Hi everyone,
as might be guessed by my user name, I am indeed located in Kenya, East Africa. I am new to this forum, and I am even new to phone modification/flashing custom ROMs, in fact, although I am an IT field technician I was old fashioned enough to stick with my nice old Nokia 6303i up to now (yeah, just a simple mobile phone, nothing smart at all)...
Now finally I got an old but nice and still fully working Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 from a friend. There are lots of problems with software updates though, simply because the Android version is 4.3, which is way out-dated by now...
Here comes my question - I have been trying for hours, days and weeks to find the stock firmware downloads for that, but wherever I try to get it I am being told the files are not available anymore/not to be found. I don't dare trying to flash the firmware to something newer without being sure to be able to go back in case of a mess-up, since I am an absolute noob with that.
Can anybody here provide a reliable and still working download link for old stock firmwares for this phone? Surely there must be some sort of archive that still holds them, only I am apparently too daft to find it.
Please bear with me!
Hoping for someone being able to help me with this,
Best regards from Kenya!
Andy
Related
I have bought a SGS2 in China. It comes with Chinese firmware (has English language though) but mostly with Chinese software and without Android Market. So it does not sync with Google, searches go through Baidu, I can't find and install most apps so it's essentially not very fun to use.
I have been trying to exchange the Chinese firmware for European firmware using ODIN.
Sadly, this seems not to work: the flashing always fails, leaving my phone bricked until I reflash the Chinese firmware (which works fine). This Chinese firmware has a different format, i.e. there are no CSC, MODEM and CODE tarballs. Instead there is one single tarbar containing the following files
boot.bin
cache.img
factoryfs.img
hidden.img
modem.bin
param.lfs
Sbl.bin
zImage
I would be terribly grateful if someone could help me make my 500 euro phone useful, or at least I would like someone to tell me why this firmware cannot simply be installed on this phone.
ownhere --yeah the guy making googlemap mods -- is now making sgs2 rom based on china sgs2 rom
Go get it here
Thanks, but will this enable the Android market? It doesn't say so in the Chinese translated through Google Translate.. :/
umm.. i thought u can read chi ..
It will enable market for sure. Here's 2 captured pics of that rom
It's in Chinese but u may still recognize the market icon @ second line together with some other GG stuffs.
said Non-officially , china version i9100 has some easy-to-brick problem rooting and flashing eu/hk rom, so maybe u should try this ownhere rom.
Thanks! This sounds really promising! Does it support English language still? I'll try as soon as possible!
yeah every android handset supports english locale I guess.
like ur china version does.
Thanks again. By the way, why is it that Chinese I9100 models have this problem? Is it a different filesystem? How have they managed to block EU firmware from a phone whose hardware ought to be identical?
Does it have anything to do with the processor not being a Tegra2?
Oh delicious man! It works! So far at least, I've been able to add a Google account and download apps from the Android market. I'm the happiest person on the planet. 100% fact*
*probably
no idea.
It's a "It's said".
lol
Cool. I've been playing with it for a bit and am quite happy with it.
Some problems still remain, though.
1 The Reader's Hub and Social Hub are gone, not that I care that much
2 The MediaHub still only offers Chinese services, might want YouTube there
3 I don't find a phone software update button in the settings menu anymore (do I manually have to check for updates to this mod? Probably)
4 Adding a Credit Card to Google Market makes it become unresponsive (before I even am allowed to enter a card number). Might work better back in Europe.
5 I am now using a custom rom. I feel more comfortable with stock roms. I don't want to sound ungrateful but would love to know why I cannot simply flash European stock roms and how I could circumvent the barrier.
But a big thanks so far, it actually makes my phone usable and the GPS fix is fast as **** now!
Same as you all : look for a google open rom to flash on chinese I9100
Dear gluppfisk, You are a happy one with this cooked rom, accepted on chinese I9100, but including sone open application (google, market, ...).
But the link in the thread for this rom is now dead.
Is there someobe to reawke such a link ?
sspslv said:
dear gluppfisk, you are a happy one with this cooked rom, accepted on chinese i9100, but including sone open application (google, market, ...).
But the link in the thread for this rom is now dead.
