yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
Agree....

Problem 1 ~ Switch on GPS, no sats, no fix and my location on My Tracks is always 1 mile to the west.... Wait several minutes and it starts to find a satellite.

Problem 2 ~ After the several minute wait, maybe two, three or four (if I'm lucky) sats show on GPS Test but still no lock.

Problem 3 ~ Now running at roughly 10 minutes and all of a sudden I get a couple of Yellow lines in GPS Test. I've now got a couple of sats locked but:-

a) It's bouncing all over the place.

b) The accuracy ranges from hundreds to fifty plus error.

Problem 4 ~ Switching back to My Tracks and it's jumped from being the 'standard' 1 mile to the west and is now chasing the rabbit from east to west and north to south about 400 feet from my location but refusing to come and meet me.

Problem 5 ~ I've now finished my walk.... The dogs have once again got fed up of my curses at the phone and head off back home for a bit of peace.

milsjg,

In answer to your question "So why do I and many others get good tracks, if everything is wrong?".

I would dearly love to know..... but if you had this problem would you be quiet about it?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
install the latest firmware JH2 from Kies

GPS fixes included, people already confirmed better performance

but again, we never had the problem to start with, so... who knows if it works for people that had been bugged by the trigger happy GPS lock
[Galaxy S I9000 General] skitpt:
Your advice is to flash a Captivate ROM (just the pda?) on the Galaxy ?!?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
Be careful when you say this includes the GPS Fix's?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] PsiIion:
I think it it's very unrealistic to expect to always quickly get a lock to 2.5 meters or better with a smartphone.

Keep in mind that I took that screen a few seconds after turning on the GPS, and usually it will improve with some more time.

I still think it's odd that I rarely see singals in the low teens or twenties. The exception is when I'm indoors and hardly can find enough satellites to get a lock.

For example I'm sitting away from a window right now, with most of the closest window blocked from view.

Then I get this:

But outdoors, close to a window or in the car it's just the odd bar that does not have at least 30 something. I didn't really think about it until I applied the new fix and was hoping to get a signal below 20 to see it in action, but to do that I had to go inside.

Usually they do appear, but like I mentioned I just went out, waited a few seconds for a lock and took a snap, so I guess it was just a lag before GPS Test displayed them.

I went out and took another one where I waited a few more seconds so it had time to get more accuracy and display the sat positions:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
5 meters, or 16 feet, is the lowest number SGS ever reports. But as posted above, it really doesn't mean much. So far, I don't see any difference between your phone and mine as far as GSP Test shows. I can have a greate track one day and a terrible one next day. It's rather temperamental.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
The more I see the GPS fail to work properly, the more I think most of its problems are actually created by some kind of software prediction went haywire. I think it's supposed to sort of guess where you're most likely to be going next and how fast you're going that way to smooth out the track, instead of just pulling your exact current location. And I notice a lot of times that the compass arrow in MyTracks or Google Maps points more or less wrong when the problems occur, and usually in the direction in which the track recording drifts off. When I calibrate the compass (the figure 8 movement for a few seconds), the tracking usually gets better.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] aurelm:
That and maybe some kind of super-slow interpolation algorythm. Because If I am in a car, get a 30m accuracy lock and I drive for 1km before I get a good 10m lock, when I do get a distant lock the gps just tries to interpolate the last position by incrementing the last one with a very small amount instead of just snapping the cursor there. This is with the captivate drivers.

This does not explain why sometimes it won't see any satelites for minutes and he have to use web data to get a lock, and sometimes even if it is a fresh install, airplane mode and cold start - it locks in 3-4 seconds to 6 satelites.

Can someone extract the files from JF3 ? It was the stock firmware in my phone an d If I remember right it was the best (longest gps time without problems).

But bottom line I got really really tired of this :((
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Just let it be. I think the point is made clear by now. Samsung has picked it up and is working on it, as can be infered from the new Captivate fw and the announcements made on twitter by Samsung.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] aurelm:
The fact of the matter is I do not trust Samsung, not anymore. Or not the software engineers there. I find it very sad to release souch a beautiful piece of hardware with such flaws. The guys here are working there asses out for free to make the most of the device. We have so many lag fixes that make the phone 3 times faster and Samsung didn't even bother tu implement something similar.

And ok, I can go with that, but the gps issue is killing me. Not because It's faulty, but because I don't know what is wrong with it. I do not want another "optimisation", I want a fix. I want it to work as a gps. And if is hardware related, I want to know now so I can sell the damn thing. I do not like to be kept in the dark, I payed a lot of money for this device and do not like to be treated like this. Samsung needs to learn how simple mistakes can affect their future. I know so many people that did not buy the galaxy because in the past Samsung didn't bother to update their firmwares. Now they do update but those people already bought a desire or an Iphone 4.

