most of the time the data partition will be mounted in TWRP, so this will work 99% of the time. Caution should still be applied, and you should still copy these or any other backups to cloud storage to be safe.

OK, so if I needed to use these backups, how do I restore them?
To restore these, you will have to reboot into TWRP and open up a shell or use adb. The commands to restore each partition are as follows (replacing yyyymmddHHMMSS with the appropriate values of course):

dd if=/sdcard/backup_yyyymmddHHMMSS_modemst1.img of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/modemst1
dd if=/sdcard/backup_yyyymmddHHMMSS_modemst2.img of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/modemst2
dd if=/sdcard/backup_yyyymmddHHMMSS_persist.img of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/persist

Note that these commands are very powerful, and applied incorrectly can result in you bricking your phone if you overwrite the wrong partition.

So are dm-verity and forced encryption now not able to be disabled?
OK some history... Nougat had fstab (file system table) in the boot image. So in those days, I would open up the image, and edit the fstab.qcom file, do the appropriate changes, repack the boot image, and all is fine.

Now, under Oreo, the fstab file is not in the boot image, it's under /system/vendor/etc/fstab.qcom or similar. Editing that file appears to have no effect. For now, Magisk is the easiest way of disabling both, but you must make sure to install it immediately after installing the rom and before rebooting.

Update - this is now resolved in the second Oreo soak test download. dm-verity is still disabled in the boot image, but a completely different way. Once this is done, disabling forced encryption works as expected.

Which partitions are modified?
The short of it is this - boot, system and 'firmware'-related partitions. None of the bootloader partitions are updated. The full list of partitions that are written is:

1. modem
2. fsg
3. dsp
4. boot
5. system
6. oem

Note that this list applies to the Nougat and Oreo flashable zips.

TWRP is no longer installed after flashing this
I believe this is related to dm-verity (see above). You will have to first reinstall TWRP via fastboot. When TWRP is back, install magisk immediately after installing the rom, and before rebooting.

I'm having problems with an Oreo custom rom after installing this rom, what can I do?
Refer to the OP, the section about downgrading to Nougat - the same approach applies. Oreo Custom roms will have been based upon the available Nougat blobs that were available. As the blobs have been updated in the Oreo release, the issue is that they are not compatible. So install a full TWRP Nougat zip and then install your Oreo Custom rom.

Dirty or clean flash?
I did a dirty flash, as I came from the latest Nougat stock rom. Keep in mind that this is nothing more than the OTA applied to the previous Nougat build and packaged into a TWRP zip. So, as long as you have come from (the latest) Stock Nougat, you should be able to dirty flash, as that would be the use-case for the OTA. If you were on another rom, clean flash required.

Once you are on one of these builds, you can dirty flash subsequent builds. Again, this would be just like flashing one OTA after the other. Also note that these builds are complete in their own right, you don't need to incrementally flash - you can flash the latest to get the full install.

My device was encrypted, and I really need to decrypt it. How can I do this?
Sorry, but the only way is to format the data partition. That means you will need to backup your data, and your internal storage as well (/sdcard). After backing up, use TWRP to format the partition. From the TWRP main menu, select Wipe > Format Data. Then follow the on-screen instructions.

Is it 32 bit or 64 bit
32 bit. We've known this would be the case for a long time.

How can I create flashable zips myself?
I created the guide below, and it has been updated for Oreo. A word of warning, it is not for the faint of heart. You will need to have a good understanding of the Linux command line, and be able to understand the techniques that are being taught, rather than expecting that the process is a 'step-by-step'. Adaptability is key here.
[GUIDE] Creating TWRP Flashbale Stock roms

What are the new Aroma zips?
The aroma zips use the Aroma installer. Some of you may have seen the Aroma installer for Open Gapps. The key here is that I, as the packager, can build in selection options into the installer. It's all available as a nice GUI for the users to pick and choose from the options I've provided. Here are the options that are available:

• Do backups - does the backups as mentioned earlier in the FAQs.
• Erase EFS - erases modemst1 and modemst2, as described in the first post. Also DDR is erased, but I'm not sure what purpose that has but it may as well go together with these.
• Install Firmware - installs the following partitions - modem, fsg, dsp; each of these has something to do with hardware / connectivity.
• Install System - Installs the following partitions - boot, system, oem.
• Apply patches - as long as Install System is selected, will install the patched boot image with dm-verity disabled, and will edit the fstab (filesystem table) to disable forced encryption.

On soak test 2 or later, I have my IMEI but no signal. What can I do?
In all cases where this has happened, the user's phone has relied upon an EFS backup for IMEI, due to flashing another persist. In these cases, it appears that the only way to get a signal is to use the firmware (i.e. modem, fsg, dsp - refer previous FAQ) from soak test 1. We're probably seeing here that the EFS does in fact need to be recreated to be valid. Unfortunately for these users, by not having their own persist, they are stuck with an old EFS and the newer firmwares appear to not work.

