Latest firmware for PinePhone modem!

[calinb]

A few days ago I added my experience to the issue on the Pine64-arch git and was "nudged" that the modem-vanishing "trick" was more of a problem with 01.003.01.003. So I flashed 01.002.01.002 about 36 hours ago and since then have been running arch without a hiccup.

I just had a quick check through my journal and it seems the eg25manager code to regularly try recover the modem works as intended with 01.002.01.002 and (my suspicion) does not work with arch & 01.003.01.003?

YMMV

Thank you for your post here and on the Pin64-arch git, dukla2000!

In checking my journal, I'm seeing the same failure. Sometimes eg25manager recovers the modem (even with 01.003.01.003) but sometimes it does not recover it. Strangely, the xgps ap, from the gpsd-clients package, has not worked for me for quite a while (on Mobian). It stopped working with the original 01.001.01.001 firmware weeks or months ago but I don't use it much (because my GPS works so poorly as to be pretty much worthless, even after seeding positional data with the load_agps_data.py "proof of concept" script) and I didn't realize that xgps was bringing the modem down. I now see that it quite reliably removes the modem from my system, requiring a phone reset. Many months ago, when I first install gpsd-clients, it worked. It was not what caused my 01.003.01.003 firmware modem removal yesterday when I attempted to place an inbound call to a sleeping phone, however.

[dukla2000]

After my first 36 hour honeymoon with 01.002.01.002, today my modem has gone AWOL twice while running arch :-(
Still persevering with arch for now, will revert to mobian if the modem goes again and see if that is still solid.

[calinb]

After my first 36 hour honeymoon with 01.002.01.002, today my modem has gone AWOL twice while running arch :-(
Still persevering with arch for now, will revert to mobian if the modem goes again and see if that is still solid.

01.003.01.003 and Mobian may be daily driver-capable for me! It's the first time since I got my Pinephone about 10 months ago that I think I trust it to function reliably for inbound and outbound voice and SMS.   Previously, I could not let the phone sleep or it would miss incoming calls and SMS texts and there was no way it was usable for me with its non-sleeping 2-3 hour battery life. With sleep set to occur after 5 inactive minutes, my Pinephone now appears to be able to reliably run all day long, if I strictly limit my Pinephone use for other purposes (media playback, OSM Scout Map Server/Pure Maps, web, email, etc.).

When the modem crashes and is not automatically restored, I've found that it can usually be brought back by toggling Settings >> Mobile off and on or by running Modem Manager GUI and pressing the cellular "activate" button.

I once found the modem to be down after I woke the phone manually using the side button (no phone call) but I don't know when the modem crashed. (Was it the manually wake-up that caused the crash?) I need to experiment more and study the log time stamps. (journalctl is a PITA and I much prefer SYS V init!)

Every time I stop using the phone and allow it to sleep, I always check to make sure the modem is up so, hopefully, I won't miss inbound calls and SMS texts.

The modem crashes that required a full phone reset, which I reported right after flashing the 01.003.01.003 firmware, were hopefully related to the few +QCFG settings that I've since restored to their original values or maybe the crashes were caused by my GPS (xgps ap) activities.

I've been calling the phone frequently while it's asleep and it seems to be coming out of sleep reliably with commencement of ringing after a two-ring delay on the initiating phone end.

Finally, there's some kind of bug, at least on Mobian, where with Bluetooth off and Wi-Fi on, toggling Wi-Fi off via the screen bar Wi-Fi icon causes the phone to enter Airplane Mode--at least Airplane Mode is then reported in Settings >> Mobile).  However, the phone is not actually in a valid airplane mode, because inbound and outbound calls remain functional.

I'll probably run 01.003.01.003 for a good while to gain confidence in its performance and usability before trying 01.002.01.002.

[calinb]

Finally, there's some kind of bug, at least on Mobian, where with Bluetooth off and Wi-Fi on, toggling Wi-Fi off via the screen bar Wi-Fi icon causes the phone to enter Airplane Mode--at least Airplane Mode is then reported in Settings >> Mobile).  However, the phone is not actually in a valid airplane mode, because inbound and outbound calls remain functional.

I'll probably run 01.003.01.003 for a good while to gain confidence in its performance and usability before trying 01.002.01.002.

Replying to my own post...it seems Airplane Mode is falsely indicated whenever Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are initially both turned-off via either the screen top bar icons or the Settings ap. From the thread, it appears to be a phosh bug rather than firmware related, so I posted about it here:

https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...3#pid98803

[calinb]

Update:

I think I'll stick with 01.003.01.003 firmware--especially since since I've also found fewer bugs and improved stability since I switched from Mobian stable (Bullseye) to Mobian testing (Bookworm), because the Mobian devs essentially dropped support for Bullseye.  (I understand their reasons, however.)

So far, I've found Bookworm to be more stable than Bullseye and it has fewer bugs than Bullseye for me. As the development and testing Mobian branch, this may not always be the case, however.

For now, I almost never find the modem has vanished (I think it happened only once since my dist-upgrade to Bookworm and I didn't need to reboot to restart it) soI'm finally able to use sleep mode since flashing 01.003.01.003. Now that I can use sleep mode, it's the first time since I bought my Pinephone, that the battery lasts long enough that I can use it as a "daily driver."

[Zebulon Walton]

The newer firmware sounds interesting, but I'm finding my Pinephone is working pretty much flawlessly for making and receiving calls with the latest Mobian bookworm with 01.002.01.002 modem firmware, so will stick with that for now.

[calinb]

The newer firmware sounds interesting, but I'm finding my Pinephone is working pretty much flawlessly for making and receiving calls with the latest Mobian bookworm with 01.002.01.002 modem firmware, so will stick with that for now.

That's great news. If it works, don't fix it, right? The Pinephone finally works for me as a phone. From what's reported here, it seems like 01.002.01.002 has most, if not all, of the stability and performance gains. I just happened to flash 01.003.01.003 first and it's working for me.

I have a 128GB SD card with multi-boot on it and, not only is it a good size for storing my audio and video media, it's also a good place to store Bookworm (testing) system backup images so I have a recovery option, if Mobian development results in regressions in functionality. 

I set Bookworm on eMMC to be the default boot, but it's convenient to boot to multi-boot Mobian, which I've dedicated to backup and restore tasks, and run dd to make backups, because its terminal cli history always has the commands right up at the top of the history file (up / down arrows in terminal) and I don't have to type much on the screen keyboard.

With sleep mode working, I think I'll order a new LCD screen. (Thanks for your post about screen replacement.) Now with sleep mode usually enabled, I'm no longer cooking my phone 24/7 like I have for the last 10 months so maybe a new screen will last.

[zetabeta]

for me, 01.003.01.003 and 01.002.01.002 are equally problematic. i'm on 01.003.01.003 at a moment. both disconnect mobile internet after some time and reconnect. time is random but maybe from a hour to a day. i see it by ip numbers because it changes often. some cases modemmanager locks in a way, it requires deeper fixes.

eg25 modem chip is designed for iot-devices and similar, it would be expected to have some reliability. although pinephone board may have some issues as well.

[Zebulon Walton]

It may be I'm not seeing a problem with the modem because I don't use mobile internet, all I use the Pinephone for is phone calls and as a portable Linux computer like a tiny laptop. (I have the mobile internet feature disabled in the settings.) For internet access I use wi-fi which has been working perfectly well aside from being limited to the 2.4GHz band.

[bcnaz]

Except for an occasional problem with some MMS plugging the cache,

My only problem I have noticed in recent months has been carrier caused.

But then I do only turn on the data when I want to use it, then turn it off when I am done. *(Mostly just testing for function)

All of my Pine phones still have the factory shipped firmware.