• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Phone has no os, errors installing custom roms with twrp

Y

Yesi Trotamundos

Newbie
Hey guys, hoping someone can save me from having to buy a new phone. I either need to fix it quickly or replace it quickly cause my job depends on having one.

I have a Moto 9 g plus.

I wanted to root my phone for a long time and today I decided to try since the Android 11 update ****ed up the camera on my phone anyway.

I followed this guide here
Moto-G9-Plus-Brightness-Control.jpg

Root Motorola Moto G9 Plus Android 10 using TWRP and Install Magisk
When you have Stock Android on your mobile, You are almost free from bloatware apps. Even if your manufacturer put some apps, You can get rid of them in
cropped-Android-Infotech-Perfect-1-32x32.png
www.androidinfotech.com

Everything seemed to be going well except that I couldn't get magisk to install, I kept getting errors in twrp.

I ended up installing the apk for magisk and used it to modify the boot file. I installed the image in twrp and on reboot, it went into a boot loop. I could go back to trwp and after swiping to factory reset, it broke the loop when I restart the phone. The problem is that now it just goes straight to the menu that you normally need to press and hold down and power to go to. I never did get to confirm if my phone was successfully rooted or not, I'm guessing no, and that that is the main problem now, as the phone won't boot up to where I can use apps, and if it isn't rooted, from what I understand, I can't install another rom?

Also, whenever I'm finished with twrp, when I press to reset it says something like "Phone no longer has OS, are you sure you want to reboot?". I read it is from wiping the data or factory reset, but I didn't actually wipe any internal memory, I can still view all files on it and on my sd card.

Maybe you guys can confirm my suspicions that I just ****ed up my phone for good or not.

This is what the error says when I attempted to install a rom, I tried with lineage and arrowos and I don't believe the problem is with the roms.

E:unable to update logical partion: /system_root
E:unable to update logical partion: /vendor
E:unable to update logical partion: /product
Failed to mount '/system_root' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/vendor' (Invalid argument)
E:Unable to open /system_root/system/apex
E:Unable to load apex images from /system_root/
system/apex
MTP Enabled
Failed to mount '/system_root' (Invalid argument)
Installing zip file '/external_sd/Arrow-v12.0-odessa
-UNOFFICIAL-20211013-gapps.zip'
Flashing A/B zip to inactive slot: A
Failed to mount '/system_root' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/vendor' (Invalid argument)
Step 1/2
Error applying update : 7 (ErrorCode::
kInstallDeviceOpenError)
Updater process ended with ERROR: 1
To flash addition zips, please reboot recovery to
switch to the updated slot.
Error installing zip file '/external_sd/Arrow-v12.0-odessa
-UNOFFICIAL-20211013-gapps.zip'
Updating partition details . . .
. . . done

If I try to install magisk.zip it gives this error

Failed to mount '/system_root' (Invalid argument)
Installing zip file '/external_sd/Magisk-23.0.zip
Checking for Digest file . . .
Unmounting System . . .
********************************
Magisk 23.0 Installer
********************************
- Current boot slot: b
! Cannot mount /system
- Unmounting partitions
Updater process ended with ERROR: 1
Error installing zip file 'external_sd/Magisk-v23.0.zip
Updating partition details . . .
. . . done


Thanks to anyone to offers any suggestions, this is my first time attempting this, so don't assume I know anything, I just step by step tutorials and usually don't have problems like this.
 
Try flashing your phone with a stock ROM and see if that gets your phone back into working condition again:
https://motostockrom.com/motorola-moto-g9-plus-xt2087-1
The link above is for a specific variant of your Moto G9 Plus model so if you have a different variant it's just for reference. It's important to only use ROMs that are specific to your particular model, they are not interchangeable. Which may indicate the why your phone is stuck in a boot loop and all. Using an incorrect ROM that doesn't match your phone will result in an Android install that's by design meant to work on a different model. When there's no working operating system, the phone can't boot up normally. Looking on both the Lineage and Arrow sites, neither appears to support the Moto G9 Plus so could you provide links to the download sites you used?
https://download.lineageos.org/

https://arrowos.net/download
If you did just use the incorrect ROM to flash your phone, try using the correct, matching stock ROM instead. If you're lucky, you've only soft-bricked your device and flashing a stock ROM will return it to working condition. If you're hard-bricked it though, that's a pretty serious problem.

That author of that article you posted on rooting your model did make it clear that you should only root your device for specific reasons and that backups are vital. I'd suggest since you do need to have a working phone for work purposes that you never root nor try to install custom ROMs on that phone. There's just too much chance a problem will occur. Experiment and teach yourself using a secondary, extra phone. Don't do this with your primary, daily usage phone.
 
So I installed the stock rom, the installation seemed to go normal on the computer end, but on reboot, it is stuck in boot loop. If I press down and power I can still go to the fastboot menu and to twrp. If I reboot from twrp, it still says "No OS Installed! Are you sure you want to reboot?"

Any suggestions?
 
Last edited:
when you flashed the rom, did you wipe? you need to always make a nandroid backup before doing anything. as long as you have recovery you should be fine. just wipe appropriately and reflash the rom.. once you have the rom working you can then make a nandroid backup first and i would save that backup o=not only on your sd card, but keep a copy somewhere else like your computer or external hard drive.
 
ocnbrze said:
when you flashed the rom, did you wipe? you need to always make a nandroid backup before doing anything. as long as you have recovery you should be fine. just wipe appropriately and reflash the rom.. once you have the rom working you can then make a nandroid backup first and i would save that backup o=not only on your sd card, but keep a copy somewhere else like your computer or external hard drive.
Click to expand...

The wipe wouldn't work because of mounting errors, but I saw a video before about changing the file type to ext 2 and then back to ext 4 and it solved the mounting errors and I was able to wipe properly.

Flashing the stock rom worked this time, and I was able to successfully install magisk and verify root. The only problem I have now is that when the phone tries to install the first security update, but I know that is normal for a rooted device, so I am going to post about that separately.

So we can close this conversation, the main problem has been solved.

Thanks to both of you for your time and help, very much appreciated!!
 
Last edited:
You'll have much better luck using just the stock Android operating system if you also want to continue relying upon the stock OTA security updates. Once you root your device than using OTA updates involves more risk, and when your phone is running a custom OS you should avoid OTA updates (you update your system when the custom ROM developer releases them, if they do.)
The entire Android upgrade/update process is based on very convoluted, complicated interactions between Google developers and phone manufacturers, made worse by carriers being involved too. But it's all tied to the assumption the Android OS is altered only through themselves. Once you root and/or use a custom ROM, that changes the entire relationship -- at that point, the responsibility for maintenance is all yours now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom