The one, the final. Samsung A920 hacking thread

[duggyb]

The One. The Final. Samsung A920 Hacking Thread.


Well I would like to start off by saying it has been a long journey since I got my A920 to get this thing to do what I want it to. And it’s finally here, through all the blood, sweat and tears. First off I would like to thank Samsung for creating an amazing phone…and shun Bell for crippling it. I would also like to thank Howard Forums and 3GInferno Forums for having amazing boards ….along with these members which helped me along the way

-Howard Forums-
-ngooo
-thracky
-cslewis4u91
-lotacus
-wally0
-aarononfire
-wallyb
-videonut
-gregorykay

-3GInfernno Forums-
-ngooo
-gregorykay
-videonut
-hammer
-milones
-thesteve
-evan

I would also like to put a shout out to my friend Jeremy for hosting all of the stuff off his FTP and linking it for me...your the best man!

If I am forgetting anyone…please let me know as I will include you in the listing as well.

WARNING READ BEFORE PROCEDING!!! First Things first only attempt something with your phone that you feel comfortable with. This guide has some very powerful tools in it that can do serious damage and brick your phone. I and none of the other listed members are responsible for damage or injury to you your family your phone or your dog from the use of these programs, tools and tutorial.

Now what you have all been waiting for. THE GUIDE!!

So you want to put Games on your phone? music? Pictures? ring tones? well you have come to the right place then. Now this guide is aimed mainly at the Samsung A920 on the Bell.ca Network….but that doesn’t mean it won’t work on other phones or networks. TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Well before you begin make sure you have the following things handy
-Your Phone itself, preferably with a fully charged battery (just incase )
-Your Included USB Cable
-Access to USB ports on your computer(I would recommend ones on the back…not front end ports as they take further COM ports which I will talk about later)
-Make sure you have WinRAR installed on your computer…you can download it here

1-- WinRAR

Alright well…..without further ado

Step 1: Before anything will be done to your phone you are going to need Drivers, USB Drivers and Modem Drivers. Since the A920 does not have USB drivers you will have to use Samsung A900 drivers….don’t worry they work just fine. To obtain these go to one of these locations

1—SPH-A900 Drivers
or
2—SPH-A900 Drivers(2)

Once you have finished downloading those make sure you USB cable that you use to connect your phone is unplugged then install the drivers and follow the onscreen guide. When it asks to reboot your computer DO IT! Or your phone won’t be recognized until you do. After it starts back up go to My Computer>Control Panel> System>Hardware>Device Manager>Modems….you phone should be listed here if its not try uninstalling the drivers and doing it again.

Step 2: First before you can even access the files on your phone or put new ones on…you are going to need your MSL code also known as “Master Unlock Code”, “Programming Code” or “SPC Code” This is a 6 Digit code all numerical. To obtain this code there area few ways, some easier then others All 3 are listed below (If you already have this code move on to Step 3: further down the page)

Attempt 1- Download a program called UNICDMA…which can be found at one of these locations.

1—UNICDMA
or
2—UNICDMA(2)

…if you are not technologically savvy continue to Attempt 2 and Attempt 3….use this only as a last resort…or if you fee comfortable. This is a very powerful program and can brick your phone or cause you to lose all of your data. Anyways once you got the program install it and then connect your phone USB cable to the computer and then to the cable. Once this is complete open UNICDMA and go to the top right hand corner you should see a button called “Setup”…click this and you will find that 3 things appear a Port box with a drop down menu, a Baud Rate box with a dropdown menu and a Password box at the bottom. Here is where you need to find what Port(COM) your phone is connected to…this is usually COM3…but it an be different. You will know you found the right one because information about your phone may appear on the left hand side. Once you have found out what COM you are on you need to let the program know what you want to get…so follow there three easy steps
-Go to the top left just under the menu to the “Mode” drop down box and select the option that says “SKY IM-1200/1400/2000…”
-Next click the button on the top menu that says “DM”…this will put your phone in “DM” mode (don’t worry it goes back to its normal mode after you close the program properly.
-third and final step is make sure you are on the Window that says “Main” here you should see your “ESN” listed along with your “SCM”…you will also see that in the SPC box it says “[unknown]”…well here is where your SPC or “Master Unlock Code” will appear this is the 6 digit numerical code you NEED to do any kind of hacking on your phone….anyways…now click the button on the top that says “Read All”…and walla your SPC code should appear now. Once you have this code I recommend writing it down in multiple places and even saving it as a Memo on your phone so you always have it.

