Post by: Zarhan on May 23, 2023, 09:19:25 am
Has anyone dared to try it yet? Any hassles? Did they get rid of the other two updaters?
Post by: Zarhan on May 23, 2023, 12:44:57 pm
Besides the stuff in release notes, I do notice that
- One of the updaters (the google one) is gone
- Security level is March 23
- No resurgence of Deejay-Dota (never had it in the first place though)
- Fingerprint sensor is still active all the time (so if you rest your hand on it, it will most likely not work for unlocking because you have spent your attempts)
I also got a scare. After updating, I just pressed the power button to lock the phone, like I usually do. Display turned off, as it should. Then I tried pushing the button...the display stayed black.
Eventually I got the device to reboot by holding down the power button a longer time, and I couldn't repeat the situation at least just yet. Maybe it was due to the Fingerprint sensor - perhaps I should scan my fingers again or something.
Post by: Neophy on May 23, 2023, 01:36:00 pm
Post by: Mithren Ithil on May 23, 2023, 01:48:06 pm
Finally it seems that the keyboard is working properly and not losing focus. I used to have to keep tapping the screen to type. I use T-UI as my launcher so it was super annoying.
Fingerprint sensor still doesn't work with Bitwarden, Joplin and Keepass2Android. I'm guessing it won't work with my banking apps too so its not going to take over as my daily driver.
Place holder cheapo Moto is going to carry on with that role!
Post by: cam1965 on May 23, 2023, 02:06:55 pm
Ok... Planet updater is now saying that the promised FW update is there.
Has anyone dared to try it yet? Any hassles? Did they get rid of the other two updaters?
My esim card was not recognized after update.
Post by: Zarhan on May 24, 2023, 02:10:33 am
Post by: Daniel W on May 24, 2023, 02:18:42 pm
Right now, the charging LED, the keyboard backlight and the shift lock indicator works. Pressing the up or down buttons makes keyboard clicks, but only at most five in each direction, as if the Astro was showing a menu on its turned off screen. Forcing more reboots just seems to return the device to that state...
Help?
Post by: Zarhan on May 24, 2023, 03:19:49 pm
Well, I'm in trouble... after installing the update, I tapped on reboot in the updater. The screen turned off, the LED next to Q came on in blue for a couple of seconds, but the screen never turned on again. I waited a while but nothing happened. I held down Esc for ten or so seconds, which seems to force a reboot, since the vibrator buzzes briefly and LED next to Q comes on in blue for a couple of seconds again, but the screen doesn't turn on.
This kind of resembles the issue I had, although it only triggered after I tried to lock the phone after first reboot. I just held the power button for like half a minute and it resolved itself. But since this is clearly something different the only thing that comes to mind would be to go to attempt to factory reset via fastboot and/or recovery...
Or maybe ask for help from Planet...
Post by: Daniel W on May 24, 2023, 03:40:59 pm
Since I, at least, has the external screen working, I'll experiment some more. Probably I'll end up contacting Planet.
Post by: Daniel W on May 24, 2023, 04:57:23 pm
By booting without HDMI, logging in blindly and then calling my Astro from another phone, I've confirmed that my Astro does boot without HDMI. It is still rather useless in that state though. It rang as expected, but without the screen I couldn't answer.
For the short term I'll plan to have it tethered to an external screen and a bluetooth mouse. That will probably get cumbersome really soon though... :P
Post by: Daniel W on May 24, 2023, 06:14:58 pm
The reply mostly said they'd ask their ODM for advice first. If that doesn't help, they could try sending me software for a full reflash. We'll see. I've hooked up an external screen, power, mouse and headset a bit better now, so I should be able to use it landline-style until this is resolved.
Edit:
Post by: cam1965 on May 25, 2023, 06:26:28 am
Well... I sent the email to Planet Computers 10:51PM local time, which is 9:51PM British Summer Time. A guy called Jeff replied 61 minutes later (at 10:52PM BST) so apparently someone works late over there (and I'm up late, over here. ;-)If you access the external screen, try a factory reset on your phone.
The reply mostly said they'd ask their ODM for advice first. If that doesn't help, they could try sending me software for a full reflash. We'll see. I've hooked up an external screen, power, mouse and headset a bit better now, so I should be able to use it landline-style until this is resolved.
Post by: Daniel W on May 25, 2023, 07:14:16 am
If you access the external screen, try a factory reset on your phone.I might. I should be able to initiate a reset from within Android and should that work, I should be fine...
The scary bit is that the HDMI doesn't seem to kick in until Android is actually booting, so it seems I can't see things like the recovery menu. Would anything I do disable HDMI out, I could be kind of hosed.
I have never used the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) over USB before, but I suppose turning in on before seriously messing with anything, might give me a second way in, should I loose video out. Things like flashing tools and scatter files are also just a haze to me, so I might need to ask some n00b questions, should I need to reflash.
