yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android General] Old faithful:
:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh: That made my day

I still remember the staccato of the card reader and the martial music from the line printer... or should I say the page thrower (darn! that thing was fast, if it wasn't for the fanfold we'd have paper all over the place)... Ahhh! Good memories :)

Intriguing indeed, having power present at the USB pins running just the preloader... But I guess that's the only way to insure full access to internal memory without risk of conflict...

---------- Post added at 17:16 ---------- Previous post was at 17:13 ----------

if you're trying to load a custom recovery just make sure to rename the file "recovery.img"
[Android General] charlestek:
Well, I hate to further date myself, but we had a PDP 8 in the analog computer lab (used for simulating analog control systems), whose memory was loaded by punched paper tape.

Though I never played with that machine. And I'm complaining about loading addresses into SPFT.

In full disclosure, I worked for DEC for 10 years later in my career, for which I could tell stories all day.
[Android General] Tsig0s:
I cant get pass the flash tool! im stuck on this error!

http://imgur.com/pDCkPjo

I have the latest version of flash tool and i did not rename anything!
[Android General] clsA:
Good point he should at least make a backup of those with SPFT (although I backed mine up with TWRP). But between your backups and mine of the last Lollipop update and the previously released Kitkat backups plus OTA updates those should cover everything else.
[Android General] charlestek:
Can you be a lot more descriptive in stating exactly what you are doing, step by step

before you got this error.
[Android General] Tzul:
You figured it out, but for posterity: This error means you're trying to flash a partition without having loaded a file for that partition. The SPFT tries to automatically load the files to be flashed, as the filenames are specified in the scatter file, e.g. "recovery.img" for the recovery partition. However, if those files do not exist, or if you want to intentionally use other files, you need to locate the row of the specific partition, then click on the cell in the "location" column in order to load a file for that partition.

Looks like you didn't load a valid scatter file on the "Download" page of the SPFT.
[Android General] adrian1216:
This scatter file can be used on Android 5? I have exacly same errors like mentioned above. I'd like to attach any screens but i am unable (at least 10 posts :()
[Android General] suhridkhan:
The scatter file is basically same for both model ! [MENTION=5919159]Tzul[/MENTION] explained a few posts back.

Make sure you load both the scatter file and the Recovery img file based on your tablet in SP Flash tool.

It should look like this View attachment 3640264
[Android General] clsA:
[MENTION=7114808]adrian1216[/MENTION] exactly as in the above photo. The file will also autoload if you rename it recovery.img before loading the scatter.txt

SPFT auto loads the files in the location box if the names are correct
[Android General] adrian1216:
Guys. I see what I did wrong. Thanks for your help. I am going to flash my tablet now :) Then I will root it and I am going to use SuperSu binary as mentioned in tutrorial. I hope it will be working :)

---------- Post added at 12:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:42 AM ----------

Ok now i have green button. Thanks once again :)
[Android General] suhridkhan:
Good to know that it worked.

I need to do some work on the guide myself to make things a bit easier to understand for new users. Probably this weekend....
[Android General] Old faithful:
All the older posts showing how to use SPFT with MTK based phones instructs taking the battery out (and at first confused the hell out of me)

I can see that - especially when considering Battery Monitor interpolates current from known battery capacity, voltage and time. I guess without real current measuring hardware and long term historical data it would be difficult to determine true battery percentage, especially as devices get old and lose chemical efficiency.

Especially those fakes with a piece of metal stuck inside to make you believe they're the real thing, hehehe :rolleyes: The reason I'm a bit leery is I had a couple of close calls recently... Let's just say I'm 'sensitized' to fire hazard these days...

Great idea, I had built an adapter from a USB extension last year running through a standard ammeter and it worked pretty well and in my case, confirmed pretty closely the reported charging current calculated by Battery Monitor... I really should look for it and test the Lenovo :eek:
[Android General] adrian1216:
Ok. Now I have root issue. I have booted tablet in custom recover. I have selected apply update from sdcard, and selected file (Beta-SuperSu-v2.49.zip) There is written by yellow letters at the bottom, that opening update package, and then that installation aborted.
[Android General] Old faithful:
I have tried all three editor interface options and can't repeat your problem... However, typing @ with username such as [MENTION=7184758]charlestek[/MENTION] seems to do nothing for me and when I click one that has become active, I simply get to that member's personal info page. Hmmm!

I should add though that some stuff doesn't work correctly when done from Tapatalk, such as the code command, and some other strings simply get deleted (such as those between carets).