To do this

• if you are already on Soak Test 2 or later, download the Soak Test 1 firmware download at either of these links:
  Android File Host - oreo-soak1-firmware.zip
  Dropbox - oreo-soak1-firmware.zip
• If you are on Soak Test 1, install Soak Test 2 or later / official aroma installer and de-select firmware

My fingerprint is not working on my custom ROM
Refer to the thread for your custom ROM, and ask questions there. In short, Nougat and Oreo firmware are not compatible with each other. Many custom ROMs are now using Oreo firmware, whereas previously (before October 2018) pretty much all custom ROMs were using Nougat firmware. It's messy now, but please ask the questions in the right place (which is NOT this thread).

My touchscreen isn't working after flashing, even within TWRP
This seems to happen somewhat rarely, although I don't know what the cause is. As it affects TWRP as well, and TWRP uses the 'modem' partition for getting its firmware blobs, I guess it's possible that this particular partition is getting a conflicting modification whilst flashing, which is causing problems (but this is purely speculation on my part).

To solve, fastboot flashing the stock ROM appears to work. It may also be possible whilst in TWRP to manually flash the partitions via ADB, but that takes a bit of work and knowledge. Until someone can truly work out what's happening and the minimum required to fix it, stick with fastboot.

Update - refer to post #3 for the latest information about this issue.

 

[NZedPred]

Touch screen unresponsive even in TWRP

The below post has the latest information on the Touch Screen Unresponsive issue

Likely Cause
From the testing that I've done to reproduce the issue, as far as I can tell the issue is that Stock Oreo is not able to be safely applied over the top of old builds of Stock Nougat. Furthermore, it doesn't seem to matter if you were on Custom ROMs after you were last on Stock Nougat, just what Stock Nougat build you were on last.

Avoiding the Issue
Again the key here is what build of Stock you were on last (and I guess booted into). So, if you were never on Stock Oreo, and you aren't sure what version of Stock Nougat you were on last, then the safest path to getting these builds working is to first flash the latest Nougat Stock ROM.

Get the latest from this thread: [Nougat][Stock][Rom] TWRP Flashable Stock Builds

Once you have flashed the latest Nougat, boot once to make sure everything is working. After that, you should be able to safely upgrade to Oreo.

Fixing the Issue
If you have been affected by the issue, most people have been able to get back the touch screen functionality by flashing a fastboot version of the ROM. However, as long as you have a PC handy you will be able to flash using TWRP as well via adb, using the steps detailed below. A third option is to connect a USB Mouse via an USB OTG adapter.

Note that for either method via TWRP, you cannot use the versions of the ROM with the Aroma installer, as the mouse is not supported within, and there is no way of providing input by adb.

Downloads
The 92-14 or 93-14 versions should be suitable. They are in these links (these do not erase EFS, so for the paranoid, you will retain your IMEI):
twrp-flashable-potter-NPNS25.137-92-14-no-erase-modemst.zip
twrp-flashable-potter-NPNS25.137-93-14-no-erase-modemst.zip

TWRP Commands
Once in TWRP, connect your USB cable. To copy the downloaded file into your internal storage (adapt the filename for the version you downloaded):

adb push twrp-flashable-potter-NPNS25.137-92-14-no-erase-modemst.zip /sdcard/

If you want to backup, you can do this via the command line as well. I haven't tested this myself, but the commands are available here: https://www.pocketables.com/2014/10/using-twrps-new-adb-interface.html

The example provided uses the following to back up system, data and boot, and compress:

adb shell twrp backup SDBOM

You will need to do a clean flash, so these commands will wipe data / factory reset and then install

adb shell
twrp wipe data
twrp install /sdcard/twrp-flashable-potter-NPNS25.137-92-14-no-erase-modemst.zip
reboot

After the reboot, you should have your touch screen functionality back. Then reboot to recovery, and install Oreo as normal. If for any reason the Oreo flash doesn't work, try the steps again, but rather than installing the latest Oreo, install an earlier one.

 

[Arunxyz]

Awesome bro...
You Rock...
you even included auto backup of efs and persist ... wow thats very thoughtfull and nice of you...
hatsoff..
:good::good:

 

[Armando Lopez]

Thanks dude, downloading

Edit: working like a charm, again thanks.

 

[spandy992]

Thanks for uploading. Two questions though...
1. which one would be suitable for retin? (India)
2. Are there any bugs?

 

[dhinesh_cool]

working for retin also thnx

 

[redbeard1083]

Question: I'd like to flash this, but I'm planning to roll back in the future to take the OTA back up to O. If I restore nougat system, boot, persist, recovery, oem will that still be possible? I see some other stuff in the zip like adspo.bin, fsg.mbn, and modem. Not sure if those it lead to OTA failures or a brick.

also, nice job on the persist/efs script!

