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I know this might be a really stupid question but what is a radio and why do i need to flash one when i need to flash a custom ROM?
http://villainrom.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Dictionary#Radio
Radio
The Radio on a Hero is the part of the phone that deals with mobile connections. It handles talking to the GSM/3G network, Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS. The radio contains software that controls how it operates, and newer versions of radio firmware are made available from time to time in #RUU updates. These updates are transparent to the user, although users who elect to install custom software can update their radio using an update.zip file made available by members of the modding community.
Flashing the radio is potentially risky, and you should NEVER pull the battery out of a phone that is #flashing the radio. If you do so, it is possible your phone will be bricked. Nevertheless, it can give improved battery life, signal strength and data performance, so is often done by users moving to later versions of ROMs.
Care should be taken to only #flash the correct type of radio to a phone. NEVER attempt to flash a CDMA phone with a GSM radio or vice-versa. It is likely you will brick the phone if you attempt to do so.
Samsung Moment 2.1 Bluetooth
I have a basic samsung moment with 2,1 and very satified except my voice activation for bluetooth. I understand the moment will not get 2,2 froyo which would solve my problem.
Me being a nubee and dummie, and just learning, is there a basic way to get this portion of 2,2 into my phone? Or do I have to do a full root etc, Thanks
Just an observation here. Maybe someone with more knowledge can answer.
But now that all T-Mobile USA users have S-off... should we open a new forum for T-Mobile USA phones? I ask this because it seems we will have custom ROMs based off foreign RUUs and OTAs all mixed up in the same thread. Which would bring a lot of "Can I flash this if I'm a USA T-Mo user?" type questions.
Now this may just be a misunderstanding and the custom ROMs may not affect the radio or whatever & thus not be an issue. Just the same I felt it better to ask the question and look stupid than keep it to myself and be right.
Anyone?
I don't think any of the forums split the development sections in the way you're suggesting. You should be able to flash any ROM regardless of what the base is. Just have to read up to make sure it plays nice as some introduce bugs.
I understand what you mean but i don't think its needed provided you read the rom post
at one point threre was two forums for the hd2 leo and tmobile us so it can happen
Indeed. The Leo and T-Mobile US HD2 once had their own forums, but they where eventually merged into one once it became clear that with the proper labeling of releases people where more likely to successfully flash something, than not(IE, that's why we enforce the ROM labeling system that we do here, which was kanged from the HD2 section).
As of right now I see no need to split these forums, as currently ROMs seem to be interchangeable between regions and devices.
ashasaur said:
Indeed. The Leo and T-Mobile US HD2 once had their own forums, but they where eventually merged into one once it became clear that with the proper labeling of releases people where more likely to successfully flash something, than not(IE, that's why we enforce the ROM labeling system that we do here, which was kanged from the HD2 section).
As of right now I see no need to split these forums, as currently ROMs seem to be interchangeable between regions and devices.
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Okay. I guess that was part of my question. For example, I saw this ROM posted and it's based on official HTC RUU 1.35.401.1
But since I'm a T-Mobile USA user I wasn't sure if the ROM would alter the frequencies my device operates on...etc. I believe this was an issue back when I had the Samsung Vibrant. There was a European variant known as the i9000. We could not flash the i9000 ROMS without having them ported to our Vibrants properly.
sup luckyduck
i remember you in the GS4G forums with krylon n crew
mikeDCMDVA said:
sup luckyduck
i remember you in the GS4G forums with krylon n crew
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hey man! did you switch over to the sensation too?
luckyduck69 said:
Okay. I guess that was part of my question. For example, I saw this ROM posted and it's based on official HTC RUU 1.35.401.1
But since I'm a T-Mobile USA user I wasn't sure if the ROM would alter the frequencies my device operates on...etc. I believe this was an issue back when I had the Samsung Vibrant. There was a European variant known as the i9000. We could not flash the i9000 ROMS without having them ported to our Vibrants properly.
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"Frequencies" are hardware related. A ROM cannot change the frequency that a phone uses
the_scotsman said:
"Frequencies" are hardware related. A ROM cannot change the frequency that a phone uses
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thank you so much for answering. so i can update both my rom and my radio and not worry about it? if so... that's awesome. i just like to run the most up to date software/firmware...etc.
Not sure about radio to be honest though...so don't quote me on that
the_scotsman said:
Not sure about radio to be honest though...so don't quote me on that
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I suspect it will be like the different modems on the SGS series of phones ( I had a Captivate ), I tried Mike's rom on my T-mo USA Sensation and when I tested the data speeds I got about 1/2 the dl speed sitting in the same spot within however long it took to run my recovery ( ran speedtest 5 times and averaged out ).
I'm sure they will iron out the radio thing before long, other than the data speed issue the Rom ran perfect.
luckyduck69 said:
hey man! did you switch over to the sensation too?
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Yep, kicked the Samsung to my GF
Finally got this S-OFF.....man, we thought we had it hard with no CWM on the Samsung...lol, these guys had a locked bootloader
When I've previously ROM'd my phones in the past, one issue I always came across was the radios getting out dated. I found myself scheduling a "once a month check" calendar alert to remind me to go out and find the latest radios to update.
Ugh, tedious... I hear the stock ROMs from carriers auto-update the radios? If not, is that what the PTL updates do?
Now that I am back to Android after a limited WP7 hiatus, I'm about to ROM again. But this time, I want to have these radios auto-updating with a custom ROM.
Is that possible? Or is that part of the big-brother stuff from the carrier's software that does that?
Using custom roms or stock roms will indeed update your radio.
However, if you've got a ****ty network operator, he might not update as often as needed. I was stuck with radio problems with some customs roms too...
Be careful, newest is far from always better with radio versions ! They mix a lot of parameters, sometimes you get a better signa, at the expense of a lot of battery life.
VikoAlucard said:
Using custom roms or stock roms will indeed update your radio.
However, if you've got a ****ty network operator, he might not update as often as needed. I was stuck with radio problems with some customs roms too...
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Interesting. Could you explain what a "network operator" is? Is that someone managing the ROM's radios remotely? Like, the person to donate to?
Who is updating the radios "for me"? I didn't think that was automatic with ROMs?
VikoAlucard said:
Be careful, newest is far from always better with radio versions ! They mix a lot of parameters, sometimes you get a better signa, at the expense of a lot of battery life.
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Been there, done that! lol I use have 3 or 4 radio packages on my phones, ready to install depending on where I flew to. "Damn, got a bad signal here. Let me try a different radio. Ah yes, there we go."
So someone please explain to me how This Is possible. I was under the belief in my understanding of android that this is a BIG NO NO. I do realize and I may not fully understand the similarities and differences between the different versions of the SGS3 but I would think that because of the Radio being different among all of the carriers that Kernels would be totally different as well. I will reference the Fascinate and the Mesmerize for example. Pretty much the same phone but completely different as far as anything and everything development wise. So what it boils down is this
1. Can we flash kernels designed for the At&t, Sprint, or T-Mobile versions of our phone.
2.What versions of the SGS3 can we SAFELY flash Kernels from.
3.How is this possible given the differences in the different phones.(Question for my sake cause I am really curious and hope i can get a good explanation regarding this)
Aali1011 said:
So someone please explain to me how This Is possible. I was under the belief in my understanding of android that this is a BIG NO NO. I do realize and I may not fully understand the similarities and differences between the different versions of the SGS3 but I would think that because of the Radio being different among all of the carriers that Kernels would be totally different as well. I will reference the Fascinate and the Mesmerize for example. Pretty much the same phone but completely different as far as anything and everything development wise. So what it boils down is this
1. Can we flash kernels designed for the At&t, Sprint, or T-Mobile versions of our phone.
2.What versions of the SGS3 can we SAFELY flash Kernels from.
3.How is this possible given the differences in the different phones.(Question for my sake cause I am really curious and hope i can get a good explanation regarding this)
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There have been some successful instances of sprint kernels being flashed that I've seen, but it is never a great idea to flash kernels not specifically designed for your phone. btw. there are some pretty good kernels available for vzw now
It's a pretty bad idea. There is a very small chance it could work but more than likely it won't boot
arrogantS3 said:
There have been some successful instances of sprint kernels being flashed that I've seen, but it is never a great idea to flash kernels not specifically designed for your phone. btw. there are some pretty good kernels available for vzw now
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And i figured as much. I am just REALLY surprised it worked and I just kinda wanna know why it worked. The technical reasons to be honest. But to play it safe i will just stick with those kernels that have been made for the Verizon version thus far. I am still hesitant using the Sprint Kernel even knowing it works.
Neverendingxsin said:
It's a pretty bad idea. There is a very small chance it could work but more than likely it won't boot
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And based of of you saying this and me knowing this is why i ask lol. Cause like arrogant says there have been successful flashes of the Sprint Kernel. Again idk everything there is about Android but i wonder if it possible due to the fact our unlocked bootloader is partially sprint or something along those lines. That is why i was hoping someone would see this and chime in with a technical explanation and then either a go for it, no, or tread with caution. When the phone was being released there was talks of a rom kitchen being established between the carriers and i was hoping that this was a part of that. Meaning that someone who Devs for the AT&T version of the SGS3 can have their rom or kernel ported to Sprint version and then the Verizon and T-Mobile variants. Idk if the kitchen is still a possibility or in the works but it would be cool to see it kernel wise considering most are running AOSP based roms.
I tried to flash att one two days ago, can not turn wifi on....
So, not recommended
Aali1011 said:
And based of of you saying this and me knowing this is why i ask lol. Cause like arrogant says there have been successful flashes of the Sprint Kernel. Again idk everything there is about Android but i wonder if it possible due to the fact our unlocked bootloader is partially sprint or something along those lines. That is why i was hoping someone would see this and chime in with a technical explanation and then either a go for it, no, or tread with caution. When the phone was being released there was talks of a rom kitchen being established between the carriers and i was hoping that this was a part of that. Meaning that someone who Devs for the AT&T version of the SGS3 can have their rom or kernel ported to Sprint version and then the Verizon and T-Mobile variants. Idk if the kitchen is still a possibility or in the works but it would be cool to see it kernel wise considering most are running AOSP based roms.
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Some kernels could very well work, same as some stock themes for sprint will work with stock roms on verizon (jellybomb domination being one of them) the issue is that some things could be carried over that may not play nice with our phones and vice versa. While it may run perfectly fine, there's a greater risk that it could break something.
I have yet to run an AOSP rom because of the IMEI issues, so i can't really comment on that, but i know if i was going to flash another carriers kernel i would make sure to make a backup first.
Upgrading firmware question
I have a samsung GalaxyS4G from T-Mobile,
Model # SGH-T959V
Firmware 2..3.6
Baseband Ver. T959VUVKJ6
Kernal 2.6.35.7-T959VUVKJ6-CL694130
Build# Gingerbread.VUVKJ6
3 days ago I was finally able to upgrade to this 2.3.6, prior to that I had only 2.2.1.
I was able to upgrade with Kies Mini thanks to Samsung support.
I contacted Samsung Support Friday asking if I could now upgrade again, I was given the standard answer that I always got when asking about upgrading from 2.2.1, "There is no upgrade for that phone" Just lucky I finally reached a agent at Samsung that had the knowledge or at least the willingness to help or I would still be stuck with Froyo 2.2.1.
I have rooted the phone with Kingo Root and it now shows the phone is rooted.
I am not looking for the sky but would like to at least up grade to Jellybean if not more.
System Storage Used 296 MB, 219 MB free. SD CARD has 130MB used ,839 MB free
Any suggestions?
I realize this phone is OLD and most people have moved on but I have only this phone given to me by my
Son I could not afford a new phone these days.
I am just trying to make this phone as close to today's newer phones as possible.
I was also told that with FROYO 2.2.1 I would get no better then 2G wifi, and that I needed to upgrade the phone to get better wifi service, I thought Gingerbread 2.3.6 was the answer but I only get on occasion 3G and have yet to get 4G LTE although I have a tower less then 2 miles from my house.
If anyone has some suggestions as to what is the best firmware this phone can handle it would be appreciated if you reply.
Hey man.
The only recent official firmware for this phone is 2.3.6. If you want to have Jelly Bean, then you will have to get a custom recovery and flash a custom Jelly Bean ROM.
Wish39 said:
Hey man.
The only recent official firmware for this phone is 2.3.6. If you want to have Jelly Bean, then you will have to get a custom recovery and flash a custom Jelly Bean ROM.
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YES I understand that is the official update, I am trying to get some input as to what version of Jellybean or ? would be good for this phone without killing speed.
Any suggestions Please
My biggest reason for upgrading is I only have 2G service with FROYO and most always with Gingerbread as well, I was told by T-Mobile I would not get any better then 2G with FROYO but I should get 4G LTE with Gingerbread 2.3.6 but I have not gotten even close to that and still drop signal a lot.
Well then you can search up the Jelly Bean ROMS that are floating around. I don't know which one is the best, since I haven't flashed those yet.
I have been searching for a rom but seems that this phone has very little support, yes it is 4 years old and only sole thru T-Mobile(as far as I know) but I was hoping some one with a lot more experience then me would have some suggestions on a Jellybean Rom or higher that would be appropriate for this phone.
Please if there is anyone here that may have some suggestions as to a better rom then Gingerbread, although Gingerbread is a vast improvement over FROYO2.2.1.
My main concern as I said before is getting better data service then 2G, I was told that Gingerbread would give me 4Glte but that has not happened even though I am only 2 miles from a T-Mobile tower, T-Mobile has said that this tower does serve 4Glte.
Is there an app that will improve my ability to get a better signal, I read somewhere about having to upgrade the phone's wifi ? to receive 4Glte ?
1: go to settings and choose LTE, if not possible, no 4g
2: if your phone can'tuse 4g (hardware) then the OS changes Nothing
Sent from my LG-D722 using XDA Free mobile app while walking
As a former developer/tester and long time user of this phone (I still have one to play with) it is not capable of LTE. The best you will get is 4G. I got 4G even with official 2.3.6. So if your not you may need to have your SIM upgraded at the store. The best Rom I've used is slim which is 4.0.4. I didn't like the stock launcher so I flashed Xperia launcher 2.06b and it was great. If you're stuck on having JB which is still buggy...Mirage was the most reliable. Daothanduy was the developer. Good luck searching and how this helped
Sent from my SM-G900T
I found the phone too slow to work with KitKat, but there were several solid Jellybean ROMs out there.
Read very carefully the upgrade threads and instructions as there are several low-level changes to the phone's firmware/software that are required to get off of "stock" and onto one of the KitKat ROMs. They're not "difficult" -- You just need to follow all the steps in the right order. Once you've got the right boot loader and are on an "MTD" ROM, changing between ROMs is reasonably straightforward.
Pick up a (paid) copy of TitaniumBackup Pro if you don't have one already. You'll be happy you did, even if it only provides piece of mind.
If the phone isn't rooted already, you may need "ODIN" (Windows only) or, my preference, "heimdal" to flash parts of the phone.
Anything you read about "WiFi performance sucks..." is likely only based on the visual indication of WiFi signal strength (RSSI) changing from the early releases to the custom ROMs. From what I could tell through actual throughput testing, there is no difference except for the RSSI.
It's a solid phone, though don't expect the GPS to lock reliably. There isn't a software fix for it, no matter what some claim. As far as I could tell, it was an RF-design or -execution problem. I have seen some threads suggesting some mechanical fixes for the antennas. I never pursued them so I can't comment further.
You're correct, it was only sold through T-Mobile. Official support for it was dropped like a rock when Apple won its infringement suit over Samsung. This was the phone that had all the infringement-claim boxes checked. Yep, you own a piece of patent-law history!
Samsung's source-code drops were horrendous and many of us worked to get subsequent versions of the kernel to run on the phone. As alluded to above, there were no upgrades to the proprietary binaries after the Gingerbread ROM.
I've still got one in the drawer, but it would take over three minutes to boot KitKat, so it wasn't terribly functional as a day-to-day phone.
The AMOLED screens do yellow with time. It's not your eyes
My main concern is getting better then the 2G I am presently getting, I have checked and I am getting 9 signals of different strengths I on occasion get3G bu it shows no bars during 3G and does not appear to connect during 3G.
I have up to 4G available in my area but this phone only wants to use 2G.
I did upgrade from FROYO2.2.1 to Gingerbread 2.3.6but I am thinking the modem in the phone is still the original that used FROYO.
At this point I am trying to find a upgrade or new modem software for this phone.
Any ideas?
jeffsf said:
I found the phone too slow to work with KitKat, but there were several solid Jellybean ROMs out there.
Read very carefully the upgrade threads and instructions as there are several low-level changes to the phone's firmware/software that are required to get off of "stock" and onto one of the KitKat ROMs. They're not "difficult" -- You just need to follow all the steps in the right order. Once you've got the right boot loader and are on an "MTD" ROM, changing between ROMs is reasonably straightforward.
Pick up a (paid) copy of TitaniumBackup Pro if you don't have one already. You'll be happy you did, even if it only provides piece of mind.
If the phone isn't rooted already, you may need "ODIN" (Windows only) or, my preference, "heimdal" to flash parts of the phone.
Anything you read about "WiFi performance sucks..." is likely only based on the visual indication of WiFi signal strength (RSSI) changing from the early releases to the custom ROMs. From what I could tell through actual throughput testing, there is no difference except for the RSSI.
It's a solid phone, though don't expect the GPS to lock reliably. There isn't a software fix for it, no matter what some claim. As far as I could tell, it was an RF-design or -execution problem. I have seen some threads suggesting some mechanical fixes for the antennas. I never pursued them so I can't comment further.
You're correct, it was only sold through T-Mobile. Official support for it was dropped like a rock when Apple won its infringement suit over Samsung. This was the phone that had all the infringement-claim boxes checked. Yep, you own a piece of patent-law history!
Samsung's source-code drops were horrendous and many of us worked to get subsequent versions of the kernel to run on the phone. As alluded to above, there were no upgrades to the proprietary binaries after the Gingerbread ROM.
I've still got one in the drawer, but it would take over three minutes to boot KitKat, so it wasn't terribly functional as a day-to-day phone.
The AMOLED screens do yellow with time. It's not your eyes
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slo_hand2 said:
My main concern is getting better then the 2G I am presently getting, I have checked and I am getting 9 signals of different strengths I on occasion get3G bu it shows no bars during 3G and does not appear to connect during 3G.
I have up to 4G available in my area but this phone only wants to use 2G.
I did upgrade from FROYO2.2.1 to Gingerbread 2.3.6but I am thinking the modem in the phone is still the original that used FROYO.
At this point I am trying to find a upgrade or new modem software for this phone.
Any ideas?
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This info might be old, but check out: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1192436
Thanks to @DickyG for providing that link to the available modems. There haven't been any new modems in many years.
My recommendation would be to upgrade to one of the JellyBean or potentially KitKat ROMs and use TWRP (my preference) or CW recovery to make it "safer" to flash modems. The "best" modem depends somewhat on carrier and location. I personally found the KG4 modem to have the best performance for me of the modems that supported splitting long SMS messages.
The SGS 4G supports HSPA+ (and not LTE) as it's "best" connection. There is nothing software can do to get LTE.
HSPA+ isn't bad at all. I typically got 3-10 Mbps on T-Mobile in the San Francisco Bay area. Once you have decent bandwidth, the most important thing for "responsiveness" is latency. See, for example http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest and http://www.bufferbloat.net/ A higher-bandwidth connection doesn't help that and, in some cases, the higher-bandwidth connections seem slower as they have more latency (often due to the carrier's buffering).
While some "stock" ROMs (and a few custom ones) have been "tweaked" to show "4G" in the UI, it is just cosmetic.
I am trying to get a better signal then 2G, I ran some test and have 9 signals available, but when I change off automatic to get 3G I get 3G but no bars. there are towers within 2 miles of me and I know for a fact that at least one maybe more are T-Mobile towers.
his has been a very long confusing journey it took me several months of contacting a agent at T-Mobile support before one took the time to give me the Kies mini to upgrade to Gingerbread, others would say there are "NO UPGRADES AVAILABLE FOR FROYO 2.2.1, most were to lazy or not knowledgeable enough to find the answer for me., I have tried but ever since that one agent I have not had any success with support other then here.
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T-Mobile isn't going to help you any here as all they have are the "official" releases which stopped with Gingerbread several years ago.
You'll have to read how to flash a phone with a custom ROM if you want anything more than what they provided years ago.
I much prefer Heimdal to Odin for reliable flashing of phones. Some swear by Odin, I swear at it, especially as it is Windows only.
I'd suggest backing up all your data with TitaniumBackup Pro, as well as a "nandroid" (TWRP or CW recovery) backup. The read all the instructions twice or three times until you understand them and flash a custom ROM, including a matching kernel. I'd suggest a JellyBean ROM to start with. I'd also suggest moving to an "MTD" ROM and kernel to start as you'll end up there anyways (most of the more recent ROMs and kernels built for the SGS 4G were MTD).
You can then very, very carefully and selectively restore your TitaniumBackup data, making sure to set "Migrate system data." Restoring across major OS versions is possible, but you have to be careful how you do it. I'd make sure I understood how TitaniumBackup Pro works and the suggestions from them and others on how to restore data.
In your opinion does jellybean or Kitkat have a better modem?
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All the modems for the SGS 4G are from the "official" ROMs from Samsung/T-Mobile/Wind for Froyo or Gingerbread.
There is no such thing as a "JellyBean modem" or "KitKat modem."