yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] nixaro:
so i dont know much about padding is that using hex editors and stuff or what

---------- Post added at 10:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------

if you want to see whati am doing wrong here my files https://www.mediafire.com/file/u26n5ch6gatdhib/sm-t290vbmetabootandrecovery.tar/file
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] J.Michael:
All right, I lied. You *do* need to uncompress some lz4 files: You need to uncompress boot.img.lz4 and recovery.img.lz4, the ones you extracted from the original AP.tar file, the ones in your "stock.tar" file (unless *you* lied to *me*). These become the "base" for what I call "padding":

copy boot-AP.img to boot.img

overwrite the beginning of boot.img with boot-magisk-patched.img

And again for "recovery". The clue is, the final .img is 67,108,864 bytes. (The original .img is this length. Magisk manages to produce a substantially smaller .img. There is something magic about the rest of that space. We are blindly preserving whatever was in the original .img beyond where Magisk felt the need to have an .img. We are praying that the Magisk .img never gets big enough to clobber the important part of what we are preserving. For all we know, it's just the size that's important -- I can't remember if [MENTION=1826556]gcrutchr[/MENTION] tried zero filling before he tried using the tail end of the original .img.)

Like you said, you can do this with a hex editor. I assume you already *did* do it somehow and just didn't notice that the magisk-patched.img was bigger than the stock.img.

I did not use a hex editor. I booted Linux and used the "dd" command. There is a "dd" command in UnxUtils, but I did not trust it. I *think* the commands you would use in a shell (either Linux or Android) are:

> cp boot-AP.img boot.img
> dd bs=1 conv=notrunc if=boot-magisk-patched.img of=boot.img

If you have a hex editor, stick with what you know.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] nixaro:
yeah i have no clue what i am doing when it comes to doing all that what i sent you is a fresh boot,recovery and vbmeta from my stock and a fresh magisk stuff that i flashed

---------- Post added at 03:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:37 AM ----------

otherthen that i mean i dont understand the padding that people are talking about reick7 has a good method i think i dont know because i am running the march 2020 update since the tablet came that way i been trying to downgrade to test it but i can i mean if i could get some help i will test files for science and i will provide whatever anyone needs.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] J.Michael:
If by [MENTION=10104371]Reick7[/MENTION]'s method you mean How to root the tablet A8 2019 T290, you will have to be very careful to match the patched file to the firmware you are using.

I do not think you can downgrade. Even with the bootloader unlocked, it rejects attempts to downgrade the bootloader itself -- that is the "3" of your XXS3ATC2, and the "2" of [MENTION=4961810]exglynco[/MENTION]'s T290XXU2ASL3.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] nixaro:
I did not manager to downgrade and I just looked at the difference in the hex for the files still dont understand this "padding" of the file. That is why i am not getting root because i have the newer firmware and I dont know what part I am suppose to move in hex editor or overlay what code or anything.

---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 AM ----------

like i know how to install programs i know how to do this is guide is there. I have never done like pure coding or messing with code this is my real first time doing this and trust me i been trying to figure this out since like june 2. Btu yeah i am stuck untile i figure out how to do this "padding". I am an Master automotive tech and never studied computer coding.

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

like i know how to install programs i know how to do this is guide is there. I have never done like pure coding or messing with code this is my real first time doing this and trust me i been trying to figure this out since like june 2. Btu yeah i am stuck untile i figure out how to do this "padding". I am an Master automotive tech and never studied computer coding.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Reick7:
Try this

I'm constantly updating, comments please, you can comment, the post is more organized to facilitate the most initial users

https://xdaforums.com/galaxy-tab-a/how-to/how-to-root-tablet-a8-2019-t290-t4119487/post82873317#post82873317

---------- Post added at 03:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:07 PM ----------

2 - installing the stock ROM that we will use:

download this rom: https://sfirmware.com/downloads-file...y9pwnpyum1_fac

Updating: use a modified version of Odin, to do the installations, be careful with downgrades, I managed, I was in the most current version of March, and I managed anyway using this modified Odin, but do it at your own risk, download the most current version here:

https://xdaforums.com/and...-13-1-t3762572
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] nixaro:
ok managed to get it to pass throught everything but the csc and cp ill not work i get modem.bin error and cache errors when i use them any help with that

---------- Post added at 07:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:12 PM ----------

so i managed to get some of the ap files to work i got it to modem.bin and it failed i removed csc and tried again and got the cache in csc to fail
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Reick7:
huh, maybe the rom may be corrupted, I got a lot of errors when extracting with Winrar, I used 7zip

---------- Post added at 11:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 PM ----------

Does anyone here have any idea how we can get started with designing a TWRP for our device? or already know of someone who started this process, I am doing some tests, both with my files, as with some Port I found in other forums

:confused:
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] nixaro:
i am using 7zip haha idk it weird i dont think i can manage to get it really sucks i been trying everything i might have to just go to school or something for coding or learn linux
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] J.Michael:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KsDBwpJulgA8RzER26oJB8vQyisFF4tA/view?usp=sharing

This is a tar I made using the two tars you posted. I don't know how to find out which firmware you were using. Noone but you should try this.

I think it's a terrible idea to work this way: I don't know which firmware you started with. I don't know that the firmware in your stock.tar is the same as the firmware in your magisk.tar. I don't know which version of Magisk you used.

I wasn't able to use either of [MENTION=10104371]Reick7[/MENTION]'s links, so I don't know how they are related to what you posted.

I think you should learn to make the modifications yourself. If you are not comfortable with the command line interface, try a hex editor.

I think it is a mistake to look at the list of files in Odin's progress window and talk about getting "past" a particular file. Odin does not know anything about the firmware. Odin just spits it at the tablet. The tablet probably complains. I do not know if Odin even knows which file the tablet is complaining about -- it might be that by the time Odin gets a message from the tablet, Odin has already moved past the file about which the tablet is complaining.

You should not be pulling files out of the BL, CP, HOME_CSC tar files. You should use each exactly as it was in the stock firmware.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] nixaro:
my firmware is t290xxxs3atc2 and that is what that all was that i sent you it is also magisk 20.4

---------- Post added at 06:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:24 AM ----------

also thank you i will test it out in the morning.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Reick7:
I made a TWRP port this morning, installed it via flashify, but it just reboots on the bootloader, I tried to install via Odin, and I was successful, but when I start on recovery, an image appears saying "cleaning" and simply restarting on a Recovery stock, someone Do you have any idea what that is? or what causes it?
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] nixaro:
It worked thank you man so much rooted successful i thank you so much for the help. You are the best
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] J.Michael:
What was successful?

Did you make a point of going straight from Odin to recovery, and doing a wipe data / factory reset? (I know at this point "recovery" should be TWRP, but I assume TWRP has a "wipe data" option.) I don't know why that is part of the instructions for installing Magisk, but it seems reasonable that it would be needed for *any* update of the recovery partition.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Reick7:
it would be good if I had really managed to at least start the TWRP, but the phone won't let me, when I try or it won't start, or the "error" that I commented, "cleaning", and simply restarts for the recovery stock, an interesting factor is that my Binary is now customized, as if I had really managed to install it, but it didn't run, tomorrow I saw trying to port another TWRP:confused:
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] J.Michael:
What do you give Odin when you try to install your TWRP?

If you have been able to install Magisk, I think you should do exactly the same thing, with the one change being that you replace the recovery.img in the .tar file you put in the AP slot with this TWRP of yours. I think you should still use the boot.img and vbmeta.img that were patched by Magisk, and you should still pad the boot and recovery with the stock files. Wu's instructions indicate that, even though Magisk is being put into the recovery.img, he does something to the boot.img to bypass one of the integrity checks.

Wu never says "Once you have burned the three modified .img files to the tablet, you can burn a single modified file, because the other two have already been burned once." So it might be that you have to give the tablet the full set of three files every time. I don't have the stomach to try.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] gcrutchr:
May I have a link to your source code?

I would like to port to the T295.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Reick7:
and i also tried to do this, but without success, i filled in the recovery, with the hex editor, but it installs, and it doesn't start, and when i try to enter again it appears "cleaning" and then goes to recovery stock, for some reason i don't understand , you can't get magisk to be installed successfully if you don't fill in the other files, besides the AP, I tried to do the same with recovery, but nothing works.

---------- Post added at 06:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 AM ----------

I haven't been successful yet, I think I'll try to port another TWRP, because the one I used was from Tilapia, Samsung's j5, because it had a similar resolution, but msm like that, nothing starts, and you find yourself stuck on a custom_binary screen , even with OEM enabled
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Reick7:
maybe

it will be that it works for this other tablet, because they are very similar, I think it can work, I'll try later

https://xdaforums.com/galaxy-tab-a/how-to/guide-unlock-twrp-root-odin-howto-t3989361
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] exglynco:
I got a copy of the T290XXS3ATC2 March 6, 2020 firmware and Reick7's modded AP tar file (even though the current links in thread message 76 don't work). I attempted burning the March 6 firmware security upgrade on my SM-T290 using patched Odin 3.13.1, 3.13,3, and 3.14.1. All passed the Odin flash, but I kept missing the factory reset data step. When I missed that, I found myself back running my unrooted T290UES3ATC1 kids firmware. My modded magisk AP boot, recovery, and vbmeta images tar was double the size of Reick7's,

Bottom line. I toggled my OEM unlock bootloader back to locked , and have to wait until next week to unlock the bootloader again.. I expect I'll be able to root my SM-T290 without any problems. Thanks Reick7, gcrutchr, and J.Michael. I'm currently running the March 6 standard US firmware (T290XXS3ATC2) unrooted.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] temporarium:
Has anyone tried this with success?

https://www.reddit.com/r/androidroot/comments/g9dxvi/samsung_tab_a_8_2019_root_instructions_smt290/
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] J.Michael:
Where did you find [MENTION=10104371]Reick7[/MENTION]'s modded AP tar file? Are you using it? Are the files in it compressed? (That would explain why your "modded...tar" was much bigger.)

If you are patching a version of firmware other than what is on your tablet, your first step should be burning the unmodified T290XXS3ATC2 to your tablet.

I'm confused: You said that when you missed the factory reset step you ended up running T290UES3ATC1. Then you said you were currently running T290XXS3ATC2. When (and how) did it change?
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Reick7:
https://xdaforums.com/galaxy-tab-a/how-to/how-to-root-tablet-a8-2019-t290-t4119487

all links in the post I made are working, anything let me know that I update the links.:fingers-crossed:
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] exglynco:
temporarium, I'm going to give it a try in a week, when my OEM lock/unlock option returns to my SM-T290. The whole process makes sense, and the linux file manipulation is more easily done with linux commands than with a Windows hex editor.

J.Michaels, my bad. I haven't had time to tinker with my SM-290 since message 57 of this thread, over a month ago. It's been running on March 2020 kids (T290UES3ATC1) firmware. Yesterday, I found the standard (not kids) US OEM firmware (T290XXS3ATC2) that I'd downloaded 5/29/20, and flashed it with patched Odin 3.13.1. Much to my surprise, it passed the flashing. But I kept fumbling the reboot to recovery and subsequent factory data reset. Every time I missed the reboot to recovery, I found myself with the kids firmware instead of the adult firmware.

Well, I got a lot of practice flashing, but few of my attempts took. I settled on booting holding Power and Volume Down buttons, but not releasing Power until two vibration buzzes and a blank screen all occur. I switch the Volume Down to Volume Up at the same time I release Power.

I switched the OEM Lock back to On while trying to get to the Recovery Menu and Factory Data Reset. So, I'm successfully on the standard, March 2020 (T290XXS3ATC2) firmware, but unrooted. In a week, when I see the OEM lock item in my developers options, I'll attempt to root again.

I didn't have Reick7's modded Magisk tar. He used mine. I had downloaded your (J.Michael) dual tar you made for nixaro.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Talich52:
Here lies the archive with the desired file: https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=82649473&postcount=69

download, unzip to * .tar and flash it ... but before that you need to unlock the bootloader ...

Good luck!
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] exglynco:
Looks good, Talich52. Yours is modified Magisk 20.4 boot file? Thanks. I'm hoping to have my SM-T290 rooted again soon.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Talich52:
Yes, this is a patched kernel through Magisk 20.4 (20400)

If MagiskManager appears in the applications after flashing and downloading, then update it.

And if it doesn’t exist, then install MagiskManager v.7.5.1
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] temporarium:
I've got my tablet rooted, but I lose root when I reboot and then regain it after rebooting - rather randomly, it appears, since I don't reflash anything. Any ideas what's going on?
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Talich52:
I think the answer is on the same link above, namely: https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=82649473&postcount=69

I believe your device is rootted in a typical way, that is, Magisk is in the recovery section. It is enough to patch the kernel and vbmeta to have stable Root rights;)
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] temporarium:
I'm not sure I follow: are you saying we need to enter stock recovery on each reboot to keep root? Or are you saying we just need to flash (Odin) the file you provide - once to keep stable root? I'd love to have a custom recovery for backups, but stable root will do for now ?

This is from https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/install.html#magisk-in-recovery

"Since some devices no longer use ramdisk in boot images, Magisk has no choice but to be installed in the recovery partition. For these devices, you will have to boot to recovery every time if you want Magisk. Since both Magisk and recovery lives in the same partition, what you actually end up getting when you choose to boot to recovery will be determined by how long you press volume up.

[...]

After installing Magisk in recovery:

(Powering up normally) → (System with NO Magisk)

(OEM Recovery Key Combo) → (Splash screen) → (Release all buttons) → (System with Magisk)

(OEM Recovery Key Combo) → (Splash screen) → (Keep pressing volume up) → (Actual recovery)

Important Note: You CANNOT use custom recoveries to install/upgrade Magisk!"

There is a lot more useful stuff on that page that applies to this device (unlocking bootloader, etc.)
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Talich52:
I only patch boot.img & vbmeta, and the recovery remains stock ...

Our device is unique and does not comply with the instructions given ...;)
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] temporarium:
?

And that works for you without the special key-combo at boot?

