FreeCalypso on Mot C139 back on the agenda

Fri May 29 17:32:06 UTC 2020

hi Mychaela

ROTFL - I don't see a lot of incoming MMS attempts, but I feel your pain.

I do recognize that the Pirelli is a cut above the C139 in the build quality, at least of the casing and I believe it also has better electronic specs (not sure)? 

But I prefer the C139, simply because my eyesight is very bad and it's a royal pain having to fish for glasses, even to read the time if the light isn't good. Actually it's now several years since I used a C139, but my memory is that the clunky and inelegant screen display was easier for me to read
>
>David wrote:
>
>> I'm currently using a Pirelli, but - @ Mychaela - I have located my
>> freerunner *and* the unlock cable, co I'm going to put a saved dump from
>> an early C139 (now lost) on the new C139 to get around it being locked
>> to a single provided :-)
>
>Just curious: from the perspective of a pure end user, while any FC
>end user fw offering is still far beyond the horizon, which do you
>favor, Mot C139 running its original proprietary fw or Pirelli DP-L10
>running its respective original proprietary fw?  I strongly prefer the
>Pirelli, but then I enjoy running rvtdump, rvinterf, fc-fsio and
>fc-tmsh against Pirelli's fw - how would the comparison look from the
>viewpoint of a more pure end user who doesn't care about such tools?
>The few times I did try Motorola's official UI on the C139, I didn't
>like it at all, especially compared to Pirelli's.
>
>For me personally, the absolute worst problem with using the Pirelli
>with its original proprietary fw as my everyday personal phone is that
>if some thoughtless person sends some MMS to my phone number, that act
>inflicts enormous pain on me.  Pirelli's fw unfortunately includes MMS
>support (the one thing I will never-ever-ever include in FC), and
>there is no way to tell this fw to completely and totally disable MMS
>and reject any incoming MMS with extreme prejudice - instead when the
>networks sends its binary SMS to the phone that indicates "there is an
>incoming MMS message available for download", Pirelli's fw always
>accepts this incoming MMS notification and attempts to download the
>MMS body over TCP/IP.  But that TCP/IP download attempt will always
>fail with 100% certainty because I refuse to configure GPRS data
>settings (APN and whatever else may be needed) - I don't want any
>mobile data, just circuit-switched calls and SMS - and I never enable
>Pirelli's WLAN either.  The result is Pirelli's fw popping up an
>"MMS download failed" window.  Furthermore, the evil fw would then
>attempt that will-never-succeed MMS download again and again and
>again, never giving up, with no way to ever cancel that unwanted MMS
>download, except by erasing and reprogramming FFS with fc-loadtool!
>
>I did find a partial solution: going into MMS settings, one can set
>"automatic download" to off.  But the evil MMS network still finds a
>way to deprive me of sleep even then!  With the "automatic download"
>set to off, when some evildoer sends MMS to my phone number, the phone
>makes the same noise as if it received SMS - except that it's MMS
>instead.  I have to very carefully go into the MMS inbox, and
>*without* "opening" or "reading" the new MMS (which would cause a
>TCP/IP download attempt that can never succeed), select Delete
>instead.  It works - but only for about 10 minutes or so.  I don't
>know if the network resends the binary SMS saying "hey, there is MMS
>available for download" when it sees that the expected TCP/IP download
>hasn't happened, or if the Delete button in Pirelli's fw does not
>truly clear the state, but I get *another* noise notification for the
>same MMS, as if it is being resent over and over and over!  The phone
>will then basically keep me awake with incoming message notifications
>every 10 min for 3 days or so, all stemming from one thoughtless
>person sending one MMS to me!
>
>I have actually had to cut people out of my life (change my phone
>number and not give them the new one) because they sent me MMS.  Of
>course with source-enabled fw the solution would be trivial: detect
>the binary SMS that indicates MMS being available for download, and
>silently discard it without making any noise or UI indication
>whatsoever - this way even if the network resends it every 10 min for
>3 days, the user won't be kept awake all this time.  Or if you use a
>phone that has no MMS capability whatsoever (like C139 official fw),
>then the problem probably won't happen either - I assume that such fw
>with absolutely no MMS capability will also discard these MMS
>notifications - but I never used C139 official fw long enough to see
>what it would do if some miscreant sent me MMS.
>
>Das Signal wrote:
>
>> Be careful when reflashing the firmware, first of all you want to avoid
>> rewriting the bootloader unless absolutely necessary to prevent the risk
>> of bricking the device.
>
>Unfortunately rewriting the boot sector is unavoidable when changing
>from one Mot C139 official fw version to another: the main body of the
>fw starts at 0x2000, but the sector boundary does not come till 0x10000.
>Our flash erase-program-boot command reduces the risk to an absolute
>minimum though.
>
>> Also if you flash the image from another phone you might rewrite the
>> calibration values, this could less to suboptimal or even non working
>> operation.
>
>You don't just take a complete flash dump from one phone and "restore"
>that flash dump in its entirety onto a different unit, instead you
>rewrite only the firmware portion of the flash as follows:
>
>flash erase-program-boot new-motorola-fw.bin 10000
>flash e-program-bin 10000 new-motorola-fw.bin 10000 360000
>flash erase 370000 50000
>
>The last command erases the FFS sectors - Mot C1xx FFS does NOT store
>any calibration values or IMEI or any other vital data, it is user data
>only, and a new FFS will be automatically created by the new fw the
>first time it boots.  flash e-program-bin is new with fc-host-tools-r13.
>
>> I'm sure Mychaela will be able to provide you with useful advice in how to
>> remove your SIM lock in a completely safe manner.
>
>The only way I know of is to replace the operator-branded fw version
>with one that has no operator branding, i.e., Motorola branding only.
>If David didn't have a flash dump from another C139 he wishes to use,
>I would be directing him to flash one of the fw versions from our FTP
>site.
>
>It also goes without saving that David should save a complete flash
>dump from his current SIM-locked C139 in its original state before
>doing anything to it.
>
>M~
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--
David Matthews
mail at dmatthews.org