Firmware Update 2018-10-09

[gymbo]

[…later…]

Actually, there's one problem: my (portable, unadopted) SD card is now writable only by root.  It was always owned by root, but my normal user could read and write.  Now it can only read, and I can't seem to change the permissions on it…

Any ideas?

I too have noticed that I now have "trouble" with saving to the SD card. I wasn't sure if it was the firmware upgrade, or the fact that I updated my office-app, that caused the problems. SOMETIMES I get it to save properly (and it seems I "fooled" it once when it wouldn't save a document, by creating a new one and saving it to the SD-card, before trying to save the "original" again, but it might have just been random luck...).

X-plore doesn't seem to have any problem with the card, and my office-apps can read from it, but trying to save to it usually fails... I have set the SD-card as "main storage", so just saving a file will usually work, but editing ALMOST always fail... Strange        

So now I will probably have to copy/move the file I want to edit to the internal storage with a filemanager, edit and save, and then move it back...?

Not rooted by the way...

And it is nice that it seems that the problems with sound and earphones now seem to be solved!

[SNi]

Upgraded... Grr, WiFi won't turn on... just sits at this screen.  Any thought/ideas re what to do?

[gidds]

Problem #2: there's a process called ‘android.process.media’ which is running in the background, chewing up about half of my CPU!  I killed it, but it returned, and has been running for several hours now…  Help!

[gidds]

Problem #2: there's a process called ‘android.process.media’ which is running in the background, chewing up about half of my CPU!

I seem to have fixed this: after doing Settings->Apps->Show system->Media Storage->Force stop, although it restarted, it's no longer using significant CPU.

I'll still keep an eye on it, though...

(It's lucky I spotted it; my battery dropped from about 70% to under 20% in a couple of hours!)

[salvomic]

I seem to have fixed this: after doing Settings->Apps->Show system->Media Storage->Force stop, although it restarted, it's no longer using significant CPU.

I'll still keep an eye on it, though...

(It's lucky I spotted it; my battery dropped from about 70% to under 20% in a couple of hours!)

strange problem...
Not here: 96% of battery since 8:30 AM till now (about 2 PM) but I used very few Gemini today...

Salvo

[rasva]

Same here, Wifi will not turn ON. Well, that is not good.

Upgraded... Grr, WiFi won't turn on... just sits at this screen.  Any thought/ideas re what to do?

[rasva]

Well, I reverted back to previous version. After bit more looking I saw that the new firmware even does not contain rooted boot image. For me it is useless, I will rather continue with buggy buetooth than no root or wifi.

[speculatrix]

For those who repartitioned for multi-boot, Planet published the image for manual updated on their flashing page

http://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool.html

Code: [Select]

$ unzip -l Gemini_x27_08102018_base.zip
Archive:  Gemini_x27_08102018_base.zip
  Length      Date    Time    Name
---------  ---------- -----   ----
        0  2018-10-10 14:56   Gemini_x27_08102018/
 17934720  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/md1rom-verified.img
   135168  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/secro.img
   204308  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/preloader_aeon6797_6m_n.bin
  1007760  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/md1dsp-verified.img
 10644947  2018-10-10 14:27   Gemini_x27_08102018/root_boot.img
    94208  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/trustzone.bin
 10398592  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/boot-verified.img
2424911328  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/system.img
  5447562  2018-06-19 12:39   Gemini_x27_08102018/logo_s.bin
    73776  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/tinysys-scp.bin
  9044296  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/cache.img
     4192  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/md1arm7-verified.img
  4093232  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/md3rom-verified.img
 53470088  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/userdata.img
   459824  2018-06-15 13:59   Gemini_x27_08102018/lk_s.bin
 11893632  2018-10-08 13:31   Gemini_x27_08102018/recovery.img
---------                     -------
2549817633                     17 files

[jakfish]

I flashed the stock Android (no multi-boot) and all went well. A word of caution: I found the spinning-balls screen (upon reboot) to stay on for an exceptionally long time, longer than my other flashes. Be extra patient.

And Salvo, thanks for your fine instructions.

Jake

[gidds]

I saw that the new firmware even does not contain rooted boot image.

Well, I used it to reflash my already-rooted Gemini, and it's still rooted…

I found the spinning-balls screen (upon reboot) to stay on for an exceptionally long time, longer than my other flashes.

Mine too.  I think it was about 2 minutes.

[bloblo]

Fascinating! I thought my wifi was just a random hiccup, but now that I read it here: my wifi doesn't really want to work either. So is this an issue with the new image?

I don't have issues with the SD Card, but I set it to be part of the "internal storage" (repartitioned/reformatted to be "integrated") so maybe that's the reason why it works fine...?

I used the rooted variant by the way. Works fine, other than the update process being a horribly abysmal joke.

[rasva]

Ah, I see. Those with partitioned Gemini (like me) should not use the Android firmware from Planet support page, but the firmware downloadable from page with partition tool. The first one is (or was at the time I downloaded it) lacking rooted boot image. Which somehow in combination with custom scatter file messed my wifi.  Meantime I solved my problem by fresh install of not rooted stock and rooting by myself (using TWRP and Magisk). Now it seem to work OK.

[bloblo]

Ah, I see. Those with partitioned Gemini (like me) should not use the Android firmware from Planet support page, but the firmware downloadable from page with partition tool. The first one is (or was at the time I downloaded it) lacking rooted boot image. Which somehow in combination with custom scatter file messed my wifi.  Meantime I solved my problem by fresh install of not rooted stock and rooting by myself (using TWRP and Magisk). Now it seem to work OK.

Well if I have root without TWRP it has to be the rooted image, right? I think I got the right one. However, this whole flashing nonsense just illustrates how much it sucks that Planet Computers doesn't provide a proper update mechanism for the rooted variant... really, really annoying. I suppose I'll have to contact support and see if they have an idea...

Edit: just as an additional note, I did a fresh wipe (including resetting userdata) with the original image and an upgrade to the new one with a flash without userdata on the same day, so I'm pretty sure it's not something deeper messed up by me changing settings or whatever. I wrote to support now, hoping they can figure out what is wrong with the image such that Wifi breaks after updating

[SNi]

Upgraded... Grr, WiFi won't turn on... just sits at this screen.  Any thought/ideas re what to do?

OK, so when I downloaded and used the "LATEST - Gemini x27 Android FOTA4 08/10/2018 - MD5: e524742864bf683932c8e9d6d7f21abf" from the 'PC Gemini Firmware' page it borked my WiFi. However, when I went to the 'PC Gemini Partition Tool' page and downloaded using the 'Download Base Firmware button and used that file it did not bork the WiFi, so now I appear to be good to go.

There apparently are slight differences in the files you get between these two...

[SNi]

Ah, I see. Those with partitioned Gemini (like me) should not use the Android firmware from Planet support page, but the firmware downloadable from page with partition tool. The first one is (or was at the time I downloaded it) lacking rooted boot image. Which somehow in combination with custom scatter file messed my wifi.  Meantime I solved my problem by fresh install of not rooted stock and rooting by myself (using TWRP and Magisk). Now it seem to work OK.

Yep, you got it!