One of the things that got me into programming, like most people, was movies. In my books, I’ve been a hacker-type programmer. tweaking every technology I can lay my hands on. well, including my mobile device. Running custom roms like Lineage or flashing Kali Net Hunter and going extreme with Ubuntu Touch. a variant of Ubuntu optimized and built to run on Android devices.

In light of the foregoing, I have had the opportunity to successfully root my device in order to run some of these custom roms on my Android. device. Well, I soft-bricked the phone on a number of occasions.

The weekend is here, and to do something hacky this time, I decided to root my current phone. I was even shocked that I haven’t done so. Damn, I have lost my powers. To root it, I first needed to install TWRP’s custom recovery image, which will allow me to boot into a custom recovery menu on my Android device.

It gives me more tools to do things right away that the stock recovery that comes with devices does not.An example is that it makes installing custom roms much easier.

But I’m not here to talk about Android roms and hacking Android. I’m still a beginner tinkerer here.

with every device having its own set of instructions on how to root it. During my research, I stumbled on A/B system updates. and I think it’s really cool. I wanted to write a short piece about it.

How did I get to know this? I needed to know the partition scheme of the target device in order to install twrp.This basically means that every An Android device has a structure or rule according to which its internal ROM is split up for data. These partitions could hold files like boot files; a partition could be setup for where logical drives are stored; etc.

Two partition schemes came up in system updates: A/B and Legacy A. Let’s talk about A and  B, and you can make references as to how Legacy A could work.

A/B system updates are also called seamless updates. This is due to how system updates, or OTA updates, are downloaded and patched into the operating system. With A/B, the system uses two partitions. The android system runs on one slot, which is called the current slot, and the other, unused slot, resides on the app. with the A (running system) slot having no access to it.

During OTA updates, the current slot is updated, and the goal of the system B slot is to act as a failsafe for the operating system to fallback to in case the update breaks. the current system This could be the result of an error during or after an update.

The android system, or if I could say it, the bootloader, decides which slot or partition to run based on a bootable attribute that determines the state of the system slot. marking it as safe for booting from it.

Once the update is done, the A/B system has background jobs that prepare the system to boot into the updated version. to learn more about A/B system updates Check out the documentation on the source.android.com site.

But here I want to talk a little about A/B system updates and how I was fascinated by it when I learned something like this was happening on a user’s device. It’s not happening on mine, at least.How did I know? Well, there is an adb command that lets you check if your device uses the legacy A or A/B system updates.

The idea behind the new A/B system updates is to give ideas on how to write software for mobile devices or apps that are capable of withstanding severe error issues. It’s quite simple to consider.have two copies of the system. make one of the partitions usable due to system updates or bugs that cause problems the current system, fallback to a more stable version.

I’m here thinking about ways I could write software, borrowing ideas from this system update concept. As we build systems that are consumer-facing, it’s necessary that our systems stay online as much as possible with minimal issues. Certain cataclysms could cause data loss or make a system dysfunctional, but the systems we build should be able to bounce back after all these.

I hope you learned something from this. I’m just ranting about how cool I think this is and how it has added a new perspective on how to approach and build systems.

I’m going to have to leave you here; keep hacking.