[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Hausemaster:
* This guide is present for legacy reasons, use the guide in the first post *

Just before we get started, I would like to say that you will not brick your device if you follow the steps as is without any, and I mean any deviations.

Read what works and what doesn't first!

Okay, enough preface, let's jump right in!

Firstly, pre-requisites(hardware):-

1.A micro SD card

2. A windows PC, windows 7 or later (32 or 64 bit)

3. A USB Type-C cable

4. A Samsung galaxy tab a7 running Android 11 with January 2022 Security Patch

Pre-requisites (software on the pc), you'll need:-

1.Stock firmware:

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 (LTE) Firmware Download SM-T505 Free Download

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 (LTE) Firmware Download SM-T505 Free Download ⭐ Official and fast update ⭐ Max speed and free download ⭐ Best Samsung Galaxy website

samfw.com

from this link, select your respective country and download the firmware with January 2022 security patch level, then download it

1.1 After downloading it, extract it on the PC and copy the AP file to your micro SD card, as we need it on the tab later

2. Samsung USB drivers

download them from here and install them on your pc, it'll take a while but it's essential for this process

Samsung Android USB Driver | Samsung Developers

You need the driver only if you are developing on Windows and want to connect a Samsung Android device to your development environment over USB.

developer.samsung.com

2.1 Reboot your PC after installing the drivers

3. Download TWRP 3.6.1 beta 5 from here

[ROM][SM-T500] Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 10.4 (2020) - LineageOS 19.1 (and TWRP 3.6.1)

Hello world, I have successfully built LineageOS 19.1 with Gapps for the SM-T500 (Tab A7 10.4 2020) using Andy Yan's LOS GSIs. Lineage is current as of 3/24/2022. I have also compiled TWRP version 3.6.1, based on Android 11 (previous release...

xdaforums.com

this is our custom recovery

4. Download magisk Canary apk from here

GitHub - topjohnwu/Magisk: The Magic Mask for Android

The Magic Mask for Android. Contribute to topjohnwu/Magisk development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

And copy the apk to your micro SD card

5. Download the SM-T500-GSI-kernel.zip from here

https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-sm-t5...flash-lineageos-or-any-other-gsi-rom.4378017/

And copy this file to your micro SD card

6. Download dynapatch from the file attached below credits to @redymedan for developing this!

Then move it to your micro SD card

7. Download the GSI image of your choice, and (make sure that it doesn't exceed 3.3GB after extraction) extract it from .img.xz format to .img format and then copy it to the micro SD card

7.1 If your gsi doesn't have gapps or you want to flash a system mod (eg. Brightness fix) then download a vndklite variant of your gsi, as system is mounted as RW in vndklite gsi, where's system is mounted as read only in normal gsi images

GSI type should be "arm64_ab" if you want to you can also use vndklite variant!

8. Download Odin and extract it

Samsung Odin - Official Odin Download links

Samsung Odin, Official Odin Download links and flashing guides

samsungodin.com

These are all the pre requisites, and yes, every single one is required.

Process to flash GSI:

1) Unlock the bootloader

To unlock the bootloader, follow the steps from here...

https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-sm-t5...4-unlock-bootloader-root-with-magisk.4185993/

2) After that patch the AP image we copied to the micro SD card earlier and then copy the patched ap to the micro sd card and then to the pc. Steps of patching can be found here

https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-sm-t5...4-unlock-bootloader-root-with-magisk.4185993/

3. After patching the AP image, copy the patched image from downloads folder to your micro sd card

4. After that turn your device off

5. After the device is fully powered off, hold both volume up and volume down buttons simultaneously and connect it to your pc, then click volume up button once during the prompt to enter download mode

6) After entering download mode, select the BL, CP, and CSC (do not choose HOME_CSC!) files from the extracted firmware, after doing that, for AP, select the patched AP file we copied earlier and then click start on Odin.

7. After the flash is successfully finished, reboot your device and set it up, after setup install the magisk Canary apk from the micro SD card

8. After installing the apk, open it, and click 'OK' on additional setup prompt and the device will reboot after a few seconds

9. After the device starts up, turn it off again, and put it in download mode by holding both volume buttons simultaneously and then connecting it to your pc

10. After that, uncheck everything in Odin except AP, and select the TWRP file we downloaded as the AP file, and then click start

11. After the flash is complete, turn the device off and then hold power+volume up and then immediately connect it to your pc immediately

12. You will get warning about custom binary, and xyz, but ignore it and press power button once, then you'll enter the TWRP recovery

