Pine Phone Pro audio on phone calls: discussion, support and tips

[DominiqueM]

I do not like the idea of modifying in /usr because it is against the spirit of Linux and lost in upgrade. I would like to override only the 47 with 160, say in /etc. Suppose I write something as
SectionVerb {
  EnableSequence [
    # Set capture volume to 0dB so modem audio doesn't overdrive the ADC
    cset "name='ADC Capture Volume' 160"
    cset "name='Mono ADC Capture Volume' 160"
  ]
  DisableSequence [
  ]
  Value {
    TQ "HiFi"
  }
}
1. Will this override only the value 47 or override and break all of PinePhonePro.conf? 2. Where, under what name, in which file under /etc/alsa? (I never did such a thing in my life.)

---

Rules are rules… but I could not wait, so I did
sudo sed -i 's/47/160/g' /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/PinePhonePro/VoiceCall.conf
sudo sed -i 's/47/160/g' /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/PinePhonePro/HiFi.conf
and it works perfectly. Thanks to all the people who ever mentioned 47 and 160.

Some Mobian images (like mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230709) give other path: /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/Rockchip/PinePhonePro/
Anyway, I have a new annoying problem for phone calls: not sound at all (not outgoing, not incoming).

[tckosvic]

I do not like the idea of modifying in /usr because it is against the spirit of Linux and lost in upgrade. I would like to override only the 47 with 160, say in /etc. Suppose I write something as
SectionVerb {
  EnableSequence [
    # Set capture volume to 0dB so modem audio doesn't overdrive the ADC
    cset "name='ADC Capture Volume' 160"
    cset "name='Mono ADC Capture Volume' 160"
  ]
  DisableSequence [
  ]
  Value {
    TQ "HiFi"
  }
}
1. Will this override only the value 47 or override and break all of PinePhonePro.conf? 2. Where, under what name, in which file under /etc/alsa? (I never did such a thing in my life.)

---

Rules are rules… but I could not wait, so I did
sudo sed -i 's/47/160/g' /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/PinePhonePro/VoiceCall.conf
sudo sed -i 's/47/160/g' /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/PinePhonePro/HiFi.conf
and it works perfectly. Thanks to all the people who ever mentioned 47 and 160.

Some Mobian images (like mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230709) give other path: /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/Rockchip/PinePhonePro/
Anyway, I have a new annoying problem for phone calls: not sound at all (not outgoing, not incoming).

@Dominique M,  in post prior to the above it was stated that phone audio worked perfectly after sed change from 47 to 160. That was a week or so ago.  When did the complete audio go out, for how long did it work, how many calls did it work on, and did you change anything OS/desktop software related?  
thanks,    tom kosvic

[DominiqueM]

[…]
Some Mobian images (like mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230709) give other path: /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/Rockchip/PinePhonePro/
Anyway, I have a new annoying problem for phone calls: not sound at all (not outgoing, not incoming).

@Dominique M,  in post prior to the above it was stated that phone audio worked perfectly after sed change from 47 to 160. That was a week or so ago.  When did the complete audio go out, for how long did it work, how many calls did it work on, and did you change anything OS/desktop software related?  
thanks,    tom kosvic

10-7-2023 mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230709 (was by accident on the page weekly, not a conscious choice). I call my daughter. Microphone too weak. Sudo alsamixer, got better sound with the Sound recorder. Did not try to call at that time.
11-7-2023 I get a call, no sound at all!
12-7-2023 Supposing I may have broken something with Alsamixer, I install mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230606 (not weekly to play safe) to get rid of all possible broken config. I call my daughter again and get called back by her. Microphone still too weak. I find advice about 160 instead of 47. Sudo sed -i 47 to 160 in both HiFi and VoiceCall config in /usr. I call my daughter again, sound satisfactory.
One or two calls without sound the following days, unknown numbers, I suppose maybe crooks not speaking to make me call back.
17-7-2023 Incoming call my other daughter. No sound at all. Reinstall package als-cum-conf. No improvement (not even the weak microphone).
18-7-2023 Again install mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230709. Sound recorder: weak micro. I try this time 47 to 100 in both HiFi and VoiceCall config in /usr. Recorded sound good. But still no sound at all in phone calls.
I cannot see any special event between success 12-7-2023 (after 47 to 160) and phone call completely broken afterwards.