 

[sinchan_nohara]

Worked on retin also thanks. Great work!!!!

 

[pfonck]

I'm pretty sure forced encryption of the data partition is still enabled.

 

[NZedPred]

I think forced encryption of the data partition is still enabled (formatting the data partition in TWRP does not help).

If that's the case magisk is probably needed to turn it off. Sorry, but I've only tested it with magisk installed. Moto have changed the fstab location, I thought I got it but maybe it's cosmetic and doesn't do anything. Will update OP when I get a chance.

 

[pfonck]

If that's the case magisk is probably needed to turn it off. Sorry, but I've only tested it with magisk installed. Moto have changed the fstab location, I thought I got it but maybe it's cosmetic and doesn't do anything. Will update OP when I get a chance.

Yes, when you do;
rom installation > format data > flash magisk
everything is okay
verified.

 

[Dark98]

Did Moto make Oreo 64bit?

 

[NZedPred]

Question: I'd like to flash this, but I'm planning to roll back in the future to take the OTA back up to O. If I restore nougat system, boot, persist, recovery, oem will that still be possible? I see some other stuff in the zip like adspo.bin, fsg.mbn, and modem. Not sure if those it lead to OTA failures or a brick.

also, nice job on the persist/efs script!

Good question, and this is something that I needed to consider before doing this, in case everyone installed this and we'd have no path to get to official Oreo.

Refer to the section in the OP "Important information if downgrading to Nougat". Basically you need to follow all of that to be able to get notification of the OTAs. Once the official public Oreo OTA is available, I will then put together a zip based upon the pre-requisite nougat rom with the official Oreo OTA.

I also believe that one or both of the 1 July 2018 and/or 1 August 2018 patches were announced, but neither were for Oreo. I do intend to keep Nougat up to date as well in its thread.

 

[JC Pzy]

Good question, and this is something that I needed to consider before doing this, in case everyone installed this and we'd have no path to get to official Oreo.

Refer to the section in the OP "Important information if downgrading to Nougat". Basically you need to follow all of that to be able to get notification of the OTAs. Once the official public Oreo OTA is available, I will then put together a zip based upon the pre-requisite nougat rom with the official Oreo OTA.

I also believe that one or both of the 1 July 2018 and/or 1 August 2018 patches were announced, but neither were for Oreo. I do intend to keep Nougat up to date as well in its thread.

How did a recovery come in? with volume - and power enters and I say without command

 

[NZedPred]

How did a recovery come in? with volume - and power enters and I say without command

I've only just added something to the FAQ (post 2) that covers this. Sorry, it was unexpected and didn't come up when I was testing as I always had magisk installed. Follow these steps:

TWRP is no longer installed after flashing this
I believe this is related to dm-verity (see above). You will have to first reinstall TWRP via fastboot. When TWRP is back, install magisk immediately after installing the rom, and before rebooting.

 

[JC Pzy]

I've only just added something to the FAQ (post 2) that covers this. Sorry, it was unexpected and didn't come up when I was testing as I always had magisk installed. Follow these steps:

TWRP is no longer installed after flashing this
I believe this is related to dm-verity (see above). You will have to first reinstall TWRP via fastboot. When TWRP is back, install magisk immediately after installing the rom, and before rebooting.

I do not have a PC to reinstall the recovery

 

[redbeard1083]

Good question, and this is something that I needed to consider before doing this, in case everyone installed this and we'd have no path to get to official Oreo.

Refer to the section in the OP "Important information if downgrading to Nougat". Basically you need to follow all of that to be able to get notification of the OTAs. Once the official public Oreo OTA is available, I will then put together a zip based upon the pre-requisite nougat rom with the official Oreo OTA.

I also believe that one or both of the 1 July 2018 and/or 1 August 2018 patches were announced, but neither were for Oreo. I do intend to keep Nougat up to date as well in its thread.

Maybe I'll try tweaking the zip to see if we can run it without the stuff we can't easily backup/restore with twrp. I'll take a stab at it shortly and let you know what happens if we flash just system, boot, and OEM.

 

[NZedPred]

Maybe I'll try tweaking the zip to see if we can run it without the stuff we can't easily backup/restore with twrp. I'll take a stab at it shortly and let you know what happens if we flash just system, boot, and OEM.

You can give it a go, but I've already done some very brief testing. Using the Nougat modem partition on the Oreo system results in things like 3G only, fingerprint not working.

 

[NZedPred]

I do not have a PC to reinstall the recovery

I'm guessing you don't have root either? If you did, you could try installing it from a shell from within the rom:

su
dd if=/path/to/twrp.img of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/recovery