[Nothing Phone 2] dlads:
Hi all,

Always nice to have a guide to get you started with unlocking the bootloader & rooting your device (y)

I'll always post boot images as and when firmwares become avaialable ;)

IMAGES

Nothing 2 V2.0.1 (Magisk 26.1)

Nothing 2 V2.0.1a (Magisk 26.1)

Nothing 2 V2.0.2 (Magisk 26.1)

Nothing 2 V2.0.2a (Magisk 26.1)

Nothing 2 V2.0.3 (Magisk 26.3)

Nothing 2 Beta 1 v2.5 (Magisk 26.3)

Nothing 2 V2.0.4 (Magisk 26.4)

Nothing 2 Beta 2 v2.5 (Magisk 26.4) thanks @xtcislove

Nothing 2 V2.5.1 (Magisk 26.4)

Nothing 2 V2.5.1a (Magisk 26.4) (Use the 2.5.1 boot image)

Nothing 2 V2.5.2 (Magisk 26.4)

Nothing 2 v2.5.3 (Magisk 27.0)

Nothing 2 v2.5.5 (Magisk 27.0)

Nothing 2 v2.5.6 (Magisk 27.0)

Nothing 2 v2.6.0 (Magisk 27.0)

Pre-requisites

1. ADB/Fastboot files so you can communicate with your device, you can download my copy here I put mine in c:\adb which is also where i'll be referring to for this guide

2. A Windows 10 - 11 PC / Laptop and your USB cable, one that allows ADB / Fastboot commands (some do not)

3. Capability to communicate via Fastboot, if you do not have the correct driver you can download my one from here

4. Magisk manager installed on your phone

You can grab it from here https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk

Obtaining ADB access to your device using your computer and checking fastboot commands are working

1. Connect your phone to your computer using your USB-C cable.

2. Allow it to see the device, if it automatically installs the driver (which it should) then you're good to go, if not then use the driver i posted above in pre-requisites, this one

3. On your phone Open settings and navigate to "About phone" and expand the Nothing OS tab

4. Click "Build number" several times (5) then enter your PIN, this will enable "Developer Options"

5. Back out, then click "System"

6. Scroll down to "Developer Options" and open it.

7. Scroll down to "USB Debugging" and turn it on (if at this point you are prompted with a dialogue box asking for authorization then please check the box and allow it) also turn on "OEM Unlocking" in the same section and agree to any prompts, back out to your home screen.

8. On your computer Download this folder.

This is adb and fastboot so you can talk to your phone via your PC.

9. Move it to the root of the C: drive, so it looks like this in the filepath

C:\adb

10. Navigate to the folder and perform the following:

i) Hold shift and right click an empty space within the folder

ii) Click "Open Powershell Window here" or "Open a Command prompt Window here"

iii) A black or blue window will appear with some text

11. In the window type the following command

adb devices

press enter

If you are now prompted with an authorization dialogue on your phone, please check the box and allow it.

On your computer you should see a readout of a device followed by a code, this is a good sign, you now have ADB access and can continue, if it says unauthorised then you didn't allow the prompt on your phone, repeat the above and accept the prompt on your phone remembering to check the box.

12. On your computer In the window type the following command:

adb reboot bootloader

press enter

Your device will reboot to the bootloader, then type in the following command:

fastboot reboot

If your device rebooted then you're all set for the next part, if not and it says waiting for device then it'll be because your driver isn't working, grab the USB driver in pre-requisites then repeat until it works.

