yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] spenceee:
Optus gps settings

I've been experimenting with my gps and I've found what I think is a good set of gps settings.

Firstly the leshak root technique worked on my i9000dtjf3 firmware nicely.

Edit the /etc/gps.conf and change the ntp server to the au pool, does have a good effect. Secondly ignore the supl customisation, leave it as default.

This might be obvious but there is also a privacy setting that prevents accurate locating, maker sure this is set to street level.

Make sure that skyhook, dynamic accuracy and gps plus are enabled. You can find these settings by dialling *#*# 1472365#*#* into the dialer.

Also ensure that you are using the MS-Assisted setting for your GPS (AGPS). I can get a lock below 10m within 10 seconds from a cold start.

Don't try this unless you know what you are doing because if you get them wrong your gps won't work.

Hope that helps!

Sent from my AWESOME Galaxy S
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Tyxerakias:
Ok...I've seen all this too. I don't understand how all this makes the information 'wrong'.

I did say that I don't know if this is a fix or not. Maybe secgps.conf is an export, maybe it gets read in as well (the fact that it gets regenerated at boot maybe points to it being needed). I have just noticed a better gps response since I deleted it, with a more stable fix, and I thought I'd tell you.

And yes, I do recommend you root, since you've flashed already I don't see any reason not to, you don't lose your data or anything, and you gain more access to your phone. But that's just my opinion.

(By rooting you can also fix the 'slanted horizon' problem that a lot of JF3 Galaxy S handsets suffer from, due to incorrect factory calibration of the g-sensor. Open Layar and look if your phone has the problem; or try an accelerometer-based game where you'll be moving to the left for no reason.)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Jreitnauer7:
Which firmware? 2 or 3?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Ancient_One:
Have no issues with GPS but then I don't use it all that must.

I know where to go and how to get their at the best of times. :D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
Hi Mike, Indeed cant really say very much as Broadcom isnt in the habit of revealing what products it sells to what customers. :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] xiuhan83:
hi, do you know whether this settings work for phones bought in the uk. I am residing in melb australia. having troubles with my gps...take too long to acquire satellites(more than 5 mins) from a cold start. can u give more details on how to manipulate these settings. cheers mate.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] tdusen:
from that press release:

+ The GPS core uses a host-based integration architecture that splits the processing duties between the BCM20751 and the host CPU. It provides the lowest power consuming GPS available, delivering 50 percent better power performance when compared to today’s leading solutions.

I hope that means that the GPS issues can be fixed via an update to the Host CPU portion of the code.

On the other hand, Having some of the GPS work being handled by the host CPU seems like trouble. How much host processing must be done, and how does that affect the rest of the system.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
And one can change the default home pane on the newer firmware builds: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=734151

I think it is better to concentrate on how different GPS applications are reading the GPS data of the Galaxy GPS chip, instead of concentrating on the general GPS settings. Appearantly there can be a lot of variation in this. I've seen general GPS testing programs giving me a constant fix, while in a navigation program I had very unpredictable results. Also, yesterday I used my favorite map/tracking program (OruxMaps) and couldn't get a fix in the forest. But when I changed the default time between GPS measurements in the program settings from 2 to 1 seconds I had a constant fix and a very accurate trail.

So maybe it is not the GPS chip that is the problem, but the way GPS programs are using the GPS. Maybe the default application settings that work for the majority of GPS chips on android doesn't work for the Galaxy GPS chip. For example it can be that the "Beautiful Widget"-widget is polling the gps every 2 secs instead of 1 (because of a standard energy saving setting)...

I think looking at the gps performance on a case by case base is more worthwhile than looking at it generally (like perhaps should also be done with the "lag" problem)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Can it be that the delegation of processing duties to the host CPU interfere with CPU intensive GPS programs, like for example mapping programs, which have to evaluate the GPS data constantly?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
This is my way of thinking too... I've read the PR script but that doesn't say much really, certainly nothing to do in it's behavior pattern.

