Motorola Moto G4 Play (motorola-harpia)

From postmarketOS Wiki
Note This page is about the dedicated port of this device. There is also an optional generic port available for this device - see Generic MSM8916 (qcom-msm8916).
Motorola Moto G4 Play
Moto G4 Play running Phosh
Moto G4 Play running Phosh
Manufacturer Motorola
Name Moto G4 Play
Codename motorola-harpia
Released 2016
Type handset
Hardware
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)
CPU Quad-core 1.21 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU Adreno 306
Display HD (720x1280)
Storage 8GB or 16GB
Memory 1GB or 2GB
Architecture aarch64
Software
Original software Android
Original version 6.0.1
postmarketOS
Category community
Pre-built images yes
Unixbench Whet/Dhry score 910.6
Optional Generic Port Generic MSM8916 (qcom-msm8916)
Features
Flashing
Works
USB Networking
Works
Internal storage
SD card
Battery
Partial
Screen
Works
Touchscreen
Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Works
Audio
Works
Camera
Broken
Camera Flash
Connectivity
WiFi
Works
Bluetooth
Works
GPS
Works
NFC
Modem
Calls
Works
SMS
Works
Mobile data
Works
Miscellaneous
FDE
Works
USB OTG
Partial
Sensors
Accelerometer
Works
Magnetometer
Ambient Light
Proximity
Hall Effect
Haptics
Barometer
This device is based on the Snapdragon 410.
See the SoC page for common tips, guides and troubleshooting steps

The Moto G4 Play is a 2016 budget smartphone by Motorola. It is the lower cost and smaller sibling to the Moto G4. The back panel (called "shell" by motorola) can be lifted off by pulling at the notch on the bottom-right corner of the phone. This exposes the removable battery, microSD and Micro-SIM slots, note that SIM cards can only be added or removed with the battery removed. It comes with a 2800mAh battery and uses the same form-factor as the Motorola Moto G5 (motorola-cedric) for replacement.

Users owning this device


Contributors

  • Sorixelle

How to enter flash mode

Hold down Power + Volume Down while booting to enter Flash Mode.

Installation

Things you need to do in android

  • in the developer settings of your android installation, you need to enable "OEM unlocking". This step is necessary to enable the bootloader to be unlocked. Here is a guide that describes how you would do that: https://www.getdroidtips.com/unlock-bootloader-moto-g4-play-harpia/
  • To unlock your bootloader, you need to have a motorola account (there is no way to avoid that). The reason is, the motorola website needs to generate your OEM unlock key based on the fastboot device ID you need to enter.

Do to that, follow the instructions on the Motorola Support page.

Basically, these are the steps:

  • execute fastboot oem get_unlock_data
  • merge this result into one large string (remove "(bootloader)" and whitespace
  • paste this into the form field on the above website.
  • retrieve your oem unlock key from the email the motorola website has sent you. That is the input in the next step
  • execute fastboot oem unlock YOUR_OEM_UNLOCK_KEY

Other Preparations

Install the lk2nd bootloader, as it is required to handle some quirks with msm8916 devices on mainline kernels. Flash the lk2nd-msm8916.img image to the boot partition with fastboot flash boot /path/to/lk2nd-msm8916.img. lk2nd also provides a fastboot interface that allows for flashing kernels without overwriting lk2nd itself. To enter it, power on the device, then hold down Vol Down as soon as you see the boot splash. You should be presented with a menu that looks like the following:

Motorola-harpia lk2nd example.jpeg

If you're seeing a "Permission denied", you're not yet within the l2knd bootloader as shown in the photo, wait for the warning splash to occur first, then press buttons as instructed. 

$ fastboot flash userdata motorola-harpia-mainline-modem.img
Sending sparse 'userdata' 1/6 (246346 KB)          OKAY [  8.684s]
Writing 'userdata'                                 (bootloader) Permission denied
FAILED (remote: '')
fastboot: error: Command failed

When you have lk2nd installed and running, follow Qualcomm_Snapdragon_410/412_(MSM8916)#Installation.

Usage

Modem

Follow the directions on this wiki page to use the modem. If you have a device model other than what is listed here, please edit the list below with the results of modem functionality testing.

  • XT1602: Modem working, can send and receive text messages. Can initiate and answer phone calls. Mobile data does work only when using the modem files contained on the modem partition.
  • XT1603: Modem partially working, can receive text messages. Can initiate with old simcards, always starts on 2G, you can manually change to 3g and 4g, but on newer cards(3g,4g only I suppose) modem do not initiate even with mmcli commands(modem not detected). Sound starts 0db then after a moment it comes to normal.
  • XT1604: Modem working, can send but not receive text messages. Can make phone calls and receive. The Modem doesn't always start on boot, you need to run mmcli -S for it to start working.
  • XT1607: Modem working, can send text messages. Earpiece and Mic1 work with phone calls. Had to manually load RETUS_6.0.1 NON-HLOS firmware, will document and maybe package alternate firmware.

Note

In some very rare cases the modem may crash at boot, forcing to deal with manual services restarts (like modemmanager), and also creating problems with audio. Such situation was dealt with successfuly in issue #1973, and here's a quick recap of the problem with a fix for it: https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/issues/1973#note_1309848521


Touchscreen

synaptics s3203b: works ; others: unknown

WiFi

There used to be issues on various devices where Wi-Fi didn't work properly with certain Wi-Fi channels or the 80.211n mode, but this should no longer happen on pmOS v23.06+ (and edge). For older versions, see https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/issues/1085#note_1220953940 for a possible workaround.

Hardware / sensor details

Output from hwtest:

hwtest

Category Model Path Status Value
framebuffer msmdrmfb /sys/class/graphics/fb0 Working U:720x1280p-0
drm /sys/class/drm/card0-DSI-1 Working 720x1280
accelerometer bma253 /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device1 Working 1.13, 0.11, -9.54 g
temperature bma253 /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device1 Working 15.5 deg C
input msm8916 Headset Jack /dev/input/event5 Working
input Synaptics Harpia /dev/input/event3 Working
input GPIO Buttons /dev/input/event2 Working
input pm8941_resin /dev/input/event1 Working
input pm8941_pwrkey /dev/input/event0 Working

Output from sensors (lm-sensors package):

sensors 

max170xx_battery-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +29.9C  

max170xx_battery-i2c-0-36
Adapter: QUP I2C adapter
in0:           4.36 V  (min =  +3.64 V, max =  +4.40 V)
                       (avg =  +4.36 V)
temp:         +29.9C  (low  = -20.0C, high = +60.0C)  ALARM (LOW)
curr1:       1000.00 uA (avg =  +0.00 A)

For reference, the results from sensorssandbox (v1.8, f-droid). The sensor suite seems sparse, typical of "play" variant.

sensorssandbox

Name Vendor Comment
3-axis Accelerometer Bosch bma25x-accel
Ambient light Elan
Proximity Elan
Flat up Motorola
Flat down Motorola
Stowed Motorola
Glance gesture Motorola

See also

motorola-harpia UART pins location
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