Android 8.1 for the Gemini to be available later this week

[gidds]

Doesn't the OTA updater verify the checksum before applying the update???

That sounds like a gigantic oversight if it doesn't

I think it does verify the checksum.  That's why the update fails on rooted Android, for example.

[Varti]

Sean Hoyt, one of the admins of the Gemini PDA channel on Telegram, has compiled himself a binary of  the Oreo release from the released sources. Like the official OTA version, this unofficial release is also for Wifi+4G Geminis only, for devices with an x25 CPU (for x27 devices see below).
"First boot takes a bit, keep in mind this is unofficial so OTA will never work on it. This build is also the same as the release build, feature and fixes wise."
This version can be only flashed using the SPFlashtool. On Windows you'll have to unzip the archive using 7zip or WinRAR, since it has been compressed using the LZMA compression. Note that this version only works on x25 devices, but it can be flashed on x27 ones as well by using the Android 7's scatter file for X27 instead of the supplied one.
Sean has also stated that he'll consider a version for WiFi-only devices and/or a version without Google's services, no promises though.

http://drive.google.com/open?id=1dfVer_ijC...mfkav30YSVyiymT

Note: use this version at your own risk! This release is unofficial,  further OTA updates won't work on it. Please do not report any bugs to Planet or the build author while it is installed.

Thanks Sean for your effort!

Varti

[Hitherwood]

I got my update fine yesterday OTA. I did have to try about six times because of a server error.
Plain unrooted Android 4G system.

[Daniel W]

I got my update fine yesterday OTA. I did have to try about six times because of a server error.
Plain unrooted Android 4G system.

That's reassuring, I think, as it seems to suggest the update itself is mostly OK and was pulled for other reasons than being faulty, say, bandwidth issues. That makes me hope, we won't have to wait all that long, before its online again.

On a slightly unrelated note, I got an update to Ledison (with 8.1 support) earlier today. That update was timestamped May 6, so it seems Planet Computers are doing SOMETHING, when they aren't busy not telling us what's going on ;-)

[gemini_user_j]

Just seen: [!--quoteo(post=0:date=:name=facebook/planetcom)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(facebook/planetcom)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]As many of you will know, this week’s planned Android 8.1 OTA update did not go as we intended and led to some of our customers struggling to update their Gemini PDA’s or other issues. For that, we are very sorry and we thank you for your patience.

A server issue with our over the air (OTA) firmware download partners is being resolved and several hundred Gemini users are now running Android Oreo. The OTA update will be available, but for users who wish to upgrade manually, we have also made the firmware update available for download on our official support website. This link is as follows: http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/G...droid_8_Upgrade

Here you can find a step-by-step guide on how to update your Gemini PDA to Android 8.1 and some release notes on new features for Android 8.

Please also note that we have had reports that the NTT DoCoMo network in Japan is not detected by the Android 8 firmware. We are investigating as a priority and advise customers in the region using the NTT DoCoMo network to please wait to upgrade their Gemini until further information is provided.

We hope that you will enjoy the Android 8 Oreo system and thank you again for your patience and continued support.[/quote] - http://www.facebook.com/planetcom/posts/1282184601935068

[rodgos]

Well, I don't think I've enjoyed the action since the last time I got hung up straddling a barbed wire fence. I've just completed two attempts at updating. The first using the PC to copy the ota.zip file, and the second, entirely on the Gemini, following every step that pertained to manual updating. Not easy., all seemed to go through the described processes, except at the final action where we were assured the message of final updating would be displayed. Instead it was the usual recovery style page prompting reboot. I did that, and it did actually reboot. Until, that is I went to Settings to find the Android version was still set at 7.1.1. Does nothing work as described? It all does take me back to my days in IT support. Seemingly about 80% of the time on installs, nothing ever went as described. On one occasion, setting up a Novell Netware Server, it took the four of us an entire weekend to get the thing to perform, and at the end, not one of us knew what had finally done the trick. One thing we did resolve, was that never, never, were we ever going to turn the thing off.

