[TOOL][HOW-TO] [Nexus 6P] Bootloop of Death (BLOD) Workaround [Flashable Zip]

[osm0sis]

Bootloop of Death (BLOD) Workaround AnyKernel3 zip for Nexus 6P

Guys.. bad news.. my Nexus 5X just got hit with the BLOD. :crying:

Good news for everyone is I spent a bit of time tonight to first patch TWRP 3.2.1-0-FBE (File-Based Encryption support) image to be 4core, then made an AnyKernel2 zip which will patch the existing boot and recovery partitions on-device to add all the 4core fixes from @XCnathan32.

Should work over any ROM, any custom kernel, recovery, etc., can be added in queue after ROM, root zip + custom kernel to patch it from TWRP or FlashFire (so good for OTAs), and simplifies the initial process greatly since you can now fastboot boot any 4core recovery.img and then adb sideload my AK3 zip to fix the likely newer recovery you already had on your device. :good:

Original thread posts: Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P

Now updated to an AnyKernel3 zip to support the SAR (system-as-root) and 2SI (2 stage init) ROMs that have popped up for Pie and Android 10!


General Information

If you've found this thread then I'm sure you probably already know what the Bootloop of Death is - separation of the performance (perf) CPU cores - and that the only way to recover from it is to unlock your bootloader and patch to disable the faulty cluster. If you have not enabled unlocking your bootloader yet, the known methods to get it to boot long enough so you can go to System, then Developer Options and toggle "OEM unlocking" are:

• super cooling the device in a freezer in a ziplock bag to keep out moisture,
• super heating around the camera, and
• letting the battery run all the way down before trying to boot.

For further details on these methods check out the original threads by @XCnathan32, linked in the "Thanks" section.

Some important notes before going any further:

• Freezing at the Google logo likely points to it being perf cluster separation, but this could also be caused by other components separating.
• Freezing at the boot animation suggests ROM/ROM data problem or could also potentially be a BLOD with other components now beginning to separate and that's what people have reported when the 4core mods suddenly stop working with no configuration changes - if you've tried the default boot.img for your ROM, patched with the BLOD AK3 and it still doesn't work, sorry but your device is a brick.
• If no 4core recovery boots for you then you definitely have more components than just the performance cores separated, sorry but your device is a brick.
• I haven't seen anyone say their devices only worked using a "1core" modification who had tried a proper 4core patched setup; 4core makes sense because it's the separate perf cores cluster becoming unsoldered, but if the 4 low power cores cluster also starts to come unsoldered logically not even a single core would work.. I think that's where the "Green Screen Of Death" comes into it.
• DemiGod = Green Screen Of Death; unfortunately this (more components separating given more time - maybe the flash memory chip?) is why many call the 4core workaround only temporary.. there's not much that can be done after that from what I've read.
• EX Kernel does not support FBE on these devices because the EX zip patches the fstab forcefdeorfbe flag to encryptable.
• Android 10 does not appear to support FBE on these devices but the 4core FBE TWRP build can be used to BLOD patch the latest TWRP (see instructions in next post).

On Oreo, I was personally on stock ROM still, FBE enabled, rooted with SuperSU v2.82 SR5 + suhide and the latest Franco Kernel on my 5X. Then I bumped up the min freq on the low perf cores and it's working great - totally fine for general use, just anything creating a bit of heat like games maxing the low power cores for awhile, or charging, will make it pretty painfully laggy and risk further solder deterioration.

Even though SuperSU development is ostensibly dead, I still strongly recommend it on BLOD-affected devices using stock ROM for reasons I'll explain below.

My development work on my many projects comes out of my free time, so if you enjoy this project or anything else I've done on xda, please consider sponsoring my ongoing work using my GitHub Sponsors profile. For a one-time donation you can hit the donate link from my profile. Thank you for your support!


Step-By-Step Installation Instructions

• Any quoted commands should be entered without quotes

1) Download and unzip platform-tools for your PC from https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html
2) Navigate to https://androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=312881 (also mirrored below) and download N5X-6P_BLOD_Workaround_Injector_Addon-AK3-signed.zip to your platform-tools folder as well as

2a) twrp-3.2.1-0-fbe-4core-bullhead.img (Nexus 5X), or​

2b) twrp-3.2.1-0-fbe-4core-angler.img (Nexus 6P)​

3) Hold Shift + right-click on your platform-tools folder and

3a) Open a command window here (Windows <10), or​

3b) Open a PowerShell window here, then enter "cmd" at the Windows PowerShell prompt (Windows 10)​

4) Reboot your phone to bootloader and connect it to your PC with a USB cable
5) Enter "fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.2.1-0-fbe-4core-angler.img" into the cmd prompt
6) Reboot your phone to recovery and tap Advanced, then ADB Sideload
7) Enter "adb sideload N5X-6P_BLOD_Workaround_Injector_Addon-AK3-signed.zip" into the cmd prompt
8) Reboot and cross your fingers that it works

For information how to seamlessly update to stock and custom ROM OTAs, see the following post

Source Code: https://github.com/osm0sis/N5X-6P-BLOD-Workaround-Injector

Thanks:
- @XCnathan32 for researching and developing the 4core workarounds for both the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P
- chetgurevitch (GitHub) for the original FBE supporting TWRP builds
- @Aukaminator for the original step-by-step write-up

 

[osm0sis]

Update Flashing Instructions

• Keep N5X-6P_BLOD_Workaround_Injector_Addon-AK3-signed.zip on your device sdcard, henceforth referred to as BLOD AK3 zip

The correct manual order for a clean flash is: ROM -> root -> custom kernel -> BLOD AK3

Always flash the BLOD AK3 zip last!

