yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] FanboyStudios:
I'll leave my build of TWRP here, if you guys want to be a lab rat and try it... please note the disclaimer!

You'll need to remove the .zip from the end in order to use it.

Disclaimer:

This product is provided as-is with no warranties or liabilities. I am not responsible for anything happening from your use of this file, including dying kittens, lost data, bricked devices, nuclear war, or the zombie apocalypse.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
At least your screen is showing something... My last brick would not even let me turn the device on... Unplugging the battery, formatting then flashing while the battery was unplugged yielded great results for me.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] FanboyStudios:
I just followed the guide using the SP Flash Tool. Using the options he said, it gave me Error 4058.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] FanboyStudios:
Windows 10 is useless for SP Flash Tools. I did everything right in the posts earlier... but it turns out that the problem is not the tablet not taking the flash. It's Windows. Probably the driver error which I was told to ignore.

Linux saved my tablet!

Linux 1, Windows 0

Victory for Linux!

All I did was download SP Flash Tools for linux from the link below, navigated to the extract folder containing the tools using "cd /your/path/here" and launched it in the terminal with "./flash_tool.sh" after making them executable. If you an error pertaining to libpng12 then install those dependencies and it should work. The steps may vary by distro, so keep that in mind but it should be mostly the same.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AW4CCywIPEf3ZTiL-kgjs9-UqibnvAaA/view

I can now boot properly again and continue my experiments.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] CaffeinePizza:
Open device manager and see if it shows the Preloader device when you plug it in after selecting format in SP Flash Tool. If not, then it's a driver issue. Only way to actually brick the device is to flash a bad preloader.

edit:

I looked at your image again, and it appears it does detect the device correctly. Confirm the MD5 of the downloaded zip with the MD5 I have uploaded to verify integrity of the stock firmware zip. Others may have helpful suggestions.

---------- Post added at 11:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 PM ----------

A new OTA update is available. I'll get a dump of it when I have time.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
Which Linux Distro are you using ? I'm on Mint and when I tried installing libpng12 it was a no go with libpng16 and a few others but no libpng12. I don't know if it's deprecated or what. Didn't check ppa's and let it slip my mind to do so until I seen this thought maybe easier to ask rather than search for a change.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
Bricked Or Battery Drained ?

Hey ya'll, just a friendly reminder. KEEP BATTERY CHARGED when you are flashing and tweaking . Sitting idle in fastboot it does not charge. For me personally my twrp doesn't charge and it's not hard to mess around and let the battery die. If it dies it can be a pain to deal with and make you think all kinds of things are wrong. If you're lucky, with a dead battery it does what [MENTION=6673664]FanboyStudios[/MENTION] described with the looping splash screen and that's all you get out of it. Just throwing that out there in case some missed it earlier in thread where it happened to a couple of us.

[MENTION=6673664]FanboyStudios[/MENTION] be careful with hovatek recovery. Hovatek was the first recovery I ever had working on a completely unsupported device and they were pretty cool working with me to get it functioning. So yeah, I kinda like Team Hovatek at times. BUT, Another device, another story. I was looking at porting a recovery for a nougat tablet so I used their porter and the numbers looked good size-wise but made a mess when I flashed it. Took the ported image on a field trip to AIK to find that It had the build.prop from a marshmallow phone and an fstab that had about a third of it right and couldn't figure out how it came up with the other 2/3. They definately didn't come from my tablet and didn't appear to match anything on the incorrect build.prop. Oddly they seemed to have a 'so what' kind of attitude when I contacted them about it and then the whole conversation got uni-laterally out of control. Over all that one experience for that one device sucked. Dude with with the attitude wasn't everybody on their team just one person being a punk. Trying to let that one slide cuz I think it's badass to have one tool that will port a recovery for a long list of devices. Started trying to build from source and really respect their efforts now. If you do use one of thiers, Just tear it apart and see if what makes it tick is the same as what you're working on. It's better to do before rather than after.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Pix12:
Could this rom work on the Onn 8?

https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/releases
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
I use Arch Linux, I imagine you could also use any of the derivatives like Manjaro or Arco as well. It seems the LTS kernels already have excellent driver support out of the box, it is just a matter of ensuring all software dependencies (libpng12, android-tools, etc.) are satisfied. You should be able to get everything you need installed through the package manager without needing to compile something special from the Arch User Repo.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] FanboyStudios:
I did confirm the MD5 of the download, and it was fine. I think it's just a Windows 10 problem.

