yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] pepitodequetequejas:
My question is:

Is GPS problem fixed (parcial o totally) whith canadian bell JH2 ?

i know is not able to fix more than 8 satellites and signal > 20 snr (

really this is not a problem (diferent android interface implementation no (ever) mean faulty implementation)) but i heard about JH2:

1 - more accurate.

2 - no squizofrenic jumps whith low signal (no jumps , zigzags).

3 - faster fix (indoor , outdoor).

4 - more sensitivity (indoor , outdoor).

Can anyone confirm this ?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Canadian JH2 does not even contain the "fix" to enable lock to more than 8 satellites and to satellites with signal strength lower than 20dBHz. And the accuracy of the GPS is exactly the same as in ie. JM5 firmware. Which means perfect and fast lock with supposed accuracy of 5 meters, except 50+ meters off...

So no, nothing is fixed in Canadian JH2, despite trolls telling everyone (and everywhere) otherwise.

There's a new firmware for Captivate, though, JH3. I'm about to test it. JH2 for Captivate was the first firmware to allow lock to more than 8 sats, so I'm hoping JH3 might be better again.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
Just thought I'm done with firmware flashing and waiting for sept.'s super firmware with Froyo+GPS fix (or shall we say optimization). JH3? Very tempting....

Still need to see more reports from test mules as for exact what has changed in GPS dept.

As for AllGamer, go trolling somewhere else. You obviously have no clue what you're talking about. XDA is for ppl to discuss potential issues and look for solutions. If you want to sing praises all day long, go start your own forum.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
For the last time....as has been already mentioned but here again I say it ~ NO Update is yet to include the GPS Fix.

Recent updates may have improved some users phones who have implemented them but it is far and I emphasize far from fixing the problem.

Any fixes presently released do not include the required driver updates.

These updates will come later in September... which you already know but again I say it to clarify anyone's intent that it has already come about.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
foxbat121, please exclude my last post from your message.

It was meant for all other posts before yours my good friend. :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
I think he was specifically referring to the case here locking the screen/sleep and CPU load caused the position to skitz out for a while. So, I'm curious to see if thats fixed..

In regards to locking on to more satellites, more satellites doesn't always mean noticeably better accuracy. If you don't believe me, google around and you'll notice that even some 12channel receivers only have an accuracy of 5m. And a haicom 32 channel receiver I noticed stated an accuracy of 3M.

In regards to losing lock though, more locks would probably help. But in the case he described, the accuracy measurement was significantly incorrect sometimes, and I don't think that should ever happen really.. In the lock screen case it might have been fixed in other firmware (but I ain't gonna try I9000M firmware).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] wascaa:
I just checked, the gps files of JH3 are exactly the same as the ones from JH2, so no updates there.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
I believe I've never said anything close to that more satellites means noticeably better accuracy, so I really have no reason to "not believe you", especially since I know a bit about this myself.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
If what you're refering to is releated to Google Maps behavior, I think that is not a bug but rather feature (to save battery juice). When you lock the screen/sleep, the current firmware automatically turn off the GPS chip because it makes no sense to leave it on while you're not even interested to look at the screen. It is a debateble design decision but I personally don't think it is a bug. I like this way better. When you unlock the screen, the GPS has to be re-initalized.

However, if you're using apps like My Tracks. The GPS is kept on even if your screen locks/sleeps. And the accuracy does not change. And that's how we know the GPS isn't fixed yet because the My Tracks recordings show the actual GPS tracks over a long period of time.