Reflashing the BLOD AK3 zip will likely be required after anything that could modify the boot.img or recovery.img, including (but not limited to): ROM updates, custom kernel updates, custom recovery updates.

ROMs:

• On custom ROMs with built-in Flash After Update (i.e. OmniROM-based), place your root (if using SuperSU), custom kernel and BLOD AK3 zip in /sdcard/OpenDelta/FlashAfterUpdate/ ensuring the BLOD AK3 is last in the directory listing so that they will be flashed after each update.
  
  
• On custom ROMs that do not have built-in Flash After Update (i.e. LineageOS-based), you may add my FlashAfterUpdate addon.d script to /system/addon.d/ and then place your root (if using SuperSU), custom kernel and BLOD AK3 zip in /sdcard/FlashAfterUpdate/ ensuring the BLOD AK3 is last for the same effect: flashed after every OTA. :good:
  
  
• On stock ROM rooted with SuperSU (SuperSU v2.82-SR5 recommended) instead of tapping "Reboot & Install" once the OTA is downloaded you should use @Chainfire's excellent FlashFire app to queue the OTA from /data/ota_package/update_s.zip then queue the SuperSU zip, custom kernel and BLOD AK3 zip, ensuring the BLOD AK3 is last. This is how I have mine set up, since this is by far the most seamless. Be sure to disable EverRoot since SuperSU v2.82-SR5 is newer than the SuperSU included in FlashFire.
  
  
• On stock ROM rooted with Magisk you must uninstall Magisk from within Magisk Manager to restore your stock boot.img, reboot the ROM to restore your stock recovery partition, tap "Reboot & Install" once the OTA is downloaded, then go through the steps above to flash the 4core TWRP and BLOD AK3 zip again. I definitely recommend SuperSU on this device to avoid the hassle of unrooting and/or messing with factory images.

Kernels:

• Custom kernels can be flashed from an app like Franco Kernel Manager & Updater, which can be set to flash without reboot for Franco Kernel updates, or "Flash only" can be chosen in the manual flasher. The FK app supports all types of AnyKernel3 zip so the BLOD AK3 zip may then be flashed after the custom kernel zip to repatch the new kernel's ramdisk.
  
  
• For other kernel managers that don't support AK3 zips, simply reboot to recovery and flash the BLOD AK3 zip from there to repatch before attempting to boot the ROM again. Also see above under "stock ROM rooted with SuperSU", since FlashFire also works perfectly for this use-case, queuing the custom kernel zip and then the BLOD AK3 zip, with FlashFire's EverRoot option disabled since the device is already rooted.

Recoveries:

• Download the updated custom recovery .img and, without flashing it, reboot to recovery, use TWRP's flash image feature to flash the new recovery.img, then without rebooting immediately flash the BLOD AK3 zip to patch it. You can then dump/backup the recovery partition if you want it as a recovery.img. Custom recovery updates can also be done from FlashFire, queuing the BLOD AK3 zip afterward, but the "Preserve recovery" feature must be disabled.
  
  
• If you prefer to stay on stock recovery for some reason, you can still use TWRP to do the above without flashing TWRP to the device by using "fastboot boot twrp-3.2.1-0-fbe-4core-angler.img".

My development work on my many projects comes out of my free time, so if you enjoy this project or anything else I've done on xda, please consider sponsoring my ongoing work using my GitHub Sponsors profile. For a one-time donation you can hit the donate link from my profile. Thank you for your support!


Changelog

2018-01-15 - Original post in other BLOD threads.
2018-07-21 - Update AK2 Core+Backend files to latest, add searching of all init.*.rc files for problematic cpuset commands which were popularized by Franco Kernel and are now used by multiple custom kernels. (6758 downloads)
2019-10-30 - Update to AnyKernel3, add support for SAR and 2SI Treblized ROMs. (1720 downloads)
2020-01-16 - Update AK3 Core+Backend files to latest to fix AVBv1 signing in recovery on Android 10, update boot_signer-dexed.jar. (570 downloads)
2020-02-17 - Update AK3 Core+Backend files to latest to fix SAR mount support in fragmented TWRP and Lineage 16+17 Recovery. (1412 downloads)
2020-05-25 - Update AK3 Core+Backend files to latest to improve SAR mount support in Lineage 17 Recovery and AVBv1 signing.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[mdfarazb2]

Glad to see this exclusive thread... just came here to report that I've been using your fix since Jan this year ( https://forum.xda-developers.com/ne...-6p-bootloop-death-blod-t3640279/post75220708 ) and yeah my phone's still alive and running fine. Kudos to your work... Great job you did there... saving hundreds of bucks... Really appreciated!
Thanks again.