Is there someobe to reawke such a link ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1111111 please
and a little words about how u did it, google translator makes me crazy
screem_3 said:
+1111111 please
and a little words about how u did it, google translator makes me crazy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's a little hard to understand via google translate... I clicked on the link for http://u.115.com/file/dn6hgajt... and then had to ask a friend in China to translate. Those are in the attached jpg's, below.
bluppfisk said:
This Chinese firmware has a different format, i.e. there are no CSC, MODEM and CODE tarballs. Instead there is one single tarbar containing the following files
boot.bin
cache.img
factoryfs.img
hidden.img
modem.bin
param.lfs
Sbl.bin
zImage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All official stock rom has only 1 tar file, containing the same files as above.
bluppfisk said:
Cool. I've been playing with it for a bit and am quite happy with it.
Some problems still remain, though.
1 The Reader's Hub and Social Hub are gone, not that I care that much
2 The MediaHub still only offers Chinese services, might want YouTube there
3 I don't find a phone software update button in the settings menu anymore (do I manually have to check for updates to this mod? Probably)
4 Adding a Credit Card to Google Market makes it become unresponsive (before I even am allowed to enter a card number). Might work better back in Europe.
5 I am now using a custom rom. I feel more comfortable with stock roms. I don't want to sound ungrateful but would love to know why I cannot simply flash European stock roms and how I could circumvent the barrier.
But a big thanks so far, it actually makes my phone usable and the GPS fix is fast as **** now!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in the same boat as you! Well, actually my brother is, he got a chinese SII from a friend, and I bought myself a european SII a few days ago, he definitly would like to have a regular EU SII
So +1 for you, looking for the same things
Hello there,
I have the same problem as OP, and i'd also like to know a way to flash this chinese SGSII with an european rom/custom rom (such as superfast litening rom).
Thanks !
mr_pause said:
Hello there,
I have the same problem as OP, and i'd also like to know a way to flash this chinese SGSII with an european rom/custom rom (such as superfast litening rom).
Thanks !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
M.Pause...
I have the same issue. Bought in China, tried to load non-china ROM and soft-bricked my phone. After much research, it seems that the Chinese have locked out a good deal of the functionality from their version of the SGS2 and blocked the ability to download a non-chinese ROM to the phone. I keep hoping someone will figure out a way around this--like to repartition the phone and add a different boot loader... or something like that.
In the meantime, your best bet is to go to onwhere's website: http://bbs.gfan.com/maintain.html?20110906. This person apparently doesn't like that the chinese have them locked out of google marketplace. They have a hacked ROM that you can load into the phone and get most of your needed functionality. It's not great, but it's better than nothing. FYI, onwhere is chinese and so it the page. You'll need to go through google translate or the like. I also have some screen shots earlier in this thread that have some of the download links translated. You might want to check them out.
If you manage to figure out a different way around this, would you mind shooting me a message on this forum?
Thanks, G.
gmstrollo said:
M.Pause...
I have the same issue. Bought in China, tried to load non-china ROM and soft-bricked my phone. After much research, it seems that the Chinese have locked out a good deal of the functionality from their version of the SGS2 and blocked the ability to download a non-chinese ROM to the phone. I keep hoping someone will figure out a way around this--like to repartition the phone and add a different boot loader... or something like that.
In the meantime, your best bet is to go to onwhere's website: [strange forum rules]. This person apparently doesn't like that the chinese have them locked out of google marketplace. They have a hacked ROM that you can load into the phone and get most of your needed functionality. It's not great, but it's better than nothing. FYI, onwhere is chinese and so it the page. You'll need to go through google translate or the like. I also have some screen shots earlier in this thread that have some of the download links translated. You might want to check them out.
If you manage to figure out a different way around this, would you mind shooting me a message on this forum?
Thanks, G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, my phone is already flashed with onwhere's rom.
It's somewhat unstable and doing strange things sometimes, but it works.
If i find something i'll post here.
i got my sgs2 in malaysia it support chinese and english. my rom version is xwkf1 2.3.3(singapore ver) , think of flashing the lastest 2.3.4 which is europe rom . does europe lastest rom support chinese ?
It's still right here.
http://bbs.gfan.com/android-2099143-1-1.html
Hi All,
I am new to this forum and also to this Smartphone world
I am planning to buy Galaxy S2 , but want to use ICS Stock UI ( I can wait for official ICS update or use some ICS ROM ) , but what I want to know is that how can I use default ICS Stock UI on my Galaxy S2.
