Can we hope for a modem.zip file provided by Fairphone?

After reading the topic FP2 modem firmware I would like to know, if there is a chance to get the modem.zip file directly from Fairphone? @Douwe, could you tell us if that is possible?

Although I really appreciate the amazing work of all community members who have contributed to the official LineageOS and provide the modem.zip files, I have to admit that I don’t want to install something on my FP2, if I don’t really know where it comes from … :worried: … sorry.

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I don’t think so. The files are proprietary and not owned by Fairphone so they can’t share them.

As @jnsp says the files are simply extracted from the FP OS binary and you can do that yourself (instructions will follow in that wiki).
So basically you get the same files that Fairphone gives their FP(O)OS users. But with proprietary stuff you’ll never really know where it comes from. That’s the “beauty” of property. :wink:

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Is there an easy way to find out when the FP OS binaries contain new modem files?

I had a look at the script to generate the modem.zip yourself. It downloads a file and to me it seems you need to know that name upfront. And even then I don’t understand how to find out if the included modem files are newer or not.

I just cloned the git and tried replacing the following in the script:

VERSION= 18.01.1
URL_MANUAL=
URL_OTA=
CHECKSUM_MANUAL=
CHECKSUM_OTA=

with the information for FPOOS 18.01.1 (links and sha256sums) and got another modem-*.zip…

Does this mean it’s a newer version or could it be a slightly different file of the same version (the zipfiles have different checksums)?

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I have a question for here:

Do all modem.zip’s have to be installed in order or is everything always included in the last version of modem.zip?

Thx.

I’m pretty sure you only have to install the latest file, but I’m no expert here.

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That is correct.

Can you say at which point the wording in the wiki gave you trouble, so perhaps it can be improved?

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The language of the FAQ seems clear to me.
I remember reading in the forum that some binary blobs were only rolled out in certain modem.zip versions. That’s why the uncertainty came up.

Maybe it would be wise to add a Section “How to flash modem.zip”
If you can use your display, you can simply do it with twrp, but I’m not 100% sure about the fastboot command

When you get a new display, you need the new modem file, which is a problem when you can’t use the display :slight_smile:

The new display type is supported by current Fairphone (Open) OS versions for quite a while now, so there’s a good chance there are halfway recent modem files installed when changing the OS to LineageOS.

In case of a hopelessly outdated TWRP just update TWRP before assembling the new display.

In case the old display is broken, just assemble the new display and use fastboot to boot a signed (!) current TWRP image without installing it, see here …

https://forum.fairphone.com/t/howto-use-twrp-without-flashing-it-e-g-for-backup/23747

Sorry, but: :frowning:
Sorry, you don’t have access to that topic!

Hmmm … perhaps because it was a topic in the Android 5.1 category.

@paulakreuzer … Can that topic be made available again? At least the guide in the first post is still correct.

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The guide moved to #twrpwoflashing

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Thanks, but according to this this post:

Old modem and new display simply doesn’t boot, not even recovery, so you will have to use a way of flashing the so called “modem” from outside…

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Interesting, I somehow missed that, you learn every day …

Well, the modem.zip is just a collection of stuff which a manual installation of Fairphone OS or Fairphone Open OS will flash via fastboot, so for flashing only the modem parts you could edit the update script of the manual installation and comment out or delete the parts which flash the OS while only leaving the parts which flash the modem parts … these parts should be recognizable by the filenames in the firmware-update folder in the modem.zip .

I don’t think this is correct. I did never have that problem, but IIRC someone reported the phone boots but you cannot see and touch anything (I think he phoned himself and the phone rang). But however, you can always boot your phone without a display. I did this a long time ago, and I got it into fastboot and flashed a new OS.

About the outdated modem-files for the new display: We are talking about August 2017 when the patches for the new displays were introduced. So your modem-files must be pretty old that they don’t support them. :wink:

Actually this behaviour/problem was posted in Sep 2018, just scroll up a little bit.
I do think it’s true that the phone boots w/o display, but it seems that it doesn’t boot with old modem and new display.
My display was replaced, and I don’t have the old display, so I will certainly not test a modem downgrade :slight_smile:

Fairphone support was very eager that I have the lasted OS Version installed before sending back the display.
I had FPOOS installed then, later changed to LOS.