Handle invalid SIM cards graphically

sourcrowd · 23 October 2026 18:01

My 9 year old SIM card broke overnight, and it took me a while to diagnose.

After turning on the Xperia and entering my LUKS PIN, there was only a black screen with a spinning circle. Volume keys and opening the top menu worked, but I could not leave the black screen.
Taking out and re-inserting the SIM tray, finally showed the PIN entry for the user. Afterwards in settings, both SIM slots appear to be empty, even though one contains the SIM card that had worked the day before.

Placing the SIM into a spare Android phone, its top text on the lockscreen changed from ‘No SIM card - Service not available’ into ‘Invalid SIM card - emergency calls only’ which confirmed to me that it was a SIM card issue and I had to get it replaced at the telco shop.

Sailfish OS could indicate an invalid SIM in the top menu and in settings, where it currently shows that a SIM is locked when you skip the SIM PIN dialog on startup.

This would assure users, that they didn’t break something.

attah · 24 October 2026 08:16

In concrete technical terms, what doe sit mean for a SIM to be broken or invalid? I.e. how should SFOS detect it?

sourcrowd · 28 October 2026 04:31

Invalid SIM as in, ‎RADIO_CARD_STATE_ERROR‎

github.com/mer-hybris/libgbinder-radio

include/radio_types.h

master


      
              RADIO_DATA_PROFILE_INVALID = -1,
              RADIO_DATA_PROFILE_DEFAULT = 0,
              RADIO_DATA_PROFILE_TETHERED = 1,
              RADIO_DATA_PROFILE_IMS = 2,
              RADIO_DATA_PROFILE_FOTA = 3,
              RADIO_DATA_PROFILE_CBS = 4,
              RADIO_DATA_PROFILE_OEM_BASE = 1000
          } RADIO_DATA_PROFILE_ID;
          G_STATIC_ASSERT(sizeof(RADIO_DATA_PROFILE_ID) == 4);
          
          typedef enum radio_card_state {
              RADIO_CARD_STATE_ABSENT,
              RADIO_CARD_STATE_PRESENT,
              RADIO_CARD_STATE_ERROR,
              RADIO_CARD_STATE_RESTRICTED
          } RADIO_CARD_STATE;
          G_STATIC_ASSERT(sizeof(RADIO_CARD_STATE) == 4);
          
          typedef enum radio_pin_state {
              RADIO_PIN_STATE_UNKNOWN,
              RADIO_PIN_STATE_ENABLED_NOT_VERIFIED,

Same as in https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/+/android-latest-release:hardware/interfaces/radio/aidl/android/hardware/radio/sim/CardStatus.aidl;l=28

The problem is, ofono treats anything other than RADIO_CARD_STATE_PRESENT as if no SIM card was inserted.

github.com/mer-hybris/ofono-binder-plugin

src/binder_sim.c

master


      
          void
          binder_sim_app_changed_cb(
              BinderSimCard* sim,
              void *user_data)
          {
              binder_sim_check_perm_lock((BinderSim*)user_data);
          }
          
          static
          void
          binder_sim_status_changed_cb(
              BinderSimCard* sim,
              void* user_data)
          {
              BinderSim* self = user_data;
          
              GASSERT(self->card == sim);
              if (sim->status && sim->status->card_state == RADIO_CARD_STATE_PRESENT) {
                  if (sim->app) {
                      enum ofono_sim_password_type ps;

I only have a shallow understanding of the low level C code, an LLM pointed me in the right direction.

From my user point of view, when I insert a SIM card that, probably is defective because of age and the visible scratches to the gold contacts, I would want my phone to tell me that. Currently when such a SIM is inserted in a powered on state, nothing happens. When it was inserted before powering on, the user PIN entry screen is never reached, only a black screen with a spinning circle.