Relationship OS / Phone (Provider)

[kultex]

After the LG G3 was stolen 3 weeks ago, I am struggling to get mobile data working on a new phone.

I thought I am well prepared for a case like this - I have 5 phones all running /e/ or linage

to make it short, until now I did not succeed - the provider BOB - bob.at, refuses to work. Its the provider of my wife. My provider SPUSU - spusu.at is working on all phones

BQ Aquaris X PRO not working
Motorola X Play not working
OnePlus One - it was working, but the phone is broken now (was already critical - does not recognize any sim)
Google Nexus 5 (unofficial linage build - Android 13) not working
Samsung Galaxy S3 (unofficial linage build - Android 13) working

The OnePlus One was really working nice with aibds unofficial build, but with often changing of the Sim, I ruined the phone. And it does not make sense to repair it, because he cannot update his build, because the space is to little - [CUSTOM BUILD] Oneplus One - bacon Android 11 v1.13-r CUSTOM_SLIM with No Advanced Privacy - #14 by aibd

I discussed it with the technicians of BOB, but they have no idea and they say they cannot do anything about this - so I just post the output of ##3646##, if somebody has any idea - the 2 white scrensshots are from the BQ - the black is from the S3

sorry - it is in German, but I think it explains by itself. The problem is, that I dont see any differences - exept the fact that “Datensdienst: Nicht verbunden” - even the old S3 is working with nice with HSPAP

I have found now in germany an used LG G3 and hope, that this is working - but for the future I am a little bit worried…

I found in the review of Mike Kuketz - /e/ review in German language by Mike Kuketz - under Point 3.3 Activating the Sim - I translate it
When the SIM card is (first) activated, the Carrier Settings app initiates a connection to Google Firebase - a development platform for mobile applications:

“The Carrier Settings app performs some system settings for the modem and the network operator, including APN settings. However, it remains unclear to me why a connection to firebaseinstallations.googleapis.com is necessary to make these settings.”

May this behavior maybe cause the problem - because I have the feeling, that Mobile Data not working is decided with this first insert of the SIM - because I can change, whatever I want afterwards, it does not help?

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services

[smu44]

Try any non-PRL band starting with LTE.

Examples here (sorry french): Géolocation et mode avion - #2 by smu44

[kultex]

I have tried every possibility, where LTE is in, but nothing changed - most possibilities leaded to kill also the language service or made it very instable - I had to reboot

[mihi]

Did you try to set the APN Settings yourself?

[kultex]

yes of course - exactly, how they are described by the provider

[aibd]

@kultex

“The Carrier Settings app performs some system settings for the modem and the network operator, including APN settings.

It is interesting to see this article mention this particular downside – that carriers depend on Google to change APN dynamically / on the fly.

/e/OS and Lineage depend on apns-conf.xml – here https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/android_vendor_lineage/-/blob/v1-q/prebuilt/common/etc/apns-conf.xml.

I am a believer in asking the carrier to send the APN over the air. This used to be easy for the carrier call handler, but I think the carrier tells their staff that this is no longer necessary. Personally, last time I requested APN OTA I was told it could only be done by a technician and the call handler had to write a report where I asked him to include “/e/, no Google”. It did however happen within 24 hours.

Apropos your carrier BOB, if I search the apns-conf.xml above in each Android version I see 7 matches for bob.at in q, r, s and 5 matches in t. This is totally oversimplified, but suggests the APN might not be fully consistent.

If you say APN were correct in e-bacon-r – here they are:

<apn carrier="Bob" mcc="232" mnc="11" apn="bob.at" proxy="" port="" user="data@bob.at" password="ppp" server="http://start.bob.at/" mmsc="" type="default,supl" />
<apn carrier="Bob MMS" mcc="232" mnc="11" apn="mms.bob.at" proxy="194.48.124.7" port="8001" user="data@bob.at" password="web" server="http://start.bob.at/" mmsc="http://mmsc.bob.at" mmsproxy="194.48.124.7" mmsport="8001" type="mms" />

it might be interesting to compare with anything else you see elsewhere.

[kultex]

@aibd thanks a lot for your answer - this explains a lot. I all the time was asking, where the APN lines are coming from and why the carrier spusu is working and bob not…

I will ask html6405, who is the developer of the Galaxy S3 Rom, which lines he used - he is Austrian, so he should know, what has to be written!

And in the beginning of next week, the new LG G3 should arrive - I know, that the e-1.17-r build was working with bob 3 weeks ago … I have the ague fear, that it will not work from the fresh install…

[kultex]

@aibd

apns-conf.xml

this leads me straight to google - https://android.googlesource.com/device/sample/+/master/etc/apns-full-conf.xml

  <apn carrier="data.bob"
      carrier_id = "14"
      mcc="232"
      mnc="11"
      apn="bob.at"
      user="data@bob.at"
      password="ppp"
      authtype="1"
      type="default,ia,supl"
      protocol="IPV4V6"
  />
  <apn carrier="data.bob MMS"
      carrier_id = "14"
      mcc="232"
      mnc="11"
      apn="mms.bob.at"
      user="data@bob.at"
      password="ppp"
      mmsc="http://mmsc.bob.at"
      mmsproxy="194.48.124.7"
      mmsport="8001"
      authtype="1"
      type="mms"
  />

[kultex]

Ok - lets try to connect the puzzle - things you have to know:

In google - https://android.googlesource.com/device/sample/+/master/etc/apns-full-conf.xml the provider Spusu does not exist.

I repaired the Oneplus One - at least I disassembled, cleaned, put it together and installed DivestOS on it - there Spusu works like a charme - Bob - the sim does not even show up - not existing

I guess this apns-full-conf.xml is standard now and a lot of providers are expecting the APN like in this file.

Spusu is not part of this list, so they send all the time the APN OTA SMS and because of this the spusu sim is working on every rom - even on DemestOS, which does not seam to have any apns-conf.xml

Why bob was working on the stolen LG G3 and on aibds rom? Because bob sent 2 years ago, when I first put in the Sim still the APN OTA SMS, which is stored somewhere and as long valid, until you do a factory reset - I think, it is connected to the Under-ID.

Now bob sends nothing and aspects the data, which comes from apns-full-conf.xml and stores it in place of the APN OTA SMS - thats also the reason, that I cannot change anything.

I bet, that the LG G3 behave the same as the the other phones with bob!

So I think, we must take the apns-full-conf.xml from google and replace the https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/android_vendor_lineage/-/blob/v1-q/prebuilt/common/etc/apns-conf.xml or at least put in the same data

[aibd]

@kultex

this leads me straight to google -

But of course this is Google’s copy of AOSP.

[kultex]

@aibd

<apn carrier="Bob" mcc="232" mnc="11" apn="bob.at" proxy="" port="" user="data@bob.at" password="ppp" server="http://start.bob.at/" mmsc="" type="default,supl" />

yes, but this is what I see, when I start the first time the phone with the sim BOB, but this different from the google apns-full-conf.xml.

apn carrier="Bob"  "14" vs "Bob" I think is not important, but
server= nothing vs "http://start.bob.at/" 
authtype="1"  vs nothing
type="default,ia,supl" vs type="default,supl"
protocol="IPV4V6" vs nothing

makes the difference, that mobile data is working or not???

[aibd]

@kultex

google apns-full-conf.xml.

So this is an AOSP list. All Open Source lists get updated from time to time.

I don’t understand your question — if my quoted APN happen to work, that was what I thought you said, that is good.

Do you have any evidence whether the AOSP APN also work ? My understanding is that APN need to be pretty exact but many carriers have more than one set of available APN values.

[kultex]

Maybe this is misunderstanding, because I did not explain it well - your quoted APN does not work now.

Your Rom was working, because I installed it first time 2 years ago and in those days bob was sending the correct APN OTA SMS, which overwrites the data coming from apns-conf.xml

But please keep in mind, that I haven’t the faintest clue from Android and this hypothesis is very speculative

[kultex]

I could do some more tests with the Sim of my sister in law with the provider A1 - Bob is the budget brand of A1. With A1 Sim everything is perfect - so its definitly a problem of Bob and I ordered a APN OTG SIM