Can confirm that ROW 2643 firmware update runs 6.3 Maps updated from Android Market. 
Fred over at the Lenovo forum noted that the OTA live tree now contains new downloads for 2643. I'm presently running the OTA US update from the Settings screen.
So far so good. Great "Chinglish" text on the downloading screen.
"If you insert the USB,downloaded will be ceased when you downloaded the file."
At reboot now. Nothing seems to be happening. I'm guessing I'll need to power up manually....
Held power for 5 seconds, A1 vibrated, and Lenovo boot animation logo is up...
And after a very long boot logo animation cycle I'm at 2643 fw. Now to root...
---------- Post added at 02:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 PM ----------
Root was fun. I knew that 2643 fixed the SuperOneClick hole, but I didn't expect A1_Rooter renamed to update.zip to not work.
Yet it would not install from update.zip, despite trying 3 times. However, CWM would. So I installed CWM and then installed A1_Rooter.zip using ClockworkMod Recovery.
Thanks Graham!
So far so good. Great "Chinglish" text on the downloading screen.
"If you insert the USB,downloaded will be ceased when you downloaded the file."
At reboot now. Nothing seems to be happening. I'm guessing I'll need to power up manually....
Held power for 5 seconds, A1 vibrated, and Lenovo boot animation logo is up...
And after a very long boot logo animation cycle I'm at 2643 fw. Now to root...
---------- Post added at 02:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 PM ----------
Root was fun.
I knew that 2643 fixed the SuperOneClick hole, but I didn't expect A1_Rooter renamed to update.zip to not work.Yet it would not install from update.zip, despite trying 3 times. However, CWM would. So I installed CWM and then installed A1_Rooter.zip using ClockworkMod Recovery.
Thanks Graham!
Unfreeze might be a good idea. The update will unroot automatically. Then to root again you'll need to use the CWM method as SuperOneClick will not work.
Note: The boot-logo is on for a LONG time during the first power-back-on after the update. And you need to power on manually, it doesn't automatically reboot.
updated through the device. then installed cwm and rooted as per the instructions in this thread. looks like it preserved all my apps and settings except for lcd density
so far so good. google maps updated fine. noticed that the new rom is better at acquiring my weather location in the native news app
-edit-
native browser seems snappier too
so far so good. google maps updated fine. noticed that the new rom is better at acquiring my weather location in the native news app
-edit-
native browser seems snappier too
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Thank you. Will try it right away.
[Update]:
I didn't un-root the A1. Nor did I de-freeze the apps that are frozen. I went straight for the OTA update. I just wanted to see what would happen. It went smoothly, was successful.
After the re-boot I found that the A1 is now un-rooted. But the apps that I froze before are not available which means I've to now root the tablet again to gain access to those apps. I'm not too worried because I haven't been using those apps anyway.
@Tintbeetle: could you please point me to the link where I can download a stable CWM so I can root the A1 the way you suggested. Many thanks.
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I could not find an A1 section and I heard we have to vote or something to have a section added, so I'll get on that.
First night I am annoyed with the home keys (soft keys I think= menu,home,back) keep going dark while doing stuff on the screen. I am doing okay guessing where they are, but it sucks. What have you guys done? It's not under display settings. The only other thing I could think of was adj brightness app. I'd like them to go dark when the entire screen goes dark.
So far Navonics marine GPS, multicon, weather channel widget, tides predictor, aldiko, epson iprint, pandora, radar now, task killer(for memory widget), and a few others have loaded worked and not failed yet. 4 hours into starting it up no issues except the home keys/ backlighting annoyance. It auto updated and I'm on 2.3.4 2/27/2012.
I would like the home screen widget gone so it's more like my phone. Soon I will root and such
Oh I haven't read all 70 pages yet of the forumn, but a couple post back I saw someone not wanting OTA updates. If you want to stop the OTA updates annoying message, the easiest way I have found (took about 3 minutes) using Titanium backup app and freeze the update app in the list. Worked great on rooted Moto Atrix so I don't loose my webtop/laptop back end changes.
First night I am annoyed with the home keys (soft keys I think= menu,home,back) keep going dark while doing stuff on the screen. I am doing okay guessing where they are, but it sucks. What have you guys done? It's not under display settings. The only other thing I could think of was adj brightness app. I'd like them to go dark when the entire screen goes dark.
So far Navonics marine GPS, multicon, weather channel widget, tides predictor, aldiko, epson iprint, pandora, radar now, task killer(for memory widget), and a few others have loaded worked and not failed yet. 4 hours into starting it up no issues except the home keys/ backlighting annoyance. It auto updated and I'm on 2.3.4 2/27/2012.
