[Q] Sprint Tab; want Gingerbread; don't care about phone service

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I have a Sprint tab. I wan't to upgrade to gingerbread, and I don't care about CDMA service, but I have to have wifi. GPS would be preferred but I can live without it. It would also be nice if it wasn't a brick afterwards.

What are my options? Can I just flash Overcome without a modem file? Is there some sort of null modem file I can flash? Is there a different ROM or kernel I should use?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1020167

Originally Posted by jiminitaur

I have a Sprint tab. I wan't to upgrade to gingerbread, and I don't care about CDMA service, but I have to have wifi. GPS would be preferred but I can live without it. It would also be nice if it wasn't a brick afterwards.

What are my options? Can I just flash Overcome without a modem file? Is there some sort of null modem file I can flash? Is there a different ROM or kernel I should use?

Also very interested in this.

I recently put quite a bit of effort into getting GB to run on my Sprint tab. I use WIFI only so I was not concerned with a working CDMA radio. I attempted to flash the European GSM firmware to my device. I tried flashing the kernel and system only, leaving the CDMA radio file intact. I also tried flashing several GSM radio files to the device. In the end I was unsuccessful, and it took several hours to recover the device to an operational state.

If you WERE to get GSM GB working, there is a good chance that GPS and BT wouldn't function. That's kind of a deal breaker for me.

tldr; Sprint users are screwed until the official release of GB because the Overcome team doesn't care about us and the only guy who seems to know how to work the CDMA is making a crappy honeycomb build instead.

IMHO other devs should make a version of the ROM with all data taken out because it'll work for Sprint users and GSM users who tether instead of paying out the rear for a data plan on their tab.

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tonman23: Thanks, but i was looking for gingerbread, not honeycomb. It's great that spacemoose can prove it in concept, but I don't like the honeycomb interface, and I'm not interested in flashing a half broken version of it to my phone. I want a stable gingerbread build for the improved performance and minor UI features.

etvaugha: BT & GPS are handled by chips completely independent of the modem. I can't post a link because I'm still new here but the ifixit galaxy tab teardown shows clearly that GSM tabs have distinct BT/WLAN & GPS chips. That's pretty standard fair for android devices, so I doubt they changed it simply for the CDMA models.

It also clearly shows that the modem is a GSM only chip, so the bin files are completely incompatible. The only solution is ROMs that will boot even if the modem isn't working right.

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According the the Overcome 2.0 FAQ, the problem is that the phone won't finish booting if a valid modem.bin is not installed. Apparently the phone waits indefinitely (one user, PFOI, mentioned something about it working after 30 min or so) or crashes during the boot because it doesn't get a proper response from the modem chip.

This could easily be overcome if the devs would compile a WIFI only version of the rom/kernel, that doesn't require or support either modem (CDMA nor GSM). It seems to me that the this would be good for both sides, as the data plans for tabs are a rip off and smart users are going to tether their tabs in a mobile situation anyway. It would also probably be better for battery life considering there'd be one less chip running and less bus activity.

I'd imagine all that would be required is removing the modem initialization during the boot sequence. There might be a need to replace the functions that query the modem's status with static value return statements, but when the tab first boots it reports no service, so it's got an inherent ability to deal with not having network access. All that's needed is a couple little snippets to tell the device it doesn't, and to keep it from trying to get it.