Tag Archives: Nexus

Firewall the Inside of your OpenVPN or L2TP/IPSec Tunnel on Android

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The Scenario:

Let’s say you are at a coffee shop with public internet access, and you don’t want someone snooping on your traffic, so you VPN to your work. However, you also don’t want to tunnel personal stuff out of your work VPN (chat, facebook, youtube, your personal email maybe?), so the question becomes, how do you create 2 different firewalls – one that ONLY allows you to VPN and does not allow any other applications access, and one that then controls the traffic within the VPN channel so that you can utilize the connection for some apps but not others?

At this point, there are only 2 “methods” of running a Firewall on Android: having root and managing/accessing IPTables, or, the only alternative – creating a sub-VPN channel that you pipe the traffic over and filter (which does not require root). Unfortunately, the second type (without root) will not work for this, since we will need to utilize the VPN channel ourselves for our VPN, and to my knowledge, Android let’s you setup only 1 active VPN channel. So, you need 1.) a way to root and 2.) a good Firewall

Continue Reading →Firewall the Inside of your OpenVPN or L2TP/IPSec Tunnel on Android

Google Nexus S – update manually to 4.1.2 Jelly Bean

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This will be my last post about the Google Nexus S since I just purchased (and received) my Nexus 4. That said, I really wanted to give one last update on the Nexus S since it looks like things have changed quite a bit with the update process. While it looks more complicated at first, it’s actually a lot more flexible now. Here is how to upgrade your Nexus S manually to a full 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, even if you have not received it yet/are in a country where the updates are not coming in, or are on a carrier which is not pushing OTA updates.

The first step is to go to Google’s Official Factory Images for Nexus Devices

Now, you have one of four choices for sections, based on your phone:

  • If you have the (MOST POPULAR) T-Mobile or ATT (GSM) version of the Nexus S, go to: “Factory Images “soju” for Nexus S (worldwide version, i9020t and i9023)”
  • If you have the Sprint (4G) version, go to: “Factory Images “sojus” for Nexus S 4G (d720)”
  • If you have the Korean version (VERY RARE), go to: “Factory Images “sojuk” for Nexus S (Korea version, m200)”
  • If you have the NON-1Ghz (STILL RARE) version, go to: “Factory Images “sojua” for Nexus S (850MHz version, i9020a)”

Let’s assume you have the T-Mobile/ATT one since most people have that.
You will want the “4.1.2 (JZO54K)” image, which you can download from their official link:

soju-jzo54k-factory-36602333.tgz
(md5: 788233dca5954532acda63039f814b4d)

Continue Reading →Google Nexus S – update manually to 4.1.2 Jelly Bean

Google Nexus S – 4.0.3 ICS (full stand-alone install AND partial update)

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Google has released ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) – the next version of the Nexus S OS (ICS 4.0.3- IML74K), and once again, I am posting it directly here — mostly for people who have not received it yet, people who are using a jailbroken phone, or people outside of the US who do not get the updates.

If you are on GRK39F (2.3.6), you can apply only the small update:

VQ8PQk_V.zip
(md5: 9cf66f890e71708f458df9932e5206b3)

 

Again, this is directly from google (it is even linked to google), and you should follow the 7 steps from the http://blog.vpetkov.net/2011/03/11/google-nexus-s-update-manually-to-2-3-1-2-3-2-and-2-3-3/ article.

Please note that the above update is the ~128 MB update, and will only work if you are on 2.3.6 GRK39F. This is NOT for people who are running jailbroken/custom roms.

If the above doesn’t work, OR if you are using a jailbroken/custom rom, of if you have another version before 2.3.6, then I suggest doing the full 4.0.3 (IML74K) flash:

ZD3PyN0t.zip
(md5: bdb728fd1581c369cd70e7f0b0e129f2)

This is the ~161 MB image. You can use the same 7 steps from the link above.
If you are having problems with the update above, this is the full factory restore and it should work without any problems.

Please post comments if you have any problems, or if you just want to post that it works!

Google Nexus S – update manually to 2.3.6

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Google has released the next version of the Nexus S OS (Gingerbread 2.3.6 – GRK39F), and once again, I am posting it directly here — mostly for people who have not received it yet, people who are using a jailbroken phone, or people outside of the US who do not get the updates.

If you are on GRJ22 (2.3.4), you can apply only the small update:

7d11404284c0.signed-soju-GRK39F-from-GRJ22.7d114042.zip
(md5: efd33eba8eb42ab77b0d279547bf76d1)

 

Again, this is directly from google (it is even linked to google), and you should follow the 7 steps from the http://blog.vpetkov.net/2011/03/11/google-nexus-s-update-manually-to-2-3-1-2-3-2-and-2-3-3/ article.

Please note that the above update is the ~18MB update, and it will only work if you are on 2.3.4 GRJ22. This is NOT for people who are running jailbroken/custom roms.

 

If the above doesn’t work, OR if you are using a jailbroken/custom rom, then I suggest doing the full 2.3.6 (GRK39F) flash:

1ada25375426.signed-soju-ota-189904.1ada2537.zip
(md5: c3d6341f18e2723d748e1dea10623d43)

This is the ~98 MB image. You can use the same 7 steps from the link above, OR you can use any custom installer (including ClockWork).
If you are having problems with the update above, this is the full factory restore and it should work without any problems.