Pity Mark can not say anything further... but I fully understand all about confidentiality and in how it ties you.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
I agree. Although I started off on a wrong foot with TravUK (Mark, I suppose), I think he is of tremendous worth here :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
Agreed..... I'll offer him a free surgical consultation. :D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] eaglesteve:
Tried that. Does'nt seem to help me. You might want instead of change your firmware to JM2. I think it has improved, although not to the extend necessary for normal navigation use yet. (I believe it will result in too many erroneous route recalculation, thinking that you're on a neighbouring streen, or thinking that you've continued ahead and missed the turn). But I'm still testing it to confirm the degree of reliability. Sometimes even when GPS works well initially, it deteriorate after a few days or couple of weeks forcing hard reset to cure it again. When I did testing for my iPhone GPS, I usually only conclude after about a month of continuous testing. I think most people jump into conclusion very very quickly.

But thanks. I'm trying out anything people suggest here.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] eaglesteve:
Alain is right. Most people have no idea what a good GPS is and come to conclusion way way too prematurely. I've done lots and lots of testing of GPS, in winmo and in iPhone, so I've come to realising that just because you see 8 satellite in under 10 seconds it does not automatically mean that you dont have any problem, or that your GPS is even useable.

Here's the thing.

Being able to acquire quickly is one thing. Being able to maintain and hold on to it without losing the signal along the way is completely different matter.

Then, even if it's able to hang on to the signal without losing it, the amount of lags as your move as well as the accuracy of it are crucial. No point having 6 satellites but you're thought to be at the neighbouring road parallel to what you actually are, or no point if the GPS thinks you've travelling straight still, when you've already made the turn. Lags and inaccuracy like that will cause the GPS to erroneously make a route recalculation, giving you wrong driving direction, even if you're maintaining the signal.

And another very very important aspect of reliability is HOW LONG can we keep using the GPS accurately. Sometimes, the GPS works perfectly for one or two weeks, then it deteriorate by itself, and the way to cure it is to do a soft reset. In iPhone, for example, this was found to be necessary after a few weeks of accurate use. But even that could come to a stage when soft reset will not cure it, forcing the user to have to do a hard reset before the GPS would function 100% good again. In this sense, I had always said that there might have been a firmware issue in the iPhone firmware that we were using, which makes such soft reset/hard reset necessary.

So, how many of us are thinking about testing it as throughly as what I mentioned? What I see if people declaring they have no problem almost as soon as they finish flashing a new firmware. No, that's not enough.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] spenceee:
This was specific advice to the optus australia users, I've had a lot of trouble with the gps and these settings are still getting good results.

There are no aussie roms at all so I'd love to try the jm2 if they release it.

Sent from my AWESOME Galaxy S
[Galaxy S I9000 General] eaglesteve:
JM2 is a leaked firmware I think, and you can already get it. Waiting for Samsung to release the next firmware? It would be many months away, if ever. Samsung's track record on this was anything but good. Samsung Galaxy 7500 never ever got any update. Did you read that they have not enabled over the air update for us? Also, I would have thought that flashing something not to Optusish might increase the sales value somewhat as people on Telstra/Vodafone/3 could use it too. but I might be wrong.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Not that Im in the habbit of flogging a dead horse, but lets just see if I can make myself any clearer.

Proposition: Deleting the SecGPS.Conf allows the system to recreate it using default values.

Assumption: SecGPS.Conf is read in by the system

Unfortunately, I think the assumption is wrong. If you change your values in the LbsTest app, eg, set Accuracy to 123, remove the Secgps.conf and reboot your phone, your SecGPS.Conf will look normal - with default values. But if you go back into your LbsTest app, you will still see your old values.

Why do you still see your old values even though you removed SecGPS?

Real conclusion, SecGPS.Conf has no bearing upon the settings in the GPS Driver. The values you see in LbsTest are not in SecGPS.Conf, they are actually maintained elsewhere.

SecGPS.Conf appears to be only an exported text based representation of what we see in the LBSTest program.

