yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] z00man:
@LuK1337

Im tired up with quality of oos developing and im considering jump to los..

May i ask again maybe same questions, lazy to use searching..

Is it stable enough to as daily driver?

Does it pass safetynet with props magisk module?

Does "unofficial" release means more bugs?

really awesome that theres proper alternatives available, THANKS 🤗
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
I am stuck at command 2.

fastboot boot recovery.img

error: cannot load 'recovery.img': No such file or directory

Should I flash over the recovery.img from the LOS zip and try again?
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
hmmm, Is this booting from the recovery.img fiile on the phone or from inside the unpacked Los file on the computer?
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
Ugh! I think I am in a bootloop!

I ran the boot to recovery.img from with the unpacked los zip file and proceeded according to instructions.

All seem to go well, but pressing start only brings me back to fastboot.

☹
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
fastboot update lineage-18.1-20210112_053040-UNOFFICIAL-kebab.zip

extracting android-info.txt (0 MB)...

extracting boot.img (96 MB)...

target reported max download size of 268435456 bytes

archive does not contain 'boot.sig'

archive does not contain 'boot_other.img'

extracting dtbo.img (24 MB)...

archive does not contain 'dtbo.sig'

archive does not contain 'dt.img'

extracting recovery.img (96 MB)...

archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'

extracting system.img (963 MB)...

archive does not contain 'system.sig'

archive does not contain 'system_other.img'

extracting vbmeta.img (0 MB)...

archive does not contain 'vbmeta.sig'

extracting vendor.img (969 MB)...

archive does not contain 'vendor.sig'

archive does not contain 'vendor_other.img'

--------------------------------------------

Bootloader Version...: unknown

Baseband Version.....:

Serial Number........: 72cfba44

--------------------------------------------

sending 'boot_b' (98304 KB)...

OKAY [ 3.121s]

writing 'boot_b'...

OKAY [ 0.377s]

sending 'dtbo_b' (24576 KB)...

OKAY [ 0.741s]

writing 'dtbo_b'...

OKAY [ 0.097s]

sending 'recovery_b' (98304 KB)...

OKAY [ 3.190s]

writing 'recovery_b'...

OKAY [ 0.272s]

sending sparse 'system_b' 1/4 (259064 KB)...

OKAY [ 8.531s]

writing 'system_b' 1/4...

OKAY [ 0.561s]

sending sparse 'system_b' 2/4 (258272 KB)...

OKAY [ 8.587s]

writing 'system_b' 2/4...

OKAY [ 0.451s]

sending sparse 'system_b' 3/4 (258272 KB)...

OKAY [ 8.550s]

writing 'system_b' 3/4...

OKAY [ 0.412s]

sending sparse 'system_b' 4/4 (210844 KB)...

OKAY [ 6.970s]

writing 'system_b' 4/4...

OKAY [ 0.371s]

sending 'vbmeta_b' (8 KB)...

OKAY [ 0.001s]

writing 'vbmeta_b'...

OKAY [ 0.005s]

sending sparse 'vendor_b' 1/4 (262140 KB)...

OKAY [ 8.484s]

writing 'vendor_b' 1/4...

OKAY [ 0.536s]

sending sparse 'vendor_b' 2/4 (262140 KB)...

OKAY [ 8.593s]

writing 'vendor_b' 2/4...

OKAY [ 0.424s]

sending sparse 'vendor_b' 3/4 (262140 KB)...

OKAY [ 8.432s]

writing 'vendor_b' 3/4...

OKAY [ 0.430s]

sending sparse 'vendor_b' 4/4 (206256 KB)...

OKAY [ 6.451s]

writing 'vendor_b' 4/4...

OKAY [ 0.359s]

Setting current slot to 'b'...

OKAY [ 0.032s]

rebooting...

finished. total time: 76.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
'archive does not contain' -readout for everything!!!!

What now??
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
I booted with fastboot boot recovery.img

and then tried the old method:

fastboot flash boot boot.img

$ fastboot flash dtbo dtbo.img

$ fastboot flash system system.img

$ fastboot flash system_ext system_ext.img

$ fastboot flash product product.img

$ fastboot flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

$ fastboot flash vbmeta_system vbmeta_system.img

$ fastboot reboot

I am still in a bootloop!