---------- Post added at 07:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:46 AM ----------

Phhusson's AOSP 9 works, but not 10. I had problems getting 10 to work. There are major changes in the way 10 works with partitions, booting, and such.

Magisk works, but some modules do not. Viper Audio for example does not seem to work for me on GSI, even with the SELinux Switch set to permissive.

https://xdaforums.com/android/apps-games/app-selinux-switch-t3656502

---------- Post added at 07:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:50 AM ----------

Solus OS. It's a rolling release distro with a focus on being more stable. Some people hate it, some like it. I personally like it more than Ubuntu as their package manager handles my trashy ISP better. It's famous for the Budgie Desktop Environment, which looks a lot like Windows 10 out of the box. https://getsol.us/home/

---------- Post added at 08:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:55 AM ----------

My battery never got to the dead point yet. I usually keep it plugged in unless I'm going somewhere. So it was a different issue. What I did right before it soft bricked was try to permanently remove the Walmart Bloatware.

This is the tool I attempted to port TWRP with. https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-21839.html

It looked like it would work, except the file was too large. The TWRP image needs to be under 12 MB, but the output was 16 MB.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
I like the sound of that and I am itching to try it out... My questions are: Did you use the SP Flash tool to install ASOP 9? Secondly, are the issues with Magisk and Viper only on the 10 version? Finally, will it be necessary to set permissive to the SELinux switch?

Update: I found a tutorial online with a procedure for installing the system.img in fastboot, I have some free time to kill today so I might as well do some experimenting with this....

Back to square one...

So I tried the SP Flash method (Removing the battery, formatting then flashing) with the stock set only I replaced system with Phhusson's system-arm64-aonly-gapps-su.img (renamed to system.img) and while the flashing was successful, when I booted the device I had a red warning something to do with unverified boot... this was quelled by reformatting and reflashing the stock set <facepalm>...

If someone was successful in getting Phhusson's AOSP 9 images working on this device, please share how you did it =D Thanks in advance.

I do not give up easily.... I think I know what caused the fastboot flash error and this time I will try to flash the system image after I flash the magisk patched boot image to see if there is some PROFIT. If I am successful, I will post a tutorial on how I did it.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
All right, finally got some company to try crazy crap without a guide. Or was that you that asked for a guide for flashing GSI's ?

On the stock Onn firmware the first four walmart apps came off no problem for me it is the Sam'sClub.apk that slams the gate shut when you try to remove it. Solution= Root Explorer and change owner from root to everybody and permissions to 777 then delete and it's outta there. I seem to remember using twrp and removing it recovery but thats been a while so may be thinking something else but I'm sure it will come out that way.

The twrp img also needs to have the fstab fixed or re-written as the device path it is using is /dev/block/platform/bootdevice/by-name. As far as i could see /bootdevice is not an option on this tab. It also needs a few more essential partitions that weren't included. Probly easier to replace whole file from somewhere or from scratch . It seems easier to start with a blank screen than going back and forth & up and down , adding and deleting just to realize I missed a part. That my take on it anyway.