[shinkamui]

Painful update, finally tracked down the full firmware flash.  Even after wasting the evening flashing back to single non rooted android with standard recovery, the OTA failed to install due to custom partition?  So far really liking oreo on gemini, lots of QoL fixes.  Really NOT liking the lack of root though...

Pleasant side note: wifi calling now works??

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

[greguu]

The official Android Oreo firmware update is now also available for flashing:
http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Gemini_Firmware
The online partition tool has not been updated yet as time of this writing, unfortunately. Hopefully this will be done soon.

[Mithren Ithil]

So I followed the following guide to update:

http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/G...droid_8_Upgrade

After following the instructions to delete the existing ota.zip (which was 1.05GB) and then downloading one from the official link.  

When I went to manually update, the updater shows "New version found", but the rest of the info (PatchID, PatchSize, UpdateDate) is all blank.

This was the same as when my updater appeared to have hung.  I think what happened was the original OTA update finished downloading, but then popped up the screen to ask me to click "Firmware Update", but had blank info...

So this time I bit the bullet and clicked the button and the update kicked off.

I can report the same issues as suffered by others:

1. The boot screen starts half blank, but fixes it self (something to do with screen rotation maybe?)
2. I was only missing one app on my launcher.  I'm using T-UI so its a bit harder for me to see whats missing, but so far I was only missing Keepass2Android which fixed itself after a reboot.

The only continuing real issue I'm having is LINE Messenger just hangs.  I'm going to wait for an app update to see if that fixes it, but if not I'll reinstalling and restore as much as I can from backup.

So far I haven't really noticed anything different as I mostly use my Gemini as a "traditional PDA" rather then a full fledged phone.  

That battery usage notification is a bit annoying does anyone know how to turn it off?

<EDIT>
Soooo after using it for a while, the light theme (the right hand menu bar swapping from black to white depending what app) is doing my nut in.   I can't remember if it was in the previous version, but right now it's soooooooooo annoying.  

Some apps like YouTube and MX Player I can set the theme in the app itself, but in others I can't seem to change it.

From the Googles I think that there is no built in dark/light theme in Android 8.  Is this the case and does anyone have any suggestions of getting around it please?
</EDIT>

[SNi]

The official Android Oreo firmware update is now also available for flashing: http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Gemini_Firmware.  The online partition tool has not been updated yet as time of this writing, unfortunately. Hopefully this will be done soon.

I downloaded the latest file and followed the instructions at http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/A..._Flashing_Guide. Completed successfully! After this my Gemini went into a loop:  Vibrate... First Planet splash screen (Tux)... Dark... Vibrate... First Planet splash screen (Tux)... Dark (again and again). After two hours of this "loop" I  gave up. I copied the 'old' files back into the Flash Tool and went through the process. After this my Gemini recovered to 7.1.1 and started fine.... Well except that the second time I forgot to uncheck 'user data' so have lost all my settings, etc.

Bottom line: back on 7.1.1 with a 'as new' Gemini...

[bloblo]

I downloaded the latest file and followed the instructions at http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/A..._Flashing_Guide. Completed successfully! After this my Gemini went into a loop:

Have you used the new scatter file, and made sure to pick firmware upgrade rather than download only? Once I did that, it worked fine and I got a bootable 8.1. WARNING: that will nuke your userdata again, obviously - but it works

[Daniel W]

Finally, I've been able to update my X25 4G Gemini to Oreo Over-The-Air.

I know Hitherwood posted in this thread on May 7, telling that he'd been able to update his Gemini OTA, but I think he's got an X27 4G unit, so I'd hereby like to share that it finally worked for at least my X25 4G unit as well. I know manual download of the update has been available for a while, but I decided to wait for the OTA update to get fixed, partly since I wasn't in any particular hurry to get Oreo and party so I could use my own Gemini to verify that the X25 4G OTA update actually got fixed.

