How easy it would be to have SFOS make and receive calls from a desktop PC?

General
1

As the title suggests. Assume a linux computer since i suspect this is what most people use around here.

Requirements, discussion etc.

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2

Pulseaudio looks to have some network modes:

I guess you have to force the routing a bit, but it should™ be as easy as that.

3

Most (???) distros have moved to pipewire (which has a pulse compatibility layer). But thats the least of the problems.

As you suggest it will probably be “easy” to do it with a bit of config but the main thing is that all of that has to come together in a user friendly way. (I once had pulse route audio to a different laptop with the help of avahi but it wasnt as easy as ticking two boxes)

Idealy it would pop up a notification, click something on it and talk through the laptop mics (or whatever headset you have connected)

It seems to be more work than just having it working.

4

First make it work, then make it pretty.

Pretty much everything is.

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5

Phrasing is ambiguous.
Do you want

  • the PC to use the SIM card in your SFOS device to make calls?
  • your SFOS device to use a SIM card that your computer controls, to make phone calls?
  • something else?

I’m assuming the first and I have to ask a really dumb question: why?

Also btw pulseaudio is sufficient, it has not been “superseded” by pipewire.

6

Nitpick - SIM cards don’t make calls, modems do.
A SIM is a 2-cent Subscriber Identity Module.

I too assumed the first, i didn’t even catch the somewhat backwards phrasing.

7

Yep. My phrasing was bad.

I meant route the audio and some functionality.

Ie. click on a phone number on your pc and have your phone call it while you speak to your PC mic and listen through your speakers (or whatevere wired or wireless headset you have connected)

Also answer a phonecall on your mobile by clicking on a notification on your pc and routing audio through your headset.

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8

You mean using a headset on a Linux computer to receive voice calls via a Sailfish phone?
I thought that was standard, and I use it all the time. Or are you having specific issues with it?

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9

I haven’t tried dialing a number from my PC yet, so I don’t know if Sailfish Connect has that implemented. But I at least get a popup for incoming calls on Plasma and the BT audio routing works.

Placing a call on Sailfish is, if I remember correctly, just a simple D-Bus command, so it shouldn’t be too hard to implement, I think.

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10

This should be possible by sending dbus-calls over ssh. Don’t ask me how.

The audio bits have already been addressed.

All in all extremely cumbersome but theoretically possible.

Again: why?

edit: reading the next comment I also just realized that it’s unclear how OP wants to connect the phone to the PC - wired, wireless…

11

My motorcycle satnav (Garmin Zumo XT) can do this without any changes on my Jolla. Hence it should be possible with a proper Bluetooth client on the PC as well.

Maybe nohands?

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12

You just siting on your computer -doing whatever- and instead of interacting with your phone to answer a call you just click on a popup.

Something along those lines.

On the subject of routing the audio afai know to discover “automatically“ you need avahi which is available but not easy to set up (ie through settings or something)