Spica on 2.1

[Rogdor]

Based on the advice on this thread, I've just updated my Spica to 2.1.

I used a variation of the tutorial above, basically the same but with pictures: Sameer Prabhakar - Mad Ramblings: Samsung I5700 (Galaxy SPICA) Android 2.1 Flashing Guide (Updated)

Instead of the firmware in the tutorial, I used one suitable for usage on Rogers: ECLAIR.XXJE1 (Baseband i570EXXJD1).

And since I'm using Windows 7 64bit, I installed the USB drivers via Samsung's New PC Studio v1.5.0 AC4 (a Google search will find it)... and then made sure NPS wasn't running while I ran Odin.

My Spica is running fast now, much smoother and with less hesitations than the original 1.5 installation. The browser is so much nicer. I used to get stuttery sound in YouTube and that problem is now gone. The GPS on the Spica is (as usual) a bit wonky but with fiddling it's working better too.

And in answer to my own questions above, the Android Market is fully usable on this firmware, including paid apps without any mucking around with market enablers, etc.. This firmware is not "rooted" AFAIK.

Thanks everyone! The help here has been invaluable.

 

[shewless]

I'm using the samdroid software now too.. sooo nice.. I like the live wallpapers (though I'm not using them yet) and the window manager (the "drawer" is awesome).

Built-in exchange still doesn't work for me :S

 

[casspy]

hi , tell me please how you put 2.1 on you;re spika . I tried and doesn;t work

 

[Beerkan]

Where did you get the firmware? It looks like the wrong spica.ops file.

 

[casspy]

From this site :

Firmwares

 

[casspy]

i saw someone who take it from there

 

[Beerkan]

You need the correct spica.ops file for the firmware you downloaded.

Save the following in a file called spica.ops and try it.


0,boot
1,Sbl
2,logo
3,zImage
4,datafs
5,factoryfs
6,cache
7,
8,modem
9,efs

 

[casspy]

This problem could be because i don.t have the spica.ops file with the others file ?in the same folder?

 

[Beerkan]

No that's not a problem. It just makes it easier to run Odin if they are all in the same directory. try my solution above.

 

[casspy]

i will try it , but i don't think, just like u , that is a solution..... I do not have time to try , firstly i must save the data...etc . I think that the combination of "buttons" not work !

 

[oltman]

ok, i have successfully upgraded my i5700 to i570EXXJE1 using Odin. it was as easy as pie and took me a mere 10 minutes in total, including the long reboot and APN creation.

The Market, Wifi, 3G, MMS and GPS all work perfectly fine with no hassles. in all it seems slicker and with less stutter. i am impressed!

thanks to all of you guys who have tested and taken the plunge before i was brave enough to even take the wrapping off my USB cable

 

[bluezebra]

hey guys,

i want to take the plunge so i can start enjoying 2.1 with you guys but i was wondering if someone on here can post beerkan's firmware on here just so i know i'm getting a proven working firmware on a rogers spica. my phone is unlocked and i just wanted to know if this will undo that. sorry if thats a dumb question. my other question is what is the difference between the baseband and build. on my phone i noticed that they are both XXJA8 but on here some peoples baseband and build are different.

thanks

 

[*Centurion]

Hi all--first post
I'm also with Rogers and would like to upgrade my Spica's firmware from 1.5 to 2.1
I also want to gain Root to load gps software on the sd card.

Based on the advice on this thread, I've just updated my Spica to 2.1.

I used a variation of the tutorial above, basically the same but with pictures: Sameer Prabhakar - Mad Ramblings: Samsung I5700 (Galaxy SPICA) Android 2.1 Flashing Guide (Updated)

Instead of the firmware in the tutorial, I used one suitable for usage on Rogers: ECLAIR.XXJE1 (Baseband i570EXXJD1).

And since I'm using Windows 7 64bit, I installed the USB drivers via Samsung's New PC Studio v1.5.0 AC4 (a Google search will find it)... and then made sure NPS wasn't running while I ran Odin.

My Spica is running fast now, much smoother and with less hesitations than the original 1.5 installation. The browser is so much nicer. I used to get stuttery sound in YouTube and that problem is now gone. The GPS on the Spica is (as usual) a bit wonky but with fiddling it's working better too.

And in answer to my own questions above, the Android Market is fully usable on this firmware, including paid apps without any mucking around with market enablers, etc.. This firmware is not "rooted" AFAIK.

Thanks everyone! The help here has been invaluable.

Rogdor - how did you know what firmware to get? Can you post the files you used for download? Thanks

hey guys,

i want to take the plunge so i can start enjoying 2.1 with you guys but i was wondering if someone on here can post beerkan's firmware on here just so i know i'm getting a proven working firmware on a rogers spica. my phone is unlocked and i just wanted to know if this will undo that. sorry if thats a dumb question. my other question is what is the difference between the baseband and build. on my phone i noticed that they are both XXJA8 but on here some peoples baseband and build are different.

thanks

bluezebra -- I don't think you want Beerkan's firmware. You should be looking to what Rogdor did as he had success and is also on the Rogers network.

 

[bluezebra]

i got some a firmware off samsung firmwares.com but it says if you are from america/canada you shouldn't use those firmwares and to get them from someone on a forum and i can't figure out why. The other thing i can't figure out is which ops file to use. they have a regular spica.ops and a jc_3.ops file.

 

[bluezebra]

****update****
so i took the leap and successfully upgraded to 2.1. I pretty much did exactly what rogdor did. one thing i noticed when i did the upgrade that the tutorials did not say is to turn off usb mass storage only. the phone also didn't pick up the mobile system at first so i just took out the sim and put it back in when the phone was on, the phone rebooted then i was golden and i had to put in the APN settings for bell but i was expecting to do that. Wifi and GPS are working, haven't tried MMS i don't usually use that but i will test it out tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for all the info on this forum.

 

[*Centurion]

Hi bluezebra -- congrats
Is there any chance you can package up the files you used for me. What firmware did you use? I thought you were on Rogers not Bell.

 

[mcarag]

I'd love to jump on the bandwagon and take the plunge to upgrade my spica to 2.1 but I'm concerned about getting the right files and such.

Don't suppose anyone wants to do a write-up on the steps to upgrade with links to the correct files? I guess the write-up isn't as important as the correct files, but I'm sure a whole ton of new spica owners would be eternally grateful to whoever did it!

 

[Rogdor]

Hi all--first post
I'm also with Rogers and would like to upgrade my Spica's firmware from 1.5 to 2.1 I also want to gain Root to load gps software on the sd card.

...

Rogdor - how did you know what firmware to get? Can you post the files you used for download? Thanks

I recommend reading the first page of this thread, I mostly followed the advice from there, in particular Megs advice.

NOTE: All of this is at your own risk. I'm happy to give advice in this post, but if you can't manage to get this stuff installed from these instructions, then I don't recommend modding your phone.

... Okay to the stuff you asked about:

Samsung Firmwares has the Spica firmwares you need. I won't post firmwares here directly, you can find them there: Samsung Firmwares

I recommend flashing using either I570EXXJD4 (Beerkan uses this one) or I570EXXJE1 (I use this one, it's more recent and I find it faster but it has a couple of quirks). I can confirm both of those work on a Canadian Samsung Galaxy Spica purchased from Rogers. Follow the instructions in the tutorials linked in posts above. Make sure you use the right files with the correct .ops file too.

Since I posted above, I have found some "protected" apps that are blocked on the Android Market but access to those can be regained by editing your build.prop file. I won't describe that here right now but may make a separate post about it soon. Most other apps on the market work fine without changes.

For root, after you have flashed one of those firmwares, go over to samdroid.net and flash LK mod. Here's the link to LK 2.02 I used:
Spica v.LK2.02 - Root, Recovery, Apps2SD, Busybox, Wifi tether etc [04/15/2010] [EN]

That will give you both root and a recovery reboot option, plus apps2sd (which I don't use, found it slow). After that, I recommend cleaning up your firmware install by adding SamdroidMod Kitchen. It will remove and replace the apps that Samsung provides in the firmwares:

SamdroidMod Kitchen v1.x.x All in One [EN]

When you're choosing from the Kitchen, I recommend selecting LauncherPro as your home screen launcher, it's much better than the one Samsung provides (Pantheon) and will use less battery power too. Don't select everything in Kitchen, the idea is to clean up the apps, not add a bunch more. Make sure you keep the necessities checkmarked, like the Google Services so you can access the Market. If you're good with it, your phone will run faster than before. If you choose poorly, you can start over.

I haven't tried out any of the experimental JIT compilers. You can read Beerkan's post about those.

With different SIM cards I have been using this phone on both Rogers and Bell, it should work on Fido and Telus as well with the right SIM cards. As bluezebra notes, you will have to enter APN settings before 3G will work. You can find those searching Google or walking into the store and asking usually works too (don't bother calling Bell, lol their customer support is useless). Make sure you enter in the APNs correctly, if you get a typo your phone will do strange things (crash a lot mostly).

To unlock my phone for usage on other carriers (Bell instead of Rogers), I purchased an unlock code from ebay. It came with instructions. You do need a separate SIM card for each carrier you intend to use.

I love my Spica since I've upgraded it to 2.1. It's stable and faster. I'm strongly considering the Galaxy S when it comes to Canada, based on how much I like this phone.

 

[bluezebra]

@rogdor

I was reading the instructions to flash the LK mod and was wondering when you flash the PDA file in odin do you leave the .ops box, bootloader box, etc empty? and just have the pda box filled in with the file? hope this made sense. thanks

 

[mcarag]

okay this may seem like a pretty dumb question...where do I get the spica.ops file?
I've seen a bunch of links to all the different firmwares and they all say to use the new spica.ops file...yet not a single one links to it...

edit:
as a side note, I'll be using the I570EXXJD4 firmware...should I be looking for a specific spica.ops file?

 

[bluezebra]

@mcarag

on samsung firmwares it should be right under the old spica.ops file. that is where i got it from. the file should be spica_jc3.ops

 

[casspy]

BEERKAN , give me some help : i don't understand what did you mean with put all that file into a spica.ops ( you refered at a folder named spica.ops? ) .The folders don't have extensions ..... Be more specifically !
I receve a message from program when i put the destination of spica.ops , etc : it is in chinese ) ... . When i press that 3 buttons , the program conected my phone with pc but them it is disconected X(X(X(X(
Give me some help please !!! The actualy soft is so wrecked (

 

[*Centurion]

Thanks Rogdor for your help. I've installed I570EXXJE1 and so far it looks very impressive. Now to gain root from the site you mentioned. Heres his instructions.

How to install LK2.xx
Your data or programs will not be deleted!!!!

0. You should have any Android 2.1 firmware since JC3.

1. Download '.zip' файл: LK2-02-1_update.zip
2. Put it to root of SD card! (mount or with help adb)
3. Download Kernel: i5700_LK2-02_PDA.7z
4. Flash i5700_LK2-xx_PDA by Odin as PDA file.
5. Kernel will flash and Spica reboot and enter in Recovery

Do I unzip LK2-02-1_update.zip and then put it in the root of the sd card? When I flash i5700_LK2-02_PDA.7z with Odin do I need a spica.ops file to or is the PDA file the onlyfield to be filled in. Once again thanks.

 

[*Centurion]

casspy --- make sure there is no other usb device running and install Samsung Kies to get the proper drivers installed.

 

[mcarag]

Well, managed to update the spica to 2.1!
Wasn't as bad or as scary as I thought it would be!

Now a few questions...is it really necessary to "root" the phone? Anyone know of a good home screen replacement? Not the biggest fan of how the widgets and icons don't really line up on 2.1