Updating Galaxy Tab 7" WiFi to Gingerbread
Just before Christmas 2011, a local store opened up offering the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" for what seemed like a ridiculous price. Being a bit of an android fanboy, I picked it up for my daughter who was getting very attached to my Asus Transformer tablet.
There was a lot going for it. Good brand, good price and (I thought), good hardware & hacker support. I love having custom roms and having the choice of functionality / mods I like.
Turns out a little more research was in order. This device has different hardware to the amazingly similar 3g version and seemed to be an outcast in the eyes of Samsung and the modding community. To make matters worse, the "OFFICIAL" firmware is buggy and a pain to live. Biggest fault was that its an older release (2.2) of android and that after a few hours use, two of the 4 soft buttons stop working. It makes navigating the machine a pain when the home button no longer works, I can tell you. Another particularly grating fact was that some of the games my daughter loved playing on my tablet refused to install on the thing. Making excuses to her why this happened was not cool at all.
I've been waiting in vain for the past 3 months for an update from Samsung and nothing has been released. Considering that the device's firmware was buggy and that Samsung had released it less than a year ago, the lack of official support has been borderline criminal.
At any rate, this morning, my weekly googling for hacker mods for the thing struck gold.
Starting with this thread:
http://droidangel.blogspot.com/2011/12/odin-guide-how-to-updateupgrade-samsung.html
Much googling followed and eventually I got it updated.
I had to install the ClockworkMod bootloader from this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1386643
which is a staple bit of software to an android modder.
Next thing up, I used Kies to back up her photos & music.
Finally I installed "App Backup & Restore" from the Android Market and exported all her installed apps into .apk files. By default it backed up to the external MicroSD card, which I didn't bother to backup.
Last thing I did was boot into ClockWork mod and do a full backup of the device.
Finally I launched "odin" as described in the first link and did the update. It went smoothly.
Bonus! None of her apps was affected and her data was still there. Biggest change was that the device was upgraded from Android 2.2.1 to 2.3.6 (Froyo -> Gingerbread).
Bonus number 2. The apps (mostly games) that didn't load before, now all load perfectly.
If the home key bug reappears, I'll be very surprised as I think the buggy 2.2.1 was the issue.
Overall, I'm very happy with the upgrade and extremely grateful to the people who worked hard to make it happen.
I'm in the market for a new phone soon and I'm not sure I'll be picking up a Samsung device if they don't pay more attention to fixing buggy firmware or providing regular updates.
Finally, this upgrade makes the purchase worthwhile...
There was a lot going for it. Good brand, good price and (I thought), good hardware & hacker support. I love having custom roms and having the choice of functionality / mods I like.
Turns out a little more research was in order. This device has different hardware to the amazingly similar 3g version and seemed to be an outcast in the eyes of Samsung and the modding community. To make matters worse, the "OFFICIAL" firmware is buggy and a pain to live. Biggest fault was that its an older release (2.2) of android and that after a few hours use, two of the 4 soft buttons stop working. It makes navigating the machine a pain when the home button no longer works, I can tell you. Another particularly grating fact was that some of the games my daughter loved playing on my tablet refused to install on the thing. Making excuses to her why this happened was not cool at all.
I've been waiting in vain for the past 3 months for an update from Samsung and nothing has been released. Considering that the device's firmware was buggy and that Samsung had released it less than a year ago, the lack of official support has been borderline criminal.
At any rate, this morning, my weekly googling for hacker mods for the thing struck gold.
Starting with this thread:
http://droidangel.blogspot.com/2011/12/odin-guide-how-to-updateupgrade-samsung.html
Much googling followed and eventually I got it updated.
I had to install the ClockworkMod bootloader from this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1386643
which is a staple bit of software to an android modder.
Next thing up, I used Kies to back up her photos & music.
Finally I installed "App Backup & Restore" from the Android Market and exported all her installed apps into .apk files. By default it backed up to the external MicroSD card, which I didn't bother to backup.
Last thing I did was boot into ClockWork mod and do a full backup of the device.
Finally I launched "odin" as described in the first link and did the update. It went smoothly.
Bonus! None of her apps was affected and her data was still there. Biggest change was that the device was upgraded from Android 2.2.1 to 2.3.6 (Froyo -> Gingerbread).
Bonus number 2. The apps (mostly games) that didn't load before, now all load perfectly.
If the home key bug reappears, I'll be very surprised as I think the buggy 2.2.1 was the issue.
Overall, I'm very happy with the upgrade and extremely grateful to the people who worked hard to make it happen.
I'm in the market for a new phone soon and I'm not sure I'll be picking up a Samsung device if they don't pay more attention to fixing buggy firmware or providing regular updates.
Finally, this upgrade makes the purchase worthwhile...
Comments
can you post some pix and more details about the original spec of the device.
i have a tab i bought to my kid, and I would hate to brick it to him as you can imagine.
I am looking for this for the passing year.... so, finding your post is like hitting the jackpot.
thanks in advance. e.
It's Galaxy Tab P1010 EU Model. I'm not sure what difference a picture will make unfortunately as it does not have much in the way of identifiable markers.
You should be able to confirm its either via the P1010 model number or possibly in the settings about page.
I understand your nervousness to root the thing vs bricking it, but I can say that if you run the odin software, it should identify if you have the correct device.
I wish I could give you guarantees, but unfortunately you will have to make a call if its worth doing. From my perspective, I'm very glad I did.
Good luck!