These instructions provide you with step-by-step guidance on how to install Sailfish X on Xperia™ 10 III. During this process, you will install the fastboot driver, download Sailfish X and necessary software binaries, unlock the bootloader of the phone, and last but not least, flash Sailfish X to your phone. The process will take an average of 25 minutes.
Note1: Please upgrade Windows 10 or 11 on your computer to the latest version. Check your Windows version at Settings > System > About > Windows specifications (or at Settings > Update & Security > View update history).
Note 2: This zip container has screenshots covering steps 3.6 to 3.20.
3.1 Switch off your phone and wait until the LED is off (at the top right corner of the phone).
3.2 While the phone is off, hold the Volume Up button down and connect your phone to your computer via USB cable. The LED light at the top right corner of the phone should light up blue. If it turns green then disconnect the cable and try again.
3.3 Get the needed fastboot driver from Sony. The Sony web page points to a driver for Sony Xperia™ X, however, this driver works on Xperia™ 10 III, too. Download the driver file from this page at Sony Developer World to your computer.
3.4 Right-click the file xperia-x-driver.zip, click Extract All… and extract it to a folder.
3.5 On Windows 10, right-click the Windows Start button and choose Device Manager
3.6 If the tree view features the Sony sa0114 and Sony sa0114 ADB Interface Driver below, your computer already has the correct fastboot driver installed. Go to chapter 3.21.
3.7 However, if you see Android with a warning triangle under Other devices, the fastboot driver is not correctly installed.
3.8 Right-click Android and choose Update driver.
3.9 Then, choose the option “Browse my computer for driver software”
3.10 Select “Let me pick from a list of available drives on my computer”
3.11 Select “Show All Devices” and click Next
3.12 Select “Have disk…”
3.13 Select “Browse…” and go to the folder where you extracted the driver in chapter 3.4
3.14 Select the file sa0114adb.inf inside the folder and click Open
3.15 Click OK
3.16 The Sony sa0114 ADB Interface Driver appears in the Model list.
3.17 Click Next
3.18 At this point, you might see an “Update Driver Warning”. Click Yes
3.19 After this, you see “Windows has successfully updated your drivers” and you can click Close.
3.20 The Device Manager features now Sony sa0114 in the tree view.
3.21 Disconnect the USB cable from your phone.
3.22 Your computer is now ready to unlock the bootloader of your Xperia 10 III.
4.1 Get the latest Sailfish X software from Jolla’s software download page. There, look for your phone, Xperia™ 10 III, the dual SIM (XQ-BT52) variant, and then download the related software. Download Sailfish X from Jolla Shop.
4.2 Extract the contents of the zip file to a folder.
5.1 Download the Sony Software binaries for AOSP
SW_binaries_for_Xperia_Android_
Download from Sony Developer World.
5.2 Extract the contents of the zip file to a folder
5.3 Copy the resulting ‘.img’ file to the same folder as used in chapter 4.2
6.1 Ensure that the phone has an internet connection.
6.2 On the phone, go to Settings app > About Phone, write down the IMEI number for later use. If there are two IMEI numbers, then only mark the IMEI of the SIM slot 1.
6.3 Tap on Build number multiple times to enable Developer options.
6.4 Go to Settings > System > Advanced > Developer options, and enable OEM unlocking (use the slider even if it appeared greyed out) and USB debugging.
7.1 Take your computer.
7.2 You need an unlock code from the Sony web page. Please read the disclaimers on this Sony web page.
7.3 Proceed to the bottom of the page where it says “Select your device” above a blue selection box.
7.4 Select your phone, Xperia™ 10 III. Some more text appears. Proceed to the end of the new text.
7.5 Enter the IMEI, from chapter 6.2, into the web page’s input field, acknowledge warranty terms and click Submit.
7.6 The unlock code will appear. Write it down for later use (step 7.12).
7.7 Switch off your phone and wait until the LED is off (at the top right corner of the phone).
7.8 Press and hold the Volume up button and connect the other end of the USB cable to your phone and wait for the LED to light up blue. If it turns green then disconnect the cable and try again.
7.9 On your computer go to the folder, created in chapter 4.2, by using the Windows file manager. On top of the window, there is the folder path shown inside a field. Click on the empty part of the field (near the right end) which then highlights the whole path on blue background. Do not click anywhere else.
7.10 At the computer keyboard, type cmd – these 3 letters will appear in the said field, replacing the path text on blue. Press Enter to commit.
7.11 The Windows terminal app (black background) opens with the path set to your current folder.
7.12 Enter the following command into the Windows terminal app. When typing the command, you need to replace all characters after “0x” (zero ex) with your unlock code from step 7.6. Do not type the brackets. See step 7.13 for an example of the actual command.
fastboot oem unlock 0x[insert your received unlock code]
7.13 On the terminal, you should see the output similar to this:
fastboot oem unlock 0xF6147ED3A507FBAD
OKAY [ 1.716s]
finished. total time: 1.720s
7.14 Disconnect the USB cable from your phone. Then, turn the phone on and let it boot up to the UI.
No need to run the “Get started” phase (if requested). It is good to stop there. Just turn the phone off. This will complete the unlocking session.
NOTE:
If you did not yet restart the phone at step 7.14 do it now or else you will need to do the flashing (chapter 8) two times!
8.1 Make sure your phone is powered off. The LED must not show any light.
8.2 Hold down the Volume Up button and connect the other end of the USB cable to the phone. The LED should light up blue.
8.3 Using the File Manager, go to the folder which you created in chapter 4.2. This folder must contain the Sailfish X and Sony Software binaries.
8.4 Double-click on flash-on-windows.bat. A console window appears.
8.5 Follow the instructions shown in the console window.
8.6 Detach the USB cable after the flashing has finished. The last 3 lines of the flashing script are:
Flashing completed.
Remove the USB cable and bootup the device by pressing powerkey.
Press any key to continue . . .
8.7 Reboot your phone into Sailfish X!
If the phone keeps the blue LED lit (so it doesn’t turn off) use this trick. Then use the Power key to turn the phone on.
8.8 First, you will see a reminder of an unlocked bootloader, which can be ignored, and then the Sailfish OS logo.
NOTE: A sine sweep sound is played, unfortunately, when booting up this first time.
8.9 Sign in to your Jolla account in order to get the Android AppSupport and other licensed content. The Jolla account must be the same as you used when purchasing the Sailfish X licence.
8.10 Next, you can install more Sailfish apps from the Jolla Store or Android apps from stores like APKPure or Aptoide.
8.11 Please restart your Xperia 10 III once to activate all services and complete the installation.
Happy flashing!
