yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] mrmazak:
I used this twrp on stick with little to no issues. Backup, restore. Install magisk, etc.

But when I went to gsi, and needed to install gapps. I found that system-as-root not detected problem.

This made the apps install to wrong location.

Instead of /system-root/system/app they installed in /system-root/app

And from this location they are not really installed.

Any idea how to adjust this location.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] diplomatic:
About this issue, I think I figured it out. The decryption process depends on these 2 properties:

ro.build.version.release

ro.build.version.security_patch

If either of these are lower than the ones associated with the crypto footer, it simply won't decrypt. The security_patch variable is already taken care of, by being set far in the future. But the release is locked at 9. So when you open the crypto footer, which has release 10, the decryption fails. If you compile the recovery with ro.build.version.release at 10 or higher, it might work then. (You can't change it at runtime.)

IDK. I glanced through the gapps install script and I don't see why that could happen. As far as I can tell, it should work whether or not system-as-root is detected. Have you tried this with system mounted as r/w? Were there other things installed in the right location?
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] mobilityguy:
Two recoveries at once?

I'm seeing strange behavior with recovery on this device after flashing TWRP. If I restart using the usual method of holding power and volume down, I boot into stock recovery (in Chinese). But if I then power off the tablet, reboot into the system and use adb reboot recovery, I boot into TWRP.

Is it possible for both recoveries to coexist on the device at the same time?
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] mrmazak:
There was nothing else I had tried to install in the gsi.

I did use sideload to install , and had to comment out the "abort" lines, because it kept detecting device was arm and not arm64, and showed system 10, and the gapps wanted system 9.

That should not made any difference.

I manually moved the installed files to system-root/system, and After moving the files to the correct location, I could not boot though..

It's odd. When I look at file structure with adb, while in twrp. It is as expected. All files in place in /system/app etc.

Adb does not show the system-root folder. This only shows in twrp file manager.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] DragonFire1024:
Will this work for the 7in tablet? If not is there anyway to get it to work? I am willing to compile it if I need to if somebody can point me in the right direction. Though I can achieve temporary root using other tools mentioned in various threads for this tablet, I am not comfortable with flashing Magisk over the recovery partition. I'm not having an easy enough time looking into the partitions of these things because any of the commands used to check the amounts just bring up data and cache partitions. There is no is no ramdisk therefore there is no boot image. One issue that I am having here is that you can CD into the system directory however when running any Mount commands inside of an emulator you cannot bring up the partition because it does not exist in the /proc/mounts. So therefore I cannot use any of the basic rooting techniques such as kingroot and the likes. Using the temporary root allows kingroot to then move at least 15% but still fails to root the device itself. With the temporary root and unable to mount system writable, there's not much else that I can do except disable applications. Being as I cannot Mount the system writable I also cannot push SuperSU files to the device in order to get that to at least work. So if I can't have a custom recovery can someone at least assist me or point me in a direction of being able to at least right write to the system so I can install SuperSU and at least have a management and do more than just disable the applications and call it a day.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
Not ideal, but just patch recovery to get magisk on it long enough to make the changes you want, then flash stock recovery back to it. While you have access with Magisk you should be able to use SuperSu from there since magisk is in recovery and they won't be fighting for the same real estate. I am pretty sure I was able to remount /system -rw with magisk but won't swear to it. Those 7" things can be aggrevating.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] DragonFire1024:
I got it as a gift. It's not that bad so long as I'm able to get a couple of root applications working such as apps to SD or link2sd so I can install applications on the external card before all the storage fills up excessively. Otherwise it seems like the memory on this will run out very very quickly. Aside from that in case anybody's wondering this really is a pretty good tablet. Only a few bloatware applications which are easily disabled. Otherwise it's pure Android. It doesn't look like they did anything to change the theme or make it some weird atmosphere like Amazon did with theirs. But if I can't get applications on external SD then this thing is pretty much useless.

---------- Post added at 12:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:50 PM ----------

And I presume surpersu detects root when magisk is installed?
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] mrmazak:
I don't know what is going on with it. But I had similar, I think.

I had installed twrp. Booted it used it etc. Then in fastboot I flashed system, then rebooted to recovery with command "oem reboot-recovery" but it went to stock recovery.

I went back and forth few times back to stock with flash tool, then a gsi, and each time I went to recovery after flashing system, the twrp was replaced with stock.

Now you mention your situation, maybe I will try few more reboot sequences, and see if both can be accessed with out any flashing
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
Can you use adb to put settings global default_install_location=2 and global set_install_location=2 as well as global force_allow_on_external=1 ? Haven't actually tried it for the sole purpose of putting apps on sdcard but sounds like it would work. The 7" SURF has adoptable storage doesn't it ? Can't remember.

