UNLOCKING CDMA I910 GPS - please help us!

[Guest maldonj1]

i went ahead and sent him the same email just to add to his inbox

[Guest Tom S]

I've been watching this post since it started, I have been out of contract for over and year and waiting to buy a phone. I still have the $100 credit coming to me for a phone. It's amazing how much the have dropped the new every two credit. I seem to have a hard time pulling the trigger on this at this point, now I'm torn between getting the phone, which I can for free at this point, or waiting to see if this gets solve by verizon or someone much smarter than me on this forum. If I were to buy it now I would want to do the tethering mod and maybe one or two others from here. I'm guessing that would cause a problem, when and if Verizon does fix this and the phone needs updated.. Then the is the deal with a newer version of WM coming out.... A few posts back was a very well worded and thought out letter!!

Tom

[Guest joex51]

I have been following this thread for a while, and thanks to everyone who is working on this to find a solution!

Since I heard that they were supposed to unlock the GPS in the 1st Quarter of 2009 I decided to Ask the source directly.

Here is the email I sent and the respone I received:

My Email:

Dear Sir,

I recently purchased the Samsung Omnia, and was wondering what the planned schedule was for unlocking the GPS on this Device. I know that you have recently unlocked the GPS on BlackBerry phones so that they can use Microsoft Live search and Google maps.

I base my decision to buy this phone based on the statement given by you or your office about unlocking the GPS on this device.

This is not an email to harass you and I am sure you get plenty of those everyday this is just an email wondering if the plan to unlock the GPS was still on schedule for the 1^st quarter of 2009.

Thank you for your time and any answers you can provide me with,

The response:

Thanks for your e mail.

What was stated previously was that the release of the updated software is scheduled sometime before the close of the first half of 2009.

Unfortunately, I do not have a specific timeline, but please understand that this is all contingent on the manufacturer providing the updated GPS software that would be tested and approved for release by Verizon Wireless. Once we have the software for testing, it will take some time to evalaute and approve for release.

I hope you find this helpful.

Regards,

Steve Schwed

Verizon Wireless

HQ Executive Relations Supervisor

e-mail [email protected]

I was going to reply to his email and Blast him until i re read the statement and it does say the 1st half of 2009.

But when I purchased the Phone I asked the Sales Rep Directly he in turn asked the "TECHIE" on duty and he said he was told "it was going well and should be out either late 1st quarter or Earliy in the 2nd quarter of this year"

I probably should have replied with "The phone comes from the manufacturer with unlocked GPS until Verizon made them Lock it down"

I wonder if I should send an email to Richard Blumenthal the CT Attorney General he likes to cause Verizon and ATT lots of pain. I am sure this is something he love to get into, how they Intentionally Cripple a device so they can change money to uncripple it, for use with their own service.

Oh and VZ does require you to purchase a Data Plan to buy this Phone The same way ATT requires it with the iPhone. No big deal for me I was getting the service anyway.

Edited February 27, 2009 by joex51

[Guest phatphat1]

I have been following this thread for a while, and thanks to everyone who is working on this to find a solution!

Since I heard that they were supposed to unlock the GPS in the 1st Quarter of 2009 I decided to Ask the source directly.

Here is the email I sent and the respone I received:

My Email:

Dear Sir,

I recently purchased the Samsung Omnia, and was wondering what the planned schedule was for unlocking the GPS on this Device. I know that you have recently unlocked the GPS on BlackBerry phones so that they can use Microsoft Live search and Google maps.

I base my decision to buy this phone based on the statement given by you or your office about unlocking the GPS on this device.

This is not an email to harass you and I am sure you get plenty of those everyday this is just an email wondering if the plan to unlock the GPS was still on schedule for the 1^st quarter of 2009.

Thank you for your time and any answers you can provide me with,

The response:

Thanks for your e mail.

What was stated previously was that the release of the updated software is scheduled sometime before the close of the first half of 2009.

Unfortunately, I do not have a specific timeline, but please understand that this is all contingent on the manufacturer providing the updated GPS software that would be tested and approved for release by Verizon Wireless. Once we have the software for testing, it will take some time to evalaute and approve for release.

