new cube iwork8 dual boot flashing and language setting walkthrough

[Mile Kolev]

After I installed windows only on my tablet I got locked out of my account and cannot enter pass the login scree. I have tried loading a usb made with rufus which gets to the start installation screen but not further cause I need to use a mouse to select the options and cannot because the port is used by the usb. I also re-made the usb through your method and does not work. Starts loading but then stops. And I have tried different usb pens as well. Nothing works. Help please.

[OptoMan]

Mile Kolev wrote:

After I installed windows only on my tablet I got locked out of my account and cannot enter pass the login scree. I have tried loading a usb made with rufus which gets to the start installation screen but not further cause I need to use a mouse to select the options and cannot because the port is used by the usb. I also re-made the usb through your method and does not work. Starts loading but then stops. And I have tried different usb pens as well. Nothing works. Help please.

 

so had a succesful windows only install — was it from Cube supplied win10-only firmware for your device? or some other method like a clean custom install? and locked out by ‘incorrect’ credentials or because you can’t touch/type anything on the screen?

don’t feel compelled to go buy a usb keyboard any time soon, but if you’ve got one on a desktop computer and have an otg adapter they can be handy for doing things.

bit of mess here, but this helps prevent other messes later on — I used to use rufus to make boot drives, usually for specialty boot drives, be it linux distros or for somer obscure utility from a hardware manufacturer, or sometimes windows tho I used to prefer optical discs cause I thought they were faster and wouldn’t have to make another like it — rufus is hard to get right even tho it’s supposed to be user friendly and all “right there”. it’s not predictable how to make a usb drive bootable for a system (as a HDD, floppy, mbr, or single raw fat partition — last one is interesting) and what if any boot sector to record on there — and now a problem that creeps in is whether the boot disk is created in BIOS mode or UEFI mode, as windows will install as if that’s how you want to boot the new windows.

you’ll notice that the cube supplied firmware is not the standard windows installer — it’s not a hack or anything, but realize that both the MS installer and the cube firmware installer do not respond to touch because they don’t have the required drivers built in. cube’s stuff is set to run by itself, and *my* device’s main script has a single ill-placed command in it that asks user to press a key.

using what I described to install the supplied firmware was for the dual-boot variety for my iwork8. dual-boot is key, because flashing the android first clears and sets up all the partitions for dual boot, as in the main partition table, boot managers/loaders, all the android stuff and room for windows. the first part is what’s important. how you installed windows by itself really matters here as the cube script mess with some partitons — was your tablet ever dualboot?

it IS possible to install windows 10 clean on your tablet I’m sure alone or otherwise — on my device, I ran the bios update, android update, and did my own install of windows 10 with drivers I extracted (which wasn’t as easy as people think and does practically need a keyboard, but I’m glad I did it .. the default language is not chinese, and in fact the chinese isn’t there — recovery and such used to be chinese).

so how did the win10 only get there and what’s broken with your login?

 

[OptoMan]

the cube install script for their win10 update does hide the existing android “system” partition before installing windows — if it’s an old android and only redoing windows it won’t matter, but if it’s a new android it didn’t hide itself, and windows is gone so it can’t care yet, but the partition has to be hidden so windows will make its own system partition. that’s where the windows bootmanager and bootloader go —

how your “bios” gets you to your login screen says the same as how windows was installed and next to what

<hr />

had to stand back for a minute to see — rufus made requires mouse, sounds like windows10 install media, usb ‘my method’ (ack) stopped — if windows 10 install media you’re going to need a hub with a keyboard and have your drivers near (which you should *actually* pull from a working, fresh install of the Cube supplied windows 10 image, a whole different flash before), my way to make media is the simple way to make media for Cube suplied windows which should be for your device — (that’s also how I make windows media, again, need some sort of keyboard input)

[OptoMan]

where this gets interesting is with the dual-boot setups, if an iwork8 or similar, here’s why — I do not know if they sell windows only or android only models.  the bios that can be flashed to my iwork8 can recognize and boot to an android or a windows 10 operating system.  in fact it has to pass these phrases letter by letter for the OS to want to boot, and the OSs and the [later mentioned] efi manager can change this.

a boot manager let’s you choose what to boot

a boot loader starts an operating system

windows has it’s own boot manager, let’s you select advanced boot up options like recovery, ssafe mdoe or even multiple windows operating systems.

and windows’s boot manager points to a a windows boot loader — which starts that operating system.  windows recovery is a different operating system and is many times found on another drive.

android is similar, has a boot loader that let’s you boot normal, sometimes safe mode (no thirdpart software), recovery/reset mode, fastboot, clear data or cache etc .. and

the android boot loader starts the android operating system.

