yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
Definitely possible, I keep checking before and after for any change, and am not afraid of breaking it since it already doesn't work (remember disconnecting the antenna wires is not making my signal any weaker ever since the issue began).

Again no change so at the very least nothing is happening. Would make sense if it is something in the board itself that's gone kaput, but without a replacement to test with I'm not sure what else to do.

I'm hoping that all the disagreement with my findings will change my phone into having only a software issue, believe me :fingers-crossed:
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] iunlock:
Good morning,

(On the phone with [MENTION=2996598]DeeXii[/MENTION] at the moment and we're trying to figure this out with some tests...)

Okay so I've tried flashed the Argentina firmware and where I've only seen 4G in my office, I now see LTE. The speeds do seem a little better, but there are a lot still to be discovered. This firmware (S.American) Does not show OEM Unlock btw...

(I'll let [MENTION=2996598]DeeXii[/MENTION] share with you all why we're exploring S.American firmware's... I won't spoil alert it lol....)

I've done some speedtests where I did get good reception and I did notice better speeds overall. (Keep in mind that when you guys are running tests in good reception areas, it's highly likely that the phone is connected to a single band so it isn't having to wrestle with carrier aggregation.)

Will keep you all posted. More firmware's are downloading right now....
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
Not sure if this is relevant but I found some interesting menus. Context: on the Korean note 8. Flashed Kalm's tmo patch, then his skc patch to revert. I'm still testing speeds between the two in different locations, but while playing around with menus I came across these settings that seem relevant to both the issues described here and the work that [MENTION=4375750]Kalm_Traveler[/MENTION] has been doing in the other thread.

EDIT: To be clear I am now on SKT CSC. I just enabled the MMTEL and RCS switches in the IMS switch menu, as well as all the toggles below. I have HD calling on TMobile using SKT CSC with that.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
Notice I have SKT LTE symbol. Two screenshots one with VoLTE enabled in MMTEL settings, one disabled. Notice when disabled there's no HD symbol and I switch to 3G.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
UPDATE: video calling also works.

I don't know if there's a way to enable wifi calling at the moment, as the option isn't available in the phone app settings.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
as far as I understand, LTE, VoLTE, and video calling don't require anything special to work on T-Mobile (just the settings you found to be enabled, as the network will pull down the IMS profile info as you also found).

In T-Mobile's case, it seems that their wifi calling apps/frameworks need to be used. Looking at what is needed on top of the F based ROM, it's pretty much entirely the CSC + wifi calling apps, nothing more.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
Really? I never knew that the other features worked without CSC. You need tmo CSC to get wifi calling to work though?

There's some reallllly interesting things in those settings though. See that one option that says "Enable Hasati"? That's the company I used to work at back in the Galaxy S4 mini days when AT&T was first rolling out VoLTE. Looks like there's some settings embedded directly into these phones for their testing use. Surprising seeing it in a korean phone though.

Sidenote: I do have CA working on my SKT CSC so I stand corrected there. BUT I definitely have 3 way CA working, so the other thing I said was correct. You do NOT need to disable 3-way CA to make CA work on this phone, on TMO CSC or SKT CSC.

---------- Post added at 13:44 ---------- Previous post was at 13:41 ----------

It's interesting though that the IMS profiles are listed for "LTE/WiFi", not to mention the RCS options like "enriched call", and the MMTEL option like "SMS over IP". All this seems so closely related to wifi calling... :/

EDIT: There's even a whole list of services that can be enabled on WiFi. Currently checked are mmtel, mmtel-video, smsip, slm, im, ft, presence, and euc. Unchecked are ss, cdpn, ft_http, is, vs, options, xdm, gls, profile, cab, and ec.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
Yeah they are, wifi calling is an IMS / VOIP, it's just voice over wifi instead of voice over LTE basically. I don't know how any other carrier works since I only have T-Mobile, but with them their setup makes an IPSec VPN connection to route the call traffic through your internet connection to T-Mo, which explains why it works just fine anywhere in the world, assuming that access to their wfc system isn't blocked.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
GAHHHH there's even a "enable IPSec" setting under SIP. There has GOT to be something here.

---------- Post added at 13:57 ---------- Previous post was at 13:56 ----------

Is there a way to get into the WiFi calling settings menu without flashing TMO CSC?

And, to be on topic with this thread, which is why I originally posted this here, are there any networking settings worth looking into in these menus that might help with some of the LTE issues people are seeing on the TMO CSC but not on other CSCs? Or why CA isn't working on other CSCs for them?

---------- Post added at 14:05 ---------- Previous post was at 13:57 ----------

Well this is interesting. Seems that the korean CSC zip doesnt fully reverse the changes made by the TMO CSC zip. What changes persist then? Easiest way to find out would be flash stock w/ odin, dump everything, flash TMO, dump everything, flash korean zip, dump everything and run diffs on all the data?

