Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow on the Galaxy Tab S 8.4
Fumbling
Tl;dr
Use aosp-eng.ubuntu.20160514.224312.zip with open_gapps-arm-6.0-mini-20160522.zip, TWRP 3.0.2-1, SuperSU 2.50
-
Advanced wipe
- davlik cache
- system
- cache
- data
- Flash aosp zip
- Reboot to recovery
- Flash gapps, supersu zips
- Reboot
I spent the better half of an ENTIRE Sunday to get the latest AOSP 6.0.1 build working on my Galaxy Tab S. Many combinations of TWRP and GAPPS were used, and a sacrificial micro SD (a microSD actually did crap out on me) along with some voodoo magic later left me with a working tablet.
The Tablet
Samsung SM-T700 Galaxy Tab S 8.4 - WiFi variant
(Codename): Samsung Klimt
Android Version: Android 6 / 6.0 / 6.0.1 Marshmallow
Happy days
Previously, I successfully ran an earlier build of the rom back in March -
aosp-eng.ubuntu.20160317.221918.zip
open_gapps-arm-6.0-nano-20160416
Flashed the zips fine and was able to install Google play store separately from the nano gapps package.
This worked wonderfully, the tablet actually correctly went into deep sleep with the help of Android Marshmallow’s new Doze feature. Having another device that needs to be plugged in every night just meant it wasn’t being used.
However the camera didn’t work with this build, and while you don’t use a tablet to take amazing photos, being able to do video calls from it is still essential for my use case. The fingerprint scanner decided to stop detecting my fingerprint, & a bug where registered fingerprints could not be updated/deleted triggered me to get a new build.
OTA updates are provided but was buggy to initiate, so onward to flashing zips via recovery.
The ROM
Thanks to Schischu over on XDA for providing this ROM:
Flash the zip and nano gapps package, install play store and away we go right? Wrong.
The Problem
Unfortunately, Setup wizard has stopped.
Unfortunately, Google Play services has stopped.
Installing nano gapps worked fine, you could step through the setup wizard without issue, but installing the play store separately wouldn’t work.
There was seemingly no combination of gapps package which would work with the aosp-eng.ubuntu.20160514.224312.zip build I was flashing. Spent hours and to cut it short, the play store seems to work with the mini open-gapps package open_gapps-arm-6.0-mini-20160522.zip. See tl;dr for the exact steps while wiping, flashing and rebooting.
As for the ROM itself, the fingerprint scanner works again & the registered fingerprints bug is fixed — they can be added and removed again. The camera along with video calls work & doze continues to hodor rogue apps from eating away at the battery. The only new bug introduced is that the button backlights are always on or always off, a small tradeoff.
Again it’s the effort of the developers & the XDA community at large that keep Samsung tablets relevant after they launch. The lack of support & timely updates from Samsung has really left me disappointed, and if not for the amazing screen on this tablet I would not have bothered. This is part of the reason why I switched to an iPhone, to be detailed in the future..
If you’re trying to patch your tab s up, hopefully the steps detailed work for you without having to trial and error for hours on end.