It seems that having root access on your Android device has become a need these days due to a lot of customizations and full control over Android subsystems. At the same time, Android users and developers prefer Magisk to systemless root Android devices rather than using TWRP recovery seamlessly. But sometimes the rooting process via flashing patched boot image may cause issues like the Fastboot Error: Boot Partition is Smaller than Boot Image.
Now, if you’re also facing the same issue and cannot find out where the problem is triggering or what to do next, then make sure to check out this article to know more. So, if in case, your device is stuck in the fastboot screen and it has a custom firmware installed or while flashing the patched boot image, if it says the boot partition is smaller than the boot image file, then don’t worry. This is one of the most common issues and can be fixed easily.
Fix: Fastboot Error: Boot Partition is Smaller than Boot Image
Here we’ve shared a couple of points that you need to follow properly or cross-check whether you’re doing any mistake or not. So, without wasting any more time, let’s jump into it.
1. If you’re using custom firmware (for example: LineageOS) on your handset and you’ve flashed the incorrect boot image then you may encounter this error. Try flashing the correct boot image file from your installed LineageOS version for better compatibility. Just extract the boot image file from LineageOS or your current custom firmware and then flash it via Magisk.
2. Try opening the command prompt window inside the installed Platform Tools (ADB Fastboot) directory on the PC. That’s important.
3. Check whether you’re executing the correct command fastboot flash boot file.img or not. If you’re making any mistake with the word or spelling or even the image file name then it may cause a fastboot error. Here file.img should be replaced by the boot image file name and the .img extension should be there always.
4. You should also verify whether you’ve properly transferred the Magisk Patched Boot.img file inside the Platform Tools folder or not. It’s also required. So, don’t skip it.
5. Make sure to install the Android USB Driver on the PC properly before performing the steps again.
6. Are you trying to run the fastboot flash boot recovery.img command on your custom firmware running device? If yes, then you’ll gonna receive the ‘fastboot: error: boot partition is smaller than boot image’ error message every time. It’s because you’re trying to flash a recovery partition into a boot partition. So, try using the command below and it should fix the error.
Fastboot flash recovery.img
7. Similarly, if you trying to run the fastboot flash boot recovery.img command on your custom firmware running device and getting the same boot partition is smaller than the boot image file error, then try using boot_a and boot_b instead of normal boot word in the command line. [So, it may look like fastboot flash boot_a recovery.img or fastboot flash boot_b recovery.img]
Note: Do not input a hyphen or double underscore. It only uses a single underscore. Keep that in mind.
8. If you can’t find out what’s the active slot on your device then you can run the following command on the command prompt window from the Platform Tools folder.
fastboot getvar slot-active:a
slot-active:a: No
fastboot getvar slot-active:b
slot-active:b: Yes
Once you find out the active slot, run the fastboot flash boot_a recovery.img or fastboot flash boot_b recovery.img command accordingly.
That’s it, guys. We assume this article was useful to you. For additional queries, you can comment below.
