SM8250: qcom-abl bootloader

[porschemad911]

Summary

SM8250: qcom-abl bootloader

Testing

Clean flash

• Fresh flash tested on my RP Mini V2 with rocknix-abl v1.1.7 (since V1.1.5)
• Tested many qcom-abl-based OTA updates

Update from stock abl / stable grub ROCKNIX build

Update: after merging PR #3217 the update process to a ROCKNIX ABL-based build from the stock bootloader and GRUB-based ROCKNIX build works fine.

Testing updates prior to merging PR: https://github.com//pull/3217

Flashed stock recovery package from https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mE2Fe_Nuek8XW9geciksXUZtoxV6m2yF with qdl version 1.0+git20250319.30ac3a8-1:

$ qdl --storage=ufs prog_firehose_ddr.elf rawprogram*.xml patch*.xml
waiting for programmer...
flashed "xbl_a" successfully at 3400kB/s                                                               
flashed "xbl_config_a" successfully
flashed "PrimaryGPT" successfully
flashed "BackupGPT" successfully
flashed "xbl_b" successfully                                                                           
flashed "xbl_config_b" successfully
flashed "PrimaryGPT" successfully
flashed "BackupGPT" successfully
flashed "ddr" successfully
flashed "PrimaryGPT" successfully
flashed "BackupGPT" successfully
flashed "modem_a" successfully at 59516kB/s                                                            
flashed "modem_b" successfully at 29758kB/s                                                            
flashed "aop_a" successfully
flashed "tz_a" successfully                                                                            
flashed "hyp_a" successfully
dsp_a                [#########################################################################] 100.00                                                                                                       flashed "dsp_a" successfully at 65536kB/s
flashed "keymaster_a" successfully
flashed "cmnlib_a" successfully
flashed "cmnlib64_a" successfully
flashed "devcfg_a" successfully
flashed "qupfw_a" successfully
flashed "uefisecapp_a" successfully
flashed "multiimgoem_a" successfully
flashed "featenabler_a" successfully
flashed "aop_b" successfully
flashed "tz_b" successfully                                                                            
flashed "hyp_b" successfully
flashed "dsp_b" successfully at 32768kB/s                                                              
flashed "keymaster_b" successfully
flashed "cmnlib_b" successfully
flashed "cmnlib64_b" successfully
flashed "devcfg_b" successfully
flashed "qupfw_b" successfully
flashed "uefisecapp_b" successfully
flashed "multiimgoem_b" successfully
flashed "featenabler_b" successfully
flashed "apdp" successfully
flashed "devinfo" successfully
flashed "logfs" successfully
flashed "spunvm" successfully
flashed "abl_a" successfully
abl_b                [#########################################################################] 100.00                                                                                                       flashed "abl_b" successfully
flashed "boot_a" successfully at 49152kB/s                                                             
flashed "boot_b" successfully at 32768kB/s                                                             
flashed "dtbo_a" successfully                                                                          
flashed "dtbo_b" successfully                                                                          
flashed "recovery_a" successfully at 34133kB/s                                                         
flashed "recovery_b" successfully at 51200kB/s                                                         
flashed "vbmeta_a" successfully
flashed "vbmeta_b" successfully
flashed "loader_a" successfully
flashed "loader_b" successfully
flashed "imagefv_a" successfully
flashed "imagefv_b" successfully
flashed "PrimaryGPT" successfully
flashed "BackupGPT" successfully
flashed "PrimaryGPT" successfully
flashed "BackupGPT" successfully
flashed "persist" successfully at 32768kB/s                                                            
flashed "bluetooth_a" successfully
flashed "bluetooth_b" successfully
metadata             [#########################################################################] 100.00                                                                                                       flashed "metadata" successfully
flashed "metadata" successfully
flashed "vbmeta_system_a" successfully
flashed "super" successfully
flashed "super" successfully
flashed "super" successfully at 41365kB/s                                                              
flashed "super" successfully at 40021kB/s                                                              
super                [#########################################################################] 100.00                                                                                                       flashed "super" successfully at 39839kB/s
flashed "super" successfully at 41242kB/s                                                              
flashed "vbmeta_system_b" successfully
flashed "userdata" successfully
flashed "userdata" successfully
flashed "userdata" successfully at 43017kB/s                                                           
flashed "userdata" successfully
flashed "userdata" successfully
flashed "userdata" successfully
flashed "userdata" successfully
flashed "userdata" successfully
flashed "userdata" successfully
flashed "userdata" successfully
PrimaryGPT           [#########################################################################] 100.00                                                                                                       flashed "PrimaryGPT" successfully
flashed "BackupGPT" successfully
78 patches applied
partition 1 is now bootable

Flashed fixed loader for RP Mini V2 here: https://rocknix.org/devices/retroid/retroid-pocket-mini/#retroid-pocket-mini-v2

$ fastboot flash loader_a u-boot-sm8250-retroidpocket-rpminiv2.img
Sending 'loader_a' (632 KB)                        OKAY [  0.019s]
Writing 'loader_a'                                 OKAY [  0.009s]
Finished. Total time: 0.046s
$ fastboot flash loader_b u-boot-sm8250-retroidpocket-rpminiv2.img
Sending 'loader_b' (632 KB)                        OKAY [  0.019s]
Writing 'loader_b'                                 OKAY [  0.009s]
Finished. Total time: 0.038s

Flashed 20260801 monthly release to an SD card:

$ gunzip -c ../ROCKNIX-SM8250.aarch64-20260801.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sda bs=1M conv=fsync status=progress
2141814784 bytes (2.1 GB, 2.0 GiB) copied, 21 s, 102 MB/s2198863872 bytes (2.2 GB, 2.0 GiB) copied, 21.8835 s, 100 MB/s

0+66124 records in
0+66124 records out
2198863872 bytes (2.2 GB, 2.0 GiB) copied, 47.1047 s, 46.7 MB/s

Booted up fine, but block device with abl partitions had GPT partition table corruption:

ROCKNIX:~ # partprobe /dev/sde
Error: The primary GPT table is corrupt, but the backup appears OK, so that will be used.
ROCKNIX:~ #

After a couple of partprobe attempts, was able to run updateabl successfully:

ROCKNIX:~ # updateabl 
Error: The primary GPT table is corrupt, but the backup appears OK, so that will be used.
Reading 63 sectors from ABL_A...
Reading 63 sectors from ABL_B...
Checksum abl_a: a858784
Checksum abl_b: a858784
Checksum update: d115de9
Checksums differ — flashing ABL partitions...
ABL update completed successfully...

Booted via rocknix ABL fine, and after reboot, GPT table corruption is gone:

SM8250:~ # partprobe /dev/sde
SM8250:~ #

Was then able to update to a test qcom-abl-based SM8250 build fine, booted up fine. installtointernal worked fine.

Additional Context

• FAT filesystem issues that were causing corruption have been fixed now

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AI Usage

Did you use AI tools to help write this code? NO