yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] k_l_o:
[MENTION=5832952]5m4r7ph0n36uru[/MENTION]

This was a great write up. I had the same idea in mind yesterday, but you know this stuff and I don't. So you don't need to install the OS(you know what I mean) in slot-b? Only boot + system? Didn't know that.

Also was thinking what [MENTION=1312247]wiQbold[/MENTION] posted regarding switching slots for OTA. Of course that'll only work for the next OTA, will require RUU-ing afterwards. Good for one OTA with the switching.

P.S. - Just want to say THANK YOU for your time, patience and effort with everything you're doing!!!

P.P.S. - Allow just a small, very small token of my appreciation: 7S360226N84122301
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
Thanks a million mate. Really much appreciated! Time for a good and well done Gin I guess :)
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] qriozum:
I am asking you to question or deny that my reasoning is correct.

I had v1.15, I made flash Magisk, root. When it was released v1.21 I could not do OTA, so I threw a full RUU.

Without any slots, I uploaded Magiska, root and when it was made public - ViperU12 +

I have an active "slot-A".

And now clou:

If next week HTC will provide v1.25.401.3 (for DUGL) then I will be able to download OTA without a problem after changing the active "slot-A" to "slot-B"?

Now, when writing, I thought I was thinking about "slot-A" when I have ViperU12, Magisk - can I change the active slot on "slot-B" and use STOCK system?

I suspect that user applications will not be on "slot-B"?

regards

q.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
No you can't as after a RUU slot_b is empty imho. It is used for the first OTA after RUUing, as the update patches all files and copies them onto alot_b. So I'm afraid that, regarding your situation you got to RUU yet again to take the OTA.

That's exactly why I wrote to keep both slots at the same version of dual booting, and to setup the inactive slot_b right after RUUing, and modify that very slot. That way you can run modified on slot_b, and switch to the unmodified still freshly RUU'd slot_a as soon as the update arrives.

The will patch up all files, and copies them over to slot_b overwriting it completely. So the tinkered slot gets lost and replaced by the pristine, updated software version, making slot_b the now active slot. Thus you'd have to wait for the RUU to drop, decrypt it to obtain system and boot image, flash them to the now inactive slot_a, and start modifying slot_a, while you still kept all your apps that'd mean some work to be done after every update, like flashing Magisk and so on to your inactive slot.

That's why I wrote my warnings in the OP, that this one's actually really finicky and should only be done with proper knowledge. You always need to know which ones your pristine slot, as you never ever may boot TWRP if on that very slot to keep the ability to take further OTA. You should only boot TWRP if on the inactive slot, that you ser up as dual boot to tinker with it.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
Hi, I have followed all of your directions I believe, Have stock ROM on Slot A and fastboot flashed decrypted boot.img and system.img on slot B but cannot get the "fastboot -set-active=b" command to work. Any suggestions? All I get is the usual list of commands when a command doesn't work. Thanks for all you do Buddy.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
I noticed as shown in my screenshot that the set active slot commands for a and b are slightly different, with the a slot having a comma at the end. I was just wondering if these commands were accurate?

I can't get either command to be recognized, I've also tried the other similar command from your other thread.

Sorry for the trouble but I am stuck.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
As it turns out, I had an outdated fastboot.exe and that was the issue. But I think the commands in the o.p. are a little off and need corrected? Sorry for the posts.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
Anyway, the commands for changing slots that are shown in the O.P. are a little off. They should be

fastboot --set-active=b

fastboot --set-active=a

And if these commands do not work, it is most likely your fastboot.exe (platform-tools) is out of date, needs updated.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
It's correctlly shown when opened on the webview. XDA labs app is the problem here. It tends to not show several lines and mix up code and none code environments. Same applies for multiple quotes, which aren't shown correctly on the Labs App.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
It was showing the same on my Windows PC as my XDA app but it shows fixed now so no big deal. My main issue was the fastboot .exe but now I can't get "fastboot flash system_b system.img" to work. boot.img flashes fine but I get this error with system.img

