Any progress on fixing incoming SMS?

[JayByrd]

I have been experiencing the exact problem detailed in the PinePhone FAQ: voice calling and outgoing SMS work fine, but incoming SMS is spotty, at best.  (The instructions given in the FAQ regarding deleting old messages has no effect.)  I'd say that only about 10% of received SMS messages are coming through.

Using mmcli with AT-commands I've been able to determine that the Quectel modem IS receiving all the SMS messages, but for some reason they are not being picked up by the chat app in the UI.  It seems as though either the modem is not passing the incoming SMS to the USB bus as it should--unlikely, I'd say--or, more likely, the Phosh chat app isn't picking them up from the USB.

To be specific, using AT+CMGR at the command line, I can see the messages, but only in hexadecimal.  When I send a test-text to the PinePhone, within 30 seconds I can verify that the modem has received the message using AT+CMGL, which displays the time-stamp of the message, yet no message shows up in "Chats."  I have verified that the relevant modem defaults are correct.  E.g., AT+CNMI=2,1,0,0,0.

Any info to help resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated.

My PinePhone details:
Hardware v1.2b
Manjaro-Phosh-beta4
Quectel firmware v01.002.07

Thanks,
Jay

[antiX-Dave]

When you are not receiving messages what does
mmcli --messaging-list-sms -m 0
show?

If you download modem-manager-gui, are you able to see these messages?

[kop316]

I have been experiencing the exact problem detailed in the PinePhone FAQ: voice calling and outgoing SMS work fine, but incoming SMS is spotty, at best.  (The instructions given in the FAQ regarding deleting old messages has no effect.)  I'd say that only about 10% of received SMS messages are coming through.

Using mmcli with AT-commands I've been able to determine that the Quectel modem IS receiving all the SMS messages, but for some reason they are not being picked up by the chat app in the UI.  It seems as though either the modem is not passing the incoming SMS to the USB bus as it should--unlikely, I'd say--or, more likely, the Phosh chat app isn't picking them up from the USB.

To be specific, using AT+CMGR at the command line, I can see the messages, but only in hexadecimal.  When I send a test-text to the PinePhone, within 30 seconds I can verify that the modem has received the message using AT+CMGL, which displays the time-stamp of the message, yet no message shows up in "Chats."  I have verified that the relevant modem defaults are correct.  E.g., AT+CNMI=2,1,0,0,0.

Any info to help resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated.

My PinePhone details:
Hardware v1.2b
Manjaro-Phosh-beta4
Quectel firmware v01.002.07

Thanks,
Jay

What are you describing makes me wonder, are these SMS or MMS messages? In it's current state, if chatty recieves an SMS WAP message (an SMS that say's it got an MMS), chatty ignores those messages.

If you could show what these SMS messages look like, that may help.

[JayByrd]

Thanks for the responses, guys.  Sorry it's taken me so long to get back, but I got diverted onto another project yesterday, and had to set the phone aside...

Well, it turns out that the solution in the FAQ mentioned above does seem to work.  Once I cleared the messages from the modem using

Code:

mmcli -m 0 --command='AT+CMGD=4'

, messages from most of my friends started coming through in Chatty.  However, messages from one sender (who was the one I had been relying on to send me test messages) continued to be ignored...

Modem-Manager-GUI, on the other hand, does retrieve these ignored messages from the queue--and then clears out the queue automatically.  When I view the messages in MM-GUI, I still see only long strings of hex (just like using mmcli -m 0 --command='AT+CMGR=x'), but at least they are definitely being received and not laying around clogging up the queue.

It leads me to believe that kop is correct: these aren't "normal" SMS texts at all.  Somewhere along the line, either at the sender's end, or at my provider's gateway, they are (re-)formatted as MMS (or some other "exotic" form.)

At any rate, thanks again for your responses.  I will go ahead and mark this issue as solved.

[kop316]

Thanks for the responses, guys.  Sorry it's taken me so long to get back, but I got diverted onto another project yesterday, and had to set the phone aside...

Well, it turns out that the solution in the FAQ mentioned above does seem to work.  Once I cleared the messages from the modem using

Code:

mmcli -m 0 --command='AT+CMGD=4'

, messages from most of my friends started coming through in Chatty.  However, messages from one sender (who was the one I had been relying on to send me test messages) continued to be ignored...