(second edit) hey, that's weird, the @ did make the username appear with a link AFTER it was posted... Not in the preview window :eek:
[Android General] hackwerk:
I am ashamed to admit I enjoy reading stuff like this ;)

PS. We

can not emphasize enough

that you must have your phone/tablet turned off and unconnected, then press Download (to flash) or Read Back (to back up to your computer), and then when SPFT is searching/waiting. THATs the moment to connect your (off) phone via usb (with VCOM drivers loaded)! It will then turn on and SPFT does its thing.
[Android General] charlestek:
[MENTION=1454767]Old faithful[/MENTION]

I think Tzul has maybe pointed out what the issue might be. I was probably typing (atsign)username between opening and closing QUOTE markup tags, that may cause an error, or possibly as Tzul thinks if I did not write any new text outside the QUOTE markup tags, the BBS gives me an error that the message is too short and I should add at least two characters.

[MENTION=5919159]Tzul[/MENTION]

Thank you indeed for the excellent detailed explanation of the boot sequence and the software modules involved. This fills in a lot of gaps and hopefully will help me avoid fatal mistakes. On the fatal mistake topic, are you saying say if I used SPFT to apply an incremental or base to the tablet that I should uncheck preloader in the SPFT list as not to risk screwing it up?
[Android General] Old faithful:
I can assure you it isn't that bad - it just takes a good reading to understand how it's done and good care not to mess up the hex numbers when you input the figures into the readback tab. I finally found the post where Tzul explains it ... Told you it was a while ago, an eternity when it comes to the time I spent tweaking the device ;)

If you decide to do it, do keep reading the thread from that post on, there is something about the preloader that needs trimming after the procedure using a hex editor, Tzul explains it at some point, something about unneeded padding up to 0x800 hex, IIRC. At that point, I decided it was 'beyond my pay scale' so to speak and decided since the preloader always stays the same between updates and preloader files are widely available, there was really no need for me to back it up for my own personal backups.

You just get it from any of the ROM .rars or recovery .7zs for your tablet - for example for the Tab 2 A10-70F it would be named "MT6752_Android_scatter.txt".

---------- Post added at 20:56 ---------- Previous post was at 20:46 ----------

If you enjoy that kind of reading perhaps I should send you my 'tutorial in progress' for you to critique, I'll upload the latest version and PM you the link. It certainly won't be as fascinating as Tzul's posts, but I sure hope you will find it interesting nevertheless.

ABSOLUTELY! Tablet OFF, once scatter file is loaded and everything is ready, click Download and ONLY THEN connect the tablet to the computer. .
[Android General] Old faithful:
If I may - yes that is indeed good advice - it's not worth the risk since flashing is always risky and a bad flash there, by making it impossible to flash again, means the device will become permanently bricked. Akin to the boot sector of hard drives in the old days... bad boot sector=ruined disk
[Android General] charlestek:
Well if you need to solder to the motherboard to unbrick, Lenovo shows complete disassembly in their hardware manual:

https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/lenovo_tab_2_a10-70_hmm_en_201505013.pdf

Just make sure you have cellphone plastic pick tools and a lot of guts.

And if you drop the tablet and break the screen, there is a fixit instructional to replace the screen:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Lenovo+Tab+2+A10-70+Front+Glass+and+Digitizer+Replacement/53758
[Android General] lion567:
[MENTION=5919159]Tzul[/MENTION], Very well written, nice structured conceptual post! :good:

Some minor comments:

1. it's worth to mention that described phone/tablet NAND Flash partitions layout is MT6732/MT6752 based. MT6735/53 is slightly differ - it lacks kb and dkb partitions, but has oemkeystore, keystore, frp, nvdata. The last (nvdata) is ext4 mountable - /data/nvram replacement

root@k01ts_a:/ # busybox ls -ald /data/nvram
lrwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 7 Dec 21 20:20 /data/nvram -> /nvdata

Old MT65xx SoCs familiy has much more differences, starting with they use MBR partition table. Needless to say about another SoCs manufactures. ;)

2. Some vendors adds custom or vendor ext4 partition to separate vendor additions from main Android code (system)

root@k01ts_a:/ # mount | grep custom
/dev/block/platform/mtk-msdc.0/by-name/custom /custom ext4 ro,seclabel,relatime,data=ordered 0 0

