First things first:
By reading and following this guide,
you accept *ANY* and *ALL* responsibility
for the possible damage, loss of data and/or other
consequences to your device which may follow.
All the following procedures have been tested on a US Motorola Xoom Wifi only. They *might* (and probably do) work on other devices, including the 3G, Euro, etc., but are not guaranteed to do so.
Now that we're straight, let's get to the point.
Foreword:
Once I had this problem of accessing my brother's MAC filtered access point. I had my notebook MAC added to the access list, whilst my Xoom was left out. Of course, my brother was out and I didn't know the AP credentials. It was then, when the idea of a MAC change came to me.
During my brief "on the spot" research I discovered a file named 'bcm4329.cal' residing at '/system/etc/wifi/'. It has a line, notably 'macaddr=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx'. Changing the contents, however, did not yield any changes to my MAC address. That time, I left the issue unsolved, but later, tinkering with my Huawei U8500, I discovered something that helped solve my Xoom MAC issue.
The solution was quite straightforward, but involved a kernel recompile. So, here I am, offering several kernel modules (drivers) - for the stock 3.2 kernel and for the Tiamat 2.0.0-2.2.0 kernels.
Prerequisites:
a stock 3.2, Tiamat 2.0.0 Katana, Tiamat 2.1.0 Tachi or Tiamat 2.2.0 Odachi running Motorola Xoom Wifi
ClockworkMod Recovery installed (author uses ClockworkMod 3.2.0.0 R4c by solarnz)
Procedure:
The procedure involves changing the appropriate wifi kernel module to a 'patched' one which allows MAC change through the 'bcm4329.cal' file. All this will be done in ClockworkMod Recovery.
1. Download one of the attached files (according to your running kernel version which you will find in Settings -> About tablet -> Kernel version)
2. Place the appropriate file on your SD card
3. Boot into Recovery by rebooting, waiting until the Motorola logo appears, count to 3, press the Volume down button, then the Volume up button
4. Select 'install zip from sdcard'
5. Select 'choose zip from sdcard'
6. Browse to your 'mac_change_mod_xxx.zip' (steps 1 and 2)
7. Select 'Yes - Install mac_change_mod_xxx.zip'
8. After its done it's job, reboot by returning to the main menu and choosing 'reboot system now'
Voila! You now have a Xoom with a custom MAC address. You can change it by editing the 'macaddr=...' line in the '/system/etc/wifi/bcm4329.cal' file. The author uses Root Explorer for this.
NOTE: The kernel module will probably be removed when installing a new kernel, so the procedure should be repeated.
Great work!!
LOL, I love it. I just changed my MAC address to look like an Apple Laptop. Even shows up that way on scanners that resolve the OUI to the manufacture. Now I'm stealthy!
Did I mention I luv it. Maybe tomorrow I will look like a Commodore 64!
is purpose just for personal preference? What would be the benefit of changing it?
One of the possible uses of MAC changing is described in the head of this thread. IMHO it's the most useful one. Other purposes may not be so legit, but the author takes no responsibility ;-)
tdaliviu said:
One of the possible uses of MAC changing is described in the head of this thread. IMHO it's the most useful one. Other purposes may not be so legit, but the author takes no responsibility ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol I guess I was too dumb to understand what you did in the op, but I will still put this on my sd card just in case I find a use or need it
Purpose for MAC change
Maybe I did explain myself in a little too a technical language The basic idea is that if you have a wireless access point (i.e. a router) that accepts only one of your devices (i.e. your notebook), but does not accept your Xoom, you can try and change the Xoom's MAC address to mimic the notebook. The only thing to remember is that you can not use two devices with the same MAC on a network at once. If you follow that rule, you're golden.
P.S. Ah, and forgot to mention that this update will not work on the 3.2.2 for 4G Xooms.
tdaliviu,
Question for you. Since I applied this update I have noticed that my "WiFi Disconnect Policy" keeps reverting back to "When Screen Turns Off" no matter what I change it to.
I am not saying this patch is the cause, but what do you think are the possibilities? Again, I love the capability, and will live with the issue even it turns out to because of this patch, but I just wanted to check your thoughts on it, or see if you thought it might be something to do with the Tiamat ROM.
Thanks for looking at this.
UPDATE: Well I may have gfinally gotten the disconnect settings to stick. Instead of just changing it, letting it sit and coming back later to find out that it didn't, I changed it to the setting I wanted, then immediatley rebooted. Now it seems to be holding the setting. I will let go for a while and see what it does. Will provide an update either way. Thanks again.
For those wondering what this MOD might be good for, there are multiple things. Some ethical and some not so ethical. For instance, as "tdaliviu" mention, if you are trying to simply get around a MAC address problem, you might need to change it. If you were into hacking/cracking or just sniffing around wireless nets that weren’t yours and you didn't want to be discovered or tracked via your MAC. If you just want anonymity. I like it from this standpoint and that of security.
