New Phosh image - first impressions

[quixote]

Thanks dukla2000 and hk135! Off to try those now.

[dukla2000]

...

Also start at boot

Code:

rc-update add modemmanager

This gives me calls and sms at boot

Result - and Lukasz showing off on YouTube gave me the incentive that it must be possible!

So I have added a couple of other packages, maybe alsa-utils is relevant. But I am confused about what I see:
I boot and eventually get 4G in the status bar. With the sound option set to Phone call and the devices set to Internal speaker and microphone I can make that call, and hear and be heard (OK pretty dodgy quality but no matter). However the reports are odd:

Code:

DuklaPP:~$ ofonoctl list
Modem         Status     SIM
------------  ---------  -------
quectelqmi_0  Unpowered  Unknown


DuklaPP:~$ nmcli device
DEVICE         TYPE      STATE         CONNECTION
wlan0          wifi      connected     Eighteen  
cdc-wdm0       gsm       disconnected  --        
p2p-dev-wlan0  wifi-p2p  disconnected  --        
quectelqmi_0   gsm       unavailable   --        
usb0           ethernet  unmanaged     --        
lo             loopback  unmanaged     --        


DuklaPP:~$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN qlen 1000
   link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
   inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
   inet6 ::1/128 scope host
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: usb0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN qlen 1000
   link/ether 62:77:a2:7f:5b:dd brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
   inet 172.16.42.1/16 brd 172.16.255.255 scope global usb0
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
   link/ether 02:ba:27:38:4f:69 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
   inet 192.168.1.108/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic wlan0
      valid_lft 42997sec preferred_lft 42997sec
   inet6 fd12:dca2:57f1::c8d/128 scope global
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
   inet6 fd12:dca2:57f1:0:c48e:283e:5ada:b66/64 scope global secondary dynamic
      valid_lft 604598sec preferred_lft 86029sec
   inet6 fd12:dca2:57f1:0:3805:9d23:9d99:8f4/64 scope global
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
   inet6 fe80::44a2:dd12:8058:3592/64 scope link
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: wwan0: <POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST,NOARP> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN qlen 1000
   link/[

According to ofonoctl my modem is unpowered. Indeed if I poweron I can no longer make a call. But online and wan --connect and it seems my data is more likely to be working but the 4G vanishes from the status bar!


There are a number of flaky bits in these early days - it appers my phone/sound setup get corrupt if the PinePhone screensaver kicks in.

But all in all great fun!

ps mobile data is damn impressive: speedtest.net result in the attached picture, Midori, but the upload part crashes! This is on Three/UK, 4G/LTE

  IMG_20200219_193744.v01.jpg (Size: 385.65 KB / Downloads: 446)

[MartijnBraam]

To make calls work with this image this should work:

Code:

$ sudo service modemmanager start
$ apk add pavucontrol
$ ofonoctl poweron
$ ofonoctl online

Then calling should work and you should have 3G/4G in the status bar.

[quixote]

Using pine-pinephone-20200218-phosh.img. Can confirm that the sequence of commands works to get the phone calling and texting:

Code:

sudo apk add modemmanager
sudo ofonoctl poweron
sudo ofonoctl online
sudo ofonoctl wan --connect --append-dns
sudo /etc/init.d/modemmanager start
sudo rc-update add modemmanager

then rebooted and texting goes both ways as does calling. BUT

but no sound at all. this is not a phone problem. there's no sound coming out of any speaker, headphone or anything.

also entered  

Code:

sudo apk add pavucontrol

in case that helped matters (you never know "av" might stand for audio-something ), but unless it only works after a reboot, it didn't change the no sound situation.

Off to find out how to turn sound on.

[dukla2000]

Code:

sudo apk add pavucontrol

in case that helped matters (you never know "av" might stand for audio-something ), but unless it only works after a reboot, it didn't change the no sound situation.

"pa" stands for pulse audio

Off to find out how to turn sound on.