Even better, I'm starting to use Google Navigator to test actual navigation accuracy. Google Navigator's own problem aside, what I saw from Google Navigator is even worse than My Tracks recording. I noticed a lot of times, my position is serverly lagged behind what my actual location is, even on a straight road. It lags and lags then suddenly catches up. What it means is that it can't supply Nav app a consistent postioning data stream. This behavior, however, is impossible to tell in a My Tracks recording.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
past experiences on PalmOS and WM with Google Nav Maps using GPS confirms the lag issue and then catching up, to only happen again after it loses the signal again, the restuls are far from desirable. I always end up using TomTom or another GPS software

In Android I prefer CoPilot as TomTom is not yet available for Android, either way a decent GPS software will do extrapolation data and guess where you are ahead of time, so even if the GPS lose lock for a fraction of a second it wont go all crazy as the paths locked on my tracks or any other GPS tracking software.

what people see on those loopy or jumpy path on the gps tracking software are more than likely related to the gps losing the signal and getting the signal again as it needs to reposition itself, but the tracking software records all the reasertion as part of the path tracked causing all those funny maps posted on many posts.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] pepitodequetequejas:
broadcom gps driver files maybe the same but libgps.so (android interface) in /system/lib , must be different (more than 8 fix , snr ...).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] wascaa:
Nope, there are also the same.

BTW, getting a fix on more than 8 satellites and with SNR < 20dB is already working in JH2.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Spitfire128:
Is this for sure? I read something about that earlier. The processor also does part of the work, right. So if that one goes to sleep or just gets really slow it would affect the GPS.

I'm asking this because I went out cycling today and figured I'd just try out the GPS and MyTracks. It got an accurate lock pretty quickly, but... It seems that when the screen is off the accuracy actually does decrease for me. And I don't just mean that the line gradually starts zigzagging more, even though it does. That could be a coincidence, though I doubt that. At some point it just wasn't recording any track at all 80% of the time. Just a few small lines every now and then. I turned the screen on and it suddenly got very accurate and consistent again. It then kept recording a reasonably accurate track when I turned it back off, though. This not recording has happened a few times with the screen off, never with it on. And turning it on always got it back to accurately tracking.

I've confirmed that it's not because of the area I'm in at a particular moment. I was able to get a very good track with the screen on in some areas whereas with it off there either was no track at all or it was slightly to very inaccurate.

Then again this is just me.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
I believe there are confusions as to which JH2 we are refering to. They are two versions of JH2 currently:

1. The leaked beta JH2 for Captivate. This is the version that contains the updated GPS driver and confirmed to be able to lock on to more than 8 satellites as well as SNR < 20.

2. The official release JH2 for Canandian SGS. According to previous post by Case_, this version does not have the updated GPS driver at all.

JH3 is also a beta leak for Captivate and it seems has the same GPS driver as JH2 for Captivate.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
Yes, I have couple track recordings > 25 miles of driving with screen off/locked/sleep entire way and accuracy didn't change.

That just confirms one of the issues with the GPS: it is inconsistent and it does lost satellite lock from time to time, especially when you do a recording for a long period of time. The reason you didn't notice it during screen on time is probably you didn't keep it on long enough to notice it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
As for the accuracy with screen off - it seems to me like this might actually be firmware dependant, ie. it does lose accuracy on some while not losing it on others.

Libgps.so has nothing to do with the 8+ "fix". The file is exactly the same in firmwares that can lock to more than 8 sats and firmwares that can't.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] rfary:
anyone notice that the gps don't lock when the 3G data is turned off? i was looking at the using of sat on the gps test app.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Spitfire128:
Possible, it might have just been a coincidence. But I had the screen on for quite a long time and it was fairly consistent. The main thing that leads me to believe that the screen being off causing decreased accuracy is that when I turn it on it goes from either a inaccurate or no recording at all to a perfectly accurate track in a matter of seconds. When I turn it back off it seems to get worse after a while, eventually just leaving out large portions.

Maybe it is firmware dependent as Case_ said. I don't know which "J" is on my Galaxy S, it's the firmware it came with a week ago, says 2.1-update1. I also did the "fixes" from the beginning of this thread.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
I noticed with wi-fi on (and 3G data off automatically), it does take forever to lock on. That means the assisted part of the GPS does require cell tower data connection. However, once I did the initial lock, I can put the thing in flight mode and the GPS can still lock to my current position quickly (assume I didn't move too far away).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
2.1-update1 is the same for all firmwares out there. You need take note of the Baseband version.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Spitfire128:
It says I9000XXJF3.

