BTW, two things: the 5-second boot delay on booting unlocked phones, presumably so one can read the unprofessional-quality message about ‘Orange’, is annoying.
Also: I can’t find any link on the site to the ‘Teracube App’.
We might work on that bootloader messaging in the future.
Is that something on the phone? Could you share a screenshot of where you see a reference to this app?
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Can anyone post as to how the bootloader message is edited? I’ve always been interested in how that splash screen can be personalized, especially to get rid of the annoying and alarmist screen that most phones default to when I’ve unlocked the bootloader myself.
The 2e that is sold by the /e/ Foundation has a very nice splash screen with “Teracube 2e” and the Teracube logo in the middle, then “Powered by Android” with a little “Bugdroid” logo at the bottom. It looks quite professional. Nothing about /e/ comes up until the OS boots. Maybe Teracube should ask /e/ about that.
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TWRP not dealing with encryption is important. As you probably know, all other recoveries are essentially useless crap in comparison. If the TWRP developers won’t do this, you should get someone to look at the decryption code for other devices and port it. As you can see from the messages, because of the removable battery and reparability, you are interesting to what we might call the XDA-Developers folks (been there for years myself: @cashmundy). Those folks will want a working TWRP and good distros available, which e and iode are currently providing.
As for the app: I saw a blue notification-link to it when I first logged back in with this new phone, accidentally deleted it and have never seen it since. The app was clearly just the website with some extra stuff like keeping my login session.
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I have a major problem. When I try to run fastboot flash recovery <twrp-image>, it says “This partition doesn’t exist”.
I tried to just install LineageOS since TWRP wasn’t working, and now the phone won’t even turn on.
I don’t understand, why is there no recovery partition? Clearly there used to be, since no one has had this issue.
How can I fix this if the phone won’t even turn on?
Hi @KavusKazian - the lineage posted here works only on the 1st batch of phones (sold in 2021). The OSS team is working on providing an updated Lineage for the new phones.
I just posted some related info here - Difference between the new 2022 batch of Teracube 2e and 2021 units
Thank you so much! Hopefully it doesn’t take too long. One of the main reasons I chose Teracube was the ease of replacing the ROM and that the hardware warranty would remain intact.
Hello,
I’m not sure where to post this. Any news for TWRP for T2e 2022?
Thank you for your work and time.
TWRP for the 2e is a total joke, don’t bother with it. They had some college kid in India do it (Teracube seems to be pretty much an all-India company) who got it to where you can install it but that’s about it. He wasn’t able/couldn’t be bothered to get encryption working, so it can see your data partitions but not what’s in them and, if memory serves, can’t see an external SD card at all. Completely useless.
I installed the /e/ recovery. Doesn’t do any of the cool fancy stuff TWRP does, but it actually works. It’s really too bad the Teracube people can’t make and maintain a proper TWRP, especially since that is Team India also. It shows they have no software talent and can’t be bothered to hire any.
I think Teracube will last until Fairphone decides to sell in the USA, but no longer. If Fairphone had a USA presence, I’d buy one just for what is almost certainly good software.
Hi @jbray - want to clarify on this. Teracube is headquartered here in Redmond, WA (including myself) with an international team. Our software team is indeed based in India. And the Teracube stock OS is maintained by full time team members (not college interns). However, TWRP is an open source project and is a different story.
Hi Sharad, Don’t you think it would be a good idea for your software team, in India, to become official maintainers for a TWRP for 2e build? Judging from the github, the college kid made one build that installs but doesn’t work and called it good. If your team took his code, and got encryption working (and ext SD card if it’s broken too), you’d have a quality build that TWRP would probably accept. I know India’s a big country, but maybe someone on your team even knows someone on Team Win.
You’ve already got the encryption code working in your own stock recovery; seems like it would be a big win for moderate investment.
TWRP (when it works) is an essential tool for people installing custom roms and such, far more powerful than any stock recovery: you can pop a shell, there’s a file-manager, you can turn USB file-transfer on.
