LG C710h Shine Plus, Qualcomm MSM7227

[Mobile01]

Most of the following info is from PDAdb.net:

The following is a list of most of the Android phones LG has released with the Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset:

- GT540 Swift (LG Optimus), March 11, 2010, Android 1.6
- P500 Optimus One, Oct. 2010, Android 2.2
- P509 Optimus T, November 2010, Android 2.2, (T-Mobile)
- E720 Optimus Chic, December 2010, Android 2.2
- C550 Optimus Chat, March 2011, Android 2.2.1

- C710h ShinePlus, [early 2011?], Android 2.1, Update 1

I have been using the "ShinePlus" for about a month now and will be writing a bit about it in the near future. For now, you can marvel at the logic of bringing it out with Android 2.1.1 despite the fact that LG has been releasing Android 2.2 since back in October. Odd, but not terrible.

2011-06-16

My C710h "ShinePlus" came with version "V10c" firmware. I decided not to try to root that version because I found out almost immediately that there was a later update available. And I decided not to update it because there was a chance that an update might accidentally block the unlocking system. Telus stated policy was to only allow "unlocking" after 90 days. I decided to wait the 90 days and pay the $50 Cdn. unlock fee in order to maintain rights to any warranty (though I am not sure if Telus does not cancel warranties to unlocked phones, even if I use their unlocking support). However, a couple of weeks later I experienced my 2nd crash, so I changed my mind and decided to update the firmware despite it not being unlocked.

I did not know it at the time, but the update was to "V10d" which was released in January 2011. The update went very well and I have not had a crash since.

The following is some of the Android SystemInfo output for this phone (after the "V10d" upgrade):

Fingerprint:LGE/alohag/alohag/alohag:2.1-update1/ERE27/eng.lge.20110110.150038:user/release-keys
Host:android3g5-desktop

Rooting:

Over the past couple of days, after both phoning and emailing customer support I bought the unlock code (early -- probably in part because I had paid the full price for the phone rather than include it on a new contract) and unlocked the phone. My next goal was too "root" it. Unfortunately, rooting failed.

I have spent the better part of today trying to root my LG C710h. I tried "z4root" version 1.3.0 and "SuperOneClick" 1.9.5 and Neither was successful.

Looking through the Net I found that plugging up the rooting holes has been an effort by LG. More-over, there is probably no key method to get into recovery mode. As you will see below, I was fortunate to find a rooting method, but LG is apparently seems to be putting in a lot of effort to make their phones "tamper-proof".

2011/06/19 21:05

I finally got the "ShinePlus" rooted. I used "UniversalAndroot-1.6.beta5" which is in the M3 download area (as an .apk file). I do not know anything about this package.

Now I get to post another piece of good news: Not entirely surprisingly, "Titanium Backup 3.8.6" installed successfully, though it glitched on the first backup run. I had to run it a second time to complete the backup set. Even then, I cannot be sure it really worked until I try a "restore".

Unfortunately (is this a typical word? :-), one of the primary reasons for rooting the "C710h" was to run "DroidWall" 1.5.1 in order to reduce my phone bill by blocking all the various apps from accessing the Internet through the broadband connection. I only want to use the Internet when I have access to it through my WiFi. When I try to turn on the Firewall I get:

"Error applying iptables rules.
Exit code:2

iptables v1.4.10
su: access granted, courtesy of
"magicandroidapps.com"
iptables v1.4.10: can't initialize
iptables table 'filter': Table
does not exist (do you need to
insmod?)
Perhaps iptables or your
kernel needs to be upgraded."

Well, upgrading the kernel is not currently an option, since I do not know of any available. So I tried "insmod" but all I get is the "usage" reply:

"usage: insmod <module.o>"

I guess my next job will be to look up "insmod" and find out about the "iptables".

2011-06-26 3:19

I started researching "iptables" but I have been side-tracked. I found that "Hi Surfing" (another firewall program) seems to be running on "V10d" firmware. I am testing it and will report back later.

[Mobile01]

2011-06-28

Bad news about HiSurfing. It "leaks". It is hard for me to tell exactly what is happening, but it is an "advertising supported" program. Unfortunately, stopping advertising is the main point of using a firewall these days. HiSurfing stabs you in the back by allowing its own advertising (and maybe some from other programs -- I am not sure) get through the broadband phone line connection, which on my phone account costs quite a bit extra.

I have not found another similar program yet. It looks like these two are the only ones. I guess I will have to find out if I can get DroidWall working.

[Mobile01]

2011/07/17

Do not expect much progress from me. I have no time for programming right now and I do not expect to have any time in the near future -- say at least 2 years. But I will see what I can find out, and possibly help out in researching for others.

I am reporting that I used ADB to backup the stock "V10d" firmware from my "ShinePlus". If I can find a Recovery that is compatible (without my having to do the port myself) the I will eventually report that.

One issue for creating a "Recovery" is knowing the partition sizes and assignments. This is what "cat /proc/mtd" returned:

dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00440000 00020000 "boot"
mtd1: 0da00000 00020000 "system"
mtd2: 00500000 00020000 "recovery"
mtd3: 002c0000 00020000 "lgdrm"
mtd4: 00100000 00020000 "splash"
mtd5: 00040000 00020000 "misc"
mtd6: 04000000 00020000 "cache"
mtd7: 0b2c0000 00020000 "userdata"

I have checked LG's site for the source code and there has been no release for this "C710h". However, there is a release for the development "Aloha" device "C710". I have downloaded the package and will eventually see what I have got, but for now, I can report that it is not current. The dates on the released files show September 2010 whereas my "V10d" firmware is dated January 2011.

[DJGHOSTS3V3N]

The Juice Defender app may help you.

Sent from my MB501 using Tapatalk

[Mobile01]

2011/07/25 1:10

Not much to report right now:

I tried "droidwall 1.5.2" which is the latest update, and only a few days old. It showed the same problems.

I also located the development site for "droidwall". I am thinking about downloading the sources and looking at them.

I have a feeling that I know what is wrong, but I am not sure about what I feel like doing about it. I expect that "droidwall" is probably only workable from Android 2.2 upward because it needs a particular "iptables" program that was probably not in Android before. So the fix might be to back-port that program to Android 2.1. That would not be simple. I do not even have a computer set up with Ubuntu right now.

[Mobile01]

2011/08/05

Halting Current Projects:

The most immediate goal I had was simple: I did not want to upgrade my phone account to include data, and so I wanted to stop all "Data" traffic charges when I used this phone on the account.

A good "firewall program" could be the best solution because the it could give some flexibility, but for now, that is not an available option.

Checking the available settings on the phone was also an option. That leads to an interesting philosophical set of issues. What do all the words mean? You might like to feel that the words mean what you want them to mean, but when you are signing or "agreeing" to a phone contract, the words generally mean what the phone company wants them to mean -- unless you are willing to sue them in a court of law to prove the phone company is wrong. Good luck with that. . . .

In this case, for the "LG C710h" the important words are "Wireless & network settings" and "Mobile Network". The question is, what happens when you turn off "Mobile Network"? To answer this, either you find something in an instruction manual somewhere, or you have to test it. I scrounged for information as best as I could and did not get a clear answer, so that means I had to test it myself.

The Results:

On the "Telus" network and this phone, if you turn off "Mobile Network" you still receive and send voice phone calls. You can also still send and receive SMS text messages. Believe it or not, that is as far as I have gotten as far as testing is concerned.

Other Possibilities:

I believe I can still use a WAP browser, but not an HTTP browser. As far as I know, I have enough software that I can test it eventually. I should also be able to send and receive Photo and media (audio only or AV) messages. However, I should not have access to my regular eMail at all. Likewise, Skype calls should not work. And just about everything that does work aside from the voice phone calls, is going to cost me extra on my bill, and in some cases at different rates. Yes, even the SMS messages I sent and received to do this testing will cost me extra on my current phone account. All this has to do with terminology. If you understand what is going on, and think about it, there is little sense for any of this. But this is what we "agreed" to when when "agreed" to the contract terms.

Anyway, the ability to send and receive voice and SMS messages when the "Mobile Network" is "off" is all that I really want right now. The result looks clean. There was no data leakage at all over the test period, and yet when I used my local WiFi, I had no problems working with any of my programs. So for the time being, I am satisfied with this single setting change.

The result of all this is that I do not have to get the "Droidwall" firewall working right now. So I am putting off any further work on the C710h" indefinitely. I am still going to try to get the real source code, but unless a new problem comes along, I probably will not do anything with it. Hopefully someone else will, because this is actually a very nice phone, and it deserves to have a following.

If anyone posts an intersting question about the "C710h", and I read it, then I might have, or look for an answer. But for now, I will probably not make another post on this topic.

[Mobile01]

2011/11/08

I just completed the upgrade to Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread). It was a bit rough, requiring that I free up about 40 MB of memory, but it worked. The "UniversalAndroot-1.6.beta5" does not work with 2.3.3, which was not much of a surprise.

2011/11/09

I tried "GingerBreak" 1.20 and "Z4root" version 1.3.0 and both failed. The only major Root Kit I have not tried yet is "SuperOneClick". I am not
expecting that to work either. We'll see.

[jiilik]

Hi,

There are a bunch of us working on this phone over at the androidforums. We have a working root for 2.3.3 and a few customizations to the ROM already successfully created, including an overclocked kernel and a few other toys. Please join us over there, we can always use a few extra hands!

Or if you prefer, feel free to repost anything back here as well and link back. The larger the community working on this phone, the better.

Cheers