For now, I'll wait a bit and see what Planet says. As can be seen in the picture I posted above, I have, for now, set my Astro up as a "stationary mobile". That's not ideal, but at least I can handle phone calls and use my e-id to pay bills and such. Should I need to, I can move that id to my old Cosmo (which now serves as my bedside clock again) but I'm trying to not get ahead of myself right now.
Post by: Zarhan on May 25, 2023, 07:24:20 am
The scary bit is that the HDMI doesn't seem to kick in until Android is actually booting, so it seems I can't see things like the recovery menu. Would anything I do disable HDMI out, I could be kind of hosed.
That's...interesting. I would have thought that the first splash screens (Planet / Android, AstroSlide, and then finally the palette-scrolling "android") would be visible and then it would go black.
Some critical initialization portion is then missing from the bootloader.
Post by: Daniel W on May 25, 2023, 07:39:37 am
When I, after a shutdown, held volume down and turned the Astro on, with the HMDI cable attached, I never got any HDMI out.
It is quite possible I did something wrong. As I recall, I slid off of the volume down button a few seconds after the Astro powered on, so maybe I should try again and hold volume down pressed for longer? Is volume down + power on even the correct sequence to get to the recovery mode on an Astro? I basically just noticed I didn't get any HDMI on the first attempt, forced a reboot and e-mailed Planet.
Post by: Zarhan on May 25, 2023, 07:58:05 am
It is quite possible I did something wrong. As I recall, I slid off of the volume down button a few seconds after the Astro powered on, so maybe I should try again and hold volume down pressed for longer? Is volume down + power on even the correct sequence to get to the recovery mode on an Astro? I basically just noticed I didn't get any HDMI on the first attempt, forced a reboot and e-mailed Planet.
The correct way to get to recovery is to power on while holding volume UP. Not down.
(Then, when the "No command" shows up, press and hold power, and again tap volume up to get to the menu).
Post by: ZimbiX on May 25, 2023, 10:50:21 am
I recall kinda similar behaviour with my Cosmo (prior to installing multiboot?), where if I held the Esc button for too long when booting it up, it would boot into Android but with the screen disabled - I take it that it was then booting from a secondary boot partition which had something wrong with it. You're not doing that, are you? In my case, iirc, the screen was active during the bootloader, but turned off after that - does yours display anything at all at boot? (it doesn't sound like it)
I wrote up instructions for entering all the boot modes in the wiki (https://github.com/shymega/planet-devices/wiki/Astro-boot-modes). Does booting into any of the other modes show anything? Does it display your charging state when it's turned off and you press Esc?
Has any tried updating a rooted device?
Yep, I just did mine, and it's working fine, thankfully! I first spent an hour taking a full backup (with `./mtk rl <dir>`), and restored all the partitions I'd modified to stock.
Strangely, I had to download the update twice. iirc, hitting the install button didn't work the first time, and it just downloaded the update again. Dunno why. The first time, I'd let the screen go to sleep, and switched to other apps during the download; so probably something to do with that and the update app not having proper handling for resuming focus.
Other than that, the update process went flawlessly.
Re-rooting went alright. I just had to figure out what the deal was with the A/B partitions - I've now submitted an update for the rooting guide (https://github.com/shymega/planet-devices-wiki-prs/pull/23/files).
As much as I wish the OTA addressed more issues (https://github.com/shymega/planet-devices-wiki-prs/issues), I'm very grateful for what they have delivered - particularly the security update.
Post by: Daniel W on May 25, 2023, 11:56:15 am
The correct way to get to recovery is to power on while holding volume UP. Not down.Well, details matters. Thank you very much.
(Then, when the "No command" shows up, press and hold power, and again tap volume up to get to the menu).
Right now, even if I do a shut down, during which I unplug everything, the Astro, weirdly enough, spontaneously boots again, but if I do a shut down and holds volume up until it boots again, I get the "No command" on the external screen. From there I can hold the power button and and tap volume up to get to the recovery menu. I haven't yet ventured further.
@Daniel W: Damn, sorry to hear you've had such issues!
I recall kinda similar behaviour with my Cosmo (prior to installing multiboot?), where if I held the Esc button for too long when booting it up, it would boot into Android but with the screen disabled - I take it that it was then booting from a secondary boot partition which had something wrong with it. You're not doing that, are you? In my case, iirc, the screen was active during the bootloader, but turned off after that - does yours display anything at all at boot? (it doesn't sound like it)
I wrote up instructions for entering all the boot modes in the wiki. Does booting into any of the other modes show anything? Does it display your charging state when it's turned off and you press Esc?
Well, at the moment, the Astro spontaneously turns itself back on a few seconds after a shut down (I'm not doing a restart and it says "shutting down" while doing so), even from the recovery menu. As far as I can tell, neither the Escape key nor the power button appears stuck (as they both work normally once the Astro has booted again).
Before the Astro begun doing that, I don't think I held the power button very long, just barely until the Astro vibrated (as that's the only indication I get when the internal screen doesn't work). In any case, when I rebooted from inside the updater (and the internal screen went dead) I didn't hold or press any physical buttons at all. But well, as my Astro is stock, if it tries to "multi-boot" anyway, that might be a piece to the puzzle?
