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Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 2015 (samsung-gt58)

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Revision as of 12:37, 22 June 2023 by Piero-e (talk | contribs)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2015)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 LTE (SM-T355Y)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 LTE (SM-T355Y)
Manufacturer Samsung
Name Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2015)
Codename samsung-gt58
Released 2015
Type tablet
Hardware
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)
CPU Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 306
Display 768x1024 (XGA) PLS
Storage 16 GB
Memory 2 GB
Architecture aarch64
Software
Original software Android 7.1.1 with Linux Kernel version 3.10.49
postmarketOS
Category community
Pre-built images yes
Unixbench Whet/Dhry score 921
Features
Flashing
Works
USB Networking
Works
Internal storage
No data
SD card
No data
Battery
Partial
Screen
Works
Touchscreen
Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Works
Audio
Works
Camera
No data
Camera Flash
No data
Connectivity
WiFi
Works
Bluetooth
Works
GPS
Works
Modem
Calls
Works
SMS
Works
Mobile data
Works
Miscellaneous
FDE
Works
USB OTG
Broken
HDMI/DP
No data
Sensors
Accelerometer
Works
Magnetometer
No data
Ambient Light
No data
Proximity
No data
Hall Effect
No data
Haptics
No data
Barometer
No data


Note This device has recently been upgraded to the community category.

you can download a pre-built image from the download page

and follow instructions there : Use Postmarket Community pre-built image on Samsung devices page.


Samsung Galaxy Tab A (2015) is a series of devices based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC which has great mainline Linux support.

This page should generally apply to any 8.0 inch variant of the device (WiFi, LTE, with and without the pen support). Note that those variants may have different amount of RAM. For 9.7 inch variants see Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7.

Variant differences

The device has multiple variants, the main differences in the features are shown in the table below:

Feature WIFI LTE Notes
GPS Works WiFi variant needs investigation. Modem support is not enabled for the WiFi variant at this time.
Mobile data Unavailable Works
SMS Unavailable Works
Calls Unavailable Works

Note: The WiFi variant gt58wifi chipset is APQ8016.

Warning WARNING: The WiFi variant gt58wifi / SM-T350 is not listed as supported by lk2nd, proceed at your own risk.

Contributors

  • Hello-world-321

Maintainer(s)

  • TravMurav

Users owning this device


How to enter flash mode

Download mode: When turned off hold Power + Volume Up + Home

lk2nd Fastboot: When turned off hold Power + Volume Down

Installation

lk2nd is a secondary bootloader that provides a standard fastboot interface, which can be used to boot postmarketOS without Android boot flashed or pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel.

  1. Download lk2nd-msm8916.img from Releases page on Github.
  2. Boot your phone to bootloader (Odin/Download) mode by holding Volume Down and Home while powering up.
  3. Follow lk2nd instructions to install lk2nd. Basically flash it to the boot partition (heimdall flash --BOOT lk2nd-msm8916.img)
  4. Follow Qualcomm_Snapdragon_410/412_(MSM8916)#Installation to install postmarketOS.
Note Note: Enter lk2nd fastboot mode by pressing only Volume Down + Power (without Home). Pressing Home additionally will bring you to the Samsung Download mode.

Audio

Warning WARNING: The speakers are rather loud on 100% volume and may produce distorted sound that may damage your speakers after long use. Please make sure to use reasonable volumes - your ears and your speaker will thank you!

Known Bugs and Workarounds

  • Multi-touch doesn't work

This is a known issue: The touch controller sends the events in a different format that the driver can decode. Fix is WIP.

  • How to charge device ?

Charger driver is not present at this time. Turn off your device and plug it in. The device will boot and get charged. You can check if the device charges by reading the value from /sys/class/power_supply/max170xx_battery/current_now

  • Display Artifacts during brightness adjustment

Turn display off (lock device using power button) and turn on again to remove artifacts until next brightness change. Auto brightness should be turned off due display bug.

  • Automatically switch to headset and turn off speakers when headset plugged in or cannot switch to speakers during phone calls

Select headset from settings after plugging in headset (Known issue)

Mainline Kernel Status

Table of components in the device

Patch to enable otg

The following patch modifies max77843 extcon driver for max77849 and adds support in device tree

After applying this patch the driver will not work for max77843. There are unhandled interrupts which will be disabled by linux.

Patch

Reference datasheets (similar devices)

GPS investigation gt58wifi (SM-T350)

Considering SM-T350 as similar to SM-T35x without a sim card, GPS access is probably not possible at present due to (at minimum) upstream modem (manager) issues GNSS (GPS).

If you're interested in bringing up the modem/gps on APQ variants of the device, feel free to reach out to travmurav via pmOS Matrix_and_IRC channels.

See also