I hope you find this helpful.

Regards,

Steve Schwed

Verizon Wireless

HQ Executive Relations Supervisor

e-mail [email protected]

I was going to reply to his email and Blast him until i re read the statement and it does say the 1st half of 2009.

But when I purchased the Phone I asked the Sales Rep Directly he in turn asked the "TECHIE" on duty and he said he was told "it was going well and should be out either late 1st quarter or Earliy in the 2nd quarter of this year"

I probably should have replied with "The phone comes from the manufacturer with unlocked GPS until Verizon made them Lock it down"

I wonder if I should send an email to Richard Blumenthal the CT Attorney General he likes to cause Verizon and ATT lots of pain. I am sure this is something he love to get into, how they Intentionally Cripple a device so they can change money to uncripple it, for use with their own service.

Oh and VZ does require you to purchase a Data Plan to buy this Phone The same way ATT requires it with the iPhone. No big deal for me I was getting the service anyway.

Well the annoying this is that at first Mr. Schwed said that a fix would be available in the 1st Q of 2009, and now that's become the 1st half of 2009 - i.e Q2. By that time, another PDA will be probably be released by verizon and then they will finally unlock the GPS in the Omnia to try to keep it popular.

I've returned mine now as it is a requisite the I can use decent GPS software (tomtom) and not their terrible VZnav. Verizon are so Dumb and losing a fair amount of customers over this. The omnia is truly the only phone specs wise that beats the iphone, but verizon have just totally fumbled it by limiting the GPS. The other crazy thing is that they are pushing the BB storm so hard marketing wise, and it's recognised amongst many even casual users that it's a POS and doesn;t work well. They should be pushing the omnia.

Comon people, there has to be a way to unlock this - it's just software/firmware. I wish I knew more about ROM cooking and programming. Has anyone asked the guys at XDA for help? I know they only usually deal with HTC's but I'm sure a lot of people on Modaco have helped them in the past too?

[Guest Anubis119]

I noticed that gpssrv.exe refers to a registry entry titled "ServerLogFile" that is undocumented. I've created the entry in an attempt to have it create a data dump, but have been unsuccessful. Does anyone know if there are any other ways to get a data dump from the GPSServer application?

Edited February 28, 2009 by Anubis119

[Guest M Moogle]

I noticed that gpssrv.exe refers to a registry entry titled "ServerLogFile" that is undocumented. I've created the entry in an attempt to have it create a data dump, but have been unsuccessful. Does anyone know if there are any other ways to get a data dump from the GPSServer application?

Yup, did that awhile back - see http://www.modaco.com/index.php?s=&sho...st&p=946063

When it works, you get a crapload of debugging information about location, encryption keys, etc. Unfortunately there isn't really a reliable way of getting gpssrv.exe to work (its possible to get it to work ~50% of the time by firing up gpstest.exe at the same time - search the thread for more info).

Edited February 28, 2009 by M Moogle

[Guest aleis]

can anyone do anything with the new sdk released by samsung?

see at wmpoweruser.com

sent from my phone

[Guest Anubis119]

Thanks for the response, although I'm still unable to get it to write the log file. I tried setting it to the value you stated in the prior post ("\gpslog.txt") and also "\Program Files\GPSServer\gpslog.txt", neither of which would produce anything. I believe that gpssrv.exe isn't even being executed -- I followed the instructions included with the zip file (placing the 2 dlls and exe in \Program Files\GPSServer and the gpsapi.dll into the GoogleMaps program folder) following with a soft reset.

I made some modifications to gpssrv.exe using IDA and another editor and am attempting to test them, but it doesn't seem to be executing (neither the modified or original gpssrv.exe). I'll try placing the dlls directly into \Windows here in just a little bit.

I do have a question on gpsapi.dll though -- I assume the one in the i910 is different from that in the xv6800 that is provided in the gpsserver.zip file, correct? I've been searching through this thread to find these answers, but with all the email postings, it's pretty long ;] If that is the case, I'll work on updating the i910 gpsapi.dll to match the modifications made for the gpsserver application tonight.

