Difference between revisions of "Recovery Fix Android 8"

Revision as of 09:41, 30 May 2019

Introduction

This document will guide you through the necessary steps needed to fix the Recovery partition for Android 8 on your Gemini. Follow this guide if your device don't see an Android 8 udpate you are expecting or if your device enter a boot loop following a Factory Reset.

Please note that this process will not delete your data from the device.

There are 3 steps needed to install or upgrade Android on your Gemini:

1. Install the FlashTool software on your Windows PC or Linux PC
2. Download and unzip the Android firmware
3. Flash the firmware on your device

These steps are detailed in the next sections.

Download and Install FlashTool on Windows

The first step to install FlashTool on a Windows PC is to install the flash tool drivers. The drivers are needed for your Windows PC to communicate with your Gemini, the minimum requirement is to have a 64bit Windows operating system.

You can find the latest drivers here: Windows Flash Tool Drivers

Once downloaded, unzip the archive. You will find a folder called FlashToolDrivers, open the folder and double click on the Install (install.bat) file. Allow the installation to complete by clicking Yes when asked to make changes.

Now that the drivers have been installed, you can download the latest Windows recovery fix flash tool: Recovery Fix Flash Tool

Once downloaded the Windows FlashTool, please unzip it to reveal the FlashToolWindows folder. Next, run the flash tool by double clicking on flash_tool (flash_tool.exe) file in the FlashToolWindows folder.

Download and Install FlashTool on Linux

If you intend to install FlashTool on a Windows PC you can skip this section, otherwise please keep reading if you want to install FlashTool on a Linux PC.

The following procedure has been tested on Debian 9.0, Ubuntu 18.04 (see notes below) and Fedora 28 (see notes below).

You can find the latest Linux recovery fix flash tool software here: Recovery Fix Flash Tool

Once downloaded, extract the flash tool by typing:

tar -zxvf FlashToolLinux.tgz

Before running the flash tool you will need to add some rules to udev.

Create the blacklist file by typing (using either the "sudo command" or syntax or simply typing the command as root) :

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/20-mm-blacklist-mtk.rules

And inside the file put the following 2 lines:

ATTRS{idVendor}=="0e8d", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="6000", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"


After that, restart the udev:

sudo service udev restart

Finally, run the flash tool application by entering into the FlashToolLinux folder and typing:

cd FlashToolLinux

sudo ./flash_tool.sh

Notes - Ubuntu 18.04

On Ubuntu you will need to install the following dependency:

 sudo apt-get install libjpeg62

Notes - Fedora 28

On Fedora you will have to write the following command to allow applications running with root privileges to access the X server (this will fix the lines above for both the gedit and the flash_tool command):

xhost +local:

Additionally you will have to  restart the udev service by typing (or rebooting your machine):

udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger

Finally, you will need to install the following dependency:

sudo yum install nas-libs-1.9.4-13.fc28.x86_64

Building the flash tool from source

You can also build the flash tool by yourself, the code is hosted on github: Flash Tool Source

Flashing the Recovery Fix firmware

The configuration tool is already preconfigured with the right options.

To start the flashing process, just click the big Download button, connect your PC to the left end USB-C port on your Gemini and restart the Gemini. Once booting, the flash tool will detect the unit and will start flashing the device with the selected firmware.

Once flashed, simply disconnect the Gemini and keep pressed the Esc (On) button until your Gemini turns ON.