yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi,

Sorry for my late replay.

Sorry for the 2.3.7 version. When i tried to force updates nothing came out so I thought it was the last one. I will remove comments on version.

For the Recovery, everything went fin with latest version. However, with 3.4+ TWRP, every time you wipe a partition you must reboot recovery before flashing.

I'll put a comment for those who have problems flashing.

And now I must add the Magisk tuto.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] haktug:
Flashing Rom and Gapps over adb gives an insufficient space error. I first install Rom and then install Gapps.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi @haktug,

did you repartition correctly ? The partition should be ultra wide after repart
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] bkokkinos:
after writing the partition layout and formating /data and /cash the only i get whatever i try to do is "Unable to mount storage". SDCard partition is marked as no present and on "Select Storage" button the only i get is "SDCard (0MB)". and that lets me do NOTHING at all. i tryied everithing i cant get over it, dispite my every step in this guide were presice... please somebody help...
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] haktug:
yes ı did
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] haktug:
which version of twrp are you using?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] bkokkinos:
the one you provide ... 3.5.0.9.0 i think it is

i made the procedure multiple times and i formated many times both /data and /cashe and i return to my previous layout installed a random rom and tryied this repartition again with the same results....

unable to mount storage

SDCard (0MB)

on advanced wipe >SDCard >change file system > Present:No
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
@bkokkinos Can you send the log form the command

fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] haktug:
you should use twrp 3.2.3 on this link.

Downloads for : Sony Xperia S | AndroidFileHost.com | Download GApps, Roms, Kernels, Themes, Firmware and more. Free file hosting for all Android developers.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] bkokkinos:
WWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What did you do......????????!!!!

i just flashed twpr 3.2.3 and everything worked perfectly....!!!! How could just different version make such differance???? OOOUUUFFFFFF i can't believe it... my two days headache is gone... THANK YOU Very Much!!!
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, I updated tutorial thanks to both of you.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] TXUTXI72:
Thanks t

Thanks to you!
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] l3mu3l:
Hello,

Good day! I was stuck at step 13) INSTALL ROM AND GOOGLE APPS

It says,

"Updater process ended with ERROR: 7 error installing zip file 'sideload/nAOSProm-81.0-b11-nozomi.zip'

Failed to mount '/system' ".

I used TWRP 3.2.3-0.

Thank you...
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] TXUTXI72:
I don't know if I can really help you, but I would recommend you to use the links provided by the author of the rom himself. For instance, the author of this rom says clearly to use the following link in order to get the proper TWRP version: https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=1322778262904003720

Another important thing is in my opinion that the permanent twrp must be flashed into the fota partition, not in the boot partition. In my case, everytime I flashed it into the boot partition, the device always rebooted into system and not into twrp.

And very important as well is to check if the repartition has been made correctly. Check out that the sd has about 28 gigabytes free after doing the repartition.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] TXUTXI72:
By the way, I have just read someone who was getting error 7 while trying to install the rom, and he warns: MAKE SURE YOU DON'T CHANGE SYSTEM PARTITION INTO F2FS. Only Data and cache partitions must be changed into f2fs. Just in case it may help you...
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] haktug:
ı agree. if it doesn't work, you're doing it wrong somewhere. You should do it again
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] hedgehog24:
Yes, i have received "Unable to mount storage" message. How can i use TWRP 3.2.3 ? i couldn't flash it.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] hedgehog24:
SD card (0 mb) and In Windows Explorer Xperia S device folder is empty! İ couldn't have moved TWRP 3.2.3 img into the folder. What should i do?

Thanks in advance
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] hedgehog24:
Ok, i have done with " adb push twrp-3.2.3-nozomi.img /sdcard/ " command line.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] haktug:
After defragmenting the SD card and system memory, format it in the "system, cache and data" f2fs file format. You won't get a 0MB error again.

You can also simply install Twrp via Flashtool.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] TopkillLTU:
Hello, so I tried to revive my SONY Xperia S for a new life, but like almost everyone I ran into the unable to mount storage problem but the TWRP 3.2.3 link seems to be looking for mirror forever and so I am unable to flash the recovery.

