[Nexus 6P General] LiquidSolstice:
What the heck is all this about?

So, you all know that unlocking a Nexus device is usually pretty straight forward, especially if you're on Ubuntu; you're used to just install android-tools-fastboot and android-tools-adb from the default repos, using sudo fastboot oem unlock, and being on your merry way.

Unfortunately, that's been a bit of a pain with the new 6P for multiple reasons; the default Ubuntu 14.04+ repositories don't yet have the latest adb and fastboot binaries (which you need because the unlock command is now totally different), and the Android SDK Manager is kind of a piece of crap and needs to be beaten into submission before it works for you. I wrote this guide after figuring it out because I don't use Windows and don't ever use it unless there is simply no other way.

Yes, I could just post the adb and fastboot binaries, but this is Linux. We use it to better understand how computers work and ultimately learn.

This process will take you 5 minutes.

What I'm assuming about you

You know what a terminal is and how to use it

You are on Ubuntu 14.04+ 64bit

You have Java already installed

You have already booted your phone, gone into Developer Settings, and turned on "OEM Unlocking"

You're smart enough to not blame me for ruining your new phone (which won't happen) or your Ubuntu installation

Let's kick this off.

Install the Dependencies

The official Android SDK guidelines specify that you need several 32bit dependencies before proceeding. Let's get those set up.

[B]sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 zlib1g:i386 -y[/B]

That's it, dependencies are installed.

Grab the SDK

Pop open your terminal and grab the SDK:

wget http://dl.google.com/android/android-sdk_r24.4.1-linux.tgz

Extract it:

[B]tar -xzf android-sdk_r24.4.1-linux.tgz[/B]

The SDK is downloaded and extracted.

Open and Configure the SDK Manager

Change directory to the tools directory

[B]cd android-sdk-linux/tools/[/B]

Execute the "android" executable you see in there:

[B]./android[/B]

Oh no! We immediately run into an issue connecting to Google's server.

[IMG="DLError"]http://i.imgur.com/kHL2hAZ.png[/IMG]

That's okay, we can easily remedy that. Move your mouse up to your task bar to show your menu, and go to Options.

[IMG="SDK-Options"]http://i.imgur.com/k1UO305.png[/IMG]

Uncheck "Use download cache", click on the "Clear cache" button, and then check the box for "Force https:// sources to be...".

[IMG="Configure-SDK"]http://i.imgur.com/ffauP7l.png[/IMG]

Hit close, and reload. Voila! We now have ALL THE THINGS ready for us to grab.

Download the Platform Tools!

Go ahead and check the box for the latest Android platform tools (23.0.1) and hit "Install 1 Package".

[IMG="Install-Pack1"]http://i.imgur.com/u7CWvJo.png[/IMG]

When prompted, fill in the bubble to accept the license, and hit "Install".

[IMG="Install-Tools"]http://i.imgur.com/MCqK1B2.png[/IMG]

You'll likely run into this error, which says it can't kill the adb server. This makes sense because there isn't yet an adb server running for it to kill. Ignore it.

[IMG="SDK-Package"]http://i.imgur.com/kNY5uOe.png[/IMG]

Congrats! You've now installed the platform tools. Lets close the SDK.

Put those binaries where they belong!

From here on, you can just execute the adb and fastboot binaries using ./adb and ./fastboot, but come on now, let's make adb and fastboot globally accessible binaries to use so you don't have to cd into the Android tools directory each time you want to use it.

Go back to your terminal, and cd into the newly-created platform-tools folder. Assuming your terminal is where we left it when we launched the Android SDK, this is what you'll run:

[B]cd ../platform-tools/[/B]

Use "ls -l" to list the contents, you should see an adb and fastboot binary.

[B]total 3360
drwxrwxr-x 5 user user 4096 Nov 25 16:42 ./
drwxrwxr-x 7 user user 4096 Nov 25 16:42 ../
[COLOR="Magenta"]-rwxrwxr-x 1 user user 1221540 Nov 25 16:42 adb*[/COLOR]
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 Nov 25 16:42 api/
-rwxrwxr-x 1 user user 58920 Nov 25 16:42 dmtracedump*
-rwxrwxr-x 1 user user 211200 Nov 25 16:42 etc1tool*
[COLOR="magenta"]-rwxrwxr-x 1 user user 556700 Nov 25 16:42 fastboot*[/COLOR]
-rwxrwxr-x 1 user user 11427 Nov 25 16:42 hprof-conv*
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 Nov 25 16:42 lib/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 220534 Nov 25 16:42 NOTICE.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 16508 Nov 25 16:42 source.properties
-rwxrwxr-x 1 user user 1109318 Nov 25 16:42 sqlite3*
drwxrwxr-x 3 user user 4096 Nov 25 16:42 systrace/
[/B]

Copy these binaries to your /usr/bin/ folder.

[B]sudo rsync -ah adb /usr/bin/
sudo rsync -ah fastboot /usr/bin[/B]

Now they're in your bin folder, let's give them the proper permissions. Change directory to /usr/bin/.

[B]cd /usr/bin/[/B]

Let's give them the proper permissions.

[B]sudo chmod 755 adb fastboot[/B]

All done! Close your terminal window and open it again. Type sudo fastboot and sudo adb and you should see the help pages for both.

Go ahead and unlock your Nexus 6P now, using the command sudo fastboot flashing unlock. Done!

Word of advice, I assume you know how to flash TWRP, but make sure you do it in this order to prevent any bricking:

Let the device boot once after unlocking.

Turn off phone, manually enter bootloader.

Flash the TWRP image (sudo fastboot flash recovery twrp-image-name-goes-here.img)

From bootloader, boot into recovery. Allow TWRP to write to /system.

Reboot, and when rebooting DO NOT ALLOW TWRP TO INSTALL SUPERSU.

Now, reboot back into recovery and head off to the races.

Conclusion + FAQs

I hope this guide was useful to you. Here's some FAQs to help out.

"Sick guide bro, but what theme are you using??"

GTK: Arc Darker Theme

Icon Theme: Numix Circle

Font: Myriad Pro, Myriad Pro Semibold for WIndow Titles