[3.0.0.8] [Xperia XA2] CellName not known/identified?

asked 2018-11-13 23:18:06 +0200

mniemi
198 ●5 ●7 ●9

I have created a tiny app (for small prototyping purposes) that keeps track of the cellular base station IDs for detecting the area/location without GPS. The app has worked nicely for months on Jolla C. However, as I started using it on my fresh Xperia XA2, the app fails to get the CellId/CellName. The reason for the malfunction on XA2appears to be the non-existent data (a bug?) in the "CellName" file.

The app uses the CellName from file /run/state/namespaces/Cellular/CellName (or "Cellular_1" in the dual SIM models). The CellName file is empty on XA2 as indicated in the following listings:

On Jolla C (only one sim card inserted, therefore "Cellular_1/CellName" is empty):

[nemo@Sailfish ~]$ cat /run/state/namespaces/Cellular/CellName
5329xxx[nemo@Sailfish ~]$ cat /run/state/namespaces/Cellular_1/CellName
[nemo@Sailfish ~]$

On XA2 (both Cellular/CellName and Cellular_1/CellName are empty despite a sim card in slot 1 e.g. Cellular/CellName should have a value):

[nemo@Sailfish ~]$ cat /run/state/namespaces/Cellular/CellName
[nemo@Sailfish ~]$ cat /run/state/namespaces/Cellular_1/CellName
[nemo@Sailfish ~]$

Is this intentional (i.e. different functioning on different devices) or a bug? Is there another way to request the CellName? Would some dbus command unveil the CellName, perhaps?

I tried the the following dbus-send command, too: /bin/dbus-send --system --print-reply=literal --type=method_call --dest=org.ofono /ril_0 org.ofono.NetworkRegistration.GetProperties

This command, surprisingly, results in smaller set of variables/data on XA2 than in Jolla C (some actual values removed/replaced with xxxxx):

On Xperia XA2:

[nemo@Sailfish ~]$ /bin/dbus-send --system --print-reply=literal --type=method_call --dest=org.ofono /ril_0 org.ofono.NetworkRegistration.GetProperties
   array [
      dict entry(
         Status         variant             registered      )
      dict entry(
         Mode         variant             auto      )
      dict entry(
         Technology         variant             lte      )
      dict entry(
         MobileCountryCode         variant             xxx     )
      dict entry(
         MobileNetworkCode         variant             xx      )
      dict entry(
         Name         variant             xxxxx      )
      dict entry(
         Strength         variant             byte 70
      )
   ]
[nemo@Sailfish ~]$

On Jolla C:

[nemo@Sailfish ~]$ /bin/dbus-send --system --print-reply=literal --type=method_call --dest=org.ofono /ril_0 org.ofono.NetworkRegistration.GetProperties
   array [
      dict entry(
         Status         variant             registered      )
      dict entry(
         Mode         variant             auto      )
      dict entry(
         LocationAreaCode         variant             uint16 xxxxx
      )
      dict entry(
         CellId         variant             uint32 xxxxx
      )
      dict entry(
         Technology         variant             umts      )
      dict entry(
         MobileCountryCode         variant             xxx      )
      dict entry(
         MobileNetworkCode         variant             xx      )
      dict entry(
         Name         variant             xxxxx      )
      dict entry(
         Strength         variant             byte 48
      )
   ]
[nemo@Sailfish ~]$

I am now slightly confused: Is there a way to get the CellName/CellId on my Xperia XA2 dual sim at all? Is there a bug or a device-specific way to retrieve the values that I am not aware of?