Is this the perfect standalone tablet for HA?

TheWanderingTurkey · January 9, 2024, 12:26pm

With webview, this device performs about as well as a ~2019 Fire 7 Tablet, which is to say not well at all–at least for my needs. Firefox seems performant enough that I could get some use out of these devices, though it’s going to take more testing to confirm.

Is there a way to force Firefox to open the dashboard on startup? Surely they haven’t removed that capability, but for the life of me I’m not finding anything but ways to customize the “blank” page.

Edit: I switched to Chrome, and it works at least as well as Firefox while allowing me to set a default page.

AlexMPH · January 10, 2024, 1:09pm

Having followed the instructions to the letter, and having extracted the files in the edl directory (so both the bin and flash subfolders are direct subfolders of the edl directory), I still get this error - whether I use the exact syntax as proposed and when I add ‘./’ before each foldername in the command.

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: ‘flash/bin/rawprogram.xml’

Can someone help pls?
I also don’t see why it would look into flash/bin…

afxefx · January 10, 2024, 1:22pm

Copy the bin folder into the flash folder and try again. I believe I had the same issue and that resolved it for me iirc.

AlexMPH · January 10, 2024, 1:54pm

Got it working thanks to @afxefx , though in the end I ended up copying all the files in the edl folders (so avoiding subfolders). It works beautifully!

mattmon · January 10, 2024, 5:21pm

Would really like to get the performance of system webview on par or at least close to Firefox and chrome.

Done some research and I have a few questions:

Does performance improve when ALL accessibility features are turned off? (ie. no nav bar)
Do audio streams function properly when accessed over SSL?
Are there any runtime options we can apply to offload work / improve performance? (Ie. change stuff in about:config)

I will, or course, be doing testing on my own, but these are the directions I’m headed in if anyone feels compelled to help!

@cladkins I briefly reviewed your logs, it seems the audio issue is related to either:

webview can’t find the audio hardware (?!)
webview refusing to stream data from insecure connection

Did you make any further progress in tracing the issue?

mviamin · January 11, 2024, 4:11am

Wonderful work @mattmon ! I was able to flash 2 units that are now working perfectly (with Wallpanel). 2 questions though :
I found out that after the unit finishes steps 6, it seems to be fully operational, boots into the desktop from where one can open the Store and download apps.
I did not have to perform step 7 -

How is this a problem ?

Second, I cannot figure out how to exit an app. Swipe from top, bottom, left or right do not produce anything. Meaning that I need to pull the plug and restart the unit every time. Not a huge issue since it will be a single-purpose unit only showing a HA dashboard, but still curious if I am missing something.

Thanks again for any help!

svenjac · January 11, 2024, 8:34am

For this install and start the virtualsoftkey app aa described in the first post.

Yesterday I’ve installed the “fluid navigation gestures” app from developer paprikanotfound. This offers gestures functionality. I like this better than the virtualsoftkeys.

mviamin · January 11, 2024, 3:33pm

Thank you - I had missed that note in the instructions…

mattmon · January 11, 2024, 4:03pm

You REALLY don’t want to skip step 7.

For one, navigation commands are not enabled until provisioning is completed.

It may appear to be working fine, but trust me, send the provisioning commands.

mviamin · January 11, 2024, 4:05pm

Thank you !

Cactus_J · January 11, 2024, 9:24pm

I got one from Amazon today. $22 shipped and its brand new.

Neat, now lets see what I can do with it

stevemann · January 12, 2024, 5:01am

I am not new to Ubuntu- I have three servers at home running Ubuntu. Can someone PLEASE provide step-by-step flash instructions without the spaghetti bowl of instructions in the first post and subsequent github pages?

Sphagetti bowl means:
Do this …
or do this …
then if you are using a MAC do this …
Windows …
unless …
the instructions are for Ubuntu …
install more from github …
which says to install something else from github …
Or not …

PLEASE.
On the PC:
1.
2.
3.

or on Ubuntu:
1.
2.
3.

jakhei · January 12, 2024, 1:03pm

I did it yesterday with my Raspberry Pi, so this should essentially be the same for Ubuntu:

Go into / create your directory of choice
Run the following commands, to prepare the required binaries and the EDL tool

sudo apt install adb fastboot python3-dev python3-pip liblzma-dev git
sudo apt purge modemmanager
git clone https://github.com/bkerler/edl
cd edl
git submodule update --init --recursive
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
sudo cp Drivers/51-edl.rules /etc/udev/rules.d
sudo cp Drivers/50-android.rules /etc/udev/rules.d
python3 setup.py build
sudo python3 setup.py install

Download the files linked in the OP
It took me quite a while to get the paths right, so in the end I just extracted the files to a folder “kingston”, verified the file structure is identical to the structure inside the zip, and then moved the whole folder inside the edl/ directory, where the git repository was cloned to
default boot screen is vertical, if you want to change that, you need to do it before flashing the device, by renaming splash.bin to splash.bin.vert and splash.bin.horiz to splash.bin (see Extras & Notes in OP)
cd into the edl/ directory (if not there yet) and run the command:

./edl qfil /home/<username>/edl/kingston/bin/rawprogram.xml /home/<username>/edl/kingston/bin/patch0.xml /home/<username>/edl/kingston/flash --loader=/home/<username>/edl/kingston/bin/prog_emmc_firehose_8953_ddr.mbn

Continue with the instructions as in the opening post (step 3: remove rubber plug and connect the Lenovo device via USB C > press both volume buttons and connect the power to the device > when done remove power cable > start device with volume button up pressed into recovery mode > factory reset and reboot again > run the ADB commands from step 7 to finish the setup and also do the Extras & Notes if you want to use it without adb commands for navigation)

jakhei · January 12, 2024, 1:06pm

After a lot of fiddling around yesterday (Windows Secure Boot makes it practically impossible to use the Qualcomm drivers, since they are not signed - took me a while to figure that out, switching to a Linux OS - Raspbian on my Raspberry in that case made things a lot easier), I finally got 3 of my 4 Lenovo Thinksmarts to work.

Wonderful job, thanks a lot for the instructions - let’s see how they behave longterm.

Does anybody here have, or know how to do, a backup of the original firmware?
I still have one device left, and would like to have a backup (just in case). So as of now, I could still perform (and share) a backup, if someone could advise me how to?

stevemann · January 12, 2024, 3:50pm

Thank you for the step-by-step. I got a lot further than with my clumsy efforts.

Where you said: “Run the ADB commands from step 7 to finish the setup and also do the Extras & Notes if you want to use it without adb commands for navigation”…

What the heck is “ADB”? Where and how do I run an ADB command?

Here is where I am at now. What do I do next?

flyize · January 12, 2024, 3:54pm

OP took a lot of time putting this together. All the instructions are there. Why not show some respect and just try them? After that, if you have suggestions on how to make things more concise, I’m sure everyone could benefit. Or if you have questions, ask them. I haven’t done this yet, so I could probably benefit as well. Thanks!

mviamin · January 12, 2024, 4:04pm

Run the ADB command (type adb shell etc… as written) from the same Terminal window you have used to flash the unit in the first place. Unit still plugged in USB.

First Step 7 to finish the provisioning.

Then this step ;

Install a navigation bar:
adb install extras/virtualsoftkeys.apk

To install the app that will give you the navigation capability (the 3 buttons at the bottom of the Android screen that allow you to navigate).

Makes sense ?

stevemann · January 12, 2024, 4:23pm

First, I agree that the OP has provided an excellent resource. But his installation instructions lacks structure, which I called the spaghetti bowl.

I did try a few times over many hours to follow the instructions in the first post. Scanning more than 100 posts on this thread tells me that it wasn’t just a senior moment on my part as more than a few have had similar difficulties. Mostly with path errors.

The step-by-step provided by @jakhei got me much further than I had gotten in my previous attempts. The OP says to run these ADB commands… The OP assumes that I know what an ADB command is. What the heck is an ADB command and how do I run them?

stevemann · January 12, 2024, 4:55pm

steve@steve-NUC8i3BEH:~/edl$ adb root && adb remount
restarting adbd as root

Ten minutes later, I did a CTRL-Z since nothing was happening. What did I miss?

The next ADB command ran without error:
steve@steve-NUC8i3BEH:~/edl$ adb shell mv /system/media/bootanimation.zip /system/media/bootanimation.zip.vert

Then the next gave me yet another “no such file…” error:

steve@steve-NUC8i3BEH:~/edl$ adb shell mv /system/media/bootanimation.zip.horiz /system/media/bootanimation.zip
mv: bad '/system/media/bootanimation.zip.horiz': No such file or directory

I am assuming that the boot animation is the animated Home Assistant logo. It looks nice but I can live with it in the vertical for now. (Actually, I may prefer the vertical mode to take up less desktop space.)

In the OP’s “Extra and Notes”:
“In Aurora setup, choose ‘Aurora Services’ when asked for an installer.”
I never saw an “Aurora Setup”.

Now, I am scanning the 150 or so posts to find how to get Home Assistant on the device.

mattmon · January 12, 2024, 5:10pm

@deadman96385’s thread on XDA contains links to download stock firmware. They flash similarly to this rom; use rawprogram_unsparse.xml.

Aurora setup happens the first time aurora store is run.

Choosing “aurora services” enables the store to use a privileged helper which makes the app installation process more seamless.

You aren’t unboxing a retail product here, you are leveraging open source tools to make a product to do something other than what was intended by the manufacturer.

So yeah, there’s a learning curve

If you wanted to contribute instructions with wording more clear and concise than mine, I’ll consider posting them above.

Edit: Also, if anyone wants to contribute a set of instructions for windows users, I’ll put that up top too!