As I stated above, I can now get to the recovery menu, but haven't dared doing anything there yet, except reboot and shutdown. As the screen is an OLED, it could on principle show a black image and I wouldn't know. As far as I can tell, the screen appears to be off. Once when I forced a reboot, I think I saw a brief flash of white in a corner, but that could have been a reflection.
Both when the Astro is on and (briefly atm.) off, it shows the charge state when I have a charger connected (on the right hand side, as the HDMI dongle uses the left hand port). When I do a shut down, the LED briefly changes to red, even though I'm above 80% charge, but it soon turns green again, about when the Astro boots itself.
When I, erroneously, held power + volume down (which the Wiki says should be "Fastboot") I didn't even get a picture on the external screen, but I may have fumbled somehow, so maybe I should try that again. I have not yet tried safe mode.
Post by: Zarhan on May 25, 2023, 12:58:02 pm
When I, erroneously, held power + volume down (which the Wiki says should be "Fastboot") I didn't even get a picture on the external screen, but I may have fumbled somehow, so maybe I should try that again. I have not yet tried safe mode.
In fastboot mode the only input is minimal interface via USB port, because you are essentially in pre-bootloader stage, that basically allows you to recover a completely bricked device (if you have suitable image).
Post by: Oliver Riesen on May 26, 2023, 03:11:41 am
after installing the update I tapped "Reboot" and my Astro started immediately with wrong colors (see attachment). Several reboots didn't change this behavior. A screenshots send by Whatsapp looks normal.
Regards
Oliver
Post by: ZimbiX on May 26, 2023, 06:35:38 am
But that is some impressive glitch art. It's right up there with this one that I enountered a few years ago: https://twitter.com/ZimbiX/status/1432382264197844994
Post by: undecisive on May 26, 2023, 06:50:23 am
I don't have an hdmi cable that the astro likes, so I may invest in one. But none of the presses on the screen seem to have done anything, so this is entirely unusable. Did anyone have any luck with factory resetting, or work out how to do it without a screen?
Post by: Daniel W on May 26, 2023, 08:53:23 am
When I e-mailed an update to Planet today, telling them I can now, at least, get the recovery menu to show up on the external screen, I also shared a link to this thread and mentioned there are others than me having V07-related display issues. Generally, I think it's good if those affected could email Planet and share whatever details they can, as they'd probably need every clue they can get right now.
If I had to guess, I'd say the update somehow messes with the display controller (or similar), perhaps sometimes corrupting some, perhaps non-volatile, configuration in some semi-random way, which, in most cases fixes itself after a reboot or two but, depending on exactly what gets corrupted, may have worse consequences. Oh well... guessing is my keyword here.
In the name of research, I unplugged the HDMI and rebooted. When I knew the Astro had reached the PIN screen, I tapped around blindly and found a spot that played the tap sound in my headset, so FWIW, my touch screen seems to, technically speaking, work when HDMI isn't attached. With HDMI out active, touch doesn't work, which I presume is by design. Luckily, I have a bluetooth mouse that works with my Astro.
@Zarhan Thank you for explaining fastboot. As I need the left hand USB port for HDMI, unless I can use the right hand port for something else than power, I guess I won't be doing much USB anything. I did try plugging the Planet USB-C hub into the lefthand port, plug the HDMI adapter into the USB-C port of the hub and reboot. As I expected, HDMI out didn't work that way.
@undecisive It should, in theory, be possible to initiate a factory reset blindly, if someone who can see what they're doing would write down the exact sequence of volume up/down and/or power button presses needed to start the reset. Whether it would be feasible in practice is another question. As of now, I do not know for sure that a factory reset would even help. For all I know thus far, it could make things worse, so I'm not willing to just try a reset just yet.
Post by: Daniel W on May 26, 2023, 09:18:12 am
I had asked them about doing a factory reset, but they didn't mention it in their reply. They did say "You can always try to use Planet Backup to try and back up the device." which might be the easiest way to get things back after a reset, but I still don't know if a factory reset would be advisable.
One thing they said I could try is to run down the battery until the Astro turns off (and, presumably recharge it from there). They suspect the screen initialisation went wrong for an unknown reason, but are not sure until they have examined an affected device.
Worst case, I can send my Astro in for repair, but as I live outside the UK, I'd rather not. Reflashing it manually might also be an option, if no easier solutions are found. I'll keep researching for a while and hopefully Planet will know a bit more soon.
Post by: Zarhan on May 26, 2023, 09:41:03 am
I just got another reply from Planet. They have, thus far, seen about four or five Astros with V07-related screen issues, one of which is to arrive at their office tomorrow (Saturday). That might help them decide the best course of action.
If nothing else, this is rather encouraging, meaning that they actually *can* be responsive when they want.
Post by: undecisive on May 26, 2023, 09:41:43 am
Generally, I think it's good if those affected could email Planet and share whatever details they can, as they'd probably need every clue they can get right now.
