Is this the perfect standalone tablet for HA?

[janstadt]

Just a follow up here. So far the ViewAssist is working just fine in A8 on the ThinkSmart. This is great.

[dinki]

Hey friend. Glad you were able to get it going with A8. The biggest ‘issue’ I had with A8 was the inability to get Browser Mod to use the Thinksmart as a media device. Were you able to accomplish this? Also, a smaller issue is the lack of upgrades for WebView. This is restrictive in that some CSS I’m using, particularly the word wrap, was not working on A8.

Would be interested in your thoughts of the View Assist install and getting things going but might be better suited on my VA thread or PM is good too. I’m working on what I think is major improvements to better allow for multiple VA devices and having them operate independently.

[xzelz]

How do you guys boot this into EDL mode? I plug the cable in and then press both vol +/- right away and keep holding it but it keeps booting into system. Am I missing anything here? Thanks and sorry I haven’t used Android for awhile.

Nvm got it figured out, if anyone bumps into this No Backend error on macOS (MB Air M2) like me:

  File "/Users/username/edl/./edl", line 199, in doconnect
    self.cdc.connected = self.cdc.connect(portname=self.portname)
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/username/edl/edlclient/Library/Connection/usblib.py", line 219, in connect
    devices = usb.core.find(find_all=True, backend=self.backend)
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/lib/python3.12/site-packages/usb/core.py", line 1309, in find
    raise NoBackendError('No backend available')
usb.core.NoBackendError: No backend available

type this in terminal, would save you some time:

echo 'export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/homebrew/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH"' >> ~/.zshenv
ln -s /opt/homebrew/lib ~/lib

[pgale]

Hold both buttons before plugging in (or use a switched socket to make that easier).

[moookino]

Hi, do you have any updates on A11 rom improvements. Is there’s any link where it is possible to check current dev or help with testing?

[pgale]

How do I change the hostname and other network settings?

Edit - found it if anyone needs it:

adb shell
getprop net.hostname
setprop net.hostname <new_hostname>

[pgale]

That worked well thanks!

I now have the screens turning off via a simple script when my presence sensor detects no movement and then on again using the brightness control. I did find that (obviously) you can’t leave the brightness at 255 etc as when you set it to 255 again, nothing has changed and it doesn’t wake the screen. So in the script, I dim to 0 and then 4 seconds later, I turn the screen off. Turning on, I set the screen boolean on and then set the brightness back to 255. Seems to work ok.

[markus.schloesser (Markus)]

Lenovo ThinkSmart View ROM/OS Development

Continuing the discussion from Is this the perfect standalone tablet for HA?: It should be possible to port a newer OS onto these devices. I currently see two options: AOSP (or something like LineageOS). I am personally not super familiar with the Android ecosystem on the OS layer. From my quick looking at it today it seems that we would need to build the Kernel with the device specific pieces and then wrap a custom ROM that brings the updated userland. Similar devices: Lenovo Tab4 8 Plus …

[moookino]

How it’s related to my question? See original author’s post I’m replying to, it’s specifically mentioned android 11

[couch67]

This thread has been mainly focused on A8, while there is a separate thread discussing the progress toward an A11 solution. The link that was shared with you would be the best place to check current dev / help with testing.

[moookino]

there’s nothing related to A11 in that discussion neither, I want to hear from the person initially posted A11 improved build to see if there’s new updates, so I’m asking in the original thread he posted to

[xzelz]

Yeah I’m now stuck at running ADB shell commands for softkeys and provision. Swapped out a bunch of cable yet I still cannot get adb shell to recognize the device. Do you have any tips, thanks!

[CaseyRo (Casey)]

you don’t have to boot it into “EDL mode” to run ADB commands, you’re aware of that?

[xzelz]

Yes I’m aware of that, just need to connect it to my laptop but when I list adb devices it returns empty and the USB option in the Lenovo is grey out. I tried to re-flash for a couple times but still the same.

[CaseyRo (Casey)]

ok, I was only able to get this going through ubuntu, can’t really help you here sorry buddy.

[xzelz]

Alright I got it now, for some reasons my macOS does not recognize it using all USB-C cables (all Anker and Apple), so I swapped to a USB A to USB C and it works now.

[markus.schloesser (Markus)]

This is the original thread, the other one was spun off and is specifically about ROM development, which you asked about. It does cover a11 especially in the beginning.
You might get more help by being less rude

[Endlessvoid]

I don’t have any updates, the developer who was working on it did chime into this thread though, might be worth asking @deadman96385 if he’s still working on it or has moved onto other things.

[xzelz]

Been trying this out for a couple days, really like it.Thanks OP for a great project!
A bit slow on Energy chart due to lots of graphs but overall I don’t mind, having the speaker is a plus.
Only one issue with SoftKeys app crashed once in a while but disable-enable Launch on boot for Fully Kiosk app fixed it.

[pgale]

I have the softkeys app crashing (I guess it’s crashing as it stops working). You said you disable launch on boot - what exact setting is that?

I’m really struggling with virtualsoftkeys on one device that I can’t get to work again.