Invalid sparse file format at header magic

Sending sparse 'system_b' 1/3 (1046655 KB) OKAY [ 44.078s]

Writing sparse 'system_b' 1/3

(bootloader) HOSD CL#1044991

(bootloader) start@1

(bootloader) system_b@100% FAILED () Finished. Total time: 223.063s

I guess it means the image is too big? I don't know but I been trying to figure this out for 3 days now.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
I tried everything I could find to fix my slot b and finally resorted to last resort, I ran Sunshine S-Off and reverted back to the 1.15 ROM so I could take the 1.21 OTA and that fixed it. I am currently booted on Slot b. Just in case anyone runs into this issue, S-Off and flashing an older ROM zip in download mode fixes it. Seamless update still worked even though it seemed I had no ROM on slot b.

---------- Post added at 01:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 PM ----------

So now I have stock 1.25 on slot a and just set slot b to active and booted up and have stock 1.21 on slot b. So I am thinking for this Dual-Boot to work to customize slot b, would I need to take the OTA on slot b? Kind of confused at this point. But I guess I will figure it out. At least I can boot both slots now.

---------- Post added at 01:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:33 PM ----------

Taking the OTA on slot b didn't work, slot b is still on the 1.21 OTA. This is a little too confusing so I may give up for a while until I learn something. I could try fastboot flashing boot.img and system.img to boot b now I guess. Does it matter in what I order I flash them? Since boot.img was working and system.img was failing, I could try flashing system.img first to see if it is successful and then flash boot.img. Just to be safe. We will see...

---------- Post added at 02:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:47 PM ----------

Fastboot flashing system.img failed again and now can't boot slot b so I am giving up for now. Gonna temp. S-Off and revert back to 1.15 to fix it again and just leave it be for a while. I either have a corrupt decrytped system.img or I have done something else wrong. At least it was a learning experience.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
Actually that's the way it works if you take all OTAs up to the latest. You'll be on 1.25. on Slot A and shouldn't tinker with that very slot, as that's the one to switch to, as soon as the next OTA arrives.

So you'd switch to Slot B for tinkering which is on 1.21. Best would be to have a 1.25. boot.img and system.img at hand. Both can be flashed using fastboot. BUT flashing the system image, fastboot tries to flash it as one large image, which will end in a command prompt output, that the process failed. If you now just leave it there and wait - lets say 30 seconds - fastboot will restart the flashing proceedure and flash the system.img in three parts, one after another.

So you'll be on 1.25 on both slots and not receiving the OTA availability message for 1.25 on Slot B any longer.

Now you can tinker with Slot B, flashing Magisk, a Magisk ROM and the like.

As soon as the next OTA drops, it'll notify you, and you'd have to switch back to Slot A, download the OTA and let it patch up Slot B. After the OTA it'll swith to Slot B and you'll be greated by an updated, full stock system, with software > 1.25. If you want to start tinkering again it is important to backup stock boot.img and system.img from the now active stock Slot B, switch to Slot A, and repeat the procedure written above in italic letters.

Hope that clears things up a bit.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
Thanks a lot buddy, much appreciated. I ended up with 1.21 on slot a cause I reverted back to 1.21, therefore when I took the OTA, it put 1.25 on slot b. So if 1.25 must be on slot a, I will have to revert back to 1.15 so that I will get two OTA's, ultimately leaving me with 1.25 on slot a and 1.21 on slot b. I noticed, trying to flash the RUU on slot b caused my slot b to be unbootable. It bootloops about 10 times before it gives up and returns to boot on slot a.

Thanks again for all your work buddy. I just post my experience to help just in case others run into my issues. Learning from mistakes and experience.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] qriozum:
Curiosity, at least for me.

I had a clean system (after RUU) prepared according to your tutorial. On the "B" partition, I applied ViperU12 +, but I had a problem with the weather clock widget (it did not refresh the time after the screen went out under NovaLauncher). Full wipe did not do anything.