Have added my details. I managed to get the screen to start functioning - albeit in psychedelic mode - by plugging in the usb and holding down the power button much longer than anyone should... but it takes a few goes, and is clearly random. So yeah, I'd say probably some video firmware / memory initialisation problem. Very glad this isn't my only phone.
Post by: Oliver Riesen on May 29, 2023, 05:29:37 am
after installing the update I tapped "Reboot" and my Astro started immediately with wrong colors (see attachment). Several reboots didn't change this behavior. A screenshots send by Whatsapp looks normal.
A factory reset didn't solve the problem... >:(
Post by: Daniel W on May 29, 2023, 06:52:23 am
A factory reset didn't solve the problem... >:(Welp... thank you for trying anyway. Though not successful, it's still good to know. If you haven't already, perhaps share the discovery with Planet.
After reading about issues with Planet Backup, I begun backing what I could up to a Micro SD-card, intending to do a factory reset, which I will now skip.
As moving my main SIM would mess with my e-Id, I've forwarded my calls to a SIM in my Comso, so I can be reached and use the internet when not at home.
Post by: Oliver Riesen on May 29, 2023, 11:05:01 am
A factory reset didn't solve the problem... >:(
Since it seems, that I have to send my Astro to Planet Computers, I ordered today a Google Pixel 7a. I'm not sure what to do with my Astro when it comes back (hopefully repaired)...
Post by: ZimbiX on May 29, 2023, 01:34:35 pm
Edit: @Daniel Have you had any luck with getting the firmware from Planet?
Post by: Daniel W on May 30, 2023, 09:09:49 am
Edit: @Daniel Have you had any luck with getting the firmware from Planet?I haven't heard from them since Friday May 26, nor have I tried to reach them. If things went as they thought back then, they should have had an affected Astro to examine since Saturday May 27. I presume they'll get back to me once they have something to share. I don't want to nag them too much, so I intend to stay put for at least a few more days.
Since the same firmware apparently gives different users different results, I don't know, at this point, if a reflash would even help, and I suspect the Planet representative mostly just presumed it would. I mean, he reasonably cannot have know what was the actual issue when he, near midnight, responded to my first email about this.
If these are non-volatile settings in a display controller, that somehow has a greater than zero probability of corruption, perhaps they normally would be left as-is by a non-botched update? If so, it could take some low level specialized software or ADB hacking to restore such settings.
Since undecisive was able to able to wake the screen up (though in psychedelic mode), I'm thinking about forcing a bunch of reboots back-to-back just to see if anything happens. For most of my needs, a psychedelic phone would be more useful than one hooked up 24/7 to my livingroom TV.
Post by: Daniel W on June 03, 2023, 03:20:16 pm
I unplugged the HDMI, leaving power connected, and held the power button down to induce multiple reboots back-to-back. First I tried five, then ten and finally about twenty-five, which corresponds to holding the power button down for three minutes straight. The internal screen still didn't turn on. For certain this time, though, I saw faint, hazy flashes of white light about the time of each reboot.
I hooked up the TV again and went into the recovery menu. Lacking better ideas, I tried to "Run graphics test" and got a scare. In rapid succession, I was shown "Error", "No command", "Erasing" and "Installing system update".
A few seconds later I was back at the recovery menu again. Somewhat nervous, I rebooted without HDMI and... nothing new. The LED next to Q came on in blue for a few seconds and then nothing, as usual. I rebooted again, with HDMI and Android booted normally. As far as I can tell, all my apps, data and settings are still there.
Returning once more to the recovery menu, I ran the locale test, which showed me a few short phrases and let my cycle through various locales using the volume buttons. Finally, I looked at the recovery log. To me it looked like a boot log that didn't say me all that much. I could share it, should anyone be interested, but as I don't know any other way to get to that file, and OCR didn't give any useful results, I'd have to post a bunch of photos of the TV.
Post by: Flauscher on June 04, 2023, 12:21:39 pm
Post by: Zarhan on June 08, 2023, 01:26:37 pm
But just a thought, since Astro uses partition A/B, has anyone tried to boot from the inactive partition with the old version to perhaps recover from psychedelic and/or dark screens?
In theory (with USB attached to device):
Code: [Select]
adb reboot fastboot
fastboot getvar current-slot => probably outputs "slot b"
fastboot --set-active=a (if it was b)
fastboot reboot
Post by: Daniel W on June 09, 2023, 08:04:25 am
How to update the Astro? I'm still on V01. When I launch the Planet Updater app it just gives an "java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'int java.lang.String.length()' on a null object reference" error.I'm probably not the right person to answer this, as my low level Astro knowledge is flaky, at best. As far I recall (which could be wrong), I too used to get this message before the V07 update was released. I'm guessing that Planet may have withdrawn the update, while they are investigating why a few Astros ended up with dysfunctional internal screens after the update?
I guess no updates have come from Planet...Not to me anyway. I have sent them another e-mail today, with my latest (non-)findings. I have quoted what I wrote below.
Quote
Hi again.
It's now been about two weeks since we were last in touch regarding the botched update that caused the screen in my Astro to stop working. I would therefore like to ask how things are going for you. Any progress or ideas?
Meanwhile, I have learnt from the community that a factory reset does not resolve this issue (which makes me wonder if even a reflash would reliably remedy this).
One user was apparently able to make their screen turn on, though with completely wrong colors, by forcing a large number of reboots, holding the power button "much longer than anyone should". I tried that, for up to three minutes straight, with no success. Near the reboots, I saw brief flashes of white light on the screen, but that was all.
With HDMI connected, I played a video until my Astro shut down (when not having to power its internal screen, 45% charge lasted six hours). With HDMI still attached, I then confirmed it wouldn't turn on, neither normally nor in recovery mode.
When I pressed the power button in that state, the vibrator still buzzed briefly, suggesting the Astro wasn't completely unpowered. Had this been a Cosmo or Gemini, I may have disassembled it enough to physically unplug the battery and fully power down the electronics, but I'm not sure how to safely do that on an Astro. Do you have any suggestions on how to do that, given basic tools and moderate tinkering skills?
I then unplugged the HDMI and connected a charger. The LED close to the front camera came on in red, the one next to Q came on in blue shortly after and both stayed lit, which I take to mean the device was off and charging, but the screen remained off, never showing the charging animation.
When I then tried to turn it on, it booted normally, as far as I can tell from the vibrator and the LEDs, but still with its internal screen off, So I plugged in the HDMI again, forced another reboot and was back to where I were.
While the Astro kind-of-works on external HDMI and I have marshalled my Cosmo into basic service, via a spare SIM and call forwarding, this is getting increasingly impractical. I could move my main SIM to the Cosmo and make it my main phone again, but I'd have to get a new e-id, move stuff over and then reverse that once my Astro is back to normal. It's doable, but I'd rather not, if I don't have to.
Kind regards
Daniel Wikholm, Sweden
In theory (with USB attached to device):Since I don't have the necessary tools on my PC, and normally wouldn't have any use for them, I would appreciate it, if that person didn't have to be me. I would still try this before sending my Astro away though.Code: [Select]adb reboot fastboot
fastboot getvar current-slot => probably outputs "slot b"
fastboot --set-active=a (if it was b)
fastboot reboot
Post by: Zarhan on June 14, 2023, 10:27:32 am
I'm myself not daring to :)
Post by: cam1965 on June 14, 2023, 07:33:25 pm
update v07b corrected the esim visibility. Mine was invisible before the update. Unfortunately I changed in the past the esim for a second sim card and it was working. But after the update the second sim card doesn´t work anymore. And my previous profile of the esim is visible now after the update. But as I said I changed this esim network for a sim card and now it is not working. Planet fix one thing and causes other problem.Ok... Planet updater is now saying that the promised FW update is there.
Has anyone dared to try it yet? Any hassles? Did they get rid of the other two updaters?
My esim card was not recognized after update.
Post by: Zarhan on June 15, 2023, 01:18:11 am
update v07b corrected the esim visibility. Mine was invisible before the update. Unfortunately I changed in the past the esim for a second sim card and it was working. But after the update the second sim card doesn´t work anymore. And my previous profile of the esim is visible now after the update. But as I said I changed this esim network for a sim card and now it is not working. Planet fix one thing and causes other problem.
Can't you set in Astro settings whether you use physical SIM Slot 2 or eSIM? I did think that on Astro you could use both at same time (unlike Cosmo), but apparently there's a toggle.
Post by: cam1965 on June 15, 2023, 06:25:55 am
Hi.update v07b corrected the esim visibility. Mine was invisible before the update. Unfortunately I changed in the past the esim for a second sim card and it was working. But after the update the second sim card doesn´t work anymore. And my previous profile of the esim is visible now after the update. But as I said I changed this esim network for a sim card and now it is not working. Planet fix one thing and causes other problem.
Can't you set in Astro settings whether you use physical SIM Slot 2 or eSIM? I did think that on Astro you could use both at same time (unlike Cosmo), but apparently there's a toggle.
There is no option to select esim or phyical sim in settings. Even after removing my previous profile of esim in esim wallet , the physical sim 2 are not recognized. When I reboot I saw that is reconized for a moment and after some time it disappears. So , I removed my sim 2 card and I in the future I will change again my sim card 2 phone number here in Brazil to esim again. Thank you.
Post by: Zarhan on June 15, 2023, 08:11:19 am
There is no option to select esim or phyical sim in settings. Even after removing my previous profile of esim in esim wallet , the physical sim 2 are not recognized. When I reboot I saw that is reconized for a moment and after some time it disappears. So , I removed my sim 2 card and I in the future I will change again my sim card 2 phone number here in Brazil to esim again. Thank you.
Interesting, in my Astro (running V07, not V07b), I see option "Use eSIM for SIM slot 2" in Astro settings. Maybe they removed that option then...?