EFI (our expanded) bios has a boot manager that [in our case] let’s you choose a whole nother external drive to try to boot or one of the known OS boot managers (which each have  a predefined default target unless it somehow knows otherwise — ie, boot to advance boot options/recover for windows, triggered last time you were in windows)

seems the EFI boot manager is on a partition of the android type and has a little program with boot options, robot or window — that will disappear if you clear the partition OR …

bypass the EFI boot manger while your in the bios, it’s the first ‘boot option’ and you could instead choose to go to a known OS [‘s boot manager] but the chosen OS Image has to match!

do something like that, and you can get away with clearing the very first partiton — but if back to dual boot you have to reflash android by cube.

in reality there are boot mangers and boot loaders — in common vernacular boot-loader would be the choice between operating systems, and we’d call each os’s boot loader an OS-loader — all this extra hubbub is called chain-loading.  windows boot loader only loads microsoft loaders, and the new security capabilities of UEFI have a secure way of booting to a recognized operating system — less popular operating systems won’t get the ‘security’ support from the BIOS — it actually does make sense tho.  secure boot keeps viruses away like no other.

I haven’t looked on the system partitions since I first got the thing, but it’s interesting the initial android/windows choice partition has to set some entries and then perhaps reboot.

[Mile Kolev]

OptoMan wrote:

Mile Kolev wrote:

After I installed windows only on my tablet I got locked out of my account and cannot enter pass the login scree. I have tried loading a usb made with rufus which gets to the start installation screen but not further cause I need to use a mouse to select the options and cannot because the port is used by the usb. I also re-made the usb through your method and does not work. Starts loading but then stops. And I have tried different usb pens as well. Nothing works. Help please.

so had a succesful windows only install — was it from Cube supplied win10-only firmware for your device? or some other method like a clean custom install? and locked out by ‘incorrect’ credentials or because you can’t touch/type anything on the screen? don’t feel compelled to go buy a usb keyboard any time soon, but if you’ve got one on a desktop computer and have an otg adapter they can be handy for doing things. bit of mess here, but this helps prevent other messes later on — I used to use rufus to make boot drives, usually for specialty boot drives, be it linux distros or for somer obscure utility from a hardware manufacturer, or sometimes windows tho I used to prefer optical discs cause I thought they were faster and wouldn’t have to make another like it — rufus is hard to get right even tho it’s supposed to be user friendly and all “right there”. it’s not predictable how to make a usb drive bootable for a system (as a HDD, floppy, mbr, or single raw fat partition — last one is interesting) and what if any boot sector to record on there — and now a problem that creeps in is whether the boot disk is created in BIOS mode or UEFI mode, as windows will install as if that’s how you want to boot the new windows. you’ll notice that the cube supplied firmware is not the standard windows installer — it’s not a hack or anything, but realize that both the MS installer and the cube firmware installer do not respond to touch because they don’t have the required drivers built in. cube’s stuff is set to run by itself, and *my* device’s main script has a single ill-placed command in it that asks user to press a key. using what I described to install the supplied firmware was for the dual-boot variety for my iwork8. dual-boot is key, because flashing the android first clears and sets up all the partitions for dual boot, as in the main partition table, boot managers/loaders, all the android stuff and room for windows. the first part is what’s important. how you installed windows by itself really matters here as the cube script mess with some partitons — was your tablet ever dualboot? it IS possible to install windows 10 clean on your tablet I’m sure alone or otherwise — on my device, I ran the bios update, android update, and did my own install of windows 10 with drivers I extracted (which wasn’t as easy as people think and does practically need a keyboard, but I’m glad I did it .. the default language is not chinese, and in fact the chinese isn’t there — recovery and such used to be chinese). so how did the win10 only get there and what’s broken with your login?

Actually i used your method and the provided Windows install from Cube…got it working, had all set up and then accidentally clicked on the Systray menu that pops up…that thing changed everything back to Chinese and locked me out of the account. I tried every single way to reset the pass but did not make it. Now I will buy a usb hub and tr to click restart from the login menu and hold Shift and see if it takes me to the troubleshoot menu. If it happens I am good. I can reset the pass.

