Database Develop

911 and e911 explained

Personal background: Associate degree in Laser Electro Optics. 12 years research and development semiconductor manufacturing, 15 years as an EMT, last 10 years as a 911 telecommunicator for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services. 6 of those years as a Training Officer.
The reason for my (cough) resume is so everyone understands I have the technical background and experience to explain the differences between e911 and 911.
Public Safety Answering Point: the local organization tasked with answering emergency request phone calls and dispatching appropriate emergency resources. PSAP's are broken into two types, primary and secondary. The primary PSAP is typically the local police department for city's and the local sheriff's department for unincorporated areas. Some colleges have their own police department and may have their own PSAP. So realistically a person can connect to a different 911 call center depending upon their location within a small geographic area.
Large urban areas typically have secondary PSAP's. The secondary PSAP usually consists of public safety departments not related to law enforcement such as fire and/or emergency medical services (ambulance services) specially trained to send request specific resources dependent upon the emergency. In Austin and Travis County we run 120 thousand EMS 911 calls per year. The police department takes about 2000 911 calls per day.
911: a simple to remember phone number nation wide allowing everyone access to emergency services. No location information is transmitted or received. The PSAP is responsible for determining location by interrogation of the caller. This can a problem if the caller is altered or otherwise unable to give accurate information.
e911: Enhanced 911 was created to ensure location information was transmitted to the 911 call center regardless of the callers ability to give this information. The phone companies are responsible for ensuring this information is available and transmitted to the PSAP. Conventional e911 is effective for landline phones. Cell phones present a completely different problem.
Cell phones are required to meet two different location technology standards.
Phase 1 wireless data: as cell phone use skyrocketed in the nineties, legislation was passed requiring provider's to transmit location data based on the cell phone tower that the cell phone was connected to. While this is helpful, it is problematic due to the sheer size of the area that had to be searched if the caller was unable to give their location.
Phase 2 wireless data: legislation now requires GPS location data be provided by the cell phone company. This location information can be transmitted via the gps chip from the cell phone or via radio location triangulation using the cell towers in the immediate area of the caller.
So in a nut shell, my test of neobuddy's ICS indicated that 911 worked for a sim loaded phone. I did not test the phone with the sim pulled. I also did NOT verify that GPS data was being received by the PSAP.
If 911 works with your phone it should work in any area. I was connecting with two different PSAP's as I live right between two different area's and sometimes connect to one or the other.
Hope this clears some of the confusion. A good explanation is located at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1.
genesis3 and I are still working on the cm7 issue and getting closer to a resolution.
Later tators
Sent from my Touchpad using xda premium

thanks a lot. i can confirm cm7.1 has 911 issue.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

Developers should also note that as technology continues to advance, video conferencing and text message 911 activation requirements will also be legislated in.
I firmly believe that Google should begin requiring manufacturers make their modem software and audio software open source. Manufacturers should also be required to provide detailed explanations of how the relevant library's interface with the operating system, modems and audio system when activating an emergency call. This is Androids achilles heel. All it will take is one national media event to slam the door on open source operating systems for cell phones. I love the freedom Android provides and the exceptional programing skilss of our developers.

Im sorry, while this is a great explanation, i really didnt get the bottom line....
What we have on nonsamsung roms then is just a plain 911 incapable of transmitting location?
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.

Im sorry, while this is a great explanation, i really didnt get the bottom line....
What we have on nonsamsung roms then is just a plain 911 incapable of transmitting location?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct as none had the source code....but for 2.3 onwards rom.
genesis3 and I are still working on the cm7 issue and getting closer to a resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
made my day.....thanks a lot....will be keeping a close eye on this thread...

My understanding is the issue is only without a sim right?

The 911 issue is with SIM, i don't know about without and im not planning on finding out.

HaloMediaz said:
My understanding is the issue is only without a sim right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has to do with emergency mode (no dim) and when no compatible roaming network is around (no service) .
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G

hmmm I havent called 911 in YEARS but it still feels nice to have the ability and this was a nice explantion thank you

MIUI 360 in Asheville NC works fine but not in other areas?