EDIT: The androidfilehost had a bit of a blackout now everything is fine
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
After 1 month of fight against TWRP bootloops, here we are:

- Don't use Magisk and I added how to recover from it

- See all Wifi networks easily

I'mfinally done with this phone.

Enjoy
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] haktug:
aren't you going to use xperia s?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, once everything is fine, I buy and hack a new phone :D

But if needed, I buy another stock one.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] mongolino0:
Hi.

After a while i managed to do unlock fastboot and have twrp on the phone.

At first my data partition was unreadable by TWRP so i formatted it in exFat then again in Fat. I dont know if this was a problem

Then at point 10 when i mounted data partition it wasnt on my pc file manager. The sd partition, if mounted, showed instead the twrp folder. so i used it instead of data partition

then at point 12, where im now struck, i type in the cmd all the commands and everyhing works fine until i write "fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0".

Instead of returning "4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 973824 cylinders (etc)" it says:

fdisk: invalid option -- 1
BusyBox v1.22.1 bionic (2020-12-29 13:07 +0000) multi-call binary.

Usage: fdisk [-ul] [-C CYLINDERS] [-H HEADS] [-S SECTORS] [-b SSZ] DISK

Change partition table

-u Start and End are in sectors (instead of cylinders)
-l Show partition table for each DISK, then exit
-b 2048 (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors
-C CYLINDERS Set number of cylinders/heads/sectors
-H HEADS
-S SECTORS

~ #​

What am I doing wrong here?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, are you running commands with ADB from Windows ?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] mongolino0:
Yes I was on Windows 10. But now I figured out what was wrong. The problem was that instead of -l i was typing -1 -.-

Now I already flashed the Rom. It's ok, not really smooth but the hardware is the main problem. Anyway thank you for the guide and the support :)
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Glad you did it ! From 2.3.7 to 8.1 is a big jump !
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] aryorais:
Hello, im stuck in step 13

i'm already using twrp 3.2.3

it keeps "Failed to mount '/system' (invalid argument)"

i also can't wipe data

how do i fix this?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] haktug:
Enter the "Wipe" section. Enter "advanced wipe", then tick "repair and change file system" respectively and format with ext4. Then format the data and cache partition as on the system, but with f2fs, not ext4. Download the latest rom.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] _Instinctlol_:
Hello there! I finally installed this OS on my phone, but when I complete setup screen I get infinite "Checking for updates" screen. It doesn't work at all even if I wait a lot of time or change my wi-fi or cellular network. My router is ok, my SIM is ok, it happens only with Xperia. Any ideas how to solve this? There is no "Skip" button at all.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, can you try with the OpenGApps pack from January ?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] _Instinctlol_:
Sure, but I think I broke everything trying to fix this. Now all I've got is errors. Is it a good idea to start from the very beginning and follow the instruction? Or should I do something else before?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Just wipe partitions and flash again
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] _Instinctlol_:
I tried, but it doesn't let me do this. I get errors when I try to wipe or push the files. Here's what it says:
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] _Instinctlol_:
BTW I was using TWRP 3.2.3.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, can you try to follow again tutorial ?

Did you try newer TWRP ?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] _Instinctlol_:
Hi there! A bunch of YouTube videos helped to deal with ERROR 7 and other stuff. I tried to use "open-gapps-arm-8.1-pico-20210901.zip" and then "open-gapps-arm-8.1-pico-20210502.zip" (there is nothing from Jan, at least I couldn't find it), but again I have endless "Checking for updates". What should I do?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi @_Instinctlol_ , could you:

- try with a January build of OpenGApps

- or try next weeks to download Bitgapps package (they are down)

- Tell us more about solving error 7 ? Or just the link to the video ?

Thx
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] _Instinctlol_:
Hey there! Thank you for your guide! I finally managed to do this. I used GApps from Feb 2021 and it worked. Of course I can attach links to these videos. I did what the author did and somehow I fixed all my errors(ERROR 7, Failed to mount '/system' etc.) I hope these videos would be useful for somebody. Here you go: https://bit.ly/3BvcYvM (How to fix Error 7) and https://bit.ly/3yF2jwX (Failed to mount '/system').
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] haktug:
This is already a simple problem. The main problem is that the Rom is slow compared to Android 7.1 and it lags a lot
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, thx both of you for your feedbacks;

I'll update tutorial right now
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] KV6935:
Hi All, after I have installed the gapps, the system said that the google play apps said it is stopped and cannot further process to homepage.

