I need a bit of help/advice with rooting a tablet and whether I need to or not. For reasons beyond me at the moment, I have never rooted anything and am unsure to what extent things can be done with a device once it's been done.

The background is that we're getting our boys a Mindstorms a-like Lego set for Christmas. It's called Lego Boost and allows for some programming of the models to be done from a Scratch Junior sort of interface which runs on a tablet. Unfortunately, it seems to support very few tablet types, despite advertising itself as being available for the App and Play stores. When trying to download it from the Play store I get the 'app isn't supported on your device' error. The tablet exceeds the minimum specs required, so I'm not sure why it'd be unable to download/run it.

After reading through some of the comments, complaints and frustrations (as you might imagine, it's affecting more than a few people), some dude got it working on an unofficial Android build of 7.1.somethingorother. So, my question is; if I root my tablet (an acer iconia a3-a30) will I be able to choose the version of Android to stick on there, whether it be custom ROMs or just upgrading to a certain version within the O/S? I don't know what trickery Acer are using, but the tablet won't find a more up to date version than Lollipop.

This might be cooler, more educational, and wouldn't risk bricking your way-more-expensive tablet, assuming stormfront mindstorm runs on it:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/android-raspberry-pi/

I think rooting is separate (but often part of) from putting on ROMs. xda-developers.com is usually the place to check, look at the forum for your device and they'll have guides plus links to various ROMs. It can be a lot to learn, sometimes they make tools that take a lot of the command line bits out for you. It's not completely without risk of bricking it.

You could try downloading the apk and install it without the playstore, it may work...

Wot Kos sed.

Apk link https://www.apkmirror.com/wp-content/themes/APKMirror/download.php?id=246813

Description https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/lego-system-as/lego-boost/lego-boost-1-0-2-release/lego-boost-1-0-2-android-apk-download/

Warning, downloading apks from other places isn't usually recommended.

Thanks chaps.

I found the apk from that link a little earlier and have downloaded it, allowed installs from unknown locations and everything was looking positive - then I get a 'do you want to install this app'... and the install button does bog all. It doesn't seem clickable (or tapable). :C

So, is that symptomatic of the app not being able to be installed 'cos of reasons known only to Lego and what all sidelined apps do if they can't be installed, or is my tablet having a fit?

Edit - scrap that, I had a night mode filter in place that was stopping me clicking the install button. (fail)

It's installed, and the app opens up, then promptly closes itself down. Hmm, back to Lego support to see what they suggest.

Thanks for the help though everyone. :)

 

I will try that, but first I've got to get another Pi3. My current one is far too well installed in a case, behind a screen and has all the cables nicely tided away to pull all that apart for some testing. :J

Hmm. Just downloaded it and installed it on my phone. It installed fine. Started, complained about the screen size, but I could say OK, then a splash screen came up, then it crashed/quit/closed

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm getting!