Discovered Why L5 MMSC Fails Now

Hardware Librem 5
1

PREAMBLE:
ISSUE- Sending pics with text stopped. Sending text only still worked.
Attempted fix was flash phone. There are/were links and @amarok kindly created a text version of David Hammer video version with suggested edits by for flashing the L5. However, this err’ed too. Corrected by installing “uuu” and “git”. Still didn’t work.

WHY?
After several attempts to flash, it was realized that both the host (PureOS) and victim (L5) were both Amber. :sob:
Correcting both to Byzantium and switched to Ubuntu (with all updates) nixed the errors, but did not enable pics with text messages.
I used another Step-x-Step flash guide (by @FranklyFlawless) and coupled with @irvinewade’s, this went faster because I didn’t have to do several extra steps. Still no pics with texts. But then…

The Not-Thought-Of Was Realized:

Again, I contacted my carrier (Koodo.Com - sub off of Telus) and this time I reached their support (not the Forum) human via a phone call (using land line).
The tech quickly checked my file, my issue, and phone and noted that the seller of the plan (London Drugs had sold me a plan and the plan name was “3G Speed Per 30 Days” THREE G!!! :unamused:

Tech also said that ‘support for 3G was discontinued on Nov. 17 last year’. (paraphrased) And that’s when my problem with the pics came into play.

Koodo tech changed my plan to 4G, took $1.00 off per month and said that if that didn’t fix the MMS issue, to take it up with the phone manufacturer.

SUMMARY:
After waiting 24 hours for 4G plan to fully kick in, I sent a plain text, then a text with a 158k pic. Text works, pics don’t. Still no where with this.

A major issue is phone keeps getting copies of copied copies. Ergo, I go over my limit very fast. I post a separate issue regarding this.

SUGGESTION For Canadians:
Before purchase, find someone with a L5 phone in Canada and check if their L5 will work with the carrier and use that carrier. Most carriers will tell you they do not support the Librem/Purism(?) L5. They want sell you their stalker-phones with their plan of course.

SUGGESTION For Librem/Purism:
When you’re building software to run phone, consider including countries you sell the phone to. According to tech, in Canada since 2012, all digital phones should be able to move from one carrier to another with out the grief.
i.e. Shouldn’t matter what the phone is, the phone has to be compatible with all carriers in Canada.
Now I know why I may no longer text with data.

Caveat emptor^10
Edited to correct a link, add another link, correct typo, and added adjuncts…
~s

p.s. None of what is enclosed with this post is carved in stone. It’s gathered from techs, web sites, and my own experiences.

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:+1:

You need to ask about the things that are important to you however. If you ask “does it work?” then you might get a “yes” meaning that calls and SMS and data work - and that doesn’t cover MMS.

Yes, there’s no point asking the carrier. Most likely they haven’t even heard of the Librem 5.

To be honest, I don’t expect them to support anything. I expect them not to actively block devices. I expect them to make public required information where it is reasonable for someone to ask.

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Yeap…

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Telus simply doesn’t support MMS unless you can add all the settings they want in Chats, i.e., setting the country code & etc.

Bell would prefer you do all that as well, but still supports pics.

Realistically, Chats needs to be updated to add those settings to the string it sends, as that seems to be the way things are going.

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I wonder if it’s possible to add in some of those extra fields in ~/.mms/modemmanager/mms.

I haven’t tried it, though.

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MMS is unreliable due to current data bugs on Userland and Rootland. However MMS working fine for peoples that know how bypassing current data bugs and etc.

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MMS and MMSC works for me, but one thing that I have noticed is it doesn’t work if I’m running Mullvad… Oddly, SMS still works fine with that active.

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Actually, it’s not odd at all. :wink:

It is a known issue with some mobile service providers. Some mobile service providers implement MMS in a way that requires a trusted connection from your phone to the provider (and when I say trusted I mean trusted by the provider). If they see the connection coming from a VPN service they (wrongly) call it an attempted hack and throw the connection away.

SMS doesn’t have that problem because it doesn’t require a connection of that type - and is just implemented using the normal connection that supports calls and SMS.

You may be able to work around this by configuring your VPN for split tunneling so that almost all traffic goes via the VPN but traffic intended to send or receive MMS messages bypasses the VPN - with the attendant weakening of your security - and the inflexibility and complication if you regularly travel to other countries / roam to other networks.

Regardless, the answer for the questions “Why doesn’t MMS work at all?” and “Why doesn’t MMS work with a VPN?” are highly provider-specific. So unless you are in Canada, your experience probably doesn’t help the OP. (If you are in Canada then it would help to mention your MVNO/MNO.)

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Yeah I can omit Chatty

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That’s only safe if the only data connections from Chatty relate to MMS. Otherwise, if you are also using other messaging services, you would be “unintentionally” having them bypass the VPN too. In the general case where Chatty interacts with a whole range of messaging services, you would be better off just bypassing the VPN for the specific IP addresses that you have determined are used by your mobile provider for MMS.

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I wish the Puri ads stated that people need to know about “bypassing current data bugs and etc.”

What would you suggest to use so I may send/receive texts w/ data?

Yeah - it’s never the phones fault - is it.

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Yes it is “oddly”. This forum, IMO, seems to be here to redirect or blame all problems on the user.
If Puri puts Chatty on, that needs the MMSc settings and know it’s “oddly” and the fault of all the world’s carriers SAY SO IN THE ADS!