Help!
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Dior DNA:
try to go back to previous slot perhaps
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
Hi! Could you explain that please.

What is a slot and how do I go back to it?

Thanks.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] OhioYJ:
What you are going through sounds a lot like what happened to me. My fastboot was outdated, and not flashing everything. See this post, and compare it to your flashed list.

I went back to stock just to be safe, updated fastboot / adb, reflashed and it worked first try. I've started a installing LOS Guide here.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] OhioYJ:
I'm using it as a daily driver, no issues here. Rooted using Magisk, passes safety net with the props module using the 8T fingerprint. So far I've been charging my phone generally every other day getting 10-12 hours of SOT (depending on what I do).
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Dior DNA:
slots are explained by AOSP Google seamless update doc

if you are on slot a, boot fastboot and do

fastboot --set-active=b

fastboot reboot

and vice versa if you are on slot b

but, I can say, I have been through very same cycles already and more

In fact I did:

- MSM recover

- update flash 11.0.6.9.KB05BA EU both slots

(using OxygenOS updater for 2nd slot)

(fwiw this gave widevine L1)

- use new method to flash LOS 18.1

flash success but boot fail (back to fastboot)

- use old method to flash LOS 18.1

(gives error for flash system)

I am ready for another MSM recover (since even other slot won't boot) :)

Anyway, not big deal, I have backups and can eventually restore OOS 11.0.6.9.KB05BA EU data

keep you informed

something might be wrong with my fastboot version ?

# fastboot --version
fastboot version 9.0.0_r3
Installed as /usr/bin/fastboot
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Dior DNA:
can you do a

fastboot --version

please?

Are you running Windows or Linux, if Linux (like me), which package manager (mine gentoo portage)?
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
Hey, yeah I am running Kubuntu 20.10. Repo version is 1.8.1.0 +r23-8.

I have downloaded the latest adb tools -but cannot figure out how to install them system wide! ugh!

I added export PATH=${PATH}:/home/anarcho/bin/android/platform-tools/adb export PATH=${PATH}:/home/anarcho/bin/android/platform-tools/fastboot to /home/myname/.bashrc but the command remains unrecognised! What am I doing wrong? Thanks​
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] jwarrior319:
Do export PATH=${PATH}:/home/anarcho/bin/android/platform-tools/

Its looking for a directory not file. So when you use the adb or fastboot commands it'll search the directories specified in your path and find the in the platform-tools folder
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] OhioYJ:
I'm running Linux. That version of Fastboot is your problem. My Install guide I linked to has instructions on how to update it.

wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-linux.zip

unzip \platform-tools-latest-linux.zip

sudo cp platform-tools/adb /usr/bin/adb

sudo cp platform-tools/fastboot /usr/bin/fastboot
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] z00man:
How about dual-sim, does it work?
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
Thank you!!! That was one piece of the puzzle! I then had a udev error and had to have an executable script for it - which did not work but after other commands eventually did!

I ran the installation which did not look good - but have now booted to lineageOS. What an epic journey! 😓

Now I shall attempt to root! 🤞
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Dior DNA:
OK, too bad recent linux distros do not catch up with latest google platform-tools ...

Also: the platform-tools versioning is a bit mysterious :)

ubuntu : 1:8.1.0+r23-8

gentoo: 9.0.0_r3

google: 30.0.5-6877874

Perhaps the google platform-tools URL could be mentioned in OP to help avoid bad flashing.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Dior DNA:
FWIW: for 8T EU :

I soft bricked mine twice (because I did not use latest platform tools),

so I went through following procedure twice:

- MSM restore EU to 11.0.5.6 active on _a (and I guess _b as well)

- incremental OTA to 11.0.6.9 active on _b

- local full ZIP update to 11.0.6.9 active on _a

- unlock bootloader

Then I end up security level L1 and system id 199909.

no magic no delay no interventions

However, an 8T IN user in widevine XDA thread claims this procedure did not help for his variant (though he did not flash 11.0.6.9 on both _a and _b)
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] LuK1337:
>MSM restore EU to 11.0.5.6 active on _a (and I guess _b as well)

Not like MSM restore even cares about your slot setting, it always flashes to _a as far as I can tell.