Post by: cam1965 on June 15, 2023, 08:46:00 am
You are right. Thank you so much again. Problem solved.There is no option to select esim or phyical sim in settings. Even after removing my previous profile of esim in esim wallet , the physical sim 2 are not recognized. When I reboot I saw that is reconized for a moment and after some time it disappears. So , I removed my sim 2 card and I in the future I will change again my sim card 2 phone number here in Brazil to esim again. Thank you.
Interesting, in my Astro (running V07, not V07b), I see option "Use eSIM for SIM slot 2" in Astro settings. Maybe they removed that option then...?
Post by: Daniel W on June 19, 2023, 04:22:16 pm
Using the developer options, I set the default USB configuration to file transfer, so the Astro would immediately show up as a portable device in Windows as soon as I plug the USB cable in. I then rebooted without HDMI, logged in blindly and connected a USB cable from the left side port to a Windows computer. The Astro begun charging, but there was no USB connection sound and the Astro did neither show up in the file manager, nor in the device manager.
I tried another cable, another port, another computer. My Cosmo gladly shows up using any cable in any port on either computer. The Astro does not. I took a screenshot, just in case the Astro was showing an error on its disabled screen, but after rebooting with HDMI, the screenshot just showed my Android home screen. Being able to take a screenshot at least proved that the Astro was indeed fully booted and logged in, so it should really have showed up in Windows.
I installed ADB on my computer, rebooted the Astro blindly, and plugged in the USB cable again. Windows didn't detect it this time either and, as I suspected, ADB could not see any devices. After some tinkering I got ADB to work over WiFi, which is nice, since I can then use it while the HDMI is attached. I am able to start a shell via ADB over WiFi, but I'm not sure what I could use it for in this context. I am also able to reboot the Astro to fastboot mode. With HDMI attached I can see fastbootd start, but since fastbootd can't use WiFi, I have no way to see or set the active boot slot.
I could try the 07B update anyway and just hope for the best, but that would reasonably overwrite the boot slot with the factory image, meaning I would no longer have even a theoretical ability to return to a known good firmware image. That might be undesirable.
Ideas anyone? Having a non-mobile mobile is starting to get tedious.
Edit: Btw. I was also able to get screencasting from my Astro to computer working, but to see what I was doing on the Astro, I naturally had to also have HDMI attached, so I didn't gain much. Would I be able to somehow start the screencasting after a blind login, it might be useful, but there seems to be too many steps involved to be able to do that blindly, and as long as basic USB cable connectivity doesn't work, I'm kind of stuck anyway.
Post by: cam1965 on June 19, 2023, 06:51:29 pm
Well, it's ten days since my last email to Planet. No reply this time. Perhaps worse, I have discovered another issue with my Astro, which seems to make fixing my dead screen even harder.Try mtkclient. I had installed it in my linux in the past when my phone was bricked. I don't know if this will help. I had used the graphical interface in linux.
Using the developer options, I set the default USB configuration to file transfer, so the Astro would immediately show up as a portable device in Windows as soon as I plug the USB cable in. I then rebooted without HDMI, logged in blindly and connected a USB cable from the left side port to a Windows computer. The Astro begun charging, but there was no USB connection sound and the Astro did neither show up in the file manager, nor in the device manager.
I tried another cable, another port, another computer. My Cosmo gladly shows up using any cable in any port on either computer. The Astro does not. I took a screenshot, just in case the Astro was showing an error on its disabled screen, but after rebooting with HDMI, the screenshot just showed my Android home screen. Being able to take a screenshot at least proved that the Astro was indeed fully booted and logged in, so it should really have showed up in Windows.
I installed ADB on my computer, rebooted the Astro blindly, and plugged in the USB cable again. Windows didn't detect it this time either and, as I suspected, ADB could not see any devices. After some tinkering I got ADB to work over WiFi, which is nice, since I can then use it while the HDMI is attached. I am able to start a shell via ADB over WiFi, but I'm not sure what I could use it for in this context. I am also able to reboot the Astro to fastboot mode. With HDMI attached I can see fastbootd start, but since fastbootd can't use WiFi, I have no way to see or set the active boot slot.
I could try the 07B update anyway and just hope for the best, but that would reasonably overwrite the boot slot with the factory image, meaning I would no longer have even a theoretical ability to return to a known good firmware image. That might be undesirable.
Ideas anyone? Having a non-mobile mobile is starting to get tedious.
Edit: Btw. I was also able to get screencasting from my Astro to computer working, but to see what I was doing on the Astro, I naturally had to also have HDMI attached, so I didn't gain much. Would I be able to somehow start the screencasting after a blind login, it might be useful, but there seems to be too many steps involved to be able to do that blindly, and as long as basic USB cable connectivity doesn't work, I'm kind of stuck anyway.
Post by: polarwinkel on June 22, 2023, 06:35:41 pm
If turning black sometimes one press on the power button brings it back, often turning black soon after.
Sometimes I can reproduce the "screen-crash" like when opening an eMail in k9-mail.
I am thinking about it being a combination of a software- and hardware-issue: When there is a certain load (opening eMail) the voltage drops somewhere and the screen turns off. Or something similar like the pictures show, which reminds me of my N900 running out of battery, leaving the display-controller with under-voltage.
