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OpenSSH: broken GPS?

mavis

mavis

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 30, 2007
4,772
1,559
Tokyo, Japan
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4 (32GB, JB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

I've been having problems with my GPS since jailbreaking and was wondering if anyone else is experiencing a similar issue and/or knows how to fix it.

Basically, my jailbroken iPhone 4 cannot use wifi to determine my location. I have several iDevices connected to my AEBS (which I registered with SkyHook years ago) and they all get an accurate location lock at home. Only my iPhone 4 is unable to get location data from wifi - if I switch 3G off, it cannot get any kind of lock on my location; with 3G it (unfortunately) triangulates my position wrong and shows me a half mile away from my house.

Is anyone else having this problem?
 
Have you tried reinstalling your firmware as new? Unjailbreaking it this way you will know if it's a hardware issue or a jailbreak issue. if it's hardware then time to take it to Apple.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4 (32GB, JB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Thanks for the reply. I may end up restoring just to be sure, but since it worked fine prior to jailbreaking I'm inclined to think it's a software issue rather than hardware.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4 (32GB, JB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Anyone else? When indoors and connected to wifi, if you switch 3G off, are you still able to get a location lock in Maps?
 
mavis said:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4 (32GB, JB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Anyone else? When indoors and connected to wifi, if you switch 3G off, are you still able to get a location lock in Maps?
Click to expand...

Seems to be working fine for me. My GPS has been a little sluggish since the jailbreak, but I haven't had your particular problem.
 
I restored this morning and now, three restores later, I seem to have found the problem.

OpenSSH!! :confused:

Every time I install OpenSSH and connect to my Mac, my phone is no longer able to get location data from wifi. At least, MY wifi.

WTF?
 
I must not be the only person this is happening to. I can reproduce this problem with 100% certainty by simply installing/uninstalling OpenSSH. I'm fairly certain you guys can, too.

To test, you need to be indoors, in a place where you cannot get a satellite lock on your phone's position. Put your phone in Airplane Mode and then re-enable wifi. Open Maps. If OpenSSH is installed, your phone will give you an error message saying 'Your location cannot be determined.' Next, uninstall OpenSSH and reboot. Put your phone back into Airplane Mode and enable wifi. Open Maps, and wait a few seconds for it to figure out where you are. Without OpenSSH, it should work fine.

I am only experiencing this behavior on an iPhone 4; the only other jailbroken device I have at home to test on is an iPad, and it seems to work fine with OpenSSH installed. So, can any other iPhone 4 owners confirm this bug?
 
My GPS has also been incredibly inaccurate since the jb. In the Signal app from planetbeing as well as regular google maps it always shows me quite a distance from where I really am...
 
mavis said:
I must not be the only person this is happening to. I can reproduce this problem with 100% certainty by simply installing/uninstalling OpenSSH. I'm fairly certain you guys can, too.

To test, you need to be indoors, in a place where you cannot get a satellite lock on your phone's position. Put your phone in Airplane Mode and then re-enable wifi. Open Maps. If OpenSSH is installed, your phone will give you an error message saying 'Your location cannot be determined.' Next, uninstall OpenSSH and reboot. Put your phone back into Airplane Mode and enable wifi. Open Maps, and wait a few seconds for it to figure out where you are. Without OpenSSH, it should work fine.

I am only experiencing this behavior on an iPhone 4; the only other jailbroken device I have at home to test on is an iPad, and it seems to work fine with OpenSSH installed. So, can any other iPhone 4 owners confirm this bug?
Click to expand...

Have you tried toggling ssh with sbsettings and seeing if it still gives that error while ssh is off? I'd test but I get gps even inside my place.
 
mavis said:
I must not be the only person this is happening to. I can reproduce this problem with 100% certainty by simply installing/uninstalling OpenSSH. I'm fairly certain you guys can, too.

To test, you need to be indoors, in a place where you cannot get a satellite lock on your phone's position. Put your phone in Airplane Mode and then re-enable wifi. Open Maps. If OpenSSH is installed, your phone will give you an error message saying 'Your location cannot be determined.' Next, uninstall OpenSSH and reboot. Put your phone back into Airplane Mode and enable wifi. Open Maps, and wait a few seconds for it to figure out where you are. Without OpenSSH, it should work fine.

I am only experiencing this behavior on an iPhone 4; the only other jailbroken device I have at home to test on is an iPad, and it seems to work fine with OpenSSH installed. So, can any other iPhone 4 owners confirm this bug?
Click to expand...

Sorry but I am confused by your problem. If you turn on airplane mode and you position yourself indoors to prevent a satellite lock. What method do you expect the phone to use to locate your position. There are only two methods to locate your position Satellite and triangulation.
 
nebo1ss said:
Sorry but I am confused by your problem. If you turn on airplane mode and you position yourself indoors to prevent a satellite lock. What method do you expect the phone to use to locate your position. There are only two methods to locate your position Satellite and triangulation.
Click to expand...

