# Proposal — Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 LTE reflash **The decision.** Flash LineageOS 14.1 over the stock Android 4.4.2 on the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 LTE (`SM-T217S`, `lt02ltespr`), then measure what a 2013 32-bit tablet is good for. **Status.** Approved in principle, and **on hold** until a known-good micro-USB data cable arrives. The bench prerequisite and the reason for the hold are in [[Low Passage Research]]; the measurements behind all of this are in [[Device Report — Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 LTE]]. ## Why this, and not the alternatives Three findings closed off everything else, in this order. **The stock ROM cannot be cleaned from a PC.** `pm disable-user` is refused to the shell user on this build, every refusal throws a fatal exception that fires a 92-second dumpstate, and `adb root` refuses because the build is `user` with `ro.debuggable=0`. There is no root to be had, so there is no way to remove anything over a cable. The stock ROM is not a starting point to tidy up; it is a dead end. **There is no Linux to flash instead.** postmarketOS's Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 device is `lt023g`, the Marvell T210/T211, which is a different SoC under a confusingly similar name. Mainline Linux carries the Exynos Tab 3 8.0 and not this. A real Linux payload would mean writing an msm8930 port — panel, touchscreen, Wi-Fi firmware, charger — which is a kernel project rather than an afternoon. **So the only thing left is a different Android on the same silicon.** LineageOS 14.1 is official for exactly this codename, with a published install guide and a build guide, and it takes the device from 4.4.2 to 7.1 without touching the hardware. Unofficial LineageOS 15.1 for `SM-T217S` also exists on XDA. It is one Android version better and one maintainer less dependable, so it is the fallback rather than the plan. ## What it buys - **Android 7.1** instead of 4.4.2: a usable `cmd` tool, Termux, and TLS that a modern endpoint will actually negotiate with. - **Root**, through LineageOS's own add-on, which turns `pm disable-user` from a fatal refusal into an ordinary command and makes `persist.adb.tcp.port` settable — that is what would let adb survive a reboot for the first time. - **No Google suite and no Samsung carrier builds to remove**, since they are not in the image. - **A real bench for research item 28**, which is the question of whether Android should be the base for a station at all, or only the driver layer under a Linux userland. ## What it does not buy - **Not a mind host.** The app needs Android 12 and an `arm64` ABI, and the device has neither, on top of having well under the memory floor. The flash does not move that. - **Not an Erlang node**, by the decision of 2026-11-07 that a phone is not a node. Research item 28 is the measurement that would either confirm that decision or reopen it; the flash is what makes the measurement possible. - **Not more silicon.** 32-bit and 1.35 GB are what they are. Whatever this device becomes, it becomes that on a Krait 300. - **Possibly not the radio.** Nobody has checked whether the CDMA/LTE stack survives LineageOS 14.1 on the Sprint variant. We have no use for cellular, so this is a curiosity rather than a requirement, but the honest position is that it is unmeasured. ## Prerequisites | Item | Status | |---|---| | A known-good micro-USB **data** cable | **open** — on order; the flash writes bootloader-facing partitions over it | | Battery above half | met — 99–100% | | No accounts on the device | met — zero, measured | | Model and codename match | met — `SM-T217S` / `lt02ltespr`, confirmed by `getprop` | | Stock build recorded, for rollback | met — `KOT49H.T217SVPSBQA1`, bootloader `T217SVPSBQA1` | | TWRP image for `lt02ltespr` | **unverified** — must be fetched and checked against the codename | | `lineage-14.1-…-lt02ltespr.zip` | **unverified** — official support is discontinued, so the download may have to come from an archive mirror or be built from the published `cm-14.1` branch | | A microSD card for a recovery backup | **open** — the slot takes up to 64 GB, and without it there is no image to roll back to | | A copy of the stock firmware | **open** — the difference between an experiment and a one-way door | The two unverified rows are the ones that can stop this. Support being discontinued means the download page may simply not have the zip any more, and finding that out after the device is in Download Mode is the wrong order. ## Procedure 1. Charge above half, and leave the cable connected throughout. 2. Copy anything worth keeping off the device. There is nothing: zero accounts, zero user apps, and the media was never looked at because nothing was being wiped. 3. **Take a recovery backup to microSD** once TWRP is running and before any wipe. This is the rollback. 4. Power off. **Download Mode** is Home + Volume Down + Power, confirmed with Volume Up. It is a bootloader key combination, so it works even with the OS unbootable. 5. Flash TWRP. On Windows the low-friction route is Odin with Samsung's own driver; heimdall is cleaner and cross-platform but needs the Download Mode interface bound to WinUSB first, which on Windows means Zadig. Match the image to `lt02ltespr` exactly — not `lt02wifi`, not `lt02ltetmo`, and emphatically not `lt023g`. 6. **Boot straight into recovery.** Booting to system first lets the stock ROM overwrite the custom recovery, and the procedure starts again. 7. Wipe data and cache, then flash `lineage-14.1-…-lt02ltespr.zip`, then the root add-on `addonsu-14.1-arm-signed.zip` if root is wanted. Sideload over `adb`, or flash from the SD card. 8. Boot. Re-enable Developer options and USB debugging, authorize the PC, then `adb tcpip 5555`. 9. Measure, then update the device report. ## What to measure afterwards Each of these has a stock baseline to compare against, which is the whole point of having measured a device nobody expected anything of. | Measurement | Baseline on stock | |---|---| | `MemAvailable` with the system running | not reported before Android 6 — the 3.4 kernel has no such field; stock had ~500 MB by `MemFree` plus `Cached` | | Package count | 249, of which 64 vendor processes were running | | `pm disable-user` on one package | fatal refusal, plus a dumpstate | | `persist.adb.tcp.port` | would not take | | Free storage | 11.8 GB | | Termux installed, `erlang` package present | not possible on 4.4 | | An OTP node's resident memory, and whether it returns after a reboot | not attempted | ## Rollback Re-flash the stock firmware through the same Download Mode, using the same tool that flashed TWRP. That requires having the stock package in hand **before** starting, which is why it is a prerequisite rather than a comfort. A TWRP backup on a microSD covers the case where the flash works but the result is unwanted. ## Risks - **A cable that drops mid-write** is the one remaining way to brick this device. Hence the hold. - **The wrong codename.** Three Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 codenames sit over two different SoCs, and the Marvell images will not run here. - **A recovery that gets overwritten** by booting to system before flashing the ROM. - **The flash succeeds and the device still has no role.** That is a real possibility and not a failure: research item 28 asks whether the platform is the wrong base, and either answer is worth having. What would be a failure is spending the afternoon and learning nothing. ## The question this raises for the specification The enrollment section of [[Low Passage]] said a hollowed device "is a node and nothing else", while the Android section said a phone is never a node. Both could not hold of an Android device, and this tablet is the one that made the disagreement concrete. **The wording half was settled on 2026-11-11:** the layers keep the two words apart, so a hollowed device belongs to the Galaxy and whether what it runs is a node is a separate question. No device is described as a node anywhere in the specification now. The decision itself stays open, and deliberately: - **The exclusion stands** for now: hollowing an Android device yields a consort or nothing, because OTP on Android is experimental, fights the sandbox, and has no reliable background execution. - **Let research item 28 test it**, and revisit only if an Erlang node on the tablet survives a reboot and a week of real work, started by Termux:Boot with no cable attached. So the measurement is what decides whether the underlying decision survives contact with a device. A decision made without evidence can be revised by evidence; it should not be revised by assertion, which is what adopted it. ## What would make us stop - The new cable tests bad and the port proves to be worn, leaving Download Mode unreachable. - The LineageOS zip or the TWRP image cannot be obtained for `lt02ltespr`, and building from source is not worth the afternoon it would cost. - The stock firmware cannot be obtained and there is no card to take a backup to, so the flash would be irreversible. None of these is a reason to reflash anyway. A device that goes back on the shelf costs nothing; a bricked one is just a brick. ## Reference - [[Low Passage]] — the specification, and the decision this proposal lives beside. - [[Low Passage Research]] — items 27 and 28, and the cable prerequisite. - [[Device Report — Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 LTE]] — every number this proposal is built on. - [[Low Passage Mind Host]] — the app spec, and why this device cannot host it.