And another question when we use unofficial ROM on our Android phone , what are the risks we should consider in terms of our personal data security and also the stability of our phone ?
Thanks,
Maverick
mavericki said:
Hi All,
I am new to this forum and also to this Smartphone world
I am planning to buy Galaxy S2 , but want to use ICS Stock UI ( I can wait for official ICS update or use some ICS ROM ) , but what I want to know is that how can I use default ICS Stock UI on my Galaxy S2.
And another question when we use unofficial ROM on our Android phone , what are the risks we should consider in terms of our personal data security and also the stability of our phone ?
Thanks,
Maverick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you do some reading around the SGS2 forum, you'll find all of the information you seek. Or you could try google...either way, the powers that be here at XDA aren't very friendly to those who don't bother trying to research, read, or use the search function. I'm trying to be a bit more personable.
At the moment, ICS is in either the Alpha or Beta stage...meaning that it's still buggy and doesn't really function as a daily driver yet.
To get ICS right now, you have to flash a ROM...which involves root access. The risks are pretty high. You have the risk of bricking your phone, if you don't read the instructions and follow them exactly, which isn't always easy because you're not very likely to find exact instructions for your specific phone (the hardware specs will match, but the ROM/Radio/Modem numbers may be different which can lead to confusion). You also run the risk of voiding your warranty, which is a pretty significant one.
I flashed an ICS build yesterday, and then my S2 wouldn't charge. I eventually flashed back (thank God I had made a backup yesterday, and 2 days ago as the one from yesterday didn't work!)
As far as security goes, nothing really to worry about. Dev's don't build in Carrier IQ and don't really want your personal data. But the flip side is, that they don't get paid for what they do...so if you have a problem or 'eff something up, you're pretty much on your own. You can ask for help, but again, sometimes the dev's don't want to be bothered with a question if it's already been answered or if you could've found the answer by searching for it. This is where it gets rude, sometimes.
That's the long answer. The short answer is READ, READ, READ...everything about your phone and flashing ROM's. Start at the beginning of the forum, as that's where the 'stickies' are and work your way thru. ICS will be released officially and stably later.
Hope that helps.
Thanks ,
I have googled it and read some threads on this forum and on others as well... thats how I came to know that you can root your phone with unofficial ICS ROM... but wasn't sure that in that case , will I get ICS with TouchWiz or Stock UI...
And 2nd thing that if I screwed up what will happen to my personal data...
anyhow thanks for replying my (dumb ? ) question
Hi Guys as my title Says..
i need Help very Badly.
First of all MODS and USERS i'm sorry i didn't knew where to post this thread so if its in in-appropriate section please move it to correct section. THanks
OK my problem is this.
i recently (less than a week ago ) bought a Samsung Galaxy S2 its by Bell Canada and its i9100M. i bought it online since my service provider is Rogers.
i guess this phone is already rooted to unlock it and i can see CWM and SU icon there.
Well i'm a Hardcore Blackberry Fan and have been using Blackberries from last 6 years. I loved the new samsung because of it looks and its screen.
I Had Lot of Problem with it like setting up my yahoo as push email, setting the Ringtone Profile, setting up the Custom Ringtones for Text Messages..
Having wrong time stamps on Recieved TEXT Message.. well i fixed all those by installing apps from market and forwarding my yahoo to my gmail...
i Hated doing all that but infront of the beauty of this phone i had to compromise but today it took 3 hours to find my gps location and day by day im using it i'm hating it .....
SO OK I DID MY RESEARCH AND FOUND OUT ALOT... the more i'm researching the more i'm getting confused...
first of all what is the difference between custom ROM and KERNEL.
i know custom rom could be like operating system but customized by unofficial person.
what the h is KERNEL..
to install rom's or kernel do i really have to root.
To unlock do i have to root or is there a paying method.
also i want to know if i'll go back to stock rom can i still unlock it.and recieve all the updates from samsung or google specially when ICS will be launched.
after unlocking and installing custom root. can i unroot it
and lastly which is best custom kernel and which is the best rom availble.
since been a blackberry user i have very basic needs. i don't play any games or download much apps and if an app is paid..i'll pay for it.. i don't want to jailbreak anything .
all i need is better battery life, gps and network coverage.
