Notes on installing crDroid on Redmi Note 8 Pro

My Redmi Note 8 Pro having reached its EOL, I decided to recycle it with crDroid. This pages aims to summarize the notes taken during the process.

The initial MIUI ROM was at version 12.5.8.RGGMIXM.

Download platform-tools

The main tool to interact with ADB and Fastboot is platform-tools. It consists in a zip file that can be downloaded and extracted anywhere and contains the binaries adb.exe and fastboot.exe

Unlock OEM

To prevent accidental operations, MIUI locks the bootloader. An official software is provided here. However it requires an account creation. Unlocking the bootloader is also possible through a different way, using USB Driver Development kit (UsbDk) and MTK Client.

• download and install .msi file from UsbDk release
• download and install MTK Client python requirements
• run python mtk da seccfg unlock
• put the device on recovery mode: stop device, hold vol+ and vol- while connecting cable, hold until output on screen
• disconnect device

Install Fastboot driver on computer

The next step is to prepare the computer to be able to talk with the phone Fastboot using the appropriate drivers.

• download the official driver (for other brands, list here)
• however the driver is not signed, so Driver Signature Enforcement (DSE) needs to be disabled via either:
  • Test Mode: admin powershell, then bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING ON, then restart. You will be in test mode. To disable bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING OFF
  • Disable DSE at boot: settings, update/security, recovery, advanced startup. Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings and click the Restart. Choose option 7

Disabling AVB

The phone Android Verified Boot or dm-verity also needs to be disabled to install custom images. For that the vbmeta.img file is needed and will be used later.

• download stock rom
• unzip, get vbmeta.img

Install TWRP recovery

The next step is to override the official recovery software with a custom one, namely Team Win Recovery Project

• download the recovery image for this phone model
• Reboot phone to bootloader .\adb.exe reboot bootloader
• Flash the recovery with the TWRP one .\fastboot.exe flash recovery twrp.img
• Disable Android Verified Boot .\fastboot.exe --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img
• Reboot to the newly flashed recovery .\fastboot.exe reboot recovery

Install cDroid Android14

Before installing a custom ROM, MIUI needs to be cleaned up, and the partition formated

• from TWRP recovery: wipe -> system, vendor, cache, dalvik, data
• from TWRP recovery: wipe -> format
• Download crDroid latest version for this phone model
• Upload it to the cleaned partition .\adb.exe push cdroid.zip /sdcard/
• From TWRP: install that uploaded zip

Install Nikgapps for Google Play

crDroid doesn’t come with Google applications by default. It can be added later on, but needs a fresh installation.

• Go to NikGApps, and chose the appropriate package (e.g. Android 14 is U, then from Release chose the one you prefer)
• Boot to recovery, for instance from crDroid menu
• Use TWRP to wipe and format data. This removes encryption and allows to upload NikGApps zip file
• Upload the zip file .\adb.exe push nikgapps.zip sdcard
• Use TWRP to install the .zip uploaded
• reboot to system