Oh. The above talk suggests that the WiFi may have got something to do with my issues today. For some reason I found my WiFi randomly turning on at times. Though it seems unlikely considering there already was a lock.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
So, you have the JF3 firmware.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Spitfire128:
(Um, yes, I figured that much, heh.)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Singhman:
Is it just the google GPS that doesn't work, or all?

Has anyone installed another gps program, like tomtom, and are still having the same problems, or could it just be a google thing? Maybe there's a conflict between google and samsung, or android and samsung?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
there is no tom tom yet for Android

but CoPilot is even better than TomTom, i used to be a long time TomTom user from PalmOS & WM

CoPilot is spot on

the GPS issue is not as serious as people claim, it only affect some tracking software, but it doesn't affect navigation softwares like TomTom, CoPilot, IGo
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
The GPS issue is an underlying system problem and so affects all programs in equal measure. The underlying issue is best described as a form of noise and so affects different people in different ways on different days. The fix is being tested and should be released to customers in the coming weeks.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] darkoroje:
The GPS issue does affect all navigation programs altough to a varying degree.

Samsung has said they are "optimizing" the GPS hopefully that means they will actually fix it. At the moment the GPS is unusable for any kind of navigation.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
a work around is

if you have a dedicated bluetooth GPS with antennae you can always connect it to the SGS via bluetooth, this was mentioned a long while back
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
And when it was "mentioned" it was utter misinformation, not unlike many of your posts. Theoretically, it may be that some particular applications could take input from an external GPS, but this is certainly not a property of the Android system generally. The Android sytem assumes that the onboard GPS is usable, and makes that internal GPS output available to any application that chooses to access it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Fatherboard:
The GPS is

totally useless

accuracy-wise (Waze fails / gmaps fails - position is sporadic + huge position updates lag) with every firmware I tested - JF3/JM1/JM5/JG8/JH2/JF1 (Old). I bought my unit from CLOVE.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
A tale of GPS & the Dog!

One of my dogs has for years loved to carry my phone in his mouth as we all have our late evening walk.

He's extremely gentle as he was when our Granddaughter was little so I have no worries with the delicate phone in his mouth.... and no, he does not slobber either.

Anyway, it may be because he's heard me moan, curse and grumble at the phone that much he simply refuses to carry the phone.

Or it could be he's wised up to the idea he knows that on this phone the GPS is not switched on.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Intratech:
Google maps doesn't work too well with the GPS as it's tracking is way off once you start moving but Google Navigation works perfectly for me. Tracking is accurate and locks on in seconds.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] warfanax:
GPS doesnt work after JH2 update from JG9

I updated my phone from JG9 to JH2 via Kies about 3 hours ago. My GPS was working excellent since I did the upgrade. It was showing 6-7 satellites when I was under the clear sky and was locking within 15 sec. at least 5 satellites.

However after the update, GPS Test program show only 1 satellite mostly and even when it shows 4 satellites it cant even lock 1 of them. Maps, Google Eart, Navigation programs wont work either.

It was working perfect before even without modifying the GPS settings (which I never did). Now it doesnt work, I also tried the famous GPS fix.

Do you guys have the same issue? What might be the reason and any solutions?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] lgkahn:
go into secret settings menu clear gps info and change it to ms assisted and cold start... once you get a gps lock you can change it back to warm start.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] larryccf:
boomer, it's apparently beyond theoretical - there are a number of apps on android market to enable use of auxilliary bluetooth gps receivers. There was another thread i came across on this forum, iirc, where posters were indicating they were or had used a bluetooth GPS rcvr successfully

search for "bluetooth GPS Provider" in android - app developer is "mobile-j.de"

i'll come back and post the link to xda thread on it if i can find it again

wasn't that hard to find - just down the page a bit under a thread titled "external gps" - in it was a link to another thread

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=7703266#post7703266
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
You should have spent some time with the SGS 16 GB I've owned for 2 weeks. It was just pathetic. Tracks looked like something a drunk on meth scribbled on a map while on a jet ski, and navigation software, the navigation software... oh boy... I've tried them all, or amost. ndrive, copilot, etc, etc,etc. There were rare moments of perfection but those were rare and short indeed.

