How to Install Android O Preview on Pixel or Nexus 6P/5X!

In this quick tutorial, I am going to show you how to install the latest Android O Preview, Google’s next iteration of Android operating system, quick and easily using fastboot and your computer.  You can use Windows, Mac, Linux, or even Chromebook to install the new Android O firmware image files.  For Mac or Linux, please substitute the code I outline below instead of the one I used in the video tutorial.

Before we begin, installing Android O will ERASE EVERYTHING ON YOUR PHONE!  So please MAKE A BACKUP before preceding.  Also, you can do this on stock or rooted, you do not need an unlocked bootloader or a rooted phone.

This guide is for the Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus 6P, or 5X, the tutorial is identical except different firmware file for different model of your phone.

Step 1. Power off your phone.

Then hold down Power and Volume Down buttons together until you get into “fastboot bootloader” mode and connect a USB cable from your phone to your computer.

Step 2. Download the appropriate firmware for your model of Pixel or Nexus here and unzip the file.

Step 3. Also download fastboot.zip and usb_driver.zip and unzip both files.  You DO NOT NEED to download the whole Android SDK, the fastboot.zip contains everything you need!(We just saved you 30 minutes!)

Also, you do NOT NEED drivers for Mac, Linux, or Chromebook.  (For Chromebook, you will need to install the Chrome ADB app.)

Download:

Download fastboot.zip

Download usb_driver.zip

Step 4. Go into the firmware directory you unzipped earlier and copy over the bootloader, image, and radio files to the fastboot directory (which you also unzipped earlier).

Step 5. If using Windows, install the drivers.  If you don’t know how to do this, please watch the video tutorial as I explain step-by-step.

Step 6. Next, open up a command prompt or terminal and type:

For Windows:

cd Downloads
cd fastboot
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-blahblah.img
*Note – replace “bootloader-blahblah.img” with your bootloader image file name.
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-blahblah.img
*Note – replace “radio-blahblah.img” with your radio image file name.
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot -w update image-blahblah.zip
*Note – replace “image-blahblah.zip” with your image zip file name.
fastboot reboot

For Mac:

cd Downloads
cd fastboot
chmod 755 *
./fastboot-mac flash bootloader bootloader-blahblah.img
*Note – replace “bootloader-blahblah.img” with your bootloader image file name.
./fastboot-mac reboot-bootloader
./fastboot-mac flash radio radio-blahblah.img
*Note – replace “radio-blahblah.img” with your radio image file name.
./fastboot-mac reboot-bootloader
./fastboot-mac -w update image-blahblah.zip
*Note – replace “image-blahblah.zip” with your image zip file name.
./fastboot-mac reboot

For Linux:

cd Downloads
cd fastboot
chmod 755 *
sudo ./fastboot-linux flash bootloader bootloader-blahblah.img
*Note – replace “bootloader-blahblah.img” with your bootloader image file name.
sudo ./fastboot-linux reboot-bootloader
sudo ./fastboot-linux flash radio radio-blahblah.img
*Note – replace “radio-blahblah.img” with your radio image file name.
sudo ./fastboot-linux reboot-bootloader
sudo ./fastboot-linux -w update image-blahblah.zip
*Note – replace “image-blahblah.zip” with your image zip file name.
sudo ./fastboot-linux reboot

Step 7. Your phone should reboot and after about 5 minutes, you will see a “Let’s go” screen like seen below.  If you do see this, congratulations!  You have successfully installed Android O on your phone!

 

Also check out new features of Android O by my friend Tim at QBKing77:

 

 

Have a question?

Please post all your questions at the new Android Rehab Center at HighOnAndroid Forum, thank you for understanding!

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Max Lee

Max Lee is the founder of HighOnAndroid.com. Max makes Android tutorials and review videos for people who want to get high on Android over at his YouTube channel and Korean YouTube channel.