Attempt 2- If the above way is to complex for you and you do not want to mess with powerful programs…well there is an easier way…Just call your Service Provider and tell them you found a program that lets you take pictures off your phone (think of a cool name for it) but you need the 6 digit MSL or SPC code (Bell refers to it as “Programming Code”) so that you can get your pictures off. Chances are they will say sure here it is. If they say no….move on to Attempt 3

Attempt 3- Call up the Customer Service department of your network from a land-line telephone. Tell them your phone is giving you a message "not registered to network" and you cannot place calls. They will suggest that you go outside; they will also get you to reset the phone. Pretend that it keeps coming up with the "not registered to network" message. The customer service rep will then start to walk through the reprogramming steps over the phone. You won't harm your phone by going through the steps, so go ahead and do what they tell you. The MSL (SPC) code you need is 6 digits long and is one of the last steps of the reprogramming process (there will be a combination lock picture above where you enter it), so just be patient... and make sure you write it down!
As soon as you hit "end" to get out of the reprogramming process, your phone will reboot and the customer service rep will likely have you make a test call, which will work... because your phone was already working in the first place.

If none of the above Attempts work then you are tough out of luck….and maybe trying calling customer service another day and you might just get a different person.

Now after you obtain your code….move on to Step 3.

Step 3: Next you will need a program known as QPST which is made by Qualcomm this program can be found at these locations

1—QPST
or
2—QPST(2)

Once you have downloaded that Program Extract and install it and then continue to Step 4.

Step 4: Getting QPST to recognize your phone. (MAKE SURE YOUR PHONE IS CONEECTED!!) Well first open up QPST Configuration. Here you will see 3 tabs along the top “Active Phones”,”Ports” and “Active Clients”. Click on the “Ports” tab. Here you will see 2 ports COM1 and COM2…if your phone is on one of these then great. If not…continue and go to the bottom right where you will see a button that says “Add A New Port” click this. You will be presented with a box that has 2 boxes within it a “Port” box and a “Port Label”. If these value aren’t prefilled for you then enter what COM your phone is connected to (You will know which COM it is if you did Attempt 1 in Step 2) If you don’t know which COM it is then you must find out by trying COM3 if that don’t work COM4 if that don’t work COM5..etc.etc…also for “Port Label” you can label it whatever you want. I prefer to label mine by the COM itself (ex. COM3…label COM3). Once you have this completed your phone should show up in the “Phone Column” probably named something like “SURF1000-800” if you see this you are in luck and QPST has recognized your phone. Continue to Step 5.

Step 5: Now that you got QPST to recognize your phone you need to gain access to your phones files. To do this single click the “Port” that your phone is connected to (just enough to highlight it!) and then you will see a button on the top menu that says “Start Clients”. Click this and a drop down menu will appear with a bunch of things…select “EFS Explorer” it should be the first in the list. Once that box opens continue to Step 6.

Step 6: Getting into your phones files and folders. When the box opens up you should see your phone listed there along with your phone number and whatever the “Banner” may be on your phone if you have one. At the bottom you should see a box that says “SPC” with 6 Zero’s in it. Well here is finally where that code comes into play. When you enter it(make sure you get rid of the Zero’s first) then it should appear with a loading box that says “Please Wait” “Retrieving Information etc etc”….if you got this then you are well on your way. Give yourself a pat on the back and continue to Step 7.

Step 7: Now you are finally in your phone you should see A LOT of files and A LOT of folders…don’t worry you don’t need to know what they all are…only a few. Now go to

Brew -> shared -> jas -> content

When you are in there take note of the HIGHEST! Numbered .jas and .jad file.

Write this number down. For example you may have 11.jad and 11.jas or 9.jad and 9.jas.
No matter what your number is remember it or WRITE IT DOWN! You will need this file later. Once you have completed this continue to Step 8.

