OTA update on Nethunter device

[Kroppand]

Hi,

I've started digging in OTA installation process and looking for experience from others. I own OPO with CM 12.1 and found the following challenges:

1. Ota cannot be installed via TWRP since TWRP doesn't allow that;
2. reverting to CM recovery doesn't solve p1. Neither "Apply update" from internal storage nor ADB sideload work Ok and lead to error when custom kernel (Kali) found in the system;
3. Reverting to CM kernel+recovery helps installing OTA smoothly. Further rooting and TWRP installation is not a big deal but process breaks Kali Nethunter chroot.I faced multiple "permissions denied " issues and could not fix it with chmod. In the end I re-installed Nethunter frim scratch.

So, question is - how you deal with OTA?
Thanks.

[fhlipZero]

same issue more or less on my nexus 5, i keep hitting later on that OTA update to make it go away, havent found a way to actually install it yet

[Kroppand]

same issue more or less on my nexus 5, i keep hitting later on that OTA update to make it go away, havent found a way to actually install it yet

Honestly I'm not happy having vulnerable device with no encryption besides that. Any other comments?

[binkybear]

Hey all,

Let me address some issues with OTA. Kroppand is correct with OPO that you canno't do OTA with TWRP installed. What I have been doing to keep up with the latest OTA updates is installing the "signed flashable zip" files in TWRP that can be found here:

https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/mirrors-for-official-cyanogen-roms-ota-updates.141825/

I will flash that in TWRP over existing ROM (making a backup first) then install Nethunter back over it. I'm testing the new installer right now so thats what I'm using to flash and test.


Future Fixes

So some of the problems that occur when updating your device and that is only going to get worse/better? in the future is that updates will replace your system links/files. So going forward I plan on moving mostly everything out of the /system/firmware and /system/xbin and symlinking. Then from within the app I will try to add a fix symlink which will restore all the symlinks. Of course, that also means you will probably lose the kernel so it may just result in having to flash another zip file.

A lot of OTA updates will checksum files in /system to make sure nothing was changed so symlinking seems like the best plan for now, but if anyone has any other thoughts feel free to share.

I think Google is starting to get more serious with security updates and we will be seeing a lot more OTA updates, especially for Nexus devices. I believe that's good overall for you/us but it makes managing Nethunter a bit more difficult since things get overwritten.

[Kroppand]

Hi binkybear,

Your idea looks good. What about script for fixing permissions? Once it happened to me and while doing it manually I came to full chroot re-installation, it was easier...
It also could be an option making backup of complete Nethunter chroot before OTA/device re-imaging and then re-installing it via TWRP like normal one. this would let save all customized configs, logs, manually installed modules, have up-to-date chroot etc. Would it be possible?

[Kroppand]

Well, today I got an alert about yet another OTA for Cyanogen. I did not download full binary of new version, however still think about possibility of backup current NetHunter and reinstalling it from backup after OS upgrade. Do you think it should work?