GPS stopped working

Bug Reports
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#581

If it were a hardware issue there would be a significant number of complaints about XA2 GPS problems with the phones running Android. If you do a Google search you will find there is almost no GPS issues with the Android versions. By far the majority of issues you’ll find are for XA2’s running Sailfish. That is especially significant as the number of XA2’s running Sailfish is significantly less than those running Android. The common denominator is Sailfish OS.

I don’t accept the argument about hardware being the problem.

1 Like
#582

AGPS hides the HW issue well enough, thus Android users hardly ever notice anything. I have XA2 running /e/ os with no network connection and GPS HW issue is there. Whether you accept that or not.

2 Likes
#583

How do you prove it’s a hardware problem? So far I seen no evidence of this, plenty of talk and hearsay but nothing that proves it.

#584

If you have XA2 with Android you can remove SIM, disconnect WLAN and tell Android not to use bluetooth and wifi for location. Then, if GPS fix takes much longer time you have a test case that supports HW issue hypothesis.
Real evidence would require serious measurements and capability to build and run HW test software.

#585

But even if you do all that, and effectively your Android XA2 is completely network isolated, the fact that it takes much longer to get a lock could still be a software bug in how the Android low level drivers communicate with the GPS hardware, couldn’t it?

#586

If you don’t accept hardware as one cause, then you are probably able to explain the following:

… and …

#587

I don’t know why this should be a Hardware Problem. I had no GPS issues on my XA2 in the beginning, that first appeard with Sailfish OS 4 and worked well before on Sailfish 3.

#588

Unfortunately not so easy:
I have done lots of tests with four XA2 under SFOS and Android.
I was, and still am, convinced there is also a HW problem.
But
A freshly flashed Android with
-locally installed apps to delete gnss data
-never provided any network nor SIM card
still finds a fix faster than SFOS. (https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/gps-stopped-working/1181/546)
But it was freshly flashed.
Equally, if you flash SFOS, you will get a fast fix in the beginning.
Then, it will degrade. (Several times reported in this thread)

Let’s postpone this debate until someone with a lab can make scientific objective tests!

2 Likes
#589

To contradict myself in stopping the HW/SW debate,
Just to say; I noticed clear improvement in signal reception when cleaning and re-bending the spring-type contacts inside some of the XA2 I opened.
This leaded me to think that the XA2 HW ages badly. Contacts can get loose and, (as not soldered/screwed) get dirty.

New today’s tests with good HW condition devices:

SFOS just flashed:
I just installed Jolla MLS, Storeman, Direc85 Gpsinfo. GPS custom settings ON, ON, OFF, Moz license accepted.
Fix in 4 minutes.

Android just flashed:
No internet connection ever. Installed Gpstest (USB apk copying). No SIM, no BT, no WIFI.
Fix in 3 minutes.

These values are pretty comparable and don’t indicate anything special apart that… @Jolla should help us!

This would be worth it as the XA2 will last 6 more years in France as 3G will be cut in 2028 only and in 2025 in the rest of europe for Orange (source).

2 Likes
#590

Can you provide pictures and or details on what contacts need cleaning/re-tensioning? I’ll give anything a go to improve GPS functionality on the XA2.

I’m still sceptical about hardware being the main issue. These are my reasons;

  1. Nekron’s suplpatcher made a good improvement
  2. The time to achieve a lock on can vary from day to day, same atmospheric conditions etc

Neither of these are hardware related. 4 minutes to lock on isn’t all that wonderful in my opinion, though is better than it was before I applied the suplpatcher fix. Even then there are times after I applied the fix that a lock on takes many minutes.

#591

It’s confusing, really.

From what I understood, 4 min. is pretty good for a “cold start”. Some talk about 12.5 minutes to download the sat datas. Am I wrong, maybe? (I didn’t RTFM about SAT technology, I admit)

No warranty it will work though. You might ruin your phone and have no GPS improvement. Backup first, of course.
My daily XA2 is becoming really GPS catastrophic, event with Nekron’s patch now. So I’ll open it and try to “arrange” it too. I’ll make some picture that I could give here.
Edit: I’ll take care not to unplug the battery during the operation so eventual improvements causes don’t mix together.

1 Like
#592

Thanks.
It’s getting late here now, it’s almost tomorrow. :wink:

I’ve just been outside to see how long to get a lock on. I started GPS Info and the app said 34 satellites in view. After more than 4 minutes still wasn’t even a partial fix where the accuracy is several thousand metres and there were no satellites in use.