[MENTION=7184758]charlestek[/MENTION], MT65xx Mediatek SoCs family has very different architecture(armeabi-v6/v7a, ARM11/Cortex-A9/A7, 32-bit) compared to MT67xx (arm64-v8, Cortex-A53/A57, 64-bit). You should use instructions written for MT65xx very carefully, keeping in mind all platforms differenses.
[Android General] charlestek:
[MENTION=5469284]lion567[/MENTION]

Thank you. I am brand new to SoC Arm architectures, I am assuming that virtually everything is on one die, the processor and a lot of ancillary chips. I think I did look up the MediaTek Dev site, but they don't seem to have much data on these devices. Are there data sheets on each subfamily of MT65xx's Is there an android app that interrogates and enumerates what the hardware in a device is?
[Android General] Tsig0s:
Well basically what im trying to do is install recovery mode on my tablet! I have rooted the tablet but now im stuck trying to install custom recovery as said before. to be more specific stuck when the flash tool is giving me the error i mentioned above! im 1000% sure im using the correct file but im still geting the error! dont know why and thats what im trying to figure out!
[Android General] lion567:
You can take a look at MediaTek wiki page

There are lots of apps which claims to do the job, starting with AnTuTu and CPU-Z, but most of them relays on system properties, which are set at system boot time from /default.prop or /system/build.prop, or on SysFS and ProcFS files content, which depends on kernel parameters as they were set in source code before kernel compilation. Both of them can be incorrect for some reasons and I don't see any app, that could "interrogate" hardware directly.
[Android General] adrian1216:
Hi tzul

I have installed recovery_twrp2870_for_LenovoTab2A10-70.zip downloaded from https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!AFkm5yMDyOrUHfs&id=8B7FA8225100E05F!126&cid=8B7FA8225100E05F but i don't have either advanced option or after booting tablet it is not offering of superSu installation. :(
[Android General] ES-82:
About OTA-updates

Hey :)

I got an OTA update notification for the A10-70L model.

Is there a way to install an OTA update for a rooted device (running TWRP, SuperSU, Xposed etc.)?

Here's also a screenshot from the OTA update notification.

[IMG="OTA-update screenshot"]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/85785735/Lenovo_Tab2_A10-70L/Screenshot_2016-02-10-14-24-13.png[/IMG]

PS I tried to install the OTA update, but it didn't work because of some security check during the installation.

Also after the failed OTA update installation I had to restore a backup because the failed installation seemed to break the GravityBox tweaks from the Lollipop UI.
[Android General] adrian1216:
ES-82 How did you rooted your tablet? I have no option superSu in custom recovery menu. https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1jy1hork0b2bjy/20160210_095212.jpg?dl=0
[Android General] ES-82:
Hey,

take a look at this thread's beginning - there is a guide by suhridkhan in the first post.

First I recommend to install TWRP custom recovery and then the SuperSU via TWRP :good:
[Android General] adrian1216:
I know. I have installed TWRP see menu: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1jy1hork0b2bjy/20160210_095212.jpg?dl=0 But there is no option to install SuperSuBinary.zip....
[Android General] suhridkhan:
I am sorry to break it to you, but you haven't installed Custom TWRP recovery, this is the stock recovery.

Did you get a green 'OK' after the flashing?

One common mistake would be if you didn't boot to recovery right after flashing. In that case the the stock recovery automatically takes it back.
[Android General] adrian1216:
Hmm. I Received green OK after flashing, then i have booted my laptop normally, no directly to Custom recovery (by holding power and up button in same time). So, after flashing i have to made boot to Custom TWRP directly after flashing?
[Android General] suhridkhan:
exactly, do not boot into the tablet normally. It is actually mentioned in the first post.

"Remove the tablet and make sure you do not start it, but get into recovery instead. Press 'volume up and power' and maintain that for about 10 seconds, past the vibration and the start of splash screen. A dark screen with very small characters will show up with three options: Recovery, Fastboot and Normal. Don't touch anything unless you make sure you understand what the buttons do. Volume up is used to navigate (go to Recovery), volume down activates the selection. DON'T select any other option!"
[Android General] adrian1216:
Ok. I see. And there I should see SuperUser installation option (by Advanced option)?

I will made next attempt after 3 hours. Then I will write if success.
[Android General] adrian1216:
Ok. I got it. SuperSu was installed successfully. Thanks guys for your help. :)
[Android General] hackwerk:
[MENTION=5919159]Tzul[/MENTION];

(not to sound unthankful ;) )

1) Btw, why no SuperSU 2.66?

2) And will an update (TWRP 3.0) be up (soon)?

