yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] simplepinoi177:
sounds like a good plan...but just in case you haven't, for that $10 a day to use your usual minutes/text/data, you have to make sure you actually activate it either through the My Verizon portal (accessed in your browser) or by speaking with a customer service rep. It's been a couple years since I was still "grandfathered", so I may be a bit outdated, but when I did this same thing, it had updated my "contract"....which didn't really concern me, but as I remember, I had to be very careful anytime updating the "contract" because that's how one accidentally "updates" and loses whatever you have "grandfathered"...

Just a word of warning just in case....wouldn't want you coming back from your Europe trip and seeing your phone bill skyrocket or anything...

good luck and hope this is helpful...
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] youssefkr:
Thanks for the reply, if I try to unroot via magisk and restore the stock image, will I be able to get the OTA on the phone ? and then reroot ?

this may be a silly question, but I couldn't find the answer anywhere.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] jd1639:
Any reason why you want the ota. It's easier to update by downloading the latest factory image and extracting the zip file. In there is a flash all batch file. Just edit that to remove the -w you'll see in there, make sure you save the edited file. Then just double click with your device in bootloader mode and connect to your PC. That'll do the same as the ota, without wiping your device. Then reroot with the same procedure as you did originally.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Pkt_Lnt:
No, once you unlock bootloader and root, you have changed the Google signature and OTA will not apply automatically. Also if you completely flash the complete firmware and try to re-lock bootloader, you have a greater than 95% chance to completely brick your device with no way to recover except a replacement phone. DO NOT RE-LOCK THE BOOTLOADER!!

Please follow the instructions to update in the OP #1 post or the many other follow up posts by many here, Flashing the full firmware release each month using flash-all.bat with the -w removed to NOT wipe date is the preferred method. Then re-root as described in the OP.

Please remember - DO NOT RE-LOCK THE BOOTLOADER!!
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Badger50:
Yeah!.....DON'T LOCK THE BOOTLOADER! :eek:
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Az Biker:
You guys are no fun!

Every member has the right to have an expensive paperweight on their desk :p
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] johnlgalt:
Having the right and being able to afford are two entirely different animals, though.

Though, there is the old adage "A fool and his money are soon parted." I suppose that would be wholly applicable in cases like these, no?
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Az Biker:
A little over 15 years ago, my wife and I had our first cell phones. $29 for both phones and something like 300 minutes and 300 T9 texts..

If you'd have told me then that one day I'll pay $260/mo for unlimited everything on 3 phones (one of which was $900 outright), I'd have said you're high, it'll never happen...

And here I am :p
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Will008:
Why does the device bricks if we try to relock the bootloader? What if I need to send it back for a replacement?

I tried searching but couldn't find much. Actually some got it locked fine.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Pkt_Lnt:
I'm not sure why.

Since Google provides instructions to unlock the bootloader on the same page where you can download OTA images and full system images, they do not consider unlocking the bootloader a warranty violation.

https://developers.google.com/android/images

I have returned both Nexus and Pixel devices with unlocked bootloaders with no issue, always got a replacement.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] simplepinoi177:
This is true...but if you scan through the Q&A section of the Pixel 2 & Pixel 2 XL forums, you will see many,

MANY

users where it did

NOT

get "locked fine"! I would even "guess-timate" that it probably far outweighs the ones that did lock it "fine"... And, considering the fact that "paperweight < not-having the ability to install an OTA via the stock Android System Updater" ("<" by FAR & very much); especially considering that you can easily do it manually via ADB, or better yet, directly flashing/reinstalling from a Full Factory image and just re-setting/re-establishing the /system & /radio & /vendor partitions (amongst others...)...

It's good to know that Google's never shown issue with receiving unlocked bootloaders for replacements (I've actually heard differently from one Google Customer Service rep, but that seemed isolated and individual), but there are instances where I can see it desired; selling one's device being a primary reason. I would prefer to "absolutely" reset my device before selling and shipping it out, but I've seen so many on here that have had the same idea and came out with a big FAT "goose egg" instead! Especially considering that you are extremely limited in retrieving the device once it is in a "locked" state, but can't access/load the OS and/or the device becomes "corrupted"... Actually, reflecting on it more, as I am very afraid of attempting it, if I were to be in that situation, I think I would just come clean and advertise/disclose it and just sell it stating it is a device with an unlocked bootloader -- and, after further thinking about it, it will probably help convince & sell it as it is proof that it's of the non-VZW variant. I believe that would definitely be the better way going about it than risking a permanent brick attempting to re-lock it and getting absolutely nothing for it....
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Pkt_Lnt:
Dude, your signature is out of control. :eek:
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] simplepinoi177:
Yeah...my apologies...