I decided to upload a full RUU. I followed the tutorial - I uploaded RUU, I made a flash boot and system on the "B" partition. I checked the active partition (it was "A"), so I started the system to configure it and then change the active partition to "B".

What is my surprise when after the initial configuration, the wizard informs me that I have to enter my Google account information because the account (FRP) was assigned to this device.

I have never met such a message after the RUU. RUU always cleaned the device "to the very bottom".

Hmmm ... what do you think about it?

regards

q.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
HTC Sense clock and weather widget hasn't worked with Nova launcher in a long time. I been using Google clock and weather widget
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] qriozum:
Widzet worked quite well until when I was on v1.21.

RUU v1.25 is a problem after flash.

Now I checked another launcher, Apex PRO, Evie - here is also a problem with the time refreshment on the weather widget HTC :(

Evidently HTC changed something, while the clou of my entry concerned the FRP after RUU - why is this happening? Today I have twice uploaded RUU and each time the user was prompted to enter the Gmail address associated with the smartphone during setup. Until now, RUU completely cleaned the phone, even RUU v1.21 did not request a Google account.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
Devices with Google PlayServices are now bound to the first Google Account registered on it. If you sell the device a RUU - or simply removing the account in the device settings - isn't enough as it recognizes on start up, that it is still bound to a Google Account. You got - similar to Apple - to remove the device in Google Account settings, found here https://myaccount.google.com/, under Device activities and security events. That's why you are now getting this message even after RUUing.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] qriozum:
Yes yes, I know how "FRP" works;)

Only that until now, after uploading RUU, the device was exactly like a box.

Apparently the firmware v1.25 for HTC U12 + sealed this mechanism, because when I uploaded RUU v1.21 and v1.25 (the first time) it was not "FRP".

I can also be influenced by the fact that I use your mechanism in the form of:

- "A" partition - stock,

- "B" partition - ViperU

greetings

q.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
This has been the case for quite some time. I had this issue on my HTC 10, U11 and U12+. Time or weather does not refresh correctly when using the HTC clock widget on Nova launcher.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Max128:
I have exactly the same thing! I want flash system and boot on the B slot and the same error. I have taking the ruu 1.25.

How exactly you are been fix this ?
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
I didn't fix it but boot.img flashed successfully and I was still able to take the OTA even though it seemed system.img failed.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Max128:
Not working for me still error in OTA installation. Any ideas?
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
Have you checked to see if you have both slots bootable? I had my slot b screwed up, it wouldn't boot. The only way I was able to fix it was to go S-Off and revert back to 1.15 and take OTA's from there. Then fastboot flashing boot and system seemed to work when 1.30 came out.

I would try to boot into both slots, make sure they both boot.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Max128:
I am in slot B, i have trying again the slot A and is reboot to HTC black logo after a fews reboot , i have got the slot A working , the Ota have been working and i am in 1.30. After that the slot B is no more working.. And the ruu of 1.30 is not available , I have flashing again the magisk and is got in slot A. The next ota i Will restore the system and boot again and i will be fine for the next ota right?

I do not think for you, you have need the temp s-off for making the slot b to work.

Envoyé de mon HTC U12+ en utilisant Tapatalk
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
When I couldn't get slot b to boot I tried everything. Reverting back to an older version and running the OTA was the only thing that fixed it.

Sounds like you were in a bootloop? For me, when I couldn't boot into slot b, it would boot loop about ten times before giving up and booting back into slot a again.

If you got the OTA to work you should be fine then. Being able to accept an OTA means both slots are working.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Max128:
Yes the ota have working on slot a. 1.30 now. I leave it in slot a. I boot twrp temporary. Yes i have got the bootloop before that.

Envoyé de mon HTC U12+ en utilisant Tapatalk
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] LibertyMonger:
Whenever I got the bootloops, it meant the slot wasn't booting so then it ends up booting on the original working slot. You may want to type in bootloader...

fastboot getvar all

Just to make sure which slot you are on.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Max128:
Yes i already look that. Before with 1.25 with viper and magisk i has in slot b. Now with 1.30 ota and the same things i am in the slot a.