3) And any ideas whats changed with the 70L and when we will get a Lenovo update?

4) OTA is possible for us (rooted, custom TWRP) right? Or first (and after) unroot? Or even deinstall of TWRP is needed?!
[Android General] worm9110:
Thanks all. Great work on this tablet. Got it rooted. Can't wait for any other ROM support like CM? Thanks again for all the devs hard work.
[Android General] clsA:
The tablet OTA checks for root and stock recovery. you cannot update with custom recovery or a altered system partition.
[Android General] clsA:
yes I did try it when the S000121_151222_ROW OTA came out and it failed a Root check

this is a small excerpt from the OTA updater-script ... their are hundreds of system file checks during the OTA update

anyone can cause an Abort

mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/mmcblk0p6", "/system", "max_batch_time=0,commit=1,data=ordered,barrier=1,errors=panic,nodelalloc");
getprop("ro.build.fingerprint") == "Lenovo/LenovoTAB2A10-70F/A10-70F:5.0.1/LRX21M/A10-70F_S000120_150907_ROW:user/release-keys" ||
getprop("ro.build.fingerprint") == "Lenovo/LenovoTAB2A10-70F/A10-70F:5.0.1/LRX21M/A10-70F_S000121_151222_ROW:user/release-keys" ||
abort("Package expects build fingerprint of Lenovo/LenovoTAB2A10-70F/A10-70F:5.0.1/LRX21M/A10-70F_S000120_150907_ROW:user/release-keys or Lenovo/LenovoTAB2A10-70F/A10-70F:5.0.1/LRX21M/A10-70F_S000121_151222_ROW:user/release-keys; this device has " + getprop("ro.build.fingerprint") + ".");
getprop("ro.product.device") == "A10-70F" || abort("This package is for \"A10-70F\" devices; this is a \"" + getprop("ro.product.device") + "\".");
ui_print("Verifying current system...");
show_progress(0.100000, 0);
.......

apply_patch_check("/system/vendor/app/Ds/Ds.apk", "ccc481a8681933f888f97522a5d315310fb657ef", "9bd408e087d30fe09b22aaef8912079ba1727874") || [COLOR="Red"]abort("\"/system/vendor/app/Ds/Ds.apk\" has unexpected contents.");[/COLOR]
apply_patch_check("/system/vendor/lib/hw/audio.a2dp.blueangel.so", "c586d955524617f111a629ad633a228378865c28", "dfbff8e75c0d4fff25fb889748b4c5b9c07627f5") || [COLOR="Red"]abort("\"/system/vendor/lib/hw/audio.a2dp.blueangel.so\" has unexpected contents.");[/COLOR]
apply_patch_check("/system/vendor/lib/mediadrm/libwvdrmengine.so", "86eaa91c678f03d803ed3250b3dfada0ed79e750", "fdb1a29833b991e39f18b02f53fb18f917996b07") || [COLOR="Red"]abort("\"/system/vendor/lib/mediadrm/libwvdrmengine.so\" has unexpected contents.");[/COLOR]
apply_patch_check("EMMC:boot:7102464:024eb21a716fabb0273573d64d9edd98fae5da74:7100416:e3aae3861a79470d5bdac7a8982d527f07548dcf") || [COLOR="Red"]abort("\"EMMC:boot:7102464:024eb21a716fabb0273573d64d9edd98fae5da74:7100416:e3aae3861a79470d5bdac7a8982d527f07548dcf\" has unexpected contents.")[/COLOR];
apply_patch_space(58019972) || abort("Not enough free space on /system to apply patches.");

# ---- start making changes here ----

ui_print("Removing unneeded files...");
delete("/system/appjar/LenovoTab2A10-1.0.5.apk",
"/system/priv-app/AndroidForWork/",
"/system/priv-app/AndroidForWork/AndroidForWork.apk",
"/system/priv-app/LenovoTab2A10-1.0.5.apk",
[COLOR="Red"] "/system/data/recovery_rootcheck",[/COLOR]
"/system/etc/wifi/p2p_supplicant_overlay.conf",
"/system/framework/services.jar", "/system/recovery-from-boot.p",
"/system/vendor/app/DsUI/DsUI.apk",
"/system/recovery.img");

Also the OTA I got (316mb) was type 0 not type 1
[Android General] Tzul:
I know, but those aborts only happen when the files were modified (or deleted), which shouldn't be the case.