Hopefully they can test the cm9 test ports that are out now.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium

http://www.mediafire.com/?czo03t36py5sai4
CM7 with WORKING 911 (oh yeah, GPS works too and is VERY fast to lock. Insanely so in fact -- pretty much identical to what you expect with the LG Optimus! Those who say the GPS is broken in the hardware in these phones -- you're wrong.)
No support available at this point from me since the original source for the replaced bits hasn't been disclosed. Had there been some documentation on where the original source for those bits came from I bet this would have been fixed a lot faster. If that is disclosed in the future I'll consider supporting it, but for those who want it, here it is.
Incidentally it works on CM9 too.

Genesis3 said:
http://www.mediafire.com/?czo03t36py5sai4
CM7 with WORKING 911 (oh yeah, GPS works too and is VERY fast to lock. Insanely so in fact -- pretty much identical to what you expect with the LG Optimus! Those who say the GPS is broken in the hardware in these phones -- you're wrong.)
No support available at this point from me since the original source for the replaced bits hasn't been disclosed. Had there been some documentation on where the original source for those bits came from I bet this would have been fixed a lot faster. If that is disclosed in the future I'll consider supporting it, but for those who want it, here it is.
Incidentally it works on CM9 too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can we get independent confirmation of this? (not that I don't believe you)
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium

Uh, the guy who tested and verified it is the OP on this thread.
Read the first post.

You typed all that from your touch pad? props
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Genesis3 said:
Uh, the guy who tested and verified it is the OP on this thread.
Read the first post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I get that. Just wanted to make sure he verified was all..

Genesis3 said:
http://www.mediafire.com/?czo03t36py5sai4
CM7 with WORKING 911 (oh yeah, GPS works too and is VERY fast to lock. Insanely so in fact -- pretty much identical to what you expect with the LG Optimus! Those who say the GPS is broken in the hardware in these phones -- you're wrong.)
No support available at this point from me since the original source for the replaced bits hasn't been disclosed. Had there been some documentation on where the original source for those bits came from I bet this would have been fixed a lot faster. If that is disclosed in the future I'll consider supporting it, but for those who want it, here it is.
Incidentally it works on CM9 too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know who you are or where you came from but, you sir may have saved CM development for the vibrant community. Here's hoping and you're the man!!!
Sent from my SGH-T959

Genesis3 said:
http://www.mediafire.com/?czo03t36py5sai4
CM7 with WORKING 911 (oh yeah, GPS works too and is VERY fast to lock. Insanely so in fact -- pretty much identical to what you expect with the LG Optimus! Those who say the GPS is broken in the hardware in these phones -- you're wrong.)
No support available at this point from me since the original source for the replaced bits hasn't been disclosed. Had there been some documentation on where the original source for those bits came from I bet this would have been fixed a lot faster. If that is disclosed in the future I'll consider supporting it, but for those who want it, here it is.
Incidentally it works on CM9 too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just downloaded your kang and running great so far, Thanks for you work !!
Question, is this 911 fix kernel dependent ? ie will it break if I flash another cm7 kernel ?
Thanks again for your hard work !!!

will replacing the kernel break both 911 and gps fixes?

