GPSJinny solution doesn't work for me. I hope they will fix it (Ovi Maps) soon

For those doubting they have a gps problem.
Disable network position in the location. Disable Phone.
Install mapper from the app manager Lauch it. Open the GPS information tab.
It shows the amount of satellites in view and their signal. Position your device on something solid when your are (!) OUTSIDE (!).

Just wait. If it's your first time, the phone probably needs from 3 to 5 minuts to get a fix.
That's how a proper GPS works.
And don't whine about iphone Maps. They always use network positioning, and Iphone's gps is crap without GSM/Wifi available. That's why the first iphone without GPS module at all, is also pretty fast in Maps positioning.

The GPS in n900 should be able to make you out in a desert or somewhere between nowhere, where's no cellular coverage. Actually, that's where GPS is usually needed, and not in the range of your home wifi AP.

Still trying to figure out if nokia's n900 chip is inferior to old good sirfstar3.
What's the model of the chip anyway?

I was in New York without data access, and struggled to get a fix most times I tried.

In particular ovi maps would give up quickly, but I found "mapper" to keep trying, and after many minutes did get a position & keep it.

overall gps works great for me but i have had intermittent problems, sometimes it takes ages to get a lock even with agps and the other night i could not get a lock at all even with a clear sky even after about 20 mins of searching!

it started working again the next day with no changes at all... was weird!

i was trying to install gpsjinny but the error shows libhildon missing. how do i fix this?

If anyone is interested, n900 Texas Instruments NaviLink 5.0 (NL5350) is know to be inferior to Sifrstar III chip (common for WM devices).
The TI chip lacks sensitivity and needs more time to acquire position.
Yeah, that's another Nokia's cheap economy, together with scratchy touchscreen and tiny battery.

The iPhone chip is Broadcom(?), which is even less sensitive, given the tiniest antenna in GPS history - the camera metal ring! So Maps.app power depends on network positioning.

I tested Sygic navigation on n900 today with all networks disabled.
It works. The best way to hold your device seems to be landscape, at 45 degree angle to the ground (like you normally hold a book). A lot of of sattelites popped out in view as soon as I put the device like that. It took about a minute to fix.

With network navigation enabled (I was in the range of my home Wifi), positioning was blazing fast, almost instant - 5-10 seconds.

But still, Sirfstar gadgets - all those HTC, Eten, Asus,Toshiba - owned a bunch of them (8 models in total) - had no problems with device position and were less sensitive to windshield material, for instance. But WM - that's dreadful...

I'm having the same trouble without the internet connection. I tried opening the Location widget as well as Maps app gives up searching GPS quite early. I used to have N82 and it used to get GPS lock quite fast and I dont think I had any data connection as I dont remember having to pay extra for data but I could be wrong and I don't have it now to check.

I just bought a brand new n900... i was hoping the gps functionality worked as the X6, which locks fairly quickly after the 1st run.

The n900 map program cannot be upgraded... and it searches for gps signal for 30 seconds only, then it stops searching.... there is no chance it can get a lock with that short searching time.

I do not have sim card inserted or have wifi when I am driving. Is there any work-around to get the gps working.

Install one of the other apps that uses gps and use it to get a fix. Once you have a fix the Ovi program should be okay.

Your options are gpsjinni (never used that), the location_test_gui in tools (what i have installed), or possibly eCoach.

Until PR1.2 comes out you may not be able to install the latest version of some of the software, but earlier versions should still work fine.

gpsjinni seems to do the trick -- just leave it on until the gps mini icon is no longer flashing, then nokia map will get a lock