Development [RECOVERY][3.7.0_12-8][UNOFFICIAL][UNIFIED] TWRP with A12/A13 encryption support

[der_akinator]

But the folder still contains LOS12 and LOS13 images. What do you mean by unified? As I understand it, it means unified for whatever android version. Am I corect?

Should be both unified. One has los 20 kernel AS a base and the other los 19 kernel. I just uploaded both for testing

 

[Nimueh]

There is no need to flash TWRP permanently

I beg to differ here.

A) TWRP is still the best option to make full backups, important for those of us that like to try different roms but might end up wanting to go back to the one they had.
B) TWRP is also still the best option if you get a bootloop or similar shenanigans from a Substratum theme or any other installed mod. In the case of a subs theme I can simply flash the rescue.zip, for other mode I can delete their folder. Much easier than fussing about with safe mode, which tends to reset stuff like default launcher and other defaults.

TWRP or other custom recoveries are still very much needed and useful imho

 

[shadabkiani]

@der_akinator I have tested and both of them are working fine. I am currently running Xtended ROM v7.0 (build 20230516) based on OOS 13.

I have tested the following features on TWRP:
- Decryption
- Terminal
- File Manager
- Backup (only EFS)
- Copying files through MTP (workaround from Device Manager as you explained before)
- Changing brightness and vibration levels

Great work. Really appreciate it.

 

[der_akinator]

@der_akinator I have tested and both of them are working fine. I am currently running Xtended ROM v7.0 (build 20230516) based on OOS 13.

I have tested the following features on TWRP:
- Decryption
- Terminal
- File Manager
- Backup (only EFS)
- Copying files through MTP (workaround from Device Manager as you explained before)
- Changing brightness and vibration levels

Great work. Really appreciate it.

Great

 

[shadabkiani]

@Nimueh TWRP is indeed very useful, and I did not doubt it in the least bit. That's the reason I'm in this thread testing every new build as soon as it's up. When I said "There is no need to flash TWRP permanently", I was referring to the flashing permanently part. You can use it to it's fullest potential by just temporarily booting it. I don't know if having it permanently flashed gives any added benefits. The reason I don't feel like having it permenent is that in my opinion, it's best to leave the boot.img partition unchanged/unpatched if possible. Again, I might be ignorant to some details and more likely to be wrong in my view.

 

[Nimueh]

@Nimueh TWRP is indeed very useful, and I did not doubt it in the least bit. That's the reason I'm in this thread testing every new build as soon as it's up. When I said "There is no need to flash TWRP permanently", I was referring to the flashing permanently part. You can use it to it's fullest potential by just temporarily booting it. I don't know if having it permanently flashed gives any added benefits. The reason I don't feel like having it permenent is that in my opinion, it's best to leave the boot.img partition unchanged/unpatched if possible. Again, I might be ignorant to some details and more likely to be wrong in my view.

I'm rooted anyway, so my boot.img is no longer stock/unchanged. The only downside I've noticed when having TWRP installed is that I can no longer get to fastbootD ... but I only needed to use that once so far when I tried to flash that abl file to get rid of the orange state unlock warning. Instead I used Firmware Flasher and got rid of it that way lol.

If I have TWRP installed then I don't need to worry about being near a PC when I try a new theme or Magisk mod. So having it permanently does have it's advantages

 

[forever_lol]

If I may, which partitions are to be chosen to back up? (When switching between custom roms, let's say the same firmware base) It used to be system, data and boot. I guessmuch has changed since nexus/HTC times

 

[Nimueh]

If I may, which partitions are to be chosen to back up? (When switching between custom roms, let's say the same firmware base) It used to be system, data and boot. I guessmuch has changed since nexus/HTC times

I have this post with the instructions bookmarked from my 8P. I haven't seen a similar post for the 9P but I hope it would be the same.

 

[shadabkiani]

If I may, which partitions are to be chosen to back up? (When switching between custom roms, let's say the same firmware base) It used to be system, data and boot. I guessmuch has changed since nexus/HTC times

On newer phones like OnePlus 9, there is a dynamic partition called /super and it contains /system /product /odm /vendor and a few others depending on ROM. Backing up would work fine. However, restoring would only be useful if your current OS was on slot_a. If it was on slot_b, restoring would not be useful as phone would just not boot up although restore would be successful. I tried that so many times, with stock firmware. It just wouldn't work ever with slot_b, no matter what I did. You can read about my detailed experience here. OnePlus 8 is different though because I read somewhere that is has separate super_a and super_b partitions.

