[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] seeARMS:
FAQ

Contents (Use control + F to find the question)

Q1 - I'm on stock Froyo and I have 3e recovery!

Q2 - I have a Bell Galaxy S, and I'm afraid of my phone bricking! What can I do to prevent it?

Q3 - I'm encountering force-close issues, and general app issues right after installation.

Q4 - My GPS isn't working! It takes forever to lock and displays my position inaccurately!

Q5 - My battery is running out very, very quickly!

Q6 - What's all this talk about the 850MHz band and modems?

If you're on stock Froyo (ie: not running Eclair with recovery 2e or ClockworkMod) then you might have to do a bit more work before installing any custom ROM. Just follow these steps:

1. Download Odin from here.

2. Download the latest Super Optimized kernel (or any other kernel that has CWM) in the attachments. Make sure to download the Odin kernel, not the CWM one!

3. After downloading, extract the .TAR file from the file you just downloaded.

4. Open Odin, and turn off your phone. Connect your phone to your PC via USB, and enter download mode by holding volume down + home + power.

5. Odin should detect your phone. Load up the .TAR file in the "PDA" box in Odin. Make sure the other boxes are left blank. Untick "Repartition". Start flashing.

6. Your phone should automatically reboot with the new kernel! To double check, shut it off and boot into recovery. If you see CWM recovery, you're successful!

After doing this, follow the normal steps to install this rom.

It isn't entirely known right now why the phones are bricking; some say it's a hardware issue involving the motherboard, whereas others say it's strictly a software issue. Both Samsung and Bell have stated that the new firmware, JL2, fixes this problem and will prevent the internal SD card from dying. However, there have still been reports of phones running the JL2 firmware and dying (albeit much, much less reports).

A bit more technical: Included in the stock JL2 firmware from Bell is a new secondary boot loader (Sbl.bin). This deals with the phone at boot-time; it handles three button recovery, etc. Typically, the Sbl isn't included in a new ROM, as nothing needs fixing and the boot loader doesn't need touching. Except for this time! The Sbl.bin is apparently the file which fixes the internal SD card problem.

So, if you're wondering what to do in order to prevent your phone from dying, your best bet would be to flash the JL2 firmware using Kies (or Odin if you know what you're doing - tick bootloader update), then you're basically free to flash any other firmware you wish (except for firmwares which contain the Sbl.bin, because that would overwrite the current Sbl. But, every custom ROM and essentially every stock ROM lacks this file, so you're fine to flash anything).

Again, I'm going to restate that not everything is known involving this problem and the above is based on my own research. A handful of people have done this and have still had their phones die.

If you installed the ROM without wiping, try leaving the "wipe" file untouched so the ROM performs a completely clean install. If you're still encountering issues after doing this, boot into recovery, perform a factory reset, and clear the cache + Dalvik cache.

Try clearing the GPS data on your phone. Do the following: (Original poster unknown. Reposted by dpvu.)

1) Enter *#3214789650# into the dialpad.

2) Under "Application Settings" set the Start Mode to Coldstart.

3) At the main menu "Delete GPS Data".

4) At the main menu "Get Position Test".

If you're still not finding many satellites try setting Operation Mode to "MS Based" in the "Application Settings". I did all of this then set the GPS back to hot start.

Lastly, if you desperately want to fix your GPS, try flashing the JK4 modem. There have been different reports, but it has been regarded by some as the best modem for GPS. To flash it, download the modem, and use Odin to select the "modem.bin" file in the PHONE box. Go to Settings -> About on your phone after flashing and look at Baseband to ensure it flashed correctly.

Download the JK4 modem from the Downloads section. http://www.multiupload.com/3HOKWMBHO2

There are many, many things which may cause the battery to run out quickly. I'll go over a few of the problems here:

1. After a fresh install of a ROM, the battery may be uncalibrated. Try charging your phone, and use it normally until it discharges. Repeat this 2-3 more times; your battery meter should be accurate again.

2. Clearing your batterystats.bin has been said to help fix the problem, and improve battery life by a lot. Charge your phone to 100%, then boot to recovery and clear batterystats.bin (by selecting wipe battery stats). Reboot, and use your phone normally until it shuts off by itself. After it does, charge it up fully, and you're good to go.

However, it's worth stating a few things: the above method has been put down by some users, who state that the batterystats.bin only contains a history of the battery usage and nothing more. Also, the Galaxy S contains a Li-Ion battery, which technically shouldn't be fully discharged (in order to extend the life of the battery). Do the above at your own risk.

For a few more fixes, please visit this thread.

The 850MHz band is a 3G band which apparently has better range and reliability (as opposed to the higher frequency 1900MHz band). It's basically only used in Canada (and I guess Australia?) but cell carriors like AT&T in the US are trying to make it the standard. Because of this, the i9000 International (not the Bell Galaxy S, i9000M) doesn't have the functionality to connect to the 850MHz band.

To get back this band, you have two options: flash any international ROM (JPY, JPX, JPO, etc), then flash a Canadian modem (JK4, JL2) afterwards. The second option is a lot easier: just install a ROM that contains a Canadian modem already (ie: this ROM, or stock JL2).