[Galaxy Note 10.1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] azureus139:
First, I am not an expert. I cannot code, I do not produce ROMS in a kitchen. I can use google and I am determined and have learned bits. I offer what worked for me in the hope of helping others.

So, here’s the thing. Like others I went for the release version of KitKat for n8000 and by missing out the modem bit flashed it via Odin. Now the proper KitKat for n8010 comes out but it won’t update via odin, KIES is not happy either. I blame no one but me for this.

I figure it is the sboot that is the problem so I look for a way to flash without it. When I say “I figure” I mean I have put two and two together from many hours of google reading. I may be wrong but in the end I managed it.

Long story a little shorter I find Heimdall and I extracted the components from the n8010 kitkat update (I used winrar on the BTU version) and flashed them leaving out the sboot.img and tz.img bits as either would lead to failed flash. I now have a working n8010 with KitKat which under device, under settings, gives the n8010 build number and is recognised as an n8010 by kies.

It still says n8000 under download mode (due to locked sboot) but if I may get future updates via kies, as it recognises it as an n8010 and says it is up to date for now, then that works well enough for me.

Detailed instructions:

1. Download and unzip your update file of choice and extract the tar.md5 file to separate files. I used winrar but suspect 7-zip would work equally.

2. Download Heimdall (just Google it!).

3. Unzip Heimdall and you should have several files in the folder called Heimdall.exe, Heimdall-Frontend.exe, QtCore4.dll, QtGui4.dll, Readme.txt and drivers folder containing zadig.exe.

4. Run zadig.exe from the Drivers folder of the Heimdall Suite.

5. If you get an error as follows:

The program can't start because MSVCP100.dll is missing from your computer.

This means that you haven't installed the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 runtimes. Download Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86) and install it. Use the x86 even if you are running 64 bit Windows.

6. Put you tab into Download mode (while the tab is OFF hold Volume Down + Power Button). Hook the tab up to you PC.

7. Once you’ve started Zadig.exe and connected to PC choose Options » List All Devices from the menu.

8. Select Samsung USB Composite Device or MSM8x60 or Gadget Serial or Device Name from the drop down menu. (If nothing relevant appears, try uninstalling any Samsung related Windows software, like Samsung Windows drivers and/or Kies).

9. Click Replace Driver (having selected "Install Driver" from the drop down list built into the button).

10. If you are prompted with a warning that the installer is unable to verify the publisher of the driver, select Install this driver anyway. You may receive two more prompts about security. Select the options that allow you to carry on.

11. You will need to re-install the Samsung drivers later if you want to run kies.

12. Run Heimdall-Frontend.exe.

13. Hit the utilities tab then detect button.

14. If it doesn’t say detected in the output box it will not work. Try to repeat the above steps. Use a different usb port or a different pc.

15. Now you need to create a pit file. Hit save as and give it a name. Then hit download and it will create a pit file for you.

16. Go to Flash tab and hit browse and find the pit file you created earlier.

17. Then hit the add button. You will notice a drop down menu has appeared next to partition name. Then if you look below under Partition ID in brackets it says what sort of file it needs. So for example MD5HDR in the drop down requires md5.img. Use browse to find the relevant file from the files you extracted in step 1 and select then hit add again. Then repeat this until you have selected all the extracted files EXCEPT sboot.img and tz.img.

18. Hit start.

19. Bask in your new updated n8010 without needing kies or odin.

If you want to repeat this on another tab you can create a heimdall install package using the partitions and pit file you’ve created using the create package tab.

Now comes the question...

I've found places that offer an app for testing whether the sboot is locked (not sure how useful that is?) but several also offer a method for replacing a locked sboot. Such as this batch file:

[MENTION=279333]ECHO[/MENTION] Restore OLD BOOTLOADER N7100!

[MENTION=607132]pause[/MENTION]

[MENTION=279333]ECHO[/MENTION] --- STARTING ----

[MENTION=279333]ECHO[/MENTION] --- WAITING FOR DEVICE

[MENTION=4436650]files[/MENTION]1\adb wait-for-device

[MENTION=279333]ECHO[/MENTION] --- Restore BOOTLOADER ---

[MENTION=4436650]files[/MENTION]1\adb push sboot.bin /sdcard/sboot.bin

[MENTION=4436650]files[/MENTION]1\adb shell su -c "dd if=/sdcard/sboot.bin of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1"

[MENTION=4436650]files[/MENTION]1\adb shell rm /sdcard/sboot.bin

[MENTION=4436650]files[/MENTION]1\adb reboot fota_bl

[MENTION=607132]pause[/MENTION]

There are others for different Samsung devices but all have the same block/mmcblk0p1 as the block to replace the sboot. And I also found a common block for the tz.img; mmcblk0p2. My question is whether this would work for the n8010, could we edit this batch slightly, grab the relevant files from a n8010 kitkat update and then have a n8010 sboot again?

Just hoping someone is either expert enough to know or brave enough to try?