Xiaomi Redmi 9A/9AT (dandelion) 

Make a backup now, as your device will be wiped.

Before you proceed

Use PBRP or the custom OrangeFox recovery mentioned in the Downloading the needed files and tools section below. The installation might fail with recoveries other than those.

Downloading the needed files and tools

Please download the belowed needed files and tools:

Device preparation

  • A USB 2.0 port/hub with an actual USB 2.0 controller is recommended (Using fastboot on a USB 3.0 port may cause errors with some Xiaomi devices)
  • Save your APN (Android)
    • The Access Point Name or APN can be found in the Settings menu of Android
    • Take a piece of paper or a text editor, and write down everything that you see on that screen
    • These are likely to include a URL (e. g., internet.carrier.net), a username, and possibly a password
  • Unlock the bootloader (using Computer)
  • Boot into recovery (Computer)
    • Boot OrangeFox by running fastboot boot OrangeFox-R11-garden-droidian.img
  • Wipe the device (using OrangeFox)
    • Go to the Wipe menu
    • Select Advanced wipe
    • Tick the boxes called Dalvik / ART cache, Cache, System, Data
    • Swipe to Wipe
    • Go back to the previous menu
    • Choose Format data and type yes
    • Go back to the main menu and select Reboot
    • Choose Bootloader
    • Boot OrangeFox again by running fastboot boot OrangeFox-R11-garden-droidian.img
  • Copy the files to the device (Computer)
    • When OrangeFox is booted, open the device’s Internal storage from your computer
    • Copy all of the files you downloaded to this folder

Droidian installation

  • Install the boot image
    • Install the file called boot-dandelion.img as an Image to the Boot partition using OrangeFox
    • Alternatively, you can enter fastboot mode and fastboot flash boot boot-dandelion.img
  • Install the DTBO image
    • Install the file called dtbo-dandelion.img as an Image to the dtbo partition using OrangeFox
    • Alternatively, you can enter fastboot mode and run command fastboot flash dtbo dtbo-dandelion.img
  • Install the vbmeta image
    • Install the file called vbmeta-dandelion.img as an Image to the vbmeta partition using OrangeFox
    • Alternatively, you can enter fastboot mode and fastboot flash vbmeta vbmeta-dandelion.img
  • Install recovery
    • Please, follow the official guide to install OrangeFox
  • Install Droidian rootfs
    • Install the file called droidian-OFFICIAL-phosh-phone-rootfs-api29-armhf-nightly_YYYYMMDD.zip as a Zip file
    • Alternatively, you can enter ADB sideload mode and run adb sideload droidian-rootfs-armhf_YYYYMMDD.zip
    • Installing devtools
    • Installation of devtools is optional for stable releases, but it is recommended as it helps with debugging.
    • Install the file called droidian-devtools-armhf_YYYYMMDD.zip as a Zip file
    • Alternatively, you can enter ADB sideload mode and run adb sideload droidian-devtools-armhf_YYYYMMDD.zip

Finalizing the installation

  • Install adaptation package as a flashable zip (OrangeFox)
    • Install the file called adaptation-droidian-garden.zip as a Zip file
    • Alternatively, you can enter ADB sideload mode and run adb sideload adaptation-droidian-garden.zip
  • If for some reason adaptation-droidian-garden.zip failed this method can be used:
    • Extract adaptation-garden-script.zip and install adaptation via pushing it to the phone and running install.sh
    • adb push adaptation-garden-script /tmp then adb shell and cd /tmp/adaptation-garden-script && chmod +x install.sh && ./install.sh
  • Boot your device
    • Go to the Reboot menu and choose System
    • OrangeFox might complain that there is no OS installed, but that’s fine
    • The first boot may take longer, and at least one spontaneous reboot is expected during the process
    • You should be greeted with the lock screen, the default password is 1234

Congratulations, if everything went well you should be booted into Droidian.

Notes

Default password

The default password is 1234.

APN

Mobile data needs an APN to be set up from Settings -> Mobile Network -> Acess Point Names.

Broken mobile data after calls

Data connection might break after recieving and making calls. Switch it off and on from Settings -> Mobile Network to fix it. Be careful to not turn off the mobile modem or a device restart might>

Out of storage

By default when flashing Droidian it allocates 8GB of storage to the system. This might not be enough and luckily you can allocate more storage with ADB by running (while in recovery): adb shell resize2fs -f /data/rootfs.img xG where x is the amount of GB to allocate (eg: 50G for 50 GB).

Bluetooth

Bluetooth can be used via the terminal using bluetoothctl command or using blueman: sudo apt install blueman but does not work via the settings app.

Just like bluetooth, hotspot does not work from settings either and has to be used from a GUI application (such as the default advanced network app) or from terminal.

Hotspot

GPS

GPS does not work.

Signal Strengh

Signal strengh is reported at 1% but Mobile data and calls work just fine.

Headphones/Headsets

When a headphone is plugged in it must be changed to be used manually in the settings.

Camera

Anything related to cameras only works in Waydroid which.

SSH access

Flashing the devtools zip enables SSH over USB. To use it, connect your phone to your computer and type ssh droidian@10.15.19.82, the password is 1234 (on Windows, you may need PuTTY)

Applications

You can find a list of mobile-friendly Linux applications at LinuxPhoneApps

Credit

FakeShell (Bardia Moshiri)

Mohammad and TheKit

Droidian Mobian UBports

You can ask for assistance specific to this device at Droidian for garden devices.