---------- Post added at 14:08 ---------- Previous post was at 14:05 ----------

Even after flashing via odin, you still had to flash a backup to get your signal back to normal? That's not encouraging. Did you try JUST flashing via odin, or JUST restoring a backup?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
The Korean CSC zip is only the CSC stuff, it doesn't delete the other T-Mobile-necessary apps or the other frameworks from the F ROM. I could change the script to manually delete every file added from the T-Mo zip.

As for getting into the wifi calling menu without Tmo CSC - that specific menu is part of the T-Mo apps. No Tmo Wfc apps, no Tmo Wfc menu. They hook into the Samsung settings app.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
Do you have a way to remove those without fully flashing stock? I don't have a full stock backup at the moment, and even so, it'd be a pain to set up everything. I ask since it looks like (based on what [MENTION=2694397]masri1987[/MENTION] is experiencing) the tmobile stuff is at least still affecting something...

---------- Post added at 14:20 ---------- Previous post was at 14:19 ----------

soo since none of the non-csc related TMO stuff is deleted, is there a way to access this still? or it's absolutely tied to the CSC itself
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
Yes I would just need to add lines in the script to explicitly delete the few other files added in the T-Mobile zip. They are not part of the CSC at all, just apps/libraries for T-Mobile's wifi calling, but it shouldn't take too long to make a modified one. I'm not sure if Mega.nz is blocked here at work so I may need to do that when I get home tonight.

---------- Post added at 01:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:22 PM ----------

If it's not showing up in the settings or dialer menus, you should still be able to launch the wifi calling settings app via Shorcut Master Lite, under explore apps - make sure you select System Apps. It is named TmoWfcPref I think.

Also would be interesting to test if any of the IMS stuff lasts through a reboot. IIRC the Korean carriers CSC all explicitly have VoLTE and wifi calling disabled
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
Mine definitely persisted through reboot. Here's another interesting thing. Didn't use shortcut master but activity launcher instead and came across this. (check screenshot) Firstly there's a bunch of Sprint(??????????!?!?!? O.o) related things. Also the first of those leads to this page (again, check screenshots)
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
yeah that is the wifi calling service app I believe
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
Under "Phone" rather than "wifi calling" in the activity launcher app, I also see a bunch of wifi calling related things but for Verizon(???) instead. I've only found one link to a tmobile related one (com.samsung.tmowfc.wfcpref.DialogActivity), but it doesn't open at all.

---------- Post added at 14:42 ---------- Previous post was at 14:39 ----------

just got shortcut master to confirm as well. None of the tmobile related things it shows opens any menu

---------- Post added at 15:22 ---------- Previous post was at 14:42 ----------

Just found one thing that doesn't persist. In the MMTEL options, "Supplementary Service" disables on reboot, but nothing else does.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
No no , i did the restore because of my OCD lol, not because the data wasn't working.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
soo.... odin flashing CSC fixes all your data issues, even though the extraneous TMO stuff from Kalm's zip are still around?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
Uh. that i'm not sure of, let me actually re-do everything i did and do just that, flash odin csc over t-mo csc from kalm and re-test.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
lmk. Really want to get my device's connectivity working like stock so I can test the networks in the area.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
so um. maybe there was a reason i flashed back to stock after testing t-mo csc... i got this error after flashing csc in odin, it booted in twrp and gave me this error.

What now

Just to recap , an hour ago i flashed full odin stock firmware, twrp, initialized it, installed simple rom, did a twrp backup, flashed t-mo csc, booted up verified it fvia phone info, flashed csc in odin, got error.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
So... I restored the backup prior to going tmb csc from kalm and it didn't restored my SKC csc...same horrible data speeds and signal.drops.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
I get that too, funny thing is the file is exactly where the error says it is. Not sure why it fails to map.

Really nearing the point of just buying a 2nd identical phone to leave stock just for peace of mind...
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
the only way to get it to take is by reflashing stock firmware via odin, otherwise i always run into this error
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
What were you trying to do that caused it?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
i was trying to odin flash stock csc over ur zip to see if it allows me to keep the t-mobile apps to the framework that allows wifi calling.

So in my quest to get my device back to stock CSC i flashed to stock via odin and still had tmb csc code lol, so i downloaded the n950n LGU+ instead of SK Telecom, gonna flash to it now and see.

Q: What's the userdata file in the firmware for?