I used Super Su for about two weeks one time so I know extremely little about it. I was thinking you could push it to where it needs to go as Magisk shouldn't be in the same space but I don't know how Super Su checks for other root methods. I thought it was just checking sbin and not installing if another su was present. Again, I don't know for sure it would work. I was just kinda tossin' an idea around.

---------- Post added at 06:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:23 AM ----------

In the beginning of testing I had both recoveries showing up. I seem to recall seeing something in either a recovery.log or a boot.log from liveboot something about slots and switching LK images and recoveries if not mistaken. Also seen reference to switching in an OTA that I had taken apart and I believe was running strings on different files just looking around. So it's not your Imagination, at one point there is in fact two recoveries but I have no idea how you would keep and initiate both.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] diplomatic:
That Chinese thing is not an Android recovery. It's some engineering-mode tool built into the BL that they forgot to take out. It has a self-destruct feature, which conveniently wipes your device and is irreversible if you don't have a full backup. Probably used for Chinese espionage. :)

The Android recovery is launched with Power+Vol. Up, then selecting Recovery from the boot menu.

OK, I found another issue with this TWRP based on what you said. The property ro.product.cpu.abilist is not set right. It has only armv7 ABIs, and that's why the installer is not detecting arm64. But for Android 10 GSI, you probably want to use ver. 10 Gapps.

In adb shell, have you seen /system_root, not system-root? ? Were there are other gapps files in lib/ for example that did go in the correct location? You only mentioned the app/ folder.

I should build a new test version that fixes these things when I have the time...
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] mobilityguy:
Well, that's special. I haven't found any way to get out of that mode, other than to hold the power button long enough to shut it off. And even that executes whatever command the cursor is on when you press the power button. Since the menu is in Chinese, it's hard to tell what that is. The default is a self test, so other than generating some speaker noise at the start, it seems harmless. All bets are off if you move the cursor before pressing power.

Someone should tell Wal-Mart that they're shipping tablets with a self-destruct function.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Vortell:
If you have a phone Google translate can help
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
One of the chinese options should have eMMC that you can read. Previous experience with other devices with same test menu, I learned selecting that fails and causes reboot to exit without ill effects . 1st or second from top has been reboot on a lot of other devices that I've had with MMI Test screen. I've hit them all and none caused any damage. You can google blue chinese menu and select images and find all you want on them with translations.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] mobilityguy:
First thing I tried. The English translations would probably be useful to a Chinese engineer who temporarily forgot how to read his own language. To me, not so much.

---------- Post added at 08:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:14 AM ----------

Thanks. I remember seeing eMMC amid all the Chinese characters. I'm not going to go out of the way to test it given the possible consequences but that's good to know.

Googling "blue chinese menu" just made me hungry for Cashew Chicken. :D
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] DragonFire1024:
So I've been looking around inside this thing, and there is a boot image. I even pulled it and unpacked it. So I'm not quite sure what the issue may have been if there is not supposed to be any ramdisk here but clearly there is. And clearly there is a boot image. Not sure if that makes any difference in this matter or not? And I've managed to find recovery.fstab seems to mention every partition except for the system. Unless the system is named boot. so I decided to unpack the boot image make some edits to the default prop repack it and flash it and it works.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
Have you tried patching it with Magisk to see if it works? What I remember is boot loops when trying to patch boot.img. After failure upon failure I found the Magisk recovery solution and it worked. But if you've edited a boot.img to where it will work with Magisk that would be a huge positive.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] DragonFire1024:
it doesn't boot loop, but it doesn't patch it either or at least magisk doesn't see itself as installed after patching and flashing the boot image. Yes it does work but now there's no recovery. And have got to flash back and forth. What is the difficulty of having to build a TWRP image for this? Are there any device sources for it besides the 8 and 10? There are some Oddities while using it like this for example when rebooting via power button it tells you that it's going to factory reset although it doesn't actually do that. I had spent an hour or two trying to get it to actually patch the boot image with no success. What about manually installing the needed files into the boot image?
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
I don't know why you couldn't give it a shot as long as you back it up first. I don't have it anymore I returned mine the day after I posted how to root it. Not aware of any sources and 8" and 10" are so different dont know if they would help. If I remember correctly [MENTION=8132642]diplomatic[/MENTION] said he would start on the recovery if needed. See what he thinks, if you're willing to test, and seen someone else had offered to test.

Also, have you looked at Magisk documentation on patching recovery. It may provide answers you're looking for. It's interesting to read either way.

