[TREBLE][Oreo][How-To] Install any Generic System Image (GSI) on the Razer Phone

[linuxct]

Hello everyone,

I've been tinkering around with Generic System Images since the Oreo Developer Preview 1 came out for the Razer Phone. I'm glad to say I got it to work, with lots of help from @MishaalRahman, @P4Block and indirect help of @phhusson and @TheCrazyLex.

What's working as of right now:
- GPS
- Rear Camera (only one of the lenses, needs further testing/pulling the Razer camera app apk)
- Front camera
- Microphones
- Sensors, each and every of them
- Speakers, sound playback, videoplayback (needs further testing)
- Fingerprint scanner
- WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC
- 120Hz screen features
- Color adjustments from the Oreo DP1 by Razer
- 4G LTE
- In-Call audio

What needs further testing:
- 4G/LTE FIXED check out post #77!
- Once the above is confirmed to work => VoLTE on any carrier, and also testing on certain carriers like 3 UK (since they sold a version with different software).

What's broken:
- Audio in phone calls (works properly in VoIP/3rd party apps) FIXED check out post #48!
​

What ROMs can be booted with this (as of 30-03-2018):

• AOSP 8.1
• Lineage OS 15.1
• Resurrection Remix
• More to come...

Setting up your device:

You'll need:

To [URL="https://forum.xda-developers.com/razer-phone/how-to/guide-to-unlocking-bootloader-t3706462"]fully unlock your bootloader[/URL] and [URL="https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=74607352&postcount=8"]unlock flashing capabilities[/URL] on your device. 
[URL="https://eu.dl.twrp.me/cheryl/twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img.html"]TWRP image[/URL] + [URL="https://eu.dl.twrp.me/cheryl/twrp-installer-3.2.1-0-cheryl.zip.html"]TWRP injector[/URL]
[URL="http://tiny.cc/latestmagisk"]Magisk flashable zip[/URL]
A GSI of your preference from the ones listed [URL="https://forum.xda-developers.com/project-treble/trebleenabled-device-development"]here[/URL]. PS: Use the Gapps+SU one if you choose AOSP ;)

0. Make sure you're running the Android O DP1 from Razer, or any future update to it.
THIS WON'T WORK ON NOUGAT
1. Properly install TWRP on your device: (I'll be using @Dees_Troy's guide with a few modifications to make very sure everything will work as intended)
- fastboot flash the twrp image as explained by him, in your currently active boot partition. PS: After flashing the Android O DP1, it will always be A.

Once you have adb working, run this command: adb shell getprop ro.boot.slot_suffix

It should say: [ro.boot.slot_suffix]: [_a] Or: [ro.boot.slot_suffix]: [_b]

Make note of whether you are currently using slot A or B. Next power off the device and boot to the bootloader using your USB cable and volume down. You want to switch to the other boot slot. If you are currently on slot A, type this: fastboot --set-active=_b Or on slot B type this: fastboot --set-active=_a

You should see something like this: Setting current slot to 'a'... OKAY [ 0.042s] finished. total time: 0.042s

I found the bootloader on the Razer Phone to be extremely finicky and I had to run the command multiple times until I got it to run successfully. You may have to hold the power button for 15 seconds to force power off the device and then re-enter fastboot mode. Keep trying until it works. Once it's on the right boot slot, type this: fastboot flash boot twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img && fastboot reboot

2. Once you're in TWRP, DO NOT SLIDE to allow modifications, but tap on Mount as Read Only. Plug in your USB cable, and adb push the boot image from the Android O DP1 factory image to your sdcard, as well as the TWRP injector and the Magisk zip. That can be done with the following commands:

adb push twrp-installer-3.2.1-0-cheryl.zip /sdcard

adb push path/to/the/factoryimage/boot.img /sdcard

adb push Magisk-16.0.zip /sdcard

3. Go into Reboot, then make sure you're on partition A. Else, tap on the button to set A as the active partition.
Now go back, tap Install, then tap on 'Install Image' then choose the boot.img you just pushed, and flash it as boot image.
Now go back, into Reboot, and move to partition B and repeat the step above.
Once you're sure both partitions only contain the unmodified boot images, set the partition A as active, go into Install, choose the twrp-installer-3.2.1-0-cheryl.zip and flash it.
Once it finishes, do the same with the Magisk zip file.
4. Go into Reboot, press on Bootloader.
5. Connect the usb cable, and flash the GSI system image onto your system_a partition through fastboot from your pc. This can be done with the command:

fastboot flash system_a system-arm64-ab.img

5.b If you wish, you can install a different GSI onto your system_b partition, and that can be done with the following commands:

fastboot set_active b

fastboot flash system_b system-arm64-ab-gapps-su.img

5.c If you wish to go back to the system_a partition, you can execute:

fastboot set_active a

6. Reboot and enjoy.
​

Prebuilt boot image:

If doing the steps from 1-4 seems messy or you don't get it to work properly, I've published the image I made following them with the latest Magisk and TWRP versions available as of April 20th 2018.
You can download it from here. You can then flash it from fastboot by using the commands:

fastboot flash boot_a boot_linuxct_20180420_cheryl_omr0.img

fastboot flash boot_b boot_linuxct_20180420_cheryl_omr0.img

SHA-2: 2f0c7348ac906f2f81fa39df7b24b69392783bd2379d5da357777be444c67d97​

Old version (from ODP1 - may experience the bootloader issues):

You can download it from here. You can then flash it from fastboot by using the commands:

fastboot flash boot_a boot_linuxct_20180330_cheryl_odp1.img

fastboot flash boot_b boot_linuxct_20180330_cheryl_odp1.img

SHA-2: 8f763162415167b2e919a450654f9a46f69b81f6853013bcabf362dfeb2a115e

Many thanks to everyone that helped me today to get this to work properly!

 

[linuxct]

Want some screenshots?

 

[PupPupG]

Thanks for all the hard work!

I've followed the guide but after flashing the GSI I get stuck at the Android logo and the system never boots?
Any help would be appreciated

 

[linuxct]

Thanks for all the hard work!

I've followed the guide but after flashing the GSI I get stuck at the Android logo and the system never boots?
Any help would be appreciated

Did you follow all the steps carefully? Did you make sure you flashed Magisk?
Magisk is needed since it disables DM-Verity, which is what IMO gets the device stuck at first boot.
Oh, and also, sometimes during first boot your device gets encrypted. Mine took a bit extra that time (specifically booting the LineageOS image).

If you can't still get it to work, try with the prebuilt boot image.

 

[Kimbaroth]

This is awesome!!!

I'd love to have a fully working resurrection remix build working on my cheryl!!!!! =D <3

KEEP UP THIS AWESOME WORK!!!!!!!!!

 

[PupPupG]

Did you follow all the steps carefully? Did you make sure you flashed Magisk?
Magisk is needed since it disables DM-Verity, which is what IMO gets the device stuck at first boot.
Oh, and also, sometimes during first boot your device gets encrypted. Mine took a bit extra that time (specifically booting the LineageOS image).

If you can't still get it to work, try with the prebuilt boot image.

I tried again using all of the info but they closest I've gotten to a boot is the Android logo and then a prompt to decrypt but no matter what I enter I get "Decryption Unsuccessful" and it just brings me back to TWRP

 

[linuxct]

I tried again using all of the info but they closest I've gotten to a boot is the Android logo and then a prompt to decrypt but no matter what I enter I get "Decryption Unsuccessful" and it just brings me back to TWRP

Flash the Oreo DP1 image and start over.

 

[ThatGuy94]

Flash the Oreo DP1 image and start over.

From what I can tell, TWRP cannot format the data partition properly which is what causes LOS to appear as encrypted and won't finish booting. I was able to successfully able to get it to boot by flashing the stock boot.img and booting to stock recovery and factory reset that way. After doing that, flash your ROM of choice and Magisk and it should be usable.

 

[linuxct]

From what I can tell, TWRP cannot format the data partition properly which is what causes LOS to appear as encrypted and won't finish booting. I was able to successfully able to get it to boot by flashing the stock boot.img and booting to stock recovery and factory reset that way. After doing that, flash your ROM of choice and Magisk and it should be usable.

