UNLOCKING CDMA I910 GPS - please help us!

[Guest the v]

What if I flash the official Verizon WinMo 6.1 firmware and try to unlock the gps? And install a different ver.

[Guest paradizelost]

What if I flash the official Verizon WinMo 6.1 firmware and try to unlock the gps? And install a different ver.

To my knowledge, there are not yet any official update roms available for these phones yet.

[Guest ijustwantaname]

This would follow with what i've seen in GPStest. if you open it up and watch the coordinates, there will be several occasions where it will have bogus coords. it may be that it rotates between decryption keys, or only every Nth value is valid, or something like that. Can you write down, STEP BY STEP what you did to reproduce this? i think it would be great progress if we can get what you're getting reproducibly. We can troubleshoot from there.

It's pretty straightforward, but...

1) Open GPS Test. (GPS Settings are Com port: Auto - it will pick it up on COM8 - and Baud Rate: 9600), wait for it to go to "GPS Starting up"

2) Open Google Maps. Make sure the GPS is set to be managed by Windows, then click Menu -> Use GPS. (I pick up satellites almost instantly)

3)???

4) Hello Antarctica!

Edited December 17, 2008 by ijustwantaname

[Guest M Moogle]

It's pretty straightforward, but...

1) Open GPS Test. (GPS Settings are Com port: Auto - it will pick it up on COM8 - and Baud Rate: 9600), wait for it to go to "GPS Starting up"

2) Open Google Maps. Make sure the GPS is set to be managed by Windows, then click Menu -> Use GPS. (I pick up satellites almost instantly)

3)???

4) Hello Antarctica!

Um.. the GPSTest that I and others are using doesn't have any GPS settings or anything - its just a really simple test program written by Skywing. I posted a copy a few pages back. I think you might have downloaded a different GPS Test program, which would explain the different results you're seeing.

[Guest maldonj1]

i did a google search for gps test and downloaded the fourth one down from Pocketgear.com, it shows all the settings hes describing and enables the gps but google maps and live search both never acquire any sattelites, now i never edited the registry settings to show the gps in the programs list so that may be a factor.

[Guest krelvinaz]

Too bad there is no source for GPStest...

[Guest maldonj1]

haha, looks official

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/12/16/v...mo-phones-next/

i think we will win this battle and have them unlocked first and the war when verizon unlocks them.

[Guest ijustwantaname]

Um.. the GPSTest that I and others are using doesn't have any GPS settings or anything - its just a really simple test program written by Skywing. I posted a copy a few pages back. I think you might have downloaded a different GPS Test program, which would explain the different results you're seeing.

Odd... I Googled "GPS Test" and downloaded the first one there (which, as it turns out, is the same one from PocketGear's site): http://www.chartcross.co.uk/products/WM00002_details.asp . Are there really others?? That could definitely be a cause for confusion...

[Guest paradizelost]

Odd... I Googled "GPS Test" and downloaded the first one there (which, as it turns out, is the same one from PocketGear's site): http://www.chartcross.co.uk/products/WM00002_details.asp . Are there really others?? That could definitely be a cause for confusion...

I was using the version of gpstest that was posted earlier, not one downloaded from some other site. I'll try this version and see if it helps.

[Guest krelvinaz]

If you read the thread... the GPStest that is being used is the one from skywing not the PocketGear one. Links to it have been posted.

It has no options and does nothing but connect to the GPS and show the coordinates. It talks to the GPS chip in the i910 via its encrypted format.

[Guest dhoppy]

If you read the thread... the GPStest that is being used is the one from skywing not the PocketGear one. Links to it have been posted.

It has no options and does nothing but connect to the GPS and show the coordinates. It talks to the GPS chip in the i910 via its encrypted format.

[whining] but the thread is soooo long. [/whining]

[Guest ijustwantaname]

Hmmm... I saw reference to Skywing's but didn't realize it was a different app. The only link I can find on the intertubes to it is http://www.nynaeve.net/Skywing/xv6800gps/gpstest.zip, but that link is dead and a search for "GPS test" and similar variants on his site doesn't have any hits. It's probably worth making the note that this other GPS Test app seems to have some functionality to it, but I'll grab this other version to test out if someone can show me where it is.