I also have all the time since I have my Astro problems with the network dropping which I first thought was randomly, but I also could reproduce it fetching mails with k9-mail. As soon as I fetch them the network is dropping on both inserted sim-cards, even on the one not being configured for data. After some seconds the network reconnects again.
All this makes my Astro being a paperweight I turn on just once in a while to play around with, putting it back soon frustrated over all these bugs >:(
Post by: ArchiMark on June 23, 2023, 03:26:43 pm
Both updates went smooth and no hiccups.
:)
Mark
Post by: Daniel W on July 01, 2023, 05:07:05 pm
Never use the `b` partition on the Astro. It's a bit odd in partition structure, but you should be using the 'a' slot - I believe 'b' acts as temporary storage for OTA updates, where the new files are written there, then copied over to the 'a' slot.Good to know. It also means there never was a "good" partition to try to revert to anyway. The next thing then, was to try the 07B update, which, as I expected by now, changed nothing, so the screen in my Astro still will not turn on.
I have noticed that if I have the HDMI adapter plugged in to the left hand port and a USB cable to a PC in the right hand port, the Astro typically does not show up in Windows, not even in the device manager. If I reboot with both cables still plugged in, the Astro does show up in Windows afterwards. I can also get it to show up by booting and logging in blindly, without the HDMI, and then plugging in just the USB cable to the PC in the right hand port. Thus, I'm able to transfer files that way now, should I want to, but I had already copied whatever I might care about to a micro SD card.
ADB still doesn't find the Astro in either cable configuration, which makes me wonder if whatever generic driver makes the Astro show up as a portable device in Windows isn't enough for ADB to work, but as my reason for wanting to use ADB in the first place, was to try the other boot slot, before trying the 07B update, I don't think I have any use for ADB at the moment anyway, so it may not matter much right now.
I suppose I'll have to make another attempt e-mailing Planet next week. That Jeff guy I was in contact with, stopped responding after a few e-mails. Perhaps he went on vacation or something. Other than that, I'm out of ideas for now.
Post by: ZimbiX on July 02, 2023, 01:06:44 am
In another thread I found thisNever use the `b` partition on the Astro. It's a bit odd in partition structure, but you should be using the 'a' slot - I believe 'b' acts as temporary storage for OTA updates, where the new files are written there, then copied over to the 'a' slot.Good to know. It also means there never was a "good" partition to try to revert to anyway.
I don't think that is correct. See my writing on how the slots work within the rooting guide (https://github.com/shymega/planet-devices/wiki/Astro-rooting#find-out-which-slot-is-currently-in-use). We've proven that when rooting the boot image, the Astro only works properly if you'd read from the active slot.
Post by: Daniel W on July 02, 2023, 04:37:30 pm
If reverting to the factory boot slot could have helped, Planet should reasonably have mentioned it, weeks ago, while they still answered my e-mails, instead of just talking about the complexities of flashing. I may have to start over with a new support case and see if they begin answering again, though, in my experience, they tend to go quiet when don't have anything to say, so I'm not that hopeful.
Either way, if meaningful, I suppose flashing a copy, from somewhere, of the original image, would still, in theory, be possible. In reality, while I am a Windows software developer, with a few hours of Linux experience, I have no grasp on firmware flashing, and there seems to be plenty of pitfalls. As of now, though my Astro does show up for file transfer in Windows, when I plug in a USB cable to the right hand port, ADB can only see it via WiFi, which I suspect isn't low level enough, should it be needed for anything serious.
I did peek at your guide on rooting, which seems geared towards more knowledgeable tinkerers. From what I could grasp there, flashing seems to involve a command line Git client (which I have at work, but never use, as Visual Studio has an integrated frontend), some version of Python, Mtkclient and some serial port drivers... In other places I've read about things like scatter files, which, whatever they are, seems to ensure tragedy, unless treated exactly right...
Oh, well, I'm not even sure what I'm going on about here. It just seems getting this fixed at home, keeps getting ever more elusive...
Post by: polarwinkel on July 16, 2023, 03:28:34 pm
Post by: Daniel W on July 18, 2023, 03:36:24 pm
For Oliver Riesen, who seems to have a problem more similar to mine (his screen is on, but with trippy colours), a factory reset did not help. Since my screen remains off all the time, I'm reluctant to try a factory reset myself. Should, during any phase of the reset, external HDMI not work, I could get stuck, with no way out.
I finally got myself to contact Planet today again. Last time they stopped responding after two days, and the sad news of Update #84 might suggest they're currently busy with bigger problems than my screen, but, well... nothing is likely going to happen, unless I keep asking.
Post by: polarwinkel on July 23, 2023, 08:11:48 am
After the factory-reste it was gone as I posted, shortly after I turned my beloved dark mode on it reoccured, so I tured it back off and it was gone again.
I gave the dark theme a try again like 2-3 days ago: no issues, great!
Now in the evening the issues are back.