 

[SH15]

Hi osmosis,
I have done everything you said and I got stuck in step 7, when I enter "adb sideload N5X-6P_BLOD_Workaround_Injector_Addon-AK2-signed.zip", the return message is:

adb: sideload connection failed: closed
adb: trying pre-Kitkat sideload method...
adb: pre-Kitkat sideload connection failed: closed

I tried swiping where it says "Swipe to Start Sideload" and then doing step 7, but when I swipe my computer stops recognizing my device.

Thank you

 

[osm0sis]

Hi osmosis,
I have done everything you said and I got stuck in step 7, when I enter "adb sideload N5X-6P_BLOD_Workaround_Injector_Addon-AK2-signed.zip", the return message is:

adb: sideload connection failed: closed
adb: trying pre-Kitkat sideload method...
adb: pre-Kitkat sideload connection failed: closed

I tried swiping where it says "Swipe to Start Sideload" and then doing step 7, but when I swipe my computer stops recognizing my device.

Thank you

You need to let your computer install drivers for adb sideload. If your computer is having trouble with that for some reason and the recovery otherwise works then just adb push the zip to /sdcard and flash it from on the device instead of sideloading. :good:

 

[SH15]

You need to let your computer install drivers for adb sideload. If your computer is having trouble with that for some reason and the recovery otherwise works then just adb push the zip to /sdcard and flash it from on the device instead of sideloading. :good:

Thank you for answering. I had to adb push the file to /sdcard and then I flashed it using TWRP, however even after installing the file the phone is still stuck on the Google logo screen when booting up. I don't know what to do.

Thank you

 

[osm0sis]

Thank you for answering. I had to adb push the file to /sdcard and then I flashed it using TWRP, however even after installing the file the phone is still stuck on the Google logo screen when booting up. I don't know what to do.

Thank you

That's weird. The fact that the recovery worked suggests the 4core fix works for you. Maybe flash the lastest factory image then the BLOD AK2 zip.

 

[FlameSting]

Can this be flashed on top of the Oreo img from the previous thread? Is this one for Oreo?

I've applied the previous Oreo one and my phone's past the Google logo loop and is now in the loading animation for Lineage OS.

 

[osm0sis]

Can this be flashed on top of the Oreo img from the previous thread? Is this one for Oreo?

I've applied the previous Oreo one and my phone's past the Google logo loop and is now in the loading animation for Lineage OS.

Please read the OP. It works over any ROM, any custom kernel, any recovery.

 

[SH15]

That's weird. The fact that the recovery worked suggests the 4core fix works for you. Maybe flash the lastest factory image then the BLOD AK2 zip.

Thank you very much! I flashed the newest factory image for Oreo and then re-flashed the BLOD AK2 zip and it worked. Thank you for your help! :good:

 

[Deathstroke1]

Idk if I'm in the right place.

I recently replaced my battery (2nd time this week, first one was bad) and everything was working fine. Then my phone started randomly rebooting. Googled it and apparently it's one of the first signs of BLOD. Followed this and the phone stopped shutting down randomly. Now the phone only works if plugged into a power source. Idk if I did something wrong or the battery is trash (even though it was working fine all day)

I'd appreciate an guidance [emoji24]

Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

 

[kurniawan77]

This saved my day! Thanks everyone! Got my 6P booted up again... and it's not even rooted

 

[queengab]

I want just only to thanks @osm0sis and it's genial solution!
Thanlks i recover my phone and saved a lot of money.

I understand it could be a temporary solution but thanks!!!

gabriele

 

[godd]

After I flashed twrp and try to go to Recovery there is a message "Your device software cannot be checked for corruption. Please lock the bootloader." And after that it goes back to bootlloop. Any idea what to do next? Thanks

 

[osm0sis]

After I flashed twrp and try to go to Recovery there is a message "Your device software cannot be checked for corruption. Please lock the bootloader." And after that it goes back to bootlloop. Any idea what to do next? Thanks

That just means you unlocked your device. If no 4core recovery works then unfortunately your device can't be saved.

 

[jd603]

I had my phone hang on the google logo a couple times, but rebooting it fixed it. Is this an early sign of this problem? Just replaced battery and so far it seems fine.

 

[lbrenes]

That just means you unlocked your device. If no 4core recovery works then unfortunately your device can't be saved.

I am in this same boat... RIP N6P, this is my 2nd N6P Google replaced the first one due to the BLOD and now the replacement is dead.

Thanks for all the efforts and help.

 

[jbjcurly]

That just means you unlocked your device. If no 4core recovery works then unfortunately your device can't be saved.

It seems the basketbuild site is down. Any chance you could throw the modded twrp for oreo and the 4core fix up here?

 

[CavyS]

That just means you unlocked your device. If no 4core recovery works then unfortunately your device can't be saved.

Same as the guy above. Sites down need mirrors or something?

 

[osm0sis]

It seems the basketbuild site is down. Any chance you could throw the modded twrp for oreo and the 4core fix up here?

Same as the guy above. Sites down need mirrors or something?

Mirrored in the OP. Thanks!

Edit: And BasketBuild is also back! :good: