The Samsung Vibrant (the first of the original Galaxy S devices to hit the U.S.) is no longer supported by CyanogenMod. According to developer Abhisek Devkota, issues with the way the radio interface layer interacts with the audio layer leads to a loss of the ability to dial 911, and this issue can not be solved without source code from Samsung. In his own words:
We are no longer supporting the Vibrant due to the inability to dial 911. We consider the issues related to this unresolvable without source code from Samsung related to the Radio interface layer and its interactions with the Audio layers and have taken the decision to no longer support this. We apologize for the inconvenience and strongly suggest that Vibrant users use a Samsung ROM due to the 911 issues with any ROMs based on open source code.
We'll have to second his recommendation -- if you're currently using CM or another AOSP-based ROM on your Vibrant, you should look at Samsung TouchWiz based ROMs as an alternative. Having cool open-source software on your phone is great, but not at the expense of losing the ability to call emergency services. It was fun while it lasted though, and thanks for all the hard work gentlemen!
Source: +Abhisek Devkota
Filed under:
Tags:
23 Comments
Man! Sansung needs to release that source code! I love my Vibrant and CM and CAN'T go back to stock :(
See, what I don't understand is that they announced they were dropping it, and the next day dropped it officially on github, then merged a fix for the emergency dialing.
http://review.cyanogenmod.com/#change,7535
Does this mean that they fixed it just hours after dropping it?
Did you read the last comment on the 'fix'?
atinm 10:24 AM Patch Set 2:
As a lot of people are pointing to this as a "fix" for the 911 issue, let me clarify that this is already merged and this doesn't fix 911 calling due to audio routing issues in the interface between the RIL and the Audio.Given that Vibrant GPS is also flaky, users will not be able to communicate with 911 operators, and neither will the 911 operators be able to get a GPS lock to direct responders to the user's location. Until this is fixed, the Vibrant is going to be removed from the list of devices CyanogenMod is supported on.
Oh wow. I didn't even realize there was a comment section. I've just been using cm-nightlies.appspot.com, so I haven't been opening the actual links.
TIL.
911 needs an email, Twitter, or Facebook account. Then there would be no problem. You could 'tweet' your emergency! :)
because typing is so much faster than talking? It is an emergency service and can't really afford the time to communicate via text.
Soical networking? No. But there are counties testing 911 SMS/MMS. There are many applications where that can be useful.
Yeah because people in life and dealth situations have time to tweet...."rolls eyes"
Im ready to dump cm7 myself, the battery life sucks.
Sooo Samsung won't update this to Gingerbread and my CM7 is dangerous to have? WTF? What a piece of sh#$. This really annoys me.
Same here. Which is why I will never buy a non-Nexus Samsung phone ever again.
I just prank called 911.... It seems to be working fine..
Another reason im not a big fan of samsung, nexus or not.
Wait wait hold the press. I thought Samsung was the developers dream platform. Hell didn't Samsung hire. Mr cm? All I hear his Samsung his great because openness. Geez what happen they starting to play a vzw game
The Vibrant is a T-mobile phone you troll.
This is actually one of the best reasons to drop CM support. If emergency calls can't be made, it becomes a major safety issue. CM is just covering their behinds on this.
WOW i had no idea.... i just flashed CM7 on my girlfriends vibrant. i would never have done it had i realized emergency calls couldnt be made. They should have had a huge disclaimer when starting it.
I hope CM has more of a reason than just safety for halting support. Morally they can't be held responsible at all. The legal system is F'ed and useless judges that allow these negligence cases to be heard, they should forced out. This makes me what to code out the 911 ability on my D700 just in spite of the modern "safety first" mind set. sorry, had to rant.
If I went back to android I would have gotten a vibrant. Too bad they do not support it any more. I wonder if this is for the galaxy S 4G too.
Damn people, I was kidding about the twitter! It was a joke. How the hell are you going to tweet an emergency!?
This is a serious problem that threatens Android's freedom.
* How do we know other phones running CM aren't affected?
* How do we know other custom ROMS don't have a similar problem? Are custom ROMS even safe when it comes to emergency calls?
Also, it looks like I can kiss goodbye to the idea of eventually getting a Captivate Glide because of Samsung's supposedly tinker-friendlier nature. If Samsung doesn't release the source code for their 911 implementation, in the end the result is as bad (maybe even worse) than if they locked their bootloaders in the first place.
^And this, ladies and gentleman is what we call a worst case scenario thinker, and a case of paranoia. Remember to stop by his house, he sells tin foil hats! :P
Does this affect other lines of galaxy phones? Like the galaxy s ii or nexus s, etc...?
The Vibrant didn't seem to be a CM supported phone to begin with. AFAIK, they released it bc folks were whining too much. Also none of the members of the Vibrant dev team actually owned a Vibrant.