I didn't save anything.
Here's the bottom line, if you're interested in it.
In the original Vibrant device directory there was a set of sources for libaudio -- one of the shared libraries that Android depends on to talk to the audio hardware in the phone. There was no documentation as to where this source came from, but I know where it didn't come from -- it didn't come from a public Gingerbread source for the Vibrant, because there isn't one.
It turns out the library this source builds does not work correctly but exactly why I'm not certain of. One of the problems with debugging this is that I have to have someone else test for me, which means I can't do the sort of testing I like to when I'm tracing things like this (a highly-iterative process that requires that I actually be staring at the debugging screen while doing the deeds that cause the bad behavior) since I can't call 911 myself.. Had the provenance of this code been documented originally (or lack thereof) I would have investigated this possible connection, as I knew the problem lay in the audio connectivity due to myriad kernel and application traces a couple of months ago. I didn't chase that library down and attempt to graft in other related versions because I assumed that the CM people knew what they were doing building that library from source rather than using a cribbed copy from, for example, Froyo or a different gingerbread build off a similar device.
Picking up a different shared library does work. Exactly what the provenance of that library is (e.g. was it grabbed from a binary, was it built from DIFFERENT source, where did it come from?) is also unknown.
Now that I have a working shared library on this device and a non-working one I'm going to compare traces. Maybe I'll get lucky and find the changes necessary in the source that's in the build tree and be able to fix that, at which point I'll know what I've got rather than having a "magic" library from God-knows-where.
Now here's the part that annoys me -- I was all over some of the CM guys about audio problems with other Samsung devices and tried to get access to the "not yet finished" repos because I expected that if I could run down the same sort of problem with ordinary calls in one of the OTHER Samsungs it was rather more likely than not that the same fix would be pertinent in some way on the Vibrant -- simply because manufacturers tend to use the same chipsets and bits, along with APIs, between different devices (it makes it easier for their coders and maintainers to do their jobs.) In addition when I started working one this one of the other protagonists didn't give me jack and crap about the provenance of anything in the device tree and, again, there's no docs embedded in the tree either. You can find the flamewar and slander aimed at me here if you'd like. It turns out I was on the right path; the problem this library allegedly fixed was having to hit <MUTE> twice to turn off and on the audio path. Sound familiar? Well, the pointer to the file that I found and integrated was from a bug logged against the I-9000, a similar phone to the Vibrant, and that library version works. What's changed in it? There's no set of commits logged against the ZIP file provided in that patch; is it a binary lift from a different build (e.g. some factory build) or did someone fix the source?
Who the hell knows because again, it's not documented in the bugtracker. Until I know where it came from and, if there's source, I have access to it, I won't support it. I don't play the "hide the sausage" game when it comes to alleged community coding projects.
I ran into something similar with the Triumph in that there was a different set of parameters coming up from the hardware when a wired headset was plugged in. That was easy to run down because I could do it and see what was going on; it was a literal couple of line change in the code once I found it. There are a couple of places in the libaudio source that might be the cause of this now that I have a reason to look in there, but without being able to easily reproduce the condition that creates the failure (e.g. call 911) it's a guess.
The ICS builds out at present have a different copy of the same compiled library and it also works. I bet that one works too on CM7 as it's fairly close to the metal and thus the API's probably the same (or close) on the Android side but I haven't tried it yet. I've got little reason to since I now have a libaudio.so that's functional on CM7 in any event.
While I've been working on the 911 issue (for a couple months on and off) I also traced down some actual working (properly) GPS libraries that handle the AGPS assist data in the correct way, something that other sets of them do not, and added those too. I also made a few other changes. The battery life is reported to be rather impressive, and the near-instant GPS locks most-definitely are. I can't speak much to the battery life view of the world as of yet but I will be looking at that; that's an area I know quite a bit about (getting these devices to properly go into deep sleep as they should) and the source tree I'm working with does have kernel source.
Any sideloaded kernel that leaves libaudio.so alone (check the zip file to make sure that /system/lib/libaudio.so is NOT present) should be ok, but no promises. Before you go screwing with kernels make sure you want to --you might break GPS performance as a number of the kernels have various attempts to get the GPS to work right and load various libraries along with the kernel itself with varying degrees of success.
I'd be willing to maintain this port but there are two conditions -- first, I expect apologies from the CM people who attacked me, in public, and second, I expect a formal commitment that there will be no more hiding of information. "I don't know" is an acceptable answer provided you run down the person who does -- someone does know because someone DID either import or code the material in question; silence and lack of documenting where things came from and how they came to be is not acceptable. When things go into the codebase through review they damn well ought to be documented. I played "talking to the brick wall" with the Triumph and now the Vibrant and I won't do it if I'm taking on responsibility for maintaining something.
If CM wants me involved in this that's the deal. If not I'll consider setting up a parallel build and set of repos for the bits that have to be changed from the base CM7 Gingerbread branch as I did for the Triumph if there are people interested in it, but my time is not unlimited and in all honesty my taste for working with the CM people and the CM code in general has been seriously damaged, never mind that what I have here seems to work just fine. As such the benefits of continued efforts are likely to be relatively small. If I decide against a continuing effort I will take the build environment that produced that I have now and attempt to set up a manifest so it can be cloned by anyone else who cares to do so, which should take care of others being able to build and run the KANGs from source if they wish. The latter may take a while as I need to find a day when I'm not busy and can put that together (again, lack of documentation doesn't help) and then pull a clean test from a zero base and make sure it builds and runs.
The Vibrant is no longer my daily device but I do still own one, and given its relatively modest resale value I'll probably keep it as a spare device -- it's a very credible phone and with working GPS code it actually locks faster and better than my Hercules does. It's biggest shortcoming is that it's relatively RAM-starved compared to more-modern devices.
Fancy that.