Thanks for taking time to read and reply.
Hi there.
I'll try and get through your questions as simply as possible,
Imagine your phone is like a car
A kernel is like the engine of a car - it's the low level machinery that keeps it going.
The Rom is like the body of the car around the engine. Roms can be official (or Stock Roms), or they can be customised by other people.
So, when you install a stock rom - you're installing the kernel, but you're also installing the radio (called a modem or baseband) and the registration (or the CSC which is location specific information) as well as the unique 'body' of the car for that rom - tweaks, default software, etc.
You don't have to have rooted your phone to install a Rom. When you update your phone via Kies, you are, literally, installing an stock rom. You can even install stock roms from elsewhere without rooting your phone. Because stock roms are released in different regions at different times, lots of people update their phones to the latest official roms via this method - no root required.
However, to install a custom, unofficial rom, you will need to root your phone as they will require access to the 'root level directory' of your phone's file system - which is what root really means.
You can find everything you need to know about that, how to root and also lots of stock roms you can install without rooting here:
Some shops will root you phone for you if you want to go down that path and don't want to risk it. But it's easier than you think and the galaxy s2 is very hard to break. There's lots of help available on XDA - just remember to search before you ask so you don't ask a common question the millionth time.
If you have installed a custom rom you can easily re-install a stock rom over it that will still work with Kies and thus be updateable when ICS turns up.
There is no 'best' Rom or kernel. Some Roms go 'as is' and some are customisable to the nth degree if you like fiddling with your phone non-stop. I personally use CheckRom because I like the kitchen app that lets you swap kernels, modems and mods with ease - but check out the Original Android Development threads and see which other roms you like the sound of.
Depending on what you are currently running, a new rom - even a stock one if you're running a very old one - could easily help with battery and range issues. For GPS - try installing FasterFix from the market and see if reassigning your GPS fix to a closer location helps.
Best of luck - it's a great phone once you open up its possibilities
Thanks a lot for the reply
well your reply did help me a lot...
my phone is been already rooted by someone else already from the person i bought it....
as for searching i did a lot.. and its been confusing me more and more ..well thanks for your answer
also as u said S2 is hard to break..i guess u mean is that the JIG thing on EBAY
and as for flashing the stuff i've played with other stuff just not android thing ive replaced the os on BB and jailbreaked iphones and installed macintosh on HP PC and also worked on most of the languages 10 years ago... and i believe nothing is impossible so going to someone else is never an option for me
just want to know as much as stuff i can before going further
well i have few more questions
how can i find which rom or kernel is already installed...
i mean is it possible to tell if its stock or its customized and its customized by which group.
and one last thing.. u know the words u used modem and baseband...
i read about it before...
but my question is ...
IS THE BASEBAND ANYTHING LIKE IPHONE BASEBAND???
u know in iPhones when baseband is updated u r screwed sometimes its hard to jailbreak and definately hard to unlock and reverting changes to baseband....
is it the samething in Galaxy S2 as well...
Thanks a lot for replying...i really appreciate all the time you took to reply.
Thanks once again.
Yeah baseband is the code that handles the phone part of your smartphone. Talking to your wireless provider, 3G, texts all these things are done by baseband.
Flashing a different baseband won't screw your root, and you'd still be rooted. Samsung doesn't make it hard to root as Apple does to jailbreaking. Even if something goes wrong with a new version, you can always revert back to old one using Odin(Samsung ROM flashing tool) and you are good to go.
Thanks a lot... about that quick reply...
i'm gonna collect more information and hopefully i'll be flashing it on weekend...
but how can i find which rom or kernel is already installed...
i mean is it possible to tell if its stock or its customized and its customized by which group
Everything you need to know can be found here. Most of it, anyway.
Backup your device with cwm when rooted ... So you can always restore to previous state. ;-)
Good luck there. But reading is a must.
SGS II - XDA
blackberryfan said:
thanks a lot... About that quick reply...
I'm gonna collect more information and hopefully i'll be flashing it on weekend...
But how can i find which rom or kernel is already installed...
In your dialer type *#1234#
info will apear. Now read chainfire's tutorial how to root your device ....
