yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] zenowaren:
Lineage OS TrebleDroid-Based(the version which is 2 months ago) booted on my device. But There were same issues. Such as, no battery charging light, Tablet UI(if i set the DPI to 600) was crashing. For this device, it was bugy and the device was warming up. And also, the GApps version of that ROM may have problems (like, device is not registered notification), because the maintainer is from China where Google is banned. The ROM on the link quoted message is good for me and using daily.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Dhwaj:
Hey is Android 14 beta2 gsi is working or not.

Can please tell me if it works tell me the steps to install it
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] zenowaren:
I dont know. I'm not plannig to install it yet. Waiting Phhusson's GSI.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Velitacast:
Yep this is the same issue I was experiencing with Gen3. Project Elixir seemed to be the most stable for me and I could get past the setup screens using the following on GSI ROMs which had USB debugging enabled out of the box:

adb shell settings put secure user_setup_complete 1

adb shell settings put global device_provisioned 1

I just had no luck getting the storage issue resolved. I spent some time trying to determine if it was a permissions or partitioning issue but didn’t get very far.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Dhwaj:
Btw gen 2 has only storage issue only on havoc vs4.0 but on other room there was no storage issue like I have tried these:-

1) Treble droid a13

2) evolution xa12

3) lineage os v19.1

4) elixir project v3.8

5) arrow os v12.1

These rom listed have no storage issue as of gen2 and as of as I have tested so far
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Dhwaj:
Lineage os20 Andy yan based working smooth
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Dhwaj:
Hey pixel experience plus android 13 gsi booted In the tablet.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] micfogas:
You sir, are awesome. My tab has been sitting for a while but finally booted it back up today and decided to look for a root. I'm going to give it a try (I guess I should check which mtk chip it has) but has anyone tried mtkclient with this instead of spflashtool? Any chance you have the source available on GitHub for your port of twrp? Thanks in advance!

I'm on the 8505F but I think this confirms my assumption... The _S10* builds are 9, the S30* are 10? Any idea about the S32* builds? Wouldn't be 11, but am curious what made them jump from 30 to 32

So I did confirm that mtkclient works just fine with the 8505F. Currently dumping my partitions. Will make this whole thing 100 times easier. Should be able to just magisk the current boot image.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Fig wright:
I have just got one of these pads, but unlike apparently everyone else in these 14 pages, it is a 4thGen pad:

Lenovo Tab M8 (4th Gen) TB300FU, 3GB RAM

Android 12, TB300FU_S001076_221215_ROW

Android 12 seems quite slow, and I'd like to put on a thinned OS to cut out the bloat. I have unlocked the bootloader ok. After reading all 14 pages, I think I'm right in saying there are no other "official" OS releases for Lineage or anything else for this pad, right? ☹️ That's a big shame, because I'd love to put Lineage19 on it. I understand I could put a "generalized" Lineage on here, but I need to access the internal SD card so that bug is a show stopper for me.

Also, as this is the 4th Gen, am I right that there's actually no evidence that *any* of these ROMs will work, right? I'm not going to risk bricking this by being the first!

So, what are my options here?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thierry beccaro:
I would imagine that being a mediatek there is no risk of bricking it as you would be able to use the rescue assistant to restore the tablet from any state.

But what do I know? :rolleyes:
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Fig wright:
Lenovo pushed an OS update from Android 12 to 13 yesterday:

TB300FU_S101047_230825_ROW

The UI is a little odd, and they've shrunk down the icons for some reason. But things seems fairly snappy.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sajeel:
Purchased lenovo tab m8 tb-850xs anyone have custom software they can send or upload cannot seem to find anything online.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ripper2018:
Just updated mine to Android 13 and there is a definite speed improvement, is there a TWRP for it?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Isrgish:
For which device is this? The tab 8 is TB-85xx at least as far as I know.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ripper2018:
Lenovo M8 4th Gen TB300FU
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mod_terrik:
For those of you who are able to flash custom ROMs to your M8 FHD 8705F, what are you doing different than I am?

1. fastboot flash <magisk modified boot image>

2. fastboot --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta_disabled.img

3. fastboot flash system <LOS.img>

4. fastboot reboot

These steps get me into a bootloop with any GSI ROM. What am I missing?

Appreciated.

Edit: I got TWRP installed and LOS installed, but now when I boot into TWRP recovery it hangs and never goes back to the OS no matter how many times I reboot. I guess I'll just be happy with the rooted stock ROM.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Dhwaj:
Quick update on Android 14 gsi support for Lenovo tab m8 hd TB8505F 2gb ram.

Derpfest , AOSP , PIXEL OS , EVOLUTION X All of them work well without Gapps , magisk v26.4 no custom recovery.

With the above listed gsi evolution x works the best and also it is smooth after removing Gapps with the help of root and installed microg the experience was smooth as butter .

Pure 60hz smoother than stock ROM that's what I felt.

With evolution x GAPPS preinstalled Geekbench 5 score was 168 single core and 572 multi core GPU was same as stock at least 1 -2 points higher than stock acc 3D mark.

With Gapps removed single core 172 and multi core 580

I think this score will increase after lineage os 21 gsi comes out.

The gsi evolution x gsi link is over here https://github.com/ahnet-69/treble_evo/releases

This ROM is pushing this 4yr old device to it's limits and it's 5yr old MEDIATEK A22T TO IT'S LIMIT

Other gsi https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/wiki/Generic-System-Image-(GSI)-list

Nearly all Android 14 gsi work on this device by following standard installation procedure with the help of PC or Android app bujaegaear gsi size limited to 3GB for the Android app so for installation of Evo x use PC

battery life is 10-15 min better
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Dhwaj:
It might be due to twrp

For this reinstall stock ROM with so flash tool

And repeat all the steps but don't install twrp it does not work
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] H3llsing87:
Hey there,

Is there any detailed instructions manual how to flash lets say Android 14 or LOS on the device?

what was exactly fastboot? And from the comments i could figure out twrp is not working?

Thank you so much and sorry for the noob questions.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Fig wright:
Yes, there is detailed instruction on how to flash on the first page of this thread. However, it applies to older models of the Tab M8. For example user Dhwaj above has done lots of cool things with his Tab, but it is with a 1st gen model and likely not applicable to 4th gen. It looks like the 4th gen is quite different to the older models, and no one yet has posted results of installing custom ROM.

As far as I can tell, this is the situation for models...

Lenovo Tab M8 versions:

1st Gen TB-8505F 2019

2nd Gen TB-8705F 2020

3rd Gen TB-8506F 2021

4th Gen TB-300FU 2022

All models also exist with X instead of F.

Fastboot mode gives android devices access to your device's partitions, the data partition, and the boot partition. fastboot mode gives you the ability to modify certain parts of your phone's essential files.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] H3llsing87:
Thanks for the reply.

i must have missed the post.

it seems to be a 1st gen Model of the tab. Wifi only. So its the TB-8505F. The LTE versions are the one with X right?

edit:

I rooted the device first with this:

Redit post

then flashed the slim evolution x

and erased the partitions and userdata posted here on page 13

everything worked but is a bit slow.

How can i removed the gapps and use the microg instead? and is everything working with it?

Do i need to set any system optimization to gain more speed?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] LLStarks:
Got Andy Yan's Lineage 21 gsi to boot. Pretty stable.

Tried to get an Android 14 QPR1 Pixel gsi to flash but it's too big.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EndiaRS:
So, actually i installed PixelExperience13 Slim (Android 13) and it work very well (i'm able to watch 1080P YouTube video without much lag where i was able to watch only on 720P with the original firmware) on my TB-8505F (Gen 1 i believe even if the manufacturing date is end 2022)

There is the process i followed :

Download PixelExperience 13 GSI Slim and unzip the zip file to get the system img

Install Mediatek drivers and download Android ADK

Add the ADK Path into the system path variable

Throw every file that you need in a folder (pixelexperience.img, vbmeta.img that i got here and TWRP that you can find in this topic)

Start a powershell in the folder created (When the action is preceded by "-" then it's a command in the powershell console)

- adb reboot bootloader

- fastboot flashing unlock

- fastboot flash recovery twrp.img

- fastboot flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

- fastboot reboot recovery

Finish the twrp conf (cancel when it ask for the password)

Go to reboot->bootloader

- fastboot flashing system PixelExperienceRom.img

- fastboot reboot recovery

In TWRP wipe Dalvik/Art and Cache

Go to Reboot->system

With all that, i got a pretty fluid system, not much lag in the interface nor in youtube (with the revanced extended app)

I have to say that i was able to do that mainly thanks to this topic. I learned from the start how ADB Worked and how the filesystem is partitioned and adapted all the information i could get here and in the internet to do that process)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Fig wright:
What model is your tab?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] LLStarks:
8505F

It's a bit frankenstein since I have to use an older vbmeta until I pull from the device after all OTAs. Probably will do that over the weekend.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] INVINCIBLE_DEV:
So i also own a Lenovo Tab M8 (8505X) and i am also a great fan of linux!

So, i would really like to somehow get the linux super powers in my tablet as well.

But in order to do that, i have to port a linux os on android.

I belive UbuntuTouch will be the best for that?

But people, the problem is, i do not have ANY KNOWLEDGE of how to port an os to a device.

So, can we, the members of this forum work together and somehow port UbuntuToucn OS for our shiny little Tabs?

What i'm asking for, is a mentor who can guide me step-by-step for porting this OS, and some teamwork.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hjbg30:
is there an updated ROM list and where to find them compatible with TB-8505X?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kerek07:
wanderer looking for solution. read page 1,4,13 and 14. follow the instruction to install a custom rom in the hope to have something better. use it for 2 minutes than realise that the last 3 hours (edit 2 days)was the worst waste of time of your life. use the official lenovo rescue software again to install STOCK 10 freshhhh. ENJOY
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rahamatulla:
I want recovery twrp for 8505X model. Does ur recovery work for 8505X?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Cobrag0318:
Mine is an 8505F, got TWRP installed fine, but when trying to flash the system I get "fastboot Invalid sparse file format at header magic". Now if I'm patient, the flash does still seem to proceed fine. I reboot into twrp, and wipe the dalvik, art, cache, kinda follow the steps above for another GSI. Check allow TWRP to install it's app, and reboot to system. But it never boots. Doesn't appear to loop, just stays on splash screen chewing it's gum. Which image did you grab? I tried the "lineage-21.0-20240212-UNOFFICIAL-gsi_arm64_gN.img" Light version, because where I seen others use a GSI for it, they seemed to use light versions of the ones they tried. And the gN, because I wanted the google apps. I honestly haven't tried using a GSI for anything, and there's no direct step by step for this device. I didn't even know which image I should be using and just guessed. I'm assuming the gN one includes google apps. But I know with my phone, using the lineage build for it, not a GSI, I had to add my own gapps, and I'd rather grab the nano package for the play store and libraries, and just add al la carte from the play store things I need like chrome and whatnot.

Anyways, is that invalid sparse file format error a real error? If so, how do I get around that? Which image did you grab specifically? Or what image should I be using? Using the above pixel experience GSI install how-to, is there anything I should be doing different? Other than substituting the system image I want to use. If I want to use the nano gapps, I can just use the image without, and immediately boot into twrp before first boot to install gapps there, like I did with the dedicated linage version for my phone?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Cobrag0318:
There's also this when I go to try to wipe my dalvik/art cache, and cache
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] av.v2:
Do not use twrp on this tab because is not even worth installing a non stable port that doesn't even work if you want to flash a rom/gsi do it through fastboot. And before you try doing so make sure that you get the vbmeta/boot.img from your original stock rom from lmsa and the lenovo usb vcom drivers as well.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Cobrag0318:
Others seem to have luck with it. However, heeding your advise, I tried with the method at https://www.xda-developers.com/flash-generic-system-image-project-treble-device/, for flashing without TWRP. I also took note to flash the vbmeta, at the same point in the process from the post above, and wiping the data/cache with the stock recovery as mentioned in most guides. I tried various Andy Yan's Lineage images as mentioned in other posts, but that bootloops with or without going the twrp route. Ideally, I'd want lineage-21.0-20240212-UNOFFICIAL-gsi_arm64_gN.img, or one with gapps. Tried project elixer, don't recall which image, but same result. Pixel experience installed and ran, but had problems with apps crashing, though retrospectively, that may have been due to not being able to properly wipe the data/cache through TWRP, which the stock recovery doesn't seem to have problem with, so I may go back and try again without TWRP and using stock recovery to wipe data/cache. Though Ideally, I'd like lineage, since that is what I have on my phone.