(OTA update) ME863 gets 2.3.6 in Hong Kong

My OEM Hong Kong Milestone 3 (ME863) just got a 28 MB OTA update today. System is now 2.3.6. No mention of what this update brings anywhere....... Kind of weird.
Anyway, looks slightly more smooth. Camera app slightly quicker... No idea of the improvements except that. Need more time to tell about the battery life and the bugs I had before (GPS bug).
If anyone has more info, please share.

So XT862 officially has oldest android

Not sure exactly how to do this, but could you check to see if the OTA has an unlocked bootloader? If it does that would mean some progress, if not, back to square 1!

GPS bugs? Elodie1, care to clarify what do you mean by the GPS bug?
I have the ME863 that the GPS fail to work at all. I cannot see a single satelite with the GPS Status app, even with AGPS turn on. What GPS bug are you experiencing?

Sometimes (not all the time), GPS would not work at all. It's turned on, but the logo does not appear when I launch Maps. And of course, my phone doesn't can't locate me correctly. Same thing with any app.
A simple reboot actually fix this... But it is quite annoying since it makes you waste several minutes.

But, if you're in HK and you think your problem is more a hardware problem, you should bring your phone to the Moto tech centre, they can usually fix it within one day if you bring it in the morning... and they lend you a phone of course.

I see, i guess my problem is different from yours then. Unfortunately I'm not in Hong Kong, I'm sending it back to the seller and hopefully he'll be able fix it or send it back to Hong Kong to fix it.
Don't know how fast it can be fixed though

I see. Anyway, I can now confirm this update does not fix this GPS bug (despite the fact it has been reported by several users on the Motorola forums since the very beginning).
I am happy that the system seems to be slightly more smooth. But I am astonished by how little Moto seems to care. E.g. what would it cost to add the same camera shortcut than on the Razr? Hello Moto! This is basically the very same lockscreen and system! So let's not talk about Smart Actions (but since they are one of the very few things that will differentiate D4 from D3, so let's not care about the D3 early adopters...)

Bought that new MS-3 yesterday and got that OTA update on my way back. Everything seems good even with the GPS navigation program. I can't find any problem so far. I traded in my HTC Sensation which is a total disappointment !

Say... ME863 owners, one thing that I found to be inconvenient, is that the Milestone3 can't do video call directly through 3G. It needs to be done through an app.
Have you all tried it?
I'm sure it's not an android limitation, because Samsung Galaxy S can video call without an App. Maybe Motorola don't think it's worth to support this function?

[Q] kabaldans CM10 nightly - some issues

hey folks,
I have been following all the Milestone development threads since the very beginning, and have gone through each inkarnation of kabaldans incredible work since CM6. Recently, I updated to CM10 (first without, now with 2nd boot) and am absolutely amazed by how far our good old milestone has come. While playing around with it quite a bit, I have come across some problems (I would love to report them in the appropriate development thread, but the 10-post-count won't let me unfortunately.)
First, I really loved the keyboard multipress-system since I live in Germany and have to enter Umlauts very frequently (ä, ö, ü, etc.). The multipress-system sped that up greatly. Now, although the corresponding settings are there in the Milestone-specific part of the Settings-app, multipressing actually doesn't work for me in CM10. Is that problem specific to me, or is multipress not yet fully integrated in CM10?
The second thing I noticed (probably since 2nd boot, but I am not entirely sure) is, that in the Settings under About Phone > Status neither IME nor Serial number are displayed (instead, it says "unknown"). This also prevents me from launching Whats App - it quits saying "Your phone could not be identified ....".
Does anyone else experience those issues - and/or could perhaps somebody please post this into the CM10 development thread, so kabaldan notices?
thanks, mvol

