yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] pjcons:
[/COLOR]

Whats the difference with 5.01?

---------- Post added at 01:17 ---------- Previous post was at 00:58 ----------

I don't know, 5.1 is the only version I've been on. Android usually does incremental additions within versions.

Maybe check the release notes?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
The 5.01 is the only one available here... Could you post the update, or is it only OTA?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] pjcons:
Sorry my bad, my other device is on 5.1. My tab 2 is 5.0
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
Same here the TWRP recovery posted does not load on my tablet. I even tried to fastboot erase cache and the recovery just never loads.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] pjcons:
Ok I c where this is going. To explain, I run Ubuntu so windows apps r not good 4 me. Was reading something over the weekend about recovery as couldn't get cwm working properly (or rooted properly 4 that matter!). I got directed to some Russian forum and had to translate to c what it was all about (I will look up my history and try find the page).

They said to use an app which could flash directly from the phone which was good 4 me. Rashr is that app (mentioned that in a previous post - and it's pretty awesome - find it in play store).

Used Rashr to install twrp and then backup and then restore my phone, only thing is can't access twrp from power off? (I'm pretty new to nodding this device but not other devices, not even sure how to get to recovery? Vol + power up?).

Also flashed xposed via twrp.

I will give more info if get the chance tomorrow. Will also find some screen shots I took yday of twrp working and post.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
I'm not saying it didn't work for you. I'm just always suspicious of apps that flash recovery on a device ... they normally use dd if= commands to do the flashing and if they identify your device incorrectly and flash to the wrong partition area you can brick your device.

Its much safer to flash with SPFT with a Scatter.txt that defines the recovery partition correctly.

The fact that you can't boot to the preloader and select recovery and then boot TWRP is not a good sign.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Sparkrite:
Just to be 100% sure are you actually installing TWRP on the Lenovo A10-70F/L tablet?

The reason I ask is because you mention "phone", quite a few times and never "tablet".
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
For those interested I went ahead and posted my readback, SPFT flashable A10-70F_S000121_151222_ROW_clsA here >> http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=64735632&postcount=28

And if you prefer [MENTION=5919159]Tzul[/MENTION] version is right here :) >> http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=64735806&postcount=29
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Tzul:
I just remembered: if you got the preloader by reading back the EMMC_BOOT1 region, then you probably forgot to remove the header. I think I mentioned it somewhere a few pages back: there's a 2 KB (=1 flash page) block in front of the preloader when reading it back, i.e. it actually starts at address 0x800 even though the scatter file says 0x0.

It's always worth to look at files with a hex editor.

I haven't had WLAN problems with any firmware. Maybe my setup has something to do with it, maybe not (the tablet gets its IP from the router via DHCP, but it is always the same fixed one; I use a ~700 KB adblocking hosts file, but clients3.google.com isn't in it).

I'm also skeptical that a "WiFi Signal Booster" app would actually work, particularly if it doesn't need root for lowlevel system access.

No problems either with any of this. What do you mean, the battery app is neutered? That it doesn't show a percentage value in Lollipop? That's thanks to Google, not Lenovo. And those percentages aren't entirely accurate anyway, but yeah, they're helpful. You should really try Xposed + GravityBox if this bothers you. Take a look at my customized statusbar and quicksettings, for example.

As for the SD card: I don't think there are problems in Kitkat as long as you perform the fix in /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml, manually or with an app. And the stock camera app honors your choice of "default write disk" under system settings, storage. If you choose SD card there, then photos are saved to the SD card.

Well, all of that shouldn't be necessary. I didn't have to reboot a single time or wipe anything, and I guess most civilians wouldn't have to either.

It's not really possible to go back to ICS or JB on this tablet. Android 5 runs quite nicely on this device, according to benchmarks actually faster than Android 4.4 (probably mainly due to the switch from Dalvik to ART, note the drastically improved Java score). Android 4.4 felt smoother for some reason, and didn't exhibit the annoying dynamic backlight issue as much, but it has other issues. Like, Google Earth inevitably crashed for me sooner or later, doesn't happen in Android 5 (maybe because 5 has more stable GPU drivers; which also support OpenGL ES 3.0, unlike 4.4). Not to mention more unfixed security issues (and note how Lenovo's custom theming in Android 4.4 makes the two buttons at the bottom invisible!).

By the way, I did try to port TWRP to the tablet yesterday. Unfortunately I ran into issues. The screen is stuck in portrait mode, which wouldn't be too bad, but the touchpanel is stuck in landscape mode. Meaning there's a clash between where you touch the screen and where TWRP thinks you did! Fixing that would require compiling TWRP from scratch, something that I can't do at the moment. Or maybe we'll find a a compiled version that is compatible with the tablet's screen setup. I haven't looked at [MENTION=3075867]pjcons[/MENTION] file yet.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hajkan:
Does anyone know if Carliv Rec can decrypt the encrypted data? The reason I am asking is that if it can't, it wont be able to back up /data. I have another device with Twrp and it cant decrypt encrypted card so I can only backup system on it. And I personally have no reason to wipe my encryption out.

