Install PixelExperience on DRG
Back to the overviewDo not continue after something fails!
Basic requirements
- Read through the instructions at least once before actually following them, so as to avoid any problems due to any missed steps!
- Make sure your computer has
adb
andfastboot
. Setup instructions can be found here. - Enable USB debugging on your device.
- Boot your device with the stock OS at least once and check every functionality. Make sure that you can send and receive SMS and place and receive calls (also via WiFi and LTE, if available), otherwise it won’t work on PixelExperience either! Additionally, some devices require that VoLTE/VoWiFi be utilized once on stock to provision IMS.
- PixelExperience is provided as-is with no warranty. While we attempt to verify everything works you are installing this at your own risk!
Unlocking the bootloader
-
Install Nokia USB Drivers (required): To ensure that your device is properly detected during the bootloader unlock process, make sure to install the required. If you already have the required drivers installed you can skip this step. To install the drivers, download this installer package from GitHub and install it to your computer.
-
Download and extract the Nokia Bootloader Unlock tool from here. Using this tool you can easily unlock the bootloader of your device without touching the command line. Use a zip management tool of your choice to extract the tool to a folder on your computer.
-
Reboot the phone into download mode: Now you need to boot your device to download mode. Follow these steps for bootloader mode:
- Turn off your phone.
- Connect the USB cable to the device only and not the computer.
- Press and hold Volume Down + Power key together till you reach the screen reads that reads “Download mode”.
Alternatively, you can also use the command
adb reboot bootloader
from the stock ROM to bring the phone to download mode.
-
Generate OTP for the Unlock Tool: To avoid misuse and limit usage, the tool uses OTP (One-time password). Before you unlock you need to get an OTP. You can generate one from here
-
Run the Unlock Tool and unlock your phone Now you can use the previously generated OTP to unlock the bootloader of your device.
- Run the “Bootloader Unlock by tm.exe” file in the folder where you extracted the tool
- Paste the OTP (from step 3) into the Enter OTP box in the Unlock Tool.
- Connect your smartphone in download mode.
- Click on the “BEGIN UNLOCK” button.
- Wait for the process to complete and follow the instructions shown in the output window.
- Your device should prompt you for unlock. Use the volume keys to accept the unlock
Note: The tool will try to automatically unlock the device in fastboot mode. However, sometimes that can fail. Please put the device to fastboot mode manually if that happens.
Unlocking the bootloader
-
Install Nokia USB Drivers (required): To ensure that your device is properly detected during the bootloader unlock process, make sure to install the required. If you already have the required drivers installed you can skip this step. To install the drivers, download this installer package from GitHub and install it to your computer.
-
Download and extract the Nokia Bootloader Unlock tool from here. Using this tool you can easily unlock the bootloader of your device without touching the command line. Use a zip management tool of your choice to extract the tool to a folder on your computer.
-
Reboot the phone into download mode: Now you need to boot your device to download mode. Follow these steps for bootloader mode:
- Turn off your phone.
- Connect the USB cable to the device only and not the computer.
- Press and hold Volume Down + Power key together till you reach the screen reads that reads “Download mode”.
Alternatively, you can also use the command
adb reboot bootloader
from the stock ROM to bring the phone to download mode.
-
Generate OTP for the Unlock Tool: To avoid misuse and limit usage, the tool uses OTP (One-time password). Before you unlock you need to get an OTP. You can generate one from here
-
Run the Unlock Tool and unlock your phone Now you can use the previously generated OTP to unlock the bootloader of your device.
- Run the “Bootloader Unlock by tm.exe” file in the folder where you extracted the tool
- Paste the OTP (from step 3) into the Enter OTP box in the Unlock Tool.
- Connect your smartphone in download mode.
- Click on the “BEGIN UNLOCK” button.
- Wait for the process to complete and follow the instructions shown in the output window.
- Your device should prompt you for unlock. Use the volume keys to accept the unlock
Note: The tool will try to automatically unlock the device in fastboot mode. However, sometimes that can fail. Please put the device to fastboot mode manually if that happens.
Temporarily booting a custom recovery using fastboot
-
Download the custom recovery.
Important: Other recoveries may not work for installation or updates. We strongly recommend to use the one linked above! - Connect your device to your PC via USB if it isn’t already.
- If your device isn’t already in fastboot mode, on the computer, open a command prompt (on Windows) or terminal (on Linux or macOS) window, and type:
adb reboot bootloader
You can also boot into fastboot mode via a key combination:
- With the device powered off, hold Volume Down and connect to a computer.
- Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC finds it by typing:
fastboot devices
If you don’t get any output or an error:
- on Windows: make sure the device appears in the device manager without a triangle. Try other drivers until the command above works!
- on Linux or macOS: If you see
no permissions fastboot
try runningfastboot
as root. When the output is empty, check your USB cable (preferably use a USB Type-A 2.0 one or a USB hub) and port!
Tip: Some devices have buggy USB support while in bootloader mode, if you seefastboot
hanging with no output when using commands such asfastboot getvar ...
,fastboot boot ...
,fastboot flash ...
you may want to try a different USB port (preferably a USB Type-A 2.0 one) or a USB hub. - Flash a recovery on your device by typing (replace
<recovery_filename>
with the actual filename!):fastboot flash boot <recovery_filename>.img
Note: Outdated fastboot releases dropped legacy A/B support, so it might attempt to flash toboot__a
/boot__b
rather thanboot_a
/boot_b
if you try to flashboot
. In this case, you must updatefastboot
to a release newer than or equal to31.0.2
. Alternatively, you can manually specify which slot to flash to based on what slot fastboot failed to flash to. For example, if fastboot fails to flash toboot__a
, you must flash toboot_a
. - Now reboot into recovery to verify the installation.
- With the device powered off, hold Volume Up and connect to a computer.
Installing PixelExperience from recovery
- Download the PixelExperience installation package that you would like to install or build the package yourself.
- If you are not in recovery, reboot into recovery:
- With the device powered off, hold Volume Up and connect to a computer.
- Now tap Wipe.
- Now tap Format Data and continue with the formatting process. This will remove encryption and delete all files stored in the internal storage.
- Sideload the PixelExperience
.zip
package:- On the device, select “Advanced”, “ADB Sideload”, then swipe to begin sideload.
- On the host machine, sideload the package using:
adb sideload filename.zip
.Tip: Normally, adb will reportTotal xfer: 1.00x
, but in some cases, even if the process succeeds the output will stop at 47% and reportTotal xfer: 0.98x
oradb: failed to read command: Success
. In some cases it will reportadb: failed to read command: No error
oradb: failed to read command: Undefined error: 0
which is also fine.
- Once you have installed everything successfully, run ‘adb reboot’.
Get assistance
After you’ve double checked that you followed the steps precisely, didn’t skip any and still have questions or got stuck, feel free to ask on our Telegram group.