[Guest WoZZeR999]

I used 'compare it!' to compare them. I also used IDA on the i910 gpsapi, and the GPSOpenDevice function is completly different. The i910 goes through lots of checks first (I only know some basic assembly), while the Valhalla one just o directly into the function (from what it looks like to me).

[Guest dwallersv]

Well the annoying this is that at first Mr. Schwed said that a fix would be available in the 1st Q of 2009, and now that's become the 1st half of 2009 - i.e Q2. By that time, another PDA will be probably be released by verizon and then they will finally unlock the GPS in the Omnia to try to keep it popular.

I've returned mine now as it is a requisite the I can use decent GPS software (tomtom) and not their terrible VZnav. Verizon are so Dumb and losing a fair amount of customers over this. The omnia is truly the only phone specs wise that beats the iphone, but verizon have just totally fumbled it by limiting the GPS. The other crazy thing is that they are pushing the BB storm so hard marketing wise, and it's recognised amongst many even casual users that it's a POS and doesn;t work well. They should be pushing the omnia.

Comon people, there has to be a way to unlock this - it's just software/firmware. I wish I knew more about ROM cooking and programming. Has anyone asked the guys at XDA for help? I know they only usually deal with HTC's but I'm sure a lot of people on Modaco have helped them in the past too?

I disagree strongly with what you decided to do, and think you made a huge mistake (remember we're talking opinions here -- no one's cosmically "right").

You can have exactly the capability, accuracy, and functionality that is coming with the built-in GPS by spending peanuts to get an external BT GPS reciever. There is a very legitimate point to be made on principle that no one should have to spend another $35 just to use GPS on a phone that has it built in, and that's fine if the principle is that important to you, I guess.

From my perspective, it's a relatively minor annoyance to have to haul around my BT GPS on my keychain. It's hugely valuable to me to be able to get full GPS functionality right now out of Google Maps and iGO8. Everything else about the phone makes it more than worth it. I'd take this perspective even if they were never going to unlock the GPS.

This extortion by Verizon pisses me off as much as it does everyone else. However, it's worth considering who you're punishing by dumping the Omnia rather than spend a smidge more and solve your GPS problems with a very adequate workaround, and continue to enjoy and benefit from all the other features of this great device. Verizon doesn't care that you returned it, so the only person paying any price is you -- now without an Omnia.

[Guest Anubis119]

I noticed that a while back some people mentioned that as long as the gpstest program was running, they were able to get a fix -- I made some modifications to it and can't seem to reproduce any of these results. I keep getting placed either off the coast of Africa or somewhere in the Pacific. For now I'll post my modified gpstest.exe for some people to play with (it no longer closes - use task switcher to kill it). I don't think this will necessarily get anyone anywhere, but it's something to throw on the table.

While I poke around these dll files, I'm also tinkering with the idea of modifying several of the dlls to remove the encryption parts instead, as mentioned in Skywing's document.

gpstest_mod.zip

[Guest WoZZeR999]

I was looking at the GPSTest program, and it looked almost like it was a .exe version of a dll. It made similar calls the DLL made, but it only required oemgpsONE.dll.

[Guest M Moogle]

I noticed that a while back some people mentioned that as long as the gpstest program was running, they were able to get a fix -- I made some modifications to it and can't seem to reproduce any of these results. I keep getting placed either off the coast of Africa or somewhere in the Pacific. For now I'll post my modified gpstest.exe for some people to play with (it no longer closes - use task switcher to kill it). I don't think this will necessarily get anyone anywhere, but it's something to throw on the table.

While I poke around these dll files, I'm also tinkering with the idea of modifying several of the dlls to remove the encryption parts instead, as mentioned in Skywing's document.

Awhile back I had posted a zip file containing modified gpsserver dll files that were based off the Omnia's dlls and not the XV6800's, but I removed it as too many people had no idea what to do with them and were screwing up their phones. With them I was able to get gpssrv.exe to run and get data when running gpstest at the same time. I think the reason you might be having issues is because you're using the dll files that come with gpsserver, which are based off the xv6800s. I've re-attached my edited versions to this post.