But you're right about the rootcheck file, forgot about that one. The excerpt you posted is actually where the rootcheck file gets deleted. I looked inside the update binary and found no reference to "rootcheck". Then I looked inside the stock recovery binary, and found the reference there. So it is the stock recovery that parses this rootcheck file. It should therefore be ignored inside TWRP... strange.
[Android General] clsA:
not so much strange as sneeky ;)

I admit i never tried the update with your last version of TWRP

it would be nice if you didn't have to return to stock system and recovery to update
[Android General] Old faithful:
Just use a file host such as tinypic.com and once uploaded use the [ IMG ] actual picture address. [ / IMG ] tag . Just make sure the size isn't too large...
[Android General] lion567:
It was armeabi-v7a (32-bit) TWRP 3.0 build and that was the cause it faulted on tablets with LP (new bootloader). It runs smooth on several A10-70L tablets with KK. I'm going to build arm64-v8 version of TWRP 3.0 on weekend.
[Android General] rumbla:
Hello All!

I just registered on this forum couple of days ago and first of all I would like to thank you all for all the efforts you're putting on this (quite a good tablet afterall...isn't it?)

Now, I'm still running 4.4 and I have really no plan to upgrade for now (didn't even install a custom recovery yet).

I just rooted this using KingRoot, manually removing it to install SuperSU 2.46.

The tablet really just works fine this way, but you know, I will upgrade to 5.x.x/TWRP sooner or later.

I really have a couple of issues with it tho.

1) Lowest volume setting is TOO LOUD

2) Lowest brightness setting is TOO BRIGHT

Is there anyway to tweak these two settings?

Keep in mind I haven't installed xposed yet, but it seems you can have that running right away, just installing it.

So? Would xposed fix my "issues" in any way?

Thank you again for the work you're doing on this!
[Android General] suhridkhan:
You can reduce the sound by disabling the sound enhancement inside the Dolby app.

No real solution for brightness thought. You can try screen overlay apps like 'dimly' to make it a bit more bearable for nighttime.
[Android General] rumbla:
mmmh, didn't find that setting in Dolby ATMOS app, but I will try playing with its settings.

About Dimly, just installed it....seems like a solution. Side Note, I have Twilight installed already (probably forgot to set it up properly...).

Thank you!
[Android General] suhridkhan:
since you are rooted, you can simply freeze the Dolby app using titanium backup.

that's what I did, I don't like the Dolby enhanced sound, too cracky for me, specially when using headphone.
[Android General] rumbla:
Yes, I may do that.

...and this, brings up another question...

Has anyone compiled a list of bloatware (maybe with a little explanation about their purpose) installed on this tablet by the Lenovo ?
[Android General] hackwerk:
1) Probably Dolby disable (or even Freeze in Titanium indeed), and/or hacking with Xposed? Maybe some App?

2) I use Lux Lite for a long time to watch my series in the dark in bed without stayin awake with hurt eyes :)

And for your bloatware; Just use Titanium to first backup all, and then remove em. I did remove about 10 things, even Russian and Chinese ****!?
[Android General] charlestek:
[MENTION=7268959]rumbla[/MENTION]

I had the same issue with the brightness slider in my first Tab 2 A10, essentially the brightness slider does nothing at all, except slightly dim the screen for the last 3mm of the slider towards the dimmest setting.

I returned my Tab to the vendor and got a new one, where the Brightness slider works fine, a lot of brightness change range across the entire slider.

I started a thread on the Lenovo forums and it turned out on the forums people who have the Tab2 A8 have the identical issue.

There is a solution apparently per:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-Android-based-Tablets-and/Tab-

2-A8-50-can-t-adjust-Screen-brightness/m-p/2264229#M28728

As for the volume level, I never noticed an issue. In the Dolby Atmos Sound Processing App, there is a setting for auto volume leveling, you might want to play with that.
[Android General] Tzul:
Direct access to the LCD backlight would be a real solution, but it doesn't appear to be possible, unfortunately.

Also, try CF.lumen, it's better than Twilight, as explained here. And it should also make Dimly superfluous, because it has a "custom - manual channel adjustment" mode, which allows you to dim the screen without affecting color balance. (From the Play Store screenshots, it looks like the Dimly app uses the inferior overlay mode, just like Twilight.)

Concerning Dolby Atmos: it shouldn't cause any noise if you choose the proper settings. Turn off the "volume level" (which is an automatic gain control and boost the volume quite a bit, particularly quiet sounds). Turn off everything else and use a flat graphic equalizer setting (the "manual" one, rightmost button).