It triangulates using wifi. Also, the satellite can get a lock indoors. Mine does at least. Quite happy with the iPhone 4 GPS.
 
nebo1ss said:
Sorry but I am confused by your problem. If you turn on airplane mode and you position yourself indoors to prevent a satellite lock. What method do you expect the phone to use to locate your position. There are only two methods to locate your position Satellite and triangulation.
Click to expand...

The satellite method IS a triangulation method, last I checked.
 
mavis said:
Every time I install OpenSSH and connect to my Mac, my phone is no longer able to get location data from wifi. At least, MY wifi.
Click to expand...
THANK YOU! My location services have been way off since the jailbreak and it does appear that the problem is OpenSSH!

With OpenSSH installed, my location reverts to the tower's location as the center with a fairly large radius of error (in my case, 4 blocks off from my actual location, with a large 10 block radius of error).

With OpenSSH uninstalled (and phone rebooted), my location is back to its scary accurate self. Blue dot precisely where I am. Wi-Fi off.

I'm in the 7th floor of a large concrete and iron office building. There's no way I'd get that level of accuracy without some sort of assisting services.
 
nebo1ss said:
Sorry but I am confused by your problem. If you turn on airplane mode and you position yourself indoors to prevent a satellite lock. What method do you expect the phone to use to locate your position. There are only two methods to locate your position Satellite and triangulation.
Click to expand...

Three methods: the third being using Skyhook's Wi-Fi access point location database. Now, this may or may not be related, but ever since iOS 3.2+, Apple no longer uses Skyhook's location database; they now have their own.

Here's what I found.

Without OpenSSH installed:
Airplane Mode - OFF, Wi-Fi - ON --> Maps locates me about two blocks East of where it used to with my old 3GS on iOS 3.x.x

Airplane Mode - ON, Wi-Fi - ON --> Maps locates me in Chicago, about 1,000 miles away from me :confused:

With OpenSSH installed:
Airplane Mode - OFF, Wi-Fi - ON --> Same as without OpenSSH (Maps locates me about two blocks East of where it used to with my old 3GS on iOS 3.x.x)

Airplane Mode - ON, Wi-FI - ON --> Just as you've found, Maps is unable to locate me anywhere at all, not even 1,000mi away in Chicago :D
 
So is it possible that Apple's own Wi-Fi locations database is so ass-tastic that it's locating my router in Chicago, whereas my old iPhone, using Skyhook's database and location services, correctly found the exact same router correctly, in Florida?

Or is Apple no longer using Wi-Fi in its location triangulation scheme at all, hence my phone shows itself a few streets over when 3G & Wi-Fi are turned on vs. just about dead-on with my old phone when 3G & Wi-Fi were on?
 
mavis said:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4 (32GB, JB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Anyone else? When indoors and connected to wifi, if you switch 3G off, are you still able to get a location lock in Maps?
Click to expand...

I can't get location sometimes on wifi, if I reset my phone (power off, power on) then it works.
 
Did some more messing around with and without OpenSSH. Whenever OpenSSH is installed, active or not, my location accuracy goes to crap (off by 1000 ft or more sometimes). I'm guessing Apple's location assist services may use newer versions of the libraries than OpenSSH is using.

OpenSSH installed, location assist fails.

OpenSSH removed, location assist works.
 
Location doesn't seem to be bad, but my Maps is FUBAR. I was traveling this weekend and when I checked traffic, that's when things went haywire. My maps app seemed top freeze and I couldn't do anything. I exited came back in, same thing (multitasking. :p), I then closed app (double tap home, kill running app) and tried again, but the minute I tried to toggle traffic off, Maps froze again. I toggled SSH off but still doing it, maybe we have a similar issue?
 
I tired the exact same test and can confirm similar behavior to the OP. With OpenSSH installed, in Airplane mode, and Wi-Fi on it can not locate my position. Uninstall OpenSSH, same exact test and it works just as it should. For now I left OpenSSH uninstalled, figuring if I needed it, I would have the network access necessary to reinstall it.
 
alee said:
Did some more messing around with and without OpenSSH. Whenever OpenSSH is installed, active or not, my location accuracy goes to crap (off by 1000 ft or more sometimes). I'm guessing Apple's location assist services may use newer versions of the libraries than OpenSSH is using.

OpenSSH installed, location assist fails.

OpenSSH removed, location assist works.
Click to expand...

jwilson25 said:
I tired the exact same test and can confirm similar behavior to the OP. With OpenSSH installed, in Airplane mode, and Wi-Fi on it can not locate my position. Uninstall OpenSSH, same exact test and it works just as it should. For now I left OpenSSH uninstalled, figuring if I needed it, I would have the network access necessary to reinstall it.
Click to expand...



I wanted to jump back in and update my previous post. I'm having the same problems, too. Sluggish and inaccurate GPS with OpenSSH installed. When I uninstall OpenSSH, instant improvement. Anyone have a chance to email Saurik?
 
Sounds like an issue that happened with OpenSSH in the past that it breaks the location service.
 
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