[ROM][Treble][microG]LineageOS 16.0 for HUAWEI P9

[MSe1969]

Im actually looking to switch to Linux soon. Sounds great that stuff like adb works out of the box, but dont stuff like drivers still have to be installed since they're proprietary stuff? For the computer to detect them?

In fact, you need to install adb and fastboot as packages under Linux (similar, as you would download that famous "minimal fastboot and adb" thing for Windows). But as said, you don't need any drivers under Linux to connect to any mobile device. (Most probably, because Linux knows how to talk with Linux, and - OK, that's now a drastically simplified statement - Android also runs on Linux or "is Linux")

 

[xHayashi]

Good - just a hint: When you come to the very last step of flashing the Stock recovery, make sure to flash the equivalent recovery as well, e.g. the Stock b552 recovery, when you have used the b552 firmware (and not the linked b540 recovery from the HWOTA thread, which is only valid for b540)


Sorry, can't help unfortunately with this question: I personally use Linux on my private PC, and not Windows. So I never had to deal with having to install USB drivers to be able to use adb and fastboot. Under Linux, this works out of the box without the need of installing additional drivers. But I am sure, others following this thread should be able to help.

Hey, I got EMUI 8 running successfully, but do I need to fix the network? cause the network patches he provided are for b540 instead of b522

 

[MSe1969]

Hey, I got EMUI 8 running successfully, but do I need to fix the network? cause the network patches he provided are for b540 instead of b522

The network fix from b540 is to be used, if needed. Depends on the region in the world, where you are: If the phone recognized your SIM card (if you are e.g. in China), you obviously don't need it. If your SIM wasn't found, you need it.

 

[xHayashi]

The network fix from b540 is to be used, if needed. Depends on the region in the world, where you are: If the phone recognized your SIM card (if you are e.g. in China), you obviously don't need it. If your SIM wasn't found, you need it.

Gotcha. What about the part where it asks me to download playstore and any keyboard? Since Im doing this to degoogle, ideally I can avoid installing gapps and just toss smethg like openkeyboard into the phone instead?

And making sure Stock EMUI recovery comes with enabling OTA too I assume? Since the steps are bundled together. Im not sure how OTA works, but ideally I can severe the dependence on Huawei too. Will OTA be needed for your ROM and any downsides to not having it?

 

[MSe1969]

Gotcha. What about the part where it asks me to download playstore and any keyboard? Since Im doing this to degoogle, ideally I can avoid installing gapps and just toss smethg like openkeyboard into the phone instead?

And making sure Stock EMUI recovery comes with enabling OTA too I assume? Since the steps are bundled together. Im not sure how OTA works, but ideally I can severe the dependence on Huawei too. Will OTA be needed for your ROM and any downsides to not having it?

You need a keyboard app, the network patch also throws away a lot of Chinese bloat/spyware. You need the keyboard app only for the time you use the original Stock ROM, but you need it, so use Swiftkey and not Gboard. As you in fact target on flashing LineageOS, you obviously do not need Playstore and - besides the fact, that there most probably won't be any further OTA package offered by Huawei for this device - again, you are going to flash LineageOS at the end, so you don't need that either.

 

[xHayashi]

You need a keyboard app, the network patch also throws away a lot of Chinese bloat/spyware. You need the keyboard app only for the time you use the original Stock ROM, but you need it, so use Swiftkey and not Gboard. As you in fact target on flashing LineageOS, you obviously do not need Playstore and - besides the fact, that there most probably won't be any further OTA package offered by Huawei for this device - again, you are going to flash LineageOS at the end, so you don't need that either.

Cool! I was wondering if Lineage OS and other roms would utilize the OTA function for their own rom updates as well. But Im not tech savvy enuf to know all these things haha Thanks for the clarification! Imma just grab like openboard or something.

