Chatty, SMS does not work - could hardware be at fault?

[Frexit]

Strange,
Of the 5 Pine phones I have, *  I have not had to flash even one modem...  I thought I needed to at one point with my original Brave Heart, but a new OS showed that it was not necessary.

Different releases of one operating system,  or using different operating systems have solved any of my problems, from the Brave Heart days to today.

Just for information : i had the same problem with bullseye : no more incoming SMS and sending didn't work too. I installed "Modem Manager GUI", played a little with and... SMS came back again ?! No explanations.

[bcnaz]

I do install Modem Manager GUI on most of the OSes that I use, it is great to clean out the MMS text that tend to get stuck in the Modem.

GREAT to hear it is working for you !

[AntonReiser]

Thank you all for your advice.

This is what I did:

1. Do a factory reset of the modem. It was difficult to find out how it's done, so for those of you how need to reset the Quectel LTE EG25-G Modem, this is the trick:

Code:

sudo mmcli -m 0 --factory-reset=000000

The phone still would not send SMS text messages.

2. Reinstall the Firmware version 02.002.02.002 according to these instructions.
Still would not send SMS text messages.

3. Install FOSS firmware according to these instructions.
Still would not send SMS text messages.

I am out of ideas.

Is there anything left I could try?

[bcnaz]

Have you tried clearing the modem cache ?

There are instructions elsewhere in the forum for clearing it via terminal.
Myself, I use the 'Modem Manager GUI' App to clear the cache with just a few 'clicks'.

open the app > click on sms messages, delete messages > click on 'actions' > click on quit ... DONE.

At one point back in my Brave Heart days I thought I had a modem problem, but since I started clearing the cache, I have not had any modem problems.

To answer your original question, YES, It is possible it could be a hardware problem in your case,
BUT ... I think it is more likely to be a software or firmware issue.

[AntonReiser]

Have you tried clearing the modem cache ?

Thanks! Yes, I had tried that as well, via Modem Manager GUI as well as mmcli -m 0 --messaging-list-sms.

[bcnaz]

Have you tried the most recent Bookworm nightly release ?

[AntonReiser]

Have you tried the most recent Bookworm nightly release ?

Yes. Older Bullseye versions as well.

[bcnaz]

Have you tried the most recent Bookworm nightly release ?

Yes. Older Bullseye versions as well.

Perhaps it is your hardware,  Most of the current and recent Mobian releases I've tried just keep getting better for me. ( an occasional exception )

Some of the other OSes are doing fairly well also,  I just tend to favor Mobian.

[AntonReiser]

In order to rule out a hardware issue, I had posted the question whether it could be a technical defect in the hardware section.

There dcinoz came up with very helpful suggestions. Here's a brief summary of

+++ THE SOLUTION: How to send SMS text messages (if it does not work on its own) +++

1. Use this command immediately after booting the phone:

Code:

mmcli -m any --command='AT+QCFG="ims",2'

2. Check if it has worked with

Code:

mobian@mobian:~$ mmcli -m any --command='AT+QCFG="ims"'
response: '+QCFG: "ims",2,0'

3. If the response is not 2,0 but 2,1 go back to 1. and try to be quicker after the restart.

4. Once the response is 2,0 you should be able to send SMS text messages.

5. To make the change permanent, open the file pine64,pinephone-1.X.toml (in my case 1.2.toml) in the directory //usr/share/eg25-manager/ and

6. replace the lines

Code:

# Enable VoLTE support
    { cmd = "QCFG", subcmd = "ims", expect = "1" },

with

Code:

# Enable VoLTE support
#    { cmd = "QCFG", subcmd = "ims", expect = "1" },
    { cmd = "QCFG", subcmd = "ims", value = "2" },

7. That's all. Good luck!

8. Apparently there's a better method with VoLTE support. I haven't tested it yet. If VoLTE support is important to you, you might want to look here.

[AntonReiser]

If you do decide to flash the alternative firmware at some point (which by the way is also safer than the stock firmware as sudden power loss can't corrupt the modem), you can also revert back to the stock firmware later.

Hi kqlnut, do you know how I can revert back to the stock firmware?

I had installed the FOSS firmware, but I must admit that I am not too happy with it, because the modem keeps crashing, which means that I am unavailable for long stretches without even noticing it.

However, after I had followed the instructions to install the FOSS firmware, I cannot reinstall the original firmware following this manual, I only get error messages.

What do I have to do to reinstall the original firmware?