I would like the home screen widget gone so it's more like my phone. Soon I will root and such
Oh I haven't read all 70 pages yet of the forumn, but a couple post back I saw someone not wanting OTA updates. If you want to stop the OTA updates annoying message, the easiest way I have found (took about 3 minutes) using Titanium backup app and freeze the update app in the list. Worked great on rooted Moto Atrix so I don't loose my webtop/laptop back end changes.
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I've run into an interesting visual glitch after the upgrade to 2643. My status bar becomes garbled every so often. If I rotate the tablet then it clears up, only to happen again a short while later. I suspect it is due to the launcher that I'm using - VTL. But I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing this.
My screen density is currently 160, the same place it was on the earlier firmware.
I'm attaching a screen shot of the affected area.
Any ideas?
Edit: I forgot to mention one other "artifact/issue". When tapping on something I get a light blue line through the area that I'm tapping on. It happens only when tapping, not doing multi-touch.
My screen density is currently 160, the same place it was on the earlier firmware.
I'm attaching a screen shot of the affected area.
Any ideas?
Edit: I forgot to mention one other "artifact/issue". When tapping on something I get a light blue line through the area that I'm tapping on. It happens only when tapping, not doing multi-touch.
Attachments
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First night I am annoyed with the home keys (soft keys I think= menu,home,back) keep going dark while doing stuff on the screen. I am doing okay guessing where they are, but it sucks. What have you guys done? It's not under display settings. The only other thing I could think of was adj brightness app. I'd like them to go dark when the entire screen goes dark...
I would like the home screen widget gone so it's more like my phone. Soon I will root and such
Hello and welcome, sorry to say that the soft-keys are not controlled by anything we've been able to locate. The guys over at the CM7 thread are waiting for Lenovo to release all of the source code so that they can hopefully manipulate them. Thus far Lenovo has not given us a way to do anything with them.
The case that I bought for my tablet has a cut-out for the keys, so they are much easier to find now. (If you go looking for stuff for your A1, don't forget to search for LePad also. That is the name it is sold under in China.)
The home-screen widget is not actually a widget, but part of the Lenovo launcher. If you don't like the 4 button center pane you'll need to replace the launcher with a different one.
There's a lot of good stuff in the forum, the time to read it is worth it.
Tinybeetle.
Problems With Upgrade
I had very close to the same experiences with the upgrade and was able to root using the same method. Once I had root, I reset all my apps that required root and rebooted. All the apps that required a wifi connection either did not work, worked intermitatley or ran very slow. I started to delete those apps and reinstall, then rebooted, no help. I ended up installing 2525, using CWM, which got wiped out in the process. Every thing works fine now. Of course I can not update Google Maps and Skype video does not work, but voice woks fine. Any thoughts as to what happened when I upgraded?
Can someone explain the difference between the ROW and the US downloads?
Fred over at the Lenovo forum noted that the OTA live tree now contains new downloads for 2643. I'm presently running the OTA US update from the Settings screen.
So far so good. Great "Chinglish" text on the downloading screen.
"If you insert the USB,downloaded will be ceased when you downloaded the file."
At reboot now. Nothing seems to be happening. I'm guessing I'll need to power up manually....
Held power for 5 seconds, A1 vibrated, and Lenovo boot animation logo is up...
And after a very long boot logo animation cycle I'm at 2643 fw. Now to root...
---------- Post added at 02:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 PM ----------
Root was fun.
Yet it would not install from update.zip, despite trying 3 times. However, CWM would. So I installed CWM and then installed A1_Rooter.zip using ClockworkMod Recovery.
Thanks Graham!
I had very close to the same experiences with the upgrade and was able to root using the same method. Once I had root, I reset all my apps that required root and rebooted. All the apps that required a wifi connection either did not work, worked intermitatley or ran very slow. I started to delete those apps and reinstall, then rebooted, no help. I ended up installing 2525, using CWM, which got wiped out in the process. Every thing works fine now. Of course I can not update Google Maps and Skype video does not work, but voice woks fine. Any thoughts as to what happened when I upgraded?
Can someone explain the difference between the ROW and the US downloads?
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Have not seen any problems like that. I have density set to 200. Maybe try something higher than 160 for yours...maybe 170-180. IIRC, the theoretically proper resolution should be about 172.
Go Luancher Ex app solved that problem fast. After a couple more hours today I just couldn't stand the Lenovo launcher after having an android phone. Not it's GONE
So I am on page 14 of the 72+ pages. Where do we go to vote for a A1 forum section. There are 190,188 views to this thread. That seems like it deserves a section so the good stuff can be sticky'd.
Ha, it was on pg 15
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1416406
Maybe someone should figure out how to edit the first posts to add the link/info to get things moving along.
