Special Update for Alternative OSes (modem files)?

[retsifp]

Has the “manual” update-file on that page also been updated?
Would be great, so LineageOS users could also update their phones!

[maxilian]

is the issue related to lineageos at all?

[AnotherElk]

@maxilian

is the issue related to lineageos at all?

https://code.fairphone.com/contentx/2018-02-20_special_update.html

“A special update has been released. You can get it only through the updater.
The changes in this special update are going to be included in the binary blobs of the March monthly release, due out in early March.”

… LineageOS on the Fairphone 2 uses those binary blobs to access the hardware, just like Fairphone’s OSes do.
They are installed seperately from the OS, so when switching from Fairphone OS or Fairphone Open OS to LineageOS you usually don’t lose them and LineageOS just continues to use them.

So, if the necessary changes are in the blobs, LineageOS is affected, as well as other alternative OSes on the Fairphone 2.

The community maintains a modem.zip for easy installation of those blobs.

[maxilian]

Thanks!
We’ll wait and see what the FP team says about downloading an updated modem file then!

[Singulus]

Is there a current modem.zip with these memory parameter updates included available yet?

[AnotherElk]

@Singulus

Is there a current modem.zip with these memory parameter updates included available yet?

I guess if nobody hacks a new modem.zip together from an already updated official OS installation or from intercepting whatever the official Updater App is currently shipping for this update, the community will get the blobs the usual way … with the official OS update files “due out in early March”.

[Agno]

About modem.zip update, does anyone ever thought about creating and adding to LOS a modem updater app ? Or maybe modem update come so rarely that benefits are not worth the efforts.

[AnotherElk]

@Agno

Or maybe modem update come so rarely that benefits are not worth the efforts.

That (at least nowadays) … and installing it using TWRP is so easy anyway.

[hpg]

Hi all,
I’m currently thinking about ‘how’ to savely update my FP2 (with LOS and TWRP on it) with a new modem.zip.

Does anybody know where modem.zip is written to, into which partition on Fairphone 2?

I’m asking because when working with TWRP, only partitions Boot, System, Cache and Date (excl. storage) are shown to me.
I made very good experiences to restore my fairphone, restoring then Boot, System and Data.

• Is modem.zip written to system partition? If I install a new modem.zip, and the phone does not run anymore, and I’ll restore afterwards my latest TWRP to the FP2, this will overwrite the ‘buggy’ modem again?

• Or is modem.zip written to a separate partition, and a TWRP restore of boot, system and data won’t bring back former the modem version?

[paulakreuzer]

You can find a guide for building your own modem files here: #modemfiles

[hpg]

Thanks for the hint. Lot to read now, no boring weekend

I’m interested in the modem.zip as it might solve the issue with random reboots.
I’ve switched from FOS to LOS mid of January.

The latest modem.zip on
https://io.pinterjann.is/public/misc/fairphone/modem/
is from November 7th.
This version should already be available on my FP2, received via standard FPOS OTA updates.

As it is asked in

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

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.

How to know if a new modem.zip version is available?
Can this be found somewhere?

[jnsp]

@hpg

Is modem.zip written to system partition? If I install a new modem.zip, and the phone does not run anymore, and I’ll restore afterwards my latest TWRP to the FP2, this will overwrite the ‘buggy’ modem again?

No. The modem.zip does not touch your system partition, hence backing up / restoring system and data will not change the modem firmware. In fact, the modem.zip does not only contain the modem firmware, but also other proprietary components (such as the TrustZone firmware).

@hpg

Or is modem.zip written to a separate partition, and a TWRP restore of boot, system and data won’t bring back former the modem version?

This.

The files are written to the following partitions:

/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/tz
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/sbl1
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/rpm
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/aboot
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/splash
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modem

Edit: I’m still waiting for Fairphone to publish this months security update. It will contain the latest modem firmware (it hasn’t changed since November). I’ll provide an updated modem.zip when it’s published.