yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] Evil_Hunter:
1. It is not beneficial, not mandatory, reversible, don't recommend

2. It's completely upto you

3. Go for OrangeFox

4. Pixel Experience 12. Using this rom as my daily driver. Super smooth

5. Yes you can do it anytime you wish.

6. Soft brick : It's like the phone is trying to boot but failing (somewhat like bootloop. Or sometimes if you shutdown your phone while it is flashing a rom then the software will be corrupted and you will see a message "Your system has been destroyed" this means the phone has been soft bricked and you can fix it just by flashing the MIUI rom using the MiFlash tool.

Hard brick: Your are fu***d up man. Your phone is now a piece of brick. To avoid this please make sure to check whether you are flashing the rom which is built for your phone. Like you have a ginkgo device (Codename for Redmi Note 8) but you flashed the rom built for curtana (Code name for Redmi Note 9) then your phone will be hardbricked and you can never ever use that motherboard

7. Like I said you can always fix a soft bricked phone but never a hard bricked one

8. You can always search youtube. As you have seen the Pixel experience just go to site https://wiki.pixelexperience.org/devices/ginkgo/install/

This guide is only for flashing pixel experience in ginkgo device

9. You can go back to MIUI anytime and again comeback to custom rom anytime you want
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Well, I don't know how to thank you enough. So, simply: THANKS VERY MUCH. That was a perfect and detailed answer. Thanks for your time and effort.

Just to be more precise about Questions 1 and 2: Do custom ROMs will work just fine on encrypted and non rooted phones?, I'm asking because i've seen some tutorials with decryption as a part of the process. I am intrigue and I wonder what are the Pros and Cons of decryption?

And with Question 6: So it is a fact that Soft brick is 100% fixable; and Hard brick only happens if I flash a Custom ROM of another phone model. So Hard brick will never happen as long as I always use the appropriate Custom ROM, right? Or there is more there?

Thanks a lot again.
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] Evil_Hunter:
Yes. I have my phone encrypted and not rooted and it is working just fine

Every developer of any custom rom gives a detailed guide about how to flash that rom. Follow that guide step by step and your phone will be safe
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] x3r0.13urn:
1. Yes, it's beneficial in case your phone got stolen at least your data is secured, add more with pattern and fingerprints. Always go for enforcing rom and kernel for even more secure.

2. Depends: if you mostly work with secure apps such banking, no it's not. However some custom roms don't pass CTS, you'll have to root to gain it (it's needed for most banking apps)

3. Orange fox is preferable, though others like PBR, or official twrp is also good. It's just matter of preferences. Always get the clean one with source .

4. Official Lineageos is always the best path to taste open source android, since it's totally backed by open source community: no ads ridden links, clean source, guaranteed weekly build, etc.

5. Yes you can. Clean data is must (and format if you're encrypted) every time you switch between roms and between version (11 to 12, vice versa) or the rom's maintainer told you to do so.

6. Minimal. Just make backup your persist and efs partition using your recovery and you're good to go, but it very rarely happens.

7. Soft brick: forget to wipe/format data when flashing other roms, flashed bad kernel, etc. Hard brick mostly because doing some stupid stuff (flash wrong rom device with their firmware) or bad things happen unexpected (battery off during flash, etc)

8. Many from wiki pages on lineageos to youtube videos. In short: unlocked bootloader, flash recovery, backup, backup, backup, flash roms, format data

9. Yes, unless you did stupid stuff and made a hard brick, then it's EDL only
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Well, thank you very much again to everyone. I really appreciate it, cause I'm really new to this, and I want to be the best prepared I can before doing this.

At the end, I know the path to take is custom ROM if I want to keep my RN8 the most updated possible.

I really didn't like the Officials MIUI 12 and MIUI 12.5 ROMs (even after fastboot them). Not for having a bad interface but for bad optimization in general. That's my humble opinion and experience with them. I ended up with MIUI 11 / Android 9... XD

(again, please pardon my English)
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Doing some research I've found different guides that leads me to more questions:

- Catches my attention that in this guide: OFFICIAL Arrow OS Android 12 STABLE Redmi Note 8/8T (

),

the person flashed the original MIUI Firmware first. Why he did that? What are the differences between ROM and Firmware? Is it always necessary?