Could that SecGPS.Conf be used elsewhere? I don't know. Maybe.

But we shouldn't use the fact it is created as proof of anything at all. There are all sorts of odd items in there which make absolutely no sense whatsoever, items which don't tie up to anything, no entry for Skyhook etc.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Arkymedes:
Well, I guess people went off the main topic of this thread?

What about the Chinese firmware recommended by the OP?

All the other posts in this thread are already covered by the gazillion other similar posts in this forums...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Tyxerakias:
I detect a hostile attitude which I think is unwarranted. Let's see if I can make myself any clearer:

1) I tried this. It seems to work. I have no problem with my GPS while driving since I tried it. GPS Test never goes to zero lock in my car. It did before I tried it, in London. Again, maybe it is not read in, and this is a UK vs. Greece reception. Will test in an English car when I get back.

2) While in England, I tried everything else proposed, and nothing seemed to make the reception better before I tried this.

2) I still think the GPS has problems, and is not suitable for walking until they fix it. Or maybe it's bad hardware, in which case it will never be suitable for walking.

You mention some experiments which indicates that you did root your phone after all. Did you try it, it made no difference and you won't tell us, instead you are trying to have some sort of final word? or haven't you rooted yet, and all this is just you trying to logic this out?

Try it, don't try it, it's all the same to me. I just tried being helpful. I'm happy with my GPS which still hasn't dropped out once in my car.

I trust that was clear enough.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Jreitnauer7:
I agree 100%
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Arkymedes:
Is there English language with this FW? If so, I will try it out.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] exadeci:
GPS.conf works perfect, I've updated firmware to last version (gps wasn't working) rooted it, fixed the speed issue and edited the gps.conf and now I have the perfect phone xD (you can try your country instead of europe. I used france)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] hkmatt:
Hi,

To some of the poster here on the thread I opened. I can assure you that I am testing very thoroughly as I run a company renting phones to people to explore a city via GPS based guide, so my core interest is to get this to work as the SGS is the best hardware for my application for the time being.

I have several phones here lying next to each other and the newer the firmware is the worst it gets, both in terms of speed to acquire the signal and the actual holding of it, which I agree to the previous posts is more important than just a quick pick up.

I am not sure if the international JF7 is the same as the Chinese JF7. But even for the CN version, you can switch it to UK and US English, so if that's good enough for you why dont you give it a try. It 15min of your life ;-)

Let me know!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Arkymedes:
Which PIT file did you use? I'm downloading it right now and will post with some comparisons with my previous version XXJM2. Thanks.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] neldar:
I tested today JM2.

The i9000 got a GPS fix in less then 10 seconds, obviously this is caused by the corrected supl settings (www .spirent-lbs .com doesn't exist).

Then i recorded with MyTracks a short track on my bike and it is absolute accurate. I can see every stop, turn, everything... My i9000 was all the time in a pocket.

Finally I compared the results with GPS test on the i9000 to my old gps-mouse Haicom HI-204III with the tool SirfDemo. Under bad conditions the i9000 got faster a satfix, but it also lost the satfix faster. If your not moving, the position seem to jump on both devices.

My guess is that the gps chip in the i9000 detects stops, then it goes into some standby mode and this results into inaccurate positions when your not moving.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Arkymedes:
So... I gave it a try and this are my results.

After 2 minutes outside at the same spot with the different firmwares. My best result was:

First image: XXJM2

Second image: ZSJF7

So, based on that, I cannot agree that this firmware is best for GPS. :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] hkmatt:
Well for my phone it works. JM2 doesn't work at all. As I mentioned i had them all next to each other....but even the three phones that I own when putting all of them on the same firmware have still very different results, so I guess there must be other settings not yet discovered by anyone here (yes I know the hidden menu, etc) or hardware differences.

@Arkymedes, sorry to say but I think your testing is a waste of time as it was done at different times...so different conditions. Most people here on this forum do a lot of testing and 99% of the time it is just useless data.....
[Galaxy S I9000 General] deadgamer:
Hmm... I gotta say that it's weird. I tried "GPS Test" on my balcony just now and I got 8 sattelites (8 in use) in about 2 seconds and with 5M Accuracy. I'm on JG5 btw...

Using motonav in my car and it takes less than 2 seconds to connect and it works perfectly.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Arkymedes:
Well, I only have one phone... anyway, how is that useless data?

The phone should be able to get a signal at any time. Also, at both times the test were taken, the sky couldn't be more clear. Sorry but I disagree.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] milsjg:
So why dont you replace the phone. I would if I had your problem with it. I never had any seriouse problem with the GPS on any firmware version.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
The poster whom you are referring to (Simon) has already done this.

This is his second Galaxy S.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
May I ask you how you are testing the GPS? What apps are you using, do you walk around the block with MyTracks, do you drive with MyTracks enabled?

I'll be honest with you, the second phone I have is functioning a lot better than the first. The lock is a lot more reliable but still prone to glitches and errors and times when it just cannot get a lock at all.

But I've tested the new firmware and think they're dreadful. I can see the direction they're heading in which seems to buffer and dampen the signal to provide a rough guestimation as to where you're going when it loses the GPS signal.

What Samsung need to sort out, is why the phone is losing the signal in the first place.

I wouldn't be surprised if as this is a new Broadcom chipset, for these issues to magically resolve on Kernel 2.6.32 (FroYo)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ghosty_uk:
ok, like all of you i have tried just about every thing i can to get my gps working and on a 3 hour drive to rotherham yesterday, i tried various methods, varios programs and it could not get a lock on at any point (i should just stress i was the passenger not the driver), i have not rooted my phone as i odnt understand andriod enought yet, plus my phone is only 7 days old tomorrow, so i shall take it back to phones for you and see what they say.

As for my testing, it actually flattened the battery to about 15% over the course of the drive, i can say the driver was doing about 75-80mph, and it was a clear sky most of the time, the car we were in was a MG ZS in BRG if that makes a difference i dont know.

so my conclusion now is there is something very very very seriously flawed, in the hardware as i tried ndrive, scrobbler, google navi, gps test, gps refresh and a few others, needless to say i do use gps quite abit and this is a reason i bought the phone. i think if this new phone does the same then ill be taking that back also.

any ideas on a phone that is just as good but dont suffer the same gps issues, im thinking maybe i should wait for the desire to be back in stock.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrej.marinic:
i think we should come to terms with what is happening. this phone, however good it might be otherwise, has a very poor implementation of both the GPS and magnetometer. i seriously doubt this to be a software issue, and hence not really solvable (other than replacing the phone altogether).

speaking of magnetometer: open GPS Test app and look at the compass. now tip the phone to landscape! where is north all of a sudden?

be it a bad batch or an overheating problem, fact is that many people are reporting this problem. we got ourselves a new phone, a class of it's own when you look at the specs, but it is problematic.

i am guessing that future versions will not have this kind of a problem.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Tyxerakias:
You could also have read various forums to get that info, it's not a given. I knew everything about rooting before I did it.

Ok, I guess I misread you as well, let's leave it at that. Apology accepted, and offered in turn.

Totally agree. To answer those questions for myself, my GPS works ok in a car, with GPS navigation software like Sygic, NDrive, CoPilot. It fails if walking with Google maps, and with the navigation software it's slow to update when walking. So far I have tried it under rain and sun, with open skies and between tall buildings. Keep in mind that car navigation software tends to 'lock' you on the road, so I haven't noticed deviations from the road, if any.

I'll keep hoping it's a fixable software glitch. Even though I mainly use my GPS when driving, I would also like to be able to use it for anything. The 8 satellite lock fix might be a property of the GPS module itself, and unchangeable. But the 20 snr thing is definitely a software issue...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
I don't hear much of severe GPS problems on the (US) variants of the Galaxy S, like for example the Samsung Vibrant. I wonder if the whole issue is solved in the firmware of those devices. If so, is it possible to flash the firmware of these devices?

Furthermore, one of my installed gps apps (OmsTracker) got an update yesterday. In the changelog I read: Ability to use OS clock instead of GPS ones, to help with some devices like Samsung Galaxy/Spica. Don't know what kind of "help" is provided here and if it has something to do with the accuracy of the GPS, but maybe the developer is on to something. I don't have the urge and need to contact him/her, but if anybody wants to, here is the app-page:

http://code.google.com/p/osmtracker-android/
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
I am not sure about that, googling "vibrant gps problems" brings up a huge amount of hits and a lot of users complaining about it.

Check out the t-mobile thread for example

http://forums.t-mobile.com/t5/Samsung-Vibrant/GPS-issues-Please-let-Tmobile-know/td-p/423427/page/9
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
So... are there any more clues as to whether its a firmware fault or chipset fault?

Ive been comparing it to my garmin unit, the galaxy does seem to be pretty close in snr to the garmin but it seems to be quite chaotic.. the garmin just locks on and never lets go of satellites..

The galaxy, well it seems to choose some satellites with a very low snr even though there are ones that are way stronger sitting there and seems to constantly drop them and choose others...

The "fixes" don't seem to fix anything.

Also, are these fixes simply changing location servers? eg relying more on wifi/cell towers rather than the satellites? I dont really understand how changing a server in the phone can fix the gps, I understand it might give the locations of the satellites but it cant help you keep locks on them or choose which ones to use.. Seems to be a lot of people coming up with some new trick and everyone jumping on the bandwagon each day.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Jreitnauer7:
I have the captivate and I'm in jf6 and the GPS is terrible. I have tried every possible fix but No luck
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Ahhhr too bad. .... Another hope less for a immediate fix :) Thanks for clearing this up.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] NickeMan:
While the chipset is probably pretty much the same it IS possible the samsung placed the GPS antennae in some silly way, blocking much of the signal.

The other possibility is ****ty software (which is much more likely I guess / hope)

Input from someone who flashed their phone with JF5/JF7/JFB / whatchamacallit would be nice...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dlci:
Hi, I'm also concerned about the gps chip in the Samsung's androids and as I'm still thinking over whether I should buy the SGS..Some things that perhaps could throw some light on the issue (i have the feeling it's the wlan positioning, that messes up the navigation):

Did you have location services enabled? Any widgets that rely on them?

Did you disable manually Wifi, after you enable the GPS tracking?

Did you start google maps beforehand?

Alternatively you can try setting the phone to non online mode and repeat the run in approx the same area..just to check for differences

Hopefully the issue can be found soon
[Galaxy S I9000 General] NickeMan:
This was with WiFi turned off and any extra apps killed just before I started RunKeeper. However, in the location&security settings, both "Use Wireless Networks" and "Use GPS satellites" were ticked. I don't have any location-enabled widgets running ATM.

When I closed the app, WiFi wasn't on either, so I assumed it hadn't been using WiFi. Google Maps was not started beforehand.

It's possible that the phone was using WiFi positioning to some extent I suppose, but I don't see why it would view WiFi data as more "reliable" than GPS data.

Today is a gym day, but I'll try the same run again in the next few days with "Use Wireless Networks" set to off. Hopefully the result will correspond to reality just a little bit better... I'm worried that the phone will have a tough time though, since A-GPS relies on phone networks to get a good lock, at least in the beginning...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] danielherrero:
I dont ve any problem with the gps. I use it often with copilot and google navigator and works perfectly....
[Galaxy S I9000 General] NickeMan:
Would you mind sharing your settings (WiFi, etc) and firmware version with us as well?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] FrezoreR:
Since I updated to the JFB firmware I think my GPS has worsen.

I'm at the country side with almost nothing to block the gps signal, still it searches and searches :S My friend who has an xperia x10 locks the signal right away :S