Verizon i910 (Omnia) aGPS Unlock Effort

[Guest dmk679]

The registry settings that are being posted in this thread...out of curiosity, what app is using them, particularly if your GPS software is talking directly to the serial port and Windows is not managing the GPS?

See first post, or here - the registry entries are from the i900. It is unknown if/how the registry settings are being used on the i910.

[Guest bluetooth_decay]

See first post, or here - the registry entries are from the i900. It is unknown if/how the registry settings are being used on the i910.

OK, thanks. Makes me wonder, then, what they are for on the i900 -- maybe that GPS_Xtra program?

I reflashed today, did _not_ enable the "GPS Settings" control panel applet in the registry this time, and for some reason the GPS is working much better -- Google Maps gets 7 or 8 sats (up from the normal 4 or 5), and it holds lock well under the roof of a car, which formerly was not possible. Much as I'd like to get sub-20-second locks, I'm really reluctant to fix what is less broken than it ever has been :)

[Guest dmk679]

Does anyone have gpsapi.dll and gpsid.dll from non-verizon omnia? Please post.

[Guest code600]

Ok I was wondering will agps work if my phone is flashed to metro pcs network? I have cf03 and cooked rom. I do have google gps working but it takes like 5-10 mins to get a lock. I also have internet and everything working so is this possible on metro network?

Well I tried it and when I click on my location it does not find any satelites but for some reason it located my location in China wtf? I live in California why does it locate me in china?

Edited August 5, 2009 by code600

[Guest camxposure]

how do we enable the gps? I just got the omnia on march 26th, my google maps won't even lock onto a gps signal. Is this because of the agps?

GOT MY GPS WORKING GREAT- don't know for sure if the BAF GPS toggle was what did it- but I would reccomend it to anyone who updated-

GPS worked since I had installed it

my question aside from GPS is DRAG SELECTION in the File Explorer in non operative after the update I had noticed- it's a pain to drag one file at a time to install items else where- is there something to fix this??

also- I keep seeing things on lock code sequences to be entered in dialer- my US verizon Omnia does not allow this that I know of- it tries to dial out the number- I guessing there is no real advantage by doing those things on my particular phone- anyway...

[Guest missing2]

Ok I was wondering will agps work if my phone is flashed to metro pcs network? I have cf03 and cooked rom. I do have google gps working but it takes like 5-10 mins to get a lock. I also have internet and everything working so is this possible on metro network?

Well I tried it and when I click on my location it does not find any satelites but for some reason it located my location in China wtf? I live in California why does it locate me in china?

my omnia is on metro too and my agps used to say i was in Lithuania. I flashed to Adrynalyne's 3.0 rom and its been showing my real location ever since.

[Guest dmk679]

My hypothesis is that we have a locked down gpsid.dll that does not retrieve any/all nvram settings (ie entries for gpsone using qpst). Vznav goes through lbsdriver.dll and not gpsid.

I have attached a zip file containing several gpsid variants from htc and previous vzw i910 images. Overwriting the xip gpsid with one of these files does not work (procedure: copy file into \windows, rename to gpsid.dll and soft reset) . Reversing the files in IDA indicates similar file structure, incl imports/exports.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to use an alternate gpsid.dll? I tried regsvrce but that did not work. Any guidance would be helpful.

Registry settings for gpsid include at a minimum:

\hklm\drivers\builtin\gpsid\

\hklm\system\currentcontrolset\gps intermediate driver\multiplexer\activedevice\

gpsid.zip

[Guest Rob V]

Wow... there is definitely something working here! Figured I'd post my results for all of you who know better what's going on behind the scenes:

Background: I'm running Adrynalyne's latest WM 6.5 ROM (based on the official VZW CF03 upgrade). While my GPS did work, it was not consistent and took several minutes to achieve a lock through Google Maps, iGO8, or GPSToday. If I first locked the GPS outdoors, I could usually bring it indoors and maintain that lock. I never got more than 4-5 active satellites, indoors or out. (Frankly, I have not seen any real differences in GPS functionality between the 'unofficial' CC20 ROM and CF03.)

Today, I did the following:

• Downloaded and installed the three files found in qualcom_gps_tools.zip. I also downloaded a copy of xtra.bin and put a copy in both the root and \windows directories.
  
• Downloaded gps.txt and merged the entries into my registry (they did not exist previously).
  
• Ran GPSTool0813.exe. By default, it expects to find the GPS on COM4. So to make things easy, I used the 'External GPS' control panel applet to reset the GPS accordingly (it was formerly on COM8). 'Manage GPS automatically' is also selected.
  
• Clicked 'Open' on the Settings panel of GPSTool0813. For some reason, this always produces the error "Failed to send NMEA command". (Does anyone know why this happens?)
  
• Pressed OK to clear the error dialog, and the window on the Settings panel immediately began displaying and scrolling commands.
  
• Switched to the Satellite tab, and within 10-15 seconds I had acquired locks on nine satellites! Better yet, this was all happening indoors!
  
• Flipped over to Google Maps, and immediately had a lock on the same nine satellites.
  

So this sequence is definitely invoking an aGPS capability that's far better than whatever is being provided in the regular CF03 ROM update.

I also tried running setgps.exe. After confirming that I had a Qualcomm GPS chip, the screen cleared and the program exited. I couldn't see that it made any real difference one way or the other - and am not even sure exactly what it's supposed to be doing?

Finally, I tried running GPSXtra.exe. After I enabled XTRA, it apparently attempted to download a new copy of xtra.bin -- but it always times out without success. It also seems to be doing something funky with my EVDO connection, because as soon as the program times out my EVDO is reset and reconnected. GPSXtra does appear to see the copy of xtra.bin that I had manually downloaded, because it displays the date/time of that file as well as the valid time remaining. I'm assuming that means I have to manually download an updated copy of xtra.bin before this one expires?

Anyway, that's what I experienced. Obviously, I think we're really on to something here - but I'm not sure whether I'm doing the right things since there are no instructions on what the various options in these programs do. All I can say is that if we could get the functionality of GPSTool0813 to be automatically executed in the background whenever a GPS-enabled program attempts to open the GPS port, things would be wonderful! Is it possible to reverse-engineer this to understand what it's doing?

Even if I have to manually run GPSTool and clear the error dialog every time I need to use GPS, this is still a huge step forward. Within a matter of seconds, I'm locking on way more sats than I've ever had before -- and it's even working indoors!

[Guest code600]

my omnia is on metro too and my agps used to say i was in Lithuania. I flashed to Adrynalyne's 3.0 rom and its been showing my real location ever since.

My rom is flashed to CF03 and then to Adrynalyne's vanilla 6.5 rom. And locates me in china.

[Guest Itlooksfast]

Yea im having the same problem too....running bgills m2d lite V1.5. like 40% of the time it would place me somewhere I dont even know. At first it was working great...then lately it was acting up. Now it takes longer for me to get a lock even with full service bars. So I dunno whats going on but hopefully this effort will help.

[Guest dmk679]

My hypothesis is that we have a locked down gpsid.dll that does not retrieve any/all nvram settings (ie entries for gpsone using qpst). Vznav goes through lbsdriver.dll and not gpsid.

I have attached a zip file containing several gpsid variants from htc and previous vzw i910 images. Overwriting the xip gpsid with one of these files does not work (procedure: copy file into \windows, rename to gpsid.dll and soft reset) . Reversing the files in IDA indicates similar file structure, incl imports/exports.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to use an alternate gpsid.dll? I tried regsvrce but that did not work. Any guidance would be helpful.

Registry settings for gpsid include at a minimum:

\hklm\drivers\builtin\gpsid\

\hklm\system\currentcontrolset\gps intermediate driver\multiplexer\activedevice\

Been reading about winmo security, it will not load an alternate gpsid...but it should load the driver if it is cooked into a rom. Any chefs willing to try gpsid_htc.dll in a rom to test for agps functionality (rename gpsid_htc.dll to gpsid.dll in the rom)? I attached the telus gpsid and gpsapi dll's.

update: blazingwolf said he would try some of the gpsid's in a rom...fingers crossed

gpsapitelus.zip

Edited August 9, 2009 by dmk679

[Guest ray_420]

dont know if anyone has tried this but i think it helps alot i am using i900 gps_xtra.exe and hct quickgps. with some moded i900 ril reg settings. what i did was changed the htc guickgps reg. settings to download to my device and when i open the i900 gps_xtra.exe file it detects the xtra.bin file that htc guickgps has downloaded. i get under 1 min cold locks and almost instant warm locks. i dont know if this is all thats doing it cause i have tried alot to get quicker gps locks. please try and let me know if this helps.

[Guest xenspidey]

Been reading about winmo security, it will not load an alternate gpsid...but it should load the driver if it is cooked into a rom. Any chefs willing to try gpsid_htc.dll in a rom to test for agps functionality (rename gpsid_htc.dll to gpsid.dll in the rom)? I attached the telus gpsid and gpsapi dll's.

update: blazingwolf said he would try some of the gpsid's in a rom...fingers crossed

Any news on this? I may have to just start cooking myself!

[Guest dmk679]

Any news on this? I may have to just start cooking myself!

wolf did not try them all out yet (in reference to the gpsid.dll variations)

Edited August 23, 2009 by dmk679

[Guest bhuether]

Trying to follow this thread...

Couple questions:

1) Does the first post contain the relevant info for aGPS functionality?

2) Are the posts regarding BAF GPS Toggle related, or does that simply apply to turning GPS on?

3) Since aGPS requires network access, is there an easy way to switch back to regular GPS, or does that switching happen automatically?

thanks,

brian

[Guest Silic0nJ3sus]

Trying to follow this thread...

Couple questions:

1) Does the first post contain the relevant info for aGPS functionality?

2) Are the posts regarding BAF GPS Toggle related, or does that simply apply to turning GPS on?

3) Since aGPS requires network access, is there an easy way to switch back to regular GPS, or does that switching happen automatically?

thanks,

brian

Since Verizon has officially released the CF03 update, this thread is no longer relevant. CF03 unlocked the GPS on Verizon's i910. Visit the pinned "Star HERE" thread in the i910 specific forum to learn more about it and to learn how to update your phone to CF03 if you haven't done so already.

[Guest xenspidey]

Since Verizon has officially released the CF03 update, this thread is no longer relevant. CF03 unlocked the GPS on Verizon's i910. Visit the pinned "Star HERE" thread in the i910 specific forum to learn more about it and to learn how to update your phone to CF03 if you haven't done so already.

Silic0nJ3sus - That's not entirely accurate. Yes Verizon did open up certain parts of aGPS (that's why you get the tower triangulation with Google maps), and this is also evident with being able to get nearly instantaneous locks with VZ Navigator. What we are trying to do is get aGPS completely unlocked for 3rd party applications.

dmk679 - Do you have those variants? I've actually been cooking myself and wouldn't mind trying out your ideas.

[Guest dmk679]

dmk679 - Do you have those variants? I've actually been cooking myself and wouldn't mind trying out your ideas.

Various gpsid variations attached. Let me know how it works out.

gpsid.zip

gpsapitelus.zip

[Guest bhuether]

Trying to figure out a conclusion of sorts from this thread. I have downloaded quite a number of items (qpst) and am ready to go through a process, but there seems to be several schools of thought here. One is to just use that GPS Toggle program. Another is to use qpst and some registry settings (which I think also involves manually downloading the xtra.bin file). And towards the end of this thread, there is talk of dlls and programs such as gpsid, gpsid_htc.dll, etc.

Can someone post some instructions for this last school of thought, or if it is a continuation of previous thinking, can someone elaborate?

thanks,

brian

[Guest dmk679]

Trying to figure out a conclusion of sorts from this thread. I have downloaded quite a number of items (qpst) and am ready to go through a process, but there seems to be several schools of thought here. One is to just use that GPS Toggle program. Another is to use qpst and some registry settings (which I think also involves manually downloading the xtra.bin file). And towards the end of this thread, there is talk of dlls and programs such as gpsid, gpsid_htc.dll, etc.

