How To Guide Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 2021 (SM-X200) Android 12 / Android 13 Treble flash Guide

[lewmur]

This is really getting frustrating. I've succeeded in getting a couple of GSI 20 ROMs to install, but they were both vanilla with no gapps and even the CORE version of Nikgapps failed to install because there wasn't enough space left on the system partition. So I tried installing the google GSI-GMS ROM and it hangs at the ANDROID logo. I know there is a fastboot method for increasing the size of the system partition because I used it on another model Galaxy Tab, but I don't know what parameters to use on this one. Anybody know where I can find the info to do that?

 

[openback]

Does anyone have any suggestions for fastboot not working? I have TWRP installed and rebooting to fastboot get me back to TWRP saying "Entered fastboot mode", but fastboot commands are < watiting for any device >. I'm able to adb when in recovery, so I'm assuming my drivers are good (I installed the Samsung ones), so I'm not sure what's up.

I also went a side route and extracted the ROM from this thread to an img and tried to install it via TWRP from my micro SD card. It said successful, but I just ended up in a boot loop. Help with either of these methods would be useful.

 

[openback]

Does anyone have any suggestions for fastboot not working? I have TWRP installed and rebooting to fastboot get me back to TWRP saying "Entered fastboot mode", but fastboot commands are < watiting for any device >. I'm able to adb when in recovery, so I'm assuming my drivers are good (I installed the Samsung ones), so I'm not sure what's up.

I also went a side route and extracted the ROM from this thread to an img and tried to install it via TWRP from my micro SD card. It said successful, but I just ended up in a boot loop. Help with either of these methods would be useful.

I also just realized that when I tell TWRP to reboot, just before it does, I see a few errors. Unsure if any of these are expected.

Failed to mount '/system_root' (Block device required)
Failed to mount '/vendor' (Block device required)
E: Unable to open /system_root/system/apex
E: Unable to load apex images from /system_root/system/apex
Updating partition details...
Failed to mount '/system_root' (Block device required)
Failed to mount '/system_ext' (Block device required)
Failed to mount '/vendor' (Block device required)
Failed to mount '/product' (Block device required)
...done
Updating partition details...
Failed to mount '/system_root' (Block device required)
Failed to mount '/system_ext' (Block device required)
Failed to mount '/vendor' (Block device required)
Failed to mount '/product' (Block device required)
...done
Full SELinux support is present
MTP Enabled
Failed to mount '/system_root' (Block device required)

 

[lewmur]

Does anyone have any suggestions for fastboot not working? I have TWRP installed and rebooting to fastboot get me back to TWRP saying "Entered fastboot mode", but fastboot commands are < watiting for any device >. I'm able to adb when in recovery, so I'm assuming my drivers are good (I installed the Samsung ones), so I'm not sure what's up.

I also went a side route and extracted the ROM from this thread to an img and tried to install it via TWRP from my micro SD card. It said successful, but I just ended up in a boot loop. Help with either of these methods would be useful.

You can't flash from this TWRP because there is no "system" option and choosing "super" doesn't work. Doesn't give error but just results in bootloop. When TWRP says "Entering fastboot", you should be connected. If

fastboot devices

doesn't show a device, then it must be a driver problem. The fact that adb works is not relevant.

 

[openback]

You can't flash from this TWRP because there is no "system" option and choosing "super" doesn't work. Doesn't give error but just results in bootloop. When TWRP says "Entering fastboot", you should be connected. If

fastboot devices

doesn't show a device, then it must be a driver problem. The fact that adb works is not relevant.

That explains the boot loop then. Since I don't have any devices for fastboot, what do those drivers come from? I thought the Samsung one would have that covered.

 

[lewmur]

That explains the boot loop then. Since I don't have any devices for fastboot, what do those drivers come from? I thought the Samsung one would have that covered.

Samsung doesn't support fastboot on this device. This all comes from the Devs. Read through the OP very carefully for the fastboot instructions and you find there is a driver link in there somewhere.

 

[openback]

Samsung doesn't support fastboot on this device. This all comes from the Devs. Read through the OP very carefully for the fastboot instructions and you find there is a driver link in there somewhere.

Sorry, I read it multiple times before making my post and I still don't see a link for that. I did go searching and found https://github.com/fawazahmed0/Latest-adb-fastboot-installer-for-windows and installing that did get me further, but still getting errors:

>fastboot flash system system.img
Sending sparse 'system' 1/11 (261764 KB)           OKAY [ 17.567s]
Writing 'system'                                   FAILED (remote: 'No such file or directory')
fastboot: error: Command failed
>fastboot oem device-info
FAILED (remote: 'Unable to open fastboot HAL')
fastboot: error: Command failed

This looks like it might be due to bad partitions in my previous post? If I go in TWRP and try to mount system, it won't allow it either, but I'm not sure the right way to get this working again

 

[lewmur]

Sorry, I read it multiple times before making my post and I still don't see a link for that. I did go searching and found https://github.com/fawazahmed0/Latest-adb-fastboot-installer-for-windows and installing that did get me further, but still getting errors:

>fastboot flash system system.img
Sending sparse 'system' 1/11 (261764 KB)           OKAY [ 17.567s]
Writing 'system'                                   FAILED (remote: 'No such file or directory')
fastboot: error: Command failed
>fastboot oem device-info
FAILED (remote: 'Unable to open fastboot HAL')
fastboot: error: Command failed

This looks like it might be due to bad partitions in my previous post? If I go in TWRP and try to mount system, it won't allow it either, but I'm not sure the right way to get this working again

I think you need to start over by flashing the stock ROM with Odin. The only thing I see that's confusing in the OP is the fastboot -w instructioin. It isn't needed if you formatted data and then factory reset in TWRP. And if you run that command AFTER flashing the system.img, you erase what you just flashed. If you feel you need to run it, do it BEFORE flashing system.img.

edit: When you enter fastboot mode, you should see a new listing in Windows Device manager for a kedacom device. The latest Samsung USB drivers support this but earlier versions don't.

 

[kevinco1]

Why am I unable to get DSU to flash any GSIs?


Here is the log:

Device: SM-X200
SDK: Android 12 (31)
UserSelection(userSelectedUserdata=2147483648, userSelectedImageSize=-1, selectedFileUri=content://com.android.externalstorage.documents/document/primary%3Adata%2Fsystem-squeak-12-ab-vanilla.img.xz, selectedFileName=system-squeak-12-ab-vanilla.img.xz)
SingleSystemImage(uri=content://com.android.externalstorage.documents/tree/primary%3Adata/document/primary%3Adata%2Fworkspace_dsuhelper%2Fsystem-squeak-12-ab-vanilla.img.gz, fileSize=1815252992, type=SINGLE_SYSTEM_IMAGE)
InstallationPreferences(isUnmountSdCard=false, useBuiltinInstaller=false)
operationMode: SYSTEM_AND_ROOT
checkDynamicPartitions: true
checkUnavaiableStorage: true
checkReadLogsPermission: true
allocPercentage: 0.4
hasAvailableStorage: true
maximumAllowedForAllocation: 2

--------- beginning of main
D/DynamicSystemInstallationService: onStartCommand(): action=android.os.image.action.START_INSTALL
--------- beginning of system
I/DynamicSystemService: /storage/0AEB-3514: 244016 MB
I/DynamicSystemService: startInstallation -> /mnt/media_rw/0AEB-3514/dsu
E/gsid : fs type: 1590026148
E/gsid : cannot install DSU to /mnt/media_rw/0AEB-3514/dsu/
I/DynamicSystemService: Failed to open /mnt/media_rw/0AEB-3514/dsu
E/gsid : write failed: /metadata/gsi/dsu/dsu/metadata_encryption_dir: No such file or directory
I/DynamicSystemService: Failed to install userdata
D/DynamicSystemInstallationService: status: NOT_STARTED, cause: ERROR_IO, detail: java.io.IOException: Failed to start installation with requested size: 2147483648

 

[thaovd1712]

i install twrp and writing system via fastboot successfully, but when reboot, i can see only logo samsung

 

[seandpa]

I'm trying to flash this ROM system-td-arm64-ab-vanilla.img. I have installed stock Android 13 and flashed TWRP and rooted with Magisk. This all worked fine and I have root access. I booted TWRP, formatted data and rebooted back to recovery. Wiped Factory Reset and flashed the new img file to Super. It appeared to work fine with no error message but it still bootloops at Samsung screen with the red nag about being unsafe. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to flash the img with fastboot instead of TWRP?

edit: Flashing with fastboot worked. I think the problem with TWRP is that there is no option to flash to system and flashing to super doesn't work.

Where did you find system-td-arm64-ab-vanilla.img to download¿

 

[lewmur]

Where did you find system-td-arm64-ab-vanilla.img to download¿

Releases · TrebleDroid/treble_experimentations

Scripts to automatically build/CI/Release TrebleDroid GSI - TrebleDroid/treble_experimentations

github.com

 

[seandpa]

Can someone explain why i can only get bvS gsi versions to intall on my SM-X200? Is there something extra you have to do to get bvN, bgN versions to install?

 

[lewmur]

Can someone explain why i can only get bvS gsi versions to intall on my SM-X200? Is there something extra you have to do to get bvN, bgN versions to install?

The N instead of S means there is no system included.

 

[seandpa]

The N instead of S means there is no system included.

ok, so is there something i can do to get them working?

 

[lewmur]

ok, so is there something i can do to get them working?

As far as I know, the only Android 13 GSI versions that work don't include gapps because the system partition is too small. Until someone comes up with a way to enlarge the partition you are stuck with bvS. That's why I'm running the Aug 22 version of LOS 19.1 that is bgS

 

[seandpa]

As far as I know, the only Android 13 GSI versions that work don't include gapps because the system partition is too small. Until someone comes up with a way to enlarge the partition you are stuck with bvS. That's why I'm running the Aug 22 version of LOS 19.1 that is bgS

Thanks for that, i have lineage19.1 bvS working well, but wanting see what else

 

[kevinco1]

As far as I know, the only Android 13 GSI versions that work don't include gapps because the system partition is too small. Until someone comes up with a way to enlarge the partition you are stuck with bvS. That's why I'm running the Aug 22 version of LOS 19.1 that is bgS

Thanks for the info, wish someone had mentioned that in the thread previously - spent a few hours the other day trying to install various Lineage GSIs without success and now it makes sense why.

And again, for those Lineage GSIs that are compatible they have to be installed from a SD card that's formatted EXT4?

Because of this partition problem, I'm guessing that larger GSIs like Project Elixir or Crdroid won't install either?

 

[Chaplin0906]

I also tried to install gsi many times on my tab a8 but he always can't enter the system, and finally reboot into TWRP, I think I need help

 

[lewmur]

I also tried to install gsi many times on my tab a8 but he always can't enter the system, and finally reboot into TWRP, I think I need help

I also tried to install gsi many times on my tab a8 but he always can't enter the system, and finally reboot into TWRP, I think I need help

This version of Lineage 19.1 is the only one I found to work and it MUST be installed via fastboot as system. TWRP only has Super and that doesn't work. There are bvS versions of 13 that will install but without gapps. The system partition is too small to flash any gapps and no one has posted a way to enlarge the partition.