Step 8: Installing a game. I have included a sample game below

1—TetrisSample
or
2—TetrisSample(2)

Open that and rename the .jar and .jas files to the number one higher then what your highest .jas and .jad files are on your phone….(ex. If your highest was 11.jad and 11.jas then rename the game 12.jad and 12.jas) when you have the game renamed then you can drag and drop it into the following folder

Brew->shared->jas->temp->install

It will transfer each file individually….after it finishes there may be an error saying that there is no proper date assigned to the file…just ignore it and click ok…your game will still work. Now you are almost there…go on to Step 9.
Step 9: Trying the game. Close EFS Explorer (when you do this it will tell you that it is resetting your phone….let it do this!!) after it is closed and your phone has been reset you can unplug the cable and go to your phone and

Menu->downloads->games (sometimes they are under applications).

And there you have it…..if you made it this far you are probably jumping up and down with excitement because you have opened your phone to its full potential….if you aren’t then you don’t love phones as much as I do….because yes…that is what I did.

Now after you explore some more you may find that lots of the games you download only have a .jas file and not a .jad file…….well you need to make a .jad file…if you download the program below it does this for you. Just drag the .jas file over and it will make a .jad for you .Enjoy!

1—JADMaker
or
2—JADMaker(2)


Now for ring tones and other things you do essentially the same thing just with different file extensions instead of .jas and .jad (example…if you wanted an .m4a file it would be 91.m4a and 91.gcd)

Here is an example of a gcd for an m4a file
Content-Type: audio/mp4
Content-URL: Far_Away_Nickelback.m4a
Content-ID: 3ginferno/audio/mp4
Content-Vendor: duggyb
Content-Name: Far_Away_Nickelback
Content-Version: 1.0
Content-Size: 110448
The content size needs to be exact size in bytes NOT size on disk.

Now once again if you are making your own ring tones and such you are going to need something to make that .gcd file for you…well your in luck again as I have attached links to such a program below.

1—GCDMaker
or
2—GCDMaker(2)

Now I have also included a list of all other files along with there extensions incase you may need them at some point.

qcp audio/vnd.qcelp Compressed audio.
wbmp image/vnd.wap.wbmp Wireless bitmap -- not a Windows bitmap.
jpg, jpe, jpeg image/jpeg JPEG compressed image.
png image/png PNG compressed image.
pmd application/x-pmd Animation.
mid, midi audio/midi MIDI sound sequence.
txt text/plain Text files.
gif image/gif GIF compressed image.
mp3 audio/mp3 MP3 File.
mmf application/vnd.smaf MMF Audio File.
mp4 video/mp4 MP4 Video.
m4a audio/mp4 M4A Audio.
amr audio/3gpp AMR Audio.
3gp, 3gpp video/3gpp 3GP Audio/Video/Text.
wma audio/x-ms-wma WMA Audio.
wav audio/x-wav WAV Audio.
cab application/octet-stream CAB files.
aac audio/x-aac AAC Audio.
bar x-pcs/theme Sprint PCS Theme


Now you may be saying…well this is all great but what if I just wanted to get my pictures and stuff off my phone…and maybe apply music and pictures to my memory card. Well I got you covered in that department as well. Because yes I am that good (hah aim jk I don’t want to brag) Anyways.

Taking pictures off of your phone: You can find the picture you took that are saved to your phone by browsing to Lightsurf -> Mediastore. This folder contains all of the pictures you took and saved to your phone. Just right click on them and select "Copy from phone" to save them, or drag-and-drop them somewhere. And just do the reverse if you want to add them (although I do recommend that you add them to your memory card so you can take them off without QSPT)

Accessing the memory card: You can access your memory card by selecting the "mmc1" folder. This is your memory card's folder. If you want to listen to MP3's on your phone, create a new folder in that one by right-clicking on it and selecting "New -> Directory" Name it "media" and just drag-and-drop all of your MP3's from your computer into the "media" folder.

Well that’s pretty much how to hack your Samsung A920 (and A900) out of the nutshell….this may seem like a long thread….but that’s because it is….I pretty much made this a noob guide…the one and only…so that people wouldn’t have to go around and search for everything they needed……I will be hosting the files off of a couple places so that incase one is down you are always able to get what you need. If the hyperlink is no longer a hyperlink that means it is down and you should try the other one. If they are both down please PM me and let me know and i will get at least one if not both back up ASAP....if theres one thing i hated when trying to get these files was if someones server was down...so i am trying to eliminate this

I will be updating this thread as need be…if you have any suggestions let me know….and Admins if I am violating any rules let me know so I can edit and make it legal.


Anyways…Enjoy! And keep her locked, loaded and hacked.

THNX
Duggy

[Abom]

Am I missing something here with no one replying ?

I vote sticky the thread !

[nrvous]

Wow! That is a very detailed tuturial. Excellent job man!!!

[Boukie]

Don't sites like Runkin accomplish some of the steps listed above?

[duggyb]

thanks everyone....it took a long time:P... also Boukie yes rumkin does...but with me i cant have internet(due to me having a Bell phone on a Sasktel network)....so i had no way of putting games and ring tones on my phone....this was the other alternative...and after research...lots of help from members..and trial and error....i got it done!....so i figured i would share with the rest of the group since there was no SOLID guide on it...

also does anyone know which moderator to contact so that i can gain 24/7 edibility to this thread?...i already have a bunch of errors i need to fix and i would like to update it with some free games and such...if anyone knows please let me know ASAP

THNX
Duggy

[clewis4u91]

Duggyb, nice job man. This sure does need to be stickied

[duggyb]

thanks clewis4u91...i couldn't have done it without ya!!

also for the most updated version of this guide head on over to http://www.3ginferno.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=638

until one of the Howard Forums admin's gives me access to edit this thread once again.....you are goign to find ALOT of errors...and miss the updates...(like over 400 Java games coming sometime this week...and other stuff)

THNX
Duggy

[Akyboy]

Hi
I followed your instructions but i got stacked With Read All in Unicdma_098 ,.... i successfully connected my phone and i can s all phone info but for SPC i always geting [unknown] ,..... do you guys have any ideas?

Thank you

[bubble.tea]

though we do have a similar thread on DRM bypassing in Rogers., I'm wondering what would happen if someone posted such a detailed thread on full hacks...I seem to recall those types of threads being nonos...you guys are chillin' over here. NICE!

[quanta!]

Thanks for the guide!

However, I believe the A920 does (or did) have its own USB drivers...I have the Samsung MCCI 4.24 (aka "PC Link") drivers installed, and I'm pretty sure I got it straight from Samsung.com many months ago. Unfortunately, it seems to have disappeared.

Mind you, it's possible that UNICDMA doesn't work with 4.24, because I can't seem to get it to find my A920, even though "Samsung CDMA Modem" is installed.

[thracky]

Great job on the tutorial!

Only thing I will say is for your sake I would be a bit careful with the application links. Not sure how tight HoFo is on links to certain types of software ;-)

[quanta!]

Bit of trouble...hope someone can help.

1. Samsung 4.16 MCCI was installed. Rebooted.
2. Installed Samsung Modem Drivers. Rebooted.
3. When phone is plugged in, I can see "Samsung CDMA Modem" in Device Manager, AND when I run Query Modem Windows returns a successful query.
4. BUT, when I load UNICDMA, swich to Setup and switch to the COM port listed in the Device Manager entry's properties, I get a "Phone not connected" message. No data appears on the lefthand side and when I attempt to switch to DM Mode, I get a failure message.

I've tried different COM ports but with no joy. What did I miss?

UPDATE: QPST also sees my phone, but of course I cannot use EFS Explorer because I don't have my MSL.

[duggyb]

well is your Mode set to the SKY one like mentioned in the guide?then DM mode...THEN Read all

also i had one guy tell me that for some odd reason his phone was set to COM8 at default..which is why it wasnt being recognized...and he had to go into MS Dos and re program it to have a default of COM2.....i am not sure how he did this,,,but this could be your problem...maybe google it to look into it more.....

my computer is currentley down...so i dont have my software to do testing...i am just using my moms right now....once i am back up and running i can do more testing and see if i can spot a problem.

THNX
Duggy

[quanta!]

Yes, I set it to SKY. Password and baudrate was set as default.

The Device Manager Advanced Port Configuration dialog listed my phone as "COM4", although I also tried COM3. Both times I can send AT commands to my phone from within the dialog.

[Anemic Royalty]

Very nice guide. I salute all your hard work and dedication. I know it's not easy.