I'm actually currently asking mods how best to proceed in talking to them about it...which is why I've left it that way; kinda to get their attention about it. Also, I figured I've seen some that are bigger & just as big.....

...just thought I'd offer an explanation, for what it's worth...
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] johnlgalt:
There is that. Although I alleviate my VZW grandfathered unlimited data plan price hikes by moving to Fi nearly 2 years ago. And I'm financing my Taimen on that plan monthly - but $949 was a stiff amount for a phone, even if I consider that I bought the OG DROID outright as well - at around $200, IIRC.

But this is no different than listening to my 80 year old father talk about the times when gas was $0.15 USD / gallon. Prices do increase over time. Hell, even I can remember filling my own gas tanks for $0.69 / gallon....Or buying my Motorola MicroTak Elite for, ummm, I think it was a whole $195? I cannot remember - but that might have been a subsidized price....

Q: Is the warning to not relock your bootloader a global statement, or one that applies only to people who have formerly rooted with Magisk?

Reason I ask is that, back in Oct / Nov, sometime, my phone took an OTA that went screwy for stock (was not rooted at that time). Only way to fix was to unlock the BL and flash the system image - after which I locked the BL again but never changed the DevOps OEM unlocking setting (so I could unlock later if I wanted to). The reason I did this was because (so I thought) I needed to in order to have the better encryption protection on the phone.

If this is for rooted only, I can understand.

If this is global, then it's odd - because not only does Google provide the instructions to unlock in order to flash the system image, it also recommends relocking *and* provides those instructions as well, doesn't it?

Also, when I first bought the Taimen, there were 2 unlocks - the regular and the critical (technically, there still are 2). I honestly do not remember if I did both or not (and my CMD processor history is not that long lol), but I'm almost absolutely sure that when I undertook my rooting adventure last month on this phone, I did not unlock critical because I read it was optional...which makes me curious - have the reports been able to distinguish between folks who *did* and did *NOT* unlock critical? Or was there no difference at all?
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Badger50:
As far as locking the bootloader, I think it's more of a warning for those that like mods and custom roms. There have been numerous stories on the forums about folks winding up with paper weights because they did not do their research and tried locking while rooted, not on stock recovery, and turning off USB debugging and OEM unlocking before they tried locking it down. As a result, most of us ol timers just tell everyone not to do it unless your selling it, and know exactly what your doing :good:
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] jd1639:
I'll second this. If you're 100% stock and something goes wrong you can usually sideload an ota in the stock recovery. But if you're not stock and that goes wrong and you can no longer boot to system to enable oem unlock you're pretty much sol. If for some reason I needed to lock the device and disable oem unlock I'd flash the full factory image, with a wipe, to both slots. In theory that's probably not necessary but I'd set the active slot to a, flash the factory image, then set the active slot to b and do it again. Belts and suspenders? Maybe.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] johnlgalt:
That makes a lot more sense. I'm the one that actively (soft) bricked my BIONIC in order to prove a point to another user here so many years ago, and then was able to, later, unbrick when devs figured out the difference in those stupid security boot files, whatever they were, and how once newer versions were installed, that same version or newer could be flashed, not older ones. I'd have to go back and look to see which file, exactly, it was, and what that stupid security level was actually named, but you get the idea.

I wish more people would read, read, and read again - it's the biggest reason people have issues in the first place.

Yeah, I;m paranoid enough to actually do something like that myself, actively flash system image, change active partition, and actively flash system image again. In fact, I'm pretty sure I already wrote a batch file to do that that calls the flash_all.bat for flashing after verifying that the device is connected, and then flips active partition, and calls flash_all again. It's extremely basic - I need to see if there is a way to add errorlevel checking so that it won't try to proceed if the device is not recognized, but I stopped when SamuriHL started releasing his new House of Google utility, which makes it a lot easier to deal with it all.

He's got it posted at another forum, but it's pretty good in terms of pretty much doing everything for you for a single flash of OTA or system image.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Pkt_Lnt:
Have you seen Duece's script? :good:

https://xdaforums.com/pixel-2-xl/development/tool-deuces-bootloop-recovery-flashing-t3704761
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] johnlgalt:
Nope - gonna explore it now.

In the meantime, though, HoG is a Windows based executable that DLs the full system image of your choice, supports all Google Pixels and Nexus line, and he is adding Essential as well. Also DLs the relevant platform tools, allows you to wipe or not, and more.

I'm going to play with Deuce's scripts side by side with HoG and, while I am an old CL junky and know I'll love these scripts, and I always keep the latest system image / OTA / Binaries / ßeta system image already downloaded, as well as platform-tools, USB drivers and (just in case) SDK tools, which means I already have everything I need to use the scripts, I still want to help Sam make his utility better.

I was already composing a PM to him at the other forum to see if he would add the ability to flip active slot for dual slot flashing....
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Will008:
Not that I'll ever consider relocking the bootloader, but just seemed odd and wanted to know why that is. Always unlocked the bootloader on day 1 to make sure I get that out of the way. I actually saw many posts about people receiving replacement devices with blocked bootloader unlock option which is bizarre. It's kind of the reason why I never requested a replacement with my slightly buzzy speaker, but I guess that's a known wide spread issue.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Pkt_Lnt:
Interesting, but of no use to a hardcore Linux user for 25 years. :D :cyclops:

Duece's has a shell script for Linux (or MAC), as does Google flash-all and of course, the full ADB program. :good:

---------- Post added at 09:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 AM ----------

I think it is exactly what [MENTION=3730810]Badger50[/MENTION] states above. If one is totally stock and has never rooted or flashed a custom ROM, then relock is *relatively* safe. If one tries to relock while rooted, buh bye, hello brick. :rolleyes:

Makes certain that the OEM unlocking and Debugging are on in Developer Options lets one recover with an OTA or system image. Otherwise....
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] johnlgalt:
Earlier on, an unlocked bootloader tripped Android Pay, so there are reasons for having a locked bootloader.

But I agree that (at least) not setting that OEM unlocking feature to enabled in DevOps leaves you with little recourse if something goes screw and you cannot boot.

Others may have other reasons. I'm a crackflasher, so I knew that at some point I'm would test some software, or do something to the phone, that would render it unable to boot. So, I had that setting enabled so I can unlock if necessary.

However, when I rooted last month with Magisk, there was (obviously) no turning back for me the BL was unlocked permanently.

Yeah, I use both - was glad to see the shell script there as well. WinX has been very nice to me lately, in terms of 0 issues with adb connectivity to my Taimen - was not always so, and I'd switch over to the laptop to do what I need to do, previously one that was running Gentoo and now I have a second that runs a Gentoo derivative called Sabayon.

If I weren't in the business of computer repair (or I had a machine newer than from 2009) I could probably switch over to Linux on my desktop and run 'winders' in a VM - but my current desktop simply cannot afford to do so, because I do like my games, too.

Anyhoo, thanks for the ideas and the link to Deuce's scripts - always good to ahve a backup, and when I am not actively testing the House of G utility for Sam, I can use these scripts to (quickly) get what I need done.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] njudson:
where can I find a thread or download for HoG?
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] EMcTx:
Is there an easy way to tell which version is being used? Also, where is version 27? I only see version 26.02 on the SDK platform website.

Thanks.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] ironLink21:
I've seen this with mine lately too. Make sure you can see your device with "fastboot devices" and then run the "fastboot flashing unlock"

I've also see where you have to run "fastboot devices" before each command even if you haven't unplugged your phone

I've also see where I have to run the command multiple times in a row for the phone to actually run the unlock which is REALLY weird since I'm able to run all these commands without issue on my 6p

I'm going to try running these things on windows to see if I can get them to work that way (I'm currently running via linux)

---------- Post added at 05:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:47 PM ----------

If you have your platform-tools added to your PATH then you can just do "fastboot --version" and that will tell you the version that it's using

for example mine says

$ fastboot --version

fastboot version 27.0.0-4455170

Installed as /path/to/platform-tools/fastboot

if you don't have it added to your PATH then go to the directory where your platform-tools is at and run "./fastboot --version"

Granted I'm running all this from a unix system but it should be very similar for windows
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Badger50:
I just open up SDK manager and can see what version of platform tools I'm on. Then I get prompted to upgrade all my SDK files. I also use the full version of SDK, and haven't had any problems with it the past 4 years.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] nidhish91:
I was able to unlock the phone. Was using the wrong platform tools. All good now. Thanks for your help .
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] collegencmc:
Just curious has anyone gotten this to work on 8.1? I just tried it and it flashed successfully:

fastboot flash boot patched_boot.img

target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes

sending 'boot_a' (25668 KB)...

OKAY [ 0.891s]

writing 'boot_a'...