[Mile Kolev]

OptoMan wrote:

where this gets interesting is with the dual-boot setups, if an iwork8 or similar, here’s why — I do not know if they sell windows only or android only models. the bios that can be flashed to my iwork8 can recognize and boot to an android or a windows 10 operating system. in fact it has to pass these phrases letter by letter for the OS to want to boot, and the OSs and the [later mentioned] efi manager can change this. a boot manager let’s you choose what to boot a boot loader starts an operating system windows has it’s own boot manager, let’s you select advanced boot up options like recovery, ssafe mdoe or even multiple windows operating systems. and windows’s boot manager points to a a windows boot loader — which starts that operating system. windows recovery is a different operating system and is many times found on another drive. android is similar, has a boot loader that let’s you boot normal, sometimes safe mode (no thirdpart software), recovery/reset mode, fastboot, clear data or cache etc .. and the android boot loader starts the android operating system. EFI (our expanded) bios has a boot manager that [in our case] let’s you choose a whole nother external drive to try to boot or one of the known OS boot managers (which each have a predefined default target unless it somehow knows otherwise — ie, boot to advance boot options/recover for windows, triggered last time you were in windows) seems the EFI boot manager is on a partition of the android type and has a little program with boot options, robot or window — that will disappear if you clear the partition OR … bypass the EFI boot manger while your in the bios, it’s the first ‘boot option’ and you could instead choose to go to a known OS [‘s boot manager] but the chosen OS Image has to match! do something like that, and you can get away with clearing the very first partiton — but if back to dual boot you have to reflash android by cube. in reality there are boot mangers and boot loaders — in common vernacular boot-loader would be the choice between operating systems, and we’d call each os’s boot loader an OS-loader — all this extra hubbub is called chain-loading. windows boot loader only loads microsoft loaders, and the new security capabilities of UEFI have a secure way of booting to a recognized operating system — less popular operating systems won’t get the ‘security’ support from the BIOS — it actually does make sense tho. secure boot keeps viruses away like no other. I haven’t looked on the system partitions since I first got the thing, but it’s interesting the initial android/windows choice partition has to set some entries and then perhaps reboot.

And Iam able to boot up a Windows 10 version I made by myself with rufus and gets me to the initial setup screen but I did not have a hub to plug in a keyboard and a mouse. I will buy one today  and see if it works. Otherwise I will just reinstall Android and then windows and then clear Android out of the system.

[OptoMan]

hey very cool — you’re actually not far off — I know windows 10 pretty well, I’m not sure what you clicked in the systray to lock you out .. but I would definately say first things after installing factory win10 is to switch langauge and go through all the windows 10 settings and then a few of the control panel items if you’re daring.  keyboard and tablet settings should be visited, I like offer ‘standard’ keyboard .. has arrows, shift, ctrl, numbers row, etc.

rufus is actually extra making the usb drive — you can use diskpart same as the cube win10 .. you’d mount your real win10 iso on your computer’s file manager to a drive letter and xcopy the whole thing to your gpt/ntfs prepped usb —

what rufus can do that is worthwhile is make a bootable thumbdrive that isn’t a windows filesystem (fat or ntfs) — you’d take the iso of what you’re trying to boot (ie, linux or dos even) and it would clear the usb and apply the iso bit for bit and make sure that if there’s a bootsector in the iso it goes, and if not try to get one on there (an efi system doesn’t use boot sectors however) — the OTHER option is to _copy_ the iso to the usb and use one of rufus’s favorite bootloaders (isolinux perhaps) that sits on a windows fs (fat or ntfs) but will let you startup a linux operating system by extracting the whole iso to ram if you have enough, which is called a ramdrive.

ya so a clean install you’ll need a keyboard _and_ the drivers to get everything working from power/thermal control to touchpad and sound and wlan bluetooth etc.  I’ll look at the driver dump I downloaded from here again, but it’s way fewer drivers than I pulled from the factory image myself.  also know how to navigate windows w/ a keyboard.

out of curiosity which model number do you have and which firmware did you download?

oh and you could hook up a mouse, but I have limits ysee

[OptoMan]

be back in a while — if you install clean from windows install media, when you hit custom install and see a partition editor, you can delete every partition, and even shift+f10 to get to dos prompt and then diskpart delete ANY and all partitions (clean) on your system drive — windows will make it’s single solitary system partition for efi to find and you’d be good.

