Rooting the TF701 without unlocking the bootloader

[droidbound]

Hmm it's not to be found under tf701 development sub forum...is it elsewhere?

Oops again. It's in the TF700 forum. But the general principle is the same...

[davioh]

Hmm don't actually have a PC...AT ALL...seems like the advice isn't gonna apply I'll email TWRP from Google play see if I could save to sd card.

[davioh]

Email sent away....ill wait for the developer now i guess unless anyone on here knows if its possible.....

[droidbound]

Email sent away....ill wait for the developer now i guess unless anyone on here knows if its possible.....

Theoretically - yes, that should be possible with a rooted device and Busybox installed in an adb shell with dd commands.
Google "copy android system partition with dd command" and within the first two results you'll find some good points to start from.

BUT
And this a very, very big BUT
You better know what you're doing if you start using dd commands on your device. For people familiar and fluent in the Linux/Unix world, "dd" is a very powerful and useful tool. For people like me, who know very little about command level computing, "dd" stands for "disc destroyer" - at least that seems to be a common joke among those "in the know".

Just browsing casually, I found a couple of guides to copy all your partitions to some external destination. But what I have not found is how you would restore such a backup, AND how and if that would work on this tablet.
We have a locked and encrypted bootloader which prevents anything being installed to a system partition unless it has the correct (and encrypted) signature. Only Asus has the encryption key.
Even if you succeed in making a backup of your boot, system, recovery partitons - I have no idea if you would be able to restore them. And a backup is worthless unless you can restore it....

If you're willing to assume that level of risk, I think it would be much safer to kiss your warranty goodbye, unlock the bootloader and flash a custom recovery. With that setup you have (almost) total control of your tablet.

But if you go the adb shell/dd route please take notes and share your success (or lack thereof) with us.

[davioh]

Oh well to be honest I was looking for a program to automatically back it all up. As you mentioned a wrong keystroke = GOODBYE OS, APPS, DATA ETC.
If I'm happy with the functionality I get I may very well go ahead unlock bootloader soon...From people's warranty experiences asus/ square trade etc. IM NOT SURE how much I truly lose with loss of ASUS warranty...

[davioh]

One bad piece of news... The used dock looks in good shape but it had a 11-2013 date. Anyone have success with that month?
Also, the moment I plugged it in I got a green light. I recall a few people complaining about inaccurate battery any way I can determine battery status on both tab and dock is correct....

[davioh]

Just tried the combination. Dock hinge=stiff (to be expected) once docked there is unfortunately a bit of wobble / play but I might be able to live with it as is...

[davioh]

Haven't had a chance to try out the tablet much. I just checked and tablet shows 95% battery. It seems excellent to lose only about 5% in three days. Is the tablet that good or can this be attributed to exposed framework and battery saver module?

[droidbound]

Haven't had a chance to try out the tablet much. I just checked and tablet shows 95% battery. It seems excellent to lose only about 5% in three days. Is the tablet that good or can this be attributed to exposed framework and battery saver module?

No idea, never do not use it for 3 days.. 😁
But 5% is excellent indeed. Will give that battery saver a try!

[davioh]

Update. It appears to have lost about only 15 % battery off the dock 1 week on standby! This is with ds battery module aggressive setting. total actual use=15 minutes check on battery. There were a few times where it wouldn't resume from sleeping so I did acreboot though. Also my slightly used poetic slim case came in today $ 9 total including shipping! it seems to be of decent quality !