According to the latest report, Android 14 is bringing a couple of enhancements to Dynamic System Updates (DSU), the feature that lets you boot a generic Android build without overwriting the original installation.
These include:
- Ability to install a new data partition without supplying a new system image, in case you want to simulate a factory reset.
- Ability to reboot immediately into the dynamic system when installation is completed.
- Ability to set “sticky mode” – ie. persist the dynamic system across reboots – during installation rather than post-install.
- Ability to hide the notification about the status of the dynamic system (in use or ready) so OEMs can customize the UI.
- Ability to use the default strings provided by the keyguard manager when showing the dialog that prompts the user for device credentials.
These DSU changes probably came in response to feedback from OEMs. There are surprisingly a couple of OEMs who actually use DSU to let users test Android betas, like Sharp did with their Android 13 beta.
Alongside the release of Android 14 Beta 1 for Pixel, Google also released Generic System Images (GSIs) for Android 14 B1! Same build (UPB1.230309.014) and SPL (April 2023) but they’re installable on (theoretically) any Project Treble-compatible device – excluding devices with an Android 9 vendor.
In general, it isn’t recommended for you to install a GSI through DSU – there’s a chance you could brick your phone if the bootloader isn’t unlocked because of Android Verified Boot (AVB).
Theoretically, you should be able to boot these Android 14 GSIs on Pixels running Android 13 QPR2 WITHOUT unlocking the bootloader since Google installed the GSI keys in the ramdisk, which would let you boot a developer GSI with AVB enabled. This applies to Tensor-based Pixels, coral (Pixel 4 XL), sunfish (Pixel 4a), Redbull (Pixel 4a with 5G and Pixel 5).
We don’t know if they reverted this change in the QPR3 Beta, so YMMV. Also, the developer_gsi_keys makefile only lists the Q, R, and S GSI AVB pubkeys, not T or U. It’s possible they’re using the same key now to sign the T and U GSIs, but I haven’t tested.
If you want to test booting the Android 14 GSI on your Pixel running Android 13 QPR2+ (again, I HAVEN’T TESTED IF THIS WILL BRICK YOUR PHONE OR WORK), you have to do so manually (or use DSU Sideloader), because Google hasn’t updated gsi-src.json to point to the U GSIs yet.
EDIT:
It seems Google literally just updated the gsi-src json to point to the Android 14 GSIs, so they should now appear as an option for you to install in the DSU Loader menu!
(I swear the json didn’t have this when I drafted this post, lol!)
According to one user, they were able to boot up the Android 14 Beta 1 GSI on their Pixel 7 which had a locked bootloader and was running the April 2023 Android 13 QPR2 stable release.
