title:The PinePhone Mostly Works
date: 2022-03-02 05:40
tags: PinePhone
summary: Using the PinePhone for 4 months
---

So I now have some more issues with the PinePhone.  Namely, my phone no longer
receives SMS text messages.  I used to be able to use the PinePhone as a simple
dump phone that supported calls and texts.  But about a month ago, when I wrote
[The PinePhone works](https://gnucode.me/the-pinephone-works.html), suddenly my
PinePhone stopped receiving SMS text messages.  I can still send SMS texts, but
I no longer receieve them, which
is weird.

I thought I might be able to fix it, if I installed the reversed engineered and
nearly free custom firmware for the PinePhone&rsquo;s modem (You can find this
modem on &ldquo;Biktorgj&rdquo; github account). It was actually super easy to
install said open source modem:

    wget https://whatever/the/path/to/download/github/is
    tar xzvf package.tar.gz
    su
    ./flashall

When I ran the `./flashall` script, the modem disappeared from the task bar, and
a few moments later it reappeared.  I also followed most of the instructions for
the recommened settings for the modem on the github page.  I will say that the
call volume is a little low, but I have always thought that was the case.

Work is ok with me having a phone that only supports calls for now, but I do
feel annoyed that I used to have a phone that works as well as a dumb phone, and
now I do not seem to have that.  I suppose that I will have to post in the
PinePhone forum and Mobian forum and get some advice.  Other possible solutions
include moving to a different cellular provider.  AT&T is one of the reccomended
providers, and it costs about 30 dollars a month.

It might also not be a bad idea to edit the official PinePhone wiki and mention
that Tello is a fairly cheap provider (the cheapest that I could find), provided
you are ok with just calls. I think the Tello SIM card only cost me $1.

