VoLTE support progress

[ktmr]

I use Mint also. I’m glad it’s working so well for you. I have been hesitant with enabling this setting, but will have to try it out soon with your positive report.

[steve]

Interesting I’m guessing you can make calls on mint without volte still on mint?

I wonder why it stopped working for me…

[ktmr]

2g calls worked for me on Mint. I do miss inbound calls and there is a significant delay (750ms-1000ms) in audio with the person I’m calling. I’m hopeful Volte improves some if this.

Maybe they took down some 2g towers in your area?

[digitalprairie]

@carlosgonz

As far i know to get VoLTE work it need be enabled by: Firmware(modem) + Software(telephony manager) + Red(4G & carrier) so it weird that 4G only do HD CALLS.

So I would assume the E1 modem might not have VoLTE enabled unlike the A1 modem? I am able to install the tools, Enable VoLTE, and add the Purism user to the dialoutgroup. No VoLTE yet unfortunately testing calls. A1 modem will be arriving soon to test on.

[irvinewade]

@digitalprairie

So I would assume the E1 modem might not have VoLTE enabled unlike the A1 modem?

I’m pretty sure that some users in Europe have successfully used VoLTE, so I wouldn’t assume that the E1 variant doesn’t have VoLTE support. It won’t be enabled out-of-the-box perhaps though.

[5890238590]

@irvinewade

I’m pretty sure that some users in Europe have successfully used VoLTE, so I wouldn’t assume that the E1 variant doesn’t have VoLTE support. It won’t be enabled out-of-the-box perhaps though.

FWIW, I’ve successfully used VoLTe with BASE/Telenet in Belgium, Europe. 4G stays on during the call and haven’t had any more problems than I had before since enabling it here.

[digitalprairie]

@steve

Going back on topic for this thread. I found in July that calls stopped working for me when 3g got disabled by my provider (though 2g was suppose to still work to the end of the year and I could never get a 3g signal). Thus I was forced to enable VoLTE.

Using the above mentioned tool (https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/bm818-tools/-/merge_requests/2 ), I tried VoLTE again. I was surprised to find that all the issues I had with it before appear to have been solved.

1. The phone rings when I call someone else (was silent until the other parts answered)
2. No numbers seem to hang stuck on “calling” that were never recieved.

I saw no issues at all… In fact things tended to work better than before:

1. Every call I make works… No calls opens the new call and immediately fails(was rare but really annoying).
2. I seem to receive every call instead of sometimes the phone just didn’t register it.
3. No more delays in the phone switching to 2g.

I know volte is not supported yet, but it seems I have little choice but to use it. However, it appears to be working very well at present. Good work Purism! I’ll confess I had wondered if we’d be hosed when VoLTE became mandatory in the states, but turns out it works!

I am currently on mint as well, I have a A1 modem. I have added the tools to /usr/bin/ as quoted by the readme. I have ran both as sudo and as the dialout group and unable to get VoLTE, and restarted multiple times. Picking my brain trying to figure out why VoLTE still says disabled in the GUI, and why when calls are started 2G is still the default.

Files · check_for_modem · Evangelos Ribeiro Tzaras / bm818-tools · GitLab

[steve]

Doubt this will help,
but I just went here(https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/bm818-tools/-/pipelines) and downloaded the first artifact deb, unzipped it and installed the deb file. Then opened it via the gui and enabled it from there.

[rpm]

Is this firmware version issue still accurate? I’ve noticed I’m running the 09 2021 version so maybe that is why my VoLTE isn’t happy. Is it easy to roll back to an earlier version?

[carlosgonz]

I not sure if it is for the firmware or a diferent ADSP that firmware over 092021 VoLTE does not working.
Maybe @dos it knowing if it is possible rollback to firmware -v xx2019?

[steve]

perhaps. I’m running 201905

[digitalprairie]

That pipeline .deb resolved my issue.

[rpm]

and your modem is running the 09 2021 firmware?

This firmware version is the only thing I can see that is different than others who are reporting success. That app is telling me that volte is enabled, I’ve got it in 4G only, mobile data happy, and dialout group is assigned…

[digitalprairie]

and your modem is running the 09 2021 firmware?

Yes, I wasnt sure where to check but I just checked and it is that version after running that app.

[digitalprairie]

I did a fresh OS install on this last night, took everything I’ve learned over my past week of ownership, and I will agree, VoLTE for the 202109 firmware is not working properly for me. It appeared to work the first time while running the check. Ive called from both phones to and from, and it will only make and receive calls in 2G. The dialout group is set properly, Ive installed the latest VoLTE .deb pipeline tools and they are in my App drawer, etc.

How do I go about getting the 2019 firmware you speak of to test it?

[rpm]

I don’t know where to find the 2019 firmware either I saw a reference to a purism repo that might have had it, but I think it is private because the link comes up as a 404 for me.

So annoying because I feel like I’m so close to getting this to act like a phone again, but missing one simple thing. I’m surprised there aren’t more conversations about this because I would think it would be happening to all the backers that are getting their phones recently.

[Sarcasmo220]

I was keeping an eye on this thread and decided to try it out. I did the same procedure you described and I too have the firmware ending 20210907. It still drops to 2G or 3G to make a call despite VoLTE stating its enabled both gui and terminal command

[carlosgonz]

Let is wait for this to dumping the modem firmware: L5 Modem BM818 - Open Firmware

[rpm]

Without having any other good ideas on how to move forward I talked with Mint Mobile’s (US MVNO for T-Mobile) support line to figure out if my IMEI was blocked from VoLTE calls. After some digging around they said this modem should have no problems on their network. Which is good because that is also what the T-Mobile IMEI checker reported too.

Not sure where I’m headed next, but at least it seems like back to thinking it is something to do with the modem configuration, not network blocking…

The research continues…

• VoLTE calls are working on my L5.
• VoLTE doesn’t work on my L5.

[digitalprairie]

@rpm

Without having any other good ideas on how to move forward I talked with Mint Mobile’s (US MVNO for T-Mobile) support line to figure out if my IMEI was blocked from VoLTE calls. After some digging around they said this modem should have no problems on their network. Which is good because that is also what the T-Mobile IMEI checker reported too.

You have to keep in mind it appears many BM818-E1 users appear to have success in Europe. I use my A1 on Mint with no success so I am going to retry my E1 modem on Mint tomorrow and see what happens. I tried using my Pixel’s IMEI and Mint didnt like that unfortunately. So I ruled that out as well.