Adventures in trying to get Phone calls

[Jyveafk]

So, after having the tab for a day and a half, was getting twitchy on making phone calls.
I want that Phone icon on the screen!

So, after rooting (uber easy actually, z4root works a treat), got adbWireless to enable me to connect and got a shell.
Bit of juggling, mounting the /system and pushing in the Phone.apk's.

I've tried a whole bunch of Phone.apk's from anywhere I can find them basically, and still no joy as of yet.
In fact, getting a few errors now in a few places (PhoneInfo and TabletInformation errors).

Makes sense it's not trivial as we'd have seen something already probably.

And don't know if it's the phone.apk or the radio being used that's set to block.

How's everyone else getting on?

 

[xexes]

Thanks a lot for posting... I am anxious to see if we can do this... a friend of mine thought this would be a simple "install the phone apk" but we found that didn't work on Wednesday.

The only other one I've seen who's trying (publicly maybe?) is jdmadonna who posted his results over in the Tab Themes and Apps forum today that he rooted with z4root, then installed the phone.apk as you did, then the Tab started vibrating every few seconds and showed the message android phone has stopped working. When he rebooted, everything locked up apparently... he said he lost the network provider and baseband and could not bring them back, so he returned the tab. He had been looking for the Euro phone.apk, so I'm not sure if that's what he used here...

Guess it will not be as easy as we had hoped.... hopefully this nut can be cracked somehow.

Adding insult to injury is the Samsung T-Mobile user manual for the Tab which refers to it as a phone throughout! However, the pretty much useless pamphlet that T-Mo provides call it a "device."

Wish someone from Samsung would anonymously step in and help us out. The t-mo salesman I worked with (who was very helpful wrt to possibly using it as a phone) said he'd heard that some folks were/are? threatening a class-action lawsuit against the carriers... obviously a money maker for the lawyers... but I don't care... if it'd make them let us use it as a phone, that'd be fine with me.

 

[Paten]

Couldn't the carrier block phone access for the device by the IMEI number? Then it wouldn't matter what the user did, the tablet would never be able to make a call.

 

[xexes]

Here's what guyverunit had to say in this thread at post no. 52:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=832643&page=6

Someone else reported this too... when you press activate on the Verizon phones at the start, they MAKE CALLS OUT.... this is what he said:

"so knowing that Verizon was selling there version at Best Buy i popped in there today to check it out, see if there plans or anything were better. they had just taken it out of the box and were setting it up. i went to work and on my lunch went back. they had the display set up so i played with it. it was still at the activation screen, i pressed activate and behold it dialed out to do the activation. even had a phone icon in the top bar.

so i talked to the best buy mobile manager there and ask if they had gotten it passed the activation he said no but he would try again. he tried and it dialed out. i said oh so it can make calls, he said yes its just not put into the software to do it for the user end but yes, it can make calls. he also said he gives it two weeks till the DEV community hack it to do just that. LOL"

The t-mo phones do not make phone calls to activate... at least mine didn't... the sales guy activated it by using the bar code and the computer and no "activate screen" came up at all... went straight to browser.

Don't know if that means the phones themselves are different... or if Verizon just kept the Euro phone activation approach...

Maybe the Verizon phones would be the best ones to work with?

 

[Jyveafk]

The only other one I've seen who's trying (publicly maybe?) is jdmadonna who posted his results over in the Tab Themes and Apps forum today that he rooted with z4root, then installed the phone.apk as you did, then the Tab started vibrating every few seconds and showed the message android phone has stopped working. When he rebooted, everything locked up apparently... he said he lost the network provider and baseband and could not bring them back, so he returned the tab. He had been looking for the Euro phone.apk, so I'm not sure if that's what he used here...

One of the Phone.apk' did that for me too. The Phone.apk I'm using now has stopped showing me the connection in the top bar, so looks like that's related to that as well, but at least it's not crashing like it was.

I should really reflash back to base (is that possible atm?) and see what's doable.

I'm still holding on for a euro rom that's flashable to enable everything.

 

[xexes]

Do you think the Euro rom will work with US hardware, or should they be identical?

I was curious about Paten's question re the IMEI no. possibly being blocked and did a little searching...

I found a freelance programmer's site... codepainters blog....
http://codepainters.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/android-imei-number-and-the-emulator/

and in the course of saying how to change the IMEI number, he says this at the beginning:

"Anyway, code analysis shows that IMEI/IMSI request goes down through all the telephony layers (see the diagram), eventually getting to the baseband device."

I find this interesting because jdmadonna and you describe the phone.apk causing problems down to the baseband level... as did you...

Obviously, IANAAD (I am not an Android developer - my programming days are way in the past)... so maybe there are myriad other things that can cause a problem down to the baseband level...