Nothing in the last 16 months has fixed anything on this abomination.

Today’s events are classic of over-tweaking software to make one thing work while punching holes in other /wares and making new issues.

No matter what I do, or try to open, all I get is the kiddie-kewl background.

deb-bck-grnd
deb-bck-grnd500×800 72.5 KB

What haveI done this time to make this happen? I turned the :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: on!

If I manage to get to the desktop, and click System, there is a 15 second delay and that (censored) phone gives me the background. I NEVER SET A BACKGROUND.
I know how to set one.
I know I didn’t set one.
I am not responsible for setting one.
No one else is responsible for setting background.

Can’t get to desktop without background taking over.

And why in Hades did Puri put a image of a battery replacing the percentages?
The percentages don’t matter much because one screen shows the battery totally empty and another shows 100%. I take it he 100% means 100% dead.

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If I’m not mistaken, that background was set as a default that appears (only) during the interval between “app-launched” and “app-loaded” states, i.e. not as a wallpaper behind the app grid, and if the app loads fast enough, you don’t actually see it happening. If you set an alternate background from the main Settings, even the all-black one, you probably won’t see it anymore. On my L5, I use a personal photo as background, and that’s what I see during slow app-loading, not the default one.

About the battery percentage:
Settings > Power > Suspend & Power Button > Show Battery Percentage

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I don’t know how you got that from my post. My post even started with

It is a known issue with some mobile service providers.

which if anything could be construed as blaming the mobile service provider. But then if you read on, the full explanation makes it clear that this is a thorny problem, not easy to solve, and not blaming any party - not the user, not the mobile service provider, not the VPN service provider, not the phone.

It is likely though that only the mobile service provider can fix that particular problem - which is (I assume) unrelated to your problem anyway.

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I found the real problem.

First, understand the issue. That being the new Kiddie-Kewl Blue Background (KKBB) supposedly created to show the KKBB in between Tap On-App and Open-App.

Recommended Fix:
Disable the KKBB - all of it so there is no space where it is and shouldn’t be, and the app. Not a redirect, not a message saying please wait… just tap-and-get.

No matter what I tap now, I get that unsmart background. Clearly, the KKBB doesn’t allow apps to takes the place of KKBB.

How do I completely disable the unnecessary background interruption between tapping the app and access to the expected tapped app result?

App loading WAS, I stress WAS able to open in less than the time it takes to load up a         KKBB.

I’d rather they fix Byzantium’s REAL issues than add more misleading useless time wasting stuff like the KKBB between apps. Geeze. Who thought up that one!
It shouldn’t need the KKBB any way. Needing it only shows how pver rated the L5 is.

p.s. Leave KKBB being a in-between note that we’re waiting for something to load. I for one don’t need a half second or a hours notice that app is loading post tap.
That’s what the circling thing is for.

The camels back is broken now.

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I don’t imagine you can.

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If someone can stick the KKBB in they should     well take it out.
This KKBB has to be the       I’ve seen happen to this piece of work.

It makes to sense to even consider using something so lame that adds more wasted effort on the users victims side.

So, the manual should edited to include swiping the new annoying kiddie-kewl screen up to get at the app they tapped.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they start using the KKBB as a interrupting ad service. You know, tap on Services and get a ad about the:

“Librem 11 blah blah - tap to read more.
‘swipe up to load the app’.”

Over a year and this thing is still useless unless. But I am not giving up. I am lead to believe that everyone else, excluding techies, hobbyists, and Kernel users are happy with theirs. So I’ll keep at it where ever it takes me, to be using the thing the way it is supposed to work and as advertised.
I have followed everyone’s instructions to the T.
It’s high time the phone did something positive for a change - - and may a million sand fleas invade the persons under garment that says “It tells the time correctly”.

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If I can rephrase your actual grievance as I think I understand it, it is that some apps (or most, or all, whatever) take too long to load, which leads to your “KKBB” being shown in the interval, i.e. not a “background” problem per se, but a speed thing.

So it would be more effective to file an issue with the developers about the slow app load times. Whether they can do anything about it at present, I don’t know.

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No. The KKBB is the cause. And we need to swipe that KKBB up to get to the app that is opened behind it.

No. Apps, all load fine - - but most, or all, whatever loaded, it loaded behind KKBB and to see what loaded, swipe the KKBB up - there’s the app.

Remember? Before this, when I tapped a icon, the app would start to load and a progression circle spun around and I knew that at least the circle works. But a screen that goes blank with the image and nothing is showing that things are progressing… a blank image that is discovered later to be a background in between tapped and loaded. Bad idea.

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I didn’t say you. I said “This forum”.

I have to grudgingly tell you that I feel you did not read my OP. Part of the issue was I was signed up on a “3G” account that no doubt went on to the sim or at Koodo’s mass of servers somewhere that stopped handling 3G a long time ago.
Koodo, my carrier, has done as much as they can by moving me to a 4G account on those servers somewhere.

Puri points me to the Carrier to take responsibility, and Koodo echoes that back.

Some say there are 2 sides to every story. Well I think there are three - that is Puri side, Koodo side, and somewhere in the middle is the solution, conclusion, resolution, or all 3.

This phone(?) is in very bad shape. To me, it’s just a bigger challenge.

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