Can't configure APN/Have no mobile internet

[zvavybir]

My PinePhone worked great until (I think – this was quite some time ago because it wasn't urgent to get fixed, so I don't perfectly remember it anymore) it crashed and I had to force a reboot (taking out the battery).  Now the SIM card related stuff doesn't work (great) anymore.  To make or receive a phone call I now have to run `mmcli -m any -e` (found on the internet) to activate the modem (which isn't great, but also not a big problem) and (more importantly) I can't configure an APN (the option in the settings GUI is grey out, and I don't know how to do it in the terminal), which means I have no mobile internet (which wasn't a problem, because I'm usually somewhere with WiFi, but soon will be a problem).

It might (or might not) be worth mentioning that I somewhat damaged the SD/SIM card slot, but I don't think this is related, because it still worked for some time with this damaged slot and because after running this command making phone calls still works.

[mikehenson]

My PinePhone worked great until (I think – this was quite some time ago because it wasn't urgent to get fixed, so I don't perfectly remember it anymore) it crashed and I had to force a reboot (taking out the battery).  Now the SIM card related stuff doesn't work (great) anymore.  To make or receive a phone call I now have to run `mmcli -m any -e` (found on the internet) to activate the modem (which isn't great, but also not a big problem) and (more importantly) I can't configure an APN (the option in the settings GUI is grey out, and I don't know how to do it in the terminal), which means I have no mobile internet (which wasn't a problem, because I'm usually somewhere with WiFi, but soon will be a problem).

It might (or might not) be worth mentioning that I somewhat damaged the SD/SIM card slot, but I don't think this is related, because it still worked for some time with this damaged slot and because after running this command making phone calls still works.

1) Make sure your internet provider is supported[1] (swapping SIM cards quickly from one phone to another may cause problems on the provider side)
2) Have you updated your OS? 
3) If your provider is supported and the OS is up to date, It maybe time for a fresh install of the OS[2].

[1] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Carrier_Support
[2] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_S...e_Releases
EDIT: Link to Pro software releases
[2] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_P...e_Releases

[zvavybir]

My PinePhone worked great until (I think – this was quite some time ago because it wasn't urgent to get fixed, so I don't perfectly remember it anymore) it crashed and I had to force a reboot (taking out the battery).  Now the SIM card related stuff doesn't work (great) anymore.  To make or receive a phone call I now have to run `mmcli -m any -e` (found on the internet) to activate the modem (which isn't great, but also not a big problem) and (more importantly) I can't configure an APN (the option in the settings GUI is grey out, and I don't know how to do it in the terminal), which means I have no mobile internet (which wasn't a problem, because I'm usually somewhere with WiFi, but soon will be a problem).

It might (or might not) be worth mentioning that I somewhat damaged the SD/SIM card slot, but I don't think this is related, because it still worked for some time with this damaged slot and because after running this command making phone calls still works.

1) Make sure your internet provider is supported[1] (swapping SIM cards quickly from one phone to another may cause problems on the provider side)
2) Have you updated your OS? 
3) If your provider is supported and the OS is up to date, It maybe time for a fresh install of the OS[2].

[1] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Carrier_Support
[2] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_S...e_Releases
EDIT: Link to Pro software releases
[2] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_P...e_Releases

1) It *used* to work, so the provider is not the problem.
1b) I haven't swapped the SIM card at all, so trivially also not quickly.
2) I have not updated it when it stopped working, so this can't have caused the problem.
3) That's of course is possible, but I'd *really* like to avoid it, because due to the SD/SIM card slot damage the phone is not guaranteed to work at all afterwards (if doing it would have been an option I of course already would have done so).

[Kevin Kofler]

Use nmcli radio wwan on instead of mmcli -m any -e. You need to enable the modem in NetworkManager, not just in ModemManager, because otherwise NetworkManager will disable (or not enable) it at the next occasion (such as a reboot). If you enable it in NetworkManager, it will remember your setting. NetworkManager will do the equivalent of mmcli -m any -e, but it needs to know about the setting, which it does not if you call mmcli directly.

Chances are that NetworkManager will also let you configure the APN and connect to it if it knows that you want WWAN enabled. (But you need to set that NetworkManager "WWAN" flag to enabled even if you do not actually want to use mobile data, because NetworkManager uses it as a toggle for the entire modem.)

[zvavybir]

Use nmcli radio wwan on instead of mmcli -m any -e. You need to enable the modem in NetworkManager, not just in ModemManager, because otherwise NetworkManager will disable (or not enable) it at the next occasion (such as a reboot). If you enable it in NetworkManager, it will remember your setting. NetworkManager will do the equivalent of mmcli -m any -e, but it needs to know about the setting, which it does not if you call mmcli directly.

Chances are that NetworkManager will also let you configure the APN and connect to it if it knows that you want WWAN enabled. (But you need to set that NetworkManager "WWAN" flag to enabled even if you do not actually want to use mobile data, because NetworkManager uses it as a toggle for the entire modem.)

Oh, that has solved it!  I can now configure the APN and internet works!  Thanks very much!