Author Topic: Astro update to V07  (Read 16554 times)

Zarhan

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #15 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).
« Last Edit: May 25, 2023, 08:00:15 am by Zarhan »

ZimbiX

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #16 on: May 25, 2023, 10:50:21 am »
@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?

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.

As much as I wish the OTA addressed more issues, I'm very grateful for what they have delivered - particularly the security update.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2023, 10:52:00 am by ZimbiX »

Daniel W

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #17 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.
(Then, when the "No command" shows up, press and hold power, and again tap volume up to get to the menu).
Well, details matters. Thank you very much.

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.


Zarhan

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #18 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).

Oliver Riesen

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #19 on: May 26, 2023, 03:11:41 am »
Hi,

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

ZimbiX

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #20 on: May 26, 2023, 06:35:38 am »
@Oliver: Woah. Terrible bug. Maybe it's related to Daniel's screen issue.. There seem to be several super weird bugs affecting only a few people - I wonder what the pattern is here. Some sort of partition image corruption during the update?

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

undecisive

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #21 on: May 26, 2023, 06:50:23 am »
Hi, I've just had exactly the same this morning. Ran the update, clicked the reboot button, left the phone on charge for about an hour - came back to find that my screen is completely dead. It'll buzz on forced power-off and reboot, and when I double-press the power button (presumably camera?)

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?


Daniel W

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #22 on: May 26, 2023, 08:53:23 am »
Trippy colors... whatever this is, it seems to affect multiple users, in different ways.

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.


Daniel W

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #23 on: May 26, 2023, 09:18:12 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.

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.

Zarhan

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #24 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.

undecisive

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #25 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.

Oliver Riesen

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #26 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...  >:(




Daniel W

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #27 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.

Oliver Riesen

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #28 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)...

ZimbiX

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Re: Astro update to V07
« Reply #29 on: May 29, 2023, 01:34:35 pm »
@Oliver They wouldn't provide you with the firmware to do a full reflash? I'd be trying that first as a cheaper and quicker option! But I guess you've already ordered a new phone, so how long they take to fix and return it is less of an issue.

Edit: @Daniel Have you had any luck with getting the firmware from Planet?
« Last Edit: May 29, 2023, 01:37:20 pm by ZimbiX »