Google Pixel

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The Google Pixel smartphone is made by a Chinese company called Huawei - the same Chinese company that the United States Government is investigating for spying for the Chinese government.

The Google Pixel first generation phone or known as the Pixel One is offered in two sizes

  • Pixel
  • Pixel XL

Google New Interface

The main interface controls are now very abstract and look like 1980s VCR buttons, except the play button is facing the wrong way.

  • backwards triangle (bottom left) - equivalent to "escape" or go back one step
  • VCR record circle (bottom center) - equivalent to "home" this used to be a meaningful house icon
  • VCR stop square (bottom right) - equivalent to "menu" or something like that, you get some menu icons and open tasks to select from
  • SWIPE UP from bottom of screen - (the hidden menu) This is the fourth main control. From the bottom of the screen swipe up to access all of your apps.

Millennials love meaningless and confusing abstract symbols which are counter-intuitive to every generation before them. Why did Google devs use VCR symbols for the new Android desktop? They've never seen a VCR before, they didn't even realize.


Pre- Crack / Root Basics

To quickly get to the settings menu

  • Press SQUARE and the SETTINGS GEAR which is a white gear image in a blue circle at the bottom right of the screen.

To allow file copy via USB cable

  • In Settings choose "Connected Devices" then "USB" to control what the phone does when connected to the computer.

Bootloader / Fast Boot Mode

USES VOLUME DOWN AND POWER BUTTON ONLY

  1. make sure phone is turned off
  2. press and hold the Volume Down button for a couple seconds then keep holding and press the power button
  3. while in bootloader mode navigate with the volume up and down, and use the power button to Enter/Select

Successful when you see an image of a little green android robot on its back with a service panel open. There is also the text in a green arrow reading START near the power button, and in white text some general information about the device.

Root

Android Version 9
Patch June 5 2019

Developer Options and USB Debugging

OEM unlocking

If you have a Verizon phone or a Pixel One that an OTA update has disabled your ability to activate OEM Unlocking, at of June 2019 (or perhaps in the future) it is still possible to crack the system and enable OEM unlocking, but it is a little tricky and takes patience. In fact, I had to repeat the entire process because the first time it failed to work, and the second time it finally worked and worked very well.

(soon a guide here, for now check out...)

When you boot your Pixel phone and see the following error message briefly displayed in orange text: 

Your device cant be checked for corruption.  Please lock the bootloader.

You did it! That is a good error message, it means they are not happy that you cracked YOUR phone that YOU own and THEY are trying to control. You now have your rights back!

Unlock the bootloader

(soon a guide here, for now check out...)

  • Unlock bootloader

installing tools for backup and root

There are a number of guides online many of which offer downloads for the necessary tools including TWRP and Magisk. They often offer them from unknown or their own server and they are often outdated versions. Do yourself a favor and get the latest versions from the developer sites.

TWRP 3.0.2 custom recovery https://www.teamandroid.com/2016/12/13/install-twrp-3-0-2-recovery-on-google-pixel-complete-guide/

download TWRP from https://twrp.me/Devices/Google/ choose Google Pixel (sailfish) -> https://dl.twrp.me/sailfish/ yields -> Download twrp-pixel-installer-sailfish-3.3.0-0.zip

download MagiskManager-v7.2.0.apk from https://magiskmanager.com/

error: /snap/core/xxxx read-only filesystem error

SKIP IF YOU DID NOT GET THIS ERROR

  • on phone goto settings -> connected devices -> USB
  • set to USB controlled by [x] this device
  • set to Use USB for [x] File Transfer

You will copy TWRP to a directory that appears something like this in your file manager

  • /run/user/1000/gvfs/mtp:host=%5Busb%3xxxxxxxxxx/Internal shared storage

I used SpaceFM file manager to copy the file from the computer to the Android phone. The read-only error was resolved by ensuring that the USB settings on the phone were set to "Use USB for File Transfer"

reboot to Recovery Mode and install Image

You should have Downloaded both the img and the zip. Copy the zip to your device. You will need to have fastboot binaries and the correct drivers installed.

Disconnect data cable and have the device off. Power off your device completely.

Hold volume down and turn on the device. Your device should now be in the bootloader. Connect the device to your PC. Open a command window and run the following command from the proper location: 

fastboot boot ./twrp.img

This will temporarily boot TWRP on your device.

Go to install and browse to the zip and install the zip. The zip will install TWRP to both boot slots.

We are going to boot the phone in bootloader mode and from the bootloader screen select Recovery.

  • press and hold the Volume Down button for a couple seconds then keep holding and press the power button

It then asks if you would like to install the official TWRP app. Swipe for yes to install. The phone will reboot.

YOU ARE STILL NOT ROOT!

error: In recovery mode NO COMMAND and broken robot

SKIP IF YOU DID NOT GET THIS ERROR

You tried to go into recovery model from bootloader / fast boot menu and the file necessary for recovery was absent so you get this image and error instead of the expected Team Win Recovery Project blue recovery menu. Don't factory reset! We just need to get the TWRP file in the right place and try this again.

  1. make sure you downloaded both the img and the zip. Copy the zip to your device. These are two files you need to download from twrp.me. ( https://twrp.me/google/googlepixel.html ) - get the latest
  2. make sure you copied the zip file to your Pixel phone
  3. make sure you have the img file on the PC in the same directory as platform-tools (adb)
  4. make sure you rename the img file to twrp.img (the one in the platform-tools directory) ( mv twrp-3.3.0-0-sailfish.img twrp.img )
  5. make sure you boot into recovery and from the PC in the platform-tools working directory type: fastboot boot ./twrp.img
  6. Go to install and browse to the zip and install the zip. (it says swipe to flash)

Keywords: Android

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