I have not tried this on A10-70 but I wanted to ask before trying.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Tzul:
[MENTION=5336215]hajkan[/MENTION] Good question. I've seen some crypto-related files in TWRP, but not in the Carliv recovery for this tablet, so I don't think it supports it.

I have looked at pjcons' recovery image. Like the filename indicates, it's for a Lenovo Tab 2 A7-10, and it won't work at all on a Tab A10-70. It has a wrong kernel (self-extracting zImage, but XZ-compressed rather than GZIP, curious), which I replaced, but the ramdisk also doesn't work, because it uses 32 bit binaries (the A10-70 has a 64 bit CPU and uses 64 bit binaries).
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Sparkrite:
So pjcons TWRP is for a different tablet.

Suspected so. :(
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
Very interesting! However, since MTK Droid Tools is known to be incompatible with the MediaTek chipset in the Lenovo Tab2 A10-70 (or at least suspected to be so by the author of MTK Droid Tools), and since Tzul is using another way to make his ROM extracts, I wonder what technique you used to create the ROM and whether you actually tested it on your device?

In other words, can MTK Droid Tools be used successfully with this tablet, and if so, what parameters did you use in the MTKDroidTools.ini file?

***

On a related matter, I learned something interesting for relative newbies such as myself when it comes to how the Android OS is structured and what 'factory reset' really means:

After I was experiencing problems with the Google Play Store that could not be resolved in the published manners (removing cache and data, removing system cache, dalvik, removing google account, trying to reinstall by side loading...), I did a Factory Reset from within the Carliv recovery (deducing correctly that this could not bugger up the preloader since I wasn't reverting to a previous OS).

Upon restarting the device, I realized that although it seemed fresh, I still had problems with the Play Store! Looking into the /system folder, I soon realized, looking at the Hosts file, that nothing had changed: a 'Factory Reset' therefore doesn't actually revert the device to factory fresh condition, it only wipes data, cache and dalvik folders then recreates them. A 'Factory' reset does

not

revert the system to true factory condition, whatever modifications were done to the /system folder will remain!.

In other words, a 'Factory Reset' is nothing of the kind. Only flashing the full Factory Rom does it. Good thing to know for those, like myself, who come from the Windows and DOS world, where a reset essentially means, to reinstall the OS from scratch or rewriting an image taken earlier of the system after it was freshly installed.

Also, it may be interesting to know, although this may not apply here, that restoring an image from a Carliv backup, which is like restoring an image in Windows,

can still fail if the internal memory becomes corrupted

, just like a Windows disk may require a format an at least some operating system and the backup app reinstalled before an image made with that app can be written onto it. That is why you need in such a case to flash the ROM from your PC first before you can successfully restore an image of your (hopefully stable) system. That internal memory corruption happened to me a few times on my Galaxy Note 2, and is why I distrust the 'Internal SD card' paradigm altogether for storing my data, just like I distrust the hard drive of my computer to store my data (and, from my general experience with Google, other large corporations and their primary role in establishing the present day Surveillance State, I distrust the 'cloud' even more... But that's another story fit for the 'off topic lounge', :D )
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
The tool [MENTION=5919159]Tzul[/MENTION] mentioned is not needed (he uses it to split the partitions from one large file)

you just use SPFT and the readback feature (I'll post a Screen)

The partition info is all in the MT6752_Android_scatter.txt we already have.

And yes I flashed it to my device 3 different times to be sure it was safe

Doing a full factory reset in recovery each time. or by returning the Tablet to stock with A10-70F_S000120_150907_ROW

then flashing mine.

Not used not needed
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Sparkrite:
I can also vouch that it works perfectly, thanks clsA.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] pjcons:
Agree, but my device is not bricked.

I'm looking at the preloader boot. Not much time though. Only just started modding this thing as sick of laggy lolipips.

---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 AM ----------

Ummmm... Which is working on my tablet?

And for those who asked I have the tab 2 a7-10F.

Crap wrong thread... Sorry all...
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] diablob:
Anyone know how repair NVRAM? Wifi error, imei zero without root... MTK Engineering Mode not solution. Thnx.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Tzul:
TWRP is here!

I managed to make a working TWRP custom recovery for this tablet!

Like I said before, the screen boots up in portrait mode, but the touch panel driver returns coordinates in landscape mode, making everything unusable. If you compile TWRP from scratch, you can specify the flags RECOVERY_TOUCHSCREEN_SWAP_XY and RECOVERY_TOUCHSCREEN_FLIP_X to fix this.

