Cell-id info no longer returned via dbus calls in SFOS 4.2

Bug Reports
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#21

Issuing org.nemomobile.ofono.CellInfo.GetCells seems to trigger a refresh of data, so GetServingCellInformation then shows up-to-date data it as far as I can tell.
I’ll see if this observation can help me restore the functionality of a program I had running before this broke down.

Thanks Abranson and Slava for stepping up to discuss this.

Still makes me wonder if this possible powersave change was worth abandoning accurate cell data info. I know this info is not used by an average user, but still.

#22

I forgot to mention (I thought it was obvious, but just in case…) that our ofono tracks D-Bus clients which implicitly requested cell info updates with GetCells and as long as at least one such client stays alive, updates will keep coming.

#23

Thank you. I’m now getting signals when cells get added or removed:

[D] cellsAdded:441 - cellsAdded result…: [/ril_0/cell_1467,/ril_0/cell_1468,/ril_0/cell_1469,/ril_0/cell_1470,/ril_0/cell_1471,/ril_0/cell_1472,/ril_0/cell_1473,/ril_0/cell_1474,/ril_0/cell_1475,/ril_0/cell_1476,/ril_0/cell_1477,/ril_0/cell_1478] 12
[D] cellsRemoved:445 - cellsRemoved result…: [/ril_0/cell_1466,/ril_0/cell_1469] 2

But how do I query data of the individual cell after extracting the paths from the signal as org.nemomobile.ofono.Cell.GetAll seems not to work any more?

#24

Here’s a little test program demonstrating how this API is supposed to be used.

#include <QCoreApplication>
#include <QDebug>

#include <qofonoextcellwatcher.h>

class CellWatcher: public QObject
{
    Q_OBJECT

public:
    CellWatcher(QObject* aParent);
    static void dumpCell(QOfonoExtCell* aCell);
    void dumpCells();

public Q_SLOTS:
    void onCellsChanged();
    void onCellChanged(QString aName, int aValue);

private:
    QOfonoExtCellWatcher* iWatcher;
    QList<QSharedPointer<QOfonoExtCell> > iCells;
};

CellWatcher::CellWatcher(QObject* aParent) :
    QObject(aParent),
    iWatcher(new QOfonoExtCellWatcher(this))
{
    connect(iWatcher, SIGNAL(cellsChanged()), SLOT(onCellsChanged()));
    dumpCells();
}

void CellWatcher::onCellsChanged()
{
    int i;
    for (i=0; i<iCells.count(); i++) {
        iCells.at(i)->disconnect(this);
    }
    iCells = iWatcher->cells();
    for (i=0; i<iCells.count(); i++) {
        connect(iCells.at(i).data(),
            SIGNAL(propertyChanged(QString,int)),
            SLOT(onCellChanged(QString,int)));
    }
    dumpCells();
}

void CellWatcher::onCellChanged(QString aName, int aValue)
{
    QOfonoExtCell* cell = (QOfonoExtCell*)sender();
    qDebug() << cell->path() << aName << "=>" << aValue;
}

void CellWatcher::dumpCells()
{
    if (iCells.count() > 0) {
        qDebug() << iCells.count() << "cell(s)";
        for (int i=0; i<iCells.count(); i++) {
            dumpCell(iCells.at(i).data());
        }
    } else {
        qDebug() << "No cells";
    }
}