Btw are you familiar with degoogling or privacy stuff on smartphones? I know privacy on smartphone is kinda a joke, but Id love to ask some of the questions I have if you're familiar with it. Probably in a dm since I dont wanna flood this thread with non-los relatrd stuff haha

 

[xHayashi]

I forgot to ask, the rebrand guide told me to puy thr P9 Eva 8.0 Twrp v4 img into the hwota7> windows folder and flash it with adb. But what about the emui stock recovery? Do I use the same steps I did for flashing the twrp file, or somewhere else?

 

[MSe1969]

Cool! I was wondering if Lineage OS and other roms would utilize the OTA function for their own rom updates as well. But Im not tech savvy enuf to know all these things haha Thanks for the clarification! Imma just grab like openboard or something.

In general, LineageOS uses its own OTA mechanism. For other builds, which I offer, I am making use of that mechanism to offer OTA updates of my builds. However, this build for the P9 is a "treble" build - this means that only the /system partition is replaced and also updated. So whenever I publish an update, people willing to apply it have to flash it manually via fastboot.

Btw are you familiar with degoogling or privacy stuff on smartphones? I know privacy on smartphone is kinda a joke, but Id love to ask some of the questions I have if you're familiar with it. Probably in a dm since I dont wanna flood this thread with non-los relatrd stuff haha

Yes, I am. You can DM me.

 

[xHayashi]

In general, LineageOS uses its own OTA mechanism. For other builds, which I offer, I am making use of that mechanism to offer OTA updates of my builds. However, this build for the P9 is a "treble" build - this means that only the /system partition is replaced and also updated. So whenever I publish an update, people willing to apply it have to flash it manually via fastboot.


Yes, I am. You can DM me.

Great! I messaged you through the XDA conversations/ dm. If you have telegram or smethg, that'd make chatting easier too. Btw, what should I do for the question above, on img files and flashing?

 

[MSe1969]

I forgot to ask, the rebrand guide told me to puy thr P9 Eva 8.0 Twrp v4 img into the hwota7> windows folder and flash it with adb. But what about the emui stock recovery? Do I use the same steps I did for flashing the twrp file, or somewhere else?

You flash the stock recovery at the end with the below fastboot command (assuming the file is called "recovery_ramdis.img" - alter the filename accordingly to reflect the real file name):

fastboot flash recovery_ramdisk recovery_ramdis.img

 

[xHayashi]

In general, LineageOS uses its own OTA mechanism. For other builds, which I offer, I am making use of that mechanism to offer OTA updates of my builds. However, this build for the P9 is a "treble" build - this means that only the /system partition is replaced and also updated. So whenever I publish an update, people willing to apply it have to flash it manually via fastboot.


Yes, I am. You can DM me.

Hey, so i flashed the emui stock recovery file in adb with my phone in fastboot mode. I turned my phone off and held on the vol + and power button to see if it works. Now ny phone is stuck in "your phone is unlocked... your device is booting up" screen.

 

[MSe1969]

Hey, so i flashed the emui stock recovery file in adb with my phone in fastboot mode. I turned my phone off and held on the vol + and power button to see if it works. Now ny phone is stuck in "your phone is unlocked... your device is booting up" screen.

What exactly did you do?

 

[xHayashi]

I used twrp to flash the disable ota zip file. Booted the phone and everything was good. After that, I just booted into fastboot mode, ran cmd.exe and copy pasted the "fast flash recovery... emui recovery...img" command, with the img file in the directory. It took a few seconds and said it was done.

After that I forgot if I just held the power button while still in fastboot mode and then held the vol + and power button to try and see if i can boot up emui stock reocvery; OR i booted the system up first, powered it off, and held vol+ and power button to see if I can pull up stock emui recovery.

And either scenario just led to the phone being stuck on the "device is booting now" screen.

 

[xHayashi]

New Update: After an ungodly amount of time being stuck on that screen, it shoes the EMUI logo screen and says software installation failed. However, it allowed me to reboot system and I can boot the phone up now lol

Erm given what I mentioned above, how do I make sure I dont get the same thing again? And if there's a way I can check if EMUI stock recovery was successfully installed? Cause I assume TWRP gets replaced by the EMUI stock recovery right, due to them sharing the same buttons when you pull em up?