<hr />

driver pack is missing:

advsensorclassdriver – inf and dlls for sensors
dptf_pch – dynamic platform thermal framework, chipset attachment
gc2235 – camera sensor
intcdaud – intel display audio driver (hdmi assume)
ish – integrated sensor solution helper
ish_busdriver – integ sensor hub top of bus
monzax – rfid, remote locate/kill etc
rtii2sac – realtec r2s audio codec
nuvoton software from root dir in cube firmware, needed for sound besides the drivers

what’s not funny is the there’s nothing wrong with the cube provided win10 at all except the chinese and the intro videos — infact I think it’s a little _smaller_ than a custom clean install.

[Mile Kolev]

OptoMan wrote:

be back in a while — if you install clean from windows install media, when you hit custom install and see a partition editor, you can delete every partition, and even shift+f10 to get to dos prompt and then diskpart delete ANY and all partitions (clean) on your system drive — windows will make it’s single solitary system partition for efi to find and you’d be good. <hr /> driver pack is missing: advsensorclassdriver – inf and dlls for sensors dptf_pch – dynamic platform thermal framework, chipset attachment gc2235 – camera sensor intcdaud – intel display audio driver (hdmi assume) ish – integrated sensor solution helper ish_busdriver – integ sensor hub top of bus monzax – rfid, remote locate/kill etc rtii2sac – realtec r2s audio codec nuvoton software from root dir in cube firmware, needed for sound besides the drivers what’s not funny is the there’s nothing wrong with the cube provided win10 at all except the chinese and the intro videos — infact I think it’s a little _smaller_ than a custom clean install.

All done…performed a clean install through a usb pen drive made with rufus..booted through bios and started it up…took about 20 mins..installed drivers and I am good to go..downloading windows updates as we speak..camera is giving me an error but I think there is a fix for that too

[Mile Kolev]

Any chance you can extract the camera driver from your windows installation?

[OptoMan]

yes — what I’ve got to work with are the latest dual boot firmwares from cube — one for the i1-T series and one for the [more specifically] i1-TC series .. the serial number on the back of your device.  I’m taking that they put some different chips in different model numbers (probably more supply than choice), so they’ll need different drivers or at least different INFs if the drivers are the same.  I can grab another firmware or two — what model?

I had to doubly check my camera also, sound and wireless.

[Mile Kolev]

OptoMan wrote:

yes — what I’ve got to work with are the latest dual boot firmwares from cube — one for the i1-T series and one for the [more specifically] i1-TC series .. the serial number on the back of your device. I’m taking that they put some different chips in different model numbers (probably more supply than choice), so they’ll need different drivers or at least different INFs if the drivers are the same. I can grab another firmware or two — what model? I had to doubly check my camera also, sound and wireless.

I got the ultimate version…2gb/32gb

[OptoMan]

well, more specifically the serial number — the first several digits represent what exact model it is within the iwork8 ult — they made some different than others.  different chips and different configuration among the chips.  so drivers are different and bios settings are going to be different, the firmware available for your exact model is required.  say, there’s like three iwork8 ults.

?? first four or five digits — like i1-T or i1-TC

[Mile Kolev]

All done now..managed to find the IPS camera driver and I got it working. A great software is Driver Easy ..helps a lot to see which drivers are in need of an update

[OptoMan]

good to hear —

I got me one of these a few weeks back and think it’s the coolest thing.  Also felt I found a forum/website that had a good bit of information specific to our tablets, but what was saddening was seeing people messing up their tablets or just as bad, not understanding something and thinking it was as good as broke — one of the things that can’t be fixed is the internal storage space if in dual boot configuration, but I have gotten my windows install down to leave me almost 4GB of free space, so an external SD can be just for data or huge apps (windows holds onto most all old driver packages — video drivers are close to half a gig, and also old but updated windows files).

I’ve thought about having just a windows tablet but I’m also an android guy =)

be careful with something like driver-update apps, if you leave it installed it’s a toll on resources (every internet connect and disconnect, and tablet shouldn’t be on wireless when tablet’s in suspend/sleep) and also the drivers they find might not work correctly.  hardware specific drivers as in drivers that are released by a manufacture’s _device_ for chips from other manufacturers are tuned for the device as a whole — there’s a chance that driver-finder software went one way and found a _somewhat working_ driver for an unidentified (driverless) device, or the other way which is find newer versioned drivers for drivers you already have, but if that’s the case, how the discern between drivers that should be updated?  it actually is up in the air — common practice is to download drivers from your device’s manufacturer, like with laptops or desktops, get all your drivers from the computer company, or motherboard manufacturer, or the maker of these 64 bit x86 tablet PCs, and stick with the versions they offer.  if microsoft update offers anything newer, they’re safe.

 

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