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How to Unlock (and Root) the Bell Galaxy S2. Step by Step Guide

Noooo. :( The rom you mentioned is a zip and is not usuable by odin. You need to flash it in recovery using the guide I added today. Phew. You scared me. Lol


haha alright... here's the thing tho, i'm turning off the phone then trying to go to recovery mode (volume down + home + power) ... instead it goes into the Odin Mode ... downloading .... then.... nothing... just get stuck right there (Odin software on PC is not turned on ... )
 
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I'd like to hear them too blue1k, haha.

Another quick question - I've been having some problems with GPS (on my old iPhone 4, I was able to lock on to GPS anywhere, any time, without data active, theoretically by triangulating my position by using phone towers), but for some reason it hasn't been working at all on my new SG2...

I did a bit of online reading, and some users said the fix was provided in the KE7 firmware (which I read on one of your other posts, that you're currently running it on your phone).

Do you know how I can go about updating my SG2 to KE7? It currently says its running UGKG2. I purchased the phone in Canada, originally locked to Bell/Virgin. Any tips/advice would be great, thanks so much!


PS. A lot of people said the update was available through Kies but not for me for some reason...
 
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I'd like to hear them too blue1k, haha.

Another quick question - I've been having some problems with GPS (on my old iPhone 4, I was able to lock on to GPS anywhere, any time, without data active, theoretically by triangulating my position by using phone towers), but for some reason it hasn't been working at all on my new SG2...

I did a bit of online reading, and some users said the fix was provided in the KE7 firmware (which I read on one of your other posts, that you're currently running it on your phone).

Do you know how I can go about updating my SG2 to KE7? It currently says its running UGKG2. I purchased the phone in Canada, originally locked to Bell/Virgin. Any tips/advice would be great, thanks so much!


PS. A lot of people said the update was available through Kies but not for me for some reason...

KE firmwares are pretty old and had crap battery life. :( Any of the newest firmware have much better modems (XXKK2 is fine). If you want to stay stock you can use odin to flash the latest rom and then you would have to root again with odin (flashing the matching cf-root kernel. If you load a KK2 rom then you would flash KK2 rooted cf kernel to match).

Stock firmwares

OR

You could install a pre-rooted rom (the one tdawwg mentioned is a good rom) using recovery to flash (see my front page for flashing non-odin roms).
 
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Hey blue, so the ROM is pretty stable .. really fast and the battery is a bit better than what I had, definitely much improvement on that side.

a few flaws that I have noticed tho is from a notification point of view.. for instance, I have to refresh my GMAIL in order to see that I have received a mail (real annoying specially since I'm relying on that a lot.. )

hum... but here's another question I have for you, when Samsung will be releasing the ICS officially... can I still use Kies and update it right away or do I have to revert back to the stock firmware first .. ?

let me know. thanks man !
 
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Hey blue, so the ROM is pretty stable .. really fast and the battery is a bit better than what I had, definitely much improvement on that side.

a few flaws that I have noticed tho is from a notification point of view.. for instance, I have to refresh my GMAIL in order to see that I have received a mail (real annoying specially since I'm relying on that a lot.. )

hum... but here's another question I have for you, when Samsung will be releasing the ICS officially... can I still use Kies and update it right away or do I have to revert back to the stock firmware first .. ?

let me know. thanks man !

To fix the no instant gmail go to accounts and sync>select your gmail account and make sure sync gmail is checked.

I noticed some roms disable this by default.

To get an update with kies would mean you need to run a non rooted rom. Screw that. As as soon as ice cream hits it will be available on xda long before kies canada has it.
 
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Just wondering before I give this a whirl, will this fix my GPS woes? Also, since we know ICS will be available for the SG2, does that mean (if I go through putting this pre-rooted rom on my phone) that I'll have to go through the process again to install the new ICS rom? (or am I just confused by all of this)

Also, what exactly is KK2?
 
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Yes it will fix your GPS issues. The KG2 rom has problems with GPS reception that the newer firmwares addressed.

ICS won't be available officially till probably March or maybe Feb since it will be themed by Samsung.

It doesn't matter if you running stock or a rooted rom. You will still have to flash ICS either way (either through odin or if a ICS zip.rom is available for recovery). So don't worry about running a rooted rom. :) You don't want to use kies to update. Kies is POS software and updates take FOREVER to be released.

KK2 is the firmware. See the link a few posts up. That link will be the first to have the ICS roms. The firmware series goes:

KG, KH, KI1/2/3/4/8, KJ1/2/3, KK1/2/5 Download (KE versions were the ancient ones)

KK2 is official. Some are test builds from Samsung. You have to look to see if it is official.
 
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great instrustions

what is the newest unlock?

i tryed CF-Root-SGS2_XX_OXA_KP2-v5.1-CWM5

but i wasnt able to turn my phone on after

so i tryed CF-Root-SGS2_XW_OXA_KK5-v5.0-CWM5
and it worked great

sorry im new to the galaxy but i love it so far

what are the differences between all the different ones out there

thanks in advance and sorry if these questions have been asked already


what is ice cream
 
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The unlock is the app you download from market after you root.

The cf kernel does not unlock your phone it roots it which means you now have write access to system files.

Again, and I stress this highly, do not mix kernels. You should be rooting with the cf-root kernel that currently matches the firmware on your phone.

If you have the kg2 firmware then root with kg2 cf kernel.

That is why there are so many cf kernels listed. You have to select the rooted kernel that matches your current firmware.

Hope this helps :)

Almost forgot, ice cream sandwich is the newest android os which will be android 4. It has a ton of nice new features and is much nicer aesthetically than current android.
 
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honestly if after 6 hours you're at 50%, that's good news... I was at 50% after 4hours on stock .. lol

I find the rom very stable, there happens to be a few glitches here and there but overall it's much more improved to what the stock had to provide.

I found another rom that looks really slick, I'm tempted to try it out but will wait a little bit. TurkbeyRom V29.5 -JkayMod-2.3.6 XWKK5 ONLİNE - xda-developers

Merry xmas to all of you !!
 
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