How can I solve the problem?

Thanks.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, use BitGApps ARM 8.1 instead: MOD EDIT: Link Removed
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] KV6935:
Thanks mate, I have flash the gapps rom by inserting the zip file in the phone and then it works perfect.

However, the phone cannot install any apk file.

Thanks.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi @KV6935 , even if you unlcok Developer Options and activate Unknown sources ?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] KV6935:
Yes, i have already activate the sources
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] KV6935:
Hi all, the problem has been solved as I refresh the rom once more.

Thanks for all help.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] verticalfuzz:
Hi @djibe89 , thanks so much for putting this guide together. I hope I'm not violating any forum rules by reopening this older thread, I made my account just for this post... I'll try to be as detailed as possible for you, and hopefully to also help other super-newbies like me who may end up in a similar situation.

I'm trying to get this set up on my xperia s lt26i. After a lot of trial and error, I managed to get as far as the infinite 'searching for updates'. (something two things that helped getting by install error 11 and erro7 were using the 3.2.3 twrp and clearing cache and trying again immediately after a failure flag)....

I could not locate the Feb 2021 gapps file that everyone is referencing - do you have a current link or the ability to attach here? Since there was an implication that the error was gapps related, I tried to repeat the procedure without gapps, thinking I might be able to skip the setup and go back and re-add gapps later, but it got stuck again in the same place even with no gapps installed. (in order to repeat the procedure I had to go back all the way to the repartitioning (just skipping the part where you start by deleting partition 15, because it was already deleted).

I found another thread here

https://xdaforums.com/t/reset-and-stuck-on-checking-for-updates.3571496/post-82835081

suggesting that you could modify /system/build.prop to skip the setup, but I couldn't get it to work as they suggested with the twrp terminal. I tried to do it through adb pull like you showed under step 17, but in order to get adb to work again after the installation steps, I had to restart into fastboot and use the fastboot flash boot twrp.img command, at which point I could edit the file but I was unable to get back into the android boot sequence.

Any help or suggestions you could provide would be much appreciated!
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, could you try Bitgapps instead ?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] verticalfuzz:
Thanks for the speedy reply!

ok so I repeated the procedure, but this time instead of using the opengapps you linked at the start, I used BitGApps-Arm-8.1-R44_signed.zip from here: https://github.com/BiTGApps/BiTGApps-Release/releases/tag/v1.7

I must be missing something about clearing out the phone and overwriting fresh, because I got an error resemlbing the following:

*************************

BitGApps R44 Installer

*************************

- Installing toolbox

- Mounting /system

- Installation layout found

- Target backup: v1

- Secure backup: v1

! OpenGApps installed. Aborting...

- unmounting partitions

! Installation failed

Updater process ended with ERROR: 1

Error installing zip file '/sideload/gapps.zip/

Updating partition details...

...done

edit: ah I tried to repeat it once more but this time with more 'wipe' steps, and now after fastboot flash boot twrp.img, im stuck in a boot loop between the Sony logo, the teamwin Recovery Project 3.2.3-0 splash screen, and a Qualcomm Innovation Center splash screen, then it repeats...

edit 2: I tried to restore the original functionality with flashtool using these instructions:

Sony Xperia S LT26i - Flash Guide

These are the instructions to download Flash or install Stock Firmware (ROM) on Sony Xperia S LT26i

flash-guide.com

so that I could start over and try again... but the bootloop kicks in every time...

edit3: The page 1 instructions to extract the file boot.img and then do "fastboot flash boot boot.img" worked to break the bootloop. Now the phone is going through the long google boot to the 'hi there' initialization screen so I am exactly back where I started, but on the plus side the phone is not a brick. I expect the 'checking for updates' will get stuck again so I'm going to make some coffee and approach with a fresh perspective.

