PinePhone keyboard tones

[mlnease]

Hello,

I am new to Linux (except Ubuntu) and to this forum; my PinePhone is my first "smart" phone (at age 70!) so my questions will likely be elementary.  Thanks for your patience.

My problem is that the virtual keys don't produce audible tones when touched so that I can't use it for automated phone systems ("Press 1 Now" for example).  I've looked everywhere I can think of in Settings including Sound, Tweaks, Mobile Settings and Keyboard to no avail.

Thanks in advance.

p.s. The application is 'Calls'.

[Kevin Kofler]

I am new to Linux (except Ubuntu) and to this forum; my PinePhone is my first "smart" phone (at age 70!) so my questions will likely be elementary.  Thanks for your patience.

Well, to be honest, since you are both almost new to (GNU/)Linux and new to smartphones, you are going to be in for a world of pain. The PinePhone is not really a device for beginners. Pine64 is very honest about who the target audience is, and people with only very limited (GNU/)Linux experience are not it.

The PinePhone is also my first smartphone, but I have been using GNU/Linux since the late 1990's. (I was a teenager back then, I am now 39.)

My problem is that the virtual keys don't produce audible tones when touched so that I can't use it for automated phone systems ("Press 1 Now" for example).  I've looked everywhere I can think of in Settings including Sound, Tweaks, Mobile Settings and Keyboard to no avail.

This may be a limitation of the Phosh Calls application (though I do not use Phosh, so I cannot confirm this for sure). The Plasma Mobile Dialer works for those phone systems (at least for the service numbers at my phone service operator, both the toll-free number to check the balance and the voicemailbox system). I do not hear the audible feedback with the Plasma Mobile Dialer either, but the automated system on the receiving end apparently does, because it works.

[mlnease]

Thanks Kevin,

I've been using Ubuntu (desktop/laptop) exclusively since 2006 so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with GNU/Linux.  I knew when I ordered my PinePhone that it would be a challenge and it certainly has been.  But I find freedom from the Big Three gratifying enough to be more than worth the trouble.  In fact I waited for a Linux smartphone for all those years for just that reason.  Fortunately I enjoy tinkering and configuring.  So despite its slow processing and small memory I've never regretted buying it (thank you Pine64 and all you developers!). Despite its limitations I wouldn't trade it for any of the more commercial prducts.  In fact I use it daily and this problem with the tones is the only one remaining.

Thanks again for your time and attention.

mike

[Kevin Kofler]

I've been using Ubuntu (desktop/laptop) exclusively since 2006 so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with GNU/Linux.  I knew when I ordered my PinePhone that it would be a challenge and it certainly has been.  But I find freedom from the Big Three gratifying enough to be more than worth the trouble.  In fact I waited for a Linux smartphone for all those years for just that reason.  Fortunately I enjoy tinkering and configuring.  So despite its slow processing and small memory I've never regretted buying it (thank you Pine64 and all you developers!). Despite its limitations I wouldn't trade it for any of the more commercial prducts.

I know that feeling. It is the same for me. So much that when my first PinePhone had a hardware failure, I did not hesitate long before deciding to replace it with a new PinePhone, not anything else.

In fact I use it daily and this problem with the tones is the only one remaining.

Good to know. You may want to give Plasma Mobile a try on an SD card, since the tones work for me at least (as I stated: I cannot hear them, but the receiving end can). But you may find other issues in Plasma Mobile that Phosh does not have, neither is perfect at this time. (E.g., Plasma Mobile does not have an e-mail client at this time, I use Geary for that, i.e., the GNOME/Phosh app on Plasma Mobile.) It might also be possible to use the Plasma Mobile Dialer (plasma-dialer) on Phosh, but it might also conflict with Phosh's Calls, I am not sure. (Other applications are more easily interchangeable than phone call and SMS apps.)

[mlnease]

I've been using Ubuntu (desktop/laptop) exclusively since 2006 so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with GNU/Linux.  I knew when I ordered my PinePhone that it would be a challenge and it certainly has been.  But I find freedom from the Big Three gratifying enough to be more than worth the trouble.  In fact I waited for a Linux smartphone for all those years for just that reason.  Fortunately I enjoy tinkering and configuring.  So despite its slow processing and small memory I've never regretted buying it (thank you Pine64 and all you developers!). Despite its limitations I wouldn't trade it for any of the more commercial prducts.

I know that feeling. It is the same for me. So much that when my first PinePhone had a hardware failure, I did not hesitate long before deciding to replace it with a new PinePhone, not anything else.

In fact I use it daily and this problem with the tones is the only one remaining.

Good to know. You may want to give Plasma Mobile a try on an SD card, since the tones work for me at least (as I stated: I cannot hear them, but the receiving end can). But you may find other issues in Plasma Mobile that Phosh does not have, neither is perfect at this time. (E.g., Plasma Mobile does not have an e-mail client at this time, I use Geary for that, i.e., the GNOME/Phosh app on Plasma Mobile.) It might also be possible to use the Plasma Mobile Dialer (plasma-dialer) on Phosh, but it might also conflict with Phosh's Calls, I am not sure. (Other applications are more easily interchangeable than phone call and SMS apps.)

---

My phone originally came with Plasma (and KDE) but because of my long experience with Ubuntu I'm much more comfortable with GNOME.  I'm already using Manjaro ARM via a micro sd card because I can't boot from eMMC thanks to an error I made trying to add memory a long time ago.  Sorting that out is another project not for this thread.

Thanks again.

[traut]

I just want to be sure you aren’t trying to get tones from the alphanumeric keyboard (as opposed to the DTMF keypad).

[mlnease]

Thank you no, it is the DTMF keyboard.

[Kevin Kofler]

According to https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/calls/-/issues/474, this is supposed to work with Phosh Calls too, but it looks like it is not working over VoLTE, at least for some combinations of phone operator (= carrier = provider) and modem firmware. If it is indeed the modem firmware's (or even the operator's) fault, chances are it would be the same with Plasma Dialer, so it might not be worth trying it.

Does your phone operator support 3G and/or 2G voice calls or does it require VoLTE for voice? (In Europe, VoLTE is usually still optional, but US operators have started requiring it. No idea about other parts of the world.) If 2G/3G is supported, it is possible to disable VoLTE with mmcli (I can give you the commands), but if VoLTE is required, that will just make voice calls fail altogether.

[KC9UDX]

I think you might already know this but I want to stress it: you won't be able to hear DTMF on your ends. So it's very hard to know if DTMF is actually working. Sone remote systems (the other end of your call) just don't like the tones produced by mobile phones for some reason. (Usually the timing, I think.)

So (maybe you already did) make sure you try different systems (calling different numbers).

[Kevin Kofler]

I think you might already know this but I want to stress it:  you won't be able to hear DTMF on your ends.

Yes, see https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/calls/-/issues/61 (and as I said, it is the same in Plasma Dialer too).