I have always heard Arch was the best Overall distro. I didn't try it starting out as complete beginner cause I read that the installation process was no joke. Now I could deal with it but after two years of Mint I'm kinda used to it. I'm on it 98~99% of the time as I don't use windows unless absolutley necessary. I have to use a cheat sheet for any windoze cmd other than adb and fastboot. Their stuff's backwards and just don't look right to me. I guess I'm turning into a real Linux user I just don't know If I could switch distro's after finally getting comfortable. 'preciate it and thanks for the info but I will have to look around some ppa's for libpng12 or pull it from another distro.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
Perhaps you might be interested in my Arch Linux installation tutorial I made earlier this year... if you are comfortable with the command line, it is not as daunting as you might think, since I cannot post links yet, just go on Youtube and search for:

06 CLI Friendly: Arch Linux Install 2019

07 CLI Friendly: Arch Linux Post Install
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] FanboyStudios:
The same steps below work for this device.

Modified from https://source.android.com/setup/build/gsi

For example, to flash Phhusson's AOSP 9 Android Pie to the Onn 8.

Enable ADB in developer settings. Tap build number quickly to unlock developer settings if needed.

Boot to fastboot mode and unlock the bootloader.

$ adb reboot bootloader

$ fastboot flashing unlock

Disable verify boot (AVB) by flashing vbmeta.img: (You can use the stock vbmeta.img here)

$ fastboot --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

Erase and flash the GSI to the system partition:

$ fastboot erase system

$ fastboot flash system system-arm64-ab-gapps-su.img

Wipe the user data and clear the data from other necessary partitions (for example, user data and system partitions):

$ fastboot -w

Optionally, Flash Magisk:

$ fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img

Reboot:

$ fastboot reboot

It should work fine, unless you flashed the wrong version. Use AB images for arm64.

---------- Post added at 02:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:39 PM ----------

Here you go! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDLOx2J4nAc - 06 CLI Friendly: Arch Linux Install 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tuFbWRwzbI - 07 CLI Friendly: Arch Linux Post Install
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
I don't remember any instructions for using SPFTool to flash GSI's. They should be flashed with fastboot or custom recovery. There is a link I posted a day or two ago from source.android that breaks it down best IMO for fastboot flashing which is their suggested method. When you click on link it opens to Building GSI's , just scroll to bottom and the flashing section is there.. phhussons aosp performed flawlesssly first time around so didn't even try rebooting a couple of times. I couldn't see any room for improvement as far as function and performance it was just too bland with stock android. Prom Night promise rebooting a couple of times may improve some sketchy actions at first boot. My way of thinking is it is like the bootloop at first install, it's not a bootloop it is resetting stuff in /vendor and several more places. After booting if things aren't running the way you think they should a reboot triggers a series of gsi specific checks that it will try to reset to run correctly. A third probably isn't needed but I give it one more go before searching next img and reflashing everything. Something I would like to do is to install liveboot as a vendor app since vendor isn't changed should be able to have liveboot save logs and even if not printing to screen they should be available in /cache/liveboot.log post-install. Right? or am I overlooking something? Anybody ?
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
Thanks for sharing your procedure... Unfortunately I got an error stating something about not being able to find something in cache... I should have taken a photo.... this was using: system-arm64-ab-gapps-su.img. Earlier in the thread, it was stated this is an A only device, so I tried that image... that put me into a boot loop.... SO.... Reformat, flash stock... and I will try a different image in Phhouson's list... Maybe the system-arm64-ab-vanilla-nosu.img.xz, it does not make sense to install the SU version anyway since Magisk is already in the patched boot image... I am guessing the vanilla image does not have gapps so that is another hoop to jump through.... I am wondering if AOSP 9 extended would run on this device? located at this forum /project-treble/trebleenabled-device-development/rom-aosp-extended-t3821934 ... HMMMMMMM.

I found the one I want to test at sourceforge: projects/aospextended-rom/files/treble_gsi/pie_arm64_ab/
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] FanboyStudios:
I really want to run AOSP Extended Pie, but it appears to be a zip file which is not flashable via fastboot.