FINAL EDIT: wow, this is phenomenal - I am totally blown away (by the whole process more than the actual updated android, but that is really nice too...) What finally worked for me was using flashtool to restore my factory ROM (which didn't work at first, I had to go into twrp and disable MTI, then keep the volume-down button pressed while it flashed). Then I followed the instructions again from scratch, but with the bitgapps instead of opengapps. I still had to clear cache and install a few times to get past some error flags, but it worked and after the long boot it did not show me the unskippable setup page.

Really impressive that anyone can come up with this stuff. Thanks again!
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Well you did great !

Can you tell us what Wipe do you use ? Because the Bitgapps error is calling out.

Do you use Format Data AND advanced wipe Format cache + system + data ?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Tutorial updated thx to you
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] verticalfuzz:
I think I did the 'swipe to factory reset' that wipes data, cache, and dalvik. Then I think I got the animated dots google bootup animation which I interrupted to reflash twrp. Then I got stuck in the boot loop with the qualcomm logo. Sorry I did not record my exact steps in more detail, so there could be some info missing here if you're looking to reproduce the issue.

EDIT: Also, I just noticed that the dialer code from the beginning of the tutorial that lets you check for 'sim unlock' status does not bring up any menu any more. Not sure if this is intended. Once I finish the code it just clears the dialer.

Edit2: I downloaded the GPS app you suggested, turned on Location services and then under manage A-GPS data, i hit reset. Then I was messing around for about a minute moving the phone around to see if the magnetometer/compass was reading correctly (it wasn't) and the phone froze, screen went blank (except for status bar up top), then the qualcomm logo flashed again and I had to restart with power+volume-up. on reboot I tried the compass calibration in that app and it still does not work... Actually, maybe it was working if I held the phone vertically instead of flat, but it rebooted again... maybe a bug in how the software reads from some of those sensors? The sensor info window worked OK when I turned off location services. I installed Google Maps to check the GPS, and it works ok (no reboots) but is incredibly slow and unresponsive (to the point of being completely unusable).
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] bobby.xda:
Before I try this, can anyone confirm everything works? microphone, camera, and hdmi port. I'm pretty sure someone would had spoken up if the mic and camera didn't work, but the hdmi port may have been overlooked. Cheers
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, sorry I don't have the phone anymore
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] bobby.xda:
Threw caution to the wind and decided to risk bricking the phone. Got it working, running android 8.1. Now able to install Teams and Webex. And the hdmi port works if anyone wants to know.

I do have two small suggestions and a question.

Step 9) FLASH TWRP RECOVERY 3.5

Rewrite this to refer to 3.2. The 3.5 version screen does not align with the instructions.

Step 15) INSTALL ROM AND GOOGLE APPS

Add an additional Wipe Cache/Dalvik step between nAOSProm and gapps. I got an error 11 when attempting to install gapps the first time.

Step 2) INSTALL DRIVERS

Start Flashtool Xperia Driver Pack 1.8,

What exactly did this install and where? I can’t find any reference to this in uninstall programs. I’m done with it, like to remove it.

Thank for putting this together. New life for an old Xperia S.

Cheers
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi @bobby.xda , thx for your message.

1/ I'm not sure I understand your message "Rewrite this to refer to 3.2. The 3.5 version screen does not align with the instructions."

2/ Drivers are installed in Windows drivers folders. To uninstall these, connect phone to PC and use Windows Device Manager. Just leave those files, it is safer.

I improved tutorial with your comments.

Enjoy
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] bobby.xda:
Hope the attachments works. This is what I see when I try to use TWRP 3.5. It looks quite different from 3.2. 3.2 has square icon boxes. The icon labels correspond to your instructions. I was basically lost on 3.5. I'm not a super android nerd, not intimate with twrp, when I came across this cyanogen recovery, I was lost. Gave 3.2 a try and got back on track.

Thanks for tip about connecting the phone and device manager.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi,

for your screenshot, you can read Cyanogen Recovery.

To prevent LineageOS from flashing its own custom recovery over your TWRP. Go to Developer tools and find the option to prevent using stock recovery.

