User:Ollieparanoid/PinePhone-Testing-2021-07-25

From postmarketOS Wiki

I've noticed two issues with my PinePhone running postmarketOS edge:

  • Microphone does not work anymore
  • SMS don't arrive while phone is suspended anymore, only after disabling and enabling the modem again in Phosh (maybe this bug? ModemManager#356)

So today I investigated what's going on and did a whole bunch of tests, see the table below.

  • I have two PinePhones, one v1.2 (ubports CE) and one v1.2a (postmarketOS CE, using it as daily driver).
  • Initially I assumed that we have regressions in postmarketOS edge that cause both bugs, so I tested the latest pre-built images of postmarketOS v21.06 and edge on my v1.2 device. Everything worked even on edge on that device. I suspected the regression would be in what happened since the build date of that edge image (20210722, today is 3 days later) and did the upgrades, bringing in a new kernel version and other changes. But after rebooting still I was able to pass all tests with it.
  • So I suspected that something is wrong with my daily driver install of postmarketOS edge, performed the same tests on my daily driver install + device and got the expected failures.
  • To confirm that my daily driver install is broken, I put the same SD card with edge + latest upgrades where I just had all tests passing from the v1.2 into the v1.2a device and ran the same tests. And to my surprise, it failed the tests again.
  • So it seems like a problem with that specific device... I put the previous release, v21.03, on an SD card and ran the tests again to confirm it. And indeed, it failed again.

So my conclusion is:

  • no regression in postmarketOS edge
  • the microphone is broken of my v1.2a device :\
    • besides the mentioned testing, looking at the microphone volume bar in gnome-control-center: the volume bar isn't moving at all, whereas doing the same on the v1.2 shows the mic volume as it is supposed to.
    • if somebody has an idea what else I could try out, ping me.
  • Suspend + MT SMS is not working on my v1.2a, but works on my v1.2. I'm not sure what to make of that, I had it working on my v1.2a too until about 1, 2 weeks ago or so. AFAIK the modem firmware is different on both (and with postmarketOS we should support whatever firmware is shipped with the modem IMHO, unless there is a safe procedure to update the modem to a known good software that we can actually ask users to follow / provide a nice gui for it or even automate it... right now that's certainly not the case.). So it might be a firmware difference, or it might be a bug that just doesn't show up every time? I spent some more time creating a pcap of the usb traffic when the bug happens and when it does not and will send it to the modemmanager folks and follow up on it.

I'll switch to the v1.2 as daily driver for now.

Other results:

Test \ PinePhone version v1.2 v1.2 v1.2 v1.2a v1.2a v1.2a
postmarketOS version v21.06 20210725 edge 20210722 edge 20210722 + upgrades edge (daily driver) edge 20210722 + upgrades v21.03 20210724
notes pre-built image pre-built image pre-built-image + latest
upgrades from today
old edge image which
I keep updating
Same SD card install from
the v1.2 test plugged into
the v1.2a
Previous release,
just to be sure.
MO call (ring only) OK OK OK OK OK OK
MT call (ringing) OK OK OK OK OK OK
- mic / earphone
(speaker mode disabled)
OK / OK OK / OK OK / OK NOK / OK
NOK / OK NOK / OK
- mic / speaker
(speaker mode enabled)
OK / OK OK / OK OK / OK NOK / OK NOK / OK NOK / OK
MO SMS
OK OK OK OK OK OK
Suspend + MT call
- wakes up OK OK OK OK OK OK
- call displayed OK OK OK OK OK OK
- can accept call
OK OK OK OK OK OK
- call works the same as
without suspend
OK OK OK OK OK OK
Suspend + MT SMS OK OK OK NOK* NOK* NOK*
MT SMS (without suspend) OK OK OK OK OK OK

* Phone wakes up from suspend (e.g. confirmed over serial, and display changes tone slightly), but SMS does not show up in the UI at all (-> ModemManager probably didn't get it).

MT = mobile terminated (incoming call/SMS)

MO = mobile originated (outgoing call/SMS)