That would bring me a lot of welcome customization. We really could use TWRP, but for that we might have to go way deeper and risk a hard brick to repartition the device. That's something I'm not willing to do.

You could try the steps again but this time omit "fastboot -w".

If you have the stock cache image, you can restore it with "fastboot flash cache cache.img".
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
See my previous post.... I downloaded AOSP extended from sourceforgeDOTnet/projects/aospextended-rom/files/treble_gsi/pie_arm64_ab/ and used AospExtended-v6.6-arm64_ab-20190705-0000-OFFICIAL.zip (first one listed) I followed your entire procedure.... it gave me a splash screen then rebooted.... now it is at the splash screen for a few minutes... I am assuming it is setting up... Still crossing my fingers... I hope this one will work...

UPDATE: I am running around in circles; chasing my tail... I will redo the AOSP extended because that is the one I REALLY want... I will exclude the 'fastboot -w" but at reboot I will instead 'fastboot reboot recovery' then flash the gapps package on the external SD card if it will permit me and see how I fare that way.... for anyone who is interested, I got it from opengappsDOTorg/ I chose ARM64 - Android 9.0 - Stock

Update again: I am having a BAD DAY... I am back to stock with my MagiskPatched boot... I learned a bit today but now I think it is time I exercise a little patience... Maybe wait till an official rom comes out for this... if ever... What prompted this was some videos showing the AOSP extended and I was thinking that would be 'bad ace' to have on this tablet... Oh well... I will keep an eye out, if anyone wants to suggest any other images which REALLY DO work with this tablet, I will play 'lab rat' and try them out... PEACE!
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
I used FX file explorer as root (mounting / as RW) and was unable to get rid of any of the bloatware, additionally, using mtk-su from adb shell would not permit me to remove the bloatware either with the 'pm uninstall com.mid.kubedemo' I can uninstall on user 0 but darnit... I do not want this junk consuming space! I also want to get rid of:

Chrome - Calendar - Drive - Duo - Gmail - Play Movies/tv - Play Music

Are those safe to delete? What is the best way to COMPLETELY uninstall this bloat and free space for applications I will really use? Thanks in advance =D

Update: I followed this tutorial, I will try changing perms and getting rid of the resilient wallmart apps... the items are missing from the app drawer but magisk debloater still says they are there... <facepalm>
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] martyfender:
Newer versions of Android use Chrome's Web View instead of the separate Android System Web View. It can be switched to in developer options, but one or the other is need for, if I recall, rendering, or something like that. I believe the others can safely be removed, though.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
My way of thinking, if you want to get shed of bloat and select google apps is this. Download A.O.S.P. GSI image.zip from ci.android.com (link's about 3 or 4 pages back in this thread). Go to gapps.org and select a package you want and download it. Remember you can always edit the gapps installer to install just what you want. Port a quick twrp following https://xdaforums.com/android/general/guide-porting-twrp-source-t3843473 . Read the guide at ci.android.com or source.android.com on fastboot flashing GSI's. Then you should be ready to have it your way. I don't know what is included in the other zips at ci.android.com I think I am going to check that out now.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] vandyman:
OKAY, I read this whole thread whoo.

I will be jumping in on this train as I have just ordered the 10" refurbished for $45

Information for this tablet is scattered right now, can we get a sub forum for this device to help organize topics?
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] FanboyStudios:
I would love that. Would feel more at home, because TBH there will be a lot of people who will pick this tablet up at it's low price point.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
Thanks for your suggestions, I started to do that TWRP tutorial and got frustrated because I could not find the twrp.img file on the website they pointed to, googling for the file did not help... After an exhaustive search, I eventually found a compatible twrp image file and following the tutorials, some of the things mentioned in the steps were not present... in particular, the fstabs it called for... I will exercise patience and see if someone nice makes TWRP for the 8 and 10 inch models which everyone can share.