Some Mobian images (like mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230709) give other path: /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/Rockchip/PinePhonePro/
Anyway, I have a new annoying problem for phone calls: not sound at all (not outgoing, not incoming).

@Dominique M,  in post prior to the above it was stated that phone audio worked perfectly after sed change from 47 to 160. That was a week or so ago.  When did the complete audio go out, for how long did it work, how many calls did it work on, and did you change anything OS/desktop software related?  
thanks,    tom kosvic

10-7-2023 mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230709 (was by accident on the page weekly, not a conscious choice). I call my daughter. Microphone too weak. Sudo alsamixer, got better sound with the Sound recorder. Did not try to call at that time.
11-7-2023 I get a call, no sound at all!
12-7-2023 Supposing I may have broken something with Alsamixer, I install mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230606 (not weekly to play safe) to get rid of all possible broken config. I call my daughter again and get called back by her. Microphone still too weak. I find advice about 160 instead of 47. Sudo sed -i 47 to 160 in both HiFi and VoiceCall config in /usr. I call my daughter again, sound satisfactory.
One or two calls without sound the following days, unknown numbers, I suppose maybe crooks not speaking to make me call back.
17-7-2023 Incoming call my other daughter. No sound at all. Reinstall package als-cum-conf. No improvement (not even the weak microphone).
18-7-2023 Again install mobian-pinephonepro-phosh-20230709. Sound recorder: weak micro. I try this time 47 to 100 in both HiFi and VoiceCall config in /usr. Recorded sound good. But still no sound at all in phone calls.
I cannot see any special event between success 12-7-2023 (after 47 to 160) and phone call completely broken afterwards.

[alaraajavamma]

I suggest that you try postmarketos Phosh stable or Arch Phosh.
Postmarketos is the only distro which has correct mic values by default so maybe go with that.
You will still face this issue with every distro:
https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/issues/2016

I haven't gotten Mobian to work reliably at all (as in phone).
People report it stable but I am not sure are they using it more as pocket computer than phone.

[mikehenson]

During a phone call, the other person has told me about an echo. I have not found any direction on correcting this.

Device: PinePhone Pro
OS: DanctNIX Arch Linux with Phosh
Kernel: Linux danctnix 6.4.1-1-danctnix
Phosh version 0.28

[alaraajavamma]

During a phone call, the other person has told me about an echo. I have not found any direction on correcting this.

Device: PinePhone Pro
OS: DanctNIX Arch Linux with Phosh
Kernel: Linux danctnix 6.4.1-1-danctnix
Phosh version 0.28

You are using wireplumber and pipewire-pulse right?

I have been able to reproduce echo on the other end only whit "speaker mode mic".

Currently there are some issues which are not very well documented so I try to write them down:
1. Somehow there are two mic setups "earpiece" and "speaker"
There is only one setup in mic section if you look VoiceCall.conf so I don't fully understand where this is coming from
When people complain echo or too loud mic they are 99% sure using "speaker mic"

2. If you toggle speaker mode during call it will switch incoming sound correctly to earpiece or speaker but after first switch to speaker the mic setup will stay in "speaker mode" and does not come back to "earpiece mode" no matter what you do.
That is why some people claim that toggling speaker on/off will fix the mic in the beginning of the call
And those who claim that are 99% sure using too low mic values (they are by default 47 in Arch, Mobian and Manjaro and it is absolutely too low)
(sxmo even toggless speaker mode on and off before every call so they are at the moment all the time in "speaker mode mic" and they have to lower the mic to 20-25% in their settings to make it usable)

3. Wireplumber does not swithc Callaudio profiles correctly (sometimes it does but most of the times not)
Many times when you start call it will start in speaker mode - so you are stuck in "speaker mode mic" until the end of call
There is your echo - I think?

4. Incoming call while PPP is suspended will destroy the earpiece mic and make it REALLY much lower
How ever speaker mode mic is not affected - so for example in sxmo (see upper part) it feels like they don't have this issue but the reason is another bug xD
And because of the above some people claim that they can fix this toggling speaker on/off (which is kind of true)

5. The speaker mode mic so is so damn sensitive that you can whisper from 1 meter distance and the other party will hear you really loud an clear

6. If you have wifi/bluetooth killed by the killswitch callaudio will suspend in few seconds and you can't be heard and hear anything
Megi did give me some idea how to fix this but I have not been able to try it
What you can do with this easily? Use pulseaudio and disable pulseaudio suspend - then it will work. But it will also prevent suspend totally so not a good idea


I am trying to figure this out but not with good success so feel free to help.

