UPDATE 2025-09-08

Just updated both Evolution X 10.9 with Google Apps and Evolution X 10.9 Vanilla (version without any Google Apps) images with a build including September 2025 security patches.

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ORIGINAL 2025-09-08

It was bound to happen.

Spending time keeping my trusty old Pixel 4a updated with the latest Android releases, including monthly security patches, got me hooked with the process.

I recently acquired the next device in the "Pixel A series", namely the Pixel 4a 5G, just for the fun of providing the same support to a device that is no longer maintained by Google since Android 14.

Learning with the regular 4a proved to be insightful, and building Android 15 for the Pixel 4a 5G was a more familiar process.

Changes in the filesystem partitioning result in a slightly different flashing procedure, keep reading on if you want to know how to install the build on your device, but for those who just want the files here they are:

Evolution X 10.9 with Google Apps included and its recovery images:

• regular boot sector image,
• regular dtbo sector image,
• regular vendor_boot sector image.

Evolution X 10.9 Vanilla, without any Google Apps, and its associated recovery images:

• vanilla boot sector image,
• vanilla dtbo sector image,
• vanilla vendor_boot sector image.

As previously mentioned, the partitioning of the storage space is slightly different this time around: we have separate sectors to flash in order to modify the boot process and allow the installation of our custom Android distribution.

We will focus on the part where we replace the bootloader with our custom recovery bootloader: for a complete tutorial on how to unlock the device and get to the point described below, check my article on how to install Evolution X on the Google Pixel 3a.

To replace the original bootloader with a custom recovery one, follow these steps:

$ ./fastboot flash boot <path_to_boot_sector_image>
Sending 'boot_b' (98304 KB)                        OKAY [  2.270s]
Writing 'boot_b'                                   OKAY [  0.562s]
Finished. Total time: 3.197s

$ ./fastboot flash dtbo <path_to_dtbo_sector_image>
Sending 'dtbo_b' (16384 KB)                        OKAY [  0.470s]
Writing 'dtbo_b'                                   OKAY [  0.216s]
Finished. Total time: 1.055s

$ ./fastboot flash vendor_boot <path_to_vendor_boot_secor_image>
Sending 'vendor_boot_b' (98304 KB)                 OKAY [  2.270s]
Writing 'vendor_boot_b'                            OKAY [  0.555s]
Finished. Total time: 3.195s

Now reboot into Recovery Mode to install the Evolution X image.

Happy daily driving :)