Haven't been spending much time on the forum lately, but noted that I hadn't seen a post here about an active thread at ppcgeeks. Someone got a copy of a 6.1 upgrade for VzW which appears to be legit and on course to be officially released soon. It looks like it is going to be compatible with VZNavigator, which means that they are going to control the GPS. So if you want GPS without paying for VZNav, you may want to take a look at this ROM. Its a long read, but easy to follow.
I decided to take the plunge and installed the leaked VZW WM 6.1 update yesterday. Here's how it went for me.
The actual rom update process was smooth and easy. No unlockers, boot loader screen, or strange contortions with the stylus and buttons required. I just plugged in the phone with a USB cable, made sure I had an ActiveSync connection and ran the update. It unlocked the phone, updated the radio, updated the OS image and rebooted the phone. After the reboot I allowed the VZW customizations to run.
As soon as the customizations has finished I did a #228 option 1 to update the programming and then a #228 option 2 to update the roaming capabilities. I then tested the phone a little. I was able to initiate a data connection and connect to the Internet and send/receive text messages but every time I tried to make or receive a voice call I got a recorded "unable to authenticate" error message from VZW. Not entirely unexpected so I then did a #228 option 3 which is supposed to have something to do with moving your number to a different phone. I still wasn't able to make a voice call so I did another #228 option 1 but still no joy. So I called VZW tech support. Level 1 had me do a #288 option 1, pull out the battery and then #228 option 1 again but it didn't fix anything. They forwarded me on to level 2 tech support and they had me pull out the battery, they changed something on their end (I suspect they reprovisioned my phone) and then had me do a #228 option 1 again. This time it fixed it - I was able to make voice calls.
I then installed the Valhalla Legends GPSserver via the cab install and tried to download & install Goggle Maps. But I quickly realized that my data connection was no longer working. I got a PPP error every time I tried to connect. So I did a hard reset followed by another OTA programming update and manually reentered my login name and password for the data connection to see if that would straighten things out. It didn't so I called VZW tech support back. Level 1 tech support immediately sent me to Level 2. Level 2 had me manually reenter my data connection name and password again but when that didn't work he watched what was happening on their end when I tried to connect. He then more or less admitted that the previous fix to the authentication problem had inadvertently wiped out some of the necessary data settings. So he changed things there, had me do one more programming update and after that both voice & data were working properly. I will say that although it took two 10 minutes calls to fix everything, VZW tech support was extremely helpful and polite and they never once asked if I had done anything to the phone that might have caused it to to no longer be authenticated.
So after all that I installed the Valhalla GPSserver using the cab install, installed Google Maps and changed the Location Settings of the phone to Location On. I configured Google Maps gps settings to Managed By Windows and Use GPS. In about 20 seconds BANG it new exactly where I was at.
Before I went any further I wanted to test out the Rev A EVDO. Immediately prior to installing the update I had ran the mobile speedtest at DSLreports. The average of 5 consecutive download speed tests using the the 1 MB test file was 728 kbps. After the update with the Rev A EVDO radio the average of 5 tests was 882 kbps - a 21% increase.
I then spent a little time playing around with the phone and checking out WM 6.1. For the most part it looked and behaved just like the stock xv6900 with WM 6. It has the same black HTC theme with the HTC Home & Verizon Home today plugins and the same TouchFlo cube. There are few new additions and changes. Touching any of the small battery, signal, data connect or volume icons at the top of the Today screen brings up a balloon with large finger friendly icons for data connection disconnect, data connection status, battery meter and volume. New stuff that I noticed included a Getting Started wizard that guides you through setting up the device, Remote Desktop Mobile, HTC Text Messages Retry 2.11 (haven't figured out exactly what this does yet), Opera Mobile 8.65, threaded text messaging (MMS Composer v5.0.70.24) and Domain Enroll in the Connections Tab (not sure what this is either). No Internet Connection Sharing unfortunately but that's no surprise for Verizon. Overall speed & stability seems to at least as good as the stock rom. It's too soon for me to be able to say anything about the battery life.
