Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Cyanogenmod 7 GPS Fix for my Samsung Vibrant (t959)

I recently upgraded my Samsung Vibrant running Froyo 2.2 to Cyanogenmod 7 to get a taste of Gingerbread.

The upgrade completely rendered the GPS useless.  All I get was the message "Searching for GPS..." when using the Navigation.

I tried flashing my phone with the radio updates KA5, KA6 or KA7 that's on the Cyanogenmod 7 website for Samsung Vibrant but this total messed up my phone that I couldn't make any calls.  I had to completely reinstall CM 7.1 as the recovery did not fix the problem (making outgoing calls).

Back to figuring out my gps problem.  I found out that a gps.conf file is missing from the /system/etc/ directory.  Maybe this file was wiped out when I moved from Froyo to CM7.

The /system/etc/gps.conf: file would look like this:
----
NTP_SERVER=north-america.pool.ntp.org
XTRA_SERVER_1=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_2=http://xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_3=http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com
SUPL_PORT=7276
----

I tried creating and copying the file to the directory but I had permission problems during the remounting process.

Instead of having to go through several linux commands, this is how I simply fixed the problem by using apps found in the Android Market.

a) Download "FasterFix" from the Android Market

b) Run FasterFix. 
Choose "North America" (If you are located in North America) and click Go.

c) Reboot phone.

d) Enable GPS

e) Search for "GPS Status" from Android Market
App is called "GPS Status & Toolbox" by EclipSim

f) Run GPS Status
Go to Menu > Tools > Manage A-GPS State > Reset
Reboot phone.

g) Launched Google Navigation...and it worked!

Btw, I'm currently on CyanogenMod  7.1.0.1.