And just like that problem from years before affects their sales now, this problem will affect their sales years from now. That is : next time I will be very very reluctant to buy another Samsung.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] kgk888:
The only thing that can be inferred from the Twatter post is that they are working on one fix for one particular variation of the Galaxy S for one carrier in one country. The Galaxy S is the i9000. The carrier specific versions for the disjointed U.S. market share most all of the hardware but are most definitely carrier specific versions.

There has been no mention of them working on a fix for the actual Galaxy S, the i9000 for the rest of the world, which is where the majority of this device family is sold.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ~gtw:
www_smarthouse_com_au/Phones/Mobile/D6R2V7G7

For those that haven't seen this info yet...

Comments from optus and samsung australia reported.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] jdrake001:
Thanks for the link.

So it seems Samsung is blaming this on Google now...

So it is not a driver issue, rather an OS issue??
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
it's not a problem if you live in north america
[Galaxy S I9000 General] peterlan:
Most people do not live in north america...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
Also, there is very much a problem in North America! I live there, and the GPS has been FUBAR on two different units of mine. The forums for the U.S. variants of the Galaxy S are full of GPS problem reports. AllGamer is spreading misinformation, if not disinformation. I have noticed that he repeatedly posts assertions on his own authority, denying that there is a GPS problem. It would be laughable if it were not so sad.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
believe what you want

but you should upgrade to the latest JH2, it has proven GPS fix and lag fix

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=755063&page=2
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Stop trolling with a firmware that's not available to us.

Or I should probably say just "stop trolling", given your post record.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
I have already mentioned to you in post 808 in this topic (which you chose to ignore) to be careful in what you say on JH2 having the GPS Fix.

AGAIN... It most definitely does not have the GPS Fix added, nor is JH2 for this phone.

The items required for the GPS Fix have yet to be finalized.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TriC_101:
JH2 is for the i9000 I just downloaded it yesterday via kies and it fixed the lag and GPS issues for me and many others.. So it is real.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] larryccf:
when you use MyTracks with it, and then zoom in on the track, is the track on the road 100% of the time? -most everyone else that has indicated it "fixed" their GPS issue, when they posted their MyTrack log map, and we zoomed in, the tracks were off the road. The last one showed the user traveling south on the northbound lanes of interstate 95 for a stretch (this was on a captivate) - to be on the other side of I95, means 100+ feet off as there was a substantial grass boulevard dividing the south & north bound lanes. At other times it showed the user's path some 100' off the road in the weeds. Zoom out, and the track log lookerd good with one or two minor glitches.

it did improve the number of sats locked & allowed a lock on sats with SNR < 20, but as a true fix, - i don't think it qualifies yet.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
You should wait until a few days later to proclaim that.

I've been running Captivate JH2 on my Captivate for a few days now (since last Thursday). All I can say is that it is only half way fixed. All Samsung fixed in the driver so far are:

* the bug that own't let you lock on to satellites with SnR < 20

* the bug that won't let your phone lock on to more than 8 satellites.

besides from that, Samsung haven't fixed the aGSP initial lock on speed, nor the actual navigation accuracy when you driving.

And if you just applied new firmware, you should know that the GPS usually works ok and locks fast after new firmware flash or a fresh reboot. It doesn't mean anything. Wait a few days and see if you can still say that :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dakine:
The fanboy remarks are making me a little queasy. Guys you can like your device but you have to remain objective and critical. A giant electronics firm that pushed out a product that clearly wasn't properly tested is bull. Let's not cut em any slack till it's 100% fixed.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
Keep the device indoors, and leave it in a single location, and check if the location drifts (specifically if the accuracy circle ALWAYS includes your location). Put it in and out of lock a few times (that screwed it up in the last few firmwares). Because in previous firmwares, the distance wasn't excessively out, but enough to make a significant difference. Furthermore, when the phone used to lock, sometimes the location would drift a few hundred meters..

Btw, I theorise we wont see a full fix in the official JH/JG series, but rather in a JN series first (unless it really is a simple fix)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] wascaa:
I recorded an another track today, this time in my car.

IMHO I got a pretty good track : http://maps.google.fr/maps/ms?ie=UT...59375,1.492102&spn=0.002628,0.004501&t=h&z=18

I am running the official JM1 update with the captivate fix applied, it has allowed me to record the first usable tracks with my phone since I got it end of June.

I am curious, has anyone else with GPS problems tried this setup?