For more information, it's a TB-8505F, made in aug of 2020, so 1st gen I think.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Invinciblity:
Hello, so i have been looking to find the kernel sources of Lenovo tab M8's TB-8505X variant, and all i can find is TB-8505F's kernel sources(https://github.com/CoderCharmander/tb8505f-kernel/).

Now, i want the kernel sources to port a custom rom for my tab, which will be UbuntuTouch(because i have always been a fan of linux and want to use it on my phone with full potential.).

So can i use the TB-8505F's kernel sources to port my rom? because by looking at the specs, both variants are almost completely similar to each other. and i can't find the kernel sources of TB-8505X's, so, what will happen?

also, i have once installed an unofficial port of TWRP, which was ported for TB-8505F, but it worked fine on my TB-8505X, so i wonder if the same will be for the kernel as well?

Please, dears XDA gods, enlighten me.

Thank you.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cadilhac:
I followed this pretty much to the letter, but it gets stuck in the Android setup trying to enable face recognition — talk about a stupid reason to be stuck. Only thing I can find online on this problem is here, recommending in particular locking/unlocking the bootloader, but this does not do anything in this case.

Any clue?

Edit: Originally tried PixelExperience.

Also tried lineage-21.0-20240424-UNOFFICIAL-arm64_bgN.img.xz (TD); the keyboard would not show up.

Also tried lineage-21.0-20240406-UNOFFICIAL-gsi_arm64_vN.img.xz (Lite), ended up in bootloop.

Also tried evolution_arm64_bgN_slim-8.3-unofficial-20240207.img.xz; this one worked (I could skip face unlock). Bluetooth doesn't. It is slow (much slower than Pixel Experience), but videos play (at 480p).

Also tried CrDroid_A13-RO-arm64-bgN-slim_20240402.img.xz; same problem with face lock, but faster in the setup.

Also tried SuperiorOS_A14-RO-arm64-bgN-slim_20240302.img.xz. Fairly smooth, but videos are extremely choppy, as if hardware acceleration were disabled.

Bottom line: Could not find a ROM yet that works and is smooth.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thierry beccaro:
you can skip the android setup like so :

adb shell settings put secure user_setup_complete 1

adb shell settings put global device_provisioned 1
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cadilhac:
Reached the Face Lock Setup of Death, and entered these commands, then rebooted, works great now! Thanks Thierry!

I got my hands on a Gen3 too. Looking at logcat, it seems that some media service does not start:

--------- beginning of crash
05-03 18:20:53.307 1132 1132 F linker : CANNOT LINK EXECUTABLE "/vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.media.omx@1.0-service": library "libstagefright_omx.so" not found: needed by main executable

When root, I can't start it indeed, but I can set LD_LIBRARY_PATH and start it. After that (somehow) I can install apps and have access to the storage. There's a reboot happening when trying to watch 1080p videos, but 480p seem to work.

$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH='/system/lib/
$ /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.media.omx@1.0-service

I'm stuck there for the moment. I'd really like to understand why /system/lib is not part of the default LD library path...

Edit: Well, it is. I have no clue what's wrong. By default, hardware.media.omx opens that version of libstagefright_omx.so:

openat(AT_FDCWD, "/vendor/lib/vndk/libstagefright_omx.so", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = 10

But the linker complains nonetheless. This file is a symlink to /system/lib/libstagefright_omx.so. If I remove that symlink, everything works smoothly, then

/apex/com.android.vndk.v30/lib/libstagefright_omx.so

is loaded, and everything is dandy.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Numus19:
FYI i finally got this to work on my TB8505FS ... Big key was to not install TWRP and def don't run MAGISK in twrp. Had to flash teh stock bootloader and recovery but once I did that I was able to flash lineage-21.0-20240424-UNOFFICIAL-arm64_bgN.img and get it to boot.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimakos75:
Please can you tell me all the steps i have to follow in order to have the lineage you have in my m8 8505x ? I am stock now.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] deeepkk:
You have to flash gsi
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ittharatt155:
Hello, I'm Looking for TWRP TB 8506x (Lenovo tab m8 gen 3) , thank for ur kindness.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] raffyk:
doesnt exist.. :((((
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] deeepkk:
You can root / flash gsi without twrp.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] arnav7633:
After flashing GSI, twrp gets stuck on teamwin logo....