Here's the download, containing the two versions for Android 4 and 5. And here are some screenshots.

If you'd like to show your appreciation and encourage me to continue working on this, I have a donation link on the left.

Well, if your personalized data (MAC addresses, IMEI, ...) is gone, then it's gone. There's no permanent fix for a deleted NVRAM yet, but if you place the proper files in the /data/nvram/ folder, you can get rid of the errors. I guess you have a A10-70L, because you mentioned IMEI? I only have the files from my A10-70F, without IMEI. You can download them here. But you'll need root and you'll need to edit the files (enter a valid MAC address for Bluetooth in the file BT_Addr at offset 0, and a MAC address for WLAN in the file WIFI at offset 4; you might also want to change the country code from "DE" [Germany] to "US" or whatever... here's a datasheet describing the format of the WIFI file).
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
Thank you for your answer. However, as much as my questions appear to be calling for an obvious answer (and may appear dumb on the surface, I'll admit), that is not what I was really looking for and I guess I only have to blame myself for not being clear enough.

So please allow me to rephrase why I am so curious about the flashing process and why it works, considering:

- The Lenovo Tab 2 A10-70F is a device based on a chipset that

isn't supported

by the MTKDroid Tools, which is how scatter files used to be made with;

- ROMs published for the device using SP Flash use a scatter file that, although misidentifying the chipset as being MT6752, instead of the published spec of MT8615, obviously work;

- Looking closely at scatter files in SP Flash, one realizes there are significant differences in scatter file

content

between ROMs, but start addresses

always remain the same

.

My questions are therefore:

- Since we are being told everywhere that MTKDroid Tools is

required

to create a scatter file, considering MTKDroid Tools

isn't compatible

with this device's chipset,

how

was the first scatter file generated in the first place?

- If the ROMs are created using the SP Flash Readback feature like you mentioned, even with a scatter file loaded,

how is it done

in SP Flash? Doesn't that require using MTKDroid Tools to determine start and length? How is the final scatter file generated from the readback?

- Where does the

MT6752

chipset identification from the scatter file come from, when the published specs for the device say it uses the

MT8615

chipset?

If I understand the scatter file concept correctly:

- ROM dumps made with SP Flash contain the complete, raw contents of the memory in one file, in the manner similar to a disk image;

- The scatter file describes the device dependent, immutable partition arrangement, in the manner of a partition table. Differences between flashable ROMs is both in content within each partition and space occupied within each partition (like you said previously when looking at differences between your readback of the preloader and Tzul's).

Therefore, the fundamental question remains, if MTKDroid Tools cannot be used to generate the scatter files,

where

did the original 'blueprint' come from,

how

was it built and how was it determined that our MT8615 based devices were in fact for all practical intent identical for flashing purposes the obviously preexisting MT6752 chipset?

To sum it up, I guess what I really meant to ask was how did you create the scatter files for your flashable ROMs using only SPFlash and the original scatter file? A clarification would be highly appreciated!

Like the Man said, "Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, show him how to fish, he will eat for the rest of his life"...

That

was the kind of answer I was really looking for ;)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
The MT6752_Android_scatter.txt is just a map of the partition structure of the device. It's only done once, no need to make another one

Tzul mentioned he got it from the Russian site that had the Corliv recovery files. Where or how they created it is not known (at least by me)

Tzul also suggested making your own backup here using the method I used

here>> http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=64582599&postcount=290

He then went on to explain in detail how it's done

Here >> http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=64583677&postcount=293

Theirs also a Lenovo Tab 2 A10-70F scatter.txt that come with the original KK ROW

here >> http://androidmtk.com/download-lenovo-stock-rom-models
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
OK, so I am returning to this very good post of yours and after studying the process in depth to create my first readback, I noticed a few discrepancies that you or Tzul could perhaps clarify:

As instructed in Tzul's previous post to which you refer in your excellent last post, I built the scatter file based on the data in the MT6752_Android_scatter.txt file, using linear_start_addr for Start Address and partition_size for length.

After I created it, I took this screen capture:

however, the screen capture you posted shows this:

Notice how the preloader parameters are different

My preloader corresponds exactly to the data in the scatter file:

- partition_index: SYS0
partition_name: preloader
file_name: preloader_hq8752_tb_b2b_l.bin
is_download: true
type: SV5_BL_BIN
linear_start_addr: 0x0
physical_start_addr: 0x0
partition_size: 0x40000
region: EMMC_BOOT_1
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: BOOTLOADERS
reserve: 0x00

with a Start Address of 0x0 and a length of 40000, not 800 for start and 2200 like is shown on your screen capture. This results in my preloader being 262,144 bytes long, whereas yours and Tzul's are only 138,168 bytes... I do kind of remember Tzul was talking about something of an offset there but that was a bit confusing... Could you care to explain?

