Sony Xperia X and Android 8 [closed]

asked 2018-02-27 10:15:22 +0200

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updated 2018-02-27 10:15:22 +0200

Direc
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I just installed Android 8 to my other Sony Xperia X, which is great in terms of manufacturer support from Android point of view. My question is; is it possible/feasible to develop Sailfish X (3) from AOSP version of it (pnce/if it comes out)? That could mean newer kernel (I hope) and firmware blobs (I hope).

How about flashing to Sailfish X from Android 8?

The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by Direc
close date 2018-06-06 23:08:17.228171

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Concerning a more recent kernel I posed a similar question here: Kernel 4.4 instead of 3.10. As for the firmware I guess (hence comment, not answer) this should not be too hard or maybe no problem at all if the fitting Loire kernel image is flashed. Before installing SF X I ran a Custom ROM with Android 8. The only requirement was to flash the respective OEM binaries provided by Sony. I had to reflash a stock image in order to install SF X and took the conservative route by flashing an older version with Android 7 (could've been 34.3.256). I'd be curious if flashing SF X over the most recent stock with Oreo would improve on anything.

rozgwi ( 2018-02-28 00:55:33 +0200 )edit

I installed Sailfish 2.1.3.7 from Oreo, and seems that is the same as installing from Nougat, nothing improved or better if it's done from a newer version of Android.

carmeloferso ( 2018-02-28 13:35:40 +0200 )edit

Thank you for testing installing Sailfish X from Oreo. I don't really expect a change in behavior or longer battery life, but I hope Sailfish platform can also provide the security patches they provide. How could one find out if the firmware files are the same? Android flashing is not really my territory...

Direc ( 2018-02-28 18:35:31 +0200 )edit

Today I read your comment :O Sorry for late response, and... I sold my Xperia X and bought the Xperia XA2 waiting for the Sailfish 3 as with the current version it doesn't works good for my needs :(

carmeloferso ( 2018-08-07 23:04:54 +0200 )edit

answered 2018-06-06 23:07:52 +0200

Direc
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updated 2018-06-11 14:23:17 +0200

Actually, Sony still uses kernel 3.xx for Android 8 base, so the binary blobs must also be the same (save security patches, I hope). Also, @carmeloferso had flashed from Android 8 and it went fine, so I think this question has served its purpose.

Now we wait for SFOS3 ;)

Edit: This only applies, if the device has updated itself to Oreo - which is the average user use case - which keeps the correct kernel and blobs' version installed. It is possible to install kernel 4.4 with newer (I hope) blob using Sony Emma (and it will wipe your data), and flash Sailfish X on top of that, but it only results in non-booting device. Luckily, you can manually overwrite the OEM partition using the correct image. Details here, if you are interested.

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Regarding the flashing of Sailfish X :

If you pay attention to the shell script that comes with the image, you'll notice that it uses the exact version of firmware it needs from sony's website (back at the first 2.1.3 version it used Marshmallow 6.0.1 with kernel 3.10), and the Sailfish X comes with its own kernel RPM package (droid-hal-f5121-img-boot).

So no matter what you have before, the SFX installation should work by forcing the exact set of kernel + drivers that Sailfish currently supports (version 3.10.84 currently)

The fact that on some people upgrade to 4.4 kernel then flash fails is a bug (did they try to also force the flasher to use the newer OEM partition instead the 6.0.1 its asking ?) the installer should overwrite whatever kernel is there (or did the partition scheme change between kernel versions and the flasher can't fit the drivers anymore ?)

(Which is exactly what it did from day 1, as at that time, the Android versions provided on Xperia was Nougat 7.0 with kernel 3.10.108. Sailfish X did require that version installed (due to some minute partition layout details I've forgotten) but flash.sh did forcefully downgrade to the necessary kernel version).

Regarding Sony sticking to 3.10 :

Thank you for pointing this, I wasn't aware of this fact (I shoud have checked sony's website)

DrYak ( 2018-06-11 15:16:39 +0200 )edit

Thanks for reply.

I looked at the flash.sh script, and I noted a few things:

*It finds the downloaded OEM partition image by using match ./*_loire.img which matches both SW_binaries_for_Xperia_Android_8.1.6.4_r1_v12_loire.img and SW_binaries_for_Xperia_AOSP_M_MR1_3.10_v13_loire.img *It doesn't check the file validity or content in any way *It should flash the OEM partition in the last step, but at least for me, it failed.

I really don't see why it doesn't just use the full filename instead of matching. Heck, I would at least check the MD5 sum in use cases like this! It's easy to shoot your own leg with the flash tool, in my opinion.

Also, the readme file doesn't explicitly say not to try newer version, but that may be due to that version being the newest available at the time.

Also, Sony Emma defaults to automatically reflashing your device every sub-sequential time you plug your phone in, no questions asked. I actually lost one flashed SFOSX because of this, but it wasn't booting up anyway in that case, so no data was lost for me.

Direc ( 2018-06-11 16:11:45 +0200 )edit

Oh heck, there is a MD5 checksum file list, and it is checked at start. Still only half fixes the problem, though...

Direc ( 2018-06-11 16:17:32 +0200 )edit

Sony Xperia X and Android 8 [answered]

The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by Direc
close date 2018-06-06 23:08:17.228171

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Sony Xperia X and Android 8 [answered]

The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by Direc close date 2018-06-06 23:08:17.228171

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The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by Direc
close date 2018-06-06 23:08:17.228171