Also note that I didn't get the same good results with the captivate fix applied on top of the stock JF3 firmware so there seems to be more to it than just the GPS files in the captivate fix.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
i doubt there is any program that will automatically adjust the path when you zoom in and zoom out

i bike a lot, and even when i was using black berry to track my paths, it's only accurate to a superficial level, as soon as you zoom in, it's all over the place.

http://bb.emacf1.com/gpslogger.html

and for the record the BlackBerry have better build in GPS than either of our HTC or Samsung phones

i think you people are expecting too much of the google map software

hardware wise the info is being tracked and recorded properly.

i'll suggest this service instead

http://www.instamapper.com/

there's an Android version of the App
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
so where does that put the official JH2 released on Kies?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
It's real in that it fixed your issues and I am very pleased others as well.... but it most definitely is not real in that it fixes the GPS issues, especially for the Galaxy S.

Trust me... I know. ;)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Even if you're wrong, it's still a good story! I liked it... Holmes and I are on the look for the N and O branches.

But one thing, are you sure that the A...L releases are all official distributed releases? The Captivate JH2 release made a very unfinished impression on me. The fact that every GPS session is logged in this firmware gave me the impression that it was just a test release.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
I doubt we will ever see JO release :D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Are you rooted on your JH2 fw? Maybe you can share some files with us so we can test it to:

Files that are interesting are:

From the directory system/etc:

gpsconf.etc and jupiter.xml

From the directory system/lib

libgps.so (and maybe other files containing the word gps, maybe libsecgps.so)

From the directory system/bin/gpsd

glgps_samsungJupiter and, if the exist, the *.cer files

Thanks
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Im skeptical about this requiring Googles input.

Google simply make the API, of which HTC have managed to get the GPS working absolutely fine on their phones.

I suppose it could theoretically happen, but I would tend to think that it's down to the manufacturer of the device to write the device drivers and interface to the API, not Google. The same way if you query the NMEA data strings which should come from the GPS Serial Port, you get the wrong location information again.

Sounds like same bag of rubbish if you ask me of when I first spoke to "first line" tech support at Samsung when I asked them when the next firmware would be out.

They said it was down to my service provider. I said it can't be, because Im off contract. They said it is and they can prove it on their device which is on T-Mobile. I had to explain the fact that he had a contract and so had to wait, but mine was off contract. Eventually he started blaming Google and saying we have to wait for Google to make the firmware for the Galaxy S.

I was like, you sure, Google makes the software for the Galaxy S?

Yes.

Including Samsungs own TouchWiz?

Im kind of with you on this one Andrew in that JM and JP definitely are not official, they're some form of pre-release firmware.

But we can still use the contents to determine which direction Samsung is heading with the GPS fixes, and it doesn't sound good at the moment IMHO.

But I'll wait for the official firmware.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Can I bite? JH2? Where is this coming from, is this a Galaxy S firmware or something else?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
What you talking about, adjust the path?

You do know how GPS works right?

It feeds location and accuracy information to an underlying system which gets reported to android. MyTracks uses this to plot a path of points a second apart.

There is no "adjustment of path", you just zoom in on the segments further instead of viewing them at a distance.

Like if you move your head closer to the monitor! :p
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
that's what i'm saying google maps are not accurate for zoom in/zoom out

the more you zoom in, the more out of place is the path recorded.

the path are only accuarate when you are at google maps default high

Even the Street View that google uses are not matching of the google map when you zoom it in, but if you leave it on the default hight then it's fine.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
In other words, the errors may not be apparent until you zoom in close enough to see them! That doesn't mean the errors don't exist.

There is nothing wrong with the accuracy of Google Maps tiles when they are zoomed in. There is much wrong with the accuracy of tracks captured by Samsung Galaxy S devices, when overlaid on the Google maps. The maps are right; the tracks are often wrong.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Then why are Google Maps "not accurate" only on Galaxy S and not on other (and sadly, cheaper) Android phones I own/have owned? I've had HTC Magic for a year and I've made many track recordings with it - always very reliable and spot on tracks.

And once again, please stop trolling. It's great that you're satisfied with the GPS on your phone, we get that you are, but that does not mean everyone's phone is working fine and the problems are just in their head, as you so vigorously keep on insisting over and over. I know of quite a few local people with Galaxy S (30-40, I'd say). Between them, there's literally only a handful of those who are more or less satisfied with their GPS (and those are pretty much all just the people that don't really care whether their GPS is 20m accurate or 5m accurate or those of the "look, I can get satellite lock on my couch, wow!" sort). Most of the others feel like they downgraded their GPS by switching to Galaxy or even find it downright unusable and are thinking of returning or selling their phones. And these are phones bought on different European markets with different firmwares (so even the "it's just a few broken phones" explanation is off). So there's obviously something very wrong. Again, I'm glad that you are satisfied, but from where I stand, you're just an exception. So please stop telling me there's nothing wrong because your phone works to your satisfaction. I'm kinda getting sick of it, really.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
It's a Canadian Bell i9000M firmware that was released through Kies yesterday.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
just run Kies