 

[MSe1969]

New Update: After an ungodly amount of time being stuck on that screen, it shoes the EMUI logo screen and says software installation failed. However, it allowed me to reboot system and I can boot the phone up now lol

Erm given what I mentioned above, how do I make sure I dont get the same thing again? And if there's a way I can check if EMUI stock recovery was successfully installed? Cause I assume TWRP gets replaced by the EMUI stock recovery right, due to them sharing the same buttons when you pull em up?

Normally, if your phone is somehow stuck, you can force-switch-off with the fastboot key combo (power+vol down).
If you have flashed the recovery properly, it should boot up. Did you use the right file, as I have mentioned? So using the B552 recovery file, if you have used the b552 firmware?
To make sure, I have those recovery files here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lin16-microg/files/treble_p9eva/EMUI8.0_Stock/
Also, important is the command "fastboot flash recovery-ramdisk <name of recovery file>" (impor,tant is to really say recovery-ramdisk and not simply recovery)
Before you flash the lineageos system.img file from this thread, it is important to have a properly working stock recovery.

I recommend to flash the recovery image again. Unfortunately, the only way to test the recovery is to boot into it.
It should look like here: https://www.hardreset.info/media/resetinfo/2016/114/4f1e525917414db39f6daa04b56ed2a4/huawei-p9.JPG

 

[xHayashi]

Normally, if your phone is somehow stuck, you can force-switch-off with the fastboot key combo (power+vol down).
If you have flashed the recovery properly, it should boot up. Did you use the right file, as I have mentioned? So using the B552 recovery file, if you have used the b552 firmware?
To make sure, I have those recovery files here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lin16-microg/files/treble_p9eva/EMUI8.0_Stock/
Also, important is the command "fastboot flash recovery-ramdisk <name of recovery file>" (impor,tant is to really say recovery-ramdisk and not simply recovery)
Before you flash the lineageos system.img file from this thread, it is important to have a properly working stock recovery.

I recommend to flash the recovery image again. Unfortunately, the only way to test the recovery is to boot into it.
It should look like here: https://www.hardreset.info/media/resetinfo/2016/114/4f1e525917414db39f6daa04b56ed2a4/huawei-p9.JPG

Ahhh I used the b540 file from the thread om this b552 firmware, I think that mightve been the problem *facepalm*. Ill grab your b552 recovery file and see what happens then.

 

[xHayashi]

Normally, if your phone is somehow stuck, you can force-switch-off with the fastboot key combo (power+vol down).
If you have flashed the recovery properly, it should boot up. Did you use the right file, as I have mentioned? So using the B552 recovery file, if you have used the b552 firmware?
To make sure, I have those recovery files here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lin16-microg/files/treble_p9eva/EMUI8.0_Stock/
Also, important is the command "fastboot flash recovery-ramdisk <name of recovery file>" (impor,tant is to really say recovery-ramdisk and not simply recovery)
Before you flash the lineageos system.img file from this thread, it is important to have a properly working stock recovery.

I recommend to flash the recovery image again. Unfortunately, the only way to test the recovery is to boot into it.
It should look like here: https://www.hardreset.info/media/resetinfo/2016/114/4f1e525917414db39f6daa04b56ed2a4/huawei-p9.JPG

Crap, I think the open kirin site is down, do you know of another set of instructions for installation? Id love to get this running soon, excited to revive this device haha

Update: Figured out I could use the wayback machine

 

[xHayashi]

Normally, if your phone is somehow stuck, you can force-switch-off with the fastboot key combo (power+vol down).
If you have flashed the recovery properly, it should boot up. Did you use the right file, as I have mentioned? So using the B552 recovery file, if you have used the b552 firmware?
To make sure, I have those recovery files here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lin16-microg/files/treble_p9eva/EMUI8.0_Stock/
Also, important is the command "fastboot flash recovery-ramdisk <name of recovery file>" (impor,tant is to really say recovery-ramdisk and not simply recovery)
Before you flash the lineageos system.img file from this thread, it is important to have a properly working stock recovery.

