Android 13 and SailfishOS on Xperia 10 III

Hard to tell. With binaries, you can simply flash various versions of them and see if it helps. Binaries can be reflashed anytime, without affecting SFOS installation in any way. Even if some version makes your phone non-bootable, you can just reflash it back to a working version. No harm will be done to SFOS.

As for the underlying Android, there’s more work to test various versions. A full image of rootfs and home partitions of SFOS (e.g. using dd) might help, as in such case you can always restore the OS to the imaged state.

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Try Android 12 based binaries (v2a as v3a doesn’t seem to work) and see if it further improves things. For months I’ve been using Android 12 base + Android 12 v2a binaries and it works perfectly fine.

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That’s very bad news. Is there then even any way to fix VoLTE on Xperia 10 III besides changing provider?

I tried to flash the newer binaries, and it failed successfully:

$ fastboot flash oem_a SW_binaries_for_Xperia_Android_12_4.19_v3a_lena.img
Warning: skip copying oem_a image avb footer due to sparse image.
Sending 'oem_a' (355492 KB)                        OKAY [  0.835s]
Writing 'oem_a'                                    OKAY [  0.001s]
Finished. Total time: 0.846s

No way it transferred 348MB in 0.8 seconds!

My device booted but without SIM card (and who know what else). So I flashed back the original:

$ fastboot flash oem_a SW_binaries_for_Xperia_Android_11_4.19_v9a_lena.img 
Warning: skip copying oem_a image avb footer due to sparse image.
Sending 'oem_a' (343636 KB)                        OKAY [ 16.370s]
Writing 'oem_a'                                    OKAY [  0.001s]
Finished. Total time: 16.568s

Back to a working phone!

Why is that? I assumed I could just flash the oem_a partition, but it doesn’t seem to go through…

And yes, I know I should use Emma and go full Android for a boot or three. I just wanted to give this a try first.

Sometimes it fails this way, I’ve also had it a few times. Just repeat it.

But in case of Android 12 v3a binaries it doesn’t make much sense anyway, since they don’t seem to work correctly (mobile data and WiFi seem to be broken). Android 12 v2a is the last version of binaries working 100% fine for me.

Not really. You can flash the binaries to oem_a partition whenever you want, independently of anything else. It just sometimes fails this way, for no apparent reason. There’s absolutely no harm in re-doing it and on the second attempt it usually works just fine.

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My rephone is unusable, due to a smashed screen. Sony Xperia 10V is not ready yet, so I decided to nuy a used 10 III, But now I have problems with flashing.
I tried to flash over different Android 13 versions with the SW binarys for Android 11.
Everytime I try I get the same error:

darkstar@Workstation:~/Downloads/Sailfish_OS-Jolla-4.6.0.13-xqbt52-1.0.1.11$ sudo /home/darkstar/Downloads/Sailfish_OS-Jolla-4.6.0.13-xqbt52-1.0.1.11/flash.sh 
Flash utility v1.2
Detected Linux
Searching device to flash..
Found XQ-BT52, serial:HQ622R1880, baseband:62.2.A.0.525, bootloader:1322-1665_X_Boot_SM6350_LA2.0.2_T_205
Found matching device with serial HQ622R1880
Fastboot command: fastboot -s HQ622R1880
>> fastboot -s HQ622R1880 getvar secure
<< secure: no
>> fastboot -s HQ622R1880 flash:raw boot_a hybris-boot.img
Sending 'boot_a' (28240 KB)                        OKAY [  0.887s]
Writing 'boot_a'                                   OKAY [  0.130s]
Finished. Total time: 1.029s
>> fastboot -s HQ622R1880 flash:raw boot_b hybris-boot.img
Sending 'boot_b' (28240 KB)                        OKAY [  0.890s]
Writing 'boot_b'                                   OKAY [  0.142s]
Finished. Total time: 1.046s
>> fastboot -s HQ622R1880 flash dtbo_a dtbo.img
Sending 'dtbo_a' (238 KB)                          OKAY [  0.014s]
Writing 'dtbo_a'                                   OKAY [  0.004s]
Finished. Total time: 0.028s
>> fastboot -s HQ622R1880 flash dtbo_b dtbo.img
Sending 'dtbo_b' (238 KB)                          OKAY [  0.017s]
Writing 'dtbo_b'                                   OKAY [  0.006s]
Finished. Total time: 0.033s
>> fastboot -s HQ622R1880 flash userdata sailfish.img001
Warning: skip copying userdata image avb footer (userdata partition size: 112111374336, userdata image size: 140732374688672).
Sending sparse 'userdata' 1/3 (746980 KB)          OKAY [ 18.962s]
Writing 'userdata'                                 OKAY [ 14.303s]
Sending sparse 'userdata' 2/3 (779583 KB)          OKAY [ 19.610s]
Writing 'userdata'                                 OKAY [ 14.133s]
Sending sparse 'userdata' 3/3 (293646 KB)          OKAY [  7.339s]
Writing 'userdata'                                 OKAY [  7.952s]
Finished. Total time: 83.014s
>> fastboot -s HQ622R1880 flash oem_a ./SW_binaries_for_Xperia_Android_11_4.19_v9a_lena.img
Sending 'oem_a' (819200 KB)                        FAILED (remote: 'Requested download size is more than max allowed
')
fastboot: error: Command failed
Flashing failed (1)

I have no clue, what’s going wrong. Can anyone help me please. I need a device, which runs SF. I tried it with Android for three days now and it was a pain in the ass.

