Back from the bin – how to get new live into my wonderful Samsung Tab S2 Tablet

In my very perosnal opinition, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is one of the best tablets ever. Not because its so fast or great, but because its the perfect combination of performance and weight. Just light enough for reading in the evening (super thin),  enough performance to surf the internet and good sound to watch a Netflix. But...build in 2016.. and guess..no more updates from Samsung. Action needed...

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (9,7, Wi-Fi sm-810) - that is the 2016 version. A newer version was still  on sale some months ago - but both are on Android 7.

My tablet has another issue, the hard-reset (power, volume-up,home) does not work any-more (do not follow the instruction, if your buttons are still working, plenty of instructions available).

So - how to flash a new custom ROM without having the hard reset available?

That is my solution (follow at your own risk, it can break your device)

Installing TWPR ("boot manager") is only possible via hard-reset or as root user. So I obtained  Root-User by installing CF Root first. Using the root from CF-Root I was able to install TWPR and could afterwards follow the normal installation process for the custom ROM, but more slowly:

Preparation

1. Enable USB-Debugging on the device (Click on the build-number on settings 10 times)
2. Install ADB and Heimdall on an Linux/ Ubuntu PC
3. Connect tables via USB to PC and check with adb connect if the device is visible

Become Root

I am using CF Root Image to root my S2:

1. Download image and follow instructions from http://www.samsungsfour.com/tutorials/how-to-root-galaxy-tab-s2-on-nougat-7-0-using-cf-auto-root-all-models.html
2. Rename the file (remove md5 at the end) and extract the files cache.img and recover.img
3. Reboot the S2 into download mode via adb reboot download
4. Flash the CF Root image to the tablet with heimdall flash --CACHE cache.img --RECOVERY recovery.img.
5. Reboot and check if you have obtained root (there is SU app installed

Prepare for the image

1. Install TWPR app via ADB adb install me.twrp.twrpapp-26.apk and use this app to install the boot image as ROOT
2. Now directly boot into TWPR recovery with: adb reboot recovery
3. Push the Lineage image and the gapps (Google Apps) to the SD card of the tables with
   adb push lineage-16.0-20191012-UNOFFICIAL-gts210wifi.zip /storage/emulated/0/
adb push open_gapps-arm-9.0-mini-20191013 /storage/emulated/0/
4. Again a adb reboot recovery brings you into TWPR recovery.
5. Follow EXACTLY the instructions at: https://forum.xda-developers.com/tab-s2/development/rom-lineageos-15-1-t3879302 on installing from SD-Card. Especially don't forget to WIPE
6. Say thanks to ripee on XDA for his great work.

The above version of image and gapps works fine, only 2 issues:

1. Finger Print does not work sometimes
2. Button Lights do not work

But complete tablet responses quickly and it seems like a little performance boost