Well on Sailfish 5, my Xa2 gps signal works great again, like reborn after hard years of struggling with location on Sailfish 4…
You can install also HMS core from huawei to fetch some wifi/cellular fixes for android apps. Available in huawei’s AppGallery store (apk from their website)
See GPS signal very bad - #35 by crun
Yes, this is with no network connection, after rebooting.
This is quite incorrect. In the forest, in the mountains where there is absolutely no cellular signal whatsoever, and where GPS signal is weak due to foliage, and there is limited sky view due to surrounding mountains, my X10III Android can get lock. As can the previous Mediatek chipped phone.
I have two X10III, Android and SFOS, so I can compare them directly, side by side, at the same time.
In “normal” high signal outdoor conditions factory Android (not AOSP) gets lock in seconds. SFOS sees sufficient satellites within seconds, but then takes longer to lock, or totally fails to get lock if te signals are not sufficiently strong.
There is no wifi, and no cellular, in the places and at the times that my GPS must work. There’s plenty of signal when I am places with street signs and people I could ask where I am. But I don’t really need it then.
I noticed that with SF5.0.0.62, GPSINFO (Direc85 version) gets an immediate position from SFOS, and reports “time to first fix” of 2 seconds. However when I look at the satellite screen, I see that “satellites in use” is 0 after 1 minute. After a few minutes it has slowly crept up, taking more than 5 mins to get lock on 10 sats. I am 1m from a wall of glass. There are 16 green strength sats on the screen.
For comparison, stock Android (all cell/wifi connections turned off) took 17 seconds to lock, with ~10 satellites in use. (right next to each other)
Well for me -(10iv)- there is not a way to have this as a daily driver.
Below are the why-nots with possible solutions/workarounds:
- Speakerphone is ON and NOT avoidable when taking calls (No Workaround found yet) ← Gamechanger for me << If someone can assist here for the workaround, it would change a life
- Headphone 3.5mm does not work (BT Headphones OK)
- GPS seems not functional
- Camera does not work
- Charging seems VERY SLOW (however same on Android 15/LineageOS)
- Exchange Support not available/installable yet (CardDav, IMAPs, etc)
- Flight Mode kills completely the GSM Module and needs reboot
- Insert other here?
– RANT ON –
I cannot understand how/why this has been on-the-table since their LoveFest thing in April 2024, where they told us that users will be paying 5€ a month. A year has passed, Sony has updated their Blobs – STILL issues. I mean that a business model to make users “subscribe” might make more sense to actually HAVE working newer models, maybe it could be something else – however I do not think that any of us has ever seen a company have radical changes in their base models without the actual product being “ready”, seems very amature - but hey I am not in development, nor software. However when AOSP already has ports in A15, I can only logically assume that there has to be some form of parlance between how they do it and sailfish, since sailfish is using Sony Blobs to run most of the hardware on our devices - my device is still on Android waiting for the day SF says: “OK! Y’all can start paying us now, cause everything is working” – until then, here is Android Support free for 6 months and confusion on what comes next. However feel free to pay us to continue to try to get your device actually working! Seems a bit overkill, all of this.
– RANT OFF –
YRMV
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Good morning ThongSong7,
and thank you for the reply!
I would say then that it is better to keep it with Android, for a while longer (a year?).
On the outburst I totally agree with you!
This is not what I meant - your little “network connection” icon might be off, but android/ios still rely on surrounding radio activity (shocking reality, I know).
I tested this in the situation that you describe: the same [google] phone could get a lock on google maps, but couldn’t get a lock on a 3rd party application that didn’t rely on google services.
I’m sorry, but the harsh reality stands: google/apple rely on methods that are closed doors unless you use their services, in phone or in the cloud. SFOS can’t compete with that.
I really can’t comment here, but I wonder how many satellites is “enough” - this bit of the algorithm is typically baked in chips and you have no access to that.
Anyway, I think that the conclusion is the same: it isn’t like the 10v or 10iii will have significantly differing GPS locking experiences, it’s about the software underneath.
