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Unified NLP on Fairphone 2 Open OS

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#9

@root: I also wonder how to do it, though you could always just manually edit the files. :wink:

@All @jochensp: I’m new to this and don’t know how UnifiedNlp works. Until now, my impression was that it works without any “proprietary Google stuff”. However, @jochensp’s patch added com.google.android.gms to the config_locationProviderPackageNames resource array in the source code, as suggested by mar-v-in. Does this mean that UnifiedNlp uses the Google Mobile Services (see also the gms package description) in some way? In any case, what does this patch actually do?

#10

Thanks - makes me feel less stupid! :slight_smile: I guess one needs to run the patch command on the shell. Just wondering from which path…

Regarding GMS - I guess UnifiedNLP mimics the Google services and therefore is named identically? Does this make sense?

#11

Ah, I see. You may be right, even on F-Droid UnifiedNlp carries this name: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.google.android.gms Thanks for noticing that!

#12

I assume you need an account for the review tool they use to just be able to pull it. But downloading it manually will work as well, I guess. Too bad it just a “undocumented” website and there is no howto on how to use it without an account.

http://code.fairphone.com/gerrit/Documentation/index.html

Update: Solved now, see the top of this thread.

#13

Well, my (and maybe also @root’s) question was rather how to pull (if I’ve already an acoount), because I’ve never done this before …

#14

That is correct.

It doesn’t use any Google Services. It uses (mainly) free location services provided by backends.

#15

I’ve added a howto to the top post.

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#16

@jochensp: Nice, thanks for the commands!

@paulakreuzer: Thanks for clarifying!

:slightly_smiling:

#17

Hi and thanks for your efforts!

Currently I don’t get any location information in any app on my own built FP2 OS. Will Unified NLP solve that problem? Or will it only make the network based location work?

Do I understand your how-to correctly, that the OS has to be built again after applying your patches?

Is there a way to just modify my FP2 OS? I would like a solution where I wouldn’t have to reinstall and configure all apps etc…

#18

This will only help you with network location. You need to recompile the OS (or at least framework/base, haven’t tried), but you don’t need to reinstall everything afterwards (just don’t flash with -w :wink: ).

1 Like
#19

I haven’t full understand the procedure. It would be nice if someone could clearify some things for me.
If I correctly understand it one has to apply the patches mentioned above and the build the FPOSOS version. Right? But which of the three F-Droid packages

do I have to install? I must have something wrong because so far it didn’t work with either of them. I tested it by trying to show my location in OsmAnd~.

Thanks it advance

Patrik

#20

I’m guessing this one, or did you include GAPPS in your OSOS build?

For it to actually work you’ll also need to download some backends to use the corresponding databases.

#21

The procedure is correct. For me the “no GAPPS” version works fine (as I don’t have Gapps installed). Some things to check:

  • Did you enable the network location in the location settings?
  • Did you enable a Plugin for NLP (which one)?
  • Did you reboot as proposed in the installation guide?
  • If everything fails, you can try the debug version here.
#22

Thank you @paulakreuzer and @jochensp now it works. I did everything except of a proper activation of the MozillaNlpBackend.

Thanks again

Patrik

EDIT: @paulakreuzer You are right I didn’t include GAPPS with µg UnifiedNlp (no GAPPS) it works.

1 Like
#23

One more question. I would like to use the database from OpenWiFi but I couldn’t figure out how to use it. I downloaded the *.tbz file, extracted it and tried to import it in LocalWifiNlpBackend. But this is not possible. I think this is related to https://github.com/n76/wifi_backend/issues/28. Is there another way to use the database?

Or do I misunderstand something?

Thanks a lot.

Patrik

#24

Thanks, it worked with the installation guide in the top post! :slight_smile:
Also just flashing system.img has left all my apps intact. Yay!

For testing I used this app from f-droid: Here GPS Location

#25

@jochensp: When exactly do I have to apply the patches during the build process? Is the moment just before executing . build/envsetup.sh the correct one?

And how exactly do I do this? I tried your command in my build directory ~/fairphone_os, but afterwards the file had been unchanged (confirmed with a text editor). Does my build directory need to be named fp2-dev for this to work?

#26

I applied the patches and rolled my “own” FPOS - all good! I can access the Unified NLP framework and receive location data from e.g. Mozilla. However, I cannot get GPS to work?! Anyone else observed a similar problem?

Cheers!

#27

What services do you have activated? Do you use mircoG and Unified NLP? Is “Location” (=GPS) activated in your Settings? Use an application like “SatStat” to see what is going on. For me it works, but I’m on a FP1/4.4.4.

Or in short, you don’t need a provider for you GPS, your phone/Android does that part somewhere else (Settings->Location). A bit confusing, but I guess you know all this already.

I would guess just switch on GPS/Location, stand still and wait a long time outside while watching SatStat :slight_smile:

Update: What I would like to have is a feature in Android that shows me what service/provider just provided the location data … that would be nice to know sometimes.

#28

I installed “µg Unified Nlp (no GAPPS)” from F-Droid. Location services set to “high precision” (i.e. GPS & WLAN/Cell).

Using “Here GPS Location” from F-Droid to read the data. Interesting observation: After reading the raw data via “Androsend 2” (once again F-Droid :wink: ) the data is available for other apps like “Here GPS Location” as well. Maybe it’s a bug in “µg Unifield Nlp” - will need to observe this…