[Galaxy 3 Android Development] Ano59:
Rooting & flashing my I5801...

Hello !

I'm posting here because I made many modifications to my I5801 (Orange branded) androphone thanks to this topic, so I'll tell what I done to help other people with this phone if they want to do the same.

My phone was already unsimlocked when I started playing with it.

Well, I tried this at first, it didn't work because Orange completely locked the phone's firmware so you can't apply any update.zip file. I decided to flash it first.

I launched Odin, prepared it and I put the phone on Download mode (start it with Home + Menu + Volume + Power, I don't remember if it's Volume up or Volume down, try both, there are 3 different possibilities depending of what you do with the Volume button...). I applied the I5800BOJH1 firmware with success (using instructions in the first post, in "UPGRADING"). I never lost nor my IMEI, nor my MAC address. IMPORTANT NOTE : I could NOT manage to make 3G work with this firmware, so I re-flashed my phone later with

I5800XWJH2

and 3G worked, see under for more explanations.

I used BackFireNL's method to root my phone, now that Orange firmware locks were removed. It worked fine. I got a fully rooted phone.

I started then to download many apps, remove useless stock apps, change some settings, to use Wifi successfully and even to buy some handful apps like Autostarts, Dolphin Browser (donate), Root Explorer (this one is really handy !!), Titanium Backup (donate)...

However, 3G wasn't working due to the firmware I used (see above), I5800BOJH1. I made a full backup with Titanium and I re-flashed it with I5800XWJH2 (there are too many bad reviews about I5800XXJI2/I5800XWJI4 and their problems on this topic, I'll update again only if Froyo is available), it did work, and I rooted my phone again (same method). Restoring every app including paid ones did work fine, so no problem at all with root.

I replaced TouchWiz (without removing it completely, for backup purposes) by LauncherPro but my battery started to drain at an incredible speed, I couldn't even use my phone during a normal day without getting it with no energy. A few days later, I found out that TouchWiz was still running even if LauncherPro was used, I could stop it (I don't remember if I only killed it or if I used Autostarts to block it forever) and battery life got fully restored.

GPS never worked fine. I changed NTP servers values and I installed octy's trial app, now I could manage to get a signal (not easily, but I got it), the phone needs much time to self-locate but I tried it indoors today, I'll post some news about how it works outdoors later.

Thanks for all your work anyway, you helped me much with my new phone. :)

Some random remarks : I updated Busybox using the app available on the Market. The app itself failed but it gives a busybox binary on sdcard that I copied successfully in bin or xbin, I don't remember which one. I'm using a firewall (Droid Wall) too, which is very useful if you got a limited data plan and/or if you're a bit paranoid with your apps, but I had to install iptables which was not in the ROM. Oh, and if you experience connection problems when connected, don't forget to check the firewall...