Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Wi-Fi (gts4lvwifi)

🚧	This page is a work-in-progress. Some information contained within may be inaccurate or incomplete.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Wi-Fi (SM-T720)

File:Gts4lvwifi.jpg Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Wi-Fi
Manufacturer	Samsung
Name	Galaxy Tab S5e Wi-Fi (SM-T720)
Codename	samsung-gts4lvwifi
Released	2019
Type	tablet
Hardware
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 (SDM670)
CPU	Octa-core Kryo 360 (2 x 2.0 GHz & 6 x 1.7 GHz)
GPU	Adreno 615
Display	267.2mm (10.5 inch) 1600x2560 (WQXGA) 287 PPI Super AMOLED
Storage	64/128 GB
Memory	4/6 GB
Architecture	aarch64
Software
Original software	Android
Original version	9
Extended version	11
postmarketOS
Category	testing
Pre-built images	no

Features

Flashing
USB Networking
Internal storage
SD card
Battery
Screen
Touchscreen
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Audio
Camera
Camera Flash
Connectivity
WiFi
Bluetooth
GPS
NFC
Miscellaneous
FDE
USB OTG
HDMI/DP
Sensors
Accelerometer
Magnetometer
Ambient Light
Proximity
Hall Effect
Haptics
Barometer

WARNING: Make sure that you are prepared to (probably) lose functionality when installing postmarketOS. Samsung Knox will blow an efuse when the OS is modified that will permanently disable Knox-only features like Samsung Pay, and you will NEVER be able to use those features again (not actually tested for this device yet).

While the (downstream) kernel compiles and flashing is available, this device is in an extremely early state of development.

This is the Device page for the "Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Wi-Fi" (model SM-T720; codename gts4lvwifi), which should not be confused with the similarly-named "Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e LTE" (models SM-T725, SM-T727; codename gts4lv).

Contributors

• Mparker17
• Usia

Users owning this device

• Joshaspinall (Notes: Currently running Lineage Android)
• Usia (Notes: porting to PostmarketOS)
• Usia (Notes: running LineageOS)

How to enter flash mode

Samsung devices do not use the fastboot flashing mechanism. There fore the flash mode is also not called "fastboot mode" but "Download mode".

1. Power off the device
2. Hold Volume Up + Volume Down.
3. Connect USB cable from PC to the device and wait until the screen turns blue.
4. Follow the instructions on screen (it will probably tell you to press Volume up to continue, i.e.: to flash mode)

Bootloader Unlocking

Be aware, a bootloader unlock will erase all userdata! Make sure to keep a backup of any important data!

The bootloader needs to be unlocked to be able to flash custom partitions.

Unlocking

1. Boot to android
2. Connect to wifi
3. Enable "Developer Options" (tap 7x on Buildnumber)
4. Go to "Developer Options" and toogle on "OEM unlock"
5. Turn off tablet
6. Hold Volume Up + Volume Down while plugging in USB untill you are in "Download mode".
7. Follow onscreen instructions to unlock bootloader
8. Reboot to andoir and connect to wifi
9. ensure "OEM unlock" is still active in "Developer Options"

At this point, you should be ready to install custom ROMs/postmarketOS.

Installation

It is advisable to keep backup of some partitions for easy recovery before installing postmarketOS!

Backup with TWRP

Prerequesites

1. TWRP. See here how to install TWRP
2. adb on your PC

Create backups

Plug the tablet with USB to the PC and boot to recovery (TWRP).

Backup the partitions "dtbo", "boot", "recovery", "system" and "userdata".

adb pull /dev/block/by-name/dtbo dtbo.img
adb pull /dev/block/by-name/boot boot.img
adb pull /dev/block/by-name/recovery recovery.img
adb pull /dev/block/by-name/system system.img
adb pull /dev/block/by-name/userdata userdata.img

Manual build

The vendor is "Samsung", the codename is "gts4lvwifi".

Follow the pmbootstrap article, until you have done the install action (note that --fde stands for full-disk-encryption - this is currently not supported on this device).

Flashing

When issuing the following commands with out the --no-reboot option, the device will reboot after each flashing process. You might want to hold Volume Up + Volume Down to automatically boot to "Download mode" again.

