Fractal/Matrix MMS workaround

[Noob Of All Trades]

Hello,
First post on the forum and I'm new to Linux, but crash-coursing so there will probably be a lot of basic questions. I'll try to give as much background as I can.

I purchased a Pine Phone Beta edition with convergence package. I settled on Manjaro Arm Phosh beta 34 for the distro. And I'm on the Metro PCS ( T-mobile network) in the U.S. So of course that means I have call, SMS, data, but no MMS. 

I read through the article on how to set up Fractal through terminal (https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_MMS_with_Matrix), but I'lll be real-- I was totally lost. I've run a few commands through terminal (like looking for clogged sms and clearing them), but without step-by-step guides or a DIY video I was lost with all that. So given the quick pace of distro development I opened Fractal and tried to set it up from there-- hoping for the best. 

Fractal prompted me to create an account and directed me to Element. I did that. Element asked me to download Element apk from fDroid. I think I did that, but I don't see it on my phone. So then I went back to Fractal and tried to log in. When Fractal prompted for my "provider," I listed my identity server ( vector.im which according to Element doesn't support phone numbers ). I entered my login info for Element, but I keep getting " Can't Log in " in Fractal. I've tried both Username and @username:matrix.org and of course Password. I even tried the Manjaro username and password. 

What am I doing wrong? Do I need to go back to Terminal and type a bunch of commands?  

Thanks in advance.

[alaraajavamma]

Hi!

Those instructions are kind of outdated because MMS works today almost out of the box.
Just set correct APN to System Settings and to Chatty.

If you wan't to use that Matrix-mms thing you need to get rid of Chatty completely because otherwise you have two instance racing for the MMS and only other one can win

[Kevin Kofler]

Element asked me to download Element apk from fDroid. I think I did that, but I don't see it on my phone.

The PinePhone does not support Android APKs.

I cannot answer the questions because I am not familiar with Fractal, but I doubt Fractal is the answer to your MMS issues.  The instructions in your link set up an MMS to Matrix bridge locally on the phone. That is the pretty much the only way you can receive MMS sent to your phone number in a Matrix client. But it can only work if you can receive MMS on the phone to begin with, in which case they should just work without all that complex set up. (Both Chatty and Spacebar support MMS these days.) If you have issues with, e.g., the APN setup, then the bridge will not help you either.

[Noob Of All Trades]

Hi!

Those instructions are kind of outdated because MMS works today almost out of the box.
Just set correct APN to System Settings and to Chatty.

If you wan't to use that Matrix-mms thing you need to get rid of Chatty completely because otherwise you have two instance racing for the MMS and only other one can win

So according to this Wiki (https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_C...orkarounds) on Metro PCS in the USA, MMS still doesn't work. Admittedly, those test runs were from 2021, but when I try to set the APN Settings in Chatty ( I assume you mean Chatty>Preferences>Protocol Settings> SMS and MMS Settings )   I can't enter any information in MMS Carrier Settings. It's dark and won't let me open it. I would prefer to use Chatty. 

I'll delete Chatty and see if that works. Thanks for the tip.

[Noob Of All Trades]

Element asked me to download Element apk from fDroid. I think I did that, but I don't see it on my phone.

The PinePhone does not support Android APKs.

I had to download Waydroid first (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUv9lOGaydw). Unless that's not a true APK? Sorry if my terminology is off.

[Kevin Kofler]

Indeed, with Waydroid, you can get some Android APKs to run. If you know what you are doing, at least. IMHO, it is generally not worth the effort.

I doubt you can get MMS to work with the Matrix bridge workaround and not with Chatty. Either they work or they do not. The last test with MetroPCS on the wiki page you linked was in 2021, so that is not very useful.

[Noob Of All Trades]

Hi!

Those instructions are kind of outdated because MMS works today almost out of the box.
Just set correct APN to System Settings and to Chatty.

If you wan't to use that Matrix-mms thing you need to get rid of Chatty completely because otherwise you have two instance racing for the MMS and only other one can win

I deleted Chatty. No luck. I still can't login to Fractal. Just for clarity: the Fractal login is the same as the Matrix login, right? And the "identity Server" is Fractal's "service provider"?