>local full ZIP update to 11.0.6.9 active on _a

I don't think that makes any difference...

>Then I end up security level L1 and system id 199909.

I don't. Sounds like it's some kind of device roulette, idk.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] :
Yep that's 100% right!
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Dior DNA:
Agreed, I just wondered, and guessed, MSM would perhaps flash on _b as well (or do you think MSM would leave _b empty or untouched?). I could have tested it.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
Hey Card13, so all your issues are cleared?

I am on Kubuntu 20.10 also and connection with both USBc and USBa are flaky! I cannot seem to file transfer anything larger than 12mb in MTP!

nb I am not using Gapps.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] theincognito:
I used to get L1 on LOS, but since you changed the rom with the new recovery and all, I have lost L1. And the ROMs that follow your device tree (evolution X, pixel experience, etc), they display the same phenomenon. Maybe it's the additional partitions in the rom zip that's causing these? (just wildly guessing)

PS: Going back to OOS 11.0.6.9 EU/11.0.6.8 IN or H2OS 11.0.6.8 -> all give L1 back on unlocked bootloader
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] LuK1337:
Send me a msg on irc / discord / hangouts like 1h from now.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] card13:
@anarchotaoist it's funny you should mention that. I thought it was just my system so I stopped digging, but yes the Ubuntu 20.10 Series has been unstable with regards to both MTP and Audio Output, it all started with the Kernel 5.8 (5.8 killed VirtualMachines, 5.9 continued having issues and 5.10 initially looked like it would have issues too). I plan to upgrade to 21.04 as soon as it hits Beta, hopefully it's much more stable.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
Thanks to all who helped me set this up - Luk1337, Dior, OhioYJ and others!

I now have LIneageOS + root + signature spoofing + microg!

Microg refuses to tick off two boxes:

background location permission

SMS recieve

but all appears to work,

Installing the newer adb & fastboot caused issues with mtp failing.

I installed android-sdk-platformtools-common and it works again - but I also lost connection for loading and syncing the phone music library in my music player Cantata! argh! : (

If anyone know anything about fixing that please message me!

ps. Is it possible to restore an sdcard pull backup from my previous device so that I do not need to set up Nextcloud, caldav, email etc without messing up the file system?

Thanks again all!
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Dior DNA:
Also perhaps a wild thought: why do custom ROMs need to alter vendor and/or product in the first place? Because, if vendor or/and product get an update (presumably with fixes), then the custom ROM also gets the fixes when flashing the altered images. I mean: something like Treble.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] anarchotaoist:
MTP seems to be working well on my desktop but on this laptop where I manually upgraded the adb & fastboot I started having issues. Installing android-sdk-platform-tools fixed the issue on my laptop. :D

I can no longer load the phone music library in linux music player Cantata though - which I could do before installing android-sdk-platform-tools!! ☹

Bring on 21.04!
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] theincognito:
Is safetynet passing for you?
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] theincognito:
From what I understand, this is done to unify these partitions for different variants, since OnePlus deploys vendor/product with slight differences for IN,EU,Global,CN, etc. Using a custom unified vendor/product, these issues can be avoided. If you go to the Telegram chat for OP8T, you will see many people reporting that one feature perfectly works for 1 person, not for another person, while on the same ROM. I guess that's why? But yeah, I get your point about Treble and all.

Btw, the issue I reported about L1, talked to LuK1337 and he fixed it. The fix has been incorporated in 23rd January 2021 build.

To anyone who is reading my comment about LuK1337 fixing L1

:

You will get L1 on LOS, if and only if you get L1 on OOS/H2OS with unlocked bootloader. If your widevine level reverts to L3 on OOS after bootloader unlocking, chances are you won't get L1 with custom ROMs too (as of now).

As to why this inconsistent behavior is happening, blame OnePlus.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] theincognito:
@LuK1337 Is it possible to fix the audio distortion at high volume? This happens only via the speaker. No such issue if we use headphones.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Cablespider:
There are some audio related fixes for oneplus in the recent changelog.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] :
Nope it never will flash on b. I think it's untouched.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] chinabean:
I just flashed the 20210124 rom and I can confirm that the distortion on the speaker is still present.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Dior DNA:
Doesn't that imply a risk for first next official incremental OTA OOS update a->b slot swap onto a potentially faulty slot (b being untouched by MSM) from the past? A risk, and potential disaster, that could simply have been avoided? After all, the original idea of seamless update actually wanted to avoid various kinds of unrecoverable update issues.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] :
I don't know exactly but it works. I know there were many issues with the 8 Pro when people already had OOS A11 and wanted to flash A10 Custom rom.

They used MSM Tool A10 but didn't install A10 OTA to Partition B. If you didn't do that you got crashdump mode when you booted TWRP for example. So you were forced to take MSM Tool again. TWRP didn't work with A11 and you always got Crashdump mode if you boot or flash it.

So there must still be A11 on Partition B. That's why I think it's untouched.

But if you took MSM Tool A10 and installed an A10 OTA after that, you could boot TWRP without issues.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] chinabean:
I'm seeing a strange behavior with the non-google version of this rom. I can't figure out what is triggering the behavior but every so often all of the contacts get completely wiped out. Contacts saved by Signal remain, but regular phone contacts are gone. This is happening on two phones with the same rom...

Any ideas?
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Cablespider:
Is Signal on both phones? GApps version? I've been running the non-google build for some time now without problems.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] chinabean:
Signal is on both phones, not running any GApps. I've got microG and signature spoofing enabled. Seems to happen on the one phone multiple times per day, and has only happened once on the other phone. I have a backup of the contacts, but it's frustrating to have to restore a backup multiple times a day...
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] _rax:
I got a new 8T (CN, KB2000) yesterday. It's working fine except for the WiFi. I `adb root`-ed and dumped the dmesg out.

Spoiler content hidden.

I've got a feeling that firmware probably doesn't match the device. I downloaded the latest OnePlus 8T (H2OS) ROM from its official website, and extracted it. There is both /firmware/wlan/qca_cld/qca6390/ and /firmware/wlan/qca_cld/qca6490/ in vendor.img. Is there any possibility the device uses qca6490 instead? https://github.com/LineageOS/android_device_oneplus_sm8250-common/tree/lineage-18.1/wifi only has the qca6390 firmware.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] LuK1337:
I have an idea why it's broken. Mind joining IRC channel? https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#titandev

EDIT: https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_kernel_oneplus_sm8250/+/302827
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] alanzaki073:
A strange behavior I observe. I installed the latest LOS based on the instructions mentioned in the OP. I checked my widevine status after I booted and it was showing L1 (19909). I was unable to see Netflix in the playstore prior to root and the device showed as not certified. I rooted by pulling the boot via payloader method and flashing it via magisk canary. After rooting used the props module and converted the FP to 8T EU and rebooted. Now I'm passinf safety net and the DRM info app still shows widevine as L1 (uninstalled it and reinstalled it a couple of times), but Netfllix shows L3 and so does Prime Video. Installed these 2 over and over again and that has made no difference. Any help would be appreciated.

I have widevine as L1 on 11.0.6.9 EU after unlocking the bootloader and that has continued in LOS, however, Netflix shows it as L3.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Dior DNA:
Try to

-force stop

-clear cache

-clear data

on Netflix app
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] LuK1337:
It you want to test something out in like 10 minutes, send me a msg on irc.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] alanzaki073:
done all this. I'm gonna try installing magisk via side loading instead of patch the boot image and check if that makes any difference.

Gonna do a fresh install of LOS first
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] theincognito:
Don't do it yet. I will give you what I use. I had the same issues that you faced.

Flash this via Magisk. After reboot, clear data and cache of Netflix and Prime Video.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] LuK1337:
Or one could just do what I asked about so that I could fix it properly rather than forcing people to flash some magisk trash...
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] theincognito:
Lol. Its a temp fix. Basically sets the entire device props to Pixel 5. That's all :P You are way too harsh, man. And I only shared this because he said he was gonna clean flash because of this reason alone. :D
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Mimax2upgrade:
Is it possible to see this ROM in official's list some day? :)

I'm really enjoyed with LOS by LuK1337 on my 6T, but planning to move to 8T :)
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] alanzaki073:
@LuK1337 hahaha, man you're grumpy. I'm not on irc and do not have the time to get on it now. @theincognito the temp fix worked, thanks.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] LuK1337:
I guess my builds won't work out of box anytime soon in that case. In any case if there's someone who feels like being useful and has L1 on their device, feel free to message me ^^
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Unbandit:
Ended up doing the same thing here; the version on Fedora must be outdated. I've now pulled the latest platform-tools. I'm now in the same bootloop. Originally, trying to flash gave me a "wipe super partition" error, so I ran `fastboot wipe-super ./super_empty.img` and now trying to fastboot update gives me:

$ sudo ./fastboot update ../lineage-18.1-20201213_013139-UNOFFICIAL-kebab.zip
--------------------------------------------
Bootloader Version...: unknown
Baseband Version.....:
Serial Number........: dd496bc0
--------------------------------------------
extracting android-info.txt (0 MB) to RAM...
Setting current slot to 'a' OKAY [ 0.005s]
extracting boot.img (96 MB) to disk... took 0.347s
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
Sending 'boot_a' (98304 KB) OKAY [ 3.539s]
Writing 'boot_a' OKAY [ 0.369s]
extracting dtbo.img (24 MB) to disk... took 0.107s
archive does not contain 'dtbo.sig'
Sending 'dtbo_a' (24576 KB) OKAY [ 0.861s]
Writing 'dtbo_a' OKAY [ 0.144s]
archive does not contain 'dt.img'
extracting recovery.img (96 MB) to disk... took 0.360s
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
Sending 'recovery_a' (98304 KB) OKAY [ 3.673s]
Writing 'recovery_a' OKAY [ 0.268s]
extracting vbmeta.img (0 MB) to disk... took 0.000s
archive does not contain 'vbmeta.sig'
Sending 'vbmeta_a' (8 KB) OKAY [ 0.001s]
Writing 'vbmeta_a' OKAY [ 0.002s]
extracting vbmeta_system.img (0 MB) to disk... took 0.000s
archive does not contain 'vbmeta_system.sig'
Sending 'vbmeta_system_a' (4 KB) OKAY [ 0.000s]
Writing 'vbmeta_system_a' OKAY [ 0.002s]
archive does not contain 'vendor_boot.img'
extracting super_empty.img (0 MB) to disk... took 0.000s
Sending 'super' (4 KB) OKAY [ 0.001s]
Updating super partition FAILED (remote: 'Unable to write new partition table')

Is there any way to fix this without MSM? I don't have a Windows computer
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] OhioYJ:
I ended up going back to factory with the MSM Tool every time I messed mine up (keep a Windows drive for Gaming still).
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] yyws2012:
Tested the latest gms build. WiFi works normally on my KB2000 device, which is produced in mid-December.

However, I cannot bypass safetynet ctsProfile with magisk hide.

By the way, is it possible to add DC dimming support?
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] jwarrior319:
Does it require also being on lineage? If not i have L1 on oos with magisk installed.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] theincognito:
Use magisk hide props module (and busybox) and set the FP as redfin (Pixel 5).
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] theincognito:
No. That won't work. You need to be on LOS.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] LuK1337:
Newest build is already patched.
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Unbandit:
I ended up finding a (60GB lol) SSD with Windows sitting in my computer that I hadn't touched for at least 4 years (WINE is just that good ;)). Last thing I used it for, funnily enough, was to unlock my old Xiaomi phone. Had all sorts of problems running MSM but eventually got it working! Then I realised that lineage-18.1-20201213_013139-UNOFFICIAL-kebab.zip just doesn't work on my phone at all and may have been the problem the whole time.

Latest (lineage-18.1-20210128_142230-UNOFFICIAL-kebab.zip) is working really well so far. Thanks LuK1337 for this!

I also managed to install Magisk and it seems to be working, but it's also telling me that it needs additional setup and will download a zip. Is this safe, or should I leave well enough alone?
[OnePlus 8T ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Qnorsten:
I think it is common for magisk to ask for additional download. Even though the developer just moved over to a single apk that bundle magisk in the latest canary version, so eventually it won't be needed.

Just make sure you downloaded the magisk manager from the official github https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk and not from any of the fake sites that show up in google (just to be safe)