ATT. LENOVO STAFF: Thinkpad Tablet restore tool and original fw files

[FLSHWND]

Does anybody know if there's any way to fully restore the tablet to it's stock FW without having to send it in for repair?

I'm one of the guys that likes to mess around with the different files when rooted and this has never been a problem with other tablets like samsung and viewsonic that has either an unlocked bootloader or is using some kind of restore utility and also supplies the original fw files.

Now my question is, is there any way to get lenovo to either supply the SBK key or supply the original firmware with a restore utility?

Another thing could be to ask for the signkey that is used to sign the update.zip files so that we can modify the update-script and bypass all the patch checks.

Wouldn't it be more economical to provide a restore utility or at least provide a stock update.zip to be able to fall back to in case something fails other than having to send the tablet in for a repair?

[splotz]

Afair they sell there own roms, it would destroy their business if everbody could fix the errors by themself....

ed.: (Well afaik the reason for not let us change our roms, was that that they liked to sell their own roms to business companies) 

[FLSHWND]

But beeing that restrictive is only dumb in my meaning.

By doing that, all software related errors (wether you have root or not as proven by the ICS update) are solved by sending the device in for a repair and change motherboards when there's no real issue with the motherboard itself.

It also seems like the service partners aren't able to reflash the software and have to replace the motherboards due to this.

This device has so much potential and is at least to me so much more than a business tablet as  I use it on a daily basis both for work and college.

[gork]

I strongly agree that we need a stock ROM.

All these patch-only updates only lead to errors like these:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-slate-tablets/Lenovo-Why-is-the-update-looking-for-Busybox/td-p...

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-slate-tablets/Help-with-FlexT9ChineseIME-apk/td-p/756087

A normal ROM could just plow over all these files and recreate them if they're missing or somehow modified.

It could also eliminate some error sources like the missing pen pressure or 3G some people are experiencing.

And as you see, it's not only a problem that occurs by evil root-users.

It's like painting: sometimes you have to stop painting over the same spot to fix an image. Sometime you have so start clean from the beginning

[FLSHWND]

Surely!

Now I've seen a post somewhere in the forum where a person from Lenovo USA said that they will never provide full system images due to different reasons, but I can't see why it would be impossible to provide a stock update.zip that has been signed by lenovo as these cannot be modified and re-flashed due to either not having a signkey or having the correct signkey that only Lenovo has.

Note from Moderator:  A comment which violated the forum rules was removed.

[sobrado]

I fully agree with FLSHWND.

Ok, let me be clear enough. I am not exactly a new user, nor someone without knowledge on computing either, but I will send my slate to service next week because it is plain dead right now. I have a degree on Fundamental Physics so I must not be exactly dumb. I have more than twenty years of experience in computing, working with real computers. I am a developer on a very important software project too (one of the three free BSD operating systems). So I would say I am not someone without experience on this field.

The problem my tablet has (it shows the initial "static Lenovo logo" for a minute or two and then reboots) has been extensively described on this forum. It happened to other customers too. The fact it happened to me while upgrading to ICS makes it look like a bad software upgrade, but it is not as it happened to other customers just after a mysterious tablet reboot while working. I did the upgrade using the safest method available, avoiding an upgrade using a live system. I have checked the digest of the OTA file downloading it on another computer and verifying that the digests match. I copied the OTA upgrade to a high quality external SD card before upgrading and, to make sure all was ok I verified the digest again on the file stored in the SD card and, to discard a damage on the file available on Lenovo's storage servers, using unzip -t too. I did the manual upgrade formatting the data and cache areas first. The upgrade was ok, and finished successfully. I waited a minute before rebooting the slate just in case there was something in the device buffers waiting to be written. But the device is dead now. It seems something is damaged at the primary boot, so the firmware on the slate is unable to boot from the internal SD card and reboots after two minutes. But the drive exists and it is working yet as I am able to format the data and cache areas and re-apply the upgrade. In all cases the slate was connected to an UPS protected power outlet and the battery was fully charged.

In my not so humble opinion, not being able to provide a full recovery image because Lenovo has commercial interest in selling customized images is dumb as a signed image cannot be modified by people trying to build their own custom images. Not being able to provide full signed images because there are technical issues (something I think is true, as Lenovo's service will probably replace the mainboard on my slate) shows that this slate has a very poor design.

I certainly not agree with people complaining about their slates being dead after rooting their devices and removing something that was a part of the operating system. If they choosed rooting their devices they should accept the consequences of their actions. But, what about people that apply the highest standards when using their devices? What will happen once the "warranty period" expires? By the way, as a consequence of this tablet being dead I checked the warranty status. It was bougth at the end of march 2012, but the warranty will expire on october 29, 2012. It must be a joke.

I adquired one of the high-end slates (a 1838-2DG), and it was very expensive for me as I am unemployed right now. The least I would expect is a device lasting as much as I care for it. I have a lot of computers (mostly donations for the development of an operating system) ranging from AlphaServers to IBM-branded ThinkPads and ThinkCentres and am very pleased with the reliability and performance of these systems, some of them manufactured on mid-90s. Never had a problem with them, and they are reliably running a BSD flavour. Apart of very few hardware issues (mostly easily solved), never had a single issue requiring an installation from scratch of these systems. But even if it happens, I know I will be able to do it myself.

[splotz]

Towards warranty:

Afaik it is the produktion date (+1year), as soon as you show your date of purchase, that (+1year)  will be the warranty date

[sobrado]

Hi splotz,

thank you very much for your comment on this matter. Indeed, I would expect the date of purchase being used for the warranty period. My fear was Lenovo's staff blindly reading the date on their warranty database. What you say makes sense.