[Guest dhoppy]

Hmmm... I saw reference to Skywing's but didn't realize it was a different app. The only link I can find on the intertubes to it is http://www.nynaeve.net/Skywing/xv6800gps/gpstest.zip, but that link is dead and a search for "GPS test" and similar variants on his site doesn't have any hits. It's probably worth making the note that this other GPS Test app seems to have some functionality to it, but I'll grab this other version to test out if someone can show me where it is.

here you go

[Guest at227]

I just got this email from Verizon. It doesn't even state that the Omnia has for VZnav. Only that it has location tracking for emergency (911) only, which is obviously false.

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for contacting our Verizon Wireless website. I apologize for the delayed response to your email and for any inconvenience this may have caused. Verizon Wireless is experiencing higher than normal email volume at this time and is working diligently to reply to each customer?s email in a timely manner and appreciates your patience.

Thank you for your interest in using your new Samsung Omnia SCH-i910 to its full capabilities. Please know that your handset's GPS chip is used to provide the handset's location to emergency responders when placing 911 calls, only. It does not provide any user-accessible functionality such as location information for directions, mapping, or any other application.

At Verizon Wireless we value the security and privacy of our subscriber data and user-information and we have taken this into account in the development of our location-based services offerings. To alleviate concerns regarding access to data by malicious applications and misuse of location information, Verizon Wireless' location-based services utilize a solution that requires each location request to be authenticated and accepted prior to a user's location being obtained through the network, and used by authorized applications.

Verizon Wireless is aggressively working to expand our suite of location based services offerings in a way that does not compromise our dedication to privacy and security yet offers value and flexibility to our customers.

If you would like to receive e-mail updates regarding new products and services, please click on "E-mail Updates" from the "Support" tab located at the top of our www.verizonwireless.com homepage.

I hope this information has proven helpful and informative. More detailed information and instructions can be found at the website at www.verizonwireless.com/data. I appreciate your business and thank you for choosing Verizon Wireless.

Sincerely,

Debra

Verizon Wireless

Data Technical Support

[Guest paradizelost]

I just got this email from Verizon. It doesn't even state that the Omnia has for VZnav. Only that it has location tracking for emergency (911) only, which is obviously false.

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for contacting our Verizon Wireless website. I apologize for the delayed response to your email and for any inconvenience this may have caused. Verizon Wireless is experiencing higher than normal email volume at this time and is working diligently to reply to each customer?s email in a timely manner and appreciates your patience.

Thank you for your interest in using your new Samsung Omnia SCH-i910 to its full capabilities. Please know that your handset's GPS chip is used to provide the handset's location to emergency responders when placing 911 calls, only. It does not provide any user-accessible functionality such as location information for directions, mapping, or any other application.

At Verizon Wireless we value the security and privacy of our subscriber data and user-information and we have taken this into account in the development of our location-based services offerings. To alleviate concerns regarding access to data by malicious applications and misuse of location information, Verizon Wireless' location-based services utilize a solution that requires each location request to be authenticated and accepted prior to a user's location being obtained through the network, and used by authorized applications.

Verizon Wireless is aggressively working to expand our suite of location based services offerings in a way that does not compromise our dedication to privacy and security yet offers value and flexibility to our customers.

If you would like to receive e-mail updates regarding new products and services, please click on "E-mail Updates" from the "Support" tab located at the top of our www.verizonwireless.com homepage.

I hope this information has proven helpful and informative. More detailed information and instructions can be found at the website at www.verizonwireless.com/data. I appreciate your business and thank you for choosing Verizon Wireless.

Sincerely,

Debra

Verizon Wireless

Data Technical Support

That flies in the face of what VZNavigator is for, you should reply back and ask why they can charge $10/mo for VZNavigator if "It does not provide any user-accessible functionality such as location information for directions, mapping, or any other application."

[Guest ijustwantaname]

Initial test results: Skywing's GPStest app is way less friendly. I'd suspect b/c it's much more detailed, but nonetheless it isn't playing nice with GoogleMaps at all. I can crank up the app and get coordinates, etc, but when I open GoogleMaps GPStest crashses saying it can't initialize GPSSec and then I have to soft-reset the phone to even get GPStest back up. No wonder everyone's been having problems w/this app!

[Guest paradizelost]

Initial test results: Skywing's GPStest app is way less friendly. I'd suspect b/c it's much more detailed, but nonetheless it isn't playing nice with GoogleMaps at all. I can crank up the app and get coordinates, etc, but when I open GoogleMaps GPStest crashses saying it can't initialize GPSSec and then I have to soft-reset the phone to even get GPStest back up. No wonder everyone's been having problems w/this app!

It isn't intended to do anything execept verify that we can read GPS Coords. The knowledge obtained within it's code would need to be implemented into whatever modifications to gpsserver would be necessary. It's not made to work with any other apps or anything, and it's hit and miss.

Again, all this does is verify that YES WE CAN get coords. Not to configure anything else.

[Guest JASTECH]

It is amazing how many lies Verizon can have their employees regurgitate for them, it seems they have a Buffet! And now this email that states the opposite of what they have been telling consumers and emailing them. I would use a large soup ladle and make them swallow it.

Thanks, JASTECH ô¿ô

[Guest maldonj1]

ok so i removed the gpstest from pocketapps and got the one from the link provided with no settings at all, ran it and it did get my coords and speed as i was driving, so it did unlock the gps, however, when i launch either google maps or livesearch it is unable to access gps's because gpstest closes. Now, if i run googlemaps FIRST, and leave it searching for sattelites, THEN launch gpstest and let IT acquire sat's, then when i go back to livesearch, my arrow has changed color and direction to orange, and in googlmaps there is a blue dot blinking, but then it stops since ive alt tabbed and gpstest exits. SO is there supposed to be a file written by gpstest so that when it exits, the other apps can use it?

[Guest dhoppy]

ok so i removed the gpstest from pocketapps and got the one from the link provided with no settings at all, ran it and it did get my coords and speed as i was driving, so it did unlock the gps, however, when i launch either google maps or livesearch it is unable to access gps's because gpstest closes. Now, if i run googlemaps FIRST, and leave it searching for sattelites, THEN launch gpstest and let IT acquire sat's, then when i go back to livesearch, my arrow has changed color and direction to orange, and in googlmaps there is a blue dot blinking, but then it stops since ive alt tabbed and gpstest exits. SO is there supposed to be a file written by gpstest so that when it exits, the other apps can use it?

No. Nobody said that gpstest gets us what we want, which is the ability to run any GPS program we want. All that anyone has ever said in this thread is that gpstest proves that accessing the GPS is possible. Most of us are hoping/praying/waiting for a coding master to come and write a program like gpsserver for the omnia.

[Guest M Moogle]

Not exactly progress but..

I was able to get GPSServer working briefly again. Both times I've gotten it working, I pretty much simultaneously clicked "Use GPS" in Google Maps, then started up GPStest. I even had GPSServer's logging on this time and I captured the sucessfull run to prove I'm not crazy.

I'm almost certain its a timing issue - I have a feeling that GPSTest is initializing something that GPSServer is unable to itself for some reason. It only works if you get the timing just right as their initialiation sequences are probably overlapping or something along those lines.

Once I quit out of Google Maps and the gpssrv process dies, I'm unable to get valid coordinates again.

I've attached the log file from gpssrv.exe - you can see that about halfway down it starts giving correct coordinates (I changed them slightly so you can't figure out where I live, heh).

partialgpslog.txt

[Guest maldonj1]

umm, ok thats exactly what i just explained, if you start the one app searching for satellites THEN GPSTest, the first app will start acquiring gps data, but once you SWITCH back to either googlemaps or live search it dies since GPSTest exits. which is why i asked if there is a file that gpstest is writing that another app can go off of.

[Guest JASTECH]

Hmm, I almost farted...I mean smiled!

PhoneNews.com has led the criticism of Verizon Wireless locking and hindering GPS on their phones. Now, the company says they will reverse that… but only on their newest phones.

Since the release of the XV6800’s first firmware update, Verizon has been locking down the GPS on their smartphones. Initially, Verizon said that this was consistent with their new Any App, Any Device policy. Verizon representatives told PhoneNews.com that software could be certified at no charge for use with the GPS chips inside of Windows Mobile phones.

However, after a year of saying that… Verizon failed to approve one application, other than VZ Navigator. It became quite clear that Verizon was either unable, or unwilling to approve even free programs like Google Maps and Windows Live Search for Mobile. PhoneNews.com has led reporting on hacker workarounds, which have unlocked the GPS on the XV6800 (HTC Titan) and XV6900 (HTC Vogue).

Worse for Verizon, competitors Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T all have left GPS fully open on their smartphones, for any third-party application to use freely. Most recently, Verizon un-crippled GPS on BlackBerry OS 4.5-updated devices, after receiving significant criticism for the same reasons.