The timing is tricky, you basically have to tell Google Maps (or whatever GPS program) to use the GPS and then within a second or so, open up GPSTest. Usually if you got the timing right, GPSServer will work and pass valid data back go Google Maps. If I were to guess, GPSServer isn't initializing something quite right, but GPSTest does, and by starting them nearly simultaneously GPSTest does the correct initialization, so then GPSServer can do its decryption thing.

Since you seem to be much better at using IDA than I am, can you also take a look at the rilcdma files I've attached? They are the dlls that interface to the CDMA radio in the phone. The first file is from a Samsung ACE, a recent-ish 3G phone on Sprint. Its GPS is unlocked. The second file is from the Omnia, where the GPS is of course locked. Looking at the files there are a ton of GPS encryption methods and setup that only exist in the Omnia version. Hopefully this means that the encryption is done in software, and if not, could maybe help us figure out exactly where it is.

PLEASE don't download this unless you know what you're doing (its not going to magically fix your GPS)!

gpsserveromniafiles.rar

rilcdmafiles.rar

[Guest Anubis119]

Thanks for uploading the modified dlls for me, it will save me a bit of time :]

The gpstest app definitely seems to unlock the GPS for other applications like you stated -- my thoughts though are that if two programs are running at the same time (gpstest and gpsserver), wouldn't one get tossed erroneous data because they're both fighting for the challenge handshake? Would it be of any value if I modified gpstest to only initialize the GPS and remove its ability to receive the positioning data itself?

I haven't looked at those files yet, but I will as soon as I get back on in the morning.

Edit:

I've gotten it to run gpssrv.exe, but I still can't get it to log anything. I've tried "\gpslog.txt" and "\\gpslog.txt" -- any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Edited March 1, 2009 by Anubis119

[Guest the v]

My first experiment

Main menu/settins/personal/phone/services/gps

select change settings location on (to activate gps on calls)

open google maps

menu/ use gps

press the call button make a phone call wait like good 30 seconds on the line and switch back to Google maps it will show your location for a few seconds with a circle and then just disappear in seconds (My location is accurate)

Oh and you may get a message in red in your display emergency mode only

Edited March 1, 2009 by the v

[Guest M Moogle]

Thanks for uploading the modified dlls for me, it will save me a bit of time :]

The gpstest app definitely seems to unlock the GPS for other applications like you stated -- my thoughts though are that if two programs are running at the same time (gpstest and gpsserver), wouldn't one get tossed erroneous data because they're both fighting for the challenge handshake? Would it be of any value if I modified gpstest to only initialize the GPS and remove its ability to receive the positioning data itself?

I haven't looked at those files yet, but I will as soon as I get back on in the morning.

Edit:

I've gotten it to run gpssrv.exe, but I still can't get it to log anything. I've tried "\gpslog.txt" and "\\gpslog.txt" -- any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I'm not sure why you're not getting any logging - it worked right away for me the next time gpssrv.exe was called. Is the registry key case-sensitive or anything like that? Is it even creating a file at all (empty or anything)?

I'm also pretty sure that gpsserver and gpstest ARE fighting over the hardware handshake - you can see in the log I posted a while back that there are weird encryption and hardware initilization errors randomly occuring throughout the file. Its probably because gpssrv and gpstest are steping on eachother's toes. If you could modify gpstest to not continue to access the GPS once initializing it, I think that would probably stop the problem.

[Guest Anubis119]

My first experiment

Main menu/settins/personal/phone/services/gps

select change settings location on (to activate gps on calls)

open google maps

menu/ use gps

press the call button make a phone call wait like good 30 seconds on the line and switch back to Google maps it will show your location for a few seconds with a circle and then just disappear in seconds (My location is accurate)

Oh and you may get a message in red in your display emergency mode only

This sounds like an interesting method. Assuming it works every time and throughout an entire call, I wonder how difficult it would be to spoof an outbound call to convince the phone there is a call but really isn't. I'll see if I can reproduce the results and try this today.

I'm not sure why you're not getting any logging - it worked right away for me the next time gpssrv.exe was called. Is the registry key case-sensitive or anything like that? Is it even creating a file at all (empty or anything)?

I'm also pretty sure that gpsserver and gpstest ARE fighting over the hardware handshake - you can see in the log I posted a while back that there are weird encryption and hardware initilization errors randomly occuring throughout the file. Its probably because gpssrv and gpstest are steping on eachother's toes. If you could modify gpstest to not continue to access the GPS once initializing it, I think that would probably stop the problem.

Actually, I believe after a long needed few hours of rest I have located the user error ;] Apparently I somehow created the string in another key in the registry...

I will also make additional modifications to gpstest this afternoon and see if it provides any results.

Edit:

I apologize for any redundant data postings, but in the event this has not been posted before:

I ran gpstest and gpssrv (both the original version and my modified version) and compared all three log results.

In the first packet received, there appears to be a header of 00 00 00 00 followed by a changing byte, a 17 byte challenge, and a constant 6 byte value. If I had to guess, I'd say the first two bytes of the last 6 byte segment, since they are always 00, are terminators or separators. The following DWORD appears to identify a constant value, such as a device ID.

Below are the comparisons, with the numbers removed and replaced with "??" for values that change constantly, "CC" for the constant values, and "XX" for values that are wrong with the separate sections separated by a period:

Device challenge (gpstest.exe): 00 00 00 00 ?? . ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? . 00 . 00 . CC CC CC CC

Device challenge (gpssrv.exe): 00 00 00 00 ?? . ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? . YY . ZZ . CC XX YY ZZ

For some reason the two bytes and DWORD at the end are different in gpssrv.exe. Everything else in the packet appears to be correct though (as far as I can tell). I'm going to to take a look at if the data is raw or decrypted here in just a minute.

Edit2: I found a relation between the values above, changing some from XX to YY and ZZ to signify a duplication I discovered within several log files.

Edited March 1, 2009 by Anubis119

[Guest tylerstud25]

I have been following a bunch of stuff on this and i've tried a few things on my i910 when i open google maps it will find my location within about 100 yards or so but when i tell it to use gps it searches and says that it cant find a gps receiver. also vznav says that there is a problem with initializing the gps.

i'm not sure if i changed something or not in the registry.

also does any one know what com the gps hardware is on or i guess the list that each is on

Edited March 1, 2009 by tylerstud25

[Guest Anubis119]

I have been following a bunch of stuff on this and i've tried a few things on my i910 when i open google maps it will find my location within about 100 yards or so but when i tell it to use gps it searches and says that it cant find a gps receiver. also vznav says that there is a problem with initializing the gps.

I'm not sure which version of Google Maps you have, but the latest version added support for identifying your position based on cellular towers. I would think it's either that or a cached position, unless you happen to have an unlocked i910 or a custom ROM. As for VZ Navigator saying it can't initialize the GPS, it sounds like you've swapped out a few dlls and what not -- it sounds like you tried some of the ideas posted in this thread.

When I use Putty, it points out that it is on COM8, but I can't seem to get that to work with any other programs, such as Google Maps.

[Guest BamDastard]

It's nice to see some people actually working on this again. I was sure this thread would just turn into an e-mail campaign. If I weren't such a tuckfard I'd pitch in and help, but I'm pretty sure I'd just break things. I will keep working on WAD2 skins while you guys try to figure this out.

For all the members still fighting the good fight on unlocking this, here's my attaboy!

[Guest rapcon]

I noticed that a while back some people mentioned that as long as the gpstest program was running, they were able to get a fix -- I made some modifications to it and can't seem to reproduce any of these results. I keep getting placed either off the coast of Africa or somewhere in the Pacific. For now I'll post my modified gpstest.exe for some people to play with (it no longer closes - use task switcher to kill it). I don't think this will necessarily get anyone anywhere, but it's something to throw on the table.

While I poke around these dll files, I'm also tinkering with the idea of modifying several of the dlls to remove the encryption parts instead, as mentioned in Skywing's document.