13. After entering TWRP flash the dynapatch zip file from your micro SD card

14. After flashing it. use the reboot to recovery option

15. After you device booted to recovery again, go to Wipe>Advanced Wipe and then wipe dalvik cache and cache partition

16. After wiping them, go back to the install section, click on install image

17. After that select your GSI .img file you extracted earlier

18. Then it will ask you on which partition it should flash the image onto

19. You have to select 'System Image' partition (if it isn't available, then flash dynapatch again and reboot to recovery, do it as may times until the System Image partition shows up)

20. Then swipe to flash it,

21. After it flashes, go back to install and install the T500 Kernel zip we put in the micro SD card earlier (this is to prevent reboots after a few seconds)

22. And bam, you're done, set the GSI up, and enjoy!

Now, let's get onto what works and what doesn't

What works:- (will add more as I keep testing)

Boot

Touchscreen

SD Card

Cameras

Speaker (follow point 7 in additional notes for 4-speaker audio!)

Headphones (disable A2DP offload in PHH settings first)

Wifi

Bluetooth

Mobile data

Wifi hotspot

Microphone

Power button

Volume Buttons

4G mobile data (go to mobile networks and select preferred network as 4G first)

Auto rotation

Extra dim

SMS

Charging

HW acceleration

MTP

USB Tethering

OTG

Brightness*

( Run these commands in a terminal emulator

su

echo 100 > /sys/class/backlight/panel0-backlight/brightness)(this is not persistent you have to run this everytime you reboot or you can setup a script or something that runs it during boot time itself)

What doesn't work:-

VoLTE

In call audio

Tested roms:

1. Pixel experience

2.ProtonAOSP

3.crDroid

4. Lineage OS

Not tested:-

Cast (i can't test this I don't have anything to cast to)

* Also be sure to read the important notes as it has highlighted some common issues and their workarounds...

Now credits!

To team XDA for keeping this forum alive and well,

@phhusson for developing GSI images that actually made this possible

@topjohnwu for creating magisk

@agreenbhm for the TWRP image and for helping me,

@duyfken for correcting the firmware links, and also, for informing me to add the type of GSI for this device!

And finally all other members of XDA for taking interest in the modding scene,

Thank you!

I'm quite new to the GSIs as a whole, so, I still can't find any workarounds for issues, I can only list them for everyone to know...

Important notes:-

1) if you are stuck in twrp after selecting reboot to system, then go to Advanced>Terminal and type exit_twrp and then reboot to system

2)The brightness patch has not worked for me on any gsi vndklite or normal, so, if it works for you then you are lucky, if not then I have informed you (brightness fix is in the initial post!)

3) I didn't try OTA updates as we used dynapatch and I'm skeptical about OTAs, so, i recommend you to dirty flash any new releases normally from twrp

4) Disable 'A2DP hardware offload' in Phh Settings>Misc settings and check the box next to disable A2DP offload and then do the same in developer settings too

5) Themed icons causes lags and causes some apps to lock the device up, so, proceed with caution

6) If the gsi ROM you're trying to flash doesn't fit on current system partition, then,

*This process will wipe your system partition and will reset your recovery, so, keep the dynapatch zip and gsi image on hand, you will need it!*

a) Download twrp from the link below (as it has fastboot)

https://xdaforums.com/t/recovery-un...xy-tab-a7-10-4-sm-t500.4371123/#post-86050459

b) Also download the product.img file from the above link

c) Flash this recovery from existing twrp

d) boot to this new twrp

e) here, click on 'Reboot' button

f) click 'fastboot'

g) the device will now reboot and then after a few seconds, a twrp ui will appear with the text 'fastboot'

h) connect your device to a pc with the latest version of platform tools and drivers installed

i) run these commands in order

fastboot flash product product.img

fastboot erase system

fastboot resize-logical-partition system 3940000000

fastboot reboot recovery

j) after doing so, again reboot to recovery, flash dynapatch zip first

k) again reboot to recovery and flash your gsi image

l) this time images up to 3.9GB will be flashable

m) no need to format data if you're flashing same rom

And that's it you'll be able to enjoy bigger ROMs on your Galaxy Tab A7!

Credit goes to @paziusss for this!

7) follow steps from here to get 4-speaker audio!

Post in thread '[ROM][SM-T500] Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 10.4 (2020) - LineageOS 19.1 (and TWRP 3.6.1)' https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-sm-t500...eos-19-1-and-twrp-3-6-1.4421365/post-86917225

8. To flash gapps you need to have a Vndklite variant of GSI installed, then, grab your favourite set of gapps (Android 12L/12) depending on your rom and flash them from twrp!

9. For more fluid performance, download "Smart Pack Kernel Manager" from fdroid, open it grant root access, then go to the hamburger menu, select Vritual memory, and move the slider to 2048 mb, then, enable apply on boot, and reboot your device!