Problems with Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0

I successfully installed the recovery image. But after that … I just can’t get into the recovery mode. I lost count of how many times I tried

I am talking about this part:

Caution: Be sure to reboot into recovery immediately after installing the custom recovery. If you don’t the custom recovery will be overwritten on boot.

There is no way to just shutdown (not rebooting) the device when in download mode or to remove the battery. So the only thing I can do is this (step 14):

press the Volume Down + Power buttons for 8~10 seconds until the screen turns black & release the buttons immediately when it does, then boot to recovery: With the device powered off, hold Volume Up + Power

I repeatedly failed at this step. The device is just showing warnings about unlocked oem and software integrity, bla bla bla, and goes into an infinite reboot loop, while I am still pressing Volume Up + Power. Pulling off this step seems impossible. I hate it soo much.

I successfully installed eOS on a Samsung Galaxy S9. That was pretty easy actually. But this …

I need some advice here, because I am about to give up and just add the device to my pile of firewood.

Is there some trick to it? What am I missing?

What is your model ?

Hi @pavoba welcome to the /e/ forum.

Maybe it is something else … but

It sounds as if you are saying that you successfully flashed the recovery image, but did you realise that if you fail to boot the recovery it is overwritten and lost?

This means that you must flash the recovery again before the next attempt to boot. Once it has booted once, it is installed.

This means that you must flash the recovery again before the next attempt to boot. Once it has booted once, it is installed.

I figured. After every failed attempt, I went back into download mode and flashed the recovery again. I think I did that like 20 times already.

What is your model ?

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2019) “gtowifi”

I prefer a different wording … again maybe you already realise …

Press the Volume Down + Power buttons for 8~10 seconds until the screen turns black

At that instant move your fingers immediately to the positions Volume Up + Power.

Thanks. I did that so many times. With the cable connected and disconnected. Again and again. Unless there is some millisecond-timing required for this … I couldn’t pull it off.

First thing that happens after that: the device shows a full screen warning about oem unlock and software integrity and i must confirm with a simple power button press, if I do that, the device will do some stuff and I eventually loose the flashed recovery. If I keep pressing: reboot loop.

on other galaxy models, for which button combination are the same, one trick is to altogether push Volume Up and Volume Down + Power buttons for 8~10 seconds until the screen turns black

THEN

immediately release the Volume Down button

I just tried that, same result though.

I’ve just read that :

  • Bootloader/Fastboot/Download: With the device powered off, plug in the device while holding Volume up + Volume Down + Power.

from Info about gtowifi | LineageOS Wiki

so this trick may not work, and your test confirm …

You checked your device must be on bootloader version: T290XXU3CVG3

I guess you are using e-recovery recovery-e-2.5-t-20241109446827-community-gtowifi.img?

Did you check the sha256sum?

You might try recovery-e-2.4.1-t-20241011439852-community-gtowifi.img

You checked your device must be on bootloader version: T290XXU3CVG3

Well … shit …

Does your bootloader already on a newer version ? (I’ve found this reddit thread)

All I can say is that it’s not T290XXU3CVG3. How can I tell if it’s newer or not?! I mean, It’s just a cryptic series of characters.

It looks like I can’t even reset it back to normal. With the boot loader unlocked, I can boot the device just fine, except for the “bla bla bla oem is unlocked” warning … but as soon as i lock the boot loader again, the device won’t start anymore and shows me a mix of the boot loader and the download mode.

Looks like I bricked it …

Does your bootloader already on a newer version ?

Looks like my Version is actually older.

So it will be possible to upgrade to the requested version, but not further !
Do you need help to achieve this ?

i wouldn’t say no to some advice, because I have no idea how to do that (honestly)

WINDOWS MACOS OR LINUX ?

What caracters in your actual version ?
3 is bit revision C is android level V is the year G is the month 3 is the build range

WINDOWS MACOS OR LINUX ?

i have a linux and a windows system