So far I've installed the following apps:
Google Maps
MS Live Search
MS Voice Command
Resco Pocket Radio
PocketCM Keyboard
CooTek TouchPal
Namco Galaga
Infinite Dreams Krally
MS Reader
Total Commander
June Fabrics PDAnet
PHM Registry Editor
Esmertec Jbed JVM
Opera Mini
Gmail Mobile
HTC Streaming Media (for YouTube support)
Valhalla Legends GPSserver
Everything seems to be working exactly as it should with the exception of MS Voice Command. When I use MSVC it doesn't sound the "ready to accept a command" chime that it is supposed to. The microphone icon does show up in the start bar and it will accept your command, you just don't get the ready sound. But it behaved the same way with the stock rom so I am guessing it some sort of WM 6.x incompatibility.
In general I am very pleased with the update. It's going to be very handy having the GPS and the data speed increase is a definite plus.
I can't believe how long it took Verizon to finally update the phone. Us Sprint people had all this since June or July....hell it's been so long I can't even remember.
Glad it all worked out for you in the end, enjoy the new features!
I can't believe how long it took Verizon to finally update the phone. Us Sprint people had all this since June or July....hell it's been so long I can't even remember.
Glad it all worked out for you in the end, enjoy the new features!
Which is exactly why I dumped VZW and moved to Sprint. I was fed up to my eyeballs with VZW crippling their phones, and being the last to offer technology that others have had for years.
Case in point, anybody remember how long it took VZW to get a BlueTooth enabled phone, regardless of the OS? And EVERYONE else offered at least one!
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Don't mess with old futs...age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! B. S. and brilliance only come with age and experience!
I just went through the update process to 6.1 and it went fine except the phone lost authentication for any and all services. Got a good tech who got it fixed relatively easily.
I downloaded the GPSserver.cab and that was a quick and easy install. I then fired up google maps and everything worked beautifully. Love it! I tried using another mapping program (Odyssey) I had used before with an external gps connect but it would not process a signal even though it recognized the gps function. Probably because of what the program uses for this process. Google maps is better anyway so no loss...
I tried this today and it worked great. First I made a list of all the programs I would need to put back on the phone. Then I used the official ROM on my Vista machine. Then I ran #228 and pressed 1. Then I had to call Verizon to have them authenticate my phone. Then I installed the GPS cab and reset the phone again and now I am golden. I love it!
i searched for the GPSserver.cab and got to XDADeveloperWiki - Verizon AGPSFix , but i cant download the program. anyone else know where i can get it from?
In addition, you will likely have to call Verizon to have them authenticate your phone. It took me 1 call and about 5 minutes to do. Don't forget to back up anything you want on your phone or to make a list of all the programs you want to put back on it.
It is actually the name of an old college professor of mine we thought was really funny.
ok so i installed 6.1, installed gpsserver.cab, *228 option 1, installed live search (only program that uses gps that i have on my card for now) got the phone re authenticated, and doesn't get a location. any one have the removal program so i can try to reinstall it. or have any ideas on what to do next
Last edited by Bumpncarstereo : 02-15-2009 at 03:14 PM.
Did you follow these steps?
# Navigate to Start -> Settings, and click on Phone in the Personal tab. Click on the Services tab at the bottom. Highlight Location Setting and click Get Settings. Ensure that LOCATION ON is selected. (Fig. 1)
# Navigate to Start -> Settings, and click on External GPS in the System tab. Ensure that GPS program port is set to COM4 in the Programs tab (Fig. 2),
# Install Valhalla Legends GPSServer.cab and soft reset. (If you have installed a previous version of the GPSServer cab, make sure you uninstall it first and soft reset prior to installing this cab)
# Congratulations, you now have working GPS/aGPS on Verizon Wireless MR1 with both 3rd party applications* & VZNavigator.
I guess that can't hurt. I did it twice and it worked twice. The first time I did it was ruined by installing the wrong HTC Home Customizer plugin which froze my phone requiring me to do a hard reset.
I might just do a hard reset if I were you before I tried reinstalling 6.1.
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