OKAY [ 0.338s]

finished. total time: 1.230s

but doesn't seem to pick it up, and thus showing not rooted. I also tried flashing b boot, and that caused a bootloop. So wouldn't recommend doing that.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] nidhish91:
Getting this error when I hit the Patch boot file option in Magisk Manager - target magisk doesn't support boot image patching
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] andrewjt19:
So I'm trying to unlock my Pixel XL 2 and cannot get the computer to "see" the adb devices. I have Windows 10 and Linux Mint 18.3 and both are showing any devices. The Windows computer starts the daemon successfully but will not show the device. Linux is throwing an error entirely. I have made sure that Developer Options is checked on and so is ADb debugging. No luck. Any ideas?
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] chikimonke:
Check the notification shade and make sure the connection mode is set to file transfer and not charging.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] rockingondrums:
I am also using Linux Mint 18.3. There is a new version of adb platform tools specifically for Pixel 2 that was released in Oct (2 months ago). I just downloaded the zip from Google, unzipped it to my old folder and chose to overwrite everything, and all was well. You shoudn't have to change the USB setting, ADB should ignore that. But you can try doing that and if it helps, it helps.:good:
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] simplepinoi177:
See if this works & makes sense...

I've gotten Magisk 14.5 to work with 8.1. I would install the 8.1 stock image to begin with, then flashing and rooting...

I would suggest to you two to either/or make sure Magisk is in "Beta" Update Channel and/or do what I did and follow uofirob's directions/order of events (HERE)

That was the sequence of events I did and everything is running perfectly (root, 8.1 developer's preview). It's much simpler and more straightforward. Key things to remember: EVERYTHING

MUST

be the very latest beta versions of the software as (I imagine) rooting the pixel 2 is still rather new and the developers of said software haven't implemented it to their major release yet (or waiting to see if any bugs...). Also, in my case, Magisk Manager shows the "Install" button still "active", but I never needed to go through that since I achieved root from installing the zip from TWRP.

Good luck to you guys and hope this helps...
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] andrewjt19:
Thank you fellas. As far as the notification, there is none. Possibly a bad cable. I've toggled that setting though in Developer Settings to no avail. As far as the Google platform-tools for mint, do you have a link or did you say it was on Google's website?

Edit: is this the link? https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html

The first option because I downloaded that zip for Windows and Mint. After unzipping it, how do you install it?
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] andrewjt19:
Well I've double checked the ADB tools download and even installed them via SDK. Nothing is working on either computer. I have two other computers I'll try it on, but it's not even showing up as a connected device under ADB devices. Toggling it in Developer options is not doing anything either. I'm at an impasse for unlocking.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] OvrTehBottm:
I updated them for my Pixel 2 (non-XL) which arrived a little over a week ago. Apparently, I was on 26.02 as per the SDK Manager. I never thought to update the platform tools given the short period of time between phone arrivals.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] collegencmc:
Nice that worked, I need to use:

fastboot boot twrp-3.1.1-beta2-taimen.img

as twrp-3.2.0-0-taimen.img would just hang on me. I used the zip file from

(HERE)

ie (DOWNLOAD)
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] simplepinoi177:
Ya, collegencmc, that happens to me! I didn't mention it because I thought I was just doing something wrong...3.1.1beta2 was the only one I could get working as well...

But I'm real glad that I was able to help at least one person -- I'm seeing, it seems, a lot of issues where Magisk patches the boot and then trying to reflash the patched image whereas this method doesn't need that step.......
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] godzulu:
Thanks for the directions. I believe I've followed to a tee, but on reboot it's just hanging on the white screen with the "G". It's been about 10 minutes. Any ideas? Thanks

Nexus 6P PN 7.1.1
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] nathanchance:
Are you updating from 8.0 to 8.1? It took about 15 mins for me to boot up.
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] godzulu:
I was on 8.1. I'll let it keep running then

Pixel 2 XL
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] simplepinoi177:
I'm wondering...after doing "flash-all" flashing 8.1 image, why do you flash kernel? It's a step I never needed to do...so I'm just wondering...

godzulu...i just realized...are you running these on a Nexus 6P? Have you verified that doing what to do to Pixel 2 XL is the same? Also (apologies if it's rather obvious), you have made sure to not load "taimen" image but the appropriate Nexus 6P one right?

In any case, I don't mean to undermine Az Biker or anything, but I suggest you try the directions/steps again, but without flashing kernel -- as I did exactly as he directed outside of flashing the kernel and it's all worked for me...

Good luck and hope this helps some...

P.S. Mine did not take 15 minutes to load 8.1...even at "from scratch" loading...
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] Nergal di Cuthah:
Not sure if this belongs in the thread, but i'll bite; what is HoG? And, what does it have to do with unlocking, flashing or rooting?
[Google Pixel 2 XL Guides, News, & Discussion] johnlgalt:
Until I get the OK to post links to another forum here, just PM me to get the link.