Unlocking the bootloader

NOTE* THIS WILL WIPE YOUR ENTIRE DEVICE, IT'S UP TO YOU IF YOU WANT TO BACK UP OR NOT. I WOULD RECOMMEND DOING SO

1. Connect your phone to your computer

2. On your computer Navigate to C:\adb

i) Hold shift and right click an empty space within the folder

ii) Click "Open Powershell Window here" or "Open a Command prompt Window here"

iii) A black or blue window will appear with some text

3. Type the following command into the window

adb reboot bootloader

press enter

4. Type the following command into the window

fastboot flashing unlock

press enter

NOTE* THIS IS THE PART THAT WIPES YOUR PHONE IF YOU WANT TO BACK OUT, NOW IS THE TIME TO DO SO, ONCE STARTED DO NOT DISCONNECT THE CABLE OR FORCE A SHUTDOWN FOR ANY REASON THIS COULD RESULT IN A BRICKED DEVICE

5. Your phone will warn you and go through a set of screens, please agree and move forward until the device reboots

You have just unlocked the bootloader to your phone, it will now show an orange state flag when you boot your phone, theres no way round this atm unfortunately, it's the small price we pay for freedom on android :(

Once the device has booted, set it up again and then follow the steps to unlock "developer options" and enable "USB Debugging" once more, this is the last time you'll have to wipe (y)

Using Fastboot Enhance & Magisk to obtain stock and patched boot images

1. Download and copy the fastboot enhance folder to your desktop or a location of your choosing.

Download from here: https://github.com/libxzr/FastbootEnhance/releases

2. Download the firmware of your choice (if you can find one!! Always use full zips, not incremental) and open it using Winrar or a similar zip program, extract the file called payload.bin to a folder of your choosing.

3. Run the program FastbootEnhance.exe, a window will appear, click Payload Dumper, then click browse and point to the payload.bin file, the contents of that payload.bin will now be shown, bare in mind you'll need to check the box "Allow incremental" even if it's a full zip

4. Look through the images listed, one of them will be called boot.img, this is the file we'll be patching, highlight it then click extract, this will copy the image out to where you put your payload.bin file, copy this to your phone, root of storage; called /sdcard.

On your phone

5. Open up Magisk and click Install / Update, if you don't see update then change channel, do this by changing the channel in magisk settings, it'll then show the install/ update buttons.

6. Select "Select and Patch a file" it'll open up a file browser, navigate to the boot.img you copied earlier and select it, allow it to complete (this will output a file called "magisk_patched" which will be output into the Downloads folder)

You now have a patched boot.img ready to boot or flash to either slot with fastboot or boot via fastboot.

I would recommend booting as this is risk free, if it's a bad image for whatever reason and you choose to flash it! Then your phone will bootloop.

Rooting by booting

1. Obtain a patched boot image for your device variant preferably using payload dumper or download one of mine from the foot of this guide or if you've just performed the above guide you should already have a functional one, copy this file to your fastboot folder on your computer

2. Reboot your phone to fastboot

and connect to your computer

ADB/reboot/bootloader

Press enter.

3. Boot the magisk patched img

fastboot boot magisk_patched (or name of your patched boot img)

Press enter.

Your phone should now boot automatically, you should now be rooted 👍🏼 But we need to make this permanent, if you were to reboot you would lose root.

4. Open magisk manager and click install/update, if you are missing the install/ update buttons, change magisk version to beta in magisk settings and install the update, the buttons should then show.

5. Select "Direct install (recommended)" then click ok.

6. Allow magisk to permanently root your device then click reboot.

You should now boot and remain rooted.

Being rooted & Updating with an incremental update whilst retaining root

***NOTE: risky, doesn't always work, disable all modules before proceeding and reboot.

1. Open Magisk and select "Uninstall Magisk" then select "Restore Images"

2. Open settings / system / Software update and download the incremental update (will be substantially smaller than a full zip)

3. Once completed you'll see "Restart Now" do not click this, back out and then re-open Magisk.

4. Within Magisk, click "Install" then click "Install to Inactive Slot (After OTA)" Then click "Lets Go" your device will now reboot

NOTE* I've noticed that my device didn't boot after doing this and or the update didn't install, if this happens your device will more than likely eventually swap slots and then boot, i also noticed an issue with the update not actually installing after performing the above steps, so do so at your own risk, if this fails then you'd need to full unroot / full uninstall and restore images, then take the update and reboot.

