Sony Xperia XA2

Building and installing

There are multiple installation methods for your Sony Xperia XA2. They all rely on flashing one or more partitions on your device.

Warning

All installation methods can lead to data loss.

Flashing a partition will erase everything on the partition. Additionally, the common backups methods, e.g. TWRP, will not backup the userdata partition, which may be the installation target.

Make backups.

Using Fastboot

This will produce a folder with a flashing script, and the partition images for your Sony Xperia XA2.

$ nix-build --argstr device sony-pioneer -A build.android-fastboot-images

Alternatively, you can build a specific partition image:

$ nix-build --argstr device sony-pioneer -A build.android-bootimg
$ nix-build --argstr device sony-pioneer -A build.rootfs

The device will need to be booted in its bootloader, or fastboot, mode.

The boot images can be installed using the following command, assuming the android-fastboot-images output was used.

$ result/flash-critical.sh

If you have a system image (system.img) built, you can use fastboot to flash it to the device. Note that it might be too big to fit over the system partition. In such case, it can be flashed on the userdata partition.

$ fastboot flash userdata system.img

Using a flashable zip

An alternative installation method is to use a flashable zip. The flashable zip can be built for your Sony Xperia XA2 using one of the following commands:

$ nix-build --argstr device sony-pioneer -A build.android-flashable-bootimg
$ nix-build --argstr device sony-pioneer -A build.android-flashable-system
$ nix-build --argstr device sony-pioneer -A build.android-flashable-zip

The first two will flash only a specific partition. The last one contains the partitions of the two previous one.

The zip can either be copied to the device and selected in a compatible Android recovery, or sent to the device through adb sideload.

$ adb sideload /nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-flashable-sony-pioneer-boot.zip

By default it will flash to the system partition. Some configurations may change this to flash to the userdata partition. In that case, no warning is given before flashing.

Device-specific notes

Fastboot

This device has a quirky way to get to fastboot.

You have to have the device connected to a computer, or else it will not activate fastboot mode.
Fastboot shows nothing on the display

With the phone connected to a computer, hold volume up and somehow cause a reboot (from the system, or by holding power to force reset).

Alternatively, from a powered-off state, hold volume up and connect to your computer.

Finally, you can always trigger a reboot to bootloader via software. From within Mobile NixOS, sudo reboot bootloader, or from an Android-based system using adb reboot bootloader or equivalent methods.

Note that the LED will light up blue when in fastboot mode.

Failure to `fastboot flash`

It is possible that you might run into issues with this device when connected to a USB3 port with a USB3 cable. If that happens:

Check if there is a USB2 port on your computer or on the USB hub you are using. Connect your phone to the USB2 port for flashing instead.
If your USB hub only has USB3 ports, then connect the hub to PC with a USB2 data cable, and XA2 to the hub with any USB data cable ("USB Type-C" in the XA2 end).
If there are only USB3 ports available, you can force your USB3 ports to USB2 mode.

Forcing USB3 ports to USB2 mode

The following commands will force all USB3 ports to USB2 mode temporarily.

 $ nix-shell -p pciutils
 [nix-shell:~]$ lspci -nn | grep USB | cut -d '[' -f3 | cut -d ']' -f1 | xargs -I@ sudo setpci -H1 -d @ d0.l=0

After which hopefully the procedure works. After successfully flashing, restart your computer to bring the USB3 ports to their normal mode.

Alternatively, the following commands can be used to revert the change.

 $ nix-shell -p pciutils
 [nix-shell:~]$ lspci -nn | grep USB | cut -d '[' -f3 | cut -d ']' -f1 | xargs -I@ sudo setpci -H1 -d @ d0.l=1