Ha, it was on pg 15
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1416406
Maybe someone should figure out how to edit the first posts to add the link/info to get things moving along.
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You can vote for a forum but the facts are that you only get one if the rulers of this little kingdom want one. So think of it as a informed dictatorship that lets you vote on things from time to time just for fun.
Like voting for which rich guy gets to run the country every four years. It's still a rich guy what ever the face.
Sent from my GT-I9100M using xda premium
Like voting for which rich guy gets to run the country every four years. It's still a rich guy what ever the face.
Sent from my GT-I9100M using xda premium
It's not that important really.
Let's be realistic, one thread of 72 pages doesn't deserve a own section. It's not that much... But things are going well for this device, CWM and Cyanogenmod. Part of the source code released.
Things might get more populair if the full source code is released which maybe attracts more developers for this little tablet. Then it might be a good idea to start a section, right now there is just not enought content (as in ROM's, Accesoires and development)
I might be a better idea to update the first post with releveant information as link to CWM and Cyanogenmod. Information about rooting and OTA updates.
Let's be realistic, one thread of 72 pages doesn't deserve a own section. It's not that much... But things are going well for this device, CWM and Cyanogenmod. Part of the source code released.
Things might get more populair if the full source code is released which maybe attracts more developers for this little tablet. Then it might be a good idea to start a section, right now there is just not enought content (as in ROM's, Accesoires and development)
I might be a better idea to update the first post with releveant information as link to CWM and Cyanogenmod. Information about rooting and OTA updates.
My A1 got the 2643 US update OTA
I received the 2643 US version OTA just now. The ROM installed without any issue but I lost root. It also did not replace Launcher Pro (isn't this strange) and my LCD density is still set at 200. I tried to change it to 240 but it did not work as I lost root. I also could not download new version of Google map as the Market claimed my device was not compatible (probably due to the screen resolution). I will try to root the device and see if I can fix the map download issue.
I received the 2643 US version OTA just now. The ROM installed without any issue but I lost root. It also did not replace Launcher Pro (isn't this strange) and my LCD density is still set at 200. I tried to change it to 240 but it did not work as I lost root. I also could not download new version of Google map as the Market claimed my device was not compatible (probably due to the screen resolution). I will try to root the device and see if I can fix the map download issue.
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18Just picked up my new Lenovo A1 Tablet yesterday at Fry's! With a little elbow grease this thing rocks! I'm just going to go down a list of what Ive done to make it a sweet tablet.
1) Superoneclick 2.2 will root this baby just need to install adb drivers...easiest root to date.
2) Once it's rooted I installed LCD Density from market and set it to 200. Make sure you select killall and hit reboot.
3) Installed SetCPU from Market. I set it to Performance with the screen on then set it to conservative with the screen off 300mhz/300mhz. Make sure you hit the set to boot button. Once I did this it felt much faster than my Xoom. I havent tested battery life yet.
4) Installed Spare Parts from Market. Set the windows animations speed to fast and transition animations to fast. Makes a world of difference.
5) Installed LauncherPro! Get rid of the stupid Lenovo home screen!
6) I installed WidgetLocker Lockscreen. You can do the Honeycomb screen and re-size it to fit. Gives it a nice feel!
7) Installed the new Adobe Flash11 from market
8) Installed App2Sd and moved all my apps to my 4gig sd card and cleared cache.
9) Picked up a badass 7" case with a stand at OfficeMax! fits perfect! $30 http://www.officemax.com/technology/...^return_skus~Y The website only shows a 10" but they have a 7" version
10) Google Nav works great tethered to my phone via wifi. I'm downloading a offline Nav as we speak.
11) Charges Via USB!
12) Screen gets really bright at max. I just use Auto
13) Skype was working till I did the Lenovo update no video sound works fine. Front camera sucks back camera is good. To be honest I use my Samsung Galaxy2 for all my pictures.
14) As soon as I turned it on and connected to the internet it wanted to update. I don't know what the update is about but it was a huge file.
I'm just getting started with this tablet. I was torn between the Nook2 and Fire. What I love about this is its easy to root comes with Market and charges via usb. I installed Amazon Kindle and Google Books. Their is a new update to Amazon Kindle that makes the app look just like the fire lol.
Anyways hope this helps! Please feel free to ask me any questions. I will be updating this thread as I learn more.