I recommend to flash the recovery image again. Unfortunately, the only way to test the recovery is to boot into it.
It should look like here: https://www.hardreset.info/media/resetinfo/2016/114/4f1e525917414db39f6daa04b56ed2a4/huawei-p9.JPG

Sorry for all the questions, but I have flashed the b552 stock recovery file and your rom.

But when I boot into EMUI stock recovery to try and factory reset, it keeps getting interrupted. It shows me that it's doing a factory reset but gets interrupted at 19% and asks me if I want to factory reset/ reboot system/ wipe cache partition again (it also asks me to enter yes and confirm everytime i select factory reset).

And the screen where it gives me the options has a huge red exclamation mark in the middle where the EMUI logo should be. Oddly enough when its actually trying to factory reset, it shoes the normal EMUI logo before stopping at about 19% again.

Should I just select reboot the system anyways?

 

[MSe1969]

Crap, I think the open kirin site is down, do you know of another set of instructions for installation? Id love to get this running soon, excited to revive this device haha

Ok, in short:
Prerequisite is, that you have a working Phone having EMUI 8.0, including ability to make phone calls, have mobile data, and a working Stock recovery.

If the prerequisite is fully met, flash the system image of my ROM (unzip before) with the command:

fastboot flash system <name of my ROM>.IMG

Afterwards, reboot to recovery! Do so e.g. by entering "fastboot reboot" and pressing power+vol up afterwards. It is important not to let the system boot normally, this won't work and you will end up in a boot loop.

In recovery, choose "Wipe data / Factory reset". Don't get fooled by any percentage shown less than 100% or by a red exclamation mark.
Once that step is done, choose "wipe cache". Once that is done as well, choose reboot.

The 1st time of reboot will in between even show an encryption screen and maybe another reboot. Don't worry.

Sorry for all the questions, but I have flashed the b552 stock recovery file and your rom.

But when I boot into EMUI stock recovery to try and factory reset, it keeps getting interrupted. It shows me that it's doing a factory reset but gets interrupted at 19% and asks me if I want to factory reset/ reboot system/ wipe cache partition again (it also asks me to enter yes and confirm everytime i select factory reset).

And the screen where it gives me the options has a huge red exclamation mark in the middle where the EMUI logo should be. Oddly enough when its actually trying to factory reset, it shoes the normal EMUI logo before stopping at about 19% again.

Should I just select reboot the system anyways?

See above

 

[xHayashi]

Ok, in short:
Prerequisite is, that you have a working Phone having EMUI 8.0, including ability to make phone calls, have mobile data, and a working Stock recovery.

If the prerequisite is fully met, flash the system image of my ROM (unzip before) with the command:

fastboot flash system <name of my ROM>.IMG

Afterwards, reboot to recovery! Do so e.g. by entering "fastboot reboot" and pressing power+vol up afterwards. It is important not to let the system boot normally, this won't work and you will end up in a boot loop.

In recovery, choose "Wipe data / Factory reset". Don't get fooled by any percentage shown less than 100% or by a red exclamation mark.
Once that step is done, choose "wipe cache". Once that is done as well, choose reboot.

The 1st time of reboot will in between even show an encryption screen and maybe another reboot. Don't worry.


See above

Hmmm the weird thing is, it keeps stopping at 19%, goes into a screeb with a huge exclamation mark and asks me if I wanna reboot system, wipe data/ factory reset, wipe cache. If i select wipe data/ factory reset, Ill have to key in yes and select wipe data. It never goes past 19% before showing this screen again o.o

And I selected reboot system just now for a change. Like you said, the encryption screen showed up and it guided me through the set up process, and Lineage OS actually booted. But Im not sure will other issues show up later lol Is this considered a full factory reset? Id hate to still have huawei/ google spyware stuff in it.

I then tried factory resetting with EMUI recovery again, and its the same thing, stops at 19% when factory resetting. Am I supposed to keep repeating it for 10-20 times? Asking just to make sure cause I did 5 times at most iirc

Attached pics below to give you an idea.