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Easy way to install proprietary Wi-Fi blobs on the I9100?

Added by Vladimir Kosolapov almost 7 years ago

Hi,

Yesterday I have install Replicant 6.0 0001 on my I9100 and realized that I can't use the phone without Wi-Fi, because my external adapter is not compatible for this ROM, and I don't have a mobile Internet.

In search engines I find many ways to install proprietary Wi-FI blobs on the I9300, but I didn't get to do the same on my I9100.

Perhaps someone knows an easy way to implement this, I would be very grateful for the instruction.

Vladimir


Replies (5)

RE: Easy way to install proprietary Wi-Fi blobs on the I9100? - Added by Fil Bergamo almost 7 years ago

Vladimir Kosolapov wrote:

Hi,

Hello,

Yesterday I have install Replicant 6.0 0001 on my I9100 and realized that I can't use the phone without Wi-Fi, because my external adapter is not compatible for this ROM, and I don't have a mobile Internet.

In search engines I find many ways to install proprietary Wi-FI blobs on the I9300, but I didn't get to do the same on my I9100.

I strongly suggest you buy a compatible WiFi dongle instead of using proprietary software.
After all, they come pretty cheap compared to giving away some of your freedoms..

Perhaps someone knows an easy way to implement this, I would be very grateful for the instruction.

Please, have a look at https://blog.fossencdi.org/free_projects_host_nonfree.html
I doubt you will find any assistance for installing proprietary software in this forum, or at least I hope so.
The reasons for that are explained very well in the link above, and I really recommend reading it.
Replicant is a project focused on Software Freedom, and as such it doesn't suggest using any piece of proprietary software.

That said, if you need any help on the free side, others and me will be glad to help you!

RE: Easy way to install proprietary Wi-Fi blobs on the I9100? - Added by Francois Lesueur almost 7 years ago

Hi,

I may suffer bad karma in the following ;-). I personnally used the proprietary blobs on replicant 4.2 to have wifi, I consider it an acceptable compromise (anyway, better than using other roms). I've no problems with no 3D, I can cope no GPS for more freedom, the two things that bother me are the absence of wifi and the (lack of) security updates on the 4.2 branch (which is clearly absolutely unmaintainable, given the absence of upstream support)

Well, anyway, I tried Replicant 6.0, I was able to upload the binary blobs but it does not work currently. As soon as I activate wifi, the phone enters a reboot loop and the back speaker crackles... Only solution seems to remove the battery, which probably unloads the firmware and then, the wifi is deactivated at the next boot.

So, anyway, currently, seems there is no wifi on i9100, so don't bother installing blobs !

Cheers
François

RE: Easy way to install proprietary Wi-Fi blobs on the I9100? - Added by Wolfgang Wiedmeyer almost 7 years ago

Francois Lesueur wrote:

Well, anyway, I tried Replicant 6.0, I was able to upload the binary blobs but it does not work currently. As soon as I activate wifi, the phone enters a reboot loop and the back speaker crackles... Only solution seems to remove the battery, which probably unloads the firmware and then, the wifi is deactivated at the next boot.

The reason is that the stack protector is enabled in the kernel and the driver for the internal Wi-Fi causes a buffer overflow which makes the phone reboot. This is fixed with this commit and will be part of the next release.

I attached the fixed driver module for now. After downloading the files, you need to verify the signature:

gpg --armor --verify path/to/dhd.ko.asc path/to/dhd.ko

It should have the signature of the Replicant 6.0 release key.
After making sure that ADB runs as root, it can be installed like this:

adb remount
adb push path/to/dhd.ko /system/lib/modules/
adb reboot

I obviously agree with Fil regarding providing official instructions for installing non-free software, also because he kindly linked to a post of mine about this. You won't find those on the website, blog and wiki. With the forums, it's different because what's written here are not official statements by Replicant or it's not in any way automatically approved by Replicant. You may find some instructions following the link below, but these are in no way endorsed or recommended by Replicant.
https://blog.fossencdi.org/nonfree-firmware-android.html

RE: Easy way to install proprietary Wi-Fi blobs on the I9100? - Added by Francois Lesueur almost 7 years ago

It works, thank you !

The new installation script is also really cool, thanks ! Now updating to replicant 6.0, nice ;-)

Cheers
François

RE: Easy way to install proprietary Wi-Fi blobs on the I9100? - Added by Finn Damn almost 7 years ago

Thank you, Wolfgang. It works for me, too. :)

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