I believe I can reproduce it: If the total display bightness (sum over all pixels) is too low the display turns completely black, but the touchscreen is still responding. When I change blindly the screen content to something brighter it turns on again.
So my suggestion for a workaround: Stick to bright themes!
(I hate it, I love OLEDs for the dark dark display - but hey, at least I have an Astro!)
But about the trippy colours you/others have trouble with: I doubt that will help you guys :-(
Post by: Zarhan on July 23, 2023, 02:14:44 pm
I did a test just now. And indeed, if I drag the brightness setting to absolute minimum, what happens is that the display turns OFF - completely - and I have to increase the brightness blindly back up.
Could be it...
Post by: Dom (shymega) on July 23, 2023, 06:33:16 pm
In another thread I found thisNever use the `b` partition on the Astro. It's a bit odd in partition structure, but you should be using the 'a' slot - I believe 'b' acts as temporary storage for OTA updates, where the new files are written there, then copied over to the 'a' slot.Good to know. It also means there never was a "good" partition to try to revert to anyway.
I don't think that is correct. See my writing on how the slots work within the rooting guide (https://github.com/shymega/planet-devices/wiki/Astro-rooting#find-out-which-slot-is-currently-in-use). We've proven that when rooting the boot image, the Astro only works properly if you'd read from the active slot.
At the time, it was correct - before the update was rolled-out, 'b', was never available, and should not have been used. But now after v07, I guess my comment is incorrect.
Post by: Daniel W on July 28, 2023, 07:04:09 pm
I would find it rather intriguing if Daniel and others could fix their black screen issue by using the HDMI adapter and setting the brightness to max and/or setting the background to just a white image...Sorry for being slow to react... been sick a few days.
Ten days ago I tried to create a new support issue. Beyond the automated confirmation of them receiving my e-mail... nothing. Disappointing.
If I, pre-V07, set my display brightness below 17%, the entire screen would go black. Turning the brightness up a bit with the keyboard shortcuts would reliably activate it again. To prolong the life of the screen, I mostly used fairly low brightness settings, but rarely below 20% due to the blackout issue. Since I applied the V07 update in the evening, the brightness was likely around that value then.
When my Astro restarted with a black screen, trying to turn the brightness up, was probably the first thing I tried. Once I had connected the HDMI, restarted and got a picture that way, I could see in the settings that the brightness was all the way up, at 100%, confirming that the Astro had indeed registered my repeated attempts, just without actually turning the screen on again.
To leave no stone unturned, I made a while background today and set it as both the lock screen and home screen. With the brightness still at 100%, I rebooted, disconnected the HDMI adapter and... nothing, as kind of expected. I then repeated the experiment at 50%, just in case, to no avail. I also tried turning on adaptive brightness, which promptly lowered the brightness to 16%, which at least pre-V07 would have given me a black screen, without HDMI.
It might be worth repeating that I know that the screen, technically speaking, is on when HDMI isn't connected. After each of the reboots today, I put on headphones, to hear the clicks when typing my SIM PIN on the keyboard. Tapping the black screen at that point, also produces the same clicks in my headphones, proving that the screen indeed registers them.
As an extra confirmation, today I logged in blindly, double-tapped escape to start the camera app, and pecked at the black screen about where the shutter button would be. Sure enough, already on the first attempt (just luck), I heard the shutter sound in my headphones. When HDMI is connected though, it seems the internal screen is off completely or, at least, it or Android doesn't register taps.
Post by: Daniel W on September 05, 2023, 11:34:50 am
Edit 2023-Oct-09: Apparently, my Astro arrived Planet today, after a month of "being customs cleared", which is extra weird, given that it is being (and is labelled as) returned for repairs, so it's not like it's being "imported" or should be subject to any further fee, or anything...
Post by: Neophy on January 17, 2025, 02:42:28 pm
Post by: Neophy on January 30, 2025, 08:30:23 am
Post by: Dom (shymega) on January 30, 2025, 04:07:59 pm
Are you using corporate WiFi - or is this personally managed?
Post by: Neophy on January 30, 2025, 06:02:03 pm
Post by: Dom (shymega) on January 30, 2025, 06:10:22 pm
I tried Wi-Fi (at home): didn't work. Then I tried mobile data: worked (just checking for an update). Then I tried Wi-Fi (at home) again: didn't work. Then I tried mobile data: worked.
Strange. It works fine on WiFi at home for me and on mobile data - although I don't use the Astro much now.
I would recommend attempting to check on say, a public library's WiFi offering or a local cafe.
Do you have the V07b update? I'm wondering if this is possibly a parental control, or an ISP-mandated block.
Post by: Neophy on January 31, 2025, 06:10:31 am
Post by: spa on June 05, 2025, 08:15:08 pm
By app, I have been able to fix the following problems which I believe are specifications.
Screen flickers in dark places.
The screen turns off in dark places.
Slow response to screen brightness changes.
My device is rooted, I have not been able to test if it works on unrooted devices.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jp.ssipa.cosmoctl
https://ssipa.web.fc2.com/index_Astro_1.html#20241027