Phone suddenly unusable

[TRS-80]

My phone was purchased as KDE Community Edition, but after initial distro-hopping, I settled into Mobian stable.

At that time phone calls would drop some times, but most of the time they did work.  I was more or less happy with it as a daily driver (in terms of a phone, anyway).

4G worked, even VoLTE worked (to my surprise!).

Then, maybe a week ago, I changed a couple things at the same time:

1. I upgraded Mobian to Bookworm.
   
2. I changed my SIM and carrier.
   
3. I may have even bent one of SIM pins in the process (not sure though, maybe not).
   

2. From a T-Mobile MVNO (Walmart Family Mobile) to MetroPCS (now Metro by T-Mobile).

3. Yes I realize this fact makes other troubleshooting difficult if not impossible.

What I did not change:

1. I never changed any firmware from stock.
   
2. I never changed kernel from default.
   

Ever since then, I can barely make phone calls.  They often drop right away, or a few to several seconds into the call.  Some times I can complete a phone call.  But it's basically unusable now.

One thing I have noticed, is that the phone seems to want to change from 4G to 3G when making a call now.

So, I have been reading up on firmware and other things, and I am not sure what I should do next?  Any advice / help will be greatly appreciated.

[rocket2nfinity]

Too many things changed at once. So to narrow it down, i'd try a cheap sim from another MVNO so you can rule out physical damage and network issues

[zetabeta]

@TRS-80
you may have complicated mess to test with.

stronger suggestion to test: try 4g-only option for network, in this way you can find out what is going on.

lesser suggestion: try manjaro phosh, in my experience manjaro is quite usable, even though i also like to prefer mobian/debian.

[vongillus]

I would burn Mobian bullseye on a SD card and see if it's the same issue as with bookworm

[TRS-80]

Thanks for suggestions guise.  I do agree I need to narrow it down / proceed in a controlled manner.

I also think the "biggest" problem is probably to rule out physical pin damage.  To that end, I still have my old MVNO SIM, maybe I just purchase some more time there and very carefully swap the SIM back and test.

Last night a couple people in IRC made some other suggestions, one of which was to check dmesg.  So this morning I did that and here is the (full) result: https://bpa.st/5PEQ [0]

Now my phone has been on for some time, so that's kind of long dmesg output, but the following things stand out (to me anyway):

Code:

[   12.650023] sun6i-csi 1cb0000.csi: Direct firmware load for gc2145-init.bin failed with error -2
[   12.659533] gc2145 4-003c: Failed to read firmware gc2145-init.bin, continuing anyway...

[   34.133889] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for GSM modem (1-port)
[   34.145517] option 2-1:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[   34.153836] usb 2-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[   34.164035] option 2-1:1.1: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[   34.170849] usb 2-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1
[   34.180898] option 2-1:1.2: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[   34.187738] usb 2-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB2
[   34.196878] option 2-1:1.3: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[   34.203768] usb 2-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB3

[   52.349935] sun6i-csi 1cb0000.csi: Direct firmware load for gc2145-init.bin failed with error -2
[   52.364006] gc2145 4-003c: Failed to read firmware gc2145-init.bin, continuing anyway...

[   53.263836] sun6i-csi 1cb0000.csi: Direct firmware load for gc2145-init.bin failed with error -2
[   53.281811] gc2145 4-003c: Failed to read firmware gc2145-init.bin, continuing anyway...

[   53.626396] sun6i-csi 1cb0000.csi: Direct firmware load for gc2145-init.bin failed with error -2
[   53.635312] gc2145 4-003c: Failed to read firmware gc2145-init.bin, continuing anyway...

[   53.973638] sun6i-csi 1cb0000.csi: Direct firmware load for gc2145-init.bin failed with error -2
[   53.982527] gc2145 4-003c: Failed to read firmware gc2145-init.bin, continuing anyway...

[31348.065063] option1 ttyUSB0: GSM modem (1-port) converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
[31348.077120] option 2-1:1.0: device disconnected
[31348.090522] option1 ttyUSB1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now disconnected from ttyUSB1
[31348.099063] option 2-1:1.1: device disconnected
[31348.113171] option1 ttyUSB2: GSM modem (1-port) converter now disconnected from ttyUSB2
[31348.128678] option 2-1:1.2: device disconnected
[31348.135252] option1 ttyUSB3: GSM modem (1-port) converter now disconnected from ttyUSB3
[31348.143589] option 2-1:1.3: device disconnected
[31348.148647] qmi_wwan 2-1:1.4 wwan0: unregister 'qmi_wwan' usb-1c1b000.usb-1, WWAN/QMI device
[31348.480568] usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-platform
[31348.658116] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=2c7c, idProduct=0125, bcdDevice= 3.18
[31348.666446] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[31348.673644] usb 2-1: Product: EG25-G
[31348.677295] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: Quectel
[31348.686921] option 2-1:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[31348.694137] usb 2-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[31348.705973] option 2-1:1.1: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[31348.716434] usb 2-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1
[31348.724083] option 2-1:1.2: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[31348.733276] usb 2-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB2
[31348.740991] option 2-1:1.3: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[31348.751059] usb 2-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB3

(above block repeats 10+ times)

It seems to me like the modem keeps dropping out maybe? Perhaps biktorgj improved firmware might help here?

Interestingly, I did make some phone calls just now (which also dropped) but this happened after 77599. and nothing was logged in dmesg for those. I did also notice that 4G stayed on while on the phone, so I guess VoLTE is working after all. I had not changed anything since last reports, so that happened on its own.

[0] That paste will only be up for a week or whatever, but I also saved it to a text file locally. If some dev comes along later looking for it, please do contact me.

[vongillus]

I wouldn't suggest to upgrade now the firmware because you would introduce one more change! Trying the old provider sounds like a good idea though. I would first try with Mobian bullseye on the SD card since it won't cost you much. You can call and see if it's stable. Regarding the logs I am not that familiar with these.

[TRS-80]

I wouldn't suggest to upgrade now the firmware because you would introduce one more change! Trying the old provider sounds like a good idea though. I would first try with Mobian bullseye on the SD card since it won't cost you much. You can call and see if it's stable. Regarding the logs I am not that familiar with these.

Yes I agree with you actually. To clarify...

I guess after reading in detail all the issues and changelog over at biktorgj firmware I became very excited about the possibilities of a F/LOSS wrapper around some buggy proprietary blob. I am looking forward to trying it but that is going to have to wait.

Because I should not let that excitement take over from proceeding with troubleshooting in a more methodical fashion.