So my suggestion is to not to reply on backup partitions alone. Have a 2nd backup your personal data on PC too.

 

[[GR]Frostbyte]

I'm rooted anyway, so my boot.img is no longer stock/unchanged. The only downside I've noticed when having TWRP installed is that I can no longer get to fastbootD ... but I only needed to use that once so far when I tried to flash that abl file to get rid of the orange state unlock warning. Instead I used Firmware Flasher and got rid of it that way lol.

If I have TWRP installed then I don't need to worry about being near a PC when I try a new theme or Magisk mod. So having it permanently does have it's advantages

It's exactly that. I 100% agree with what has been described here. Flashing may no longer be mandatory, but provides ease of use and portability (i.e. not having to carry a cable and laptop around, just to do a quick "safety" backup before something that you feel may cause a screwup); and if you're rooted anyways, nothing much changes in terms of stock/unchanged-ness.

You can still get to fastboot with the key combo I reckon, no? (vol-up + vol-down + pwr, long press)

It's possible to get that orange state warning off? I would like to inquire further information about this via PM good sir, thank you!

If I may, which partitions are to be chosen to back up? (When switching between custom roms, let's say the same firmware base) It used to be system, data and boot. I guessmuch has changed since nexus/HTC times

I have personally concluded to "super", "boot", "vendor_boot" and "data (exl. storage)".

I'm still pretty fresh to this A/B wizardry and dynamic partitions, so I would say that others like Nimueh and shadabkiani are way more qualified to answer.

In any case, if you're unsure, just take a backup of everything, as your first starting point; then you do have everything you need, should you ever need to restore it (knock on wood).

A good read on the topic is this one as well:

What should I back up in TWRP?

The default backup options in TWRP are system, data, and boot. For most cases, this is sufficient for backing up a ROM. (Note that in some rare cases, boot i...

twrp.me

Just make sure that any backups you take, you also keep them on multiple other locations (and ideally different storage mediums as well), for data safety.

 

[Nimueh]

It's possible to get that orange state warning off?

Yea - there's some abl file to flash in fastbootD, but I used Firmware Flasher instead since fastbootD is broken when you have TWRP installed.

Simply download the correct firmware for your device (they should all be linked in that Github), flash in TWRP/other custom recovery and follow the prompts. Took like 10-15 seconds, no data lost, nothing wiped - you simply don't see the orange warning any more when booting up. You DO see the black screen longer than before though, which was definitely a scary sight the 1st time it booted after flashing it

I'm still pretty fresh to this A/B wizardry and dynamic partitions, so I would say that others like Nimueh and shadabkiani are way more qualified to answer.

Oh no, I'm still not used to this a/b crap lol. While I have had the OP 7 and 8P before I never had the courage to flash a custom rom on either of them. I sold the the 7 a while ago, but I still have my 8P and keep it on OOS 11.
I specifically bought this 9P (used and fairly cheap) a couple of weeks ago and want to flash a custom rom on it. So far I still haven't mustered the courage though, and since our Bliss Rom maintainer is without a device for a bit and updates delayed that gives me a good excuse for waiting
A/B partitions are scary, flashing instructions for it sounds complicated and at over 60 years of age I have a hard time getting used to new things. I still have an old OP 3 and 5T as well - the 3 spends most of it's time hibernating in my desk drawer. But the 5T has been lots of fun with different roms, I wish a/b was as easy to flash (and make nandroids of) as the old system *sigh*.

 

[shadabkiani]

It's possible to get that orange state warning off? I would like to inquire further information about this via PM good sir, thank you!

Yes, you can get rid of that annoying Orange State Warning. That warning is contained in abl.img. It wasn't there in OOS11, OOS12 and even the early builds of OOS13 too, but then I guess in F.16 or later (not quite sure) they added this warning. So you can flash abl.img from earlier OOS13 builds (again I don't know which versions exactly), or as I do it, flash from an earlier build of LOS 20. Mind you that newer builds of LOS20's abl.img also contain that warning. But I managed to get the abl.img from the last build it did not have that warning (attached below).

