[Replicant] Network unlocking on Replicant

Mon Apr 1 16:24:25 UTC 2019

On Mon, 01 Apr 2019 01:17:00 +0000
amuza <amuza at riseup.net> wrote:

> Hi,
Hi,

> I installed Replicant on a Galaxy i9300, and then I noticed it was
> network-locked.
> 
> I followed some instructions on several websites to unlock it, but I
> did not succeed. I even paid for the unlocking services of a website:
> I gave them some data (country, original telephone network and IMEI)
> and they gave me the unlocking code, but it did not work either : (
> 
> I guess I should have asked here before doing anything of the above...
This is an issue that is related to the way we wrote the installation
instructions.

Our way to deal with installation instructions have some issues:
- We have one installation instruction for each Replicant device we
  support or group of devices when the hardware is very similar. So that
  makes 9 installation instructions. Updating the instructions usually
  means that we need to update it for each device or group of devices.
- I tried to fix it by making some generic installation instruction
  that cover many more devices at once[1][2], however I didn't have
  many people reporting if they work fine.
  As I understand from test with people, the new generic instructions
  are harder to follow as the person following it needs to understand
  exactly which image to download, whereas in the device specific
  instructions there was a link to the images so it was easier.

Because of the above, there is actually some documentation about how
to install Replicant while keeping the unlock in the Galaxy Nexus
installation instructions[3] but this was not added back to all the
installation instruction mentioned above.

To move forward on that:
- It would be great to have more people test the generic instructions,
  especially if they have very basic command line knowledge and are
  not very confident with it. 
  The first Saturday of each month, I'm involved in an install party
  that is called "Premier Samedi du Libre" in Paris[4] where I sometimes
  help people install Replicant, and I'm also trying to get more
  feedback there. But finding people that are fluent enough in English,
  that not very confident with the command line, that have the time, and
  that have everything required to install Replicant (compatible
  smartphone, the will to do it) is not that common.

  More specifically I'm interested in understanding what is complicated
  to understand in the instructions, and more specifically if making
  them generic results in people not being able to follow them by their
  own (so without any knowledgeable people nearby to help them or to
  reassure them that they are doing it right).

- We need to add documentation on the partitions present on the
  devices. This way anyone could verify if the instructions that works
  on the Galaxy Nexus are supposed to work on the other devices too.
  I've already started doing that for the Galaxy SIII 4G[5], and I'll
  also do it for the other devices I have access to.
  Once this is done we would just need to test such instructions on
  for all the supported devices.

Backuping the EFS partition, which is just data is also crucial as
under certain conditions the data on that partition can be corrupted.
If that happens people cannot use the cellular network anymore as the modem
fails to work.
It could also prevent the device from booting if the partition is not
able to be mounted.

References:
-----------
[1]https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/RecoveryInstallationWithHeimdall
[2]https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/MinorVersionUpgrade
[3]https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/GalaxyNexusI9250Installation
[4]https://www.agendadulibre.org/events/19212
[5]https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/GalaxyS3I9305#Partitions

Denis.
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