I believe that is similar for me, in addition it would be good to have a fallback for GPS if no satellite can be reached (thick clouds, forest, inside buildings, …). Edit: I probably need the location only for navigation (atm I do have the problem that I sometimes have reached my destination before a satellite was found…) and location information in photos. Haven’t gotten into mapping yet.
I hope I can trust Mozilla (and that the date transmitted is rather anonymous). Otherwise I totally agree to you and thus use the google free phone.
Could anyone please explain the advantage of a “nlp provider”. I read a lot about nlp but did not yet understand, why I need one. I I need a location I use GPS and that’s more accurate - never needed more. Could it be that most people think that nlp is a must?
Sometimes it helps to read on how GPS works and what data is needed to get a “fix”. It helps to understand why one waits And how the antenna in your device is orientated
I use the SatStat app to see what’s going on. Hope that helps.
It’s not needed at all. In rare cases (big city with high buildings) it can speed up things a bit. But there are some people that still want to use google services without trusting them … I guess these people like to have a look at Nlp.
Also I fear, in the future, we will get “indoor” GPS through Bluetooth. That also will be a proprietary service. Looking for your gate at the airport? Just install our app. For “services” like this, Nlp could also be useful.
I’m using the official Android Kitkat by @chrmhoffmann , which is reported to have a faster GPS TTFF.
Sometimes, however I need to kill the navigation app (in my case OsmAnd) and start it again. Then usually satellites are found in an instant and a fix comes only about 15 secs later.
For visualization purposes of GPS satellites availability I use SatStat.
I installed µg UnifiedNIp (no GAPPS) from F-Droid, added & configured the backends I could find in F-Droid: LocalGsm LocalWifi and Nominatim, enabled ‘high accuracy’ in location services mode, rebooted a few times, and in Location settings I see µg UnifiedNIp in recent requests, but I don’t think it is working as if I install any app that uses location data it doesn’t know where I am. In its settings µg UnifiedNIp sometimes complains “no last known location”. And in LocalWifiNIpBackend’s configuration I have ‘No APs’ although Wifi is on. I’m using Fairphone Open OS, of course What am I most likely doing wrong?
Excellent point! After reading your reply I ‘created’ a database for LocalGsm backend from Mozilla Location Services, which took a while and seemed to be successful. HOWEVER, still nothing that uses GPS works… it seems like GPS is ‘off’. I’m sure I’m missing something really basic >_<
Do you not get any position at all with “high accuracy” or is it just unreliable?
If you get an inaccurate location - somwhere near to your actual location - then microg works. If you don’t get any location at all, switch to “device only”, download SatStat from F-Droid, go somewhere with a 360° clear view of the sky, open SatStat and see if it finds any Satelites. It may take a long time the first time, but if you don’t find any Satelites then there is probably a hardware issue.
In apps that uses location data I either get no position, a complaint that GPS isn’t installed, or what seems to be a random/default location - Paris or Frankfurt (I’m in London).
But… SatStat finds satellites immediately… and it finds me correctly! Hurray!
Sorry for the slow response - I was having charging problems but now my FP is alive again.
SatStat works in device only mode (obviously)
Mixed results with other apps but seem to be working well now:
Using WhereAmI, I get no location at all in device only mode, but it finds me instantly in high accuracy mode, which seems odd as it uses GPS, and doesn’t work in low battery mode.
R Maps works in device only mode, but is more accurate in high accuracy mode so clearly works properly. Did I just need to wait longer?
Usually it shouldn’t take long to get a GPS fix, except if you use it the fist time in a long time or you changed country. In the #gpsguide there are some tips to get a fix faster (just ignore everything about A-GPS and EPO. That’s just for FP1).
The Apple Backend is also the only one that works for me.
Its still better than using google location services IMO because:
The locations are cached, so if you locate yourself repeatedly it doesnt have to send data to apple again.
There isnt much information on you combined with the location. There is no google or apple accounts attached to it. Also its opensource, doesnt have much permissions and because its a single app, its easy to restrict its permissions with xprivacy or so. So apple mabye sometimes knows where i am. but other than my ip adress they shouldnt know who i am.
Actually after that post you quoted from january I asked that question on microgs Github and was assured that the backend doesn’t send any relevant data to Apple.
For me the Mozilla backend seems to work best, but that may be partly because I “stumbled” a lot in my area. ( #locationdatabases )
The mozilla backend works for me aswell, although not as precise as the apple one. But i dont like mozilla stumber and dont want to contribute to it because the wifi database isnt open to the public. So its basically the same as Apple, only that mozilla somehow implies to be “open”, which unlike for example openwifi.su and obenbmap, it isnt.
So Mozillas is basically sucking away the efforts of people who want to contribute to an open database, thus keeping them from doing so.
I found out that in #kitkat Macadamia you will have to use the UnifiedNlp (GAPPS) package (I directly downloaded the release on Github). Then I installed the respective Xposed module to make UnifiedNlp work.
The (No GAPPS) variant didn’t work for me (“System supports location provider” was not checked).
And how the antenna in your device is orientated 
What am I most likely doing wrong?