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What I have heard is that TWRP is not as relevant as it used to be. Maybe I misread. I’ll check with the team and get back again.
Hi Sharad,
I hate to say it, but software-wise, you guys seem like amateurs. You’ve got an interesting little device that should really appeal to the xda-dev crowd; if you get them interested in it, you’d have a bunch of developers working on it for free, and some of those folks are really good. Of course, then it would be a global project, not just Team India.
Cheers,
Jim
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I would like to put in here a big UP vote for “yes, please” doing TWRP recovery for Teracube 2e. I am using the /e/ recovery with /e/ OS, and while I like many things about /e/, their recovery is extremely minimal. In particular, it lacks the ability to make backups, so lack of TWRP for Teracube means that I have NO ability to backup my phone in any sort of comprehensive way (since the promised SeedVault is not ready yet). I really like being able to take snapshot backups of my phone.
Curious, what reasons were given for the lack of relevance of TWRP? I know that I am probably more weird, atavistic and curmudgeon-y than the average user, but, c’mon, who doesn’t want local backups?
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It’s not as relevant since LineageOS has its own recovery for those just wanting to do a “basic” install, but it’s definitely still relevant for people who want the additional options TWRP provides (or just prefer it).
The other reason I can see for its waning relevance is the continued lack of Android 12 compatibility. If it’s ever officially released, it probably won’t be anytime soon based on the TWRP.me website.
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I bought Teracube because Fairphone doesn’t have a US presence (yet…?) and I was delighted to see that somebody in the US finally grabbed the money that was just lying there on the table. I love it - it’s a great little phone with a removable battery, replaceable parts, and an “it’s about time” model and philosophy. HOWEVER - dear lord, when will TWRP for the 2nd batch Teracube come out? Or from what I’m reading, when will it work for the 1st batch in the first place? I’m checking these forums weekly for any news or ray of hope. I’m trying to install microG and other mods, but every instruction I read basically says some variation of “you have to have TWRP for this to work”. I’m researching alternate ways of flashing zips, but most of them involve going around your rear end to get to your elbow and are pretty cryptic… any suggestions in the meantime from anybody who feels my pain? I mean, if it’s true that “TWRP is not as relevant as it used to be”, where are all the mods and instructables that should have filled in that supposed void by now? Or am I just not stumbling across any of the right articles or forums? To quote The Dude: “That’s just, like, your opinion, man…”
To clarify, I realize Lineage has its own recovery, but I flashed both it and /e/ to my new phone, and they both broke video calling and FM radio, so I decided to go with the solid de-googled stock ROM that came with the phone and install microG, so for what it’s worth TWRP is still relevant to me.
Just throwing my hat in the ring as another up-vote and to let the community know that solid working TWRPs for both batches are enthusiastically anticipated and hoped for by some people who will put it to good use.
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Hi @regzim - welcome to Teracube forums. TWRP is on our radar but not being actively worked on right now. I’ll check with the team on when we could start work on it.
Welcome! Thanks for posting!
Just curious, did you try confirming this with multiple platforms? I have a 1st batch 2e running /e/ that works fairly well with WhatsApp, Zoom and Element video chat.
Are you including using adb (android debug bridge) over USB here? I have found using their sideload feature to be fairly straightforward. If you post links to the cryptic instructions you have found here, someone may be able to help
As mentioned, I am running /e/ on my 1st batch phone (which I bought from /e/ with /e/ preinstalled), and I’ve found the community/leadership there to be pretty responsive to addressing bugs/fixes. I would definitely raise the “breaks video chat and FM radio” issue over there. I’m assuming they’re planning to sell the 2nd batch phone as well at some point, and they’d want to know about this issue if they haven’t identified it yet.
Thanks Sharad & ECS for your replies. 