For instance, assume you are sitting in an Airport with your Xoom WiFi up and running, and someone is scanning the airwaves for likely targets to hack. If they seem your MAC address, they will know you are coming from a Motorola device, and might even be able to tell it is a Xoom. If there are any known security flaws, they automatically know which exploits to use against you to gain access. Just being a Xoom might make you a more attractive target. Who knows. But, if you can change your MAC address so that it appears as belonging to a different kind of system, say a "network device" like a wireless repeater, wireless AP, or some other boring target then not only would the attacker not know what exploits to run, but they would most likely just leave you alone without any further investigation or possible portscans.
And of course if you want real anonymity, you might consider changing the name your Xoom provides to DHCP servers when requesting an IP Address. Right now it uses "android_xxxxxxxxxx" with the x's being some number that is specific to your Xoom. I believe that could be used to track back your identity as well. I found several threads and ideas on how to do this. I used the one at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=760314.
Anyway, thanks again for the MOD!
Quite a strange issue there, Krpto1973. At a loss to what might be the problem. I myself am running Moray, so will do some testing...
Well like I said, I may have gotten it taken care of. It's been holding steady since I set it and immedialty rebooted. It probably had nothing at all to do with your MOD. If anything changes I will let you know.
Guess I spoke too soon. After it sat idle for quite a couple hours, I came back and found it with "No Internet Connection". Once it fully woke up(just a second or so) it immedialty reconnected but when I checked the WiFi Disconnect Policy settings, it was back at "When Screen Turns Off".
Any thoughts?
Sorry, tested on my side. No such problem... Did you do a wipe when you switched to Tiamat's ROM? Maybe there are some leftovers from Stock? I am almost outruling a module problem since it's compiled from Tiamat's source using Tiamat's config.
Krpto1973 said:
For those wondering what this MOD might be good for, there are multiple things. Some ethical and some not so ethical. For instance, as "tdaliviu" mention, if you are trying to simply get around a MAC address problem, you might need to change it. If you were into hacking/cracking or just sniffing around wireless nets that weren’t yours and you didn't want to be discovered or tracked via your MAC. If you just want anonymity. I like it from this standpoint and that of security.
For instance, assume you are sitting in an Airport with your Xoom WiFi up and running, and someone is scanning the airwaves for likely targets to hack. If they seem your MAC address, they will know you are coming from a Motorola device, and might even be able to tell it is a Xoom. If there are any known security flaws, they automatically know which exploits to use against you to gain access. Just being a Xoom might make you a more attractive target. Who knows. But, if you can change your MAC address so that it appears as belonging to a different kind of system, say a "network device" like a wireless repeater, wireless AP, or some other boring target then not only would the attacker not know what exploits to run, but they would most likely just leave you alone without any further investigation or possible portscans.
And of course if you want real anonymity, you might consider changing the name your Xoom provides to DHCP servers when requesting an IP Address. Right now it uses "android_xxxxxxxxxx" with the x's being some number that is specific to your Xoom. I believe that could be used to track back your identity as well. I found several threads and ideas on how to do this. I used the one at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=760314.
Anyway, thanks again for the MOD!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastically stated there, sir. I wasn't aware of the DHCP request issue. You've successfully made me that much more paranoid.
Hmm this mod doesn't seem to work on 3.2.1 (breaks wifi functionality). Planning on updating by any chance?
Sorry, but I'm on Tiamat's Moray ROM right now, which is based on the 3.2 kernel. I certainly plan on an update when Tiamat releases a ROM based off 3.2.1 (or 3.2.2 for that matter).
If you attach a patch ill add it to the repo and give you bunches of credits
Oh, didn't quite expect such a turn of events One patch coming up...
mac_change_mod patch
Here's the patch. It's quite obvious, though took some time to figure it out. It's against the stock Makefile, but as I understood, there were no changes to the WiFi module from Team Tiamat.
Is it going to make it to a future release of Tiamat ROM/Kernel or will it live only as a patch file in the repo?