All my previous attempts, always stalled no later than at 359.36MB and wouldn't resume. Other posts in this thread, mentions that exact number too, and MarkD posted on May 6, which is before the update was pulled for a few days, that the OTA server appeared to be missing one particular file.

When the OTA update came back on line, my downloads kept stalling at that point, so just in case Planet Computers maybe fixed something for the X27 update but not for the X25, on Saturday May 11, I sent them an e-mail, to which I got no reply (nor do I need one), but when I tried again (after removing the OTA.ZIP leftover from the previous attempt, and clearing data for the firmware updater) at about two'o clock PM on Monday May 13, the OTA download kept going until it was done. Maybe it was a coincidence or maybe there WAS something wrong with the X25 update. In any case, it seems to work now. The update as such felt pretty much like any Android update; it unpacked some files, rebooted, installed and rebooted again. One of the reboots left the screen off for a bit too long for comfort, but other than that, it seemed very smooth. I haven't really used my Gemini after the update, but any issues with Oreo as such belongs in another thread anyway.

In general, the OTA download seems slower and jerkier during western Europe daytime and appears to improve considerably after midnight. Whether that depends on the update server itself or on some part of the internet between me and the server, I don't know, but if experiencing a choppy download during western European daytime, trying in the wee hours might give a smoother download experience.

[rodgos]

Well, here's a radical shift. After a number of aborted uploads, this morning (Monday), the upload went the whole way without problem. I followed all the required actions, tapped "Install Now", to gain the install pop-up tapped to upgrade. All went well to complete the 8.1 upgrade. However the normal Planet boot sequence of rotating planets disappeared and left a dark screen. A short while later another buzz and a white ring appeared, with a progress bar. When that had finished the "Android Recovery" menu appeared. Since nothing happened, I tapped for the default "reboot" option which did, in fact re-boot the machine. BUT, into Android 7.1.1!!! Thinking that the upgrade had somehow failed I went through the whole process once more. To get exactly the same process. The system is now standing at the Android recovery menu for version 7.1.1. What the hell do I do now? Powering off and re-starting, the machine does in fact reboot properly. But, still in Android 7.1.1

[Daniel W]

What the hell do I do now?

Unless you've already tried that, use the file manager to delete the OTA.ZIP (from Home/Internal Shared Storage) file from previous attempts. Then go to settings > apps > "three dots in upper right corner" > Show system -> Find and tap "Firmware Update" in the list > tap Storage > Tap Clear Data > Confirm, and then try to download the update again.

It seems the updater creates an empty 1.05GB file (probably to make sure there's enough storage) and then overwrites that with what it downloads. Sometimes it seems the updater can erroneously believe it has downloaded the entire update, when it actually hasn't. In my case, the updater once jumped from being stalled at 359MB to "Install Now" in a heartbeat. After that, I begun tidying up after previous attempts before trying again.

If the download stalls and doesn't resume, I'd suggest trying the whole process again late at night as the download server seems to struggle a bit during western European daytime.

[rodgos]

Thanks, Daniel W. I did as suggested. I'd already done most but not deleted the ota.zip, in previous attempts. The update went exactly as had all the others. I kept an ey on the file loading, and as far as I could tell, the file was fully loaded. The result however is the same. This time, with more inspection of progress time, I noted on the Android Recovery page that came up, finally,, a block of text at the bottom of the screen which probably explains the failure. This was as follows:-

Supported API 3
Charge_status 5 charged 1 .status 0 . capacity 100
Opening update package...
Verifying update package...
Update package verification took 11.5 s (result 0)
error . Partition table not match
Update.zip is not correct
Installation aborted.

I'd not noticed it before, but it probably was there. The font size is a bit difficult to make reading easy.. There we are. As I've probably pointed out before, most installs/updates seldom seem to work as they should, and there's never an explanation as to why. Hey, ho.