mvol said:
hey folks,
I have been following all the Milestone development threads since the very beginning, and have gone through each inkarnation of kabaldans incredible work since CM6. Recently, I updated to CM10 (first without, now with 2nd boot) and am absolutely amazed by how far our good old milestone has come. While playing around with it quite a bit, I have come across some problems (I would love to report them in the appropriate development thread, but the 10-post-count won't let me unfortunately.)
First, I really loved the keyboard multipress-system since I live in Germany and have to enter Umlauts very frequently (ä, ö, ü, etc.). The multipress-system sped that up greatly. Now, although the corresponding settings are there in the Milestone-specific part of the Settings-app, multipressing actually doesn't work for me in CM10. Is that problem specific to me, or is multipress not yet fully integrated in CM10?
The second thing I noticed (probably since 2nd boot, but I am not entirely sure) is, that in the Settings under About Phone > Status neither IME nor Serial number are displayed (instead, it says "unknown"). This also prevents me from launching Whats App - it quits saying "Your phone could not be identified ....".
Does anyone else experience those issues - and/or could perhaps somebody please post this into the CM10 development thread, so kabaldan notices?
thanks, mvol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have issue like this, and I can see IMEI and IMEI SV, but the Serial Number is "unknown".

after doing a full wipe, IMEI now shows up for me as well, but unknown serial and multipress problems remain.

mvol said:
hey folks,
(I would love to report them in the appropriate development thread, but the 10-post-count won't let me unfortunately.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are almost at the 10th post.
Maybe wiping everything is a solution for that?

mvol said:
hey folks,
I have been following all the Milestone development threads since the very beginning, and have gone through each inkarnation of kabaldans incredible work since CM6. Recently, I updated to CM10 (first without, now with 2nd boot) and am absolutely amazed by how far our good old milestone has come. While playing around with it quite a bit, I have come across some problems (I would love to report them in the appropriate development thread, but the 10-post-count won't let me unfortunately.)
First, I really loved the keyboard multipress-system since I live in Germany and have to enter Umlauts very frequently (ä, ö, ü, etc.). The multipress-system sped that up greatly. Now, although the corresponding settings are there in the Milestone-specific part of the Settings-app, multipressing actually doesn't work for me in CM10. Is that problem specific to me, or is multipress not yet fully integrated in CM10?
The second thing I noticed (probably since 2nd boot, but I am not entirely sure) is, that in the Settings under About Phone > Status neither IME nor Serial number are displayed (instead, it says "unknown"). This also prevents me from launching Whats App - it quits saying "Your phone could not be identified ....".
Does anyone else experience those issues - and/or could perhaps somebody please post this into the CM10 development thread, so kabaldan notices?
thanks, mvol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi mvol,
I am running the new CN10 10/24, the seril reports also Unkown but it doesnt stop me from running and using WhatsApp app.
regards
EP

WhatsApp now works - it looks like the full wipe which solved the unknown IMEI problem also fixed WhatsApp.

mvol said:
WhatsApp now works - it looks like the full wipe which solved the unknown IMEI problem also fixed WhatsApp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Realy ? I will have a try !

I also went through this and really soh after giving a factory reset was decided that in fact

have you guys tried multipress using the hardware keyboard? Does it work for you?

mvol said:
have you guys tried multipress using the hardware keyboard? Does it work for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here using the shift and alt is working normally above 2 keys simultaneous ... not tested on that specifically, you will use more than 2 simultaneous keys?

with "multipress" I mean the feature invented by nadlabak/kabaldan that allows one to press the same key multiple times very quickly to enter special characters (like pressing "a" two times very fast producing "ä", for example.) It worked perfectly for me in CM7, but it doesn't anymore in CM10...

anyone, please?