[DominiqueM]

I suggest that you try postmarketos Phosh stable or Arch Phosh.
Postmarketos is the only distro which has correct mic values by default so maybe go with that.
You will still face this issue with every distro:
https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/issues/2016

I haven't gotten Mobian to work reliably at all (as in phone).
People report it stable but I am not sure are they using it more as pocket computer than phone.

Un-Googled Androids exist. I have a Volla 22 with the Volla operating system. My motivation for PinePhone (or PP Pro — in the meanwhile I went back to my old PP not Pro) is to have Posix disks so that I can rsync files preserving timestamps. That way, I have in my pocket a phone and an external hard disk in a single object. With Android and MTP, files would appear as new each time. (The Android kernel has no modules that allow anything better, no ext4 nor f2fs.)
Mobian Phosh offers me Ethernet through the USB cable (said Linux Foundation Multifunction Gadget). It allow to SSH to the PinePhone and also to access in a file manager as, say, sftp://mobian@10.66.0.1/media/mobian/SD256.
My question is: do other OS offer connections to a computer as satisfactory as Mobian Phosh (while allowing to phone also)?

[alaraajavamma]

afaik mobian is the best choice for out-of-the-box usb connections - like network sharing, ssh or file transfer.

But it does not hurt to try and I believe that all those functions can somehow be made to work for all distros because the differences are not that big.

[dcartman]

3. Wireplumber does not swithc Callaudio profiles correctly (sometimes it does but most of the times not)
Many times when you start call it will start in speaker mode - so you are stuck in "speaker mode mic" until the end of call
There is your echo - I think?

I have been considering a rewrite of callaudiod so that it interfaces with pipewire directly, rather than through Pulse/Alsa. Before I head down this adventure, I was wondering if anyone else has considered or started this process?

Thanks,
Daniel

(A guy who just wants to hear his wife when she calls.)

You are using wireplumber and pipewire-pulse right?

I have been able to reproduce echo on the other end only whit "speaker mode mic".

Currently there are some issues which are not very well documented so I try to write them down:
1. Somehow there are two mic setups "earpiece" and "speaker"
There is only one setup in mic section if you look VoiceCall.conf so I don't fully understand where this is coming from
When people complain echo or too loud mic they are 99% sure using "speaker mic"

2. If you toggle speaker mode during call it will switch incoming sound correctly to earpiece or speaker but after first switch to speaker the mic setup will stay in "speaker mode" and does not come back to "earpiece mode" no matter what you do.
That is why some people claim that toggling speaker on/off will fix the mic in the beginning of the call
And those who claim that are 99% sure using too low mic values (they are by default 47 in Arch, Mobian and Manjaro and it is absolutely too low)
(sxmo even toggless speaker mode on and off before every call so they are at the moment all the time in "speaker mode mic" and they have to lower the mic to 20-25% in their settings to make it usable)

3. Wireplumber does not swithc Callaudio profiles correctly (sometimes it does but most of the times not)
Many times when you start call it will start in speaker mode - so you are stuck in "speaker mode mic" until the end of call
There is your echo - I think?

4. Incoming call while PPP is suspended will destroy the earpiece mic and make it REALLY much lower
How ever speaker mode mic is not affected - so for example in sxmo (see upper part) it feels like they don't have this issue but the reason is another bug xD
And because of the above some people claim that they can fix this toggling speaker on/off (which is kind of true)

5. The speaker mode mic so is so damn sensitive that you can whisper from 1 meter distance and the other party will hear you really loud an clear

6. If you have wifi/bluetooth killed by the killswitch callaudio will suspend in few seconds and you can't be heard and hear anything
Megi did give me some idea how to fix this but I have not been able to try it
What you can do with this easily? Use pulseaudio and disable pulseaudio suspend - then it will work. But it will also prevent suspend totally so not a good idea


I am trying to figure this out but not with good success so feel free to help.

[DominiqueM]

To the «guy who just wants to hear his wife when she calls». This is what is called telephone. We all hope to see the PinePhone Pro becoming a real telephone. Nobody objected to your proposal. So please do and keep us informed.