At this point is it possible i need to flash a pit file to resolve this csc issue that i'm having (tmb being stuck as active csc) ?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
Is it a userdata/csc file? If you look at the directions in Odin itself (only shows up in newest Odin) whatever file it mentions there is the one you want. The other one also wipes your /sdcard I believe.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
USERDATA_LUC_N950NKSU1AQI2_CL12021336_QB14835700_REV00_user_low_ship.tar

What's this

---------- Post added at 04:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:45 AM ----------

yo guys, i'm having a serious problem. No matter how many times i flash odin firmware files including CSC i'm not getting the SKC back,

Even in stock rom it shows TMB CSC in phone info.

driving me nuts
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] tokoam:
You might have to select clear efs on Odin I had that problem to
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
how will my EFS be re partitioned after I clear it?

You've cleared efs in odin and have no problems?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] tokoam:
No issues at all works great
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
oh gotcha,

so, the userdata file is stuff that is written in the data partition (apps that can be uninstalled by the user, etc).

Most likely your CSC is not changing because applying the factory CSC image via Odin is not changing the CSC code within the EFS partition IMEI folder. You could do that manually if you're still rooted, or you would need someone to make a flashable zip for you. There are 2 files in the IMEI folder that contain the CSC code, both of which need to be set to whatever CSC you're trying to change to.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
would wiping efs in odin resolve this? i plan on starting over anyway at this point.

Which files are they? i still have root, but still curious about the above
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
I'm not sure about wiping it in Odin, but I checked re-partition and this didn't change anything within the EFS partition itself.

The 2 files are /efs/imei/mps_code.dat and /efs/imei/omcnw_code.dat both of which contain only the CSC 3 letter code in plain text. It needs to match whatever you're trying to load in /system/omc
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
thanks, i did this, rebooted, i see skc , but i still have all the CA options from the tmb csc , behavior of signal is still the same.

Will i hurt anything to do the efs clear?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
I haven't done EFS clear, but i would make sure you have an EFS partition backup before doing that in case it wipes your IMEI number. A quick google search of that sounds like it wipes it completely. Lots of posts of people asking for help after they did EFS clear and no longer had mobile connectivity.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
yeah that's all i see too, i'm out of options, i was getting 72mbps in the same spot yesterday before going on the new attempt lol

How do i backup efs on the n8? doesn't look like the tool has been developed yet
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
I backed it up in TWRP, but the oldest backup I had was still post-modding. I saw in some google results that you can rebuild the EFS structure with Kies but I've never used it so I can't vouch for it at all.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] shouren04:
TWRP
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
eff it guys, wish me luck about to do this.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
I have a feeling EFS is the key to all this stuffs going on.

However disclaimer, EFS is Heavy Duty.. If you screw up the EFS you can screw your phone.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
allow me to be the willing guinea pig since i'm still within my 30 day return period .
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
oh boy.... well good luck!
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] tokoam:
I have done it ! a Few times with any issues but you do have a point.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] shouren04:
Well at the least back up whatever your efs is now in TWRP. I certainly don't screw around with my phones as much as you guys but whenever I install custom recovery, the very first thing I do is make back ups of the efs & baseband partitions before doing anything else.

Good luck! Hope it works out!
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
i did it, checked efs clear, and did it,phone is booting up.

Q: i didn't see anything in the odin log saying it cleared efs tho

'

<ID:0/003> Odin engine v(ID:3.1207)..

<ID:0/003> File analysis..

<ID:0/003> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/003> Initialzation..

<ID:0/003> Set PIT file..

<ID:0/003> DO NOT TURN OFF TARGET!!

<ID:0/003> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/003> Firmware update start..

<ID:0/003> NAND Write Start!!

<ID:0/003> SingleDownload.

<ID:0/003> sboot.bin

<ID:0/003> param.bin

<ID:0/003> up_param.bin

<ID:0/003> cm.bin

<ID:0/003> boot.img

<ID:0/003> recovery.img

<ID:0/003> system.img

<ID:0/003> modem.bin

<ID:0/003> Transmission Complete..

<ID:0/003> Now Writing.. Please wait about 2 minutes

<ID:0/003> Receive Response from boot-loader

<ID:0/003> modem_debug.bin

<ID:0/003> Transmission Complete..

<ID:0/003> Now Writing.. Please wait about 2 minutes

<ID:0/003> Receive Response from boot-loader

<ID:0/003> cache.img

<ID:0/003> omr.img

<ID:0/003> RQT_CLOSE !!

<ID:0/003> RES OK !!

<ID:0/003> Removed!!

<ID:0/003> Remain Port .... 0

<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 1 / failed 0)"

---------- Post added at 04:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:57 AM ----------

yes i backed it up on twrp.

BTW, the first boot up showed the SKT bootup splash screen, all my previous attempts only showed the standard samsung boot up.

Edit: It's booted, and i have signal, LTE, so i must of survived.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
we are back in business fellas, just pulled 77mbps .

Y'all might be on to something with the EFS being complicit . Just look at what i went through T-Mo CSC properties remained even when i changed it manually in the efs folder.

Now i'll make a legit backup of efs and baseband
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] tokoam:
My LUK csc from factory 950n tar I don't have much luck with kalm csc I don't use Wi-Fi calling or advance messages to much but I did give them a go as I wanted to try improving LTE speeds but didn't really make a difference. I only get CA 1
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
orrrrrr did you mean . . . . "efs it"?

I don't blame you if you hate me.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
Glad it worked out for you - though if the T-Mo CSC properties were remaining, something was not being done correctly. If those 2 files on the EFS partition are set correctly and everything in the /system/omc/ folder is set correctly there isn't anything T-Mo to load anymore.

In any case, I may give the EFS clear a whirl tomorrow just for kicks. Would sure be nice if it made my reception work again.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
Give it a try, the only reason i suspected t-mobile csc bits n pieces were left over was because i had 7 and 12 CA in the band info, which isn't found on stock csc...
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
Now I'm curious since I flashed that skc zip and still have CA.

---------- Post added at 06:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 AM ----------

So exact steps to restore as of now is flash stock csc and clear EFS in Odin?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
Here's what i did.

Factory reset in TWRP.

Bootloader mode > odin flashed all four stock firmware files, and check marked clear efs in the options menu.

Booted up verified i have signal (back up ur efs before u do anything in twrp ) ,

Booted into bootloader mode, flashed twrp set it up flashed rom and i'm back and good.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
so if I DON'T want to factory reset . . . would it work to just flash stock CSC with odin with clear EFS?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
I don't see why not. Flashing csc doesn't wipe for me so try it. Lmk
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] iunlock:
Hmm interesting... I'll give that a shot. Right now I'm downloading some firmwares, and as we speak Odin'ing back to the stock UK.

Only if we could get the TMO csc file? - And to maybe flash that with the UK firmware instead of using the UK csc?

As for clearing the efs I take it that you backed up everything in TWRP first yea?

---------- Post added at 09:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 PM ----------

Update:

So it looks like the OEM unlock disappears when flashing back to the stock firmware. I kind of expected this as the whole point to get OEM unlock to stick was from the 5 min. phone call using a SIM for that region, in that region yes?

For those with the N model, does this happen to you as well when going from another region's firmware then flashing back to the stock N (Korean / SKT etc...) firmware?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
Yes i had efs\baseband backed up via twrp.

And OEM Unlock appears as soon as OS boots up from Odin flash.

Does this mean you are stuck in OEM 7 day jail?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
weird af. Flashed CSC + clear efs. booted with TMO LTE symbol....
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] tokoam:
I never lose oem unlock no matter what firmware I use.Im on N note 8 though.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
so the interesting thing is that you don't see the CA combos when you're on stock. I never checked the menus when I was on stock, but I distinctly remember seeing the "LTE+" icon which implies that CA was working in some form or another. I think i've managed to get back to full stock CSC on my phone, but I still see 12 CSC combos in my service menus. not sure if that's a problem or not honestly. Let me test some speeds here and there again, and I'll report back. I did some comparisons with the TMO zip flashed, and then the SKC zip flashed, and differences in LTE speeds were negligible, so I'm curious to see if this makes a difference...
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] iunlock:
Hmm that's so odd. If this issue is exclusive to the F model, then the only thing that I can think of is that the F models must have that 5 min phone call using that regions SIM to show the OEM unlock... In wonder why the N model is immune?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] shadym1lkman:
Im thinking it was the regional unlock phone call that all 'F' models had to make to even work with Tmo in the first place. Is your device rooted? How did you only flash the csc/efs? Thanks

e: also which csc did you flash; from and to?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
Then it didn't work if you have 4g lte logo....
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] masri1987:
the fact you changed from t-mo to skc zip csc and nothing changed is the same behavior i experienced too.

Not sure but when i contacted seller they said these devices are sim unlocked and bootloader unlocked out of the box. I was told constantly that N is the safest choice.

---------- Post added at 06:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 PM ----------

on phone info do you have SKC as original csc?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] jooniloh:
No I didn't just flash skc zip. That's the point. I flashed the csc in Odin and (because the wipe EFS operation fails when TWRP can't find the file that exists (this has been discussed before)) flashed the sec-omc.zip manually in TWRP.

I have skc for every CSC line now.

---------- Post added at 06:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:25 PM ----------

... There's a reason there's a post after this one explaining that I'm back on SKC......
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Kalm_Traveler:
I'm going to try this today and see if it is the magic fix for everything.

Also want to compare the contents of a 'fresh' EFS partition with what I have now. I don't see anything in my current one that would obviously cause the lack of signal and slow speeds but you never know until you check, right?