TWRP and ROOT for Tab 4 8/10 (Plus) (TB-8704X/F/V,TB-X704L/F, TB-8504X/F, TB-X304L/F)

[matshias]

TWRP is an open source, community project. TWRP development is done by roughly 4 people at this point. We also have a large support community with many people who are willing to answer questions and help people with their devices either through our IRC channel or on forums like xda-developers.

Team Win was originally formed to work on porting WiMAX to CM7 for the HTC EVO 4G. After our work on the EVO 4G we wanted to work on a project that would work on more devices than just the EVO 4G and we settled on working on a recovery. Today TWRP is the leading custom recovery for Android phones.

A custom recovery is used for installing custom software on your device. This custom software can include smaller modifications like rooting your device or even replacing the firmware of the device with a completely custom "ROM" like OmniROM

WARNING!!! Be careful what you do here. One mistake and the device is soft-bricked. I take no responsibility for bricked devices, lost warranty or even OTAs not working!! Booting and/or flashing files from this post is on your own risk.

Requirements

• Unlocked bootloader
• Lenovo Tab 4 Plus with and without LTE and both 8 and 10 inch versions (TB-X704L/F, TB-8704X/F) are supported

Known Issues

• WARNING! Our device uses dm-verity (verified boot). The system partition should remain read-only. Otherwise a bootloop will occur. You can flash SuperSU to resolve this but OTA's are no longer possible! You have to restore a factory image or clean system backup to receive OTAs

Download

• TWRP for TB-8704X/F (8 inch plus): AndroidFileHost
• TWRP for TB-8704V (8 inch plus Verizon): AndroidFileHost (provided by @3m1k)
• TWRP for TB-X704L/F (10.1 inch plus): AndroidFileHost
• TWRP for TB-8504X/F (8 inch): AndroidFileHost (touch input may only work after connecting mouse)
• TWRP for TB-X304L/F (10.1 inch): AndroidFileHost
  

Instructions

1. Install fastboot and adb on your PC, e.g. from here
2. Enable developer options and in there select to unlock your bootloader by enabling OEM unlock and enable USB debugging
3. Connect your PC to your tablet and run

   adb reboot bootloader

   using adb on command line. The tablet will reboot into bootloader mode where you will only see the Lenovo logo. Now you use

   fastboot oem unlock-go

   to unlock. This will factory reset your device
4. Setup the tablet again and reboot again to the bootloader
5. Then run

   fastboot boot twrp-3.2.3-0-<your-filename>.img

   to temporarily boot into TWRP. You can also flash if you are sure
6. Select to keep system read only when TWRP starts to avoid modification which will make OTAs impossible
7. Backup at least system and boot partitions. Choose "System Image" for the system partition backup. Keep this backup for OTA updates.
8. Optionally flash SuperSU or Magisk in TWRP which should install system less. Keep OEM unlock enabled if you flash or modify anything

Writable System Partition
Some mods and root apps require write access to the system partition. By default the system partition is read-only to prevent any modification. Please note that if your system partition is modified in any way it needs to be restored to its original state before a system update (OTA) can be applied.

• @dywersant has created a Magisk module here to achieve write access
• @KreAch3R has updated the Magisk module to the latest version here

System Updates (OTA)
In order to successfully apply Lenovo system updates after root you have to restore the original boot, recovery (if you flashed TWRP) and system partitions from your current installed version (e.g. S000037) for your variant of the tablet. This will NOT delete your apps and data but will unroot. Note that OTAs are block based and always check the contents of most of the partitions. This means that all of these partitions (except your data) have to be original and have to be on the exact same version (e.g. S000037) for the update to succeed.

Credits
@wonderfulme - for testing the 8" version
@Teddy01 - for testing the 10" version
@3m1k - for providing the 8" Verizon version
TeamWin


Source
TWRP Manifest: https://github.com/minimal-manifest-twrp/platform_manifest_twrp_omni/tree/twrp-7.1
Device Tree (TB-8704X): https://github.com/Matshias/twrp_android_device_tb_8704x/tree/android-7.1
Device Tree (TB-8704V): https://github.com/3m1k/twrp_android_device_tb_8704v
Device Tree (TB-X704L): https://github.com/Matshias/twrp_android_device_tb_x704l/tree/android-7.1
Device Tree (TB-8504X): https://github.com/Matshias/twrp_android_device_tb_8504x/tree/android-7.1
Device Tree (TB-X304L): https://github.com/Matshias/twrp_android_device_tb_x304l/tree/android-7.1


Changelog
v3:

• Update to TWRP 3.2.3-0

v2:

• Update to TWRP 3.2.1-0

v1:

• Initial Release

 

[matshias]

TWRP for Tab 4 8/10 without "Plus"

I built TWRP for both devices and need testers. Here are experimental versions:
Tab 4 8 (TB-8504X/F): twrp-3.1.1-0-tb_8504x_testing1.img
Tab 4 10 (TB-x304L/F): no longer needed. Final version in first post

 

[w0rdie]

TWRP for Tab 4 8/10 without "Plus"

I built TWRP for both devices and need testers. Here are experimental versions:
Tab 4 8 (TB-8504X/F): twrp-3.1.1-0-tb_8504x_testing1.img
Tab 4 10 (TB-x304L/F): twrp-3.1.1-0-tb_x304l_testing1.img

I can test the 8 inch tomorrow. Thanks for building this btw.

