My experience is the GPS works, but geoclue does not. When I use GNSS-test or GNSS traces it works without issues. The fix is pretty fast (after the first fix). But, geoclue cannot get a fix at all (tested with where-am-i) and I experience the same issue than described above using gnome-maps. Disabling 3G, CDMA and WiFi sources in geoclue.conf avoid the jumping locations issue but provide some wrong constant location.
It should work now on up-to-date system, provided that there are no custom changes in geoclue.conf that could break it. Also, if you ever restart gnss-share you have to restart geoclue as well, otherwise itās not going to be able to use GPS until a reboot.
Thereās no need to disable other sources, it should not jump anymore when thereās a fix available.
That wasnāt clear from your message,
My system is up to date, and I did not customize anything to do with gps.
Weāll see what happens.
In which case, @wimdows should clarify whether he has a static IP address, either in the terms of his internet service or in practice - given the persistent location in Zoetermeer (which apparently isnāt a nice place to be 
).
Also, if the damned spot is coming from GeoIP then a VPN should be sufficient to out the damned spot. (For me, GeoIP is several hundred kilometres inaccurate i.e. not much good for navigation but also not so much of a privacy concern.)
Depending on the trade-off that @wimdows wants to make between privacy and accuracy, he could put his own WiFi Access Point (router) in the database.
Personally, I have disabled geoclue from using either IP address or WiFi address.
I might try that as well.
(Oh, and in practice my IP address is static. Though it probably changes if and when I do a reconnect.)
I did a quick check: it is the location that goes with my home networks ip-address that is indicated on the map. Or at least it is the location of the providing network (kpn, in my case). So, it is all down to GeoIP.
I can see how to disable wifi as a location source. Not sure about the ip-address. What would be the simplest/quickest way to disable that?
Edit: Well, disabling wifi as a source seems to have done the trick: Zoetermeer/Pijnacker appear to have been wiped off the map!
Thanks!
2 Likes
Reading the documentation for Mozilla Location Services (MLS), it includes the possibility of using any or all of the following
- the client IP address
- WiFi Access Points
- Bluetooth beacons
- phone towers
It looks as if you donāt get that level of control directly in the geoclue .conf file and instead you would need to control the contents of the JSON body that is POSTed to MLS.
So enabling āWiFiā at all may enable all 4 of those things. I couldnāt find any documentation about how to get more fine-grained control, so you might have to read the sources. As I myself wouldnāt go near the āWiFiā option, I have no need for that level of control.
Of course you also have the option of using a different provider of the location service for WiFi, which could have differing detailed functionality and/or be a wrapper for MLS which strips out the offending parts of the data that is POSTed if there is no other way to achieve it.
1 Like
Thanks for the reply, irvin. I will see how setting wifi to false works out for real-life navigation before I delve further into this. It feels like problem solved, for now.
1 Like
That works wonderfuly well. No more Zoetermeer D-tours!
1 Like
I decided to try GPS during my commute this morning. The L5 settings related to GPS are unmodified ā I never even turned on location services until this morning.
Before embarking, I set HKS to Cell = ON and WiFi = OFF, then turned on Location Services. I drove two miles down steep switchbacks, descending almost 2000 feet (to get solid data) before bringing up Gnome Maps.
The initial fix was in the local area, showing me about half a mile from my actual locationā¦ suspiciously in the direction of the nearest cell tower. About five miles later, it showed me about 20 feet offset from my true distance from the centerline, updating almost smoothly, tracking nicely, but lagging by a second or two. Outstanding!
Then I decided to enter a destination and try navigation. It rapidly became apparent that Gnome Maps isā¦ challenged. 
I wonāt even try to enumerate.
So I installed Pure Maps. Ah, thatās better!
Pure Maps did not always find a location by street address. Oddly, it did do well with landmarks. For instance, I work at a very large military base. I tend to navigate by Building Numbers, not street addresses, so I had low expectations. But when I typed the name of the base, it presented me with a list of places on the base, including all five gates. Nice!
Verdict? Great job, Purism! My Pinephone never could do as well.
3 Likes
I think that OpenStreetMap data is used for both GNOME Maps and Pure Maps. When I have a destination that is missing in OpenStreetMap I usually add it before I go there. Here in the Netherlands is the OpenStreetMap coverage excellent. Also Nominatim might be used for searching OpenStreetMap data.
1 Like
Yeah I think Pure Maps is a much better and polished product and I can get it to work with OSM Server for offline navigation even better.
1 Like
I fully agree. But they should do something about their color scheme: the dark mode in PureMaps isnāt very practical (blue font on dark grey background, really?!).
1 Like
Yeah function trumps form even if you like a colour scheme and think itās cool. Or at least provide a way for the user to tweak the colour scheme.