Code:
--- /home/liviu/Desktop/Xoom/Makefile 2011-08-03 09:27:45.000000000 +0300
+++ /home/liviu/Desktop/Xoom/stock/drivers/net/wireless/bcm4329/Makefile 2011-08-01 21:27:35.395212384 +0300
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
-Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Werror -DOOB_INTR_ONLY -DCUSTOMER_HW2 \
-DDHD_USE_STATIC_BUF -DMMC_SDIO_ABORT -DDHD_DEBUG_TRAP -DSOFTAP \
-DEMBEDDED_PLATFORM -DARP_OFFLOAD_SUPPORT -DPKT_FILTER_SUPPORT \
- -DGET_CUSTOM_MAC_ENABLE -DSET_RANDOM_MAC_SOFTAP -DCSCAN -DHW_OOB \
+ -DSET_RANDOM_MAC_SOFTAP -DCSCAN -DHW_OOB \
-DKEEP_ALIVE -DPNO_SUPPORT \
-Idrivers/net/wireless/bcm4329 -Idrivers/net/wireless/bcm4329/include
Sweet. Cooking and testing. I don't see why this cant make a release. We gotta play with it a bit, but I like this mod. Goes nice with the BT5 concept too
Ok first off this is my first post so don't go flaming me. I have searched the site thoroughly although maybe I am not entering the correct keywords to return a valid result. I have had my galaxy nexus since launch and am glad I migrated from iOS to an android phone.
That being said everything works flawlessly for my needs I'm on the VZW phone unrooted no firmware modifications, the phone is almost stock with the exception of like 3 apps I have downloaded and the ICS update that was pushed to my phone immediately after turning it on.
One of my primary uses with my smartphone is accessing a website for school where I can view grades, scheduling, add and drop classes etc..
The browser on 3g, 4g, Wifi works flawlessly going to any website either through a search engine or via manually entering the URL. However the school website is unaccessible through the browser on this phone and it is the only page I can not get to. I have checked via other smart phones, desktops and other devices concurrently while using the nexus and am able to validate the site is up and available.
If I do a google search for it, go the the parent university site and use hyperlink or manually enter the URL I get web page not found - network error. I was thinking at first that it was an https problem but I am able to visit other secure sites without any problem. I also tried the option to goto to a non-mobile version of the site without success as well.
here is the web address
EDIT: apparently I can't post a link but you can navigate by doing a google search for UM-Dearborn Connect it should be the first result returned
So my question is what gives? Is there some type of a credential issue with my browser and this site? an incompatability with the new OS and this site I just don't understand why only this site I am unable to access.
If another galaxy nexus user could try to access this site and give feedback it would be greatly appreciated.
Try using Opera Mobile or Firefox. Both can be downloaded from the market. I will try to get to the site now.
https://web-sis.umd.umich.edu/pls/prod/twbkwbis.P_GenMenu?name=homepage
Edit: I get the same network error message as you when trying to connect in the stock browser. Opera Mobile seems to work fine. I had a similar problem with a University site on the Gingerbread browser on my last phone. The beauty of Android is that there is a solution to nearly any issue you come across.
Sent from my Verizon Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I get the same problem when looking at Newegg Promotions that I get in my email. It's really weird. I get the same problem on my Transformer as well.
Occurs on EDGE/3G/4G and WiFi.
Maxthon
You may also want to give the Maxthon browser a go. I use it over the stock browser and it always works well.
Thanks for the verification on your phones guys, I thought I was going crazy and wasn't sure if I should try a factory reset.
While using another browser may be an alternative my inherent inner geek is not satisfied with resorting to an alternative option.
I'm going to try and get to the bottom of this. If I get any updates I'll post to this thread.
Has anyone tried the S beam on this? I may be handing down my S III to someone where using this might be worthwhile.
I did the settings on both phone to enable it, but have not been able to get them linked to transfer files. I have tried going both ways and get a popup of touch to transfer but it disappears fast and nothing is transferred. i had read that it is supposed to first ask permission to connect, but this does not pop up on either device.
I am wondering if in typical Samsung fashion, have they made the two devices S beams incompatible (like they did with Android beam)?
gaww said:
Has anyone tried the S beam on this? I may be handing down my S III to someone where using this might be worthwhile.
I did the settings on both phone to enable it, but have not been able to get them linked to transfer files. I have tried going both ways and get a popup of touch to transfer but it disappears fast and nothing is transferred. i had read that it is supposed to first ask permission to connect, but this does not pop up on either device.
I am wondering if in typical Samsung fashion, have they made the two devices S beams incompatible (like they did with Android beam)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
to use S-beam, both devices must have S-beam and wifi enabled, which means they both must be samsung devices (S3, note II for example). you then have to go to an app that supports sharing via NFC such as a picture from your gallery. after you touch phones you have to hold it there then tap and wait until it prompts you to separate the phone; i'm guessing this is the step that's being done wrong. if you separate too early the connection will never be established.
Jinra321 said:
to use S-beam, both devices must have S-beam and wifi enabled, which means they both must be samsung devices (S3, note II for example). you then have to go to an app that supports sharing via NFC such as a picture from your gallery. after you touch phones you have to hold it there then tap and wait until it prompts you to separate the phone; i'm guessing this is the step that's being done wrong. if you separate too early the connection will never be established.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have encountered the prompt to separate a few times, and I do so slowly (also been using stock gallery pictures) and still no transfer.
This took me a few rries with my new Note2's. Touch the backs, touch the image to transfer, and separate when it says to. Works pretty decent. Even cooler is photoshare. The wife and I went on a safari today and took about a hundred photos between the two of us and we both have all of them on both our devices. Badass Samsung!
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
farfromovin said:
This took me a few rries with my new Note2's. Touch the backs, touch the image to transfer, and separate when it says to. Works pretty decent. Even cooler is photoshare. The wife and I went on a safari today and took about a hundred photos between the two of us and we both have all of them on both our devices. Badass Samsung!
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I am asking is does it work with other devices and not just two of the same? I would like to be able to do what you did with a Note 2 and Galaxy S III
gaww said:
What I am asking is does it work with other devices and not just two of the same? I would like to be able to do what you did with a Note 2 and Galaxy S III
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My roommate has an S III and I have a note II. We are able to use S beam, but like I said, we needed to hold the phones there, tap, and wait for a prompt to say it's okay to separate the phones. Initially, we failed to beam because we were separating too early. Maybe you should also make sure you both have nfc/sbeam turned on as well as wifi?
Tried the Nfc with a Motorola razor maxx hd and it opens the play store on his phone every time I try to send a file... Why??
Sent from my T-mobile Galaxy Note II
ezsoulja said:
Tried the Nfc with a Motorola razor maxx hd and it opens the play store on his phone every time I try to send a file... Why??
Sent from my T-mobile Galaxy Note II
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sounds like you're trying to send something from an app that he doesn't have. if i try to send my roommate a note from s-note, it will open the play store for him as it doesn't know how to negotiate the file. also note that i dont think you can send large files via nfc, i couldn't even send a picture.
Nfc transfer works with Nexus 7, fyi
Tmobile SGH-T889 using xda premium.
I do not have a SIM in my S III (It is in my note 2 now), but NFC and wifi transfer should not be affected.
I have carefully done all the settings on both devices and the few times I have gotten the "touch the image to transfer", I separated slowly when it said to and have yet to get a transfer. I was only trying to transfer one photo from the gallery. Tried it both ways.
Update. I realized I had the Perseus kernel installed so I flashed over it and now S beam works.
Update 2 - working fine with S 3 on a leaked LI8 ROM. Official JB S 3 update came out, and it is broken at S 3 end now - WTF.
Question - there is no S beam apk, so which apk is it included in?
Hi guys:
This is my first time posting here and I am not very proficient with rooting and all that technical stuff.
I have a galaxy nexus, and unfortunately, last night, I was walking down the stairs, it slipped out of my hand, i went to grab it but instead slammed it onto the ground. The screen is cracked and I couldn't use it - I ended up getting a new phone.
I want to retrieve all the data on it, but so far to no avail. When I used to connect my phone, I always had to select from the drop down menu "connect as media device" or something before I can access the Galaxy Nexus directory in my computer. As of right now, I can get my phone to connect and show the Galaxy Nexus directory, but there is nothing that I can do to access the directory.
The phone will not respond to the touch screen (at least I don't think so) but yes, it is working because last night all I heard was the plethora of whatsapp messages that my friends were sending...and needless to say I was unable to reply to any of them.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
my samsung galaxy 111 was changed over to metro pcs from tmobile. since then i have only used the phone for my wifi games and apps already installed from the year of these services. NOW no matter where i connect it to on my lap top, it only showes as unknown device. ive tried to update driver like it suggests in the trouble shooter program. what can i do to make it compatable with my computer? the unchanged galaxy tmobile phones have no problem with compatibility. thanks to any helpful answers from anybody!
It's actually galaxy s III for 3. Download the drivers from Samsung website under support, or install kies
cherishd1 said:
my samsung galaxy 111 was changed over to metro pcs from tmobile. since then i have only used the phone for my wifi games and apps already installed from the year of these services. NOW no matter where i connect it to on my lap top, it only showes as unknown device. ive tried to update driver like it suggests in the trouble shooter program. what can i do to make it compatable with my computer? the unchanged galaxy tmobile phones have no problem with compatibility. thanks to any helpful answers from anybody!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi cherishd1
It sounds like you have a driver issue on your laptop as serio22 said.
Go to: samsung.com/us/support/
Input your model number or go down to cell phone section and click the link for cell phones > click T-Mobile cell phones and then input your model.
From there it will give you a few options, but you'll want to go to downloads. Click the "see more" and scroll down to USB driver. You could also choose to download the first link which is for the "Device Install" (first one listed) but like with cell phones, who needs a bunch of software installed and running that you rarely use. The driver should be sufficient to get you connected to your laptop.
I don't know what OS you're running on your laptop, so just make sure your laptop meets the system requirements before you download and install anything. Good luck!