Now, Verizon Wireless has said that they will issue firmware updates for the HTC Touch Pro, Samsung Omnia i910, and Samsung Sage. However, Verizon has not commented on if they will officially unlock the GPS on the XV6800 and XV6900, both of which currently have GPS crippled only to VZ Navigator.

It is also unclear if Verizon will unlock the GPS in older models, which carry the hardware for GPS, but never was enabled on. This includes the Samsung i730, i830, HTC XV6600 and XV6700. It is unlikely that Verizon will ever enable GPS on these phones, however they do have the firmware to enable GPS right now on the XV6800 and XV6900.

Thanks, JASTECH ô¿ô

[Guest M Moogle]

umm, ok thats exactly what i just explained, if you start the one app searching for satellites THEN GPSTest, the first app will start acquiring gps data, but once you SWITCH back to either googlemaps or live search it dies since GPSTest exits. which is why i asked if there is a file that gpstest is writing that another app can go off of.

No, that's not what I'm describing. What I did was the following:

1) Installed GPSServer and my hacked-up dll files

2) Start Google Maps

3) Click "Use GPS" and then as quick as possible click on the icon to Skywing's GPSTest program

4) Click back to Google Maps quickly

5) GPSTest will never appear to open, and Google Maps will start getting valid location information from GPSServer

6) Fire up MS Live Search, it will also get GPS data

Basically any app will get GPS data at this point (well, I haven't gotten TomTom to work yet) - however as soon as the last program that needs GPS data is closed, GPSServer closes itself and won't work again. Whats probably happening is that GPSServer and GPSTest are getting their wires crossed when initializing the hardware/firmware - and the result is that GPSServer sorta works for a little while. Its not perfect: as can be seen in the log file I posted it doesn't always decrypt sucessfully and does other wierd things.

What you're describing is almost exactly what we found a few weeks ago when playing around with VZNav:

1) Have something request GPS access

2) Open VZNav and have it send a location request

3) Applications in the background will see GPS satellites and data, but the data is bogus because its encrypted

4) As soon VZNav looses focus, those background apps loose any GPS "data" as well since VZNav isn't sending the challenge/reponses to/from the GPS hardware/firmware.

Unless you've also replaced the various GPS .dll files on your Omnia, what youre seeing is a variaton of the above, except with GPSTest initializing the GPS instead of VZNav.

Skywing's GPSTest is an EXTREMELY minimal program that does the following: Handshakes with the GPS hardware/firmware and decrypts the location info - thats it. It can't be configured or write files anywhere, or do anything else of use.

[Guest paradizelost]

No, that's not what I'm describing. What I did was the following:

1) Installed GPSServer and my hacked-up dll files

2) Start Google Maps

3) Click "Use GPS" and then as quick as possible click on the icon to Skywing's GPSTest program

4) Click back to Google Maps quickly

5) GPSTest will never appear to open, and Google Maps will start getting valid location information from GPSServer

6) Fire up MS Live Search, it will also get GPS data

Basically any app will get GPS data at this point (well, I haven't gotten TomTom to work yet) - however as soon as the last program that needs GPS data is closed, GPSServer closes itself and won't work again. Whats probably happening is that GPSServer and GPSTest are getting their wires crossed when initializing the hardware/firmware - and the result is that GPSServer sorta works for a little while. Its not perfect: as can be seen in the log file I posted it doesn't always decrypt sucessfully and does other wierd things.

What you're describing is almost exactly what we found a few weeks ago when playing around with VZNav:

1) Have something request GPS access

2) Open VZNav and have it send a location request

3) Applications in the background will see GPS satellites and data, but the data is bogus because its encrypted

4) As soon VZNav looses focus, those background apps loose any GPS "data" as well since VZNav isn't sending the challenge/reponses to/from the GPS hardware/firmware.

Unless you've also replaced the various GPS .dll files on your Omnia, what youre seeing is a variaton of the above, except with GPSTest initializing the GPS instead of VZNav.

Skywing's GPSTest is an EXTREMELY minimal program that does the following: Handshakes with the GPS hardware/firmware and decrypts the location info - thats it. It can't be configured or write files anywhere, or do anything else of use.

I'm having trouble getting this to work, however it's because the damn gpstest keeps giving me "failed to initialize GPSSEC"