I did a re-boot then restarted GPS Info. Now there was only 27 satellites in view and within a minute or so I had an accuracy of 9000 metres. It started raining so I didn’t wait for a lock on.

My take away was the re-boot cleared out some old Info and allowed a faster lock on. To be sure of this I do need to do more testing.

1 Like
#593

Forget it ! :–(
However, a reflash would help. Very handy for everyday use ;–)

Yeah, anyway, I’have to find some time to do the whole process. Don’t promise it’ll be ready for your tomorrow, not even mine!
Also, I have to clone the phone to another one first.

#594

I’ve just recently done a re-flash. There was no noticeable improvement.

When you get it done. No rush from my end. I’m pretty comfortable pulling these sorts of devices apart and have already had it apart to change the battery.

#595

Same as ever. Works and has worked. Sometimes it needs a few minutes but it just works for bicycle, car and motorbike navigation.

XA2, OSM Scout, Here Wego and Pure Maps.

No patches, no hacks, no tricks.

Start navigation, keep moving in the direction of your target. Wait. Enjoy.

#596

Lucky you. :+1:

I wonder why you have no issues

#597

@AlanBreen sometime ago I also did internal cleaning of XA2 and it improved things a bit. Reflash never worked for me.

I also wonder why some XA2’s have no problems at all with gps, but Im assuming those devices are younger and haven’t degraded that much.

There is no believe or not believe that hardware issue is also a problem. But another point supporting hardware issue is that if it was software only Jolla would already fix that or it was at least ComingSoon™ but in the meantime they say they cannot repoduce this issue with their XA2 :confused:

I already moved away from XA2 but still carry it in my backpack as backup device. Somday I may need navigation in the middle of nowhere and XA2 is only thing to play with, so it would be nice to back home safely

#598

Serious mistake!
Corrected here

Voila! It finally became a new topic. But pics and description are also here.

#599

As stated before suplpatcher is currently not working for Xperia 10 Mark III as diag structure for AOSP 11 has changed from previous releases (you will get error 22 when executing the binary).

However I already patched my dev version and on my first QA test on a freshly flashed device I made some very interesting observation.

[root@Xperia10III defaultuser]# ./suplpatch --disable --aosp 11

   ______  _____  __     ___       __      __
  / __/ / / / _ \/ /    / _ \___ _/ /_____/ /  ___ ____
 _\ \/ /_/ / ___/ /__  / ___/ _ `/ __/ __/ _ \/ -_) __/
/___/\____/_/  /____/ /_/   \_,_/\__/\__/_//_/\__/_/

SailfishOS Xperia X devices A-GPS SUPL Patcher v0.0.1.8 (git: 2c48d52, build: 08.06.2022 09:11)

2022/06/08 09:16:01 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2022/06/08 09:16:01 SailfishOS Xperia X devices A-GPS SUPL Patcher v0.0.1.8 (git: 2c48d52, build: 08.06.2022 09:11)
2022/06/08 09:16:01 Command line './suplpatch' launched with the following flags ...
2022/06/08 09:16:01 --aosp=11
2022/06/08 09:16:01 --disable=true
2022/06/08 09:16:01 --enable=false
2022/06/08 09:16:01 --info=false
2022/06/08 09:16:01 --remove=false
2022/06/08 09:16:01 --upload=false
2022/06/08 09:16:01 --version=false
2022/06/08 09:16:01 Executable launched as user 'root@Xperia10III'.
2022/06/08 09:16:01 Secure SUPL mode already deactivated.
2022/06/08 09:16:01 Bye.

On my first run of the fixed patcher binary I was told that secure SUPL was already disabled. That means that an unlocked Xperia 10 Mark III devices can change to the non-secure Google SUPL port without patching the device, i.e. just follow my suplpatcher instructions without running the patcher binary and you are sound.

FYI: I updated my device to latest Android 11 via OTA update and then did the flash dance.

2 Likes
Optimize the sailfish positioning service in China
#600

Thanks for the news @nekron, for the patch and the effort sharing knowledge and solutions.

I am still on XA2 and had a question:
What do mmcblk0p4 and mmcblk0p5 (modemst) contain, finally?

I compared the backups of respective partitions from two DUAL XA2 (made before using suplpatch) and they are different. Shouldn’t they be the same?
I also tried to dd nonsense text files into them, dd them back by switching 4 and 5 and GNSS was still working and having a fix (each time after a reboot).
Are these partition kind of rewriten, or partially rewriten during boot?

Basically, I was trying to (blindly) locate where could ephemerides/almanac data be stored bay comparing before/after etc…