How To Flash Android (Flyme) On Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition

This is a quick guide for how to reflash Fyme OS on Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition. Flyme is based on Android with some redesign along with extras. It doesn't ship with Google apps, but those are easily installable.

You can flash Flyme 5.1.12G or 6.1.0G (released recently), both based on Android 5.1. To see what's new in Flyme 6, check out THIS page. Using the steps below, you should receive future Flyme OS updates automatically, so there's no need to reflash anything manually for any OS updates.

Flash Android (Flyme) On Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition)

Before proceeding, make sure your phone is charged. Also, like with any flashing procedure, this may brick your device, so use these instructions at your own risk! And finally, I should mention that I didn't yet try to perform a reverse procedure (install Ubuntu Touch back) so if you plan on doing this in the future, you'll have to figure out how to do it yourself.

1. What you'll need

1.A. adb and fastboot.

In Ubuntu, adb and fastboot are available in the official repositories. To install them, use the following commands:

sudo apt install adb fastboot

These can also be downloaded from HERE (for Linux, Mac and Windows).

1.B. Flyme firmware (global version).

The Meizu MX4 global firmware is available to download from HERE.

1.C. recovery.img from Flyme OS.

This can be downloaded from HERE or HERE.

Place the firmware along with the recovery image in your home folder.

2. Enable Developer mode on your Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition (About phone > Developer mode).

3. You may encounter an error with adb / fastboot not detecting the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition device. To fix this, open the ~/.android/adb_usb.ini file with a text editor (if it doesn't exist, create the ".android" folder in your home directory, and a file called adb_usb.ini inside this folder) and paste the following in this file:
0x2a45
... and save the file.

On Windows, this file is available under C:\Users\<user name>\.android

4. Flash the recovery and Flyme OS

4.A. Connect the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition device to your computer via USB (USB 2.0 is recommended because it looks like there might be issues with USB 3.0), then reboot in bootloader mode and flash the recovery:

adb reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

(or enter the exact path to where you downloaded "recovery.img")

Note that the phone must be unlocked when doing this. Also, the first time you use adb, the phone will ask if you want to allow the connection - make sure you click "Accept"!

In theory, you should be able to reboot to bootloader by holding volume down + power buttons, and into recovery by holding volume up + power, but these didn't work for some reason on my device (I don't remember if only one of them or both), that's why I used commands instead in this article.

4.B. Next, power up the phone and after Ubuntu Touch boots, run the following command to reboot into recovery:

adb reboot recovery

From the recovery screen (which is in Chinese), you need to get to a screen which displays the "adb sideload" command at the bottom. You get to this by selecting the various options in the recovery screen, but unfortunately I forgot which one (and I didn't took a picture). So unfortunately I can't tell you exactly how to get there, but remember that "adb sideload" should be displayed at the bottom when you get to the right option.

Once you get to the screen I mentioned above, run the following command

adb sideload update.zip

(or enter the exact path to where you downloaded "update.zip")

On the next reboot, your Meizu MX4 should run Flyme instead of Ubuntu Touch. Note that the first boot might take a long time!

Quick Flyme OS tips for new users

And finally, a couple of tips if you're new to Flyme OS.

Meizu MX4 has only 1 button, so to perform a "back" function, instead of using a dedicated button, you'll need to touch the Meizu MX4 button once.

To go to the home screen you'll have to swipe up on the Meizu MX4 button.

To install Google Play Store and other Google apps, you'll need the Meizu Google Apps Installer. This is available in the Meizu store, or you can grab an APK from HERE.

Rooting the device is very easy. You'll need to create a Meizu account and log in to it on the Meizu MX4. Next, go to Settings > Security > Root Permission and agree to the terms. That's it.

References: