Signal can't link devices [actually related to app versions]

Hi i mainly want to find out if this is a known issue of iode+fp4 or if something is wrong on my system.

When signal is in pairing mode it shows the camera output, but never reads the QR code.

other issues on my device:

  • cant pass savety net
  • warning from the bootloader “operating system changed, ROM not clean”

I just installed everything yesterday, so i have the latest iode verion installed (2.4 2022.04.07)

If none of this issues persists for others, than i might try to reinstall it. Otherwise i might have to move back to /e/

Mine (same iodeOS build) read the QR code immediately… like, the camera barely focused and it was done.

My bootloader’s unlocked, so I assume I’d also fail SafetyNet (although I haven’t checked).

I don’t get that warning from the bootloader, but I had a lot of trouble trying to re-lock it (first a bootloop, then a “your device is corrupt and will not boot” lock-out). After two (thankfully) soft bricks, I gave up on trying to re-lock it.

So all I can say is that this problem is not a given with FP4+iodeOS. Where did you get the Signal app from? Mine’s from the Aurora store. I granted all the permissions it asked for - maybe you’re missing one?

But if your bootloader is not locket you should get a different warning on boot, right?

Hm, thats at least nice to hear, that it should work at all. maybe i will try to reinstall iode than.

Signal is installed from the Aurora store as well, all permissions granted.

The signal debug logs also give no clue why its not working.

I will report if i am sucessful or get more insights

Yeah, I get the yellow exclamation mark and the “Your bootloader is unlocked… don’t store sensitive data on this device” warning, with an option to hit the power button to pause boot.

Good luck, and take care in reinstalling - some of us FP4 owners have been running into problems with both flashing and locking, not just with iodeOS but /e/ OS and FPOS, too.

Poll the bootloader or recovery for unlock_ability at every stage if you intend to relock the bootloader - absolutely do not attempt to relock if you get unlock_ability=0. Sorry if this is well known to you, it might help someone else reading along even if it is.

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Chronology of trails

  • iodé
    • signal 5.40.0 via aurora → issue
  • reinstalled iodé
    • 5.40.0 via aurora → issue remains
  • install /e/
    • signal 5.35.3 via /e/ store → working
    • signal 5.39.3 via aurora (anonymus) → working
  • reinstall iodé
    • signal 5.39.3 via aurora (anonymus) → working
    • signal 5.40.0 via aurora (google account) → broken

Most likely i could have saved myself 5 hours of work by installing the anonymous version in the first place. probably something is broken with the recent version and the anonymus version still works fine.

@AdamKadmon can you report your signal version?
and i would be super curious if where able to access the wide angle camera

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My Signal app version is 5.38.6, downloaded from Aurora a few days ago using an anonymous session - I didn’t even think to mention that it was via an anonymous session, it never occurred to me that people log in to microG.

It’s weird that it’s a different version to yours. My anonymous session might have gone through a market that hasn’t received an update yet or maybe I need to check my autoupdate settings in Aurora. [Update: for good or ill, I just updated mine.]

As to the ultrawide camera, you’re not going to like this, but: it’s not working on any custom ROMs at this stage. Fairphone hasn’t released the requisite proprietary blobs (or something) so it only works on the stock Android that came with the phone.

I’m really glad you got Signal working, though! Dealing with custom ROMs it’s easy to overlook the most obvious things, like app versions (it didn’t occur to me at all).

About the wide angle camera: it works on /e/ right now! They use a patched version of opencamera. not sure if the necessary drivers are part of the patched app or if the fix is somewhere deeper inside of the OS

Thanks for the support. Knowing that it generally works gave me the motivation to dump a couple of more hours into the issue and stick with iodé :smiley:

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No worries! (I literally did nothing, but you’re welcome :-))

That’s great and puzzling news that it works on /e/… because I know it’s not working on the iode 3.0 beta (not from first-hand experience, but I asked someone who’s on it).

A wide-angle camera isn’t critical for me, but it’d sure be nice to have all the hardware up and running. Fingers crossed iode and/or OpenCamera gets patched before 3.0 comes out of beta.

I’m just starting to enjoy my FP4 (first new phone in almost 10 years) - I keep hesitating to settle in, like I expect it to brick at any moment. But that’ll pass :slight_smile:

Funny, for me the FP4 is also the first new phone in a decade.

According to this This post the wide angle camera is fixable, but i am not keen on restarting my whole setup for that :smiley:

I’d read through that thread at some point. Not very carefully, it turns out: the talk of modules led me to assume the process required root. With an unlocked bootloader I probably wouldn’t have to start setting it up again, but after two near-miss bricks, I think I’ll just hang back and wait for an OTA to fix this one :stuck_out_tongue:

Great phone, though. Phenomenal battery life compared to what I’m used to. Took me three full days to run down to 36%. The ability to set a charge limit and have battery stats reset once it’s reached is really handy (my previous phones didn’t have hardware support for this).

If you have problems with Signal (and other FCM apps) receiving push notifications, try dialling *#*#CHECKIN#*#* - mine still come through with a slight delay, but they weren’t coming through at all until I did that.

A few comments.

  • Thanks for sharing your experiments with Signal. This is puzzling that some versions work, some others not…
  • The yellow state at boot is exactly what is expected (cf. Boot Flow  |  Android Open Source Project). It states that a custom os has been installed, and that verified boot is ensured with a custom key that belongs to us (iodé). That makes impossible to replace the boot partition, no one can sign it with our key. The key used in FPOS is the google public key that exists in AOSP sources, so anyone can use it to sign boot: by doing so, the device cannot know that boot has been replaced by a custom one. And anyone can sign boot with these keys, which makes the system less secure. As long as you see that yellow screen, you are sure that you run a verified iodéOS.
  • wide angle camera cannot be used in iodéOS, as long as we don’t have access to this proprietary repository: https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/devices/android_kernel_fairphone_FP4/-/merge_req... (636c6b6f) · Commits · e / os / local_manifests · GitLab, or unless someone manages to reverse-engineer it.
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Give signal FOSS TwinHelix a try…

https://www.twinhelix.com/apps/signal-foss/

Another advantage
Location sharing via openstreetmap, not google