but you need to first flash it to JG8, so it believes it's in the same area
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
no they are not accurate when i use it with any GPS

including Blackberry, HTC and Samsung

just try it with any other device, and you will see

the application i use is listed above, works even on iphone

the only thing that you people shows are boxed mind sets, you have to look at issues from a different point of view.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] larryccf:
don't know if you mis-read my post or are just trolling for a response

go back to post 828 (just before yours) and look at the map wascaa linked to - under the zoom level it displays at normally, the track doesn't look that bad, then zoom in using the "+" marker in the upper left and you'll see what i've highlited below - especially the 2nd one where his path jumps from the 270 degree highway ramp over to the highway itself, that alone sez you'd have problems in complicated interchanges

in the first image below, unzoomed, the track didn't look all that bad, zoom in and you see how far over the track is to the actual roadpath

in the 2nd one, no zoom needed - if you're to believe the track logged, wascaa, instead of staying on the entrance ramp and merging with the highway, jumped the grass over to the highway
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Prufrock:
Great theory!

As for the GPS issue, this was posted on Samsung UK Mobile's facebook page on Friday in reply to someone asking when it was going to get fixed:

"Samsung UK Mobile Hi Simon, we are right now looking into an update for the GPS, and it is our priority to get this released as soon as possible. Thanks!"

Also on Thursday, in relation to someone asking what the new JM1 firmware changes and mentioning the bad GPS:

"Samsung UK Mobile Hi Phillip, the new firmware has many small changes to improve the user experience on the Galaxy S. We are investigating the GPS issues that have been described and hope to have a solution shortly. Thanks"

Here's hoping.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
that's exactly what i'm saying even using TomTom in a windows mobile phone, or an actual Garmin GPS device, you get those sort of misaligned readings as well.

i've yet to see a device that can perfectly align the path, be it you are trying to record the path, or simply navigating the path

these will be considered minor.

however i do agree with the major jumps from north to south or east to west as some people as shown on their tracked paths, those require real fixes, which should have been corrected already in the latest firmwares.

but for these minor alignmen like the ones you've shown, i doubt you can get such a clear resolution from most devices.

as long as you know that is roughly the path taken or to go, it's working within the standard parameters.

As most manufacturer puts it "it's working as designed'
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TriC_101:
Google's White lines are off just as much as your GPS..
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
You mean your point of view? Ignore our experience?

I've seen a HTC Desire, and N95 and N97 tracking using programs like MyTracks. Ok, they're not perfect, but they're much better than the Samsung Galaxy S.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Really? I once had an N95 with Nokia Sports Tracker. It was so precise it would even show the exact point that I crossed the road.

Sorry, you're preaching to the educated here who know what a GPS *CAN* do.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
I think he's trying to say that you can't trust Google Maps to be accurate. I find it quite preposterous that we can only expect a "rough" indication of our position. I remember my N95 used to be so precise, it would even show the bit where I crossed the road.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Someone said it's for the i9000M - how is that different to the common or garden i9000?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TriC_101:
umm I don't think you know what your talking about you should check your facts..... the JH2 is for the i9000! everyone in Canada that plugs their i9000 phone into Kies is able to download this update "JH2" also how can you say it has not improved the GPS if you have not even tried this rom?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Amdathlonuk:
[Q] GPS and T-Mobile (UK)

Hi,

I'm posting this for the wife .... she has a SGS which she loves, however we have just had a weeks holiday and have needed to use the GPS for the first time. Now I know there are issues with the gps and hers was truely terrible when we used it. (it takes an age to get a lock then proceeds to jump around all over the place, moving you from road to road when you are stationary, dropping gps signal randomly then struggling to re-find it, also sometimes refusing point blank to even look for any form of signal hence prompting us to switch the gps off and start over..)

Anyway she decided to ring samsung (as the phone was getting awful close to going out the window at one point whilst we were lost) they informed her that there are no known problems with GPS (ha ha...) and therefore it sounds like a faulty unit so she would need to contact t-mobile and get it exchanged.

SO has anyone tried going down this route? would she be exchanging a bad unit for another bad unit? she has only had it about a month as an upgrade.

any advice welcome please!! (other than advising her to get a dell streak ...like me ;) )
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
No harm getting a replacement IMHO.

I think some may have bad hardware, but if you get the same, you may just have been having some issues in that location.

Certainly I swapped my first unit out, and while it's better than the first, it's still got some issues.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Unimaginative:
Good testing. Could be an indicator that it's actually either carrier or other online provider aGPS that's causing issues since that's what it's eliminate.

Many thanks for bringing this up.

Interestingly 'SUPL/CP Settings' has a custom config on my SGS pointing to www.spirent-lcs.com, something that doesn't seem to exist.