I didn’t use the command line at all (I don’t think) - I used the windows QFIL utility to do the flashing so can’t help with your questions unfortunately 
CMD line as administrator should get you the same results as PowerShell though unless you are using PowerShell commands (which I don’t think you are). Not sure about gitbash although I did use that at one point.
Maybe I missed this in this thread but what is the QFIL utility all about? Do you have any info on it? I know you said it didnt always work so great. Zadig and usbdk controller seemed to see my unit so I am hopeful once i can get past this basic step it will work. I am now going to basics and reinstalled all the various tools mentioned on this thread and going to do a reboot (and pray) lol
I probably confused things - there’s a write up installing (a different) ROM on the XDA forum:
The installation method at the top of this topic is command line driven and probably easier followed on Linux.
Aww thank you I didnt even think to check this site. So I am making progress. Went thru the steps with the qfil utility. Ended up putting the bin folder files and flash files in the same directory as it seemed to error looking for system file. Anyways it ran for a bit but errors still on
Yes, that’s the dreaded Sahara error. I believe there can be a few reasons for this - USB cable, USB ports etc. That’s the reason I ditched Windows in the end. As mentioned earlier, I had the latest and greatest USB ports and they just wouldn’t work.
Also, windows driver signing can get in the way. I think that’s discussed in the XDA forum thread (possibly) and secure boot. I don’t think anyone really knows exactly what’s going on, at least nothing that I’ve read here or on XDA that is definitive unfortunately.
I did a bit of a write-up about my experiences and dashboards on the Lenovo so far:
Might be of some use to someone…
Thanks I just turned off driver signing and rebooted. Gonna try that next. Can I ask (and again, another dumb one) but when this unit goes into the EDL mode, the screen just turns black with nothing on it, is that correct? I am holding vol up and down, powering on, then once i see the momentary logo flash I let go and its just a black screen while I do things. Just want to make sure Im not missing something dumb here either. Again thanks for the help and responses!
Hey pgale, great write-up!
In the spirit of sharing setup and what’s working…
Couple of data points based on my on-going testing with the three units I have. All on 8.1, with the bromite webview installed via Magisk, and using the Fully Kiosk application. First, this issue is new, and just popped up. I’ve lost wifi connections after somewhere between 7 & 10 days. This is with the unit/s being less than ten feet from the wifi router. Second, switching between the Fully Kiosk app and an Android application (I’m trying to use it as a combination of HA & music player) such as Ampache, Dsub or Tempo seemed to randomly stop the turn screen off functionality within the Fully Kiosk app.
So, to “resolve” these issues, what I’m using is an automation via a button press on the HA dashboard that will switch to the Android app, wait for 5 minutes, then push the Fully Kiosk App to the foreground, and then turn off the screen. This gives me enough time to select an album or a podcast or radio station, and the music will continue to play in the background after the HA dashboard pops back up. Using this automation process seems to be working; using the motion detection feature in the Fully Kiosk app will turn the screen on, and the timer to turn the screen off in the Fully Kiosp app works. When I didn’t have the "turn screen off’ after pushing the Fully Kiosk app to the foreground, I had intermittent failures; the screen would just stay on.
Finally, I’m using the same strategy for the wifi issue, I have an automation in HA that will reboot the Lenovo at three o’clock in the morning, wait for 4 minutes (to make sure the reboot process finishes) than push the Fully Kiosk App into the foreground (the Fully Kiosk app is also set to autostart within its settings) and then wait 3 minutes and then turn the screen off. What’s cool about this solution is that as I stated previously, I found that the “Teams” app has to be installed and running to resolve the issue of inconsistent motion detection within the Fully Kiosk to turn the screen on, and to resolve the issue of the screen brightness randomly changing/dimming. With this automation, despite the “Teams” App popping up immediately upon reboot, and seeming taking over the device, the automation will get the HA dashboard in the Fully Kiosk app browser up and running, and displaying on the unit.
Hope this of help to someone.
Jeff
Yes exactly that - the screen is black after a brief flash of the logo.
That’s interesting and annoying for you. I’ve not seen any WiFi issues - at least I don’t think so. My devices have been on for a few weeks now but I have been constantly updating the dashboards and restarting the browser so wonder if that’s been masking the issue - or I just don’t have it.
IMHO it’s faster and less frustrating to flash on Linux, even if that means you have to learn.
QFIL is quite the mess - maybe it’ll work for you - but probably it won’t; in either case you don’t get much visibility into why.
Edl on windows requires you to have both a working python environment and properly configured drivers.
On Linux, both of these things just work.
Honestly, the only people for whom flashing from microsoft is “easier” are those who are already familiar with python development on windows.
There is a live cd on edl’s github page to make it even easier. 
Gonna try it on my wife’s PC in a few. If that doesnt work I will temp turn off my pihole and start down that road. I guess in the end I will have a SD Card ready for the future for anything I need to do. Just curious, and please excuse my ignorance, but Ive been meaning to make a back up SD for my pihole anyhow (sadly I used the lite, GUIless one on my current). I can do all of the on the regular RPI OD 64bit I assume? May make sense to do 2 birds with 1 stone sorta thing assuming it will work. Thanks!
Again excuse my ignorance here but with this, what basic steps do I need to do before Im at the point at which I can run the handful of commands? Can I flash RPi OS to sdcard, throw in my RPi, basic setup, get into the system then run this?
If your wife’s computer has a dvd drive, just use the edl livecd I mentioned above?
Oh I didnt realize thats what it was (desides the obvious DVD name lol). So I actually have a DVD ROM still. I will give it a try, thank you
Should work just as well using a Thumb drive.
Thanks all I may need to try that tomorrow. I assume if I just make it Bootable right?
As for my adventures into Linux…
so I had planned to make a 2nd copy of pihole as a backup for my pi anyhow so used this as an excuse. I include the rpi os gui on this one. Anyways I don’t entirely know what I doing and I don’t mean to turn this into a Linux support thread but maybe yall can offer some hopefully basic advise.
Booted in, got on the main interface with keyboard and monitor
downloaded the flash file
Went to the edl github and ran all the commands under the linux section, we’ll minus the ones for other versions of Linux (did the umbuntu ones)
I noticed the very last command for sudo python setup. Py (sorry not looking at exact command just memory) seemed to throw some trace errors after running for a bit.
I didnt notice this as first so I moved the flash files over to the main edl directory and ran the command posted on post 1 (changed from. /edl to edl for beginning)
It started to run but thru an error about a package for ‘usb’.
For shits and giggles I reran that last command again (on edl page for the setup py)
Then the edl command, this time it got past the USB and now has one for ‘pyzla’.
Rerunning the setup Py one more time I see where it’s grabbing that and I seems like it gets past that but then fails right after.
I guess my question is, does this mean there is an issue with where it pulling the files from? It all seems like grabbing the files should be pretty basic yet it’s failing. Again I’m pretty noob with this so if it’s something dumb I’m overlooking id appreciate. Worst case I will try the bootable usb tomorrow. Thanks all!
I’ve never tried to install it outside of my home directory.
I just
sudo apt install adb fastboot python3-dev python3-pip liblzma-dev git
sudo apt purge modemmanager
then from ~/, I
git clone https://github.com/bkerler/edl
cd edl
git submodule update --init --recursive
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
and to use it;
cd ~/edl
./edl
USB passthrough doesn’t work but PCI does.