FAQ:
#0. I HAVE ENCOUNTERED A PROBLEM WHILE USING ORANGEFOX:
1. Provide the logs - and -
2. Provide a full explanation of precisely what has happened, and precisely how you got to that point.
3. If you do not provide both of these, then I will simply ignore any report of any problem. So, it is advisable to (a) learn how to take logs before trying anything, and (b) always take the logs before rebooting after using the recovery.
#1. INSTALLING ORANGEFOX RECOVERY FROM STOCK MIUI RECOVERY (adb/fastboot method):
You need a PC for this. If you do not have a PC, or access to a PC, then you are stuck!
1. Install adb, fastboot, and the relevant USB drivers onto your PC
2. Install the Mi Flash tool onto your PC
3. Download the correct OrangeFox zip file to your phone, and to your PC
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4. Extract recovery.img from the OrangeFox zip file, and copy recovery.img to your PC’s adb directory
5. Reboot your phone into fastboot/bootloader mode
6. Unlock your bootloader
7. Open up a command line window on your PC
8. Change to the adb directory on your PC
9. “Hotboot” OrangeFox by running the command:
Code:
fastboot boot recovery.img
10. After OrangeFox has booted up, check that everything is working – eg, that it has mounted the data partition successfully, and that the touchscreen works.
11. Select “Install”, then find and select the OrangeFox zip, and swipe to install it
12. After installation, the phone will automatically reboot into OrangeFox
13. Enjoy!
#2. SETTING UP MIUI OTA:
1. Download the most up-to-date release of OrangeFox Recovery
2. Download a full MIUI ROM that will be the basis of your future MIUI experience, and copy it to your phone’s storage
3. Flash the OrangeFox Recovery zip with your current custom recovery (or follow the steps in the thread for installing from adb/fastboot)
4. Reboot into OrangeFox Recovery (this will have happened automatically if you flashed the OrangeFox zip)
5. Go to the OrangeFox settings, and enable these MIUI OTA settings -
a. Support MIUI incremental OTA
b. Include system in OTA survival
c. Incremental OTA signature verification
d. Aggressive stock recovery deactivation
e. Disable DM-Verity
7. Go to the “Wipe” menu, and wipe data, cache, and dalvik
8. Flash your full MIUI ROM. After the ROM is flashed, OrangeFox will start the "OTA_BAK" process, which will backup your system and boot partitions into the /sdcard/Fox/OTA directory. You must NOT delete any of the files in the /sdcard/Fox/OTA directory. If you do, then incremental OTA updates will most definitely fail.
9. Reboot your phone, and start to use your phone normally
10. When MIUI notifies you that there is an update, download the update, using the MIUI updater app, and allow it to reboot automatically to OrangeFox
11. OrangeFox will install the update automatically (this might take several minutes)
12. OrangeFox will reboot the phone automatically upon completion of the installation of the MIUI OTA update
13. After this, you will not need to flash a full ROM any more - just follow the steps in #10 above
14. If you want to move to a completely different version/build of MIUI, then you will first need to clean-flash the full ROM of that MIUI build, as described above.
#3. RETURNING TO A MIUI ROM FROM A TREBLE ROM:
A.Treble ROMs on many devices use MIUI’s “cust” partition for their vendor image. This process removes the Xiaomi proprietary files that are necessary for MIUI to run. These files must be restored, otherwise MIUI will not work properly.
B.For this purpose, the cleanest and easiest way to return to MIUI from a Treble ROM is to flash a full fastboot MIUI ROM, using the Mi Flash tool.
C.If you did not create a backup of your MIUI cust partition to MicroSD or USB-OTG before installing a Treble ROM, then you must use the method just described above (or else you can try flashing a stock vendor image for your device (if there is one for your device there))
D.If you DID create a backup of your MIUI cust partition (in the newest versions of OrangeFox, this would be the “vendor” partition – it points to the same location as “cust”) to MicroSD or USB-OTG, then you can use OrangeFox to install MIUI when coming from a Treble ROM - but you have to take certain steps:
1)Backup your internal memory to an external device (eg, MicroSD, USB-OTG, or your PC). DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!
2)Copy the latest stable MIUI ROM to your MicroSD or USB-OTG storage
3)Boot OrangeFox
4)Make sure that OrangeFox can read your MicroSD or USB-OTG storage, and can see the MIUI ROM that you copied there. This is the ROM that you will install in the steps below.
5)Select the “Wipe” menu and wipe everything - system, dalvik, cache, vendor, etc (except MicroSD/USB-OTG)
6)Format data (“format” - not “wipe”) - you will lose all the contents of your internal memory after doing this
7)Reboot OrangeFox - you will see a message saying “No OS installed …” - just swipe to reboot OrangeFox
8)Restore the backup of your MIUI cust partition (in the latest releases of OrangeFox, this will need to be restored to the "vendor" partition)
9)Flash your MIUI ROM
10)Reboot to system, and wait for a long time ...
11)When ready, restore your backup of your internal memory from your external storage device.