Secondly, I notice in the scatter file, TWO entries for the same file, trustzone.bin. One starting at 57a0000 and the other at 5ca0000. What is one supposed to do with this? I did notice, reading both files you created, that they are bit to bit identical. In Tzul's release, there is only one trustzone.bin. Am I on the right path deducing this file is copied twice on the system, presumably as a safety backup?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
Same here but what error did you get? In other words, I don't understand

why

it would cause an error...

Checking with the excellent hex editor you suggested, I did find the same thing: in other words, the rest of the file is indeed padding (mostly FFs and 00s) and if you take into account the Start Address, it is identical (considering lollipop preloaders - kitkat preloader are indeed different) .

That's why I don't understand why this would have caused problems for clsA. But can you tell me

why

you went to this trouble, with the preloader, of all files :eek: ? Is it because of what you found analyzing the preloader in the original bin? Wouldn't that be considered risky, considering how important the preloader is?

Interesting. That way you could, in essence, increase the partition, initially based on a 16 GB device, so that it could be extended to fill whatever highest address the 32 GB would provide. Like growing a partition to fill all the unallocated space on a larger hard drive.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] arikdahn:
I just bought one of these guys. it's truly a great device for the cost. I see no downside to it at all aside from the lack of XDA support. I LOVE the screen and overall speed of it and I cannot believe it lets you uninstall the bloat. The only reason I even wanna root it is to install my fancy shmancy software. The completely debloated vanilla android is wonderful.

Were you ever able to recover your device? After reading others' problems after installing SU to this device I think I'll forego the rooting for now and just wait and hope. I don't want to kill my ability to get OTA updates... or kill the tablet all together.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ltnleo:
It is in fact a very good tablet for the price. Can't beat the price for its performance. Vivid screen, fast speed and overall great experience.

As for recovery, I was not able to recover it. No matter what I did, I needed TWRP or something similar. I am sure that as time goes on, someone will set up a kitchen and start producing great sorftware for it.

Good luck with yours.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] arikdahn:
Dang. Well good luck. I hope they figure this thing out myself. I'm still trying to figure out why YouTube won't play on 1080p. Very odd they chose to make this thing have a nice screen you'll never get to see. Personally the 720 resolution videos are pretty lousy. Among the worst I've seen on a screen anywhere near this resolution. Likely won't be an issue soon as somebody throws cm on here
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] evaporic:
Maybe you can try flashing if it is bricked http://pan.baidu.com/wap/share/home?third=0&uk=1362267637&start=20
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dboth:
Hello Ondigo,

I tried this ROM but there is many useless chinese app and Google apprs are not installed. I recommend to use Russian rom available in russian lenovo forum.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ondigo:
Thanks dboth,

Unfortunately the ROM on Russian lenovo site is for A10-70L version. My tablet is A10-70F. Does anybody know where I can find ROM for my tablet? My problem is that I updated the tablet to Android 5 and lost root. I used all available tools on the internet but couldn't get root on this device again. I want to roll back the tablet to Android 4 to get root again.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dboth:
Yes, it is for A10-70L version but it works for A10-70F! There is just only data and call features which are useless for A10-70F. I have installed it and i have no issue for the moment
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JoshaGibs:
Root is gone.

I upgraded to Android 5.0.1 ran into trouble with the upgrade. I lost all functioning thought I bricked it since it wouldn't boot up. I had to do a factory reset to solve this. Ended up getting the Lollipop update completed. However I lost my root privileges. I also believe the recovery is locked I cannot flash anything from the SdCard it seems this update of Lollipop contains security feature to make rooting almost impossible if not directly from the Android device. None of the rooting apps work any longer so there is no need in trying them. Kingo apk no longer roots the device and all other options failed too. The only way to root if it is still possible will be through a windows computer program.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MTAsaFAN:
Did u rooted successfully? I'm thinking about buying this1 but I dont want it wothout rooted lolipop.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JoshaGibs:
Functionality problems at 5.0.1

No I have not rooted my device again nothing has been successful. The apps for Android devices will not root this device at this time. However you might want to use Kibgo or other rooting software with the device if you have a desktop or laptop computer. There has been suggestions that you should be able to root using the PC software. I however do not recommend upgrading your perfectly functioning tablet. Considering the fact that your Wifi will barely work at all after the update. Your internet connection will always be cutting out on you when you need the access. I can barely get it to work at most times there seems to be only rare spots of connection activity. Keep in mind this is with the Lollipop and other owners of this device experience this issue after updating to Lollipop. Meaning this is not only my device or router but the device itself. Other than that if you want to buy the device just don't update it until they make a stable patching. When or if they ever get around to it. I actually loved the tablet now I struggle even to use it.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mr.Mahmoud.Pro:
Go to this post Here