First off, to boot custom images we need to disable Android Verified Boot (AVB). This can be done with pmbootstrap flashing a custom vbmeta.img.

pmbootstrap flasher flash_vbmeta

Then flash the rootfs and kernel.

pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs
pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel

When flashing with pmbootstrap, a fork of Heimdall is used that is still maintained. This can also be used to manually flash the images, if needed. Other flashing methods might also work (Odin, from recovery, etc.) but are not tested.

Build notes

This section is just kept for lookup but is not necessarry for normal installation as the device ist already available with pmbootstrap now.

Notes from Mparker17

Overall, Mparker17 found this pretty straightforward using the Porting to a new device instructions. For a host machine, Mparker17 used Ubuntu 20.10. For pmbootstrap init, Mparker17 used: Channel [edge]: edge Vendor [samsung]: samsung Device codename [gts4lvwifi]: gts4lvwifi Username [user]: user User interface [weston]: weston Additional options: extra free space: 0 MB, boot partition size: 128 MB, parallel jobs: 9, ccache per arch: 5G, sudo timer: False Change them? (y/n) [n]: n Extra packages [none]: none Choose default locale for installation (y/n) [C.UTF-8]: C.UTF-8 Device hostname (short form, e.g. 'foo') [samsung-gts4lvwifi]: samsung-gts4lvwifi Would you like to copy your SSH public keys to the device? (y/n) [n]: n Build outdated packages during 'pmbootstrap install'? (y/n) [y]: y ... and the boot.img from LineageOS' build for the device (specifically, lineage-17.1-20210222-nightly-gts4lvwifi-signed.zip) When editing cache_git/pmaports/device/testing/linux-samsung-gts4lvwifi/APKBUILD, Mparker17 didn't have to add any patches; but did have to remove the following 4 patches: gcc7-give-up-on-ilog2-const-optimizations.patch gcc8-fix-put-user.patch gcc10-extern_YYLOC_global_declaration.patch kernel-use-the-gnu89-standard-explicitly.patch For pmbootstrap kconfig, Mparker17 had to fix the following issues documented on the kconfig page: WARNING: linux-samsung-gts4lvwifi/config-samsung-gts4lvwifi.aarch64: CONFIG_ANDROID_PARANOID_NETWORK should *not* be set. See <https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/kconfig#CONFIG_ANDROID_PARANOID_NETWORK> for details. WARNING: linux-samsung-gts4lvwifi/config-samsung-gts4lvwifi.aarch64: CONFIG_DEVTMPFS should be set. See <https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/kconfig#CONFIG_DEVTMPFS> for details. WARNING: linux-samsung-gts4lvwifi/config-samsung-gts4lvwifi.aarch64: CONFIG_SYSVIPC should be set. See <https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/kconfig#CONFIG_SYSVIPC> for details. WARNING: linux-samsung-gts4lvwifi/config-samsung-gts4lvwifi.aarch64: CONFIG_VT should be set. See <https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/kconfig#CONFIG_VT> for details. ... after fixing those, the kernel appeared to build successfully. Mparker17 has not had a chance to try this out on the device yet.

Device notes

Some of the gts4lvwifi devices originally shipped with Android 9. LineageOS worked on those devices until sometime in 2020-Q4; after that LineageOS stopped upgrading. The solution for this was to install Samsung's stock firmware for Android 10, and re-flash LineageOS - after that it continued working. Mparker17 recalls this had something to do with Android 10 device drivers, and speculates it might have something to do with LineageOS's kernel fork or device configuration (which we use, see #Build notes above), and therefore, similar issues might happen with postmarketOS as well. However, Mparker17 doesn't know how to restore the original Android 9 firmware to verify this. So Mparker17's advice is, make sure you've upgraded to the latest official Android 10 firmware before trying to install PostmarketOS.