Edit: Got it to work, flashed the SW binaries now with the option
-S 256M
now the Android 12 vesion. That worked and SF is starting. Will have a look if everything works.

sudo fastboot flash oem /home/darkstar/Downloads/Sailfish_OS-Jolla-4.6.0.13-xqbt52-1.0.1.11/SW_binaries_for_Xperia_Android_12_4.19_v1c_lena.img -S 256M
Warning: skip copying oem image avb footer (oem partition size: 838860800, oem image size: 140726211807616).
Sending sparse 'oem' 1/2 (258632 KB)               OKAY [  6.896s]
Writing 'oem'                                      OKAY [  0.002s]
Sending sparse 'oem' 2/2 (66524 KB)                OKAY [  4.619s]
Writing 'oem'                                      OKAY [  0.001s]
Finished. Total time: 11.532s
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Just a warning. I tried to install latest 13 v4a binaries using this guide: [LENA][11][4.19] Echo cancellation is not enabled for voice calls · Issue #771 · sonyxperiadev/bug_tracker · GitHub and ended up with no sound after reboot as pulseaudio refused to start.

Luckily I was able to use the same guide for 11 v9a binaries resulting in restored sound after reboot.

The guide you used only copies a single file from Sony’s “software binaries for AOSP” in order to address the specific echo cancellation issue.
According to the experiences described in this thread here, this does not fix this issue and does not address the tint / colour-banding issue at all.

The proper way to re-flash the “software binaries” is well documented by Jolla.

When re-reading the discussion thread at GitHub, I have the impression you also have not yet understood the fundamental difference between the “Android base” and Sony’s “software binaries for AOSP”.

Furthermore, as @wetab73 already denoted a few times:

… when having had an “Android 12 or 13 base” installed before flashing SailfishOS onto an Xperia 10 III; Sony’s last Android 12 release for this device is 62.1.A.0.675, the last Android 13 release 62.2.A.0.533.

P.S.: How you backup the complete SailfishOS installation, re-flash Android (e.g. with Emma; either to Android 11 and then update via OTA to the last Android 12 release, i.e. 62.1.A.0.675, or flash Android 13 and update to its last release 62.2.A.0.533) and then restore the backed-up SailfishOS installation is described throughout this thread.

This seems to be the only known way to resolve both, the echo cancellation and the tint / colour-banding issue properly.

I see. Any difference between flashing it to partition a + b or just mounting the odm folder and copying over libaudcal.so as described here: [LENA][11][4.19] Echo cancellation is not enabled for voice calls · Issue #771 · sonyxperiadev/bug_tracker · GitHub ?

Indeed, Android 12 v2a binaries are the last version that’s fully working for me. I’ve tried the recently released Android 13 based v4a binaries but I couldn’t enable WLAN on them, so I didn’t even bother to try if everything else works.

You only flash the binaries to oem_a, not to b.

Yes, a big one: I updated my post above.

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From my experience, it is SOLELY the underlying Android OS (version 12 and up) that makes the echo and display tint/banding issues go away. Binaries don’t seem to have any connection with it. No matter what version of binaries one uses, if the base Android OS is version 11 recommended by Jolla, echo and tint/banding still appear. Flashing Android 12 or 13, even with the old Android 11 v9a binaries, makes those issues disappear. So the fix must be in the base OS, not in the binary blobs.

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Yes, sure, we both keep on saying the same with slightly different words. Technically I assume we both expect some firmware partition being updated to make the difference: Consequently there might be other ways to achieve that, if one successfully identifies this firmware partition and copies over its updated content from another Xperia 10 III. This is the approach @thigg was once aiming at, which may even be achievable under a running SailfishOS installation, though I would still prefer to do that when having a SailfishOS recovery image booted.
Hence my slightly softer language, because I have learnt to “never say never” rsp. not to say “this is the only way”.

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That’s right. And it seems to be one of the partitions that gets its contents when the base Android OS is flashed, and which then doesn’t get altered, neither by flashing SFOS nor Sony binaries.

Which on the 10 III rules out boot_a, boot_b, userdata, dtbo_a, dtbo_b and oem_a.

But the whole rest remains…

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Just going to ask this… Cleary this is a very complicated process. Has anyone made a video of the process for people to follow.

Reading thru the directions leave a lot of unanswered questions with very little explanation.

A video of someone doing this process and explaining what and why they are doing it would amazing and very helpful.

Hi Thigg… Can you tell my why you did the backup as I am a PC user as well.

You wrote that you flashed the android 13, Can you share with me what they means and why you did that. Just trying to get some clarity on this very frightening process.

I mean to be clear I know why we make back ups… I guess what I am asking is more about the process.

Based on my reading we have to do this flash thing…
Let me ask what happens if you don’t flash?

Can Sailfish be install with out emma ?

Or Can I make a back up of the phone as is and if something goes wrong can I return the phone to its original android state??? Thanks for any insight.

Flashing is the process of transferring what you downloaded (the “Sailfishos image”, and the “Sony binaries”) to the memory of your device.
Think of it as installing the OS.

After flashing you have installed SailfishOS and can use it on your device.

And yes, if you mess up you can use the Emma tool to restore Android on the device. (Which is also flashing, but a different “image”).

Thank you ok… The part that was throwing me for the loop was the android part. Can I back up the phone in the phone in its current state with Emma. The reason I have so many questions is that I see all these post with command line information and people saying they first backed up sailfish then android the order is really not clear… But this is making sense they way you explained it.

Thank you again.

You don’t need to backup anything if you have no content on the phone you care about, like pictures or other documents.
Those will be gone after flashing.

If you do have something like that, copy it somehere, like your PC, or a cloud storage or similar.

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Ahhh okay… the directions made it seem like this was something that had to be done. This is a fresh phone out of the box.

If something goes wrong is there a way with out a backup to restore the phone back or once the process happens its all but broken?