Flashing the Oreo DP1 image actually flashes an empty, non-encrypted userdata image. That's why I requested to start over.
That can also be another solution, bit messier than starting over but it's good.

 

[M1cky]

Does anyone have Magisk fully working with this? I still get ctsprofile:false

Aside from this, excellent work!

 

[linuxct]

Does anyone have Magisk fully working with this? I still get ctsprofile:false

Aside from this, excellent work!

I do. Try installing the latest beta of Magisk and then, if that didn't solve it, try setting a new Build fingerprint with a tool like MagiskHide Props Config (PS. Just to be sure, set the Google Pixel 2 XL one since that's the only 8.1.0 build fingerprint provided by that tool).

 

[el4nimal]

From what I can tell, TWRP cannot format the data partition properly which is what causes LOS to appear as encrypted and won't finish booting. I was able to successfully able to get it to boot by flashing the stock boot.img and booting to stock recovery and factory reset that way. After doing that, flash your ROM of choice and Magisk and it should be usable.

Could you please tell me how you flash Magisk? After I flash a ROM I'm not able to boot into TWRP to flash Magisk

 

[TheCrazyLex]

Happy to see people making use of Treble on Razer Phone this quickly.

Good job! @linuxct

 

[RUNNERX]

Have no idea where I went wrong but after I had RR up and running I rebooted and It went into download mode.

 

[linuxct]

Have no idea where I went wrong but after I had RR up and running I rebooted and It went into download mode.

Yes, it happens sometimes. Let me explain this briefly:

1. This bootloader seems to forget what the active partition was when it was told to reboot the device instead of turning itself off, and I don't know why yet. It happens 1/5 times I press on "Reboot", more or less.
2. You need to re-set the active partition to the one you were using, in my case A, so with a cable and my pc I run

fastboot set_active a && fastboot reboot

Tired of typing, I made myself a script named razer in my /usr/bin

#!/bin/zsh

fastboot set_active a && fastboot reboot

So, be careful when rebooting the device if you don't have a close-by PC with fastboot to make it work again, instead, fully turn it off and turn it back on.

 

[linuxct]

Could you please tell me how you flash Magisk? After I flash a ROM I'm not able to boot into TWRP to flash Magisk

Just fire up a terminal with ADB and type in

adb reboot recovery

It should be more than enough, no need for root privileges or anything.

 

[el4nimal]

Just fire up a terminal with ADB and type in

adb reboot recovery

It should be more than enough, no need for root privileges or anything.

I'm trying to boot into LineageOS 15.1 but it keeps saying "Decryption Unsuccessful". I followed your guide step by step, and I also tried the pre-built image you provided.
I started over from Oreo DP1 image many times and I've been getting the same error over and over again.
Then, I noticed that @ThatGuy94 mentioned he was able to get it to boot, by flashing stock boot.img and factory reset it that way, and then install the ROM and Magisk.
But I can't figure out how to install Magisk without installing TWRP, is there any fastboot command to install Magisk from the command line?

 

[SirGoldenTaco]

Resurrection Remix Intensifies

 

[ThatGuy94]

I'm trying to boot into LineageOS 15.1 but it keeps saying "Decryption Unsuccessful". I followed your guide step by step, and I also tried the pre-built image you provided.
I started over from Oreo DP1 image many times and I've been getting the same error over and over again.
Then, I noticed that @ThatGuy94 mentioned he was able to get it to boot, by flashing stock boot.img and factory reset it that way, and then install the ROM and Magisk.
But I can't figure out how to install Magisk without installing TWRP, is there any fastboot command to install Magisk from the command line?

Unless you have overwritten it, boot to download mode and use fastboot to switch to the other slot which will allow you to boot into TWRP and install Magisk. If you have overwritten TWRP, flash it on the other slot (for example if you have LOS installed in A, flash TWRP into B).

 

[RUNNERX]

So, be careful when rebooting the device if you don't have a close-by PC with fastboot to make it work again, instead, fully turn it off and turn it back on.

It has happened after a power off also, would putting the same rom in a&b slot stop it? system_other is not bootable so the phone enters download mode? I don't understand the working of the a/b system.
And THANK YOU so much for working on this, so nice to be back on custom roms!