Comes with Gingerbread 2.3.4
Link to ADB Usb drivers. Install first! make sure you have Debug on http://www.mediafire.com/?6v19365dkvc6k8r
SuperOneClick 2.2 Install 2nd http://www.mediafire.com/?0bi19eva4h4c2186If anyone needs the firmware files, you can find them here: http://download.lenovo.com/slates/a1/OTA
SC = Simplified Chinese (I think)
US = US
To install:
KiyoeHK said:
If you truly want to go back to factory settings:
1. Install the firmware as described above (this will return your system partition to default and unroot you)
2. Then do a factory reset from Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset (this returns your data partition to default)
If you want an easy way to figure out you are having the rebooting issue without having to constantly monitor your tablet, then do the following:
1. Turn on airplane mode
2. Then turn on your wireless (you don't have to be connected, just have it on)
If you come back to your tablet and the wireless has been checked off, that means your unit rebooted on its own. When airplane mode is on, all wireless connections will be unchecked after a reboot. If you don't have a reboot problem, then your wireless should stay checked until you manually reboot.
If I can't fix the tablet today, I'm going to return it.5
We'll get there eventually. At the moment there's progress being made as a result of the kernel sources being available - for example, we're getting the capacitive button light to be always on. All this progress is down to Milaq.
I'm presently working on a safe way to flash kernels, that won't brick your A1 if you flash a bad kernel. I think this is necessary to make it easy for lots of people to test an experiment with different kernels and compile their own, without taking any risks themselves. This could take me a little while to implement though.5Video How-To
I'm removing my presence at the Lenovo Community. I didn't want to lose this, so I'm moving it here:
This is a guide to transcoding video for playback on the A1. In principle, it also applies the K1 but there are no specific instructions for it.
Background:
The processor in the A1 has hardware support for multimedia. It supports a number of codecs (video coding/decoding) and, if the video being played conforms to the supported codecs, playing that video will result in better picture quality and longer battery life.
The "stock" video player only supports hardware playback, so any videos that are not supported by the hardware will not play back properly. There are other video players available for Android that may play videos not supported by the hardware, but because those require more CPU, they may not support as high a quality of video and will run down the battery far more quickly.
A better alternative, when possible, is to transcode (convert from one codec to another) the video so that it can be played by the stock player using hardware codec support. This guide suggests the use of the free transcoding software, Handbrake, which is available on Mac, Windows an Linux: http://handbrake.fr/ In addition to being available on multiple platforms, Handbrake will take full advantage of multicore CPUs to perform the transcoding, resulting in very fast transcoding times -- or, at least as fast as it can be.
Some relevant information about the A1: The screen resolution is 1024*600 which gives it an aspect ratio of 16:9.375. Information about the processor and the codecs it supports can be found here: http://www.arm.com/products/processors/technologies/neon.php
Steps:
Install Handbrake on your computer using the instructions found via the link above
Download the following preset: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25738269/A1.plist
Using the Options button on the lower-right side of the Handbrake interface, import the preset. It will be called "A1" in the preset list.
Using the source button, find the video you want to convert
Click the preset to make sure it's applied
Have a look at the Scale Dimensions. At this point, for widescreen content, the first dimension should be equal to 1024. For 4:3 ratio content, the second dimension should be 600. If neither is the case, click Picture Settings and change the the storage width or height (depending on wide screen or not, respectively) to 1024 or 600 (for example, 1024*576 or 800*600) -- the goal is to maximize one value to the limit on the A1 without the other going over. This is to avoid the A1 doing any scaling to play the video. Once set, close the picture settings.
If you are going to be on an airplane when you view the video and you do not have a noise cancelling headset, you may want to click on the Audio tab and expand the Advanced section. Bump up the gain a few dB. Careful, though... if you set that too high, your audio will be distorted. Select the destination for the converted video, then press start.
How long the process takes depends on your PC and the video being encoded. For wide screen video the resulting size of the video will be about 0.5GB per hour of recording. For highly dynamic video (action movies, for example) the result will be greater. If you need a smaller video and are willing to give up quality, before starting the conversion, click the Video tab and lower the bitrate value. Values below 1000 kbps will show noticeable degradation, but experiment to find what's right for you. Alternatively, you can increase the bitrate, but at some point, the hardware won't be able to keep up. If you have lots of time, you can also have Handbrake do two-pass encoding for an even better picture.
Sources:
Handbrake will rip directly from DVD.
Flash recordings can be downloaded from sites like YouTube with a Firefox plugin called DownloadHelper.
TiVos are also a good source of video content. You can use the TiVo desktop (www.tivo.com/desktop) or a direct https connection to the tivo (https://[your tivo ip here] using "tivo" as the username and your media access key as the password) to transfer recordings. The recording will be in an encrypted format, but you can use a tool like tivodecode (http://tivodecode.sourceforge.net/) to decrypt it. The result will be an MPEG-2. Some recordings may not be transferable from the TiVo because of content protection applied by your cable provider -- complain to your cable company. Verizon FiOS provides content protection-free service.
Feedback:
Always welcome