I did look at that ci.android.com website, the page reads like a daily build kinda thing, it would be nice if these system.img developers would provide a paragraph or two on what makes their images different from everything else out there.... might entice more users to try it... Cheers
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] DB126:
As a general caution don't get caught up in obcession over minutiae. Most of the 'bloat' you describe is located in the system vs user partition. Probably not going to use the relatively small amount space freed up anyhow. Freeze unwanted apps and move on, potentially avoiding downstream headaches.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
Thank you, I did not even think of that one... The tablet I am setting up now is for an elderly parent who is technically challenged, so I am putting together an option for her that is "OLD LADY PROOF". For now the ADB uninstall trick will have to do. Today my second onn 8" is being delivered and I am still hunting for a nice stock rom to throw on that which will give me better options...
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] NFSP G35:
Looks like there's a new update.zip for the 003. I'm downloading it now, will copy a link on AFH once it's done

---------- Post added at 08:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:28 PM ----------

Here it is, if anyone wants to use, dismantle, etc...

https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=4349826312261610274
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
First thread I've ever started and this thing has kind of taken off on its own. I was trying to share a little info that it could be done and, WOW, here we are. Any help would be awesome.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
It's code name is tilapia and can be found here https://dl.twrp.me/tilapia/ . I've tried other img's hoping to get something newer with treble support and couldn't get them to boot. The tilapia img works somewhat if you format /data and don't care about usb functions while in recovery. The parts that are missing such as fstab you just skip them like it says in tutorial and believe it or not, it boots and it works. sort of.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
Thanks for posting the link, I saw those Tilapia images the other day but I was uncertain about them. Your candor is appreciated where TWRP installation is concerned but it is that LAST statement which makes me feel a little uneasy. In researching, I have found that the mediatek chipsets are closed, which understandably makes it difficult for hobbyists like myself to achieve much of anything on these devices. I am guessing the missing usb support is acceptable if you have images you can flash on MicroSD, I prefer sending them through a cable. I also understand you had issues with the portrait/landscape modes but could not see if you ever resolved that issue. I will keep an eye out here for any new developments, I have 2 Onn 8" running stock, magisk +fbind and adb debloated.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] extrem0:
Did you try it already? Do you know if battery life would change when using this ROM you suggested?

Also, does anyone know why amazon fire HD 8 lasts way more than this tablet does, considering both have almost the same specs (like SOC and battery capacity). Amazon states it AFHD 8 will last appx 12 hours, while Walmart States Onn 8" will last 5 hours.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
All I can say is it installed and functioned perfectly when I tried it. I didn't leave it probably 30 minutes checking out what it did and did not have and if everything worked. Then I flashed the next of many, not leaving any but the chosen BEAST ROM's GSI in place long enough to tell anything. Unfortunately I never check battery life or consumption as it is not an issue that I ever have to contend with.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
Don't know much about candor, I just tell the truth or at least my honest perception of it anyway.

You are correct about having img's and files on sdcard but you have to plan ahead. Like way ahead, for everything that you may decide to do before you decide, and that is abitch when you suddenly realize you forgot something. If you go that route just remember to un-mount sdcard before you pull it or you will have to reboot before it will be recognized again.

The orientation issue was [MENTION=4519203]NFSP G35[/MENTION], that may have been while trying to compile it though, not sure. Would have to ask him.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] NFSP G35:
Yeah, I had an orientation issue with TWRP.

Kinda got tired of fighting with it and work got busy. I'll eventually revisit it, just not sure when
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] extrem0:
Is it possible to revert back to stock after trying those GSI ROM using fastboot only (probably using dd, right)? In that case, which partitions do I need to backup in order to restore to stock (system and data only)? I don't want to mess with that flashsp tool. I'm willing to try to increase battery life without gapps. Thanks!
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Spatry:
Post 192 has the stock recovery roms (both 8' and 10') you can flash with SP Flash tool... I used fastboot to revert to stock using the system.img from that set when an AOSP system did not give the results I wanted.