No mobile internet with Android apps

[jovirkku]

@throwaway69

Looks like android has broken dns resolving, I can open http://35.180.139.74 in android firefox just fine on mobile data, so whatsapp is just using a list of IP addresses to communicate and skips domain names

You seem to be right. Although Internet connections over mobile data on the Jolla C2 do not work for Android apps, WhatsApp makes an exception.

[abranson]

The problem is that AppSupport isn’t aware of the network connection. There’s a component that injects the mobile data state in, and it’s quite a big job to migrate that to support the C2 as it has a very different hardware interface for that. Any app that asks Android if there’s a network connection when on mobile data will be told that there isn’t one and so refuse to work. But Whatsapp doesn’t bother asking - it just tries to connect to things and as there is really network available then it works. DNS would also be broken, but it’s another symptom rather than the cause of the problem.

The migration is ongoing, but as I said it’s a substantial amount of work so is taking some time.

[MRQ]

FB Messsenger also rreceice and send text (no photos/videos) messages, even if it shows “No internet connection”.

[MRQ]

After this post I expierenced also photo delivery over mobile nerwork

[makrolon]

@abranson

Any app that asks Android if there’s a network connection when on mobile data will be told that there isn’t one and so refuse to work. But Whatsapp doesn’t bother asking - it just tries to connect to things and as there is really network available then it works.

I bet someone is now trying to make a quick hack that answers “yes, there is a network connection” to any Android app asking for it. Sounds like this would make a lot of stuff work while waiting for the real implementation.

[archon]

Knowing what you found out with the DNS I have made couple of android apps work on mobile data by writing static hosts into /etc/hosts. I succeeded with some and failed with others. It is not really a nice hack but al least you can try to make some apps you rely on to work until it is fixed. Here is what I did.

1. Install tcpdump

devel-su pkcon install tcpdump

2. Find out what DNS names are being resolved by the app you want to fix. To do this. Connect to your wifi, launch appsupport and run the app while having tcpdump running in the terminal. This will only show DNS traffic that involves port 53.

devel-su tcpdump -i wlan0 port 53

Try to gather all hosts and corresponding addresses that were resolved by the app. For example I got the following:

21:49:33.928189 IP 192.168.100.186.45609 > familyshield.sse.cisco.com.domain: 23265+ A? m.mbank.pl. (28)
21:49:33.932844 IP familyshield.sse.cisco.com.domain > 192.168.100.186.44098: 23265 2/0/0 CNAME m.global.mbank.pl., A 185.210.158.228
(67)
21:49:33.933132 IP familyshield.sse.cisco.com.domain > 192.168.100.186.45609: 23265 2/0/0 CNAME m.global.mbank.pl., A 193.41.230.108 (
67)
21:49:34.308477 IP 192.168.100.186.44098 > familyshield.sse.cisco.com.domain: 20579+ A? api.skp.mbank.pl. (34)
21:49:34.308654 IP 192.168.100.186.45609 > familyshield.sse.cisco.com.domain: 20579+ A? api.skp.mbank.pl. (34)
21:49:34.343708 IP familyshield.sse.cisco.com.domain > 192.168.100.186.44098: 20579 1/0/0 A 185.210.158.249 (50)

3. Edit /etc/hosts and append the address - domain name pairs from the previous step. From the above tcpdump output I have added the following:

185.210.158.228 m.mbank.pl
185.210.158.228 m.global.mbank.pl
185.210.158.249 api.skp.mbank.pl

4. Make the /etc/hosts visible to android apps. Edit the file /opt/appsupport/etc/appsupport.conf.d/10-hybris.conf and add the following line into the [Config] section

Mounts=/etc/hosts system/etc/hosts none bind,create=file 0 0

5. Disable wifi, restart appsupport, check if your app is now working on mobile data. Repeat for all of the apps you want to work on mobile.

[hschmitt]

I updated my C2 to 5.0.0.55, but AppSupport still has no mobile internet.
The Android settings for “Network and Internet” show “No sim card”. I am convinced that it is something provider specific. My provider is O2 Germany. I posted my APN config in this thread earlier which I could use to make it work with my Xperia 10 II with 4.6. Can I provide any logs or debug output?

[harbourlights]

Same problem on my C2 with 5.0.0.55, WeTell/Vodafone Germany.

[archon]

I got the same issue and fixed it by completely removing AAS as I mentioned here

[Release notes] Tampella 5.0.0.55

I also had problems with android mobile data after the upgrade but fixed it with complete removal of AAS as described here I have performed both clean and brutal way at the same time which included removing /home/.appsupport and /home/appsupport-root After reboot and reinstallation from Jolla Store it works perfectly. Thank you!

It will of course wipe all android apps and their configurations.

[PatsJolla]

Hi,
for me it works with/since sfos update 5.0.0.55 on C2.

I couldn’t surf with Fennec outside before, now it works and even banking apps work when I’m not in wifi.

BUT I had to hard remove Appsupport (also to get spoofing working correctly for banking).

I also realized that my Android would be always in English even if I switch SFOS to let’s say German. Now after reinstalling appsupport my Android is in German (check in android settings page). Maybe thats related and shows a wrong configuration between sfos and android?

I also dont have to toggle wifi on/off, mobile on/off or restart appsupport it just works actually even better than under sfos 4.* on my Sony

[hschmitt]

It works now for me.
I stopped AppSupport, disabled SIM 1, enabled SIM 1, started AppSupport.

[harbourlights]

Thank you, I can confirm this method worked for my C2 as well!

[pawel.spoon]

i can confirm that Tidal and Songsterr do not work on C2 with 5.0.55 on mobile data only

[Firefox84]

Is it just me, but for me AAS sometimes has better mobile connection then the SFOS Layer, maybe its also connected with the browser update. I load webpages and there are taking forever. I sometimes get them to work by changing the network to 2G or restarting the network. But it is not always working, maybe its also the pages i am loading, and they have a lot of advertising, webvideos and so on. Someone has similar problems!? Thanks in advance

Greetings

[harbourlights]

Sadly, I could not reproduce this solution the next day. So far, it worked for me only once and I’m back to square one.

[pawel.spoon]

Slightly off topic but yesterday wifi woukd not work for sailfish until reboot.
This ends in some permutations

[hschmitt]

I have to redo it after every boot. I open the settings and wait till AppSupport runs, then I disable and enable SIM 1. After that it works every time.

[harbourlights]

Thank you for the detailed description. For some reason it’s different in my case and I can’t seem to get it to work anymore.
Will have to investigate switching the sim cards again…

Edit: Are you using both SIM slots?

[hschmitt]

I only have one SIM inserted in slot 1, but both SIM slots are enabled in the sailfishos seettings.

[harbourlights]

I have found a solution for people with two SIM cards:
You have to turn off App Support, disable SIM 1, enable SIM 1, disable SIM 2, enable SIM 2, turn on App Support again.
If cellular data was already enabled, you might have to disable it as well, then enable again, then everything works.
A bit tedious but for the moment I am glad there is a reproducible, reliable way.

Edit: typo