Partition map

ls -lha /dev/block/by-name/

total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1.1K 2018-08-22 01:43 . drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1.8K 2018-08-22 01:43 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 abl -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2018-08-22 01:43 aop -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 apdp -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p17 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 apnhlos -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p44 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 bksecapp -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p13 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 bluetooth -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p12 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 boot -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p48 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 bota -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p36 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 btd -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p24 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 cache -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p53 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 cmnlib -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p15 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 cmnlib64 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p16 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2018-08-22 01:43 ddr -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 debug -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p56 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 devcfg -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p21 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 devinfo -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p11 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 dpo -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p19 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 dqmdbg -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p39 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 dsp -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p45 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 dtbo -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p47 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 efs -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p31 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 fota -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p37 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 fsc -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p28 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2018-08-22 01:43 fsg -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p8 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 hidden -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p54 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2018-08-22 01:43 hyp -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p7 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 keymaster -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p14 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 keystore -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p35 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 limits -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p20 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 logfs -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p40 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 misc -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p34 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 modem -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p46 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 modemst1 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p26 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 modemst2 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p27 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 msadp -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p18 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 omr -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p55 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 pad -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p25 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 param -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p32 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 persist -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p30 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 persistent -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p42 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 product -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p52 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 qupfw -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p38 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 recovery -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p49 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2018-08-22 01:43 sec -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p9 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 sec_efs -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p33 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 ssd -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p29 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 steady -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p43 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 storsec -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p22 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 system -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p50 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2018-08-22 01:43 tz -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p6 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 userdata -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p57 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 vbmeta -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p23 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 vendor -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p51 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2018-08-22 01:43 vk -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p41 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2018-08-22 01:43 xbl -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2018-08-22 01:43 xbl_config -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2018-08-22 01:43 xblbak -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p2

fdisk -l

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 122142720 sectors, 2296M Logical sector size: 512 Disk identifier (GUID): 98101b32-bbe2-4bf2-a06e-2bb33d000c20 Partition table holds up to 128 entries First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 122142686 Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Name 1 8192 16383 4096K xbl 2 16384 24575 4096K xblbak 3 24576 25599 512K xbl_config 4 25600 27647 1024K ddr 5 27648 29695 1024K aop 6 29696 37887 4096K tz 7 37888 39935 1024K hyp 8 39936 44031 2048K fsg 9 44032 45055 512K sec 10 45056 53247 4096K abl 11 53248 53759 256K devinfo 12 53760 55807 1024K bluetooth 13 55808 56831 512K bksecapp 14 56832 57855 512K keymaster 15 57856 59903 1024K cmnlib 16 59904 61951 1024K cmnlib64 17 61952 62975 512K apdp 18 62976 63999 512K msadp 19 64000 64511 256K dpo 20 64512 65023 256K limits 21 65024 66047 512K devcfg 22 66048 67071 512K storsec 23 67072 67327 128K vbmeta 24 67328 71423 2048K btd 25 71424 98303 13.1M pad 26 98304 102399 2048K modemst1 27 102400 106495 2048K modemst2 28 106496 110591 2048K fsc 29 110592 114687 2048K ssd 30 114688 180223 32.0M persist 31 180224 221183 20.0M efs 32 221184 245759 12.0M param 33 245760 286719 20.0M sec_efs 34 286720 290815 2048K misc 35 290816 294911 2048K keystore 36 294912 360447 32.0M bota 37 360448 409599 24.0M fota 38 409600 409855 128K qupfw 39 409856 442623 16.0M dqmdbg 40 442624 459007 8192K logfs 41 459008 463103 2048K vk 42 463104 464127 512K persistent 43 464128 472319 4096K steady 44 472320 668927 96.0M apnhlos 45 668928 742655 36.0M dsp 46 742656 922879 88.0M modem 47 922880 939263 8192K dtbo 48 939264 1070335 64.0M boot 49 1070336 1212415 69.3M recovery 50 1212416 10846207 4704M system 51 10846208 12681215 896M vendor 52 12681216 13910015 600M product 53 13910016 14729215 400M cache 54 14729216 14749695 10.0M hidden 55 14749696 14790655 20.0M omr 56 14790656 14815231 12.0M debug 57 14815232 122142686 51.1G userdata

See also

• pmaports!5580 Initial merge request
• LineageOS device wiki page
  • LineageOS device repository (Samsung gts4lvwifi)
  • LineageOS device repository for configuration common to this family of devices (Samsung gts4lv-common)
  • LineageOS kernel repository for this device's chipset (Samsung sdm670)
• TWRP device page
• GSMArena specifications and review
• Wikipedia page for the family of devices