Most of the time it was just totally useless. No amount of snapping and good routing algorithms could sort out the location data that the SGS was generating.

The SGS - in a navigation-requiring-context - reminded me of the old joke about owning a boat; I had two happy moments with it; When I bought it and when I returned it.

And yes, as a payback for all the lost time I will now troll around looking out for the vapourware fix and claiming that I'll buy another unit again and enjoy android if Samsung/Broadcom ever fixes it (yeah right).

5 million. Ah. Ah. Ah.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Will.1:
possible official fix for the GPS to come?

Hey, just came across this article from Giz. Apparently the Epic 4G has a flawless GPS (well "tested and validated") and Samsung has recognized and is working towards fixing the GPS problem. Update Should be arriving in September.

They talk about Vibrant and Captivate but i'm guessing they're also encompassing the worldwide i9000

The "tested and validated part also begs the question: Has our GPS system not been tested and validated before? or is this like an iphone 4 antenna thing? Maybe they share the same testing department...

Here's the link: http://gizmodo.com/5616314/samsung-has-tested-and-validated-gps-functions-on-the-epic-4g-is-resolving-bugs-on-other-devices
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Croak:
You do have Use Wireless Networks checked in Location and Security, right?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] copo:
Are the GPS hardware share the same design between the Epic 4G and Galaxy S I9000??

I seldom use map but when I need it, the GPS sucks. The GPS in the iPhone 4 and 3GS us much better than the one of my i9000. Hope it could be fixed by firmware update.

BTW, I'm on JF7 currently.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Rawat:
The GPS issue isn't hardware based. It has a broadcom GPS chip that is state of the art, and is one generation better than the iPhone 3gs/4 chip
[Galaxy S I9000 General] larryccf:
Beowulf - there may yet be hope

Engadget is reporting the Sprint EPIC 4G (Sprint's version of Samsung Galaxy S w/qwerty slider keyboard), that the GPS has been tested and validated

FWIW

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/18/samsung-says-gps-is-tested-and-validated-on-epic-4g-our-testi/
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Well, you can't really be sure it's not hardware related, really. It seems very unlikely under the circumstances, yes, but still not impossible. The chip is not the only thing hardware - there's also the antenna, shielding etc.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cavinsoo:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=630887

Download this Google Maps mod by Brut. Worldwide tomtom Navigation with Google Maps.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cavinsoo:
What firmware are you using?

The firmware that came with the phone when I purchased it was JF3. It was a lemon firmware. As soon as I flashed it with the latest ROMs, GPS works.

Flashed JG5, JM2, JM5. No problem with GPS. Rocket fast Android.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
check the app section there is a flesh topic about it
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cavinsoo:
Never had a problem with GPS after flashing with one of the latest ROMs.

My Tracks:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?i...859388134405902745.00048dffe80b35fa84d59&z=17

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?i...859388134405902745.00048c95f1a42c51955e5&z=15

Google Latitude:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?i...859388134405902745.00048cfabd6304f2eff9b&z=14
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cavinsoo:
What firmware are you guys using?

The firmware that came with my phone was JF3. It was a lemon firmware. As soon as I flashed it with the latest ROMs, GPS works.

Flashed JG5, JM2, JM5. No problem with GPS.