Envoyé de mon HTC U12+ en utilisant Tapatalk
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
Are you trysing to keep full stock 1.30. on your active slot, but 1.25 an the inactive slot used for running a Magisk ROM or such. If so that maybe the reason why it doesn't work, as both slots must be of the same version. The "Dual Boot" hack explained by me ONLY works properly if you flash a /system and /boot image of the same version as the current stock slot is running!
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Max128:
I have trying something like that.. the ruu 1.30 is not out , so you can not flash it the files. So now.. after the OTA yesterday i have everything in the slot A. Rom 1.30 OTA and magisk rom on A.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Kyuubi10:
Hey [MENTION=5832952]5m4r7ph0n36uru[/MENTION], I'd just like to confirm some stuff.

does setting the partitions up the opposite way around (A - Magisk/ B - Full stock) work as well? or does partition A have to always be full stock for this to work?

Regarding these two points:

1. After RUU and setting up both partitions to my liking, can I restore /data from a TWRP backup?

2. By the second point I am to understand that we shouldn't have an encrypted /data partition - that is the only scenario I know where PIN is asked on boot. If I'm wrong please correct me.

3. Why and how does PIN on boot break dual boot? - The main reason I ask if that if I restore a /data backup, won't this re-encrypt my data partition post restore?

4. Considering all the above, how can I unencrypt my device and keep my data? therefore without formatting /data partition.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
Hey there,

0) setting up the slots the opposite way works as well. I kept A, as that's the slot I had just RUU'd and thus active for the stock system.

1) Yes but I'd not recommend. Had some problems once after a backup and found Google Backup to be just fine and to my liking.

2) /data is always encrypted nowadays but can be additionally secured by boot up PIN.

3) cause /data is used by both partitions and the decryption for boot up PIN isn't available in second spot, thus it'll bootloop.

4) not needed as long as you don't have a PIN for boot up, but fresh setup is recommended anyways.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Kyuubi10:
Thank you very very much! You've been very helpful!
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] JazonX:
Would it be possible to run two OS versions separately on the Two slots by Any Chance ?

eg: - Slot A - European Rom (1.24 "401")

Slot B - Taiwanese Rom (1.24 "709")

Is there any possibility or should I not even attempt because theoratically it's not possible?
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
Haven't tested, won't test it myself, but feel free to check it out an report back how it worked.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Alan-B:
Hi,

This dual boot is not obvious! if there is an OTA update the partition will change and the partition that was not active will be partially overwritten.

There may also be problems if the 'vendor' partition is not the same for both installed versions?
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
That's why I told in my OP that, at least for the time being, we got to start from scratch most of the time. I'm not a developer myself, and don't have an idea how to implement - let's say a kind of the old MuliROM feature - as an A/B integration. Thus this thread may indeed only be for such of us experienced enough to deal with errors that may occur by the usage of this hacky multi boot possibility.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Kyuubi10:
Hello again [MENTION=5832952]5m4r7ph0n36uru[/MENTION]!

I finally took the plunge on this today, but run into an issue :(

Everytime I try to flash system.img to system_b it tells me that I don't have enough space...

It's like the img file is bigger than the partition.

Did you ever come across an issue like this?
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
Hi,

never had such a problem myself. Weird. Are you trying to flash the same SKU and software version as on your active slot!?
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Kyuubi10:
Taken from the same RUU.

On active slot I run the RUU straight from SDCard, then on the PC I decrypted it and am now trying to flash system and boot.

Boot was fine, System had issue. To be more precise this is the error:

fastboot flash system_b system.img
load_file: could not allocate -356515840 bytes
error: cannot load 'system.img'
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
Actually it's an error regarding fastboot that has been discussed on this thread already. The system cannot be flashed in one single step and as one single file. Thus you got to let the device and CMD sit on this very error for some time (let's say 25 seconds at max), before it'll start splitting the system.img up, and flash it in three steps. Don't like to say this one, but "a thread search would have brought up the solution quite quick!"

