reinstall android using a Linux pc

Moltke · Dec 10, 2018

Hi everyone! Hope you're all having a nice life!

Well, as the title says I'm looking for a way/method to reinstall/flash android using Linux since that the OS I use, so far all the tutorials I found describe how to do it using a Windows pc, so if anyone knows how, where to get/find a tutorial/guide on how to approach this and what tool(s) can I use I'd really appreciate it. I'm on Debian 9, I downloaded the platform-tools from here https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools#download and been playing around with adb and fastboot. I read the documentation for those tools but still unsure on how to proceed. Any help/advice is really appreciated. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Hadron · Dec 10, 2018

The first step is to ask 2 questions: what phone do you have and is the bootloader unlocked/is the phone rooted?

Then a follow-up question, are you trying to flash stock software or a custom ROM?

I'm asking because just as there is no generic build of android that can be installed on all phones, the techniques for flashing a phone depend on whether you want to flash stock or custom software and (especially if stock) what phone you have.

If the bootloader is unlocked and you have images of the partitions you wish to flash then you can use fastboot to flash those images. But stock software typically requires procedures that depend on the manufacturer to at least some degree. So a bit more information would be useful.

Moltke · Dec 10, 2018

Hadron said:
The first step is to ask 2 questions: what phone do you have and is the bootloader unlocked/is the phone rooted?

Then a follow-up question, are you trying to flash stock software or a custom ROM?

I'm asking because just as there is no generic build of android that can be installed on all phones, the techniques for flashing a phone depend on whether you want to flash stock or custom software and (especially if stock) what phone you have.

If the bootloader is unlocked and you have images of the partitions you wish to flash then you can use fastboot to flash those images. But stock software typically requires procedures that depend on the manufacturer to at least some degree. So a bit more information would be useful.

1. Not phone but a dragon touch y88x tablet, android won't boot anymore.
2. Not sure whether bootloader is unlucked and yes it is rooted...is it the same thing?
3. I'm open to either a stock or custom rom as long as it works.
4. I downloaded a .img file from dragon touch website but I dn't know what to do since it seems I'd need some Phoenix.exe tool to do the job.

Thanks for your answer.

GameTheory · Dec 10, 2018

Most stock firmwares require a Windows pc to install. I'm a linux user myself, but I keep an old copy of windows 7 in a virtual machine(Virtual Box) for flashing phones.

Microsoft provides free windows VMs on their website which expire after 3 months. These are perfect for the occasional phone flash.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/

Hadron · Dec 10, 2018

It sounds like the post above this has the simplest answer for flashing your image.

But on one of the points, rooting and bootloader unlocking are not the same thing, though unlocking is often a precursor to rooting. Unlocking the bootloader allows you to flash unsigned images using fastboot. Rooting means modifying the ROM so that the user can grant administrator privileges to any app, as opposed to only system apps having access to these. A common "generic" approach to rooting is to use fastboot to flash a custom recovery (which requires an unlocked bootloader), and then use the custom recovery to install patches to the system to root it. Some devices can be rooted via other means, so unlocking the bootloader is not always necessary in order to root.

I assume that you have done simpler things like a factory reset (clearing apps and data, which can be enough for some booting problems).

Moltke · Dec 10, 2018

Hadron said:
It sounds like the post above this has the simplest answer for flashing your image.

But on one of the points, rooting and bootloader unlocking are not the same thing, though unlocking is often a precursor to rooting. Unlocking the bootloader allows you to flash unsigned images using fastboot. Rooting means modifying the ROM so that the user can grant administrator privileges to any app, as opposed to only system apps having access to these. A common "generic" approach to rooting is to use fastboot to flash a custom recovery (which requires an unlocked bootloader), and then use the custom recovery to install patches to the system to root it. Some devices can be rooted via other means, so unlocking the bootloader is not always necessary in order to root.

I assume that you have done simpler things like a factory reset (clearing apps and data, which can be enough for some booting problems).

Yes, I did a factory reset and didn't work. I turn on the tablet, the dragon touch logo appears and then a blank dark blue screen stays forever and I'm unable to do anything. I tried the "install .zip from sdcard" method but get an error about no verified signature. I know it's possible to do this in a windows pc as that post mentions, however, I was curious on how to do this in Linux, since like I said, it is my current OS. I guess I'll have to go to some friend's house with a windows pc and try the phoenix.exe method. Thanks.

Hadron · Dec 11, 2018

The phoenix .exe probably uses a sequence of fastboot commands, in which case if you knew exactly what those are then you could do it manually. But this isn't the sort of thing that is worth taking chances with (I've done this with HTC devices, but some of that sequence was definitely vendor-specific so I would not expect it to work on your device).

reinstall android using a Linux pc

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