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SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - Printable Version

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SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - tckosvic - 11-15-2021

I am finding 2 SMS apps in plasma;  phonebook and Spacebar; neither of which provide near the smooth functionality of the chomp android app I use on other phone. I am sure there are other android SMS apps of equal proficient functionality.

If I am missing any other ones, please let me know.

Spacebar does send and receive SMS for me using a Consumer Cellular SIM card.  It has little functionality in forwarding, resending, reorganizing messages, etc.  It looks like you can delete message and copy message text.   Any more polished app available? 

Phonebook gives two options after selecting a contact, Call and Send SMS.  Selecting Send SMS starts a dialogue :  "Device to send an SMS with:".  There is a blank box. You can't enter text into the box and there are no dropdown options available.  I don't know what it is looking for in "device".  Any suggestions of how to satisfy this request by the app?

The call option in Spacebar app asks for a device to use to make the call from the SIM card phone number on the phone and does not work.  I use the Phone app which does properly make phone calls though.

Phone app works fine for voice calls but SMS apps are really touch-and-go.  Anyone found any means to make an improvement to SMS text messages?

thanks,     tom kosvic

RE: SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - acrux - 11-15-2021

(11-15-2021, 07:53 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Phonebook gives two options after selecting a contact, Call and Send SMS.  Selecting Send SMS starts a dialogue :  "Device to send an SMS with:".  There is a blank box. You can't enter text into the box and there are no dropdown options available.  I don't know what it is looking for in "device".  Any suggestions of how to satisfy this request by the app?
Can't confirm here. Touching Send SMS in Phonebook app opens Spacebar app current contacts SMS conversation ready to send a SMS.
Quote:The call option in Spacebar app asks for a device to use to make the call from the SIM card phone number on the phone and does not work.  I use the Phone app which does properly make phone calls though.
There is no call option in Spacebar. Did you mean Phonebook? Again can not confirm here. Touching Call in Phonebook app opens Dialer and initiates a call to the current person...  I'm running Manjaro PlaMo beta 8 + updates here. Did you have the modem up and running at the time you tried the SMS and calling through Phonebook app?
But there is certainly much room to polish the abovementioned apps Smile

RE: SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - tckosvic - 11-15-2021

(11-15-2021, 08:20 AM)acrux Wrote:
(11-15-2021, 07:53 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Phonebook gives two options after selecting a contact, Call and Send SMS.  Selecting Send SMS starts a dialogue :  "Device to send an SMS with:".  There is a blank box. You can't enter text into the box and there are no dropdown options available.  I don't know what it is looking for in "device".  Any suggestions of how to satisfy this request by the app?
Can't confirm here. Touching Send SMS in Phonebook app opens Spacebar app current contacts SMS conversation ready to send a SMS.
Quote:The call option in Spacebar app asks for a device to use to make the call from the SIM card phone number on the phone and does not work.  I use the Phone app which does properly make phone calls though.
There is no call option in Spacebar. Did you mean Phonebook? Again can not confirm here. Touching Call in Phonebook app opens Dialer and initiates a call to the current person...  I'm running Manjaro PlaMo beta 8 + updates here. Did you have the modem up and running at the time you tried the SMS and calling through Phonebook app?
But there is certainly much room to polish the abovementioned apps Smile
I do not have the functionality of Phonebook to open dialer.  I also do not have the functionality of Phonebook to open Spacebar.  

Would you elaborate on how and why the modem needs to be running?  I am unaware of the need for the modem.  I am long term linux user and modem not used for decades.

I did mistype and meant the Call option in Phonebook; not Spacebar.

thanks,      tom kosvic

RE: SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - acrux - 11-15-2021

(11-15-2021, 09:28 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Would you elaborate on how and why the modem needs to be running?  I am unaware of the need for the modem.  I am long term linux user and modem not used for decades.

PinePhone hardware includes a modem - Quectel EG25-G with worldwide bands, which is responsible (through according firmware and software) for phone call, sms and mobile data connection functionality...
In case you was joking - it was a good one Big Grin

RE: SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - tckosvic - 11-15-2021

(11-15-2021, 09:45 AM)acrux Wrote:
(11-15-2021, 09:28 AM)tckosvic Wrote: Would you elaborate on how and why the modem needs to be running?  I am unaware of the need for the modem.  I am long term linux user and modem not used for decades.

PinePhone hardware includes a modem - Quectel EG25-G with worldwide bands, which is responsible (through according firmware and software) for phone call, sms and mobile data connection functionality...
In case you was joking - it was a good one Big Grin

acrux,

I do have modem installed as part of fresh system install yesterday of beta8 as listed in settings..  In reading about modem start/stop/status in docs ( Modem on Pinephone), it refers to checking modem status using:  "cat  /sys/class/modem-power/modem-power/device/powered".

On my pinephone, there is no directory named modem-power under /sys/class.  Why is that directory not there from fresh install yesterday of beta8?  How to find if modem is on?
Other pages refer to adding modem firmware updates.  Is that necessary and how to do it?

I did check back of phone switches and modem switch is up.  I did add modem manager gui and started it as root.  I still get message from phonebook asking for device to use for both phone and sms choices.

What is necessary for full install of necessary modem software?  What is necessary to see if it is operating?  How to start modem? How do I get phonebook to work as it should?

thanks,    tom kosvic

RE: SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - acrux - 11-15-2021

You should not install anything extra besides the base pinephone operating system eg Plasma Mobile.
If you see up left your mobile service provider name, then your modem is up &running Wink

RE: SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - tckosvic - 11-15-2021

(11-15-2021, 10:55 AM)acrux Wrote: You should not install anything extra besides the base pinephone operating system eg Plasma Mobile.
If you see up left your mobile service provider name, then your modem is up &running Wink

I do see CCNetwork  (consumer cellular) in upper left corner.  What might be causing loss of functionality of phonebook?  Any ideas?

I will do a reinstall of phonebook using pacman when I figure out commands to do that.

thanks for help,     tom kosvic

RE: SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - acrux - 11-15-2021

(11-15-2021, 11:15 AM)tckosvic Wrote: I do see CCNetwork  (consumer cellular) in upper left corner.  What might be causing loss of functionality of phonebook?  Any ideas?

As the modem is not designed to be used in mobile phones, then it may crash from time to time. My hyphothesis was, that when you tested things, the modem was not working...

RE: SMS apps in manjaro-plasma leave much room for improvement - tckosvic - 11-15-2021

(11-15-2021, 12:11 PM)acrux Wrote:
(11-15-2021, 11:15 AM)tckosvic Wrote: I do see CCNetwork  (consumer cellular) in upper left corner.  What might be causing loss of functionality of phonebook?  Any ideas?

As the modem is not designed to be used in mobile phones, then it may crash from time to time. My hyphothesis was, that when you tested things, the modem was not working...

The loss of functionality still exists with CCNetwork in upper left corner.

From phonebook, after a contact is selected, the call function opens a new screen asking for the "device to call xxxxxxxxx with:" and has the contact phone number right. A gain there is an empty box and the keyboard does not open to write anything in there.

From phonebook, after a contact is selected, the SMS function opens a new screen and says "Device to send SMS with:".  The same empty box is there with no drop down choices and no ability to type any text into it.

The CCNetwork is showing in upper left corner all during these tests.

I did notice a notification from network management:  "Modem (quecte!qmi_0)     Shows no carrier  "   This looks like a clue but doesn't mean anything to me.  Looks like a modem configuration issue.

Even with above message, I can still send  SMS directly from Spacebar.  I can call from Phone.

Thanks,               tom kosvic