Some caveats and updates to my post:
“Broke video calling & FM radio”: Sorry, I should have been more explicit in mentioning it most likely broke my PROVIDER’S (T-Mobile) “built-in” video phone calling features, or more likely its access to the stock ROM’s built-in video calling… Whenever I used stock ROM to video call my girlfriend’s phone (she’s on Mint which is technically T-Mobile), I had no problems (same with stock included FM radio app). However, whenever I installed Lineage and /e/ and tried same (using “video call” feature in contacts, etc), I could see her but she would just see a blank screen. Just conjecture on my part, but I’m assuming this might be due to any possible proprietary “closed source” nature of those services? Or perhaps T-Mobile just didn’t like the interface or lack of T-Mobile friendly Google Services or something? If there’s a simple fix to this I’m not aware of, please post it! I’m handy with hacking and some coding, but these questions are a little above my pay grade. Hoowever, if this is just a T-Mobile thing, I get that there’s probably not much anybody can do about it. Everything else I really liked about Lineage and /e/ for this phone, so if I could get both those features on those ROMs, that would be wonderful.
Also, both alternative OSs just didn’t even have an FM radio option pre-installed (I tried various 3rd party FM radio apps but no dice).
“Flashing zips”: Exploding forehead slapper here, but can you believe that in all the years I’ve been flashing ROMs and rooting my phone I never actually knew that you could use ADB to flash zips just like with TWRP because I never saw it EXPLICITLY mentioned on any forums or instructables as an alternative? I kind of suspected it, but since all instructions I’ve come across mention TWRP explicitly with no alternatives, I was too afraid to brick my phone to experiment around with it on such high-level system hacks without knowing EXACTLY what I was doing. I’m also the kind of guy who can prove you absolutely wrong when you’re giving me directions and say “you can’t miss it” - 
- I can and do.
Examples
*This article mentions only various paid apps but doesn’t mention ADB that I could see (they’re prob really just helpful looking ads):
*This instruction (as a generic example among many I’ve found) on how to install MicroG (scroll to end of article) only mentions TWRP:
says things like
"14. install SuperSu via TWRP
- or use
adb sideloadfrom theAdvancedmenu in TWRP
- install Xposed via TWRP (see 14.)"
and
“Once Google is cleaned up and the FakeGapps module is ready, reboot into recovery (see 12. and 13.) and install the NanoDroid zip via TWRP.”
After your post I did a search with the right terms this time and found a Quora article which says:
“Download adb driver and install
Put the Zip File in one folder…
Open Command Prompt…
Type adb devices
Your Device will listed
Then type adb sideload filename.zip
Your zip file will be installed…”
Easy peasy. So apparently I had to know the right answer before I searched for the answer I didn’t know. Super frustrating. To be fair I have done a LOT of searching and bookmarking and came up with bupkus on the subject - maybe just bad luck on my part. That’s really all that’s been holding me back - if I never needed TWRP to begin with, I’m okay with it since installing it has always been a bit of a pain in the butt anyway. Either way, your reply sent me down the right path, so thank you!
I’m going to try and install Xposed and MicroG, and if successful, I’ll post a full instructable on all the steps I followed to leave a breadcrumb trail for any other Teracubers interested in same. I’ll also take your advice and post up the video call/FM radio issue on the /e/ forums to put eyeballs on that as well.
Thanks!
Yes, this is a good general description of the process. A few tips:
- I have found this process easier to do from a Linux machine than a Windows PC, I think because of the way Windows handles USB. But I’ve used both in the past. I have heard Mac will work, but never used that myself.
- Put the zip file in the home directory of your command line terminal, otherwise you will have to type “adb sideload path/to/file/filename.zip” and this sometimes complicates things.
- You already know the phone has to have developer options enabled and Android Debugging enabled. But also, temporarily disable all screenlock security provisions on your phone before starting. You can re-enable them afterwards, but it can cause complications during the process.
- You have to plug in the phone to the computer with USB and authorize the connection with the computer on the phone. Until you do this, you will probably not see your phone when you type “adb devices”
- You have to boot the phone to recovery (“adb reboot recovery”) and ensure that the phone is prepared to sideload in recovery before you run the sideload command on your terminal. The exact path for doing this varies some by your recovery program, but is usually pretty easy to navigate to.