T5 Wifi Drivers, will they work on the Treo 650? - Page 58

shadowmite · 02/16/2005, 01:55 AM

Let me clarify, I found the wifi drivers in the memory image on the gsm 650, but they are NOT listed in rom, the phone doesn't know they are there. They are in a unused location in memory just sitting there with the first characters of the filenames removed. I currently have no clue why they are there, or if they are different from what we already have.

But I intend to research them and compare them... It'll just be a little hard since I have to extract the data byte by byte. I found it while continuing my search for the unlock code or it's pre-cursors.

Markito · 02/16/2005, 02:17 AM

Just when I was starting to blow out the candle in my window, the beacon of hope lives on.
Thanks Shadowmite for never giving up!
Fingers crossed!

hugo · 02/16/2005, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowmite

Let me clarify, I found the wifi drivers in the memory image on the gsm 650, but they are NOT listed in rom, the phone doesn't know they are there. They are in a unused location in memory just sitting there with the first characters of the filenames removed. I currently have no clue why they are there, or if they are different from what we already have.

But I intend to research them and compare them... It'll just be a little hard since I have to extract the data byte by byte. I found it while continuing my search for the unlock code or it's pre-cursors.

Hey shadowmite,

I cannot do what you can, but you share my enthusiasm! Thanks for not letting us down on this one! We should have a "Cyber-Party" for you!!!

Keep it up!

Rtalian · 02/16/2005, 04:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowmite

Let me clarify, I found the wifi drivers in the memory image on the gsm 650, but they are NOT listed in rom, the phone doesn't know they are there. They are in a unused location in memory just sitting there with the first characters of the filenames removed. I currently have no clue why they are there, or if they are different from what we already have.

But I intend to research them and compare them... It'll just be a little hard since I have to extract the data byte by byte. I found it while continuing my search for the unlock code or it's pre-cursors.

Shadowmite...As I have just this Monday received my very own brand new unlocked GSM Treo 650 & have a knack w/ a wee bit of hacking, I'm hoping to help you out a bit w/ the wonderful things you do for the visitors of TC. Can you tell me how you found these files? That is, how can I download these files from my 650? Also, are they the drivers for the Palm card or the SanDisk card? Thanks!!

shadowmite · 02/16/2005, 01:45 PM

I found them by first off, go into the bootloader (reset while holding the hotsync button on the sync cable), then plug in a serial cable instead (www.shadowmite.com/650serial.html) and then insert a SD card you don't mind losing the data on. Run command "r2sd os" from a terminal program and watch what happens, it will copy a 10 meg image of the phones memory to the card.

Then on a computer you use the program "dd" to extract a image of the card and then search through that image.

Hope that made sense. Appears to be for the PalmOne card.

ultip · 02/16/2005, 04:37 PM

What happens if the hacked drivers for the Sprint 650 are run on the GSM version? Perhaps the differences between the two versions are enough that won't be a problem as their was with Sprint Vision requiring a hard reset.

bmcmullin · 02/16/2005, 09:56 PM

Shadowmite, you are impressive. I wish I had some talent to offer but I don't. I offer you encouragement , FWIW.

Rtalian · 02/17/2005, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowmite

Hope that made sense. Appears to be for the PalmOne card.

Thanks, Shadowmite. Yep, that made perfect sense. It's a little more involved than I expected, but now I know what that cable is for. I guess I'll have to get one.

I was really hoping that would be the driver for the SanDisk. What I really want is the combo card, but considering that the last time SanDisk's "unofficial" Palm drivers for the plain wifi card were updated was almost a year ago, I guess we'll be waiting for a while for that one to be sure.

I've been trying to go through this thread to find the discussion of those drivers (http://www.sandisk.com/tech/docs/palm-driver-v3.zip), btw, but there's just so much, & the search won't pull it up. Would you (or someone else) mind giving me a summary of what ended-up working/not-working w/ those? Thanks!!

100thMonkey · 02/18/2005, 11:10 AM

can't wait to hack the GSM 650 ROM...ahhhhh

chonkey · 02/18/2005, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowmite

I found the wifi drivers in the memory image on the gsm 650

You are THE MAN!
Good luck in your adventures. I look forward to the continuing tale.

gbobman · 02/18/2005, 10:46 PM

You are BIG news now, buddy.

Dragan · 02/20/2005, 09:21 AM

I submitted this new revelation to Engadget a couple of days ago and they ran a story about it here. In one of the comments someone posted this reply:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil Hollenback

From the description, I would guess the driver file had been deleted on a FAT filesystem. When you delete a file on FAT (like on a memory card or DOS disk) the first letter of the filename is removed and the index entry (in the file allocation table) for the file is removed. So, the file is still there but you can't see it. This is the basis fo those magical undelete programs for old DOS and Windows systems - they found this orphaned files with missing first letters and not file allocation table entry.

So pretty clearly what happened is someone decided to delete the driver before shipping the phone.

I'm sure some of the more knowledgable of us already figured that out, but for the rest of us...

At least this confirms that someone at PalmOne is working on it

nyjosh · 02/21/2005, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragan

At least this confirms that someone at PalmOne is working on it

Or WAS working on it. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that the wifi support may have been pulled at the request of the carriers who would lose a lot of money on data plans and VOIP...

rcgabriel · 02/21/2005, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nyjosh

Or WAS working on it. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that the wifi support may have been pulled at the request of the carriers who would lose a lot of money on data plans and VOIP...

Not all the carriers are anti-wifi. Sadly, T-Mobile would probably like to see the wifi support in there so they could sell more 20 dollar a month Hotspot add-ins. Which makes me all the more suspicious that the preferential relationship with Cingular is related to the pulling back of wifi support.

lghitis · 02/22/2005, 12:11 AM

Sorry for the question. What does a wifi do for you that the regular phone connection doesnt? Broadband connection?

bigboy650 · 02/22/2005, 12:22 AM

Does anyone think that maybe P1 threw us a bone on this one knowing that Shadowmite might find the driver?

I just love conspiracy theories....

<-----{Rubs hands together with evil grin}

teambnet · 02/22/2005, 01:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lghitis

Sorry for the question. What does a wifi do for you that the regular phone connection doesnt? Broadband connection?

Bingo!

The first two GSM networks have indicated they consider anything but email and web to be extra ordinary and have indicated they think more powerful web browsers (that download larger amounts of data through their servers) are also a bad idea.

It has therefore been posited by some that WiFi has been disabled/undeveloped from the Treo line in order to prevent you from using cheaper revenue streams of your own personal WiFi connection or that of (usually) cheaper and less restricitve public hotspots. This is not a grassy knoll conspiracy theory for crackpots; consider:

-Shadowmite (perhaps the most knowledgable person about the Treo outside PalmOne's corporate campus) has a working proof of concept that a Treo 650 has the native hardware and software architecture to support a WiFi solution. (One of the key caveats is that the driver, in it's raw state, is a massive power consumer).

-The first network providers for the two leading technologies (Sprint and Cingular/ATT) have made upward or more restrictive changes to their pricing structure for data connections.

-There is a longstanding history of material support (technical and capital) by network providers to equipment manufacturers. Those who pony up the most tend to have the most influence in what goes in to the device and what doesn't work on a device.

oscarc · 02/22/2005, 05:12 AM

Silly idea, but perhaps the drivers aren't in the ROM because they don't work or aren't stable yet?

75% of this forum is people complaining about how buggy the Treo650 is -- the other 25% is people complaining about how PalmOne should hurry up and release X. (X = DUN, WiFi, memory patch, etc...)

sam2579 · 02/22/2005, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowmite

Let me clarify, I found the wifi drivers in the memory image on the gsm 650, but they are NOT listed in rom, the phone doesn't know they are there. They are in a unused location in memory just sitting there with the first characters of the filenames removed. I currently have no clue why they are there, or if they are different from what we already have.

But I intend to research them and compare them... It'll just be a little hard since I have to extract the data byte by byte. I found it while continuing my search for the unlock code or it's pre-cursors.

You go man. good luck........ :-)

shneor · 02/22/2005, 11:19 AM

So maybe T-0Mo's version of the Treo 650 WILL include the WiFi drivers. As has been pointed out, that would be another $20/month for them. Maybe that's why it's taking so long again?