None of my Androids work with Xreal Air 2 Pro

XREAL Air
1

I keep three generations of OnePlus around for daily use and backup: OnePlus 7 Pro, OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 11. All Snapdragons, btw.

None of them work with the Xreal. Nebula refuses to install on the OnePlus 7 Pro (Snapdragon 855 may be considered too old), but installs on the OnePlus 8 (Snapdragon 865) and OnePlus 11 (SnapDragon 8 r 2).

But then it simply won’t work. On the OnePlus 8 the app just goes crazy, flipping between screens when I try to do the setup, for the OnePlus 11 it just says that “work is ongoing to support the device”.

I didn’t try going down further, I still have a OnePlus 5 and a OnePlus (one) I could try using, also all Snapdragons, which I stress here, because that’s nearly the only thing mentioned as a requirement.

I do run perfectly up-to-date LineageOS ROMs on all the older devices (855 and 865 tested), as OnePlus has stopped providing security updates for them. Only the OnePlus 11 runs the most current vendor Android 13 release.

The Beam was delayed and is still en-route, so I can’t tell if that were to change anything.

On the PC side, I have had zero issues with compatibility, as long as there was Alt-DP output support on the USB-C connector, I got an image…

…which didn’t work with my face, but that’s a separate topic.

The lack of support for the OnePlus 11 may have an easy explanation: OnePlus in their infinite wisdom chose to make the USB-C port on that device USB 2.0, only. It won’t show a picture on a normal monitor either.

But that’s not true for the OnePlus 8 and 7 Pro, who are USB 3.x and have Alt-DP support.

And it seems that OnePlus has seen the light, because USB 3.2 and Alt-DP support is back for the OnePlus 12.

2

Hi, the Oneplus 8 should be OK with Air 2 Pro. Could you please try to reset the setting of your Oneplus 8 and check if the Nebula can be working well?

3

If you’re asking me to do a factory reset of the OnePlus 8, that won’t happen, because it’s a day of work with very likely no different result. It is a rather clean setup with no social media apps, no games, mostly some diagnostics apps, Firefox, Solid Explorer, some media player, Kindle, K9 and OpenStreetMap: nothing invasive and nothing really running in the background.

The phone is also rooted, but that shouldn’t make any difference to Nebula.

I’ve checked Alt-DP output again, the OnePlus 8 will display on my monitor, and it will even display the Nebula settings screen, that I was in, when I connected the device.

But as soon as I go to the apps top screen where you can select between AR Space and Air Casting functionalities, it will always display “connecting” for a fraction of a second and toggle the two main buttons between active and black.

I’m pretty sure it’s a compatibility issue between the LineageOS ROM and your app, but since OnePlus has stopped providing ROM updates for these older devices, LineageOS is the only way to keep them safe and current.

Since LineageOS is extremely close to stock Android from Google, I’m quite surprised to see issues here. I have never met any application that had issues with LineageOS, because it is so close to Google’s original.

I’m quite surprised you refuse to install on the OnePlus 7 Pro, which is only one generation older and from what I know there is very little difference in Snapdragon 855 to 865 capabilities, mostly a couple of MHz here and there.

Perhaps you could properly document your restrictions/checks?

There is also a couple of Xiaomi Poco X3 in the family, but they also run LineageOS, not the vendor ROM as it’s out of support: Should I try to use those?

4

I have an Oneplus 8 pro and 11. Sad thing is 8 is now supported, but the newer 11 is not. Do you have a timeline on supporting the lastest Oneplus phones?

5

For the OnePlus 11, the required hardware support simply isn’t there: Alt-DP output and USB3 connectivity are a physical requirement.

For Android 13, I gather from other posts by XREAL-dev, that the outlook is drab, because Google seems to have changed how much control apps are permitted to have over hardware.

From what I can see, both Android and Windows are dysfunctional on Xreal and you need to consider your return options.

6

Hi, if the USB interface of your Oneplus 8 is fine, then it is a system issue. From what we know, the system version of Oneplus phones (higher than _11_C.65) changed the DP channels from 4 to 2. But the Air glasses require 4 channels DP.
And about the Oneplus 7 Pro you mentioned, it does support USB 3.0 and DP. But we didn’t do the full test from our side, so it was not included in GP. Maybe you can try to download the app manually from the following link: New Nebula Android (V3.6.0) for Non-GP Users!

7

I don’t actually recall, which version I used for the OnePlus 7 Pro initially, the one from the Google Play (3.6) or the 3.7 (Beta?), but I do remember it being refused as incompatible and I don’t get that behavior now… unless e.g. I try using a device like the OnePlus 11, which simply doesn’t have the hardware required.

I’ve just tried with the 1.36 and the 1.37 release from Google Play and both now work on the OnePlus 7 Pro. The only difference seems to be the ability of 3.7 to run as an on-top window.

But both versions 3.6 and 3.7 can’t be made to work with the OnePlus 8.

Both devices run LineageOS 20 which is based on Android 13, latest Januar updates, so no OnePlus ROMs, but the kernel can only be based on OnePlus sources.

To me the best news is that Android 13 doesn’t seem to be a fundamental problem, why LineageOS on the OnePlus 8 has issues connecting to the device, I don’t know.

Both devices also work in passive mode, that is without Nebula active, in normal and even in mirror and split-screen 3D mode using VLC for Android.

To me that proves that the display port output on both devices is fully operational and full bandwidth and whatever has Nebula fail on the OnePlus 8 must be software or kernel related.

If there is a way to get Nebula to produce logs, I could try providing those.