Fixing low call volume on the Freerunner

Here's a workaround for fixing the one sound issue I've had with the Freerunner, namely that the people I'm calling complain that I'm too quiet. This is caused by a mixer setting which makes the mic volume on the Freerunner too low. My gratitude to the folks on the OM mailing lists who managed to piece this (very easy) solution together.

This kind of problem can be corrected just by running alsamixer while a call is in progress. Play around with the volume on the various channels until you are satisfied. In particular, raising the "Sidetone" volume seems to do the trick. This will fix the problem, at least for that call.

ASU keeps different sets of mixer settings for all sorts of scenarios (e.g. headset, handset, speakerphone, etc.). However, every time one of these scenarios is activated, ASU just loads the mixer settings from a file. If you change the settings in alsamixer, those changes never get written back to the file, so they aren't applied in the future.

To save those changes, adjust the settings to your satisfaction and then, during the call, to save your new mixer settings, do this:

alsactl -f /home/root/newsettings.state store

Use that to overwrite the file from which the mixer settings are read, which is /usr/share/openmoko/scenarios/gsmhandset.state (if you are curious, you can also play around with the other .state files in that directory).

For me, the net result of all this was the same as applying the following one-line patch to /usr/share/openmoko/scenarios/gsmhandset.state. You can try it too, if you dare:

--- old/gsmhandset.state Tue Sep 23 01:20:14 2008
+++ new/gsmhandset.state Mon Sep 22 00:16:28 2008
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@
   comment.range '0 - 7'
   iface MIXER
   name 'Mono Sidetone Playback Volume'
-  value 2
+  value 6
  }
  control.13 {
   comment.access 'read write'

OM 2008.8 and 2008.9 impressions

Development is continuing at an incredible pace on the OpenMoko software. OM 2008.8 (the "ASU") was released in August and I installed it when I got back from my vacation. I also tried OM 2008.9 when was released last week. It looks like they are going to continue with updates monthly like this. This software is still rough around the edges but at this point the Freerunner is definitely usable as a primary phone now (while, I would argue, it was not with 2007.2).

To be honest, both of the 2008 series updates are very much "fix two bugs, introduce one bug". Nevertheless, the software is improving by leaps and bounds. The ASU software is a big improvement over the original GTK stack. Notably, it is much more finger-friendly, not requiring a stylus (or fingernails) for as many tasks.

Here are some of the most visible bugs that were fixed (hooray!):

• 2007.2's sound broke after resuming from suspend. This meant that if you wanted to use your phone, you could not really suspend it. This was fixed in 2008.8.
• Call connectivity was somewhat inconsistent in 2008.8. People reported that when they called me, the call would go directly to voicemail. I occasionally had to redial a number because the first call would just die. These appear to have gone away in 2008.9.
• Time zones did not persist after rebooting in 2008.8. This has been fixed in 2008.9.

To put the situation in perspective, here are, in my view, the most visible/annoying bugs that remain. None of these really block normal phone use.

• I don't think connecting to the internet via wifi works, although in 2008.9 it actually detects APs now.
• Battery life seems to be worse on 2008.9 than 2008.8.
• Upon being woken from suspend, the phone will go right back to sleep. I have to press the power button twice to wake the phone.
• 2008.9 seems to crash and die more often than 2009.8. This seems to be related to suspending or waking the phone.

One other bug I've had is an issue with sound quality (the volume being too low). I'll show you how I'm working around that in my next post.

Sharing GPS tracks from tangoGPS on Google Maps

Now that GPS is working on the FreeRunner I made a track log of my commute to test it out. It's pretty easy to get log data off of the FreeRunner and plot it on the web in a Google Map:

1. First, install tangoGPS. The latest tangoGPS packages for the FreeRunner, and instructions for installing them, are available from this page. It usually takes my FreeRunner a couple of minutes to get its first fix. If you are having problems, OpenMoko's AGPS program may be able to give some debugging information.
2. TangoGPS will appear as an application called "GPS & Map". To record tracks, go to the "Track" tab and click "Start" (and then "Stop", obviously, when you're done).
3. TangoGPS will save the track log in /tmp (by default, but it's configurable) in a file with the extension .log and named after the current date/time. When you get back to a computer, scp that file over.
4. GPX is a commonly used format for representing GPS track data. You will need to convert your log data to GPX using convert2gpx.pl, a script provided by TangoGPS. Download it, make it executable, and use it like so: ./convert2gpx.pl inputlogfile.log > outputfile.gpx.
5. There are some web sites which will let you upload a GPX file and then plot it on a Google Map. gpsvisualizer.com is one of them. It will give your map a semi-persistent URL so you can show it to your friends for a short time.

Towards using the FreeRunner as my primary phone

Having had some time to play around with the FreeRunner's software (see my previous post), I can make a few more remarks about it now. By the way, if you are planning to get a FreeRunner (or if you have one), you should know that the wiki, as well as the community and support mailing lists, are invaluable resources for figuring how to get things working or the best way to do something.

First of all, having a phone that you can SSH into and do all the usual Linux-y stuff on is very, very, cool. When you plug the phone into your GNU/Linux computer it appears as a device on the other end of a new network interface usb0. An SSH server is configured and works out of the box. You need to do a small amount of configuration to let your FreeRunner use your computer's connection to get to the internet.

The FreeRunner also comes with a package manager (opkg) and a set of repositories from which you can easily install new software. The packages are changing fast and getting new fixes all the time. Software upgrading is as easy as: opkg update; opkg upgrade. It's a snap to install new packages, too. I was delighted to be able to run Python on my phone.

(Now, if only someone would port Emacs and develop an on-screen keyboard layout suitable for using it.)

I installed a PDF reader and downloaded a couple of e-books to the phone. Astonishingly I can (pretty comfortably) read pages formatted for printed books on the FreeRunner's screen.