Do you patch those two files with Magisk Manager? Do you have "Recovery mode" enabled in Magisk Manager?

Also, I noticed that when root is functional, the OEM unlock in Developer settings is enabled but not greyed out, though I do 6 get the unlocked bootloader warning at boot. When root is not enabled, that setting is greyed out. Is that normal?
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Talich52:
I reboot the device in the usual way without pressing any additional buttons, but like everyone has a warning that the bootloader is unlocked.

It’s correct when the option to unlock the bootloader is visible in the developer's section, while the status of the device is Official.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] temporarium:
That's fantastic. And is "Recovery mode" enabled in your Magisk Manager?
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Talich52:
Not.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] temporarium:
In that case, I think I'll wait for the Android 10 firmware to come out for the T290 and then do a full Odin flash followed by your method of just flashing patched vbmeta and boot.

Or do you think the new firmware flash will simply upgrade the data partition without the need for a full wipe/factory reset?
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Talich52:
By air, the device will not be updated with an unlocked bootloader! Need to update via Smart Switch PC, or through ODIN.

Updating means saving data :)

This has always been the case, both through the air and through SmartSwitch.

But you will lose Root rights ...
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] exglynco:
Talich52,

If TopJohnWu says Magisk resides in the same partition with Recovery, how does your tar file with just a patched boot.img file manage to achieve root? I like the idea of a stock recovery.img for easy entry into recovery, but achieving root is more important to me.
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] exglynco:
I'm in purgatory, unable to test rooting until the end of the week, but I like the idea of converting the boot and recovery images with Linux commands, rather than depending on finding the end of an 18 mB hexadecimal file and cutting and pasting those files using a hex editor. However, I thought u/anekdotos' (the Reddit guy's) instructions were confusing. I departed from his instructions early. First, rather than relying on an MTP file transfer and the risk of adding errors, I used the ADB pull command to bring the Magisk_patched.tar from my SM-T290 to a working area on my Ubuntu/Windows desktop

adb pull /sdcard/Download/magisk_patched.tar .

I followed u/anekdotos' instructions to extract and decompress the tar archive, separate its components, and assemble the basics into a pre-processing archive. I placed OEM T290XXS3ATC2's AP recovery's boot.img, recovery.img, and vbmeta.img files in a working directory, along with the smaller magisk_patched files extracted from the post-processing magisk_patched. tar archive. My next departure from his instructions was to rename the Magisk-processed boot .img and recovery.img,files to mboot.img and mrecovery.img.

u/anekdotos' processing instructions were the ones that really confused me, so I compared them with other instructions I found for using Linux's dd command to "pad" files. For our purposes, the incoming files are the post-processed renamed magisk mboot.img and mrecovery.img files, and the outgoing files are the OEM boot.img and recovery.img files overlaid by the patched code. Our commands are simply:

dd if=mboot.img of=boot.img conv=notrunc

and dd if=mrecovery.img of=recovery.img conv=notrunc

The command to make our modified patched tar out of our "padded" boot and recovery img files and unmodified vbmetaimg file is

tar -cf newmagisk_patched.tar boot.img recovery.img vbmeta.img.

Of course, you can choose a different name for your AP recovery rooting file. I chose newmagisk_patched.tar
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] temporarium:
Thank you for the write-up. I managed to decipher those instructions and to get root yesterday.

Apparently, we don't need to patch recovery.

Also, per Magisk creator's instructions, vbmeta _is_ modified by the patching, whereas in the Reddit instructions, we used the original vbmeta. Not really sure what the best/optimal way is.

I've got root, so for now I'm ok until Android 10 drops. Then it's back to work ?

PS: Linux is definitely better, except for the lack of Odin

PPS: as for the wait time, there is a way to trick the system by adjusting your system date. Look it up
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] J.Michael:
I think there's an option to use "USB" instead of "MTP" for the file transfer mode on the tablet. Every time I copy firmware to or from the tablet, I check the MD5 on the PC and on the tablet. I've never observed the corruption so often warned about.

[[Developer options -> Default USB configuration -> Transferring files]]

I don't understand "recovery's boot.img...": I thought "recovery.img" *was* the "recovery".
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Talich52:
The author of Magisk is of course right about the new devices! Our device came out with 9 Android and is already being updated to 10, but we have a unique device on which Root rights can be obtained in the old way, namely by simply patching the stock core of boot. img. But then I had to add a patched vbmeta.img, because after reboots, the protection was triggered and the device was blocked...

There is another point - Magisk reduces the size of the core file when patching, and then ODIN does not accept such a file,So you need to put the patched core on the stock one with a replacement to return the size to the original one and then the core is successfully flashed... :)
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] nixaro:
good news i think the android 10 just got dropped it is telling me it is forcing me to update mine haha
[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] amnher:
Here in the Philippines, no android 10 is insigt. XTC region here