- Regarding the flashing of Orange Fox Recovery. In some videos I saw that the person doing the guide flashed the recovery in Windows with ADB commands and that's it. But in others guides I see the person flashing the recovery in Windows with ADB commands, then restart the phone and enter orange fox and flashed orange fox again within the proper Orange Fox. Which is the right way to do it?

- Regarding flashing ROMs: In other guides the person says that you have to Wipe/Clear Data before and after the ROM flashing. Others says is only before, and other says is only after. Which is the right way?

- Last but not least: I saw two Pixels Customs ROM: "PixelExperience", and "PixelOS". Which one is the most convenience?

Sorry again for so many question but as you can see it is confusing.

THANKS A LOT ...AGAIN !!!
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] Evil_Hunter:
1. You have to flash firmware because the firmware contains the files of your wireless network. If you don't flash this your wireless network will not work

2. Let me make this clear. Many custom roms have a tendency to replace the custom recovery you flashed with the custom roms own recovery. If you just flash the custom recovery using ADB then the custom rom will replace the custom recovery with its own one. Like if you flash the orange fox and then flash pixel experience without flashing the orange fox again then pixel experience will wipe orange fox and then flash the PE recovery.

But if you install orange fox recovery through ADB and then enter orange fox and flash orangefox again you are just permanently turning off the option that the custom rom will change your custom recovery and put there custom recovery

3. As you are using a Xiaomi phone you have to wipe Dalvik, System, Vendor, Cache, Data before flashing the rom. Then after flashing the rom you have to format data / clear the data partition otherwise the phone will stuck in bootloop

4. Pixel OS and Pixel Experience are both somewhat alike. They try to bring the fluid performance and look of Pixel phones in a non pixel device. But many people prefer the Pixel Expereince rom. But trust me. Pixel OS is also good
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Thanks again for such a good explanation. I appreciated.

Pardon me, but about the Firmware flashing is still kind of unclear for me, cause I didn't see this mentioned on many guides I've seen, only in that one I posted, and triggers my doubt.

About this:

- Do I always have to flash the firmware before the custom or original ROM?

- In which scenario is this necessary?

- If it is. Which version of firmware I need for every custom ROM I'll try? I mean, for example, LineageOS is Andorid 10, so do Firmware of MIUI 12 is needed?, Or if ArrowOS so do Firmware of MIUi 12.5 is needed? Etc etc.

Hope I could explain myself cause of my bad English.

Thanks a lot again and again.
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] loopypalm:
There is no such thing with custom roms

Only Official miui roms (and some few that come with "Recovery" file inside the zip) does that

so check the zip first ...

1st time you want to flash the recovery = flash "vbmeta" then Ofox and select :

"aggresive stock recovery deactivation" in Ofox settings

No

FW have drivers for cam/Bt/wifi ...

you have to flash if you change Android version, for exp

from A? to A10 = flash A10 FW

from A? to A11 = flash A11 FW

If you have Ginkgo = flash Ginkgo

If you have Willow = flash Willow

(don't make mistake with fw ! you will break your device)

i didn't read everything (too much) just follow the clean flash steps and you will be fine

stay away from A12 (not very stable)

A11 is resource hungry

i suggest using A10 (RRos or MSM Ext or Superior) (i use RRos)
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Perfect. Thanks a lot to all.

And LineageOS? Is it worth it?

So for example, if I want LineageOS 17.1 (that is A10), I have to flash first MIUI latest FW based on A10? And which version of MIUI FW do I need, the last one? For that example would be 12.0.6.0. isn't it? ...and so on with other Custom ROMs?

Is this site for that matters...?:

Xiaomi Firmware Updater

The ultimate script that provides firmware packages for Xiaomi devices.

xiaomifirmwareupdater.com
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] loopypalm:
Lineage17 is A10 and that's it (nothing more)

RRos = Lineage + customization (both based on the same exact thing)

Yes, latest stable

Yes

Only If you change Android version

if from A10 to A10 = no need

Redmi note 8 = Ginkgo

Redmi note 8 "T" =Willow
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Hi, I reiterate my thanks to everyone for the help.