One thing i did notice when twrp worked just after flashing without booting is that it could not find /system_root
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cubcubcub:
I followed this when installing LineageOS, I hope it helps to someone (My model is TB-8505F)

1) Update to latest version from tablet

2) Download and unzip: https://mirrors-obs-2.lolinet.com/f...ab_8/TB-8505F/TB-8505F_S301023_240118_BMP.zip

3) Follow(use boot.img and vbmeta.img from second step): https://xdaforums.com/t/lenovo-tab-m8.4049539/post-88399901
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Alex_D15:
Hello,

Did somebody try to install on Lenovo TB-8505F Kali linux, e.g. kali-linux-2024.2-raspberry-pi5-arm64.img ? My Tablet is allready rooted, and bootloader is unlocked, and I'd like to install this image of kali linux on my tablet. Could you share what are you thinking about this idea? Is it any chance to work?

Thank you!

Alex_D15
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cubcubcub:
Lenovo Open Source Portal - Lenovo Support US

support.lenovo.com

this link has the open source kernel file for the device. I am thinking about compiling the kernel then using with an arm based image of some distro or postmarketos

currently nothing is ready. you need to port and hopefully share your findings here.

good luck!
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] deeepkk:
Ubuntu Touch Port : https://github.com/Deeepkk/ubtouch_akita

Currently in development, still has some bugs
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] deeepkk:
I dont think you can just install any arm64 img, if you want linux you can port postmarket os as @cubcubcub said. You can use https://github.com/Deeepkk/kernel_lenovo_akita_row_call main branch , I have fixed some issues and it can be compiled now, use android-9 or 10 gsi clang branch to compile . WIfi and lte version kernel sources are same , both device configs are there.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Alex_D15:
I agree with you. this is also an option which I have in my mind.

Thanks you.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Alex_D15:
Thank you for advice. I'll look for this. Normally is possible to install NetHunter, but I want completely remove Android OS, and install clear linux on my tablet without any emulation.

Thanks.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] av.v2:
does this port works for the 8505F model? if so can you msg on discord (thedavidcr2005) on how to install it? i'm very interested on seeing how this port of yours work on my tablet
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] msnapper:
hi all. just wanted to report on a successful GSI flash on a 4th gen tab m8 TB-300FU in case anyone was searching for this...

i'm using the 10" version of these tablets (running Andy Yan's lineage 21 builds) for Home Assistant panels. I (wrongly) assumed the processor on the 8" was regular arm64 so my first attempt failed - it would only boot to fastboot/bootloader. i used the lenovo rescue tool to go back to stock and then discovered that the cpu abi is actually armeabi-v7a:

adb shell getprop ro.product.cpu.abi
armeabi-v7a

after downloading and flashing Andy's "a64" image, the tablet works as expected. i was even able to flash an older build (the current build that i'm running on the 10" tablets) and then "dirty flash" to the latest version. wanted to test the upgrade before potentially breaking my HA panels.

Link to Andy's builds: https://sourceforge.net/projects/andyyan-gsi/files/lineage-21-td/

Links to other builds: https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/wiki/Generic-System-Image-(GSI)-list
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Alex_D15:
Did you completely replaced Android system on the tablet, and installed image system from scratch? Could you shortly describe your procedure?

Thank you!
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Isrgish:
I'm still looking for custom recovery. Does anyone know of one that works for this device?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rahamatulla:
this tab is stuck in bootloop as i unlocked bootloader and uninstalled system apps now am unable to flash firmware as it has non removable battery. i am searching for twrp or any other alternative way to flash firmware for tb 8505x. but nothing in google. its better to take device service center!
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Isrgish:
Download the Rescue and Smart Assistant from Lenovo. There this an option of rescuing your device.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rahamatulla:
100% worked

i tried and flashed last night. it updated tab to Android 10:D:fingers-crossed: