Motorola One Macro, codename lima, can surprisingly be upgraded to Android 12. To be exact, this phone can be upgraded to phh’s treble Android 12 GSI. I have already written a longer guide on this phone before, however it lacks some edge cases. This guide would hopefully attempt to ammend these.

I originally intended for that article to be a complete guide which works for all Android versions. Although that is still somewhat true, I decided to rewrite a standalone article for Android 12. I’ve learned some stuff about the phone, some issues that could arise while updating, which I thought would deserve their own guide. Now, this is an article attuned to the type of step-by-step, which is a contrast to the original guide. This article could also hopefully act as a step-by-step upgrade guide.

What do all those files mean?

This image is a list of available phhtreble images to download. For this phone, the compatible configuration of images is arm64 a/b variants (*-arm64-ab-*). Also, I was only able to boot vndklite image versions. I have no idea why, but from my own understanding this is better for OS updates? It should be noted though, that I couldn’t get dynamic updates to work, most probably the phone does not have dynamic partitions. Ofcourse, we will be downloading the -secure variant as we will be installing Magisk later on.

At the time of writing, you can fetch the latest compatiable image as per the following:

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wget https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/releases/download/v414/system-squeak-arm64-ab-vndklite-floss-secure.img.xz

Setting up the phone

You must flash a ‘clean’ stock image. Grab the latest image from motostockrom.com. Use my guide in order to flash the stock image. Make sure the phone boots before continuing on.

Flashing Android 12

After setting up stock rom, flash Google’s vbmeta disabling verity and verification.

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fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

Then, flash Android 12

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unxz system-squeak-arm64-ab-vndklite-floss-secure.img.xz
fastboot flash system_a system-squeak-arm64-ab-vndklite-floss-secure.img
fastboot set_active a
fastboot erase userdata

This would erase your data, make sure you format your phone through the bootloader menu

Post-Install

Magisk

After sending the boot.img to the phone, install Magisk’s App and patch the bootloader by following the instructions in the app. After that, flash the bootloader:

This would format the phone again

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fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img

Reinstall Magisk’s App and reboot to complete setup.

Audio Fixes

After installing, go to Settings -> phhtreble’s Settings -> Misc features -> check “Use alternate…” and “Disable Audio effects” in order to fix headphones not being connected.