In Settings, Sound, make sure Output Device is Internal Earpiece, Config is Phone Call, Input Device is Internal Microphone and Config make a phone call. And all volumes high.
I find pmOS settings sometimes take effect when you select them, sometimes take effect when you return to main settings screen, and sometimes take effect after a reboot (hope I don't get shot for slander!). So for good measure do a reboot.

[quixote]

Changing the settings under Sound Control made a difference! A call out still had no sound anywhere (also not the receiving phone). But a call in produced a very tinny super-reduced voice in the pinephone! Progress!

It was the same before a reboot and after.

It was very difficult to change the settings in Sound. I don't know if that's just slow response time, or I was somehow doing it wrong, but it didn't want to switch to the changed setting until after ten or twenty tries.

So, anyway, the issue isn't the modem at this point, but getting the pinephone to get its audio audible.

[undo]

I haven't tried calls or the new image, but the way I got audio working for podcasting with the previous image was to install alsa-utils, gstreamer and gst-plugins-good. Then I used one of the scripts that are listed in https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9098 to turn the sound on.

[dukla2000]

To make calls work with this image this should work:

Code:

$ sudo service modemmanager start
$ apk add pavucontrol
$ ofonoctl poweron
$ ofonoctl online

Then calling should work and you should have 3G/4G in the status bar.

Yup, I think the sequencing at the start is a bit fragile - what seems to be repeatable for me is

• do not have modemmanager in default runlevel
  
• disable wifi
  
• check all sound setting OK for phone
  
• reboot
  
• sudo ofonoctl poweron
  
• sudo ofonoctl online
  
• sudo ofonoctl wan --connect --append-dns
  
• sudo service modemmanager start
  

After modemmanager starts the dialler in Calls app is happy, the 4G icon comes up in the status bar and mobile data works. Calls work with sound.

Failing to have wifi disabled then ofonoctl wan --connect seems to fail most of the time, or if it works DNS resolution fails on mobile broadband if you later disable wifi.
If modemmanager is in the default runlevel then minimal chance of the 3 ofonoctl commands completing OK, for me even the poweron mostly fails

[M@yeulC]

Just a few points regarding updates:

Code:

apk update && apk upgrade -a

should be enough for updates, no need for images.

BUT, if you want to try out experimental (not yet merged) stuff, you can use images, or alternatively, compile and add the apk (alpine's equivalent of .deb) yourself.

To do so, use pmbootstrap build <name-of-the-package> with an updated aports (=package definition repository) folder (maybe make it track an experimental branch, or a merge request). pmbootstrap instructions are all over the web, but you can find some good ones on the postmarketos wiki. Or just follow the installation guide. We'd really need a page to explain this light maintenance.

Those "experimental" images mostly come from our aports merge requests, and might contain breaking changes. That said, you are welcome to try them out (using pmbootstrap is the preferred way) if you want to leave feedback on the merge request.
As all of this is quite experimental, don't expect to have a stable setup (calls working OOTB, etc) right now. When one is ready (a couple weeks, most likely), it will likely find its way quite quickly on the main postmarketos branch (so no need for images). Meanwhile, we will make sure to merge the better fixes in the package repository.

I am not sure what is the best dev strategy to adopt in the future, but if you want to help with development, ask those who are making progress if they need help testing stuff, and stick with it
Not sure there is a *lot* of value in image-hopping for now, for you or for devs. The issue with images is that they quickly become stale, though they are quite good as checkpoints, or if you want to flash a lot of devices.

[PureTryOut]

Where do you get this image from? Do you know if it's possible to upgrade an existing pmos install?

... Do you know if it's possible to upgrade an existing pmos install?

I think not - AFAIK the bleeding edge will be the latest demo image. Of course between those apk update & upgrade can keep other bits neatly trimmed.

I want to get rid of some confusion here, yes you can upgrade your existing pmOS install. We're rolling release, we don't have "releases". Every image we make is basically just a

Code:

apk update && apk upgrade -a

from the previous image. Please know you don't have to reflash your device if a new image is released, just upgrade your existing system instead.