#4. FLASHING ROMS:
Flashing a ROM is usually a straightforward process. You can either do a "clean" flash, or a "dirty" flash.
First things:
When flashing a ROM, you want to ensure that the recovery is in a known state, before you start flashing the ROM. Therefore, you should always observe the following:
1. Do NOT flash a ROM in a queue with other zips. Always flash a ROM on its own, and when flashing is completed, reboot OrangeFox, before doing anything else.
2. If you ever wipe the /vendor partition, then you must reboot OrangeFox immediately afterwards - before doing anything else (eg, flashing a ROM or anything else you might want to do).
3. If you ever wipe the /system, partition, then you must reboot OrangeFox immediately afterwards - before doing anything else (ignoring any warnings about no OS being installed).
4. If you ever format the data partition, then you must reboot OrangeFox immediately afterwards - before doing anything else.
5. If your Xiaomi device has ARB, and you are on a MIUI ROM, then you had better tread very carefully if you want to change your MIUI ROM to a different MIUI ROM, or to a different version of the same MIUI ROM. Search on Google for "ARB", read and understand everything, and then decide whether you really need to proceed.
6. Make a full backup of your current ROM - before performing any other operations in the recovery. At the very least, backup the /system, /data, /boot and /vendor partitions.
7. Please note that, if you do not follow all of the above instructions, and you encounter problems afterwards (which you definitely will), I will not answer any questions.
A. "Clean flashing" (Strongly recommended)
1) Backup your applications, settings, SMS messages, call logs, etc Do NOT skip this step.
2) Bootup OrangeFox Recovery
3) Select "Wipe"
4) Swipe to reset to defaults (this will restore the installed ROM to a known state, and will remove apps/settings that might be incompatible with the ROM that you wish to install)
5) Return to the main OrangeFox menu
6) Select "Install"
7) Choose the ROM that you want to flash
8) Swipe to flash.
9) Reboot OrangeFox recovery - before doing anything else - so that any changes to partitions/filesystems done by flashing the new ROM will take full effect
10) Flash whatever else you might want to flash (eg, GAPPs, magisk, etc)
11) Reboot your device
12) Wait for a long time while the new ROM sets itself up (go and make a cup of tea!)
13) Enjoy
B. "Dirty flashing" (NOT recommended)
1) Bootup OrangeFox Recovery
2) Select "Install"
3) Choose the ROM that you want to flash
4) Swipe to flash
5) Wipe cache and dalvik
6) Reboot OrangeFox recovery - before doing anything else - so that any changes to partitions/filesystems done by flashing the new ROM will take full effect
7) Flash whatever else you might want to flash (eg, GAPPs, magisk, etc)
8) Reboot your device
9) Enjoy
NOTE: Dirty flashing a ROM is NOT recommended. It can cause all kinds of random problems. Always choose to "clean flash"
#5. "YOUR SYSTEM HAS BEEN DESTROYED" scenarios:
A) If you have one of these, then, yes, you might be in deep trouble! But this has nothing to do with OrangeFox. It is rather a result of your decisions and what you have chosen to do, or to flash.
B) For possible solutions, Google is your friend.
C) Salient advice: next time, look very carefully before flashing anything. It is your responsibility to ascertain and completely understand, a) what you are installing, b) what instructions it is giving to the recovery, c) what it will do as part of the installation, and d) what it will do after the installation. Otherwise, there will be tears.
#6. MY DEVICE IS ENCRYPTED:
This is excellent. If your device gets stolen or lost, at least your data on non-removable storage is secure. But, if, for some reason, you would prefer for your data to not be secure, then you can remove the encryption by formatting your data partition (note - format - not just wipe). This process will also permanently delete all the contents of your internal storage. So, you had better backup your internal storage onto an external device before formatting - else, you can say "good bye" to all the photos, files, music, videos, etc, on your internal storage.
Note: ticking "Disable Forced Encryption" will most certainly not remove encryption from your device. That is not its purpose. The only way to remove encryption is to format your data partition.
#7. I GET "ERROR 7" WHEN TRYING TO INSTALL <whatever>:
* This is a very old problem, which has nothing at all to do with OrangeFox. So, Google is your friend.
* Hint: this is usually an issue with the "updater-script" inside whatever it is that you are trying to install. It is checking for a specific device (with "getprop ro.product.device"), but either finds an empty value, or finds another device. Check that what you are trying to install is the correct version for your device (run the previously mentioned "getprop" command yourself, from a terminal). If so, then speak to whoever released the zip installer that you are trying to install, and ask them to fix their script. If you wiped your system partition, reboot the recovery.
* Hint2: whenever this happens, take a copy of the recovery logs immediately (ie, before doing anything else) and post the logs when you are trying to report the problem. The recovery.log file will provide devs with a lot of useful information in trying to get to the bottom of what has happened. Reporting the problem without posting the logs would be a complete waste of everybody's time.
#8. I GET "ERROR 1" WHEN TRYING TO INSTALL <whatever>:
* This is a very old problem, which has nothing at all to do with OrangeFox. So, search Google.
Thanks to @DarthJabba9