Modem-Manager-GUI, on the other hand, does retrieve these ignored messages from the queue--and then clears out the queue automatically.  When I view the messages in MM-GUI, I still see only long strings of hex (just like using mmcli -m 0 --command='AT+CMGR=x'), but at least they are definitely being received and not laying around clogging up the queue.

It leads me to believe that kop is correct: these aren't "normal" SMS texts at all.  Somewhere along the line, either at the sender's end, or at my provider's gateway, they are (re-)formatted as MMS (or some other "exotic" form.)

At any rate, thanks again for your responses.  I will go ahead and mark this issue as solved.

As an FYI, You can download and check the SMS you get manually: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mobile-br...ote_600945

And load it in a hex editor or just run "cat" on it. If you tell me the output I may shed some light on what it is?

[antiX-Dave]

Yes they are mms messages. This is exactly how mine show up and you can actually save them with mmcli then read them "properly".
Here is how I have been doing so via script
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=12119

There are more projects on the go that will go further; kop316 is working on one of them which integrates mms into chatty through a the purple-mm-sms plugin and an mms daemon (mmsd). I have not been lucky enough (spent enough time?) to make this work for me yet.
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=12491

[kop316]

Yes they are mms messages. This is exactly how mine show up and you can actually save them with mmcli  then read them "properly".
Here is how I have been doing so via script
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=12119

There are more projects on the go that will go further; kop316 is working on one of them which integrates mms into chatty through a the purple-mm-sms plugin and an mms daemon (mmsd). I have not been lucky enough (spent enough time?) to make this work for me yet.
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=12491

So I would be interested in debugging further with you sometime. Another user reported that they could download the message when using an IP for a proxy, but chatty could not display it.

I have instructions in how to run chatty in debug mode.

[dcinoz]

I'm running latest Debian - phone was in sleep / suspend mode after enabling mobile and Chatty opened (showing sms, often is blank and have to sudo pkill chatty and restart).

A while later, website sent text message for authentication so I knew a text message was coming but nothing happened on the phone.
I unlocked screen but mobile did not come on (strange).

After mobile (modem) was enabled, nothing happened - no text message notification / Chatty was blank again/still.
mmcli -m any --messaging-list-sms -v showed the new sms.

After sudo pkill chatty, instantly received incoming text notification popup / jingle. SMS was visible once Chatty was restarted.
On Debian very often Chatty window is blank ie showing no text messages when the phone is rebooted / restarted. Also, Chatty is blank when the modem is not enabled (maybe this is the root cause?).

I've seen links to these:
https://gitlab.com/mobian1/issues/-/issues/215
Not sure if bug has to be logged anywhere?

Just tested and closing the Chatty window via up swipe isn't enough - you need to pkill Chatty to see SMS messages (old ones / any new ones).

If you pkill chatty again, disable modem, reopen Chatty - no SMS messages. sudo pkill chatty, reopen Chatty - SMS not visible in window. Presumably Chatty only works if the modem is on but it should still be able to access already received messages, right?

sudo pkill chatty, modem on (mmcli -m any -e), chatty window blank. sudo pkill chatty, open Chatty : SMS reappear (already received ones).
Disable modem (mmcli -m any -d), SMS still visible on open Chatty window.
sudo pkill chatty, reopen Chatty: no SMS visible in window (even received ones).

Chatty blocking new SMS from triggering a new notification is the main issue, though the blank window is quite a bug, too.

This is observed on latest Debian. I don't know whether Chatty comes from upstream purism? Is this already logged as a bug? Where should I report?
Thanks for the advice.

[dcinoz]

I've done further tests on Mobian but there is no easy consistent pattern.
Issue created on Mobian https://gitlab.com/mobian1/issues/-/issues/230
All incoming text messages are received but sometimes there is no blue blinking LED / audio notification.

[dcinoz]

Using systemd post suspend (waking up) to reload Realtek wifi / BT driver was mentioned and I wonder whether something similar can be done for Chatty to try and ensure all incoming SMS trigger a notification.

I don't want to duplicate a post so please have a look and post there (pre, post, something other than sudo pkill chatty?):
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...1#pid87991