One thing I have notice about your mod is the frequency of the correct coordinates being returned is greater. Using Google Maps, it actually rendered my location, goes blank image wise, then puts me back at my location. It is about a 50/50 on off situation. Best of all, gpstest does not stop running. I picked up 7 SATs inside my home.

Edited March 2, 2009 by rapcon

[Guest Anubis119]

Since the DLL files on my i910 are currently swapped out, can someone (preferably 2-3 people) post the following information from the gpstest.exe dump? I'm concerned that some of my data may be misleading, but if it isn't, then at least I'm in the right area.

I need to know about the last 6 bytes in the Device Challenge data packet (shown as the AA's and YY's below). In all of my logs, the first 2 bytes of it (the AA's) are 00, followed by a constant device ID (the YY's). Does anyone's dump look any different? If so, can you tell me what the values for the AA's are in your dump? (Make sure to check that that particular handshake event resulted in getting accurate position information please.)

Example (Device Challenge): xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx AA AA YY YY YY YY

It's appearing that (as suspected) the reason it's not working is due to the initial handshake -- All of my logs are showing that if the values in both of the AA's are not 00 (they will in fact be the equal to the last two bytes of the following DWORD), something went wrong with the initial connection and/or handshake to the GPS and it will continue to output useless information until the values returned in the AA's are equal to 0.

Edit:

M Moogle: Is the stgps.dll included in that zip the stock copy for the i910 (the date makes it appear to be the stock copy)? I noticed the date on gpsapi.dll is back in September when gpssrv was written for the XV6800. I'm curious if the changes done for the XV6800 need to be redone using the i910's dll (just as oemgpsOne.dll)

Edited March 2, 2009 by Anubis119

[Guest jakedoza]

Ive been following this for a little while now since I just got my i910 last week. I was just about to switch carriers to T-mobile just on the fact that VZ makes you get a data package with this phone that has wifi capabilities.. that aside.. I then found out that the GPS is locked as well... I'm starting to hate VZ and Ive been with them for over 6 years. I guess I cant complain too much since I got the phone for free.. On to the important stuff though...

I dont know if anyone has found this out, but I thought this was interesting.. I installed iGO8 on my phone and also tried the GPS gate software.. I did the reg fix to show the external gps I thought I would mess around with the different comm ports.. I noticed that if I left the comm port on 8 and unchecked the "manage GPS automatically" that iGO would not even find the gps.. even when I set it in iGO for com8.. When I checked this box iGO found the gps on com8 just fine.. that tells me that something in the reg is controlling the com port and the gps.. but what??

Edited March 2, 2009 by jakedoza

[Guest DeepBlueEditor]

By that time, another PDA will be probably be released by verizon and then they will finally unlock the GPS in the Omnia to try to keep it popular.

Traditional US and other manufacturing thinking is to keep you moving from one device/platform to the next so I am betting if they don't release this by the end of the first half, it will be abandon completly and the promise to open this up will turn into a promise to make future phones unlocked but this one, vaporware.

I hope I'm wrong but in 6 months this phone will be old hat and likely unsupported, like everything else in tech circles.

S.

[Guest WoZZeR999]

Anubis: I'm having problems getting GPSTest to run now (I had to modify it because I don't have a memory card to save the log to), it runs every once and a while, but it's not that reliable. I only got 2 device challenges from the log, neither time it ran, but the "A's" were 52 76, and the Y's were also constant. Once it runs correctly again, I will take a loog at the "A's" again.

Edit: Looking at the log from it when it was working (didn't get a fix because I'm at work and inside a building), I see a lot of:

oGPSSetDeviceParam( GPS_DEVICE_PARAM_GPS_START_FIX ) failed - 00000006

StartFix failed![/code]




This time when it ran, the "A's" were 40 76, while the Y's stayed the same.



When the "A's" were 00 00 later in the log, I got

[code]oGPSGetPosition failed - 2000010a

I left GPSTest running for 5 minutes, and it looks like it lost it's device challenge mid way through (not sure if exact time since it is not time stamped).

Edited March 2, 2009 by WoZZeR999