[Google Pixel XL ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other] rickysidhu_:
So, a little story on what happened with my Pixel XL last night...

Since day 1 of owning this device, I have never manually switched a slot. Whenever a new version of PN releases, I would use the Skipsoft toolkit to go back to stock and get updated to the latest factory images. Back when I first had this device, the flash-all file never seemed to work. I would always get a [FAILED] error, so this is why I use the toolkit. Anyway, after getting back to stock using the toolkit, I'd do the usual procedure of getting the latest version of PN on my device.

Last night, I was in TWRP, and just "for fun", I decided to switch slots to see what would happen. The boot animation went from black to white, so I instantly knew something was wrong. My device booted into the OS, and there was no PN, SuperSU, and no custom kernel. I also kept getting alerts of my apps crashing.

At this point, I realized manually switching slots was probably a bad idea, and I thought the easy fix would be to go back into TWRP, switch back to the slot I was on before, and then reboot. After doing this, it still led me down the same path of a PN-less OS. I decided to connect my device to my computer and use the set active command in fastboot, but still no luck.

I gave up and just decided to flash the factory images again, and get PN installed from scratch. As mentioned earlier, the flash-all file never seemed to work for me, but I thought "what the hell, let's just double click on it and see if will work this time". Fortunately, flash-all actually did end up working this time around! So, I got the factory images installed on my device, and this next part is where I feel I took an extra/unnecessary step...

I used the set active command to go into the other slot, and then double clicked the flash-all file for a second time. My thought process behind doing this, is so I would have a fresh install on both slots.

Once this completed, I fastboot booted TWRP, swiped to factory reset, and installed PN and the TWRP zip file, followed by the boot signer zip. I rebooted into the system and I was in a bootloop. I expected this to happen because I figured PN would install to the inactive slot, and the inactive slot has an unsigned boot.img. So I used the button combination to get into the bootloader, then tried choosing "Recovery" to get back into TWRP. This would still result in a bootloop.

I then decided to go back into the bootloader using the button combination, fastboot boot TWRP again, and flash the boot signer zip a second time. Now, the boot.img is signed on both slots. I rebooted into the system, and I was able to successfully get into the OS with no issues at all. I Let all my apps reinstall from the Play Store, restored my Nova backup, and I was good to go.

I share this story/situation of mine for a couple of reasons, the first being:

Hopefully this helps anyone who has been in a similar situation like mine, or for anyone who potentially ends up in it at some point in the future. Just maybe, this 'story' can also serve as a general guide/steps to get a fresh install of he factory images, and then get PN installed correctly.

The second reason I share this, is for a question I have for all of you!

Once I had factory images installed to both slots and flashed PN in TWRP, I was thinking about switching slots and flashing PN again (so I would have PN on both slots). I decided against this, as I was unsure if I had to factory reset again or not - because a second factory reset had me thinking I would have corrupted the PN install on the other slot. So I took the "if it ain't broke" mentality, and left things as-is. I also told myself to never manually switch slots again, haha.

Just curious if anyone does flash PN to both slots, and if the answer is yes, how do you go about doing it?

I'd love to hear back from you guys!

Lastly, my apologies for the length of this post :eek: