In short form I am able to remove and run Nougat on my WT8-A Toshiba Encore. It works mostly perfectly, but looks like I will need to develop some drivers from scratch (ie GPS and Bluetooth for instance). There's a lot to learn.
Firstly I can get everything important to run, eg WiFi and most programs seem to load effortlessly. What I can not do however is reboot the tablet.
This is the "boot screen" on the Toshiba https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5nf-g1bXqluandnN2s3bW83Nk0
To enter this you need a USB keyboard and a USB Hub (if you want the USB flash drive to be attached as well). When you switch the tablet on repeatedly push F12 to get that screen to boot from USB. Some tablets it may be F2 or F10 if F12 does not work. Because the USB keyboard does not operate instantaneously you need to have a powered hub or you need to start the tablet first with the keyboard and hub attached, attempt to enter the boot area and if this fails, switch tablet off and back on again quickly as residual power to the keyboard will allow F12 to be recognised.
The next screen you get is where you can install Android (if you have downloaded a correct working image of Android). This is what it looks like for me:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nf-g1bXqluMWc3SDZoVGM0S1k/view?usp=sharing
At this point you need to choose the drive you want Android on. In this case, I have done this several times already so the drives are already formatted to ext4.
The issue is the other partitions. This bit scares me a little because removing them, which clearly is essential, could brick the tablet. So here are my choices:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5nf-g1bXqluUGpYMmwzRFZCcmM
I need to delete/format all but the largest partition (the 32GB eMMC).
Ok, this is where I need some windows expertise please:
Deleting the partitions with the Windows RE on it - will that allow me to boot to Android? Will it still allow me to enter the bootloader screen (posted first) so if I need to install another version of Android or any other reason, that I can do this by still pushing F12?
This is the screen I currently get when I boot with Android fully loaded and working on the tablet. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5nf-g1bXqluSXJpRGRDOHh0RjA
So I have two options, one to get rid of the two Windows RE sections and perhaps the Free Space too? Remove the Windows EFI section(?). Remove the Microsoft Reserved section(?). And then install Android completely.
Or two... build a clumsy workaround where I boot from USB to Android locally. However, the latter may not be possible.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Firstly I can get everything important to run, eg WiFi and most programs seem to load effortlessly. What I can not do however is reboot the tablet.
This is the "boot screen" on the Toshiba https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5nf-g1bXqluandnN2s3bW83Nk0
To enter this you need a USB keyboard and a USB Hub (if you want the USB flash drive to be attached as well). When you switch the tablet on repeatedly push F12 to get that screen to boot from USB. Some tablets it may be F2 or F10 if F12 does not work. Because the USB keyboard does not operate instantaneously you need to have a powered hub or you need to start the tablet first with the keyboard and hub attached, attempt to enter the boot area and if this fails, switch tablet off and back on again quickly as residual power to the keyboard will allow F12 to be recognised.
The next screen you get is where you can install Android (if you have downloaded a correct working image of Android). This is what it looks like for me:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nf-g1bXqluMWc3SDZoVGM0S1k/view?usp=sharing
At this point you need to choose the drive you want Android on. In this case, I have done this several times already so the drives are already formatted to ext4.
The issue is the other partitions. This bit scares me a little because removing them, which clearly is essential, could brick the tablet. So here are my choices:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5nf-g1bXqluUGpYMmwzRFZCcmM
I need to delete/format all but the largest partition (the 32GB eMMC).
Ok, this is where I need some windows expertise please:
Deleting the partitions with the Windows RE on it - will that allow me to boot to Android? Will it still allow me to enter the bootloader screen (posted first) so if I need to install another version of Android or any other reason, that I can do this by still pushing F12?
This is the screen I currently get when I boot with Android fully loaded and working on the tablet. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5nf-g1bXqluSXJpRGRDOHh0RjA
So I have two options, one to get rid of the two Windows RE sections and perhaps the Free Space too? Remove the Windows EFI section(?). Remove the Microsoft Reserved section(?). And then install Android completely.
Or two... build a clumsy workaround where I boot from USB to Android locally. However, the latter may not be possible.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
