First my Moto X4 XT1900-1 & now 5G Ace, both have capabilities of the underlying Snapdragon chipset locked out with regards to GNSS (Satellite Navigation). First, the X4 doesn't allow Galileo use in the U.S.A. I assume this is implemented via a geo-fence of some type, as it works elsewhere in the world and users have noted the change in behavior as they're flying across the ocean. The G5 Ace doesn't allow dual-frequency GNSS (L5 for GPS in addition to L1, and E5 for Galileo in addition to E1) even though the underlying chipset is capable.
At first I thought the disable was implemented in Motorola's Android release for the phone, and I thought unlocking/rooting and flashing a 3rd party ROM (LineageOS 18.1) on the X4 might unlock the Galileo use, but no luck. I was curious if this vendor lockout was implemented in the firmware somehow? Part of the modem/radio flash? I was also thinking it might be a binary driver provided by Qualcomm to Motorola that I assume gets integrated into the firmware in some manner. I suppose it could be a hardware limitation, the chipsets provided by Qualcomm for that specific model were physically limited in some manner? I was curious if any possible hack could remove the vendor's feature disable?
This seems to be a common approach by many vendors to disable underlying features of the chipset on a lower tier (cheaper) device. If the mechanism could be hacked, it might open up some capabilities on many devices.
If the underlying chipset is in other phones that don't have this feature disabled, could something be transferred from that firmware to the device that does have the feature disabled?
At first I thought the disable was implemented in Motorola's Android release for the phone, and I thought unlocking/rooting and flashing a 3rd party ROM (LineageOS 18.1) on the X4 might unlock the Galileo use, but no luck. I was curious if this vendor lockout was implemented in the firmware somehow? Part of the modem/radio flash? I was also thinking it might be a binary driver provided by Qualcomm to Motorola that I assume gets integrated into the firmware in some manner. I suppose it could be a hardware limitation, the chipsets provided by Qualcomm for that specific model were physically limited in some manner? I was curious if any possible hack could remove the vendor's feature disable?
This seems to be a common approach by many vendors to disable underlying features of the chipset on a lower tier (cheaper) device. If the mechanism could be hacked, it might open up some capabilities on many devices.
If the underlying chipset is in other phones that don't have this feature disabled, could something be transferred from that firmware to the device that does have the feature disabled?