As a rule, users are happy to receive a new system update – the only drawback is the time it takes to install a fresh update (it rarely lasts less than 10 minutes). Google has long come up with a mechanism to fix this shortcoming – you need to install updates in the background so that the user only needs to restart the device at the final stage. In Android, this technology (A / B) has been provided for a long time, but manufacturers practically do not use it. Looks like Google will oblige them.
Esper editor Mishaal Rahman found that all new devices shipping with Android 13 are required to support virtual A/B technology, which means they will be compatible with seamless updates.
Gadgets without A / B update support have a familiar partition scheme, where only one copy of each system file is stored – to prevent access to updated components during the update installation, the system turns off and enters a special update mode. In turn, the modern update mechanism (A / B) implies the use of a copy of the key sections of the system – they are updated in the background, and then, upon reboot, they are simply replaced with the main ones. Mishaal Rahman wrote more about this in his blog.
Thanks to the implementation described above, the device can continue to be used even during the installation of the update until its final stage (reboot), it also supports aborting the installation of the update and rolling back to the previous version. This mechanism is already used in Chromebooks and Pixel 6 smartphones.
Mishaal Rahman suggests that manufacturers have ignored A/B updates so far because of the large storage requirement (to keep copies of the partitions), but since the implementation, Google has significantly reduced the requirements for this technology.
Source: Trash Box
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