[Thinkpad Tablet General] 浅香ジュン:
Preface: After trail and error on installing Android GSI ROMs to my TB-X605F, I successfully made it after reading this thread written by @Yahoo Mike, which is also of great significance for my research. Generalizing it to the newer version Android-Installing and the other partition architectures, I finally drew a conclusion on how to install Android S GSI (System-As-Root) on on Smart Tab M10 (TB-X605F).

Credits:

@AndyYan, builder of the GSI images which was used in this project.

@erfanoabdi, developer of MakeMeSar patch.

@phhusson, developer of phh project treble ROMs.

@Yahoo Mike, illuminator of installing GSI on this device.

(Sorted alphabetically)

In this article, I'll introduce the way to install Android S GSI ROMs on the Lenovo Smart Tab M10 (I've only tested it on TB-X605F since I got one at hand. Theoretically, the other tablets in this series, such as TB-X605L should also work). Broadly speaking, this is a generalized method to install all System-As-Root GSI ROMs on this device, but I haven't tested it with the other kinds of ROMs. So, before we start, make a full backup of your device, which'll prevent you from lose all your important data after formatting your device. Also, you'd better to get knowledge of what you're doing and what you're going to do. This project is currently experimental, which means you may brick your device at any time, which is at your own risk.

Here are the steps.

1. Restoring Stock Android Pie Firmware with EDL.

1.1. Download the stock pie firmware from https://mirrors.lolinet.com/firmware/lenovo/Tab_M10/TB-X605F/.

1.2. Assume that you've backed your device up, if not, do it now. Then, reboot it into EDL mode. There're many ways to do it, power it off and press Vol+ and Vol-, connect it with the PC at the same time. If you have TWRP installed in it, you can also get your device into TWRP and press "Reboot->EDL". Or you can reboot it into fastboot mode and use this command:

If your device is unfortunately in "brick" status or your system cannot do such operations for certain reasons, you can open the back case, short these two test points shown in the picture. and connect it with your PC.

View attachment 5533269

1.3. Flash the firmware into your device via QPST or QComDLoader.

2. Installing TWRP.

2.1. Download the TWRP from https://twrp.me/lenovo/lenovo_X605F.html. Currently, I'm using ver 3.6.0.

2.2. Unlock the bootloader.

2.3. Reboot your device into fastboot, and

2.4. Reboot into TWRP by pressing Vol+, Vol- and Power.

3. Getting Files Prepared.

3.1. We aim to install Android S GSIs on this device, @phhusson's GSIs are a good choice, you can find them at Project Treble GSI images. Currently, I use the LineageOS 19.0 built by @AndyYan as example. I got it here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/andyyan-gsi/files/lineage-19.x/.

IMPORTANT: As we all know, this device use A-only partition architecture and no System-As-Root support, which is originally not supported by Android S. As a result, we're going to patch it to run Android S. As a consequence, when you're chose ROMs, download the ROMs which're ARM64 A/B Vndklite (arm64_bvS-vndklite) to match the patched device.

3.2. Download the System-As-Root patch which makes the device support System-As-Root. This patch called MakeMeSar, made by @erfanoabdi. You can find it here: https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=4349826312261728344. This patch will rewrite your boot partition to support System-As-Root, as a result, all the changes you've applied to the boot partition (such as magisk root or supersu root) will be gone.

3.3. Download the Disable_Dm-Verity. This is a patch to get rid of dm-verity and to disable the Verified Boot, which'll disable force encrypt of userdata partition and prevent the TWRP from being raplaced with the stock recovery. Get it here: https://zackptg5.com/android.php#disverfe.

3.4. Download the modify_phh_gsi.sh made by @Yahoo Mike. On conscious that it has trouble in mounting system when the device was patched to support System-As-Root, I modified the script to support (only) System-As-Root. Get it here: https://github.com/JunASAKA/modify_phh_gsi_sar.

4. Flashing

4.1. Boot into TWRP.

4.2. Format userdata partition and transfer all related files into your device.

4.3. Flash MakeMeSar patch.

4.4. Flash Dm-Verity patch.

4.5. Flash Android GSI ROMs. You can also do this in fastboot mode:

4.6. Reboot into TWRP again (Simply press Reboot->Recovery in TWRP).

4.7. Resize2fs system and run the modify_phh_gsi_sar.sh in terminal. Firstly, press "Wipe->Advanced Wipe->Select system->Repair or Change File System->Resize File System" in twrp before using the script. Tnen, in the terminal:

4.8. Format userdata partition again to clean up (You can skip this step if you commit no change to userdata partition).

4.9. Reboot to system (In TWRP, press Reboot->System).

5. Your device will boot into the System you flashed if everything goes well. Enjoy :) !

fin.

Here are the screenshots of Lineage OS 19.0 installed.

View attachment 5533275View attachment 5533279View attachment 5533281

ps. Known Issues.

1. The system may mistake the tablet for "emulated device".

2. Cannot decrypt userdata even if the Dm-Verity was installed.

Further research is on going.

For other things regarding the GSI ROMs, such as GAPPS and Magisk root, it's strongly recommend to read this thread written by @Yahoo Mike.