Modem network registration fails

[docteur_saoul]

Hi,

I've been messing around with my pinephone BH for a few months now and cannot get cellular network to work.
I have tested mobian, ubports, pmos and sailfish and all can recognize the sim card (tried two different carriers) and unlock it (also tried with no PIN) but they cannot register to the network.

I have also tried to debug with modem manager, and it can indeed find the various carriers' networks, just cannot register.

Does anyone have any idea regarding what the problem could be ?

Thanks in advance

[dukla2000]

Hi,

I've been messing around with my pinephone BH for a few months now and cannot get cellular network to work.
I have tested mobian, ubports, pmos and sailfish and all can recognize the sim card (tried two different carriers) and unlock it (also tried with no PIN) but they cannot register to the network.

I have also tried to debug with modem manager, and it can indeed find the various carriers' networks, just cannot register.

Does anyone have any idea regarding what the problem could be ?

Thanks in advance

Try pushing switch 1 OFF then ON again? (In the very early days someone reported out of the box the switches seemed to be unpredictable after shipping.)

In Mobian, Settings, Mobile what are you seeing? And in Modem Details?

And when you say "doesn't work" do you mean calls and/or SMS and/or data?

[docteur-saoul]

Thanks for your reply !

Yes, i've already checked the switches, they work as expected.
In the settings I can see all the modem informations and APN settings (it manages to find the suitable setting automatically so I guess it has no problem reading the SIM card). The only problem is that network status is always "Unregistered" and when I try registering manually, it fails with a timeout error.
When I say "doesn't work", I mean only the network registration part (therefore neither calls SMS or data works). I can issue AT command via minicom and the one I tested worked, except for the registration commands.

Thanks for the help

[dukla2000]

...
The only problem is that network status is always "Unregistered"
...

That is a PITA - I can usually get Registered but often have to go round multiple circles of reboots and playing with APN to get mobile data working. My waters tell me 1 of my SIMs is problematic because it is a virtual operator (Virgin, UK) but even so a SIM I use from 3 is not 100% and I suspect the Quectel modem is a bit temperamental. Not sure if there will ever be firmware updates for it though.

[asz]

I know this is an old thread but it is the only one I've found that addresses my problems (well, quite close anyhow). If you think this post is misplaced, please feel free to move it to a better location.

Out of the box, the PinePhone (booted on Manjaro, nightly) find my network with the default settings of "2G,3G,4G (Preferred)" but it is very fond of the 3G (strength 10%) signal and not so much of the 4G (strength 70%), and it manages to register. But since the 3G network has a signal strength of maybe about 10% (and that grows weaker and weaker by every day) it is practically useless. I miss 95% of all calls and 70% of all my texts.

If I do mmcli -m any --3gpp-scan --timeout=300 it gives me a list of carriers on the network... the one currently connected is marked with "current" and that is in 99% the UMTS 3G network that is shown in the GUI too. I also have some "forbidden" and some "available" carriers in my list. One of the "available" is my carriers LTE service.
I can ask the phone to register (again) with the command mmcli -m any --3gpp-register-home and that successfully registers the modem.

If I set the pinephone to "4G only" in the GUI and scan the network again (with the above command) the "current" carrier changes to the LTE-version that I previously saw as "available" when I was using UMTS. That makes sense, I think. BUT... and here is my problem... now the phone is no longer able to register. So it sits there with 70-80% signal strength and are equally useless.

Talking to the phone company support is like talking to a duck, they listen patiently and react in no relation to what has been said.
I still have the "old/original" modem firmware, I am to coward to update, I have a history of bricking things.

Quite obviously I am doing something wrong.... does anyone here have an idea?