What does it mean: Seamless updates === Not supported

[Andy Burnelli]

What does it mean: Seamless updates === Not supported
<https://i.postimg.cc/7hZrrSwc/treble01.jpg> What are seamless updates

What does this app report on your phone for "Seamless updates" anyway?
*Inware* by evowizz
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evo.inware>
--
I should write for a magazine as I'd learn more about Android that way.

[Andy Burns]

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> What does it mean: Seamless updates === Not supported
> <https://i.postimg.cc/7hZrrSwc/treble01.jpg> What are seamless updates

That's the dual system partition scheme that pixel (and other?) phones have, so
there's a live system partition, and a second partition, you'll see on my
screenshot they're called slot _a and slot _b

Before this scheme updates were mainly applied after bootup, and took some while
to apply the changes, re-optimise the files and get back to being a running phone

with the seamless mode, almost all the filsystem changes are prepared in advance
into the non-live slot, and at the reboot, all it has to do it "pivot" the
system partition between the slots, and right away it's ready to startup, so
minimal downtime.

[VanguardLH]

Some more info here:

https://source.android.com/devices/tech/ota/ab

I remember working back on IBM operating systems some 30 years ago they
did the same thing. The primary partition remained running and what the
users had access to while we applied OS, application, and config changes
to the secondary partition. On notification, we told the users that
they had to be logged out by 2AM on the switch day, and all we had to do
was change which partition was marked active on a reboot. When the
users came in, they saw no change (other than the updates). If there
was a severe problem, we could switch back to the old partition in maybe
10 minutes for the time to reboot, but that would interrupt any current
user sessions during the reboot. I was there for around 5 years helping
the sysadmin with the IBM mainframes, and only once did we have to make
an emergency reboot back to the prior partition, but it was there if
needed.

[Ken Hart]

On 2/15/2022 4:59 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

> The primary partition remained running and what the
> users had access to while we applied OS, application, and config changes
> to the secondary partition.

Samsung's streak continues: no "Seamless Update" for the Galaxy S22 series
https://www.phonearena.com/news/no-seamless-android-updates-for-galaxy-s22-series_id138475

While Samsung did a great job allowing users to update to Android 12 faster
than usual, the company has still not added Android's "Seamless Update"
feature. With the feature, firmware updates are installed on a secondary
petition even with the phone in use.

After the phone is rebooted, the secondary partition becomes the main one
reducing the updating phone's downtime to the time needed to reboot it; once
the phone is rebooted, the changes from the update are made.
Samsung once again fails to include Android's "Seamless Update" feature on
its flagship phones

The advantage of using this system is that it allows an update to take place
without the user losing the use of his handset for the time it takes the
update to be installed. And if something goes wrong while loading the
update, the user can easily roll back to the previous version of the
software. Because Google decided not to force manufacturers to use the
"Seamless Update" feature, Samsung was able to skip it on several years
worth of models.
--
Ken Hart
kwh...@frontier.com

[Nic]

VanguardLH wrote:

> If there
> was a severe problem, we could switch back to the old partition

You are a fucking asshole.
Go away troll.