I meant when you install Webview via Magisk, it installs a “browser” that is used to test the implementation of webview. You can actually use it to browse whatever site you want. I just checked, and I’m able to play audio through it from my local instance of Ampache.
Are you talking about A11? I’m on 8.1 still
No, 8.1. If you follow the “deadman” guide, after you flash, and install Magisk, you install a webview. As part of that install, a “Webview Browser” opens up to test in the installed webview. It stays installed, and as I said, you can browse to any site you like in it. Couple of things, I mentioned earlier to shortlurker, I had a devil of a time getting the the Webview to install, the volume up/volume down selection didn’t always work. I finally got “ungoogled” chromium installed, and that seems to be working for most of my needs. Also, I’m beginning to think (and I’m not a android guy, so talking out of my hat a bit here) that some “base” functionality is actually proved via of the “apps” that are installed; this is based on my experience with Fully Kiosk, the camera motion detection, screen backlight, and uninstallation/installation of com.microsoft.skype.teams.ipphone. Did you uninstall “apps” after you flashed?
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Ah that sounds very interesting - I only followed the guide here in the original post. I’ll hunt down the deadman guide if I can find it and try one of my devices with that. Hopefully won’t run into too many problems!
I was also going to give A11 a go - but reading up on that, there seem to be lots of issues.
Thanks.
Here’s the guide I used:
https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-root-unlocking-and-improving-your-lenovo-thinksmart-view-cd-18781y.4584033/
The second post in the XDA thread has the installation of the updated Webview. And just for completeness, I did not install Termux nor the apk for Google services (steps 6 - 9). I did restart the box prior to installing the Webview.
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I did try installing several times but got errors on the download. I enabled unsigned drivers etc on windows (11j and got to the point where the device was connected and seen and no initial Sahara errors but when downloading after about a minute it would fail. I didn’t save the error but can have another go. At that point I parked it. Wondering whether to try A11 instead or whether that’s even more complex/challenging.
Try reaching out to the dev. He’s been pretty responsive in the past.
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It is one of the more finicky installations I’ve had to deal with, I was in same boat, with no errors and then failure. When I looked at the log, it was throwing errors on timing. So, in a wild fit of desperation, I moved the ROM files from my data drive (traditional sata WD spinning media) to my O/S drive Samsung EVO SSD, and voila, success. Not sure if this is the case with you, but thought I’d let you know.
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Thanks - good points. I’m on nvme drives though so super speedy. I’ll have another go this week 
One other thing, if you have a USB 2.0, I’d try that port. I saw in the XDA threan comments about issues with 3.0.
Unfortunately, the problems on 8.1 are a result of how the android system handles audio routing and are very unlikely to ever get “fixed”.
The postmarketOS and android 11 roms don’t suffer from this issue.
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Good to hear from you mattmon! Hadn’t seen you post in a bit. I’m going to continue to experiment with the 8.1 ROM, I’m still thinking (without any ‘real’ knowledge backing the belief up…) that some functionality that I’d assume would be in the base image is provided by an app. I’ve not experienced any issues with audio (I stream my music to the device from my NAS) and I’ve had the Rhasspy App working with both audio recognition and audio playback of TTS. If I find anything definitive with my experiments removing apps, (and thank you shortlurker for the “freezing”) I’ll share.
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Yes - I was thinking the same after reading a load of posts and searching for that error. My PC is a monster high end system and only has USB 3.1 and thunderbolt so I’ll have to dig out an older PC with USB2!
I tried my old PC - on USB 3.0 and it worked So my newest PC obviously has problems with USB 3.1 being incompatible.
Webview included in kingston-ha-rom is Chromium v116, which is pretty recent. Though you can actually update it by remounting /system and replacing the apk in /system/priv-app
The only caveat is that it’s package name must be “com.android.webview” (NOT com.google.android.webview) unless you modify the xml file at frameworks/base/core/res/res/xml/config_webview_packages.xml to suit.
Can you confirm that streaming audio works properly when replacing webview via Magisk?
If so, Which version of webview was it?
Fwiw magisk will work on kingston-ha-rom, though it will complain about a conflicting su binary.
I installed A11 and found it a pretty easy install (once I moved to an older PC with older USB posts). Seems pretty nice and audio now works in webview/fully kiosk big win!
The Fully Kiosk (browser or single app version) is a bit quirky at first as they say kiosk mode isn’t properly supported although there is a work around which seems to be working for me at the moment. They do say that android 12+ doesn’t work though.
The screen on/off entity via the Fully Kiosk HA integration also seems to work (in the 8.1 ROM, I had to turn the switch off and use the brightness slider to turn it on). If that makes sense?
So I’ll keep playing and see what I get.
edit: have run into the crashing to lenovo logo on boot - quite frustrating.
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Hi mattmon,
Just installed on a second unit, following the same process as I did previously. Took me several tries, not being an android guy, not sure if any of the incantations and offers I did made a difference, but one thing that seemed to make a change was enabling developer options prior to installing webview. I experience multiple times where it would crash on startup, and I’d start again. The webview I used was Webview_Manager-10.5.4-5058.zip. And, as of now, the second unit is behaving as the first, fully kiosk is turning screen on/off, brightness stays level, and I have sound.
So what were the extra steps you performed on top of the Kingston 8.1 install detailed here to get that newer WebView setup or did you follow the deadman setup again? That’s such a laborious process, especially with 5 devices to do!
Just for info - not sure if anyone else has used this but Lenovo have a Rescue and Smart Assistant that will flash your device back to stock. Can be a bit easier than trying to find a stock ROM and flash it if you need to. Of course, you can do this with other tools (QFIL) but I thought it was a bit easier. It actually uses QFIL and the USB drivers etc are all installed as part of their software install.
I was messing with the A11 ROM and decided to go back to kingston 8.1 and play with webview versions. Although I flashed OK and factory reset, it just wouldn’t boot, hanging on the HA logo. re-flashing the stock image and then flashing 8.1 again did the trick.
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Perfect timing to post this - I’m in exactly the same situation stuck at boot back on 8.1.
Will try this!
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