void CellWatcher::dumpCell(QOfonoExtCell* aCell)
{
    switch (aCell->type()) {
    case QOfonoExtCell::GSM:
        qDebug() << aCell->path() << "gsm" << aCell->registered() <<
            "mcc:" << aCell->mcc() << "mnc:" << aCell->mnc() <<
            "lac:" << aCell->lac() << "cid:" << aCell->cid() <<
            "signalStrength:" << aCell->signalStrength() <<
            "bitErrorRate:" << aCell->bitErrorRate();
        break;
    case QOfonoExtCell::WCDMA:
        qDebug() << aCell->path() << "wcdma" << aCell->registered() <<
            "mcc:" << aCell->mcc() << "mnc:" << aCell->mnc() <<
            "lac:" << aCell->lac() << "cid:" << aCell->cid() <<
            "psc:" << aCell->psc() <<
            "signalStrength:" << aCell->signalStrength() <<
            "bitErrorRate:" << aCell->bitErrorRate();
        break;
    case QOfonoExtCell::LTE:
        qDebug() << aCell->path() << "lte" << aCell->registered() <<
            "mcc:" << aCell->mcc() << "mnc:" << aCell->mnc() <<
            "ci:" << aCell->ci() << "pci:" << aCell->pci() <<
            "tac:" << aCell->tac() <<
            "signalStrength:" << aCell->signalStrength() <<
            "rsrp:" << aCell->rsrp() << "rsrq:" << aCell->rsrq() <<
            "rssnr:" << aCell->rssnr() << "cqi:" << aCell->cqi() <<
            "timingAdvance:" << aCell->timingAdvance();
        break;
    default:
        qDebug() << aCell->path() << "unknown" << aCell->registered();
        break;
    }
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    QCoreApplication app(argc, argv);
    new CellWatcher(&app);
    return app.exec();
}

#include "test.moc"
1 Like
#25

Ah, so if I understand this correctly this means it’s not possible to get cell info from dbus?

#26

Of course it’s possible, this libqofonoext thing is just a wrapper around D-Bus. If nothing else, it’s an example how to use the D-Bus API. I think the library API nicely demonstrates the basic workflow: get the initial list of cells => watch for arrival/removal of cells => request cell properties => watch property changes for each individual cell.

#27

That was, kind of, the point of my initial question. I’m getting the cell paths for the individual cells but which dbus service/interface do I query the cell properties from?

#28

I rather keep this bug report on topic, it starts to turn in a only very distant related help request.
It seems you were aware of the initial issue yourself, an earlier confirmation post here might have helped to get attention for this issue sooner.

#29

Here it is:

<interface name="org.nemomobile.ofono.Cell">
  <method name="GetAll">
    <arg name="version" type="i" direction="out"/>
    <arg name="type" type="s" direction="out"/>
    <arg name="registered" type="b" direction="out"/>
    <arg name="properties" type="a{sv}" direction="out"/>
  </method>
  <method name="GetInterfaceVersion">
    <arg name="version" type="i" direction="out"/>
  </method>
  <method name="GetType">
    <arg name="type" type="s" direction="out"/>
  </method>
  <method name="GetRegistered">
    <arg name="registered" type="b" direction="out"/>
  </method>
  <method name="GetProperties">
    <arg name="properties" type="a{sv}" direction="out"/>
  </method>
  <signal name="RegisteredChanged">
    <arg name="registered" type="b"/>
  </signal>
  <signal name="PropertyChanged">
    <arg name="name" type="s"/>
    <arg name="value" type="v"/>
  </signal>
  <signal name="Removed"/>
</interface>

It can queried directly from ofono at run time:

dbus-send --service --print-reply --type=method_call --dest=org.ofono /ril_x/cell_yyy org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable.Introspect

(you’d need to substitute /ril_x/cell_yyy with a real cell path). Although when I forget what it is, I usually open the source code.

To query cell properties from the command line you can do something like this:

dbus-send --system --print-reply --type=method_call --dest=org.ofono /ril_x/cell_yyy org.nemomobile.ofono.Cell.GetAll

In order for such dbus-send call to work reliably, a long-running client (like the test program I posted above) must be keeping updates on.

3 Likes
#30

I’ll draw this to a conclusion before this thread continues to discuss issues not directly related to my bugreport.

The missing/outdated cellinfo is due to a change in the code in SFOS 4.2, which make this info not update itself anymore. It has not become clear to me if this a unintended side effect and/or if this behavour will changed again.

The workaround is to call org.nemomobile.ofono.CellInfo.GetCells first, which forces this info to be updated.