It works fine for me. I use it frequently.

mvol: I still haven't found the time to implement the multipress feature completely in CM10. Only a few of the final bits is missing. Please be patient.

thanks for your answer - in that case, I'll wait patiently

Link not working for me
Hi All,
Im unable to access the latest builds for milestone CM10 by kabaldan. Please can anybody provide alternate link?
Thanks

Hello people!
I'm a long time CM ( 6 and 7 ) user on my Milestone.
After updating it to CM10 ( full wipe, ext3 partition formatted ), adb does not find my device anymore.
I have changed the USB settings and enabled the debugger in development, but nothing changes. Even after a restart.
Running on Ubuntu 12.10.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

The issue I have is quite annoying, if I can use such a word in a development stage . After each restart, the network is being forgotten, so I have to switch to the airplane mod off and on.

@pt0: This is a known issue, if I can say that. I experience this too, though not after every restart. I think it's a problem we can live with.

Revolution Based Rom; Tackling The Reboot Issue

Hey guys,
I'm back again, maybe not as often as before but i'm here to make a committed attempt to fix those annoying reboot issues some of you guys appear to be experiencing. Remember what my initial aims were for my rom?
Fast, Stable, Elegant and most of all USABLE​
After many, many PM's about this issue, and my many weeks of not being active here on XDA i have decided to take control and try my best to fix this issue for those experiencing it. However, i would like to remind you all this fix will take a little time, because i want to gather all the relevent information required about which carriers etc... This issue occurs most to.
Things We Know...
Incrediblitly annoying
Perhaps a APN issue
Perhaps a SIM register issue
Maybe something else....
If you have an idea what it could be, post what you think it is with some evidence to prove that there isn't something quite right.
I'm open to suggestions from you guys, as your opinions are important too.
Okay lets get started....

Okay so this is how I would like you guys to report where you are and if you have had any of the aforementioned issues listed above, the more feedback i get the more information i will have to work against, so let's get started shall we?
This is how I would like to report to be written, copy and paste this part, and word it with your relevant information:
Hello i am currently running (A version of the revolution series roms) and i will list which country i am from, and which carrier below:
I am from---- (Your Country)
My carrier is--- (Your current, or most frequently used carrier)
My Mobile data does/doesn't work out of the box (Do you need to input your APN setting to make data work?)
When using any Revolution Based Rom I do/don't have the Reboot issue. (Again if you do have the issue exaplain how long it takes before it happens)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you guys can post your reports in a similar way like above, it will be easy for me to pick out who is and isn't having issues.
TIP: Send a Logcat too.

THis is where feedback will be organised.

Hello, I am from the planet Earth and reside in the area of North America and to be more specific I live in southern Ontario, Canada.
I am with Virgin Mobile Canada.
I am running ReVoluTioNMoD v3.4
Dont use mobile data so I cannot report on that topic, sorry!
I experience reboots when watching YouTube videos and only when I am watching videos. It happens about once a week, I watch an hour worth of YouTube videos a day.
I think I did it right, right? I can't logcat because of it's weird reboot pattern. I switched to the old 767MHz Nameless kernel and the 832MHz Promethus kernel and reboots still happen.
Leafs waht r u doin

These may be caused by the kernel frequency, it is so high that sometimes it will reboot if you'll lower the frequency the reboots should fly away.

Using Revolution 3.5 on Desire C
Used the 722mhz boot kernel and had occasional rebooting
Strange thing was most times it would reboot in my pocket when phone
was not doing much and freeze up when using play store
But when went back to stock 600mhz boot it was rock solid, so it seems people may need to clock down a bit
Need a boot kernel at around 680 mark for me

[Q] Camera problem, what do you think

hey guys im new on this wp8 forum (old android user) i bought an ativ S from a dude i met once... i knew this had a problem with the camera, i just realized that the back camera is the only one with the problem, ive been reading posts and i tried everything to make it work, but i allways got the same, it doesnt start correctly, i press the camera button or use the camera icon, but its allways the same, the 1st start its like it close so quickly at the 2nd try it keep the screen black, i only see the icons, and an arrow to swipe and see the pics i toke (with the front camera and a 3rd party app) but it close in around 10 seconds... idk what to do... i tought maybe was something about and update (a past one) but few days ago i got an update (not grd2, a minor one) but nothing... i still have the problem... what do you guys think... its a hardware problem or maybe software?... ireally love this cellphone and i dont wanna stop using it