---------- Post added at 04:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:25 AM ----------
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] diplomatic:
Yeah, you're right. I looked it up and the clear emmc option only does a factory reset. I guess calling it a self-destruct feature is a stretch. Here is the English version of that menu on a different phone: https://xdaforums.com/s7582/help/samsung-galaxy-dous-s2-gt-s7582-t3034002
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] diplomatic:
On second thought, I believe it should detect the architecture just fine if you mount system before running the installer. Can you try launching the default install script again? And then check the resulting install location too.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] jwarrior319:
I just bought the 8" ONA19TB002 from Walmart. Ive successfully:

- Unlocked the bootloader

- Flashed TWRP 3.1.1-1

- Full backup of everything that can be backed up via TWRP

- Installed Magisk via TWRP

Everything is working great. Now i get to have some fun messing around with the stock system. Im thinking of working on a custom rom for it. Probably LineageOS based. Depends on my free time and ability to learn the process. Has anyone else started any custom rom development or have any success with GSI's?
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] mrmazak:
I'm gonna mess around with it only a few more days then I'm returning mine. I bought it as a refurbished. And the battery is bad. It goes from 60% to 0% in just few minutes.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
Better do it before Christmas or return line could prove unbearable.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] DragonFire1024:
So I figured out how to mount system in a root shell using just an emulator. If you run the basic command

mount -o remount,rw /system

It will tell you it cannot find "system in /proc/..." So I tried experimenting with ways of mounting it. I don't know what made me think of this and I for the life of me wouldn't be able to explain it like I can't explain how I figure much of this stuff out. So I ran the command

mount -o remount,rw /

Essentially just removing the word system from the whole mingle. Much to my surprise it worked and it mounted everything and I am able to manually push whatever files between system and other parts of the device I want. However as exciting as that sounds, no matter what I do no matter what binaries I try from what APK from what version, I cannot get SuperSU to detect root access or accept that it exists. I mostly will get the warning "root undetected"after having pushed SU, supolicy, and etc to xbin (I also tried sbin and bin). The interesting part is if I push the files to bin, I will generally get the message that it cannot detect root access. If I move the binaries and files out of there to xbin or sbin, SuperSU then tells me that it cannot find the su binaries and that it can't root he device for me. I've tried every SuperSU version that I can get my hot little hands on and it's the same thing over and over. If I flash the recovery with magisk oh, and try installing SuperSU after that it will fails to update the binaries but it detects it and the fact that root access exists. Anyways I figured this little bit of information would be much help for other things other than for what I'm doing so I decided to share it with everyone. At least now if you want to remove or add things to the system you can do so without flashing recovery to gain root. No it would be an interesting little feature if we can have mtk-su handle requests for root access as some kind of minor manager.

---------- Post added at 08:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:58 PM ----------

yes the battery is extremely bad however I don't think actually it is the battery that is running low I think it's the system fighting between mtk's battery statistics and Androids. The only reason why I say that is because once you unlock the bootloader and you go to plug the device in while turned off, the battery symbol will never fill up and look like it is constantly empty. However if you leave it plugged in and you're lucky enough to have the battery charging symbol come up when a device is turned off it'll tell you the actual level of battery power. But I don't think the system agrees with that level because when you boot it up it tells you something a lot different in terms of what's left. And it's usually tells you there's a lot less left than there actually is. I've only just started to notice that.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] DragonFire1024:
So I've been trying to figure out why SuperSU won't be read from the system and I have no idea why. I manually install BusyBox after using mtk-su to mount / and put it in xbin and it installed with no problem. So I'm not sure why the su binary won't.in an attempt to further test some things I might have had a little bit too much going on. I tried to install kingoroot kingouser root management and when I did that the system became unresponsive after reboot and just hung on the boot logo. but I think that was due in part because I had way too many binary files put too many places at the time so I will start with one file at a time in the morning and work my way up until I stop getting results.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] martyfender:
Did system as root devices even exist when SuperSu was last updated?

So you can't get Magisk Canary to work with this device by patching the recovery image and flashing it?
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] DragonFire1024:
Actually sukernel and supolicy work if you run them manually in a root shell. The problem with this is is you would also have to patch the files manually. Sukernel does have an option or two that does support moving system_as_root to boot.

import /system_root to /boot

And

reduce /system_root /boot by eliminating unmodified fillers

There are also a variety of other commands and functions with that binary.

So to answer your question that would be yes. When I push the su binary to the system xbin, after all the others are working, I run SU in a emulator and the output is "bad system call." There is also a file that acts as the place marker called 'supersu_is_here.' that is supposed to help I think but I haven't tried it yet.

