I bought a Samsung tablet about 10 years ago, and darned if they didn't quit updating it at Android 5.0.2. Which means, if I want the latest apps, or even updates of apps I already use, I would have to buy a new tablet. I suddenly realized I was a victim of a planned, ruthlessly engineered, grinding obsolesence, wearing down the citizen-consumer, forcing me to buy new tablets and crushing me beneath its wheel.
But, does it have to be that Samsung wins? Or, could I update the tablet (Galaxy 4) to a newer version of Android? And strike a blow against capitalism. I would still be using a tablet, and still be a victim of surveillance capitalism, but, hey, one battle at a time.
So. How does one upgrade a tablet to a newer Android, I asked?
The internet knows. Right here. And XDA seems to be a good source of info, so I read and watched videos, and downloaded recommended bits and bytes. Using my Dell Windows 11 machine, I installed USB drivers, got me a USB cable to hook to the tablet. And was ready to install.
But, Odin did not work. I fussed around trying to get a connection and then more internet, and pretty soon I am trying adb from Android platform tools. And still no joy. But, someone suggests, try a different cable. And it worked! But I still did not end up with TWRP installed. And adb and fasttool made me feel like a fastfool, as >fasttool devices was blank.
More interenet, more suggestions that this may be locked or that may be blocked, and yet, and yet, it all seems so simple. Run Odin, install TWRP, wipe, flash (install) the OS zip, install the openGApps, done. So what was holding me up?
Somebody suggested try a different Windows box, which may make some sense, since the Dell is newish and maybe there is some problem with the USB version 2 or 3.
Everybody has multiple computers. I switched my efforts from using the Dell (newish, Windows 11) to HP (oldish, Win 10 Pro).
I copied the tools and Lineage OS and openGApps stuff to Drive, then down to the HP. Copied the OS and the GApps on the SD card in the tablet. Updated the Samsung USB driver on HP.
And it all just worked. Odin started, and connected, and installed TWRP. TWRP started and I did the recommended wipe and then ran the OS installer. And it reported OK. But I had a problem. I had downloaded the google apps for ARM64, Android 11, nano, and I needed ARM architecture. Got the correct zip of openGApps, replaced it on the SD card, and now used Lineage recovery (because I said yes to replacing the recovery code, cause I did not realize) to flash the GApps.
Booted, waited, set up some stuff, and voila. It works.
The hours spent on the Dell taught me lots of stuff, but the HP just got it done. Possibly USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0? But, whatever, I now have a Galaxy 4 running Android 11, and Lineage, and f-droid, and a few Google apps.