Extremely accurate:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?i...859388134405902745.00048c95f1a42c51955e5&z=15
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
both of my SGS UK & SGS Bell are 16GB version, 8GB is not enough room for my apps.

just install the latest firmwares to fix your GPS problem

both the version of SGS works perfectly fine with the GPS, that's the first thing i test whenever i unpack a new unit.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
official JH2, no much difference from JG9 from what i can tell

GPS works fine just since day one
[Galaxy S I9000 General] SiL3nTKiLL:
its gonna take a bit longer till we get a GPS fix...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
the fastest way is using this code

*2767*3855#

then restart the phone
[Galaxy S I9000 General] warfanax:
If I check Use Wireless Networks network, it will be used to find my location with GPS. It is not what it is suppose to be. It was working fine only with GPS without Using Wireless Networks. Does sun have an affect on GPS signal? when I was outside today it was very hot and sunny compared to other days. I heard from somewhere that it might affect the signal strength. Is that true?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] warfanax:
You should have told me that its a factory reset and I couldn't do anything once I typed it in. Everything is gone...:mad:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
Doesn't surprise me, in XXJG1-JG5, GPS was broken for me too. Firstly, people should mention which region their firmware is from too, not only the build.

Btw, the XXJM5 firmware was fine, and thats what I resorted to. Are you using the same region for your phone as it was purchased with?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
GPS fixing isn't the issue these days.. If you give JM5 a try, it's actually VERY fast. The problem is accuracy drifts around, and the accuracy boundary isn't always correct.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Croak:
Dude. Seriously. Turn on Use Wireless Networks for at least the first lock. That is what it is for, to ASSIST the GPS in figuring out roughly where it is, so it doesn't have to cold calculate, and can therefore lock up faster.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
That's a fair observation, but Samsung have said there will be a software update coming to fix it (whether 'it' be software, hardware or a combination of both).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] keyo:
So there is still no fix for the gps? I've tried all the dial pad fixes. Apparently all the current roms are screwed too.

I guess I will be taking the phone back. I can't afford to wait until September for the 2.2 update only to find they have not, in their weasel words, "optimized" it and it's too late to return it.

I only get 1 month to sort out defects. I don't trust Samsung in the slightest to fix this.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
No the fix hasn't been released yet. None of the fixes on this forum are real. Also, the fix isnt being held for 2.2 it's just still being tested. The latest news, although I'd like to see proof, suggests that the latest Galaxy variant, the Epic has already been shipped with the updated drivers and GPS stack. If you can hold on to your phone another day or two, it might be interesting to see what the results on the Epic reveal.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] rogo-1:
I, like many others, tried every GPS tip and trick suggested here and at other boards. Some of them even seemed to work - but only at first :)

But I couldn't help but notice that for the last week my GPS has been performing fairly well, without a single problem. It wasn't precise to 5 meters at all times, of course, but at least it didn't lose the lock or suddenly placed me streets away.

The only thing I changed a week ago is installed CFLagfix. The whole phone experience is now much smoother, of course, but also GPS became better somehow. So it seems like at least part of the GPS problem has to do with driver's reliance on the CPU.

GPS is very important to me, and I really hope it will continue to perform as reliably as it did this past week. At least until the promised official fix comes...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrej.marinic:
I am on JM5 and GPS is simply not working. When I'm stationary it takes ages to lock and when it does it is mostly off by a couple of hundred meters. I have not managed to get a single lock while moving.

Also, EPIC 4G is a different device. It is new and hence probably has different hardware. Someone also noticed the wording Samsung has used to describe what they are targeting for September. It is not to fix anything, but rather optimize.

Let's wait for that September patch and see what they've come up with, but to be honest, I have no great expectations.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] THUDUK:
This GPS issue is very odd, I have tried JF1 and the gps was fine, now on JM5 and its fine also, actually with JM5 gets a fix with 8-9 sats almost instantly, 6-7 indoors.

OK sometimes your route is a little irregular, but most apps allow gps smoothing, try not to over smooth your routes, as this is designed more for older gps chips where as this chip in our galaxy s is state of the art.