Jolla C2 - GPS often does not work at all

[hansdemooij]

Hi,

Since a week I have Jolla C2. Does anyone know why GPS is ot alwasy working?

Once it works it seems to be very stable. I test it with two android apps: Sygic and Locus Maps.

But on regular basis the GPS doesn notwork a all.

Any suggestions are welcome, because use GPS very often for hiking and traveling.

Kr,
Hans

[affe_null]

Does it really not work at all or does it just take a very long time to get a fix? It might take several minutes, depending on the signal quality.

You might want to install GitHub - direc85/harbour-gpsinfo from OpenRepos. This app should show how long it takes to get a GPS fix and how many satellites are visible.

[hansdemooij]

Thank you for your suggestions. I just tried it and you may be rigth. It Can take a while before the GPS detects the signal and satelites.

I will try more during the next days and give an update on my findings.

Regards, Hans

[hansdemooij]

The problem with GPS on my Jolla C2 becomes more clear now.

1. It seems that the GPS does not work when I am in a building
2. From outside the GPS works well, although sometimes it needs a few minutes to find the satelites.

I wonder if this issue ismonoy related to my device or if it is a general weakeness of the Jolla C2?

[affe_null]

This applies to all GPS devices, not just the Jolla C2. Other phones might use some “tricks” to show a location faster, such as estimating it based on cell tower positions.

There is also A-GPS which should reduce the time needed to get a GPS fix by downloading information via mobile data. It is possible that the A-GPS implementation on the C2 is broken.

[E-PaiN]

For me the GPS is very poor on the C2 as well. I’ve tried navigating with it between France and the Netherlands this year, not a pleasant experience; two issues really:

1. Oftentimes it simply doesn’t get fix, sometimes fixes itself after a reboot, sometimes requires a 2nd of 3rd reboot; then works
2. While navigating it usually works fine for a period, either minutes to hours, but then the fix quality gets so poor that the navigation goes to the other side of the highway, or even a nearby village, usually requiring step 1 all over again

This happens both under native (Puremaps) as well as Sygic on Android; however Sygic is special since (on top of Android) it runs so slow that new challenges start to arise, especially in conjunction with points 1 & 2

[joboe]

I have the same issue and created a bug report, now

GPS on C2 not reliable for a longer use

REPRODUCIBILITY: on every longer use OS VERSION: 5.0.0.70 (and before) HARDWARE: C2 UI LANGUAGE: German REGRESSION: GPS looses track or completely looses satellite connection after a while of use (while being outside in a flat area) DESCRIPTION When using GPS with a navigation app (e.g. OSM Scout or Here maps) the connection gets bad after a while so that a wrong location is shown or the satellite connection is lost at all. Disabling GPS and enabling it again helps for a time, but the probl…

[koleesch]

On my C2 there is no gps.conf in /vendor/etc. Maybe it is the problem.

[pawel.spoon]

Went yesterday to zagreb and gps with android (magic earth) would not work at all
Tried 3 times on the way
In such a case puremaps stops to work too and position does not move at all
At night in zagreb, pure maps (aas disabled) would work

[hansdemooij]

Yes, according to my experience, unfortunately, the quality of this phone is not good. I do not use it anymore. Just now and then I try updates.

Honestly I support the initiative of a linux phone, but this device. In my opinion, is NOT ready for the market and should not be sold.

Main problems:

1. Connectivity to internet is not stable. Especially after activating the phone with pincode
2. GPS is really unreliable and unstable

[filip.k]

@hansdemooij

Connectivity to internet is not stable.

Mine works great in that regard. After a AAS mobile fix I didn’t had a single fault on any data connectivity issue.

@hansdemooij

GPS is really unreliable and unstable

Mine works reliably and stable but it does often misses a few tens of meters.

[jolla-maximo]

Hi,
The GPS isn’t working on my Jolla C2…

Could you post the configuration files for yours – gps.conf, gps.debug.conf, etc.?

[filip.k]

I would try it fIrst in CSD. Or at least GPSInfo app.
Did you try in open sky amd waited a few minutes with good data connection?

[Kea]

Filip.k
Often when someone posts about having trouble with a feature there is someone else saying ‘Mine works fine’. This is not helpful.
GPS and satnav is a common problem in Sailfish on Xperia devices since Jolla1 ended. With Jolla1 Here was reliable. I used it as satnav. With Xperia X, XA2 and 10 III GPS did not work well enough for driving a car or it didn’t work at all. I installed the interesting GPS detector app, but that only shows satellites after a while. MLS is now obsolete. Will there be a replacement?

[fingus]

@Kea

Will there be a replacement?

Using beaconDB (public domain wireless geolocation database) is in the talk:

Use BeaconDB as online positioning service

Does anybody know how to ‘poison’ standard gps service with arbitrary coordinates? The wifi positioning above relies on apple services so there is 0 (literally ZERO) chance jolla incorporates it officially, yet, it works and apple servers get almost zero information about the guy who queried them, no appleID is sent/needed, you just send them MACs and get coords back, the privacy advocates can shout at us as hard as they want, but I would still like a way to inject the coords we get from apple f…

[Kea]

I mostly use an old ipadmini cellular. Without sim, offline, MagicEarth works perfect that way. Not fond of Apple though.
However, what I read in the Neostumbler app (FDroid): it searches for beacons like telecom masts, BT and wifi. GPS is not mentioned. How is that with Apple’s beacons?

[jolla-maximo]

Good morning everyone.
I need to know how the gps.conf file is configured on the Jolla C2s that receive GPS.
On mine, and not only on mine, the file doesn’t exist. Instead, there’s gps_debug.conf, and it’s very different from those on the Xa2 or Jolla C1.

Can anyone with a C2 with a working GPS (no matter how slow or fast) post information about the presence and content of these files?

On my C2, the GPS only gets 2 satellites in sight after 3 hours.

Since I think the last batch, including my C2, was configured too quickly, the screen wouldn’t even turn on, so I had to fix the file under /vfsensor. I’ll post the details soon. It’s likely that other files are missing or unconfigured.

[jolla-maximo]

[mal]

I which kind of location did you test GPS? I just tested with my C2 on a balcony and got a GPS lock in about a minute or so with 10 satellites in use and 22 visible. Indoors the device doesn’t see satellites easily but that is common for most devices and in my test after I brought the device indoors the number satellites dropped to 5 in use out of 8.

[jolla-maximo]

I’ve been following you for a while… And I see that confusion reigns supreme…

GPS doesn’t work if it can’t literally see the satellite… Do you see the stars at home?

If the GPS works inside your home, it means it’s sensing the signal reflected off the walls of some house/building and that the signal passes through the glass of your windows. In this case, you’d notice a lower accuracy… even 30 meters… in range…

Another example of GPS working at home is when the phone has A-GPS enabled… or something similar.

Now, is some kind soul willing to post the GPS files and their route? Just search with your file browser by entering “gps”?

This is only if your Jolla C2 receives GPS with the GPS Info app or another app. I don’t care if it finds the position in 5 minutes or 5 hours.

This helps me understand if my problem is a software or hardware one.

My C2 is part of the Q4/25 batch. And I’ve already fixed the rotation problem by simply changing the orientation threshold number in the appropriate file. Detailed information will follow soon.

Thanks in advance to anyone who volunteers.