Maybe it's just as simple as unblocking the ISEI no. as Paten suggests...

I'm also hopeful about the Euro flash, but am not brave enough (nor do I know how) to do it!

 

[smithdc]

You guys are using a different SIM from the one you received with your Tab right? (if you got it on a plan). One that you know voice calling works on?

In Australia, the Tab does not have voice disabled, but they force you (for the initial launch) to sign up for a data only plan. The SIM you get on this plan is blocked for voice, but works for 3G and even sending SMSs.

You just might want to make sure that the SIM you have in actually works for voice in case you DO get it working from a software perspective, but it is just the SIM that is stopping the call.

 

[Jyveafk]

Aye, swapped the sim over from my other phone (though the PAYG sim I got actually did support voice/data apparently, but I didn't want to risk it so took a known working sim)

Phone.apk
Radio stuff
imei

Don't know. Could be any of them, or combo of 2 or more even.

It's really crazy. I appreciate they probably want to keep it simple as a tablet device, but they're missing out on revenue. "Want to use voice? that's available for another 10 bucks and/or a different(more expensive) sim"

Keeps it working for people who just want a tab, and gets more cash from people who want to dump their phone.

Think it's telling that ALL the telco's are limiting the voice as if anyone of them broke ranks and offered voice, they'd all have to.

Guess we'll see which Telco chickens out first!

/sigh

 

[xexes]

Re the SIM card... the holder mine came in does say data only, but the tmo rep said it could still handle voice.. seemed odd to me... since jyveafk has tried switching it, guess I'll wait to see if a solution turns up... or the tab is going back and I'm not getting a new phone when my contract's out in protest!

 

[TheGrammarFreak]

I can phone from mine...

 

[Croak]

I can phone from mine...

Everyone loves a nice ass...nobody likes a smart ass.

 

[TheGrammarFreak]

Everyone loves a nice ass...nobody likes a smart ass.

I'm just saying. Mine came with ability to phone. I bought it unbranded, with no contact if that makes any difference.

Swyped from my Galaxy Tab

 

[nomorefear]

I love how he puts in his second post "Swyped from my Galaxy Tab" what a loser! ! !

Sent from my FroyoEris using XDA App

 

[foxmeister]

I'm just saying. Mine came with ability to phone. I bought it unbranded, with no contact if that makes any difference.

Swyped from my Galaxy Tab

If you had followed your own advice (search and engage brain ), you would realize that they are talking about US Tabs, as the phone function has been disabled on these.

Euro Tabs have phone functionality as standard and the Yanks already know this so your post came over as a little sarcastic!

Regards,

Dave

 

[TheGrammarFreak]

I love how he puts in his second post "Swyped from my Galaxy Tab" what a loser! ! !

Sent from my FroyoEris using XDA App

Cheers dude, it's just what the XDA app appends to my posts.


Also, I'm sorry about getting the "nationality" of the tab wrong. Upon re-reading the thread I can see my error, sorry.




As it appears I'm not welcome here I'll stay in the legend section, bye...

Swyped from my Galaxy Tab

 

[jeebspawnshop]

I can phone from mine...

I'm sure the Americans, with their American Tabs, and questions about their American Tab making phone calls, really appreciate your input so much right now...

 

[Jyveafk]

Actually...

TheGrammarFreak
Any chance you can adb pull the Phone.apk from your Tab please?
I've been using the Galaxy phone .apk's, not another Tab's Phone that's known to work. Perhaps this is the issue.

Can you pull it and post it please?

(plus, what country/provider are you on?)

 

[ayman07]

alright guys. im gonna take the plundge. i noticed a dead pixel on my tab so its going back to tmobile for a replacement. i thought i would try the euro firmware before returning it. so guys, need your help! which firmware should i flash and whats the procedure for it. links would be helpful.

the firmwares are here, i dunno which one to flash tho.

http://www.4shared.com/dir/PYh2eQTG/ROMs.html

theres a great chance im gonna brick it, but since its going back, i thought i would try and just make up some excuse if they ask me what happened. help me out so i can help u out!

 

[calin75]

P1000XWJK1.

Thank you! thank you! Thank you!

 

[TheGrammarFreak]

I'm sure the Americans, with their American Tabs, and questions about their American Tab making phone calls, really appreciate your input so much right now...

Look, I'm sorry ok? I didn't think before posting

Actually...

TheGrammarFreak
Any chance you can adb pull the Phone.apk from your Tab please?
I've been using the Galaxy phone .apk's, not another Tab's Phone that's known to work. Perhaps this is the issue.

Can you pull it and post it please?

(plus, what country/provider are you on?)

UK, Vodafone. I'll post the apk soon, on the move at the moment