Lenovo IdeaPad A1 7" Tablet Review and Root!

Search This thread
By:
Advanced…
Treadstone06

Treadstone06

Senior Member
Apr 10, 2012
191
43
Ideapad help

I'm hoping that someone can help me out. I've got a Lenovo Ideapad a1 that I just restored back to factory reset. The problem that I'm running into is trying to root the thing. From everything that I've read, the superoneclick doesn't work so I was attempting to go the route of flashing cwm first and going from there. However, I can't get to the stock recovery to attempt anything. I try to power up while holding down the volume down and/or up, both at the same time, etc but I can't seem to get it to work. Can someone please give me a hand here? Thanks for your time.

I've done some flashing Roms on phones and my asus tablet but for some reason, I'm lost here. Thanks.
 
J

jpisini

Senior Member
Nov 26, 2011
1,330
254
Weymouth
If you went to ICS stock recovery then you will probably find you need to create a boot able sdcard and install cwm from that. I am not in front of a PC right now do a Google search for A1 gmarkell and unbrick he has a great tutorial on restoring your tablet and creating the card. If you can't find it post back I will post a link when I get home.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
 
Treadstone06

Treadstone06

Senior Member
Apr 10, 2012
191
43
jpisini said:
If you went to ICS stock recovery then you will probably find you need to create a boot able sdcard and install cwm from that. I am not in front of a PC right now do a Google search for A1 gmarkell and unbrick he has a great tutorial on restoring your tablet and creating the card. If you can't find it post back I will post a link when I get home.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Let me make sure that I'm understanding correctly. So, I can't get to a recovery at all, even a stock recovery without a bootable sdcard? I was unable to find that tutorial and would greatly appreciate the link-and any other help you're willing to give. While the tablet runs fairly decent on stock everything, I'm just a nerd and want to root this thing lol. Thanks for your time.
 
J

jpisini

Senior Member
Nov 26, 2011
1,330
254
Weymouth
Treadstone06 said:
Let me make sure that I'm understanding correctly. So, I can't get to a recovery at all, even a stock recovery without a bootable sdcard? I was unable to find that tutorial and would greatly appreciate the link-and any other help you're willing to give. While the tablet runs fairly decent on stock everything, I'm just a nerd and want to root this thing lol. Thanks for your time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse


Once you fix the tablet you won't need the sdcard. There is something goofy with the ICS loader. Here is the link to fix your tablet. If you have issues I would recommend posting there.

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad...-Unbrick-fix-full-factory-restore/td-p/841373
 
N

neavissa

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2007
151
9
jpisini said:
here are the instructions

Originally Posted by jpisini View Post
Unless I am mistaken 5.0.27 can write the ram disk with the zip file it just can't back it up.

------------------

For those that need a bootable sdcard check out this post by anddior
http://www.android-hilfe.de/root-hac...ml#post3397771

English translation (roughly)

And so it is done:

First , this tool donwload. http://www.chip.de/downloads/Image-W..._46121030.html
Second A1_BootSD.iso Download http://a1.cu2.at/A1_Bootable_SD/A1_BootSD.iso
Third A micro SD card plugged into computer
4th Win32DiskImager.exe start
5th Image File: A1_BootSD.iso, device: the SD card where it is written and start with "Write"
6th SD card stuck in pure A1
7th A1 with power and volume then - start ().

A1 boot from SD and CWM is loaded.
It can be clearly seen as the soft touch light bulbs (OC kernel)

What I do is after doing the above grab a copy of CWM and put it in the root of this card you can flash it from there.
Place the card in the A1 hold down power and volume down until it vibrates then let go of power, when you see the Lenovo logo then let go of the volume button it takes a minute but should look like it is flashing something and then boot into the card. Give it a few minutes.


Depending on what OS you want to install after the fact use these versions of CWM

Stock Gingerbread or CM7 early versions 5.0.27

middle versions of CM7, some versions of ICS and Gingermodspeed 5.0.28

Later versions of CM7 and some ICS use latest 6 version

I put all three on the bootable card that way I have them and I can always switch at will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

What kinda gay ass **** is this?! I cannot get it to work?! Finally, after two month, I took the time to try it and, as expected, nothing! I can read German, so its too bad that the German link is not working! Anyhow, I followed the instructions, but I cannot get it to boot in to the recovery screen?! I also don't know, what you mean by copying a copy of CWM on to the sd card?! Where do I get it from?!

This is so ****ing lame! I cannot believe it!!!

thanks,

G
 
J

jpisini

Senior Member
Nov 26, 2011
1,330
254
Weymouth
I would be more than willing to help you out but not when you act like that. I didn't move the link it was there when I linked to it. If you want help ask for it.
 