On boot you'd need to reobtain a patched boot image and re-root manually.

STOCK BOOT IMAGES

A065 Nothing 2.0.1

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing 2.0.1a

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing 2.0.2

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing 2.0.2a

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing 2.0.3

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing Beta 1 v2.5

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing 2.0.4

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing Beta 2 V2.5

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing V2.5.1

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing V2.5.3

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing V2.5.5

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing V2.6.0

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

PATCHED BOOT IMAGES

A065 Nothing 2.0.1

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing 2.0.1a

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing 2.0.2

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing 2.0.2a

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing 2.0.3

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing Beta 1 V2.5

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing V2.04

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing Beta 2 v2.5

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing V2.5.1

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing V2.5.2

https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-unloc...t-images-model-a065-eea.4605979/post-89299571

A065 Nothing v2.5.3 Thanks @PhantomApollyon

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

A065 Nothing v2.5.5 Thanks @phoe zay

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

Thanks @PhantomApollyon

A065 Nothing v2.6.0

96 MB folder on MEGA

mega.nz

TROUBLESHOOTING

Safety net fix (no longer works, use Play Integrity fix)

GitHub - chiteroman/PlayIntegrityFix: Fix Play Integrity (and SafetyNet) verdicts.

Fix Play Integrity (and SafetyNet) verdicts. Contribute to chiteroman/PlayIntegrityFix development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

The module alone won't work as-is you need to do a little work yourself, I won't post anything revealing here as that defeats the object of it.

Read the play integrity xda thread.

Update fails with temp or full uninstall of magisk

Follow @spike0en s guide found here under fastboot flashing to fastboot flash the latest ROM.

You do not need to wipe.

Tip** driver issues are the main failure here so make sure you have "bootloader interface" in device manager prior to attempting to run the bat file.

All instructions and the guide plus ROMs found below.

Nothing Phone (2) | AIO Essential Resources | General Discussion | Support Thread

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is an ALL IN ONE resource thread to get yourself started with Nothing Phone (2)...

xdaforums.com

Removal of Magisk Modules using ADB

If flashing succeeds but you don't have root and you've followed all the instructions, you may have some magisk modules still active, try performing the following.

1. Connect your phone to your computer.

2. Reboot the phone, then during the boot animation enter this command via ADB.

adb wait-for-device shell magisk --remove-modules

3. Allow to boot, modules will be removed and root should then be active.

Magisk not showing root, install updates buttons not visible

1. Make sure you have granted permission to magisk in settings / apps / magisk / permissions

2. Make sure that the update channel is on canary, then force close magisk and then re-open

3. If it still doesn't work then update magisk using canary

4. Last method to check would be to change to the beta channel in magisk settings, then install it.

Or change the update channel, install the version on offer, then change back to canary, install and you should be good to go.

Pulling a boot image from your live device

1. Connect your phone to your computer and open up an adb command prompt with the capability to communicate with your phone (see above for set up)

2. Connect using ADB SHELL

adb shell

Press enter

3. Gain SuperUser access

su

Press enter

4. For boot_a or boot_b type:

dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot_a of=/sdcard/boot_a.img

Press enter

This will output a boot image to the root of your phone storage /sdcard/ called boot_a.img

For boot_b type

dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot_b of=/sdcard/boot_b.img

Press enter

This will output a boot image to the root of your phone storage /sdcard/ called boot_b.img

Window's version

Windows 7 will not work with fastboot, please use Windows 10 or Windows 11

FILES & DOWNLOADS

ADB and Fastboot files: https://mega.nz/folder/HF1CwKQZ#NxsaViNm6Py0JzRipvrRqQ

Fastboot Driver: https://mega.nz/folder/jEtBASIK#fiBe-cT40fHgP3rNWyFQEA

👍🏼