Installing a custom ROM like Lineage OS can breathe new life into your device, offering a clean and customizable Android experience. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the process of installing Lineage OS 21 on your Pixel 8 Pro and rooting it.
LineageOS builds for this device require an Android 14 version of the stock OS to be installed prior to following the installation guide
Downloads
- Lineage OS 21 files for Pixel 8 Pro
- GApps (Google Apps) package (optional)
- Magisk for rooting
Ensure ADB and Fastboot are installed on your computer.
Unlock the Bootloader
1. Enable Developer Options: Go to Settings > About phone and tap the Build number 7 times.
2. In Developer options, enable USB debugging
3. In Developer options, toggle on OEM unlocking
4. Connect your phone to your computer via USB.
5. Open a command prompt or terminal on your computer and type:
adb reboot bootloader
Once in bootloader mode, type:
fastboot flashing unlock
The phone will be restored to factory defaults. It is crucial to enable USB debugging again.
Download the following files from here.
- boot.img
- dtbo.img
- vendor_kernel_boot.img
Or use adb reboot bootloader in adb shell
Flash the downloaded image files to your device
fastboot flash boot "boot.img"
fastboot flash dtbo "dtbo.img"
fastboot flash vendor_kernel_boot "vendor_kernel_boot.img"
Now reboot into recovery to verify the installation.
fastboot reboot recovery
Download the LineageOS zip file that you would like to install or build the package yourself.
- Use the menu to navigate to and to select the
Recoveryoption
Now tap Factory Reset, then Format data / factory reset and continue with the formatting process. This will remove encryption and delete all files stored in the internal storage, as well as format your cache partition (if you have one).
Step 3: Install Lineage OS 21
Sideload the LineageOS
.zip package but do not reboot before you read/followed the rest of the instructions!- On the device, select “Apply Update”, then “Apply from ADB” to begin sideload.
- Using platform tools, sideload the package using:
adb sideload "filename.zip."
WARNING: If you want to install Google Apps add-on package (use the arm64 architecture), you can download it from here. This add-on needs to be installed before booting into LineageOS for the first time!
After the package is installed, recovery will inform you that reboot to recovery is required to install add-ons. In case you want to do that, please select “Yes,” otherwise “No”.
It is necessary to rename "magisk.apk" to "magisk.zip" prior to flashing.
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