Edit: just added a second post with that very error, its explanations, as wll as the solution to get around it. Thanks for the heads-up.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Kyuubi10:
Thank you very much! Truly... My bad for not searching this thread... I tried google but nothing relevant showed up, I should have begun here...

Sorry.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] Kyuubi10:
Hi, just an update regarding this..... turns out that wasn't the reason why this failed either.

The error which needs a wait time is this:

Invalid sparse file format at header magic

The error I faced was simply because I was using an outdated version of Fastboot.

I downloaded the latest one from here:

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-releases-separate-adb-and-fastboot-binary-downloads/

Though now I have another error:

Invalid sparse file format at header magic
Sending sparse 'system_b' 1/3 (1041175 KB) OKAY [ 34.445s]
Writing sparse 'system_b' 1/3 (bootloader) HOSD CL#1050003
(bootloader) start@1
(bootloader) system_b@100%
FAILED ()
Finished. Total time: 131.327s
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] junaidb:
Hi

I am using the HTC U12+ . But I am always disturb about the demo always coming pop up..how should I remove demo app from my device.
[HTC U12+ Guides, News, & Discussion] MadBastard:
Settings > System > developer options
[Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Questions & Answers] omniphil:
Hi Guys,

Spend a bunch of time with AT&T trying to get this phone on the data network here in the USA. When the phone first boot I can get on the data network for about 15 seconds and then it seems to get blocked or something.

I'm just wondering if this is because its the fake global rom? 9.6.4.0.

It shows as connected and on 4G for AT&T but only calls and texts work, no data. AT&T said that the IMEI number was showing incorrectly and that they had to add it to their system, so it sounds like this is a carrier issue and not ROM issue but just wanted to be sure.

Also as far as the sim card slots, I wanted to use an sd card so that means I need to put the sim in the 2nd sim slot. In the phone it shows 2 IMEI numbers, one of which is 14 characters and the other is 15 characters. AT&T made it sound like a 14 character IMEI was invalid in the US. The odd part is that the IMEI numbers changes slots as I move the SIM card around. the 14 character IMEI number will move to where ever the SIM is installed. Not sure if this matters or not either.

If I reboot the phone I get data for like 15 seconds again and then is stops.

Any ideas on this one? Just wanted to make sure this isn't something up with the fake rom installed (phone was already unlocked when I got it)
[Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Questions & Answers] omniphil:
So just for good measure I went ahead and flashed the global 9.6.6.0 rom that was release today.

AT&T cannot seem to get this phone activated on their network at all... I get 4G showing in the notification bar, but I cannot get any voice or data.

I know some of you guys have this phone running on AT&T, are you using global roms? Could that have anything to do with me not getting signal? Is it worth trying to flash a chinese rom as well?

I sort of feel this is a carrier issue, but I am certainly not sure.
[Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Questions & Answers] opasha:
Did you try the volte enabler in dialer? *#*#86583#*#*

Also, are your apn settings correct?
[Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Questions & Answers] omer919:
The modem of the global rom is currently broken, nothing will help.

I suggest installing 9.6.11.0 China stable (no ARB) from fastboot and then downgrade to 9.6.6.0 Global using the antirollback method

your modem will work perfectly
[Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Questions & Answers] omniphil:
Ok, I will certainly give that a whirl. It certainly does feel like the modem is not working...

Do I have to downgrade to 9.6.6.0? No harm in staying on the 9.6.11.0 china rom? (Or does it not support English at all?)

I have been unsuccessful getting flashing to work over fastboot, so I must be missing something there. Can I just flash via TWRP? that's already installed and working?
[Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Questions & Answers] omniphil:
Yup, I did try both of those....
[Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Questions & Answers] 4z4:
I have been using China Stable 9.6.11.0. and it's 95% english. Works fine as a daily driver.
[Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Questions & Answers] omniphil:
Excellent, Ok, I will flash the 9.6.11.0 in TWRP and hopefully that makes the mode work again.

Thank you guys!