Flashing librem5 stuck on Searching

attempting to reflash librem5(evergreen) and getting stuck. (i have not yet successfully reflashed )

attempting to follow Reflashing PureOS - Purism user documentation

computer

  • ubuntu: 25.04
  • uuu: 1.5.201-1
  • tried steps with multiple usbc/a cables (one short/one long, unfortunately having trouble finding the oem one)
  • tried steps with multiple batteries (one ~99% charged one ~66%)
  • tried steps with usbc cable plug flipped around
  • tried steps with different usb ports (laptop has 3)

steps taken:

  • all kill switches “off”
  • clone librem5-flash-image repo
  • run udev script (this seemed to complete successfully)

then (where troubles start)

  • run
    ./scripts/librem5-flash-image --stable
    (actually tried with/without a couple extra flags, will enumerate in abit, no change: --debug in particular doesn’t give any extra info on the step where it gets stuck)
    gets to the point of giving instructions:
            - Ensure that the phone is powered off
            - Turn all Hardware-Kill-Switches off
            - Unplug the USB cable if connected
            - Remove battery
            - Hold volume-up button
            - Insert the USB-C cable (red light blinks, no green light)
            - Reinsert the battery (red and green lights constantly on, the script will continue)
            - Release volume-up button

Searching...
  • remove the battery (wait 5 seconds to allow discharge)
  • unplug usbc-A cable from librem5
  • press and hold volume up (vulkan death grip is very apropriate)
  • replug cable (red light indeed does blink)
  • reseat battery (red light holds on, green light does not…sometimes red light goes off and stays off…but never do both lights come and stay on) (ie regardless whether i release volume up, stuck here)

i’m having a hard time believing that it’s a connection issue on the usb c plug side or the usb a side or a ‘enough power’ issue with one of the cables being very short.

tried

  • uuu -lsusb

at this point and it doesn’t display any devices

Open for ideas on what i’m doing wrong.

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The Battery of Librem 5 has enough power?

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the battery that i’ve been mostly using has 99% charge and was able to hold a charge for 4-8 hours normally before i started trying this. i keep restarting in regular mode and it keeps showing 99%. Battery 2( charged to 66% ) is brand new has never been used before today. I’ll try booting that up normal, charging it and then trying to reflash when it’s at 99% next.

also tried on devuan ceres(13.0?) on different machine, same result

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There are 2 way to put the phone on: Burn Mode.
One way as you described it above.
Second way is keeping the vol+ pressed before connect the cable, but the cable need to be connected on host first, have u tried the way?

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I have given up on that method of reflashing.
Instead I use a micro-SD card with a clean L5 image burned onto it.
If you want help with that I can share step-by-step instructions

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tried :
[getting to Searching… as per above]

unplug cable, unplug battery, plug battery, hold vol+, plug cable, release vol+
result: red light

unplug cable, hold vol+, plug cable, release vol+
result: red light

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aha i do turn out to have a microsd card. actually i’d appreciate that.

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  • #1 - Burn the latest librem5r4 image from Jenkins to your sd card
    1. This can be done from the L5 the steps below or on any computer
  • #2 - Insert it into your L5 while powered off!!!
  • #3 - Boot it on your L5 by pressing the Vol Down while pressing power button.
  • #4 - Download an image from Jenkins
  • #5 - Open it from the file manager and click the disk you want it to be flashed onto (32GB disk).
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guess i’ll need to acetone out the anti-interdiction glitter to get access to the sd slot . . . i’ll work on that.

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does it have an sd card in it?

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honestly i’m not sure i’ve gotta find some acetone and melt the nail polish to get access to it

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You can open the disks app and see

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looks like no

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charged second battery to 97% and tried, no luck.

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Red light means Burn Mode, second step it to do a: lsusb to confirm that L5 is on Burn Mode, it will say Nxp or something like that

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nothing in lsusb or uuu -lsusb and nothing in kern.log or syslog indicating usb event

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Given that you apparently have a working bootable phone … how about just connecting the normally booted phone to your host computer via USB and confirming that your host computer sees the phone at all (using lsusb)?

If the host can’t see the phone when the phone is in normal mode, I have my doubts that it is going to work when the phone is in serial download mode. (In other words, don’t worry about the Vulcan death grip and don’t worry about uuu / the flash script until the phone at least shows up when booted normally.)

FWIW, as my computer doesn’t have a USB-C port, I have never used serial download mode via the Purism-supplied USB-C to USB-C cable. Instead I have always used a USB 3.0 USB-A socket on the host computer with an Irvine-supplied cable that is USB-A M to USB-C M, and that has always worked for me. This also has the advantage of reducing the number of orientations for the USB-C plug(s).

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neither lsusb on either {ubuntu, devuan} computers on {tried multiple cables/multiple usb plugs} can see anything

{although i’m getting an apparmor complaint in ubuntu computer’s logs about lsusb being denied, it displays all other usb devices plugged in shrug}

(phone does charge off said usb connection)

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Have your tried the sd method?

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still working on getting access to acetone to melt the anti-interdiction nail polish so i can get access to the sd plug

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