If third-party apps can use the main (rear) camera, then it's not a hardware problem; you could try hard-resetting the phone and seeing if that helps.
If even third-party apps can't use the rear camera, it's either a hardware or firmware problem. Since this is the first I've heard of you particular issue, and since an update didn't fix it, that suggests a hardware problem (it *could* be firmware if you have some weird non-stock firmware on there; what version info do you have in settings->about->more info?). If it's a hardware problem, replacing the phone (or just living with the meh but usable front-facing camera, I guess) is your only real option.

GoodDayToDie said:
If third-party apps can use the main (rear) camera, then it's not a hardware problem; you could try hard-resetting the phone and seeing if that helps.
If even third-party apps can't use the rear camera, it's either a hardware or firmware problem. Since this is the first I've heard of you particular issue, and since an update didn't fix it, that suggests a hardware problem (it *could* be firmware if you have some weird non-stock firmware on there; what version info do you have in settings->about->more info?). If it's a hardware problem, replacing the phone (or just living with the meh but usable front-facing camera, I guess) is your only real option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for your answer, =)
uhmmm, as you say i only can use the back camera with an 3rd party app, because when i try to open the pre installed camera app it close...and the camera icons appera in a gray color... except the arrow to see the taken pics, that appear in white...
i discovered some other ppl who had the same problem, :/
oh oh ok. my telephone info is...
Os version: 8.0.10327.77
firmware:2212.13.6.1
hadware: 15.3.1.0
trans soft: 2212.13.6.1
trans hardw: 0.0.0.0
(i actually dont know how to translate this from spanish): 13.04.19.21
SOC chip version: 1.5.32
this is the info i got, before uodating it, the number were almost the same :/
mmmm i remeber when the update was almost ending it was like 1/5 complete... then 2/5 complete... and after that the phone started...what i mean is that there was no 3/5 4/5 or 5/5 steps...
man so you are telling me i wouldnt be abble to replace just the camera, if is a hardware problem??? oh jesus =( i really love this cellphone i dont wanna lose it =(
thank you for your answer my friend =)

First of all: you have GDR2 and the most current firmware that I know of for the SGH-T899M. The line you couldn't translate is "bootloader" (the code that starts, or "boot-straps", the operating system). Your version numbers are identical to mine.
My rear camera works fine, though. Since third-party apps also work, you either have bad firmware somehow (doubtful, especially after the update) or there's something wrong with the Camera app on the phone (more likely). Unfortunately, the only way I know of to fix the latter problem is to re-install the OS (which a hard reset will, or at least should, do).
Replacing just one component, like the camera, is very difficult on a compact device like a modern smartphone. It might be possible, but the cost might not be worth it. On the other hand, if the phone is still under warranty, you should be able to replace for free.

GoodDayToDie said:
First of all: you have GDR2 and the most current firmware that I know of for the SGH-T899M. The line you couldn't translate is "bootloader" (the code that starts, or "boot-straps", the operating system). Your version numbers are identical to mine.
My rear camera works fine, though. Since third-party apps also work, you either have bad firmware somehow (doubtful, especially after the update) or there's something wrong with the Camera app on the phone (more likely). Unfortunately, the only way I know of to fix the latter problem is to re-install the OS (which a hard reset will, or at least should, do).
Replacing just one component, like the camera, is very difficult on a compact device like a modern smartphone. It might be possible, but the cost might not be worth it. On the other hand, if the phone is still under warranty, you should be able to replace for free.
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GDR2??? are you sure my friend?? ive reading and that update come with the Radio app, some camera features and other... but nothing :/ i just got some options in settings and that was all, i even cant download or instal Ativ beam (i dont find it on the store, and when i try to do a manual install it say that is not compatible) and i heard that app is only for the last update
my cellphone is canadian i think, because the company is ROGERS, and i live in peru, so i cant use the warranty or something
i will try to save some of my info, and i will do another hard reset
Do you think there would be a tool for a diagnosis?? i mean conecting my cellphone to a PC in DOWNLOAD MODE or something???
i swear i wont rest till i fix it :'(
again, thank you very much for your time.
P.D: let me show you what the camera looks like for a while