You need to flash from FastbootD mode though, as well as you need to have critical flashing unlocked, since it is a critical partition. As you mentioned before, you have TWRP permanently patched to your boot.img, I guess you can't get to FastbootD mode anymore. But as @Nimueh suggested, you can use firmware flasher. I think you can edit the firmware flasher file, and add my abl.img and remove other images from zip. That way only abl.img would be flashed I think.

Note: I use FastbootD mode, and I haven't tried flashing abl through firmware flasher though.

 

[Nimueh]

But as @Nimueh suggested, you can use firmware flasher. I think you can edit the firmware flasher file, and add my abl.img and remove other images from zip. That way only abl.img would be flashed I think.

Note: I use FastbootD mode, and I haven't tried flashing abl through firmware flasher though.

He doesn't need to edit in your abl file if he uses the Firmware Flasher. I'm not sure what exactly that flashes, but we end up with the same firmware on both slots (which I think is good for when we want to go to a custom rom?) AND without that warning. So 2 birds with 1 stone so to speak - but no editing/modifying anything is needed

 

[shadabkiani]

He doesn't need to edit in your abl file if he uses the Firmware Flasher. I'm not sure what exactly that flashes, but we end up with the same firmware on both slots (which I think is good for when we want to go to a custom rom?) AND without that warning. So 2 birds with 1 stone so to speak - but no editing/modifying anything is needed

Getting the same firmware to both slots? That doesn't make the orange state go away, does it? You have to flash the right abl.img.

Or, the firmware you are flashing has the abl.img without warning? That might be the case.

This is a very useful guide and it has more than one way to safely flash abl.img without hassle if you are rooted.

 

[Nimueh]

Getting the same firmware to both slots? That doesn't make the orange state go away, does it? You have to flash the right abl.img.

Or, the firmware you are flashing has the abl.img without warning? That might be the case.

This is a very useful guide and it has more than one way to safely flash abl.img without hassle if you are rooted.

It does make the orange state go away, I'm guessing it has the correct abl.img included already? And it's really simple too - just flash it from (custom) rcovery and that's it, no hassle at all.
For all those who have TWRP installed (like me lol), which means no more fastbootD, it's the simplest solution

 

[osm0sis]

fastbootd should work...

Also you can also flash abl while booted if you are rooted and want to do it manually, like `dd if=/sdcard/abl.img of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/abl_a`

Same works in TWRP Terminal/adb shell.

 

[Nimueh]

fastbootd should work...

But it didn't, and the smart folks in the OP 9 Telegram group said that's because fastbootD is broken in TWRP. I always ended up with that error and no matter if I tried to get to fastbootD via fastboot command or TWRP, I always ended up in the same spot again. I was told I should restore stock boot.img and then root + install TWRP again after flashing that abl file, but that seemed like a lot of hassle when using the Firmware Flasher achieved the same thing and was so simple

 

[Mikefy]

Hello everybody! Someone can put TWRP.IMG for adnroid 13.? i wanna "boot"(run) TWRP but not "flash" . On links here i see only twrp-installer-3.7.0-12.1-8-lemonadep.zip . so only "installers.zip" files. but no "IMG" format TWRP files. i need "twrp.img" for a13. someone help please )

 

[der_akinator]

But it didn't, and the smart folks in the OP 9 Telegram group said that's because fastbootD is broken in TWRP. I always ended up with that error and no matter if I tried to get to fastbootD via fastboot command or TWRP, I always ended up in the same spot again. I was told I should restore stock boot.img and then root + install TWRP again after flashing that abl file, but that seemed like a lot of hassle when using the Firmware Flasher achieved the same thing and was so simple

That error is related to kernel module loading. All custom roms install kernel modules to vendor_dlkm, but OOS does not. It uses vendor and vendor_dlkm doesn't exist. So this error isn't nice, but just cosmetic.
I tested fastbootd under windows and linux without any issues. You just have to make sure to install google usb drivers and select them to use fastboot with windows. I updated OP with a section related to mtp, adb and fastbootd and how to select the right drivers.

 

[shadabkiani]

Hello everybody! Someone can put IMG file TWRP for adnroid 13.? i wanna boot TWRP but not flash . on links i see only twrp-installer-3.7.0-12.1-8-lemonadep.zip . so only installers zip files. but no IMG files. i need twrp.img for a13. someone help please )

Download link is in the first post. Here it is again:

twrp-3.7.0-12.1 - Google Drive

Go inside the folders and you will see boot.img. 23-05-16 is the latest.