Redmi Note 7 / State of play

FranzM

@stanwood Thank you for the advice.
What is exactly the original official rom?
My RN7 came with Android 10, but since I bought it by a well-known used phones seller, they may have upgraded the rom when resetting the phone.
Ok, I will try restarting the whole process, with a previous global rom with Android 9, switching from firmware v12.5.1.0 to older v11.0.1.0.
Let's go!

stanwood

@franzm Ok. I can't help you further on those technical issues, but wish you good luck, hoping to hear good news from you soon

FranzM

@stanwood Disappointed. I reverted back with stock "global" rom miui11/android9, tested the gps under Android which worked well, relaunched UBports installer v0.8.8 which does not ask for any vendor.img, then fastbooted vendor.img to the 'vendor' partition... and still no gps
But now the fingerprint security works! Before that it did not: a little sunshine in my cloudy sky.

FranzM

@stanwood Thank you anyway for your support! I will contact XDA people to understand why your RN7 has gps and not mine. Have a nice day (night?).

wurst

So, yes, I can recommend you to try to reinstall the original official rom (Android 9, NOT 10), then reinstall UT using the right vendor.img (see above).

should it really be the stock rom? Isn't https://build.lolinet.com/file/lineage/lavender/lineage-16.0-20200226-UNOFFICIAL-lavender.zip sufficient, @stanwood ?

stanwood

@wurst Indeed, this has the same name that the one I used.
But in mine I had only one file: vendor.img
UBports installer did guide me on all the steps. This file was automatically suggested to download.
So I can't help further now. Sorry.

Did you check here?

https://github.com/mrdrhax/xiaomi-redmi-note-7-installation-manual

wurst

@stanwood said in Redmi Note 7 / State of play:

But in mine I had only one file: vendor.img

so, in fact it doesn't matter what there was on the RN7 before flashing UT, except that we need this vendor.img?
In my case, I thought, that the caller echo may be caused by the fact, that I had Android 10 (LineageOS 17) before flashing UT. So I planned to make a factory reset, install LineageOS16, and than with the installer again UT, and see if the echo still remains...

A Former User

@wurst I installed UT on my RN7 with Android 11 (LineageOS 18) preinstalled,
using the UBports installer. No GPS detection or echo issues so far, and the
device is working pretty well for the most part.

In addition to @stanwood list, I would like to report what seems to be a bug
in the "Settings" screen. For instance, whenever I acess, say, the "Battery"
from the top bar (notch), click on "Battery settings" and then go back to the
general system "Settings" screen by clicking on the top left arrow by the side of
"Battery", one of the horizontal separating lines crosses the text of
"Security and privacy". A similar behaviour occurs if I reach the "Settings"
screen from other top bar functionalities in this way (this can be easily fixed
by rotating the phone to landscape mode, and then again to portrait).

Even when I acess the "Settings" directly from the app menu, some of the text and icons don't
seem to be well-centered in between the separating lines, but I guess all this is
being already taken care of by the developers whose work I humbly thank

Josele13

@franzm I don't know if you mean that the gps doesn't turn on in Ut or that the app doesn't find your position,
First you must turn on the GPS, try with the app and see if it turns on the GPS icon that changes to white.
If the colour changes to white, turn off the phone, then turn on the phone and test again with the app, it should work.
The gps should always be on, the app is the one that activates the location.
Never press Restart the phone, turn off and turn on the phone, it works much better.

The mobile phone usually takes between 20 seconds and a minute the first time you connect, then on the same day it takes considerably less time, about 10 to 15 seconds.

Regards...

FranzM

@josele13 I mean that 'test_gps" always returns "GPS interface not found :(" and that Pure Maps cannot find my position.

Yes, when 'position' option is activated, and I launch Pure Maps, the position indicator turns to white. I followed your instructions, turned the RN7 off and on (you don't mean 'reboot' don't you?), then waited several minutes, but Pure Maps cannot locate my position (indicator still white). And 'test_gps' still says "GPS interface not found :(".

Thank you for your help.

Keneda

@franzm
Are you doing all of this outside any building in an open wide to the sky ground ?

GPS won't work indoors because A-GPS is not handled under uTouch, and in good conditions, outside and open wide sky, it can take several minutes to do first fix.

FranzM

@keneda I don't think that this is the point.
When I launch 'test_gps' on my Nexus 5 with UT, from exactly the same location (in my wooden house), it displays lots of init infos, such as "device info / name = loc_api GPS module", and then starts tracking satellites, and may or may not find them.
I already tested the GPS location with my Redmi Note 7 that initially came with Android 10, and the GPS worked well, still inside my home. Since I flashed the RN7 with UT, 'test_gps' stops immediately with message "GPS interface not found :(", and therefore does not initiate any tracking step, which let me think that it's a matter of software/halium/drivers issue and not a question of location.

stanwood

@franzm Yes, this continues to make me think at a firmware issue.

Are you on the French speaking Telegram UBports group?
I can try to send you the right vendor.img file that worked for me. (I can not through this website)

Edit: Did you well UNZIP the LineageOS
lineage-16.0-20200226-lavender-vendor.zip file?
Unlike a LineageOS installation, here the file must be unzipped before to be used in the installer.

Josele13

@franzm I mean restart Ut, but not by pressing restart, you turn off the phone and then turn it on.

Regards....

FranzM

@stanwood Thank you again for attempting to help me.

Yes, I unzipped the lineage-16.0-20200226-lavender-vendor.zip file, and flashed the 'vendor.img' file to the 'vendor' partition. I suppose it's not worth sending your 'vendor.img' to me, since it should be exactly the same one. Or does yours may be different?

Your question makes me doubt: the installer v0.8.8 does not ask for any vendor.img file, so after installation, one have to flash manually the vendor.img. Is this correct?

FranzM

@stanwood In Settings / About / OS Ubuntu 16.04 / Details, should the 3rd section ("Partie de l'image du peripherique" in French, could be "Vendor partition" in english) show a ref. to the lineage-16.0-20200226 vendor file?
On my RN7, it displays: 20211005-20810

stanwood

@franzm Ok nice. Well, once you have installed UT, the installer won't ask you for the vendor.img anymore - on any future installations - since it's already there. This request occurs only at the very first installation.

Concerning your second point, I don't have the exact same data than you (I'm on the stable channel).

Here is what I get:

Partie de l'image du périphérique:
20210910-14383

Not sure it will help you though...

FranzM

@josele13 Hi,

Please, could you go further with your explanation?

On your Redmi Note 7, if you restart your mobile on purpose, do you loose the GPS? I mean: after rebooting, does test_gps return 'GPS interface not found'?

And after that, you launch an app which requires the GPS, making the location indicator turn white, then you put your phone off (by a long press on the power button? or just screen off?), then put it on, and GPS starts working? (I suppose after having found satellites)
When it works, what does test_gps say?

I tried soft reboot, soft shutdown+restart, hard reboot (long press on power), simple screen off/on, but my GPS never works, and test_gps always returns "GPS interface not found".

I do not understand why it does not work on my RN7

Josele13

@franzm Pressing the restart button is not enough, the phone must be turned off completely,

Turn on the GPS
Open an app to locate you
Turn off the phone
Turn on the phone and use the app again to locate you,

The GPS icon should turn on in white and in 1 minute it should find your position,
you have to be outside any building.

Regards...

FranzM

@josele13 Ok, thank you for the process. But it does not work on my RN7.