XA2 (nile) NFC support

Feature Requests
#1

REPRODUCIBILITY (% or how often): 100%
BUILD ID = OS VERSION (Settings > About product): Verla 4.2.0.21
HARDWARE (XA2, X10, X10 II, …): XA2
UI LANGUAGE: English (US)
REGRESSION: (compared to previous public release: Yes, No, ?): Yes (according to [attah] no issue with 4.1 but after upddating to 4.2)

DESCRIPTION:

On my Xperia X (Loire), the device gives vibration feedback if NFC reader recognized a token.
Couldn’t run any Android apps on Xperia X due to obsolete version 4.4 support, so I purchased a XA2, where Android 10 API level is supported, in order to have NFC support.
Sailfish X on XA2 (Nile) doesn’t give any feedback with the same tokens known to beeing recognized by the same Sailfish X version (4.2) on the Xperia X (Loire).
Android apps confirm that NFC is unsupported on my (XA2) device.

PRECONDITIONS:

Purchase Sailfish X and install Verla 4.2 on Xperia XA2 (Nile)

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. Purchase Sailfish X and install on Xperia XA2 (Nile)
  2. Place a NFC token next to the reader on a Xperia X with Verla installed → Note the vibration feedback
  3. Place the same token next to the reader on a Xperia XA2 with Verla installed → Note that ther is no feedback.

EXPECTED RESULT:

Sailfish X native vibration feedback and ability to use Android apps utilizuing NFC.

ACTUAL RESULT:

No signs of NFC support, neither in Sailfish X nor in Android compat.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Community meeting on IRC 15th September 2022
#2

It is not a bug that NFC doesn’t work in Android apps - it is a known limitation. So Android apps will report NFC not being supported; but it is just for them that it is the case.

NFC does work just fine for Sailfish apps on the XA2. And at least when i try with my XA2, there is a vibration on successful read even if there is no app running.

Edit: that was on 4.1, now after updating it seems to have stopped working. My Xperia 10 II seems to read NFC just fine on 4.2 though.

#3

So you can mark this as a (just another :frowning: ) regression.
(works/vibrates as well on SFOS3.2)

#4

This may not be a regression but a matter of hardware differences. Do you know your exact model? Have you tested NFC on baremetal Android?
I discovered this early on as NFC didn’t work for me when I first purchased my XA2. The back panel was loose on mine, so I ended up prying it off, and discovered that while the contacts for NFC are on it, the pogo pins were missing, so there was no functional way for NFC to work on my model, despite having an NFC symbol and pad etched on the back. I have an H3123, not sure if that’s any significance.

1 Like
#5

While I like the UI changes starting with 3.x, I don’t like the firejail and that silly LUKS implementation. The major parts are closed source, so there’s simply no security at all. I don’t wan’t pseudo-encrypted /home; same key for all useres! If one user sets his personal lock-code to something simple, the whole home is decryptable within minutes, even for people not understanding what they are doing. I guess this implementation was done by paid staff. 1st, fire the manager who granted release for this wrong implementation. 2nd, request staff to pay back their weighes…
Serious, multi-user and UI desigen is the only improvement - the browser became unusable shortly after JP1 was sold and is still completely unusable these days - did ever run anybody at Jolla bromite for example on their Sailfish-Android-compat? Much better performance and much better privacy, much better usage. And IMAP Mail support still is an unbeliefable nightmare, not to mention a calender without a weekle view etc. etc. etc. And, SIP was announced to be implemented some 4 years ago… What will VoLTE end up? 4 year period of announcements, with actual ongoing regressions?
My JP1 had its limitation, but these were raltive to that time smaller than today’s Sailfish X deficiencies.
Only astonishing thing is that the photoTAN Android-App for my bank account works flawlessly on the XA2 likewise bromite. Fun to handle, fun to watch, as opposed to most of the native apps.

No idea why this materialized as a (small) rant instead of my simple question:
Can I somewhere download the last Sailfish X version for XA2 (Nile) before encryption (end especially firejail) started to slow down everything? Maybe your 3.2 Version, as mentioned?

If they only let the [edit: users meant to read customers] decide if we want to accept that slowdown (for no security benefit, at least with current implementation for the last years)…

1 Like
#6

Unfortunately not.
As @Jolla decided to let us download only the latest version of SFOS image (even it is buggy or from your point of view not suitable to be your daily driver).

You need to ask around by giving your full model (e.g. H4113 for XA2 Dual SIM) and hope some shares it with you…

For your information

#7

Android apps are cut off from NFC adaptation and hardware, that’s a design decision. It should be possible to switch NFC between native and android apps and AFAIK it’s being kept in mind but I wouldn’t expect that switch to be implemented any time soon.

2 Likes
NFC in android apps
#8

Hi, I didn’t check it out myself right now, but I remember there was this nice repo by @blacksheepGER with torrents for some older version of SFOS. Hope you find the one you’re looking for

https://github.com/black-sheep-dev/sailfish-os-torrents

#9

Thanks, links, NFC clarification and feature-versioning highly appreciated!
This is a pity. In Sailfish X we don’t have NFC apps, in android compat, we are refused to use the NFC hardware we have… Makes sense, howsoever.

If we had at least bluetooth profile supported to utilize the device as remote SC reader - didn’t dig deep, but this seems to be a common available feature in android world. No idea what that profile is called nor if it should be supported by the underlaying bluetooth stack (bluez5 afair).

Since jolla doesn’t use hard integrity checks (there’s some image checksum comparing during flash-batch, but I’m sure this was easy to tamper) nor release fingerprints, I can’t install foreigen image copies. This would take the whole system even further ad absurdum - glad I kept all images so far, but only for Xperia X (Loire) and with some skipped. Feels like I need to reactivate my JP1 to get happy again :wink: (one example of how encrytption enforcement makes me extra angry: I have one device I use almost only for GNSS with the help of Pure Maps - now I have 16GB maps encrypted without a choice (dual-sim, no SDcard option). Notably higher battery drainage and overall performance degradation. At least on that device, encryption doesn’t make sense, even not if it was correctly implemented.
AFAIR, home volume expansion is done after first reboot, so there was an option to ask the customer if she wants to activate encryption or keep home unencrypted…

1 Like
#11

@KaeptnNemo, my understanding from reading through the discussion here is that the issue is really about NFC support for Android apps which, as @slava explains in his comment, isn’t currently supported.

To keep things clear I’ve therefore moved this into the Feature Requests category. If I’ve misunderstood, please let me know.

1 Like