Help Difference between firmware and OS

[Sphynx]

I'm a little confused. My ultimate intention is to get rid of the bloatware and custom apps (including startup animation ads) that my phone came with from the telco. Note: It isn't possible to uninstall the unwanted apps via appmanager as they are classed as default by the modified firmware of the telco.

Thus I started to look through these forums and found ways to change the firmware etc however, I got confused. If I change my firmware, What apps would I lose? Logically I should only lose the bloatware because I define bloatware as anything the telco put on my phone leaving the rest of the default Android OS and whatever programs that comes with...correct?

I'm assuming the firmware is to Android what BIOS is to Windows. So that if i were to update via NPS (lol, like that would ever actually work) - it would claim its updating the firmware, but in reality is actually just updating the OS?

Or is it the other way around; Android being a true OS (unlike windows) in that it includes nothing at all in way of default programs and exists only as a foundation for other ppl to write their frimware to run on.

...

EDIT: One last thing...this phone supports OGG!!! Its worth the price tag for that alone IMO. Go open source!

 

[Rastaman-FB]

no
firmware is the os and manufacturer tweeks
Baseband is the version
recovery is the bios

if you were to look at it from a pc perspective but you cant

I dont know what telco add but if you were to flash via ODIN you can remove the CSC so then it would be the standardised android build for galaxy with just the things samsung implemented (which is not much other than switchers which is actually a good app)


the thing that is getting me though is what you refer to as bloatware
galaxy is probably the most naked android out there even with the few extra's
hdblog.it Galaxo/Galaxhero cooked rom actually adds loads more things but in addition makes the galaxy a super machine that crunches numbers like a sledge hammer to a pebble.

what have telco added?

 

[pegasus21]

In your case, your bloatware comes from the csc packages that your provider distributes. Note that without a csc, nps will not update your phone in the future so you either

1. you find an update from somewhere else.
2. reflash with csc just to update
3. try to emulate what installing the csc does without installing the whole package. (I know that the csc version can be shown in the about screen by copying the CSCVersion.txt to /system but I'm not sure if that's enough for nps to recognise your phone for updates. You'll need root to remount /system to copy the file over.)

By default a stock install comes with alarm clock, browser, calculator, calendar, camcorder, camera, contacts, dialer, email, gallery, google mail, google maps, google talk, market, messaging, music, settings, switchers, videos and youtube.

I've seen some reports that some recent factory installed firmwares come with the samsung keyboard which isn't in II5 yet. So if you want to keep the ime, you'll have to copy it out. I'll say just backup the whole os with nandroid just to be safe. You can always restore it if you realise you missed something.

Android is an OS like what Windows is to a PC. The bios is more like the baseband and comes in the amss file from an update. During an update, both the baseband and the os sections are updated.

Just to correct the previous post, the recovery isn't the bios but a stripped down android os that only provides a minimal set of tools to recover your default os from. Think of it like a safe mode of windows.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

Just to correct the previous post, the recovery isn't the bios but a stripped down android os that only provides a minimal set of tools to recover your default os from. Think of it like a safe mode of windows.

i was simplifying it due to his methods of working it out
i couldnt compare it to a normal os

but then again i wouldnt say recovery is like safe mode either

 

[kam187]

PC analogies

Download mode - BIOS recovery
Fastboot - BIOS
Recovery - The 'factory restore' partition on your branded PC (eg thinkpad recovery)
Baseband - The Modem attached to your PC that dials and talks to the world (gsm modem)

Firmware:
- The baseband has firmware, think of it like a software update to your PC modem
- The bootloader (BIOS) on the phone has firmware
- The Camera has firmware

System partition:
- This is like the c:\windows on your PC.

So a samsung 'firmware' or update file, includes

- a new recovery partition so that when you factory reset it factory resets to the NEW system version.
- Baseband firmware, to update your modem (or the phone part of the phone)
- System partition to actually update the phone's 'c:\windows'

It can also include, but doesnt always:
- New bootloader (like a BIOS update)
- Camera firmware (like a camera BIOS update)


I hope that's clear enough

 

[Sphynx]

The telco just added a bunch of ancilliary programs i'll never use and I like to keep things clean, hence the firmware change. However, What is CSC? And why wouldn't NPS update without it?

If CSC is something that the provider puts in, does that mean that the NPS updates that phone to a new version of the telco's firmware and not samsungs orginal?

My details:
Firmware: 1.5
Baseband version: I7500DFII3
Kernal version: 2.6.27

I remember reading on these forums (can't find it now) about some code you could dial to give you other information but I can't remember it =/

 

[Rastaman-FB]

The telco just added a bunch of ancilliary programs i'll never use and I like to keep things clean, hence the firmware change. However, What is CSC? And why wouldn't NPS update without it?

If CSC is something that the provider puts in, does that mean that the NPS updates that phone to a new version of the telco's firmware and not samsungs orginal?

My details:
Firmware: 1.5
Baseban d version: I7500DFII3
Kernal version: 2.6.27

I remember reading on these forums (can't find it now) about some code you could dial to give you other information but I can't remember it =/

thats exactly what csc does
that baseband is odd, it should be xx not df

 

[Sphynx]

It's locale is Australia of that helps . I tried to go the official route with an nps update but of course that didn't work either.

I managed to install 1.3.0.IH4 (the latest version?) But it still wouldn't recognise/list my phone in the updates panel. So then I activated USB debugging and suddenly there it was. However, with USB debugging activated, windows started complaining about needing device drivers and even after pointing it to the USB drivers located in the NPS install folder, windows still says there are no drivers it could install.

Thus when I attempt to update it though NPS (even though it is now recognised), I get the following error message: "The device cannot be searched because the driver has not been installed...etc"

EDIT: Mass storage seems to disable USB debugging and whilst NPS will stop comlaining about missing drivers in mass storge mode, it won't recognise the existance of the phone for update purposes. Error message:"device not supported"

 

[kam187]

The CSC is just a bunch of scripts that run after the main firmware is installed - on first boot. They are operator customisations. NPs will look up the CSC on the phone on the samsung server and offer you the latest firmware for that region.

Without a CSC NPS can't lookup what firmware to offer you, so updating doesnt work.

 

[ravinag]

I bought an international/unlocked version of Samsung Galaxy and am not able to update. NPS does not recognizes the phone but does not update my phone. Is there a way to add this CSC file to the phone so NPS can update it?

 

[pegasus21]

You do not need this anymore with the FUS firmware downloader that was released on this forum a few days ago.

 

[samsungshah]

Hi All,

I just got samsung galaxy i7500.
I faced the same problem as most of the people in this forum.
My phone is not getting detected in NPS after searching forum I came to know about CSC. but last note in forum says about FUS, could any share us what exactly needs to be done?

Regards
Satya