---

Just to provide more data on my situation.

My phone will get clogged with messages that don’t show up on Chatty. Then it stops receiving SMS.

I run these commands in Terminal ( called Console on my phone):
$ mmcli -m any --messaging-list-sms

the phone responds with something like this:

Found 10 SMS messages:
/org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/SMS/0 (received)

But it will say that 10 times for 10 messages with the last digit counting up.

Then I run:

$ mmcli -m any --messaging-delete-sms=0

and repeat that, changing the last digit to match all the messages the phone listed. After that all my SMS that hadn’t come through before show up on Chatty-- even showing the correct time when the SMS was sent. I think I even raised my reception from 2G to 4G. I presume those stuck messages are the MMS. And that makes me think the phone is receiving them, but Chatty can’t process them. Obviously I could be wrong. I got the Terminal commands from this article ( https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_F...eceive_SMS)

[alaraajavamma]

After that all my SMS that hadn’t come through before show up on Chatty-- even showing the correct time when the SMS was sent. I think I even raised my reception from 2G to 4G. I presume those stuck messages are the MMS. And that makes me think the phone is receiving them, but Chatty can’t process them. Obviously I could be wrong. I got the Terminal commands from this article ( https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_F...eceive_SMS)

Is your goal to have working MMS or do you want to use MMS with Matrix/Fractal?

I can help you with both.
Fractal way is only workaround and it does not work perfectly - good enough maybe.
The built in process with Chatty is more bullet proof

[mikehenson]

I deleted Chatty. No luck. I still can't login to Fractal. Just for clarity: the Fractal login is the same as the Matrix login, right? And the "identity Server" is Fractal's "service provider"?

---

Just to provide more data on my situation.

My phone will get clogged with messages that don’t show up on Chatty. Then it stops receiving SMS.

I run these commands in Terminal ( called Console on my phone):
$ mmcli -m any --messaging-list-sms

the phone responds with something like this:

Found 10 SMS messages:
/org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/SMS/0 (received)

But it will say that 10 times for 10 messages with the last digit counting up.

Then I run:

$ mmcli -m any --messaging-delete-sms=0

and repeat that, changing the last digit to match all the messages the phone listed. After that all my SMS that hadn’t come through before show up on Chatty-- even showing the correct time when the SMS was sent. I think I even raised my reception from 2G to 4G. I presume those stuck messages are the MMS. And that makes me think the phone is receiving them, but Chatty can’t process them. Obviously I could be wrong. I got the Terminal commands from this article ( https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_F...eceive_SMS)

What firmware do you have on the modem? I ask because once I loaded Biktorgj firmware, I stopped getting stuck messages. 

There is the Biktorgj firmware AND the ADSP firmware. You need both. You also need to use the correct ADSP firmware for T-Mobile (ADSP Version 01.003.01.003)

Videos for reference:
PinePhone OR PinePhone Pro (4of5) - Phosh - Setup - Biktorgj - osmin - brave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgFtFzPh...99&index=7
00:00 Intro
00:10 Log into phone
00:28 install gnome-firmware
01:00 run gnome-firmware
01:00 run gnome-firmware
03:20 Fail, Run again
04:20 Downgrade again
05:55 Biktorgj is loaded
06:30 verify the ADSP version

Loading the ASDP firmware
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsCpmkE5...99&index=2

Device: PinePhone 32Gig (Used for building packages)
Device: PinePhonePro (Daily driver)
OS: DanctNIX Arch with Phosh
Carrier: USA - Patriot Mobile (T-Mobile SIM)

[Noob Of All Trades]

After that all my SMS that hadn’t come through before show up on Chatty-- even showing the correct time when the SMS was sent. I think I even raised my reception from 2G to 4G. I presume those stuck messages are the MMS. And that makes me think the phone is receiving them, but Chatty can’t process them. Obviously I could be wrong. I got the Terminal commands from this article ( https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_F...eceive_SMS)

Is your goal to have working MMS or do you want to use MMS with Matrix/Fractal?

I can help you with both.
Fractal way is only workaround and it does not work perfectly - good enough maybe.
The built in process with Chatty is more bullet proof

I would much prefer Chatty. There's no need to run all my SMS/MMS through another server.