It was tested with several devices from various hardware batches. The sensor works by measuring reflected infrared light, so it won’t work well against an object that absorbs infrared. Some types of hair absorb it better than others.
Is this the point that the manual gets an addition “Users should cut their hair regularly - particularly if it grows wild and black in their ear”…? Seems like Purism isn’t after the hippie-segment 
(more the corporate and/or military haircut type? 
)
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I this threshold (i.e. display off/on) depends on hardware and/or users hair, it would be good if the threshold could be controlled from userland, no GUI is necessary, at least some /etc/… config file read by the system on boot. My L5 was unmanageable in phone calls, I could not even hang-up a call, only with the modem’s HKS.
Get a haircut and get a real job. lol
2 Likes
I believe Guido has already pointed you to a way to change the threshold on a single device in the ticket you opened (using udev quirks).
Yes, @guido.gunther did this in https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/calls/-/issues/560#note_1697261 but also saying “getting the hwdb entries right is a bit tricky,…” I never tried this because it was not a straight forward configuration in some normal config file.
Well, it’s hardware-specific. You won’t get it more straight forward than that. When it comes to Librem 5, you can even just copy’n’paste Guido’s rule.
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Sounds like what my dad told me in 1974!
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That’s when I enlisted, there was a mini-recession if I recall. High School graduates weren’t getting jobs.
It wasn’t a just an adventure, it was a job! (Upgraded $96.78 a week in an SNL skit 5 years later.)
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I noticed that people started complaining about the L5 audio quality again and that there were files in these directories again. Is this the result of just changing the volume? In other words: is it possible to “break” the audio quality by changing the volume via the hardware buttons and volume sliders in GNOME settings?
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I have as well files there from today and only adjusted the volume with the sliders and the hardware buttons:
purism@pureos:~$ ls -l /var/lib/alsa/*.state ~/.config/pulse
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21475 Apr 2 08:36 /var/lib/alsa/librem5.state
/home/purism/.config/pulse:
total 64
-rw------- 1 purism purism 28672 Apr 2 08:36 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-card-database.tdb
-rw------- 1 purism purism 45 Apr 2 08:36 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-default-sink
-rw------- 1 purism purism 46 Apr 2 08:36 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-default-source
-rw------- 1 purism purism 12288 Apr 2 14:23 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-device-volumes.tdb
-rw------- 1 purism purism 12288 Apr 2 07:11 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-stream-volumes.tdb
-rw------- 1 purism purism 256 Mar 21 07:22 cookie
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This is how the files look at my phone:
purism@avalon:~$ ls -l /var/lib/alsa/*.state ~/.config/pulse
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 2 15:36 /var/lib/alsa/librem5.state
/home/purism/.config/pulse:
total 48
-rw------- 1 purism purism 12288 Apr 2 15:36 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-card-database.tdb
-rw------- 1 purism purism 45 Apr 2 15:36 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-default-sink
-rw------- 1 purism purism 46 Apr 2 15:36 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-default-source
-rw------- 1 purism purism 12288 Apr 2 15:36 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-device-volumes.tdb
-rw------- 1 purism purism 12288 Apr 2 15:40 9b43caf3619f49f8ba467ec270970f44-stream-volumes.tdb
-rw------- 1 purism purism 256 Apr 2 15:36 cookie
For me the quality doesn’t seem to be a problem, it isn’t loud enough.
(Says the old man who should probably investigate a hearing aid.)
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I second that: the L5 is way too subtle when it comes to volume.
Not the volume of phone conversations, mind. It’s the ringer that isn’t loud enough
I found the ringtone to be too subtle for my taste. So replacing it with a more annoying ring tone helped a lot…
I did the same. But more volume would not hurt either. If that is at all possible of course.
Actually, I’d like the old ringtone from the original Man from UNCLE.
Not the one with their fountain pen communicator, the one from the desk phone.
(I suppose I could find an hold episode and record it with a mic.)
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Maybe directly controlling the volume of the ringtone would be more convenient but if you change the ringtone, you should be able to keep the current ringtone but just make a copy that is higher volume.
Personally, I would be looking for a user-friendly interface that allows you to use a custom ringtone.
I don’t know whether Linux (out-of-the-box) allows you to set the volume on a per-notification basis. You can increase the volume for all notifications together but that probably isn’t what you want.
Yes, I agree with you both. The Librem 5 out-of-the-box ringtone is too quiet. Unless I am with my phone, I don’t hear it (and I don’t think that’s PEBKAC ).
Well, there’s no accounting for personal perception, eh? I like the the default ring/notification tones and volumes. Where I wish I had more volume control is for music and podcasts. My car has exceptional road noise… sometimes I don’t get quite enough volume – both L5 and head unit at 100%. 
I agree about what is said about the ringtone above. I also have an issue that adds to that problem. After plugging in a headset in the 3.5mm jack, I need to lower the volume of the phone to about 40%. Quite often that volume level remains even after unplugging the headset, which makes it almost impossible to hear the ringing. Anyone else experiencing this?