Lets discuss the GPS. Who has got it to work?

[AwHereWeGoAgain]

Good Morning!  So it has been a few months and I have just about got the Pinephone where I want it.  It is used as my daily driver but regrettably when driving I must also bring my android wiretap with me for its GPS functionality.  I have seen people who seem to have been able to get their phone to work for navigation with a combination of GPS and puremaps however I never found a great tutorial on what they did to get to that point.  So now I must ask the question.  Which Distros work with GPS?  Which do not?  So far I have tried Manjaro Phosh as well as Plasma and Mobian and according to the maps app, I live in Columbia MO.  This tells me that the phone is not using GPS or cell tower but my ISP alone to determine my location. (About 100 miles or so off from where I actually am)  When driving it seems to get a lot more accurate.  Maps can at least tell that im on the correct highway but it is also a little bit off so I think in this scenario it is using the towers as the towers are close to the highway.  I have heard that Ubuntu Touch has GPS functionality so I was considering giving it a whirl but was curious if others knew of other Distros that worked as well?  How about UBports?  Also, of the Distros mentioned above, has anyone gotten Mobian or Manjaro to work with puremaps?  If so, what had to be done?  Are there any terminal commands that will get the GPS to print out my Lattitude and Longitude?  (I have attempted installing packages that would communicate with the Modem and GPS but in the end was unsuccessful)

Thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks

[mouffa]

have a look at my thread here

https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=14114

the GPS is an autonomous entity inside the modem which can give you position data at "/dev/EG25.NMEA" or you can request it with AT commands

I don't know which distros are already enabled to read the data out of the box

the location fixing is difficult, you have to wait and be in a quite unobstracted space, some people say that it works faster with an external antenna

[kqlnut]

For me Maps on Manjaro Phosh (dev) works pretty well, it shows my location within 10 metres or so. I have only tried it in urban areas though.

[wibble]

Works for me using the proof of concept AGPS loader run manually on Mobian with my Brave Heart. Without AGPS you are considerably less likely to get a location fix. You need a data connection to download the AGPS data. I have seen one photo of an antenna that looks different to the one on my phone, but I don't know of that was a later model or an earlier prototype. ModemManager won't let you enable location reporting if there isn't a SIM present, although the hardware is capable of it.

Opensuse may work out of the box - there is at least an agps loader in the pinephone-helpers package:
https://build.opensuse.org/package/view_...y?expand=1

Dylan Van Assche's ModemManager pull request has been accepted upstream but I don't know if it's in the versions used by any distros. It should allow uploading the data using the ModemManager interface, such as mmcli's --location-inject-assistance-data option. The related request for Mobian's eg25-manager is still pending.
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mobile-br...issues/357
https://gitlab.com/mobian1/devices/eg25-...equests/15

[AwHereWeGoAgain]

Well, I took another swing at it today and got much further than I did last time as I did not understand the AT system well enough. (There is still a lot im trying to learn) After much reading I at least got the modem configured minus the GLONASS as I dont live in Russia. I got the proper ok responses and verified that the modem kept the settings however when I go to start operating as per mouffa's instructions, it starts GNSS successfully but the very next command. `echo at+qgpsgnmea=\"gsv\" | sudo atinout - /dev/EG25.MODEM -` which shows the satellites tracked results in error 505. According to the PDF in the post that error indicated the session is not active. I feel im missing something.
Just to clarify, with the settings as they were outlined in the Mouffas's post, AGPS should be set up after this command right?

(echo at+qgpscfg=\"agpsposmode\",33488767 | sudo atinout - /dev/EG25.MODEM -` # GPS assisted by the cellular network, default value, it is a 24-bit number where each bit enables a different option, !!! TURN ON THE MOBILE DATA BEFORE TURNING ON THE GPS, IT WILL USE DATA !!!)

Mobile data was turned on but it drops regularly due to my location. I might attempt an experiment when I have better service to see if it makes a difference but I feel the error 505 represents some other problem. Ill keep messing around with it but reading how many pinephone users have some sort of third party solution I too am wondering if I should get creative. Before I do, I want to get at least get some locks the intended way with the phones dedicated hardware so I can say I understand it enough to make improvements.

[mob]

There is a good tutorial on Mobian wiki with plenty of information. I have been able to setup gpsd + geoclue + foxtrotgps before reflashing recently.

[bcnaz]

There was a lot of discussion on the Pine phone GPS here on the forum a year or so ago.

I have a problem with any software that requires an internet connection before the "GPS" can tell me anything..?
(Most computer GPS software utilizes Google help, I'd rather be lost than ask Google)

My old $50 Garmin hand held can tell me where I am, and it has never been connected to the internet.

** As this is supposed to be a "privacy orientated phone" why should my phone need Google and the internet to for the GPS to function ? **

I can understand downloading maps from the internet... but....

[wibble]

It's a hardware limitation not a software one, and has nothing to do with Google. I put a basic explanation of what's going on in https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php...e-slow-fix back when this came up before.

Your old garmin has a bigger antenna and a better signal to noise ratio, so has an easier time receiving the broadcast almanac and ephemeris data without errors and hence has a more reliable cold start. The AGPS data comes from servers run by Qualcomm (I think...) and if you want more privacy you can get it through a proxy, through a VPN or TOR - the data varies with time, not your location.

[KNERD]

For me Maps on Manjaro Phosh (dev) works pretty well, it shows my location within 10 metres or so. I have only tried it in urban areas though.

I cannot even keep the modem to stay on with Manjaro Phosh.

---

So maybe we should instead try something else? I have a TomTom MKII Bluetooth GPS receiver. Those are from the 2000s. You can still find them on eBay. I have tested it with my Windows Phone in remote areas using T-mobile where no signal was available, and you could download offline maps. It worked great. I will have to test the TomTom GPS receive with the PinePhone to see how well it will function

However, it seems with the maps available, they seem to be web a wrapper, thus always need internet connection.