I mean is it possible to tell if its stock or its customized and its customized by which group
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Setting went wrong when quoting
sgs ii - xda
also you can go settings - about phone - then look at the bottom fields to see kernel, baseband and build. Quote those and we should be able to tell what you have.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Hi everyone,
I am new to the android world having just bought a galaxy s2, so please be gentle. I'm a previous iphone owner and always hated the restrictions apple put on their phones and dictated the way I could use my handset! I've since moved over to android and my first impressions are OMFG, how confusing is all of this!! I'm not techphobic by any means but I am struggling to piece together how the world of android works and I have spent a lot of time reading various things about ROMs, rooting, flashing, kernels etc... but I am getting more and more confused!
I recently bought a Galaxy S2 which is running a custom ICS ROM on it (resurrection remix 1.0) and also has CWM on it. Having looked at the forums i can see that another version in out (1.3 i believe) but i'm very hesitant to try a flash as i dont want to screw my phone.
The way I see it i've got two choices, either try and reset the phone to stock so that warranty etc... remains uneffected and then update to ics through kies when its available or try and install a later version of one the ics ROM's that are availabe. I was wondering to that end if you lovely people coudl give me some guidance.
If I were to reset my phone to stock how do i do this bearing in mind i am confused about
a) what kernels are in the first place and
b) which one i woudl need for my phone and will I need a usb jig for this?
c) -i need to unroot my phone to return it to stock and if so how do i do this
also:
-what is the difference between an insecure and secure kernal
-if i flash my phone to a newer version of ics can i revert back to 1.0 as at the mo apart from the odd app crashing here and there I'm not having any probs with it.
I'm reading about GAPPS and APKs and dont know what the hell these are either but they keep popping up every so often.....basically i'm confused and on the verge of a breakdown!!
Please could somebody help mw with this and massive apologies if i've posted where i shoudnt have.
Thanks in advance
Saf
If you had taken the same time took for typing here to search and read you would have learnt almost everything...
go through these stiky threads
also see my links in singnature.......read as much as possible....no other substitute for reading and learning, nobody will answer you in essays like you typed
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1544657
Appreciate what you're saying mate and thank you for taking the time to reply. I have been reading various threads over the last day or so but the problem is when something like this which is quite techinical is completely new territory you dont know where to start. Google throws up page after page of stuff that doesnt make much sense and i've searched on the forums here and read up on quite a bit but again am not sure if i've grasped it.
problem is I didnt install the custom ROM on the phone, i bought it like this and to do anything further with it i dont know if i need to go back to the original owner with more questions or can i just go ahead and start tinkering with it without knowing what software was originally on the phone? (bearing in mind that various posts state that you need certain software which is as close to the original one as possible)
Thanks anyway
Saf
this is the stage which passed by all the noobs including me, dont worry
Your strating treble will only be over when you start flashing a ROM,
cool.
ima go ahead and try and install version 1.3 of resurrestion remix! Wish me luck hehe!!
Good luck,
dont forget to follow the steps mentioned the ROM thread atleast...
Hello, Im new here, Just heard about XDA and how its the best forum (knowledge-wise) out there. I dont have enough knowledge and experience with smartphones (Im more of a PC freak, building and hardware and stuff) but smartphones are a whole different subject.
lately Im having some "hangings" on my Galaxy Note 2 (N7100, 4.1.2 stock) it started when browsing firefox, and continuing to Whatsapp, it started freezing for a minute or so.. (which is quite a long period of time like u probably know.)
I started checking the whole Root&ROMs subject, and also found out that there's a way to update my phone to Android 4.3 JellyBean.
so here are my q's , What is the most CURRENT stable OFFICIAL OS (from what I saw online there's no 4.4.2 for Isarel-ILO (if it matters at all? Because I've seen a few official EU versions from various countries) and people just get a custom ROM of 4.4.2 to run it and also that quite a few ppl on here had some issues with it and were pretty happy about 4.3. So what do u think ?
also, I will probably need the best ROM for the OS you will recommend next (from what I read ROMs can boost phone performence) but I am not sure about it yet
but I am certain that I'm gonna root my phone, but can u tell me exactly how does rooting help ? I mean in which aspects and such..?
Thank you very much in advance, 73RM1N470R.
** just fyi, I figured I'd hard reset my phone and then update the Android to 4.3/4.4.2 which would help the hanging issue , and then root it. (not 100% sure about the ROMs..)