cross-posted from the Linux phones community as nobody there knew

Has anyone actually successfully installed PostmarketOS on an old device recently? I’ve had a long struggle through trying to prepare a Nexus 7 (2012) and the result seems to be a dead device before I even got to actually installing PostmarketOS.

The rough steps I followed are listed here:

  • Create backups
  • Get SBK
  • Build and prepare U-Boot
    • Actually flashing U-Boot seems to be where things went wrong
      • Running ./run_bootloader.sh -s T30 -t ./bct/grouper.bct -b ../re-crypt/repart-block.bin or ./run_bootloader.sh -s T30 -t ./bct/grouper.bct -b ../generated-wheelie-blobs/AndroidRoot/blob.bin from fusee-tools hung on waiting for bootloader to initialize
      • Running ./run_bootloader.sh -s T30 -t ./bct/grouper.bct -b ../u-boot/u-boot-dtb-tegra.bin failed like this
      • skipping that step and running ./utils/nvflash_v1.13.87205 --resume --rawdevicewrite 0 1024 ../re-crypt/repart-block.bin hung on [resume mode]
      • Consulting a different version of the docs and running ./wheelie --blob ./generated-wheelie-blobs/AndroidRoot/blob.bin seemed to work so I ran ./nvflash --resume --rawdevicewrite 0 1024 ./re-crypt/repart-block.bin which also seemed to work
      • I then powered off as instructed and the device has been completely unresponsive since

I’ve tried connecting to a charger, disconnecting and reconnecting the battery, and every combination of holding down buttons but it appears to be completely dead. Any suggestions as to what I did wrong or anything I might be able to do now? Obviously it’s not the end of the world to have lost a 13 year old tablet that was just gathering dust, but at the moment I’m not feeling positive about ever trying this again on another device!

  • Markaos@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    4·
    5 days ago

    Maybe you’ve tried that already, but does the tablet show up as a USB device when you connect it to a computer? Android devices tend to enter fastboot or another firmware upload mode when everything else fails.

    • smeg@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      Sadly not. I think I had to turn it on for it to be detected by fastboot or adb, and it seems like it’s not even turning on anymore.

      • cole@lemdro.idEnglish
        2·
        5 days ago

        2012 Nexus 7 is famous for failing eMMC right? maybe it’s dead :(

        • smeg@feddit.ukOPEnglish
          1·
          5 days ago

          Would part of the process have stressed it enough to kill it? Seems unlikely that after 13 years it would just randomly go exactly as I’m running this command!

  • yessikg@fedia.io
    1·
    5 days ago

    I’m going to try installing it on a Samsung tablet, but it’s a community release so I’m not sure it will work