Use adb or fastboot to flash TWRP back.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
updated
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] Aranelevo:
Hi djibe, thanks for the post. I am not expert but i did everything step by step you tell.

After i install nAOSProm, i reboot to recovery to install gapps, but the system starts.

Then i couldn't open TWRP again by button combo or apk, now I' am sitting with an android without gapps.

I also tried opengaps apk but systems always reboot when i try to install.

Can you help me?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] djibe89:
Hi, you can go back to TWRP.

Flash consecutively ROM and Gapps
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] Aranelevo:
Hi djibe,

Thanks for the reply.

How can I go back to TWRP from system?

And I already tried flashing rom and gapps consecutively but my device stuck on logo screen forever. (I've waited nearly 6 hours nothing happened.)

Any idea?

Thanks.
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] dennyxoo:
errors errors errors..

when i flash TWRP 3.5.2_9-0 i always get into the Cynagogen Recovery...

Flashing TWRP 3.2.3 works, but ends in "Unable to mount storage"

and SD card (0 mb) and In Windows Explorer Xperia S device folder is empty too and cannot copy any files ERROR

Try to fix my phone via flashtool and stock firmware, nothing works. now i have a broken phone and try it over and over again to fix this for months.

anybody can help?
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] Stract:
I had the same problem as you guys but I managed to make it work. Lets go:

Step 1 - flash a working rom.

I managed to flash the 6.1.A.2.55 rom using the 0.9.18.6 Flashtool. I used the same process I described in my post some weeks ago (disable driver signature via restart menu, etc...). I did the flashing even after repartitioning and it got back to having 15 partitions. When I first booted, it said the sdcard had to be formatted. After formatting the sdcard I just went and tried the process again.

Step 2 - recovery.img

Both of the TWRP linked here didn't work for me. From the [ROM] [6.0 and 5.1] nAOSProm for Xperia S, I got the recovery.img. It's the last link on the nAOSProm repository on AndroidFileHost.

This twrp has the "format" option on the advanced wipe menu which the one on this post didn't have.

Step 2 - flash recovery.img to boot via fastboot

Booted into twrp and I followed the repartitioning tutorial and didn't get the error about old table used. Don't forget to reboot.

Step 3 - getting around mount storage error

Had to play a little bit with changing the file system. Always start with "Data". I changed to F2FS, got the mount storage error. Turning back to Ext4 and then to F2FS did the trick. The other workarounds this error on some videos I saw used the format option. Luckily I didn't need to use it. Don't forget to reboot.

Step 4 - Error 7 when installing the rom.

I followed the guide on this post. Although my updater-script didn't have "assert" line. I just deleted the first line "getprop( bla bla bla..." and it flashed. Then I installed the gapps, wipe dalvik, reboot. After ~10 minutes of the jumping balls logo, it booted.

Hope it helps bros!
[Sony Xperia S, Acro S, Ion] RamzesXS:
Hey, maybe here someone can help me. Long time ago I installed on my xperia s kitkat carbon(?). It had twrp etc. But it was same slow like JB. Since 2017 im on iOS so forgot a lot about android. I need second phone now, xperia still works good, battery is ok. I downloaded uCyan 5.1.1 lollipop 12.1 b-05 and did install from twrp. Forgot about gapps. Started system and wow was really cool, fast, no lags etc. My mistake was I flashed twrp to boot. Wanted to install gapps and..got error, i think excuted zip or something like that. Couldnt restart system of course. Couldnt install system again ! I did all what was in many instructions. Wipe, reboot, fix, mount, chcange file system and many others. Wasted two days, I tried many twrp versions, few others custom roms, only 8.1 was working (dont even remember how I did this) but laggy for me. I was able to instal ftf JB 6.1.2 via flashtool (thank God). And after every failed try I back to this. I habe bootloader unlocked, root. I was able to install CWR 6.0.3 without flashing boot so I have recovery and system. Still cant install anything. Alwasys some errors. Error 7, error excuting updater binary zip, install aborted and some others. Tried almost everything on internet. Adb, adb sideload, shell, push etc etc.

Can someone tell im if I need maybe kitkat first and then lollipop? Please I want this lollipop, is fast enough for me, I need second phone too

Help :(