N

neavissa

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2007
151
9
jpisini said:
I would be more than willing to help you out but not when you act like that. I didn't move the link it was there when I linked to it. If you want help ask for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

This is not me asking for help! It's me blowing off some steam, not directed at you, in case you thought that!!!

That being said , the link directs me to the forum but not to the thread itself... maybe I have to sign up for the forum first, in order to get to the thread!?

Thanks,

G

Sent from my C64 using Tapatalk 2
 
J

jpisini

Senior Member
Nov 26, 2011
1,330
254
Weymouth
Z

zerocide

Member
Aug 21, 2012
18
2
Lenovo IdeaPad A1 7" Tablet Review and Root!

HI. Has anyone figured out how to move apps to the external SD card. I have looked on many threads and I have not found any way of moving the Apps to the external SD card. When I press the button move app to SD card the error "couldn't move app " comes up. This seems to be happening to quite a bit of people. I have even tried App2SD from play store with no luck. BTW I am running rooted lenovo ICS on my tablet.
 
C

cobyman7035

Senior Member
Oct 24, 2012
2,657
171
TORONTO
Sdcard mount is flaky on ICS ROM. My computer can't do USB mode with a107... Have to remove card reinsert to detect

Nexus® 4 via Tapatalk app
 
costi.tattoo

costi.tattoo

Senior Member
Dec 17, 2006
98
13
Bucharest
pls, i need some good help in here!
i have a tablet Lenovo A1-07. when i get it, i get it with stock rom an unresposive touch. so i tryed many nights to fix it and finaly i did it, instaling (cant remember where from) a custom ics 4.0.2 rom. so i was very happy with my new perfectly working tablet.... but just for about 1 hour! becous i had eaches in my ass and i tryed to do a touch calibration from recovery. so i just touch the option and my tablet has shot down and... is stil shot down. i can not start it up. i tryed with barerry remuval, with JIG, with unlimited pushes of power button,,, and nothing. still, when i conect the cable from pc, the computer says it is looking for some drivers...but never find them
so now, can anyone help me please to power on my tablet?
 
M

mshomauni

New member
Nov 12, 2008
3
0
Sd card is not working in A1-07

Dear Sir,



i upgrade my tablet A1-07 to android 4 . but as soon as i
did it the Sd card are not recognaizable for tablet . and i can not
install any program.



please help me
 
K

kaberos

Member
Jun 11, 2013
12
1
Chalkida
Last edited:
geoponer

geoponer

Senior Member
Apr 2, 2009
112
7
Athens
vproton.wordpress.com
I am stuck... I have been playing with ICS and CM7 and it seems that somewhere in the middle I did something with the MBR; as a result, I could not see the internal 16GB of my device.

I currently had the latest CM7 version (from Goomanager) and tried ADB shell commands (from here: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Idea-A...-the-internal-SD-nor-the-external/td-p/792227) but with no luck. I installed the latest official 2.3 ROM from Lenovo website (2643) using the 6.0.1.2 CWM and then tried installing the latest CM7 using a zip file in the external SD card but it doesn't work. While 2643 boots normally, when I install the latest CM7 it seems that I get stuck in the initial Lenovo logo.

In the meantime I have even deleted the data partition but it didn't change anything. Any help would be really appreciated as I am stuck with a non-working tablet...:confused:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

W
How to root Lenovo A2010 and a few custom ROMs
Replies
860
Views
320K
K
Knightrish
N
  • Poll
[UNIVERSAL GUIDE] Root Any Android Device Manually !
Replies
348
Views
724K
Skorpion96
Skorpion96
iloveyoubi
[Q] Root LENOVO A536?
Replies
194
Views
201K
Eddicts
Eddicts
S
How to root a Kurio Tablet v.4.0.3
Replies
420
Views
291K
T
tibord
shifattk
[GUIDE][ROOT][TWEAKS] Generic Allwinner A23 Tablet
Replies
88
Views
223K
T
t-mobile_mda

Top Liked Posts

24 Hours All time
  • There are no posts matching your filters.
  • 18
    P
    paulnelson88
    Just 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/?0bi19eva4h4c218
    View
    6
    S
    sinanju
    Just got a call from my customer advocate contact and he confirmed that the A1 source will be available next week. The K1 source was posted a few minutes ago.
    View
    6
    B
    bobroberts2
    If 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:
    1. Download the file, rename it to "update.zip".
    2. Copy the file to the root of micro SD card.
    3. Hold "Vol-" button, then power on. You will see a android logo and a status bar.
    4. After downloading the ROM, A1 is turned off itself.
    5. Power it on
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    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.
    View
    5
    gmarkall
    gmarkall
    tm515 said:
    but I don't see much progress. Would be much happier if the CM7 becomes bug free (front camera video working, gps date fix etc.)
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    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.
    View
    5
    S
    sinanju
    Video 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
    View

New posts