[Redmi Note 8 Pro ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Othe] eckre:
How to install Pixel Experience on the Xiaomi RedMi Note 8 Pro UnOfficial Noob Guide

UnOfficial Noob Guide - Last Updated July 28, 2020)

This is how I got it to work. There may be superfluous steps. All the outlines I found lacking because they were written by Android Genius Gods and they can't relate to us mere mortals. There are countless DEAD links, and flat out WRONG directions pointing people on endless goose chases looking for files that "should" be there and aren't. Anyways, I finally found them all and got it working. Use at your own risk yada yada. As of the writing of this text (2020.07.28), the fingerprint sensor is dodgy and I'm still trying to figure out how to make Google Pay work. I'm sure there are other issues, but I haven't found them.

Prep Work

I don't trust Xiaomi, their business model is selling user data to make up for cheap hardware. And I hate the User Interface. And I hate the bloatware. Let's eliminate all those problems by putting something nice and clean on it, like Pixel Experience. This is how you do that. So when you get your phone,

1. Get Mi Account here: https://account.xiaomi.com/pass/register?_locale=en

2. Turn on the phone, go through the preliminary wizard install stuff, unchecking everything you can, etc. Don't sign in to your Google Account. Go to "Settings" - "Mi Account" and log in to your account. Put your sim card in, you will need to have it TEXT verified. Once done with all these prep-work steps, take the sim card out and put it back in your old phone while you wait a week. (this phone requires you to wait 1 week (168 hours) before you can unlock it.)

3. To make sure you are doing this right, (and don't have to wait 2 weeks instead of 1) download & unzip the Mi Unlock tool from here: https://en.miui.com/unlock/download_en.html. (I used miflash_unlock-en-4.5.707.49.zip)

4. Try to run "miflash_unlock.exe" > Agree > sign in > and Unlock your phone, it should start giving you the countdown of 168 hours to go. This is stupid and unavoidable. I know. Just make sure it's all set and counting down. Yes, you can check this anytime and see the new number of hours remaining.

3. While you're in the settings, get into developer mode by tapping the Miui Version number many times until it says "You are now a developer."

4. Turn off all your security settings (pattern, passwords, face rec, etc) (important)

5. Go into Settings > Advanced Settings > Developer Mode. Turn on USB debugging and turn on OEM Unlock.

6. Find out what version of Android Miui you are operating on. To do this go to Settings, About phone. Take a Screenshot (volume down & power) you may need these numbers later. If you are operating on Android 9.xx, this is good. For me personally, I had MIUI Global 11.0.6.0 PGGMIXM & 9 PPR1.180610.011

(6a. If you are on Android 10.x you will need to downgrade to 9.0.

A. Download & install MiFlash tool from here: https://www.xiaomiflash.com/download .

B. Download compatible “FASTBOOT” firmware here: https://xiaomifirmware.com/roms/miui-roms-redmi-note-8-pro-begonia/ make sure you grab the fastboot version.

C. Download & install Universal ADB Drivers from here: https://adb.clockworkmod.com/

D. Unzip the file with 7-Zip.

E. Run the MiFlash tool, set your folder to your firmware folder. Choose “clean all” in the bottom right-hand corner.

F. Click FLASH.

Done. )

7. Put your sim card back in your old phone and enjoy the last week with your phone. Backup your stuff however you want to. If you've signed in to Google's services (drive, contracts, photos, etc), it should be all there. You can check here. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/backups Note the date. If you are doing it to your existing phone, just plan on losing all your data plan accordingly. For me all the data on the microSD card was untouched.

8. Now that the 168 hours are up, run again "miflash_unlock.exe" > Agree > sign in > and Unlock your phone, it should work now.

Download Work

(Obviously download the latest version if they have it - I put the exact file name for the files I used for reference)

9. Download and unzip into a handy folder the latest "Download SDK Platform-Tools for Windows" (I used platform-tools_r30.0.3-windows.zip at time of writing) from here (https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools)

10. Download & install Universal ADB Drivers from here: https://adb.clockworkmod.com/ (I used UniversalAdbDriverSetup.msi) Make sure the drivers work. (You can see your Phone in Device Manager)

In no particular order: (Put these 3 files somewhere handy, you will be moving them over to the phone eventually)

11. Download the latest Pixel Experience Plus from here https://download.pixelexperience.org/begonia (I used PixelExperience_Plus_begonia-10.0-20200714-2146-OFFICIAL.zip)

12. Download begonia-A10-CFW_20200530.zip from here https://sourceforge.net/projects/begonia-oss/files/CFW/begonia-A10-CFW_20200530.zip/download

13. Download Magisk-v20.4.zip from here: https://magisk.me/zip/

Put ALL the rest of these files below in your handy folder from step 1 (/platform-tools)

14. Download lk.img & preloader_begonia.bin from here: https://xdaforums.com/devdb/project/dl/?id=32337

15. Download TWRP for Xiaomi Redmi note 8 Pro from here: https://twrp.me/xiaomi/xiaomiredminote8pro.html (I used twrp-3.4.0-0-begonia.img)

16. Download twrp-CFW-3.3.1-0-begonia_UNOFFICIAL_0506.img from here: https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=82752783&postcount=141

Installing Work

17. On the PC, open up a command prompt (CMD). Navigate to your handy folder from Download Work Step 1 above. (/platform-tools). Plug in your phone. Make sure windows sees it.

Keep this Command Prompt open the ENTIRE TIME. (just to save you time and hassle) (YES - You can copy and paste these commands)

18. Type the following commands, one at a time hit enter after each.

adb devices - (making double sure you see the device, looks like a serial #)

adb reboot-bootloader - (this will reboot phone into FastBoot Mode)

adb devices - (again to make sure you see the device, looks like a serial #)

fastboot flash preloader preloader_begonia.bin

fastboot flash lk lk.img

fastboot flash lk2 lk.img

fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

Fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.4.0-0-begonia.img

19. Unplug the phone. Press and hold Power and Volume UP. When it reboots, you can let go of the power button when it vibrates or you see the RedMi text (but still keep holding the Volume Up button) until you see this menu:

[IMG="Recover Mode"]https://i.imgur.com/wyJtbIg.jpg[/IMG]

Note the little "<<==" RIGHT of the option.

20. Select [Recovery Mode] by following which button it says to push to navigate. Then hitting the Volume DOWN Button

This will boot you into TWRP (AKA "any non-CFW Android 9 recovery"). The intro flash screen looks like this:

[IMG="TWRP"]https://i.imgur.com/mwtloUr.jpg[/IMG]

21. Select WIPE > Advanced Wipe > Select: System & Cache & Dalvic Cache > Swipe to wipe.

22. Hit the Home button on your phone. Move over to the PC.

23. On the PC copy over "begonia-A10-CFW_20200530.zip" to someplace on the internal or SD memory.

24. On the PC copy over "PixelExperience_Plus_begonia-10.0-20200714-2146-OFFICIAL.zip" to someplace on the internal or SD memory.

25. Go into Install > begonia-A10-CFW_20200530.zip then go back and

26. Go into Install > Pixel Experience Rom (for me is was PixelExperience_Plus_begonia-10.0-20200714-2146-OFFICIAL.zip) Should take a few minutes.

27. Hit Home

28. Select WIPE > Format Data > type "yes" (tap checkmark)

29 . Reboot > Bootloader

30. This will reboot the phone back into Fastboot mode. Then on the PC type this:

fastboot flash recovery twrp-CFW-3.3.1-0-begonia_UNOFFICIAL_0506.img

31. Then this is the last command that'll reboot your phone, on the PC type:

fastboot reboot (enter)

And It "should" go eventually (it'll reboot a few times) into the Android setup wizard for Pixel Experience.

Setup Note: It crashed for me when trying to setup the fingerprint scanner, so skip that part of the wizard for sure.

32. Setup your phone how you likes it. But in order to get some other things to work (Like Google Pay), you need to install Magist, an app that will help hide the modified nature of your phone.

Now you need to install Magisk, it's a software that can help "hide" the Rooted Status of your phone so you can use things like Google Pay.

33. On the PC copy over "Magisk-v20.4.zip" to someplace on the internal or SD memory.

34. Unplug and Turn off your device.

35. Turn it on via holding Power + holding Volume UP. Keep Volume upheld until you get into TWRP again. This step was just like before.

36. Install > MagiskXXXX.zip

37. Reboot.

38. Once back in Android, you should see the new App Magisk.

Note: Google now thinks I have a Pixel 4XL

If I figure out how to make google pay work, I'll add it here.