[Thinkpad Tablet General] BogisW:
Dear all,

Background

: I’ve bought a brand new Lenovo Tab M10 TB-X605L LTE. It’s for my grandma, so that she can video-call her great-grandchildren during the Corona crises, and I learned that I require to have Android 8 Oreo on it, as Teamviewer Host has to run on it and start automatically (my grandma is almost 90 years and she can operate a toaster, but not a tablet). Unfortunately, I’ve upgraded to Android 9 Pie, which by design doesn’t support Teamviewer host.

The problem is

: I need to get back to Android 8 Oreo, but I almost bricked my Lenovo Tab M10 by trying to do so. I’ve already spent a few days and read/tried tons of instructions/suggestions/forum discussions, and I’m completely stuck. I would really enjoy some help or the decisive tip – and especially my grandmother would really enjoy seeing her four great-grandchildren after three weeks of quarantine.

This works:

I managed to get a M10 TB-X605L stock ROM Android 8 Oreo: techswizz com/lenovo-tab-tb-x605l-stock-rom-firmware-flash-file/

I can reboot to fastflash mode (reboot and hold Volume-Down), and I can use ADB and Fastboot.

I can install TWRP recovery mode (by flashing recovery.img) and start/use TWRP (reboot and hold Volume-Up+Down).

I think I’ve unlocked the bootloader, but I’m not sure how to verify it.

I have installed the Qualcomm_USB_Driver_v1.0 and the tablet gets a COM port (can be seen in Device Manager).

This doesn’t work:

General

I cannot boot in normal mode (device stops or constantly reboots when I try).

I managed to install Magisk (in TWRP), but the devices still can’t boot in normal mode afterwards, so I cannot start Magisk.

Lenovo Moto Smart Assistant

I can start it, download the stock image. When I try to flash the device, the progress bar jumps to 33% immediately, and after a few seconds a “FAIL” button appears without any further information.

Fastboot

I can flash boot.img and recovery.img, but system.img is splitted in system_1.img, system_2.img, etc., and when I connect these files with packsparseimg.exe, the resulting system.img seems to be invalid (devices doesn’t start).

QFIL

I can see the devices on the COM Port. I can load rawprogram_unsparse.xml and patch0.xml.

When the device comes online, I try to hit Download immediately, and I either get the following error:

[*]ERROR: function: sahara_rx_data:237 Unable to read packet header. Only read 0 bytes.

[*]ERROR: function: sahara_main:924 Sahara protocol error

[*]ERROR: function: main:303 Uploading Image using Sahara protocol failed

[*]Download Fail:Sahara Fail:QSaharaServer Fail:Process fail

[*]or it says the device is not in EDL mode (which is easy to fix by booting in EDL mode from TWRP, but then the sahara error comes up).
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QPST

I can connect the phone via QPST Configuration (COM3, Q/QCPP-XXX (Sarah Download), USB)-

When I open the “eMMC Software Download app”, I can open the Sahara XML file rawprogram_unsparse.xml – I hope, that’s the right one.

When I “Load XML def…”, I don’t know which xml file to open:

[*]rawprogram_unsparse.xml and rawprogram0.xml.bak show an error “Document error on element type ‘raw program’ and name/value ‘true’”.

[*]Patch0.xml shows no error, but I think it’s the wrong file for “Load XML def”.
​

Dowloading with “Patch0.xml” leads to an error “Timeout waiting for device”

QcomDLoader.exe (1.3.2.0)

I can „load“ the stock image directory, and set the settings (eMMC programmer: prog_emmc_firehose_8953_lite.mbn, Raw program: rawprogram_unsparse.xml, patch0: patch0.xml).

Wenn I press ‘Start’ the Step/Status “Sahara/Flashing” appears for 5 seconds, followed by messages “failed.

Any help or suggestion is highly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Walter