/gempesaw/writing

My own reference for flashing new android without losing root or user data

· android self reference nexus 6 shamu 5.1.1 lyz28e 9ea32a7ff1751afa2a16214ac23ef000

Humm, so my nexus 6 has a persistent notification about wanting me to upgrade to 5.1.1. I was lazy this time and didn't bother doing it at the end of May when the stock images came out, but my phone doesn't know how to do it on its own since it's rooted and unencrypted and/or it's using TWRP recovery instead of the stock recovery. I don't do this frequently enough to remember, but too infrequently to want to write a script for it (especially since Wug's toolkit already exists). Anyway, here's my pretty straightforward steps to getting my N6 to 5.1.1, generic enough to apply to any update[1]:

  1. start downloading whatever factory image that needs flashing

  2. on the phone, make a backup via TWRP

  3. copy the backup to a desktop, just in case of lightning strikes!

  4. whenever the DL finishes, unzip the .tgz and go in that folder

  5. in that folder unzip the .zip, cuz it has boot.img and system.img

  6. wire the phone to a computer (probably already done in 2)

  7. reboot to bootloader (power off, hold vol down & power)

  8. use fastboot to do some things:

     fastboot flash bootloader bootloader.img
 fastboot flash radio radio.img
 fastboot reboot-bootloader
 fastboot flash boot boot.img
 fastboot flash system system.img
 fastboot reboot-bootloader

  9. head into TWRP recovery, supposedly I should wipe cache & Dalvik, but I forgot and it seems fine. anyway, reboot to system and it'll prompt about installing SU for us since we lost root (yay TWRP).

Make sure not to flash the recovery from the download since we'd like to keep TWRP, not the stock recovery. TWRP's reboot into system will spin the "optimizing app M of N" for a while, and then it should be gravy!

  1. I used to go to theSiteThatShallNotBeNamed for this, but after seeing their recent behaviors and reading the thoughts of some industry thought leaders (heh, heh, thought leaders is a funny concept - but here I am following their thoughts...), I figure I'd ought to make a reference for myself so I can stop giving them traffic. ↩︎