Please post comments if you have any problems, or if you just want to post that it works!

Google Nexus S – update manually to 2.3.4

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Since it seems like people are really interested in this information (especially those out side of the US where updates are not pushed out), I will continue with the updates regarding the Nexus S. Here’s the next (no pun) operating system update: 2.3.4:

a14a2dd09749.signed-soju-GRJ22-from-GRI40.a14a2dd0.zip (md5: 92b0f0a0b57a7cf10d2d70610c8bb9fb)

Again, this is directly from google (it is even linked to google), and you should follow the 7 steps from the http://blog.vpetkov.net/2011/03/11/google-nexus-s-update-manually-to-2-3-1-2-3-2-and-2-3-3/ article.

Please note that the update WILL work if you are running “GRI40” (build number in Settings -> About Phone)
The biggest update when it comes to new features seems to be that Google Talk has voice chat! There are a lot of bug fixes.
For the bug fixes, check out: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=3812c1acf93b482f

 

IF YOU GET AN ERROR:

Please just grab the FULL 2.3.3 (f182cf141e6a.signed-soju-ota-102588.f182cf14.zip) system, install it and then try again. It will work!

 

IF YOU JUST WANT THE RADIO UPDATE:

XXKD1-GRJ22-radio-nexuss-unsigned.zip (md5: 57659f04148ebfa849ef523544f2a3dd)

Note: I personally couldn’t update just the radio update from 2.3.3 (with GRI40) – kept getting the status 7 signature verification, so I used the 2.3.4 update to get the radio patches. I’ve seen people who have been able to apply the radio update to 2.3.3 without any problems.

Google Nexus S – update manually to 2.3.1, 2.3.2, and 2.3.3

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NOTE: Look at the new post above if your phone is *at* 2.3.3 and you want to go up to 2.3.4

If you just want the LATEST update: grab the FULL 2.3.3 image (f182cf141e6a.signed-soju-ota-102588.f182cf14.zip)

I decided to contribute back, mention a few vital steps, and provide a few important files now that I solved this — in order for someone to go from 2.3(.0) to 2.3.3
This assumes that you have not rooted your phone. If you have, you need to un-root it and go back to either 2.3.0, 2.3.1, or 2.3.2,

First of all, if you use the built-in “update” method, the updates need to be consecutive. For this, they are very small.

Let’s assume you just bought your Google Nexus S. It came with 2.3 (or 2.3.0 in reality). The first step is to apply the 2.3.1 update. I’ve called this:

update1.zip (md5: a35798d84104c7cb1d26d7946ce843fc)

The general instructions are:

0.) Put the file into the /sdcard directory.
1.) Turn off your phone
2.) Hold Power and Volume-Up until you see the recovery menu (lots of colors and 4 options).
3.) Use the Volume-Down key to scroll down and  select “Recovery” by pushing the Power key.
4.) Wait for the triangle with the exclamation point. Push the Power key and while holding it, tap the Volume-Up key.
5.) Now you can use the  the Volume keys to go to “apply update from /sdcard” and then the Power key to select it.
6.) Select the appropriate ZIP file, and then use the Power key to apply it.
7.) When everything is done, go to the Reboot option with the Volume keys and then use the Power Key to select it.

Now, that said, after you apply the first update, you go from 2.3.0 to 2.3.1. Now, apply the 2.3.2 update. I’ve called this:

update2.zip (md5: 714e1e1126f1a222c10ffce6c83dc6ad)

Same as before. After you go through the steps and reboot, you will be at 2.3.2. Here is where things get interesting. It seems that you need another update. Its for people who get the “Status 7” error.
This is mostly due to a firmware (those who have: GRH78C or GRH78). Here you will need to apply the LAST UPDATE, the same way you applied update1 and update2:

For GRH78C (md5: 3923f98754f756a83b3ecc44e42a2902)

or

Only for GRH78 (md5: 919d7f2c9e06bb03a2ff74081028bf0a)

At last, reboot, and you are on 2.3.3

Please note that *ALL* of these files have been taken from google and are official. For that exact reason, I have provided the md5 checksums, so that you can verify them before you use them.
Hope this helps.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND FILES (If above did not work — very rare):

Some people (very very rare) might still get an error. This is if you have a different radio version. Check: “Settings -> About Phone -> Baseband Version”. You should have either something that ends in “XXKB1” or something that ends in “XXKB3”. Here are the two radios. Apply this the same way as the items above. You might need this BEFORE the GRH78C (or  GRH78) updates.

XXKB1-GRI40-radio-nexuss-unsigned.zip (md5: 4805c255f10eef8b1bd54aa2d27bc30e)

or

XXKB3-GRI54-radio-nexuss-unsigned.zip (md5: 4e9c9cf4d6470be800e00f8508b9c175)

 

LAST RESORT (if nothing above worked — extremely rare):

If nothing worked, try the FULL 2.3.3 OS.

f182cf141e6a.signed-soju-ota-102588.f182cf14.zip (md5: 3e8908941043951da5a34bb2043dd1a0)