And why do I not want to just flash the recovery with magisk? Because I don't feel comfortable with that regardless of how little affected has but I don't want to have to flash back and forth if I happen to need recovery. Secondly it doesn't always work properly when you reboot to recovery sometimes I have trouble even getting it work properly after doing so and it takes several times and tries to get it to work. I've said it before and I'll say it again I don't like magisk. It's not for my taste. To each their own. And I've always been the underdog who doesn't usually jump on the same boat with everybody else. There are clearly other smaller alternatives given mtk-su works. What I do need is the su binary files from Kingoroot. I know a trick or two that might work but I won't know until I get ahold of those and I don't have any devices that I can currently root with it.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] DragonFire1024:
And significant progress. At least I have finally gotten SuperSU to acknowledge the device is rooted or at least root access is present. And this is from fresh stock so magisk has not touched it.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] jwarrior319:
I tried flashing aospex unsuccessfully. I restored my backup including crypto but now it wont boot without factory reset. Am i totally screwed or is there a way to restore after a factory reset?
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] diplomatic:
[MENTION=6898029]jwarrior319[/MENTION], if restoring a backup of data, you do not want to recover the old crypto footer. When you did a factory reset, a new crypto key was already generated on first boot. This key is part of the crypto footer that is now being used by TWRP and Android.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] jwarrior319:
Is there anything special that needs to be done when flashing a gsi on this device? It dosent detect the os after reboot. Im on the 8" 002 model.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Josephdbrewer25:
I found it. I forget where tho. Are there any custom roms yet?

I actually found that scatter file in this

https://www.nathanbar.net/files/android/ONA19TB002/
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
Yes, there are quite a few by way of gsi's. I've had the best luck with Beast ROMS and Liquid Remix. There are quite a few more that will work and a few that just don't, A.O.K.P comes to mind as one not to try as I got three bricks out of three tries with mine. I stuck with Beast Rom because I like it, the only issue is device theme takes 2~3 minutes to change and you only hit your selected theme once and wait. Get impatient and you'll just get jammed up and wait that much longer. Other than that everything works with Beast. I believe all of them, if used long enough will reveal a fault somewhere as none were built for this device.

The chance you take is your own, although a lot easier to recover now with the work done by [MENTION=8132642]diplomatic[/MENTION] on twrp. The gsi's are not what the project treble idea was really supposed to be. Or at least any other than aosp I guess. The different developers and maintainers have basically tweaked them to work on their device, which is great for that given device but widens the gap for compatibility with others. They aren't building them to be compatible with others so it shouldn't be expected nor should they be faulted for building for their device. In the end what you have, in my opinion are custom generics. And my last thought is, give 'em a try, it's a $64 tablet. There's not really that much to lose.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] jwarrior319:
What steps are you taking to flash the gsi? When i flash either via twrp or fastboot i dont get anything in /system-root/system

It basically installs all but the system itself.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] jwarrior319:
This is my root and system_root file trees
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] tek3195:
First I flashed a bone stock aosp build as it was recommended somewhere that I had read. Get one from ci.android.com or one of phhusson's and save the vbmeta for future use. Once you have what you want take a full backup with twrp. I read instructions for fastboot and didn't have twrp when I started trying gsi's but there is not a way to disable verification when flashing vbmeta even if you tweaked recovery to flash it. So I would stick with fastboot. The flashing is pretty simple really.

I believe it was something akin to:

fastboot --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

fastboot erase system

fastboot flash system name_of_your_gsi.img

fastboot oem reboot-recovery

most gsi's don't have the matching vbmeta to download with them. I used one from an aosp build from ci.android.com. https://ci.android.com/builds/branches/aosp-master/grid? and good instructions for flashing near bottom of the page here https://source.android.com/setup/build/gsi
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] jwarrior319:
Is the architecture arm64 or arm? Not booting stock arm64

---------- Post added at 07:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:55 AM ----------

I got to where its booting but stuck at the onn screen but have adb access. I read somewhere that entering:

adb shell setprop debug.stagefright.ccodec 0

In adb would get it too boot but didn't work for me.
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] Josephdbrewer25:
I'm just getting back in the Android custom ROM deal. I haven't had a device that was even rootable in 3 years. I'm just now learning GSI...Android has changed a lot. Thank you for the reply btw. Has anyone tried the Android 10 on this tablet??
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] mrmazak:
I believe , stuck on the onn screen is either you need to wipe data (factory reset) or -disable verification on vbmeta
[Walmart Onn Tablets General] mobilityguy:
"Only" does a factory reset can be problematic if you've already spent time installing apps and setting up the tablet environment. It seems safer to trigger the tablet's self test (top menu item) and then long press the power button to power off the system while the self test is going on. Nothing gets changed then.