Yes, build 10327.77 is GDR2. Your phone is a SGH-T899M, same as mine; GDR2, along with an interim update ("Amber" maybe?) and a Samsung firmware update, was pushed out to all Canadian SGH-T899M handsets (including those operating in other countries, like yours and mine) a couple days ago.
ATIV Beam installs fine for me; it's probably a region lock and not a matter of device compatibility.
Samsung is reported to have cheapened out on the radio chips for the SGH-T899M, and not included the one needed for FM.
Data Sense (assuming your carrier offers it) is supposedly included, but due to <REDACTED>-up update process, you have to hard-reset to use it (how the *HELL* did that make it through testing? That's supposed to be exactly the sort of BS that those months-long and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of testing per-update are supposed to find! Bloody incompetents...)
There's an app called Diagnosis embedded in your phone's firmware; you can install and launch it by typing either ##634# or ##3424# (MFG or DIAG) into the phone's dialer. Check the relevant thread here about dialer codes and diagnosis apps for some examples of things you can do with it (among other things, test the cameras). However, if the camera is working in third-party apps, I doubt that test will find anything. As I said, that indicates a software problem. Hard reset is the only really likely fix for that, if you can't get Samsung to service it. Flashing a stock ROM would probably work too, but I don't know that we have either the ROM nor the flashing tool needed for doing that.

GoodDayToDie said:
Yes, build 10327.77 is GDR2. Your phone is a SGH-T899M, same as mine; GDR2, along with an interim update ("Amber" maybe?) and a Samsung firmware update, was pushed out to all Canadian SGH-T899M handsets (including those operating in other countries, like yours and mine) a couple days ago.
ATIV Beam installs fine for me; it's probably a region lock and not a matter of device compatibility.
Samsung is reported to have cheapened out on the radio chips for the SGH-T899M, and not included the one needed for FM.
Data Sense (assuming your carrier offers it) is supposedly included, but due to <REDACTED>-up update process, you have to hard-reset to use it (how the *HELL* did that make it through testing? That's supposed to be exactly the sort of BS that those months-long and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of testing per-update are supposed to find! Bloody incompetents...)
There's an app called Diagnosis embedded in your phone's firmware; you can install and launch it by typing either ##634# or ##3424# (MFG or DIAG) into the phone's dialer. Check the relevant thread here about dialer codes and diagnosis apps for some examples of things you can do with it (among other things, test the cameras). However, if the camera is working in third-party apps, I doubt that test will find anything. As I said, that indicates a software problem. Hard reset is the only really likely fix for that, if you can't get Samsung to service it. Flashing a stock ROM would probably work too, but I don't know that we have either the ROM nor the flashing tool needed for doing that.
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incompetents!!! hell yeah!!! !
my friend are you some kind of wizard or something??, while you were writting it, i was doing a hard reset, and now i have data sense... and oh thats why i cant have ativ beam (NFS in WP devices suxs ass hell, i cant send anything) and... Doesnt have a FM radio???!!! SAMSUNG are you serious?!?!?!?...
i did the ##364# and i got the diagnosis item, thats how i noticed that the front cam worked fine and the "megacam" (front one) doesnt work... (i used the *#0*# code) plus the camera LED doesnt work either
oh well , after the hard reset i just got all my data lost n_n; , but you know... the frontcamera still doesnt work... tell me truth im already FU*beeeep*d ,am i?
i really want to believe that this have a solution...at least a non invasive solution...

I actually have the same issue. Before installing the updates from MS and Samsung the camera worked perfectly. When I updated my phone and did the hard reset, the camera behaves like you say, either a black screen or back to home screen. I called Samsung and they say it is most likely that the update did not install correctly. Though they talk rubbish sometimes as they also told me to update through zune........that doesn't even support WP8..
So flashing a stock rom "might" fix the issue. :fingers-crossed: