yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] daswoll:
Photon Q id back from Modding :D

Thanks God for CornholioGSM!

Thru him The qwerty Slider Lives On!!!!

Thanks A Lot to you!

Ok now to the Phone :D

Absolutely Brilliant Work for this Price!

The Slot is so perfectly built in , i was looking for 10 min until I Found it!

The Simcard slides easily in, to get it out push a lil bit on it and you feel how it comes out!

Feels like The Sim-Slot was ever there :D

To the Software!

As Recovery is TWRP 2.7.1.1 installed

and as OS Android 4.4.4 Carbon-KK-Nightly-20141103-1025!

Great Rom! with a lot of cool features !

Was Positiv Suprised too, all my whishes (unles CM11. but Carbon is ways better!) like Stock Widgets und some little specials was everything exactly so like i had it in my Mind!

For me he is now my new Mobile technicial!

:good: :good: :good: :good: :good: :good:
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] mmichaelalves:
can i use hotglue to fix the sim slot with motherboard ?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] photonqaccount:
It don't think it is a durable solution but you can try that anyway.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...better is little preheat mainboard and solder sim slot frame directly to mainboard ground
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Nataniel:
As I said before, I had problems with my phone after performing the mod, it didn't want to start or started but turned of after a while. It also had problems with signal, it usually worked only few minuets. I've tried most of popular Photon ROMs with no luck, but after a while it just started working, I don't know why. It sometimes froze on startup screen, but always started after few tries, and never had any problems while running (except some smaller problems with sometimes not working backlight, but starting it with recovery and then restarting always worked), at lest until I ran out of battery, because then I'd have to restart it, but it always finally worked after few tries. It worked like that for about month.

Yesterday I lost my signal, so I've decided to restart it, and since then I can't start it - it just freezes on start up screen and restarts. So pretty much back to the state from just after modding. I have no idea why... I've tried reflashing and recovering working backups, but it didn't help.

Could anybody please help me? I guess probably my mod is somehow wrong, any idea what could cause this problem, so I could fix it?

tl;dr: (problem with starting, initially also with signal, but after a while it just started to work, and now problem is back. any ideas?)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
With all the development on this device, has anyone attempted to flash the on board sim?

I know there was some talk about it originally, but maybe with all the knowledge about the phone now, it might not be a dead end anymore.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] tobby88:
AFAIK the problem is not the flashing, but to read out your actual SIM.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
IMPORTANT QUESTION...

...Who from you is Matthew Harmon?

Please contact me on PM or email.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Nataniel:
Cold anybody please help me? Anyone has any idea what could possibly be wrong with my phone, what should I check?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...contact me on email - phqmod@gmail.com
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
I have a USB SIM reader - haven't used it in a long time tho. I'll have a look..
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Jovzin:
I am another happy customer of Cornholio's SIM mod.

I must say his work is great. It looks like that micro sim slot was there from factory. I see no cables or some wires around battery, nothing everything is nicely covered. Really great work. Thank you very much Cornholio. And as a bonus I got nice CarbonROM :)

PS: I just have one problem with WIFI showing connetion speed 1Mbps :( Hope I will solve this somehow.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] photonqaccount:
I'm experiencing a strange problem: In a call the speaker is sometimes really quiet,

so quiet that it's difficult to understand it. Same is for speaker phone, but just "sometimes".

Any ideas?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
i have sometime similar problem on carbon rom.

You are on stock rom or not?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
I'm finding Carbon to be pretty good - still has some quirks, but generally better than past rom's I've tried.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
Finally took some shots of my first sim-mod using a salvaged full sim slot, with a sim adapter glued inside. Takes micro sim, which can be changed with tweezers, doesn't need any shields removed at the sim.

Has always worked flawlessly.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] photonqaccount:
Sorry, forgot to mention: I'm on CM11.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Noahgarnet:
Inquiry

Is it possible to have this mod done on the sprint galaxy s3 it reads an embedded sim card.

Thanks in advance for reply
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] zzangu83:
It could possible i think.

I think that could be possible in a same way. However, you should know where a SIM chip is.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...i mean yesss and it is very siple on this phone...i mean all what you need is buy sim slot flex cable and connect it to mainboard :)

...then check with sim card app from market if is sim card connected and little cut frame around sim slot.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Noahgarnet:
Thanks

I have not taught about that . would check on what sofeware is needed and try thanks.....
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] sllyname:
Sim slot that fits left of sd card slot

I have been meaning to say something about this for a year, but figured someone else would find and post.

I didn't have one in my hands until last Nov. since they were back ordered.

It can be bought from Farnell/Newark by one piece.

It is 10.5 mm wide to the edge of the frame tabs, but they fit under the cover for the sd card.

http://gct.co/connector/?series=SIM8050

Now just etch a flexible circuit board. - well design it first
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] pc-coholic:
If you have Eagle, you can try to modify my existing microSIM-FlexPCB: https://github.com/muccc/PhotonQmicroSIM
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...it looks good, but no Push/Push mechanism so not too good :(
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...test it and let me know on PM or Email :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] ST Dog:
How often does one realistically need to remove a SIM?

Maybe some do it often, but most never do unless they get a new phone.

Sent with XDA free app
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
I don't think cornholio is downing your idea, his English is just not 100%.

I agree with you about removing the sims also, but push is obviously a nice feature.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Schattenspieler:
Well, yeah: it's a convenience feature. But then it might help in strengthening the resale value and thus making the phone a little bit more attractive - I guess.

(I'ld really like to know, if Moto knowing what we're going through here to get a relatively decent smartphone with a SIM slot - does that have any impact on their decisions on the production of such a device anytime soon?)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
Would be nice to think so, but I think their logic with the smd sim is that it forced everyone to use the $print roaming service - pretty sure the PQ was a $print exclusive. Doesn't look like any manufacturers are interested in hard keys, it's easier to make without.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...only blackbery...but no android :(
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] kabaldan:
AFAIK Asanti was not originally meant to be Sprint exclusive. But the AT&T/worldwide GSM/UMTS asanti models xt896/xt898 were cancelled, probably sometime soon after the xt897 (asanti_c - CDMA) release.

I'm afraid that the only relevant impact is made by the sales numbers. And the thin, keyboard-less devices are what the masses are after, so no qwerty sliders are being produced anymore. I still hope that some manufacturer will try it again sometime in the future, but I don't hold my breath for now.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
There's clearly not a lot of discernment amongst the masses, but they spend the most money as a whole. It's a pity the novelty of pure touch hasn't worn off.

When the iPhone first came out I would have bought one if it had an oem HW keyboard option - I've only ever bought them for the missus, & have a bit of a chuckle when she (and others) struggles with straight forward tasks.

When I'm typing anything, she's like "are you really typing that fast?".

Unfortunately despite many offers, she refuses to try out any of the HW kb phones I've had. This is despite my insistence that she can use it 'either way'.

Some sort of kickstarter might allow use of existing hw to build a kick-ass kb phone, possibly with 3d printing kits.... with a USB connected kb for example...................... anyone???
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
SOOO again same problem. By me is package from Florida with photon for mod.Package is marked (for customs) as T-shirt...but inside package is no contact - no email, no phone number...nothing :( On package is "poland looks" name. So who is owner of his phone???
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] ST Dog:
Did they send payment?

Sounds to me like it's your phone now ;)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] mrvek:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/15/5104704/i-come-not-to-praise-qwerty-but-to-bury-it

Interesting article describing sprint's disappointment for Q. A shame actually. I personaly hope to buy a few more Q's for backup in the upcoming years, thinking about life without a nice qwerty/qwertz slider makes me sad.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] enigma9o7:
I can't remember what I put on my customs form, something like "electronics for repair" or "mobile phone parts" or something like that. If someone puts t-shirt and customs decides to x-ray or inspect it, etc, will end up causing some type of problem for either the sender or recipient or both, can't see any possible good thing that can come of that.

My thought is if someone is stupid enough to put t-shirt on the customs form and no return address, they probably don't deserve their phone back anyway.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
Sounds like their research was sound, but once again, the masses are fickle & more interested in owning what seems popular than what is logical or practical.

Screens, ribbons, keyboards, batteries. Spare parts.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] ST Dog:
My CM11 tablet is setup that way. single partition shared for /data and /sdcard so No concern with running out of room in /data while /sdcard is still empty. Separate partitions was a kludge started when eMMC got larger to be compatible with the original versions of android when eMMC was small and /sdcard was an external card. Then that introduced /ext_sd for the actual external card.

I don't know what versions (release and device) is setup the different ways, or even what the OEM partitioning is on the Photo Q.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] nemo.:
Yes but I'm curious how this works. How can there be different content for the same device? Both mounts are ext4, no UnionFS (AFAIS) and no special mount flags. How is this implemented?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Loader009:
There is nothing special.

The "userdata" partition is mounted on /data.

/sdcard is linked to /data/media (depends on multi-user) afair.

So the space of one partition is shared between /data and /data/media (the latter can be called /sdcard, it is the same) because it (the data of both) is on the same partition.

But that still does not explain your problem.

Theoretically you should be able to format it or maybe try to switch the filesystem (e. g. to f2fs and then back to ext4) with twrp which nadlabak has made for cm12.

With just switching the filesystem you format it. Then (important) the first reboot might take some time, because the filesystem is being checked.