It is evident you prefer RRos. I'll take it into account.

Now it is clear that the FW has to be the same Android version as the ROM:

1- But the latest MIUI for the RN8 is based on A11, so what FW do you use for the A12 ROMs? The FW of MIUI 12.5.1.0?

2- Do you have to flash the FW every time you install a new ROM, or only if you change the version of Android?

3- This matter of flashing the FW do I have to do it in a specific way, or is it handled by Orange Fox as the ROM?

4- I am currently using MIUI 11.0.12.0 Android 9. If I want to install RRos which is based on A10, do I have to flash MIUI 12.0.6.0 FW first?

I'm planing on using OrangeFox... Starting from the fact that I only have the Bootloader unlocked, is it too much to ask if you would write me a concise and simple guide on how to achieve this? Or point me to one as alike as possible to my case?

I know that time is gold, and I do not want to abuse your time, so I will appreciate any help you can provide. I am grateful already for all the help shown so far.

(y)THANKS(y)
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] loopypalm:
It looks like you look for problems

Re read what i wrote previously

Same as the rom, flash like any zip

you serious ?

-Reboot

-hold Vol- to go to fastboot

-flash vbmeta using : (assuming the img is named vbmeta.img)

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

(you can find vbmeta it in any A10 rom zip)

-flash twrp

-reboot to recovery (NOT SYSTEM !) using vol+

-flash Ofox zip

-set : "aggresive stock recovery deactivation" in Ofox settings

-clean flash the rom as already mentioned

-done
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Thanks a lot.

Yes. I have to say I'm taking really serious regarding all about this process. Believe me, I have to minimized as much that is possible the risks on breaking my phone. It is REALLY expensive buying or fixing it where I life. I need to double check every important aspect, and try to understand the more I can about this. I don't like too much learning things mechanically, if I can learn the logic behind.

Pardon me all If I bothered you any how. Wasn't my intention.

Really appreciate the guide and help that everybody give me here. Thanks
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] loopypalm:
The question has been answered like 3 times

Re read what i wrote
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Well, yes, you are right. I asked about the FW flashing process various times.

But, see, I've been investigating to changing the ROM of my phone for various days, and for that I watched some videos tutorials and guides in sites.

When I thought I was almost ready to start, I found a video where a person was flashing a Custom ROM and first flashed a Firmware and then the ROM (I mentioned this before). And in my case that video was the 1st time where I was hearding the term "firmware" in a Custom ROM flashing guide. Sawing that, I was like: Whaaaat? Then because of it I had to postergate the flashing of my phone and keep digging, cause I knew that the "firmware" is really important in every electronic equipment. Messing with it is dangerous.

I admit again the constants askings about FW, ...sorry about that. What I have just explained here were the true cause. I just needed to be more sure.

So I ended up here at XDA searching for learning and to clear doubts.

Thx u and everyone for your patient. I'll try not to bother too often.
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] pnin:
@lhn53 : if you're that unsure, my advice would be to proceed cautiously and step-by-step, ensuring you can back out any major ****-up.

- Get MiFlash and the appropriate recovery stock ROM (in the worst case scenario, it will allow you to revert back to stock);

- Set up a custom recovery, ensure that it sticks, then familiarize yourself with it (you have multiple choices: TWRP, OrangeFox and PBRP);

- Choose the custom ROM you want to flash and read all related resources at least twice; then,

- Try to follow the procedure explained by the developer to the point, so if anything goes awry you can point to where it diverged;

- That applies to changing or updating firmware, just go with what the dev says on first instance;

- Finally, trust loopypalm, he knows what he's talking about and has been here longer than most.
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Hi, thanks for replaying pnin and of course loopypalm, and everybody helping here.

It's just that when you see searching the WEB so many criteria and some differ from each other, doubts grow in a newbie like me. As I mentioned before there are many tutorials in the web where they do not mention the firmware as part of the steps and less about vbmeta.

For me It seemed quite simple at first but now I see it has more important steps to take into account.

...yes, I have MiFlash and various fastboot versions of the stock ROM storaged here.

Yes, I guess I'll use first the ones with A10 (as advised here).

Agreed, thx.

...with "sticks" I guess you are meaning what loopypalm said before: (...

1st time you want to flash the recovery = flash "vbmeta" then Ofox and select :

"aggresive stock recovery deactivation" in Ofox settings...)

Regarding vbmeta I have some questions (please be patient)

:

I've search about it, and I see It's like the Secure Boot of Windows.

I have seen various criteria: I saw people saying it is not needed in all RN8, and some says it does, for avoiding bootloop, etc. IMHO I guess that it is better to do it. Right? (...my intention is only of clarifying).

- The vbmeta.img file that is needed is the one inside Xiaomi's fastboot stock ROM compressed file. Is it?

- Is it necessary to flash vbmeta on every installation of a new ROM, or only when it is based on a different Android version?

- In case I want to return to Stock MIUI, this vbmeta step will not be necessary. Ins't? As I have understood, this is done simply with MiFlash..., Or first is it convenient to wipe some data or partitions with Custom Recovery? How would be exactly?

Please remember, I am trying to understand as much as I can about the whole process. In cases like these I like to learn by logic whenever is possible. Thanks a LOT once again.
[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] lhn53:
Please I only need to know this about vbmeta.

That plus everything that you have described me before, I think would be already all the basis that is needed to start.

Thanks you in advance.

(I'v been using Google Translate for helping me redacting all that I post. Pardon my bad English)
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] minashokry:
Hello owners of Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 WiFi (chagallwifi) SM-800,

Let's save some more devices from the garbage. Here is a build for LineageOS 17.1 for SM-T800 (tested only on this device).

Tested and working so far

Wifi.

Camera (front and back).

Location.

Touchscreen.

All other sensors.

I am not aware of anything broken.

This is a plain build of LineageOS 17.1, with only minimal SELinux policy modifications to make the device work.

If you prefer to use OpenGApps, download signed-ota_update-plain.zip, if you care more about privacy and prefer a degoogled version, download signed-ota_update-microg.zip which has microG bundled in it.

Special thanks to owners of:

LineageOS: https://github.com/LineageOS

Exynos5420: https://github.com/exynos5420

Kernel source.

microG: https://github.com/microg

Guide to building LineageOS with microG: https://gist.github.com/dic1911/407184ee427c50ad0066af643a20254f

microG Mobile Services: https://github.com/lineageos4microg/android_vendor_partner_gms

You are welcome :)
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] porcino:
Great news, thanks!

Could you please clarify what you wrote about SELinux? Is it active and enforcing? Is encryption supported?
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] minashokry:
SELinux is active and enforcing, the modifications are because the default SELinux policies in LineageOS contradict with those of the device (probably because the device ones are few years old). The modifications are to remove some strict policies that would break device drivers like the camera and sensors if left enabled.

Encryption is disabled.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] porcino:
It's great that SELinux is on, and it is expected to have minor cuts in the policies. They are a pain to develop. It has to be a separate project...

What's going on with encryption? Forgive me for a silly question, I just see this feature missing in LOS17 ROMs for other devices as well... Is it something LOS specific?
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] minashokry:
Honestly I don't know about encryption. I didn't care about it while building this image.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] porcino:
Fair point - it has to be running at all before looking at the advanced features. For the first release it's quite a remarkable result. It would be nice to have encryption on the to do list...

Another silly question: the speakers of this tablet are not very loud. Is it difficult/possible to boost their volume a little?
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] foolone:
Will test this out. I had flashed LOS17.1 by @8224Freak, but its SELinux is disabled. Will see if this one works same or better. Does this build contains the most recent security patch?
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] foolone:
@minashokry thanks for the build. Camera only works with picture taking. It freezes when video recording is ended.

​
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] foolone:
@minashokry I have been using your build on my T800 and likes it a lot. In addition to the camera video recording freeze, mic does not appear to work well. I tried some audio recordings but only hear tiny sound during playback. I was wondering if you are planning on updating the build once awhile to at least include new security patch., or this is it - no more update? Thanks again for build this smooth LOS17 rom for the old tablet.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] cisco150:
Bump
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] bmeup17:
Unfortunately did not get very far using either of these builds (plain or microG). In both cases, I'm unable to read or write to the internal storage on the tablet. File manager does not read any contents of the internal storage, fails to create a directory in internal storage, and can't download/save a file from the internet. The LOS 17.1 by @8224Freak does not have this problem, so assume it's something unique to these builds.

I also found that when I formatted an SD card for use as tablet storage (i.e., as an extension of the internal storage), it insists that the card is not inserted every time I power on the tablet. If I eject and reinsert the card while still powered on (no power cycle) it recognizes it and is okay from there.

Don't know if this is related to the above, but the native camera app insists that I must "Insert an SD card before using the camera" even though an SD card is plainly inserted and recognized by the rest of the system.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] porcino:
Hello. I've tested your ROM just out of curiosity -- encryption works! This makes your ROM the leader in security! Well done, thanks!

Apart from this... I found a fault with video rendering. At some resolutions the video renders at a wrong scale, larger than the window or the screen. This happens with different websites. I am using Brave browser, which works fine on the same device with LOS-14.1. The same rendering problem is evident in the other LOS-17.1 ROM as well (by 8224Freak). It might be codec related.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] porcino:
Has anyone found a way of dealing with the video rendering fault in Brave/Chrome/Firefox?
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] mmaazzaa:
What is the link to download this rom? I can't find it anywhere in this thread.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] porcino:
Use the attachments to the first post "signed-ota...zip".
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] mmaazzaa:
Thank you. Due to the file name I mistakenly thought it was just an update for the rom, not the rom itself.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] porcino:
Tried this ROM again (signed-ota_update-plain.zip), different screen resolutions, different screen densities - still video playback issues in browsers including Brave. The fault manifests itself as the video being zoomed in, so that only a part of it remains visible. The playback freezes for a fraction of a second occasionally, producing a "metal" screeching sound while doing it. In general this ROM feels a bit laggy. So, going back to lineage-14.1-20220107-UNOFFICIAL-chagallwifi, which feels cleaner, much faster and similar to this one has SELinux+encryption working.

Before anyone asked, the same video playback issues just without freezing I observed in lineage-17.1-20220504-UNOFFICIAL-chagallwifi, which is under active development now. The latter does not have SELinux+encryption though.

So, for now, the benchmark is set by DarkExistence for this device.

https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-7-1-2-unofficial-lineageos-14-1-sm-t800.3545080/
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] Wiryfuture:
Just tried this rom, I'm pretty sure the hitching and video playback issues are because the gpu is sitting at 0% utilisation so it's using the cpu for rendering... which would explain things
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] ahmetdamar:
I downloaded and installed "signed-ota_update-plain.zip". But Google account is not added. There is no Google Play. Thank you to those who will help.

I installed Gapps and OK.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] mmaazzaa:
Did you install Gapps or its equivalents?
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] mmaazzaa:
Good to see you're all sorted.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] Dragon Kumera:
So I am guessing the unable to play any games or loading times for wifi are due to gpu usage 0%?
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] TempeDuck:
Will this work on a SM-T807T or specifically only the T800?
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] Dragon Kumera:
Yes It also says it in the title.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] Angeloftheafterlife:
I appear to be having a strange issue with the wifi on this (and other android 10) roms on my SM-T800.

I am able to see the network I want to connect to, but it keeps saying "password incorrect" even though I'm positive it is. This has happened on 8224Freak's Lineage 17.1 and crDroid builds as well, so I'm thinking its something to do with Lineage/android 10.

Has anyone else seen this/have any ideas?

edit: after some more testing, it looks like it has something to do with the security algo the network uses. I've tried "WPA2-PSK [AES]" and "WPA2-PSK + WPA-PSK[TKIP]" with no luck. If the network is unsecured, it works fine.
[Galaxy Tab S Android Development] runekock:
Does your password use any non-English letters or other non-ASCII characters?