Can someone post some instructions for this last school of thought, or if it is a continuation of previous thinking, can someone elaborate?

thanks,

brian

GPS Toggle keeps the gps "hot" by obtaining a gps lock every X minutes. It runs in the background, therefore battery drain may occur. It is completely separate from aGPS.

QPST (which modifies nvram) and registry changes have worked on other devices to unlock aGPS. At this point, it does not appear that any changes significantly unlock aGPS on i910. There are anecdotal reports that lock times may improve a little, but hard evidence has not been produced.

XTRA.bin file contains satellite positions to improve fix, but again no evidence to suggest improved GPS lock times or aGPS. Similar with other programs that download a file containing empheresis data

The discussion around the DLLs, specifically gpsid and related, ties to QPST and registry above. Disassembly of gpsid files through IDA suggests that the gpsid variation on the i910 device does not interact with registry or nvram changes that are tied to aGPS. Along the same discussion, gpsid files from HTC do have code statements present that suggest interaction with registry and appropriate nvram settings. One cannot overwrite the gpsid.dll XIP on the i910 with a different variant. Unfortunately, the XIP needs to be "baked-in" through the ROM development process. The chances are high that a gpsid from another vendor will not work, unfortunately. If we could find a gpsid variation from another samsung device with aGPS enabled, then we would be in business.

[Guest bhuether]

GPS Toggle keeps the gps "hot" by obtaining a gps lock every X minutes. It runs in the background, therefore battery drain may occur. It is completely separate from aGPS.

QPST (which modifies nvram) and registry changes have worked on other devices to unlock aGPS. At this point, it does not appear that any changes significantly unlock aGPS on i910. There are anecdotal reports that lock times may improve a little, but hard evidence has not been produced.

XTRA.bin file contains satellite positions to improve fix, but again no evidence to suggest improved GPS lock times or aGPS. Similar with other programs that download a file containing empheresis data

The discussion around the DLLs, specifically gpsid and related, ties to QPST and registry above. Disassembly of gpsid files through IDA suggests that the gpsid variation on the i910 device does not interact with registry or nvram changes that are tied to aGPS. Along the same discussion, gpsid files from HTC do have code statements present that suggest interaction with registry and appropriate nvram settings. One cannot overwrite the gpsid.dll XIP on the i910 with a different variant. Unfortunately, the XIP needs to be "baked-in" through the ROM development process. The chances are high that a gpsid from another vendor will not work, unfortunately. If we could find a gpsid variation from another samsung device with aGPS enabled, then we would be in business.

Ok, what about getting the gpsid from the latest i900 ROM? I saw some posts in this thread with various gpsid files but don't think they referenced i900.

thanks,

brian

[Guest xenspidey]

Various gpsid variations attached. Let me know how it works out.

I'm in the kitchen as i type... I'll let you know how it goes.

[Guest urphonesux]

whats the problem here?

im on VZW and i get instant locks EVERYTIME using both gpsgate or Cgps

[Guest xenspidey]

whats the problem here?

im on VZW and i get instant locks EVERYTIME using both gpsgate or Cgps

You shouldn't need to use either of those, that's the issue. If you hard reset you should be able to get instant lock without having to open either of those. And those use battery life, the solution we are trying to reach will unlock aGPS to third party apps without the use of an addtional app.

As for cooking in those gpsid.dll's - i couldn't find any reason to believe that they helped. the only one i could get a lock with was the Telus one. I'm wondering though if there's a way we could get a registry rip of a working telus with aGPS working. that might help

[Guest urphonesux]

You shouldn't need to use either of those, that's the issue. If you hard reset you should be able to get instant lock without having to open either of those. And those use battery life, the solution we are trying to reach will unlock aGPS to third party apps without the use of an addtional app.

As for cooking in those gpsid.dll's - i couldn't find any reason to believe that they helped. the only one i could get a lock with was the Telus one. I'm wondering though if there's a way we could get a registry rip of a working telus with aGPS working. that might help

o okya using gpsgate i havent noticed a battery drain and setting it to start on soft reset, it's invisible and flawless for me, but i think i see what you mean

1 less app right?