You should not force reset the PQ, this might be contraproductive.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] nemo.:
Yeah, this is what I *expected*. A link or a bind mount. But what I see is /sdcard AND /data mounted as ext4 from the same device (/dev/mmcblk0p39). Not bind mounted, ext4. This is why I'm so confused. But maybe this is just a weird way of displaying the mounts and probably not related to my problem.

I tried reformatting the partition with the mkfs_ext4 that is shipped with the TWRP I have now (openrecovery-twrp-2.7.1.2-asanti_c) but that did not change the contents and I assume it did not actually succeed (sorry for not having error messages, but I'm currently not at home so I can't test that, will add them later).

Formatting to f2fs would make sense, which TWRP version do I have to flash to do this (and how)? Thanks :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Loader009:
Use the one for cm12 -> http://xdaforums.com/photon-q-4g-lte/development/cyanogenmod-12-0-photon-q-t3034552
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] nemo.:
Huh. I just tried to just flash the recovery you linked using the android SDK fastboot and this seems to work fine but in the end, the recovery is not updated:

% ./fastboot flash recovery ~/PhotonQ/TWRP-2.8.5.0-xt897.img
(bootloader) Variable not supported!
target reported max download size of 31457280 bytes
sending 'recovery' (9070 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.717s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [ 1.766s]
finished. total time: 2.483s

I searched for the "(bootloader) Variable not supported!" message and indeed found a problem description that fits my problem: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2021555

I checked for the file that is mentioned in the thread in /system but it is already renamed to .bak. I also make sure that I boot directly to recovery and not to the non-working CM11 that is still on the phone. Simply erasing the recovery does not work as well:

% ./fastboot erase recovery
(bootloader) Variable not supported!
erasing 'recovery'...
(bootloader) Permission denied
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.089s

While I have found threads that mention this behaviour, I haven't found a solution. Any ideas? :/

EDIT:

So, my hypothesis is that I can generally not write on the NAND. I tested this on the /system and the /sdcard partition. For /system I did:

1. mount /system

2. dd if=/dev/zero of=/system/moo.img bs=1M count=50

3. sync

4. check /system/moo.img existance -> it exists

5. umount /system; mount /system

6. check /system/moo.img existance -> does not exist anymore

In no step between these steps the dmesg contained any errors. So either this is something SELinux does (I don't know) or there is another reason why the data cannot be written.

I did a similar test by using TWRP's backup function to backup /system and /cache to /sdcard, checking dmesg for errors (no errors), umount/mounting /sdcard. The backup files existed before the umount (presumably cached) and vanished after remounting.

Is this some security enforcement, a software bug or do I have to debug hardware?

Log excerpt of /system testing: http://pastie.org/private/ofudnmxik9yaiwuwyt8cw#2,13,16,29,40,45,57-58,71,77,92,106,108,125,128
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Loader009:
Have you tried to flash a FXZ file using RSD Lite?

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=36613321#post36613321

I am kind of out of ideas...
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] nemo.:
Thank you again for your help but since I highly suspect that the flash is read-only for some reason, I did not try this.

Fastboot can't write to the flash and the recovery cannot either, so my current guess is that I damaged the NAND flash when unsoldering the built-in SIM IC and the flash controller disabled write commands as a consequence (at least this is what some SSD controllers do). I read that there are some phones that support invoking a low-level format of the flash using fastboot or other external tools. Is there something similar for the Photon Q?

I have no clue how to debug this further, so I would be thankful for any idea what to test and what may be the cause for this.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
Honestly if you can't flash back to stock using a FXZ file / RSD Lite, there's not going to be a whole lot outside of JTAG.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] nemo.:
I tried flashing with RSD Lite and unsurprisingly it did not work. While it said 'PASSED', it tried booting right back to cyanogenmod. Nothing has changed at all, no stock ROM, no stock recovery.

Do you or anyone else know what reasons there are to cause a NAND flash to be transparently (i.e. drivers do not see it) read-only?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
Are you sure it detected the device correctly?

I've never had RSD fail, and it has recovered all sorts of horrible situations for me (and others).
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] eriklion:
WTB: Sim Modded Q

In the coming month or two I'll be wanting to procure a SIM Modded Photon Q for a backup/parts device. I'm looking to spend no more than $135, as market values of a Q are around $60. I'll entertain all offers of one in fair to great condition. Preferably bootloader unlocked or not even attempted.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] nemo.:
Pretty sure. The name was right, it seemed to do stuff over the USB port (ran RSD Lite in a VM so I could see whenever the USB connection was active) and rebooted the device.

At the end, RSD only seems to use fastboot for flashing which did not work for the recovery when flashing it manually. Also erasing the recovery using fastboot did not work, so I'm not surprised that RSD Lite did not change anything.

My best guess is that the NAND somehow decided to stop working. Maybe I damaged it with heat, maybe it's a bug, maybe it is the wear leveling (I have no clue how much this phone was in use before I acquired it). But this whole read-only thing seems weird to me.

I also removed the ER shield of the NAND and checked if every passive component was in place - it seemed so. I also attempted a reflow it did not change anything (as expected).
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Loader009:
It's a long shot but maybe it is worth a try to lock and unlock your PQ.

But... don't ask me how, haven't done that yet.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] nemo.:
I tested locking/unlocking but that was to no avail, again not surprising.

Either the NAND is locked down or the wear-leveling does not allow further writes. Either way, without swapping the NAND this phone is a brick. I'll see if I have time for that in the future.

In the meantime I completed the modification on an other phone and that one works as supposed (with CM12).

Thanks for the help though :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] VECCTOR:
US Sprint 4G LTE

I read through the whole thread but I didn't see a definitive answer on this.

Can the modded phone still be used on Sprint's 4G LTE? It seems it needs a SIM for LTE but can the original one (or the information from it) be used?

Hopefully someone who has the mod in the US can say for sure. I guess most people mod it in order to use AT&T or T-mobile, but I'm happy with Ting (sprint network MVNO) and would just want the mod for traveling abroad.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
I thought it was stated (perhaps not in this thread) that you will lose LTE via Sprint/Ting/etc if you modded the device.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] VECCTOR:
I've been looking into it more and that makes sense. The hardwired SIM is used for the LTE.

It would be nice if there were a way to clone it before or after taking it off so you could make a new SIM with the existing data to use in the modded slot.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] tobby88:
It is not possible to clone SIMs. They are copy protected. Only some data is accessible like the contacts and SMS on the card.

If it would be possible to clone SIMs we could do it the other way around: Let the chip inside and clone the cards onto that chip :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Schattenspieler:
Well, on that: I read, that -at least in the EU- there are strong attempts to move to soft-SIMs. Would it be possible to reprogram the SIM chip in that matter?

And about LTE: Maybe I'm confusing things, but would that be fixed by the existing radio patch?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] kabaldan:
What's preventing you from getting a new LTE SIM card from Sprint/Ting/etc. and putting it in the slot?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] VECCTOR:
The way the phone is registered on the network prevents it. I talked to customer service about it:

"Because of the type of phone it is and the way the network recognizes that device, it will only work with the SIM card built into it. There is no way to activate the phone if the SIM card is replaced."

I guess maybe the only way to do it would be to somehow rig up the existing one after removing it.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
As was previously stated, I don't think Sprint/Ting/etc sell LTE SIM cards.

Ting is going to start selling SIM cards, but only because they are now also piggy-backing on T-Mobile's network.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] kabaldan:
What about this?

http://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Freedo...sim_cps_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1ZQW6HXYZSTNKVE31DB5
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
Hm, seems to be only for specific devices - I suppose until someone actually tries we won't know :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] ST Dog:
Sounds like Sprint has hard coded the information in their system (the MEID/IMEI and ICCID) and doesn't support changing it.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Schattenspieler:
Well ... I worked for the customer service of Telekom Germany and to me that answer reads as if it was given with a good lack of knowledge of how mobile phones are actually registerred on a network.

So, what special type of mobile phone would or could not work with a SIM card? It is the standard way of controlling access to mobile networks - and even sat phone networks.

Well, probably then because only they do not want it to work. Or they do not know of existing SIM cards to do it. I can't think of a reason why the data, that was written to the SIM chip, can not be written to a SIM card.

A standard way for an agent to answer a question regarding anything, for which no process is currently implemented, is to deny it's possibility per se. The customer is made to believe, it is not possible, while the only thing preventing it, is (often) the lack of willingnes to implement a process to make it work.

Because in this and many other occasions the technichal basis to do it is already there.

That would be almost impossible or at least challenging, I'ld say. Because one would have to (1) remove the SIM chip without destroying it and then (2) find a way to reconnect the chip to the board - so one would need some kind of fitting socket. Or something really awkward looking.

My interpretation would be, that the quoted answer was given to prevent people from SIM modding their phones. Plain and simple.

(Though I'ld like to be taught wrong. ^^)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] cyri2:
Hi Guys,

I sent my new Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE phone from Australia to CornholioGSM (Tomas) to have a SIM card mod done. I would like to report back that I am extremely happy with the his the quality of his work and that the mod is of such a high standard that you would think that the sim slot mod that he did was factory stock. I can highly recommend him and anyone wanting there Motorola Photon Q 4G SIM mod done should certainly considered him .

Regards,

Sebastian