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That being said (above), I admit that I have NOT tried the newest blobs - already at v6a now for my device (10ix), I have heard mixed results: so it could be a gamble if they were to function or not. I was under the impression that the OS above it (SFOS) needed to be adapted for the new changes, but I am not too sure if this has been done. I am going to take the dive and reinstall SFOS while updating the new blobs… unless of course someone already has and has negative result? If so, kindly leave your experiences here.
We should move this back to a GPS thread really…
There is no surrounding radio activity deep in the mountains. 10III stock gets lock. Mediatek chinese phone (no google access, thanks Don) gets lock, and does not have access to any GG services. Garmin GPS with no radio gets lock. X10III sailfish cannot acquire lock after 30mins if the signals are poor.
Not exactly sure what google services you mean, but as I said, I am using a 3rd party app HamGPS. I am not using G-maps. I am not “online”.
SFOS works using 3 sats. 4 are theoretically required for a solution including height. OK, so it’s raining heavily just now, and using fewer sats (moved well inside the house). 3 sats gives reported horizontal accuracy ~500m. It reports 0m vertical accuracy when I have 3 or 4 sats. After 15mins, it has crept up to using 7-8 sats inside.
I suspect there is something wrong with the Sony AOSP GPS setup, and has been for multiple generations of phone. e.g a GPS can require a certain SNR from sats before it will use them for a solution. Configure the wrong value, and you would get this fault.
If they fix this, then the 10V will have a different locking experience than the 10III.
Another theory holds that Qualcomm or Google or Sony use different GPS firmware for the chipset on commercial vs AOSP/SFOS. The (your) assisted-gps/MLS/google services theory is disproven by the android gps working properly when it has spent 5 days continuously in an RF dead zone.
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Pretty sure updated MLS would fix this. I have a smartwatch that I had to enable through its original app, that can find a GPS fix faster than Sailfish.
However, since I have uninstalled that Android it was connected to, it complained in a few days that I didnt update “AGPS info”
And lo and behold, it doesn’t find a fix anymore, or at all, a few weeks later.
So hardware is fine. More “deals” are needed.
Or maybe an european open MLS database? Hmm?
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I have never got GPS to work on my 10iii.
Under the original 4.3 install using Pure Maps from openrepos, or the reinstall on 5.0 using Pure Maps from Chum.
using the most permissive settings so position is grabbed from GPS/Mobile/Mozilla - the GPS icon just blinks dumbly and Pure maps can’t locate.
This is strange at least. Any serious problem I had with gps was on XA2. On 10 III it worked fine. On 10 V works like a charm
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I think they are having problem on using GPS with appsupport? At least on my 10V, pure map works without problem, while any android map, e.g. organic map can never get location.
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to get a fix on Android on 10mk3 I always run native GPSInfo in background
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Even though I already said it, I must repeat myself: thank you Jolla for having made this possible. It’s such a QoL improvement to only carry one device with me. Love the App-Support on my Xperia X V.
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Or maybe plugging into graphene agps/proxy that supposedly strips imei information (but of course they would get it, so not sure if good idea, maybe worth looking into setting up a similar agps proxy is worthwhile)
Edit: there was a talk about this on fosdem FOSDEM 2025 - OpenAGPS - Open source GNSS Assistance but iirc it’s not yet ready for primetime, still something that might get even a grant from EU for 1 developer salary for a month or two lol, wanna increase your monthly sub to $6 for EU based faster and privacy preserving gps fix? Opportunities to cash in are endless
This seems to be a good idea, how does it impact battery length?
I’ld use gpscon instead of gpsinfo.
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Just to be sure i’m not missing the right link, these discounted subscrptions are not published online yet right? Cause i cant find them, and april is running toward its end…
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Yes you’re right. I think it will need a couple of weeks till it comes. Probably they wont sell the licence before the phones are supported nearly full. And for me it sounded that there has to be a lot of work done before most hiccups are solved.
@yusssufff , correct. The discount to the subscription fee is not available as a coupon or such. We have extended the discount to the end of the June – original post updated accordingly.
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