If you have been following the FreeRunner news you know that there are a bunch of software distributions you can choose from (at least three "official" ones as of this writing). This may seem worrisome but it's really not. My understanding is that all of the software distributions use the same repositories, merely installing different packages by default (e.g. the base apps and the launcher). From the standpoint of a software developer, you don't have to worry about painting yourself into a corner by choosing the "wrong" distribution: most apps should more or less run under all distributions. And from the standpoint of a user, reflashing your device is not difficult at all, if it turns out that a different distribution attains a critical mass. As long as you back up the good stuff (probably your home directory and parts of /etc), you should be able to change distributions relatively painlessly.

So, which distribution to choose? I've tried the 2007.2 image (the factory-installed software) and the ASU (a port of Qtopia to X11). The ASU will become the preferred distribution in the long term, and OpenMoko's attention is going there now. At this time, though, it feels a lot less slick in most places than the 2007.2 image. I can't make or receive phone calls with ASU and my current SIM card, which worked fine on 2007.2. The apps are more designed for a stylus rather than fingers. There is no terminal app, but that is expected to be addressed soon.

If I can't find a quick resolution for the phone call problem, then I will probably go back to 2007.2. In either case, I plan to start using the FreeRunner as my primary phone. I'll also start to investigate options for writing quick apps to run on the phone. The more I play with the FreeRunner, the more I think about how those who can write code for the phone could modify or completely reinvent their workflows. Imagine having the adeptness of an Emacs whiz while working on your phone. That would make a general-purpose programmable phone an awesome device indeed.

Update: the PDF reader I'm using is epdfview

FreeRunner first impressions

OpenMoko's FreeRunner went on sale on July 3. I ordered early that day and my FreeRunner arrived today.

This is the only product I've ever felt compelled to take unboxing photos of:

Click for FreeRunner unboxing photos

First of all, this thing is a lot tinier than I was expecting. It is not significantly larger or heavier than my current phone, a Razr. I suppose I should not be surprised because the last smaller-than-laptop device I purchased was a PDA back in the year 2001 or so. (I've never insisted on being at the cutting edge of mobile technology.)

The texture is a lot like that on the outside of a Thinkpad.

I haven't had much time to play with it except for charging it up and making a phone call (which worked, well). The screen is amazing, by the way— higher resolution than that of pretty much any other phone-like or PDA-like device you can buy today.

The software utilities that come with the phone are still in a state of churn, and it is not yet in a state where it can exercise all parts of the hardware reliably (GPS, etc.). As far as I am concerned, none of these things are deal-breakers. If you want to make the phone the best thing it can be, you had better start by removing all the man-made problems so people can work on solving real problems. I wanted a phone with freedom, and that's what I am getting.

One of my favorite things about OpenMoko is the people and the community spirit. You can really tell that this is not only a different kind of phone but also a different kind of company. Witness this exchange from the last week:

Michael <simarillion>: can somebody tell me if I will lose my warranty when I open my Freerunner.
Sean Moss-Pultz <sean@openmoko.com>: [...] Do you really think we could get away with that kind of policy?! This is Openmoko. If you don't open your Neo, you should probably have your warranty voided ;-)

FreeRunner entering mass production

Word on the OpenMoko community list is that FreeRunner has been cleared to enter mass production.

FreeRunner will be the world's first freed phone, and it is arriving not a minute too soon. Mobile phones are now everywhere, and they are becoming the premier mode of communication and computation for many, especially in the developing world. Mobile phones can deliver on the promise of ubiquitous computing— but only if they have been freed.

For the mobile phone, or any technology, to realize its true potential, the ones with the incentive to see it improve— the users— must have the power to improve it. That is as sure a law as there ever was one, and should be pretty apparent to anyone who has taken an economics class. Unfortunately, essentially all phones sold today are deficient in that respect.

The power to improve the system may, of course, be realized exercised directly (if I do some work myself) or indirectly (if I pay someone else to do it). But when this power is totally sequestered away, that necessarily puts a damper on innovation. This is the case with any proprietary software product: the vendor is the only one with the power and the right to make changes to the software. Sure, you could attempt to pay the vendor to make the changes. But they, being the only ones who can do it anyway, will charge monopoly prices. And they can refuse to do it at all if doing so would, for example, cut into sales of another of their products. So as long as they are the sole entry-point, you are beholden to them.

Even if one can assume that the vendor is generally benevolent, they still have a finite amount of resources. They cannot entertain implementation requests from every guy in his office, school, or lab. And that is unfortunate because one of those people has the next big thing on his hands. Creativity is everywhere.

The two great revolutions in computing— the rise of the PC, and the emergence of web applications— demonstrate that freedom leads to the kind of innovation that transforms people's lives. It is no accident that the explosion in personal computers happened on the platform that had commodity hardware, not the one with a single hardware vendor. And I can say with some confidence that the web would not be what it was today had AOL (yes, remember AOL?) been its sole gatekeeper for both access and content.

The mobile phone ecosystem is still in its infancy. Today, mobile phone software and hardware do not support (and sometimes actively inhibit) using a device to its fullest. But when (and only when) mobile phones are unshackled, we will see creative innovations that we can probably not even imagine today. When mobile phones are truly ubiquitous they will be not just devices for communication but also for computation, sensing, and entertainment, and they will be deeply integrated into the activities of our lives.

One of the goals for FreeRunner is to have a phone which runs on free software, but what is neat about OpenMoko is that they realize that they are not just a software project. They are doing whatever it takes to help the mobile phone reach ubiquity. OpenMoko released the CAD files for the case of the FreeRunner— people are talking about machining cases in different colors, alternate styles, even a bicycle mount for the FreeRunner. I cannot wait to see what is next.