---------- Post added at 02:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:58 PM ----------

Wait, these builds are for the Plus variants only? They will not work with ZA2B0009US, correct? :\

 

[matshias]

Wait, these builds are for the Plus variants only? They will not work with ZA2B0009US, correct? :\

ZA2B0009US = TB-8504F so you can take the build for Tab 4 8 (TB-8504X/F) and hopefully it will work out of the box.

 

[w0rdie]

ZA2B0009US = TB-8504F so you can take the build for Tab 4 8 (TB-8504X/F) and hopefully it will work out of the box.

Just landed there myself. I'll give it a go tomorrow morning and update this post.

Thanks again.

 

[boza12]

I have tested on X304L work perfectly.
Only one thing when i'm on power via usb TWRP still turning off screen in 2min and seems that all operations are put in wait state until screen turned on again.
:good:

 

[matshias]

I have tested on X304L work perfectly.
Only one thing when i'm on power via usb TWRP still turning off screen in 2min and seems that all operations are put in wait state until screen turned on again.
:good:

Thanks a lot for testing. I moved the TWRP to the first post.

In the TWRP settings you can switch off whether the screen goes off or not. Are you sure TWRP halts processing while the screen is off?

 

[EggZenBeanz]

Thanks a lot for testing. I moved the TWRP to the first post.

In the TWRP settings you can switch off whether the screen goes off or not. Are you sure TWRP halts processing while the screen is off?

Yes It does - it happened to me last night also.

 

[matshias]

Yes It does - it happened to me last night also.

Can you send me the logs (dmesg output and /tmp/recovery.log) after it happens?

 

[EggZenBeanz]

Yes sure.

Is anyone able to make available a system image. I deleted my original back up after the update then messed the root up. I now getting setup app crash and can't get passed setup

 

[matshias]

Yes sure.

Is anyone able to make available a system image. I deleted my original back up after the update then messed the root up. I now getting setup app crash and can't get passed setup

Download the factory image for your tablet from the Russian Lenovo forum (lenovo-forums.ru) . In there you will find a fragmented system image. You have to puzzle it together with a script according to XML file in the Image directory. If you wanna flash via fastboot you will have to convert it with img2simg to sparse format. You can also use dd command line TWRP with the raw image file. If you tell me your exact model number I can also upload what you need.

 

[EggZenBeanz]

Download the factory image for your tablet from the Russian Lenovo forum (lenovo-forums.ru) . In there you will find a fragmented system image. You have to puzzle it together with a script according to XML file in the Image directory. If you wanna flash via fastboot you will have to convert it with img2simg to sparse format. You can also use dd command line TWRP with the raw image file. If you tell me your exact model number I can also upload what you need.

Thanks! That would be awesome if you could. I think I may brick it if I do what you suggest! My model is
TB-X704L/F (10.1 inch plus) could you include the boot image too?

 

[matshias]

Thanks! That would be awesome if you could. I think I may brick it if I do what you suggest! My model is
TB-X704L/F (10.1 inch plus) could you include the boot image too?

Is it TB-X704L vor F? This is an important difference.

The boot image you can find as can be flashed in the factory image. You can start with this. When I have time I'll prepare the system image. Not sure when that is though.

 

[EggZenBeanz]

Is it TB-X704L vor F? This is an important difference.

The boot image you can find as can be flashed in the factory image. You can start with this. When I have time I'll prepare the system image. Not sure when that is though.

Thanks!!!! Confirmed TB-X704F

 

[w0rdie]

TWRP for Tab 4 8/10 without "Plus"

I built TWRP for both devices and need testers. Here are experimental versions:
Tab 4 8 (TB-8504X/F): twrp-3.1.1-0-tb_8504x_testing1.img
Tab 4 10 (TB-x304L/F): twrp-3.1.1-0-tb_x304l_testing1.img

The twrp-3.1.1-0-tb_8504x_testing1.img flashes and boots fine but there is no touch input.

Logs: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vo2dvi4frpsf9hf/logs.zip?dl=0

(I connected a mouse via USB and got SU flashed)

 

[Matt1491]

On my Tab4 8 the touch is also not working with this image.
I think the following lines from dmesg.log are showing, that the touch driver ist not loading:

<4>[ 1.323216] [HXTP] Himax common touch panel driver init
<4>[ 1.323221] [HXTP][ERROR] himax_common_init failed, compare_tp_id = 1

 

[matshias]

The twrp-3.1.1-0-tb_8504x_testing1.img flashes and boots fine but there is no touch input.

Logs: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vo2dvi4frpsf9hf/logs.zip?dl=0

(I connected a mouse via USB and got SU flashed)

Do you have the TB-8504X or TB-8504F? Very strange that the touch driver won't load. if you have the F variant then maybe it has a slightly different hardware in which case I'll have to compile separate TWRP for this variant. Can you extract me your stock boot or recovery image and send it to me? I'd then build TWRP with the kernel from your tablet and we'll see what happens

 

[matshias]

Thanks!!!! Confirmed TB-X704F

Here is the system image in sparse format for fastboot flashing: MEGA

 

[EggZenBeanz]

Here is the system image in sparse format for fastboot flashing: MEGA

Amazing, thank you so much. All worked and back to normal. I'll root again with the screen off and provide logs

 

[speedyg0nz]

Sorry if this is off topic, but is there a way to convert the Chinese versions of the Tab 4 / Plus to the Global rom? I'm thinking of getting one from China when I'm there but the lack of Google Play support is a major deal breaker.