I'm not entirely sure which forum would be most appropriate to post this under, but this seems like a decent candidate, so I'm starting here. If this would fit better somewhere else, please feel to redirect me, and/or even move the thread if appropriate. I think I've read all the appropriate sticky threads et cetera, but if I do make / am making a faux pas, please let me know.
As you're probably aware (https://www.xda-developers.com/t-mobile-att-require-volte-phone-calls-shut-down-3g/), T-Mobile is expected to shut down its non-VoLTE voice service in January of 2021. As a result, it's imperative for anyone who gets phone service through them to have a phone with working VoLTE support before that point. As that includes me, I've been looking into that.
I currently have a Samsung Galaxy S5, purchased through T-Mobile back in 2015 (if I'm not mistaken, it's a SM-G900T). There seem to be fairly solid statements that this model does support VoLTE under the stock ROM, and indeed T-Mobile support seems to think that it should be working.
I run LineageOS - specifically klte, which matches that model. I'm currently on the August 30th, 2020 "nightly" build of version 16.0 (which was the latest available for that model as of earlier today), on top of TWRP 3.3.1 (ditto). I only recently upgraded from TWRP 2.8.7 and (IIRC) LineageOS 14.1, which I'd been running since sometime in 2017 for reasons that are out of scope but I can describe briefly if desired. The upgrade was specifically in hopes that newer LineageOS would have VoLTE support options which the earlier version did not, but that seems to have been a futile hope.
After some fairly extensive digging (mostly online, but with some poking around on my own device and in my own backups et cetera), I've concluded that while it is theoretically possible to have VoLTE support on this device under LineageOS, it's likely to be effectively impossible in practice. Threads such as https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/devs-only/port-ims-manager-to-klte-t3551084 (not the only place I've looked, but probably the last before giving up) seem to indicate that the only way to get it to work - short of reverse engineering enough of the underlying system to be able to reimplement Samsung's closed IMS implementation for that model - would be to find a Galaxy S5 with the stock ROM and working VoLTE, and copy the appropriate files out of that and into the correct places on the LineageOS-based version of the system.
I thought I'd kept a backup of the stock ROM which my S5 came with, but I haven't managed to find any sign of it in my archives. I don't think I have any other way to get at the correct files, never mind figure out where they need to go and get them there; I certainly couldn't justify buying another S5 just to be able to extract the stock ROM.
As linked from the thread referenced above, there do appear to be, or have been, other custom ROMs for the Galaxy S5 which include - or included - VoLTE support. However, I'm otherwise quite happy with LineageOS, and don't want to switch to another custom ROM line - especially since I want to avoid the data loss that would come with wiping my phone to install another ROM, unless there's absolutely no way to avoid it.
Are there any prospects for my being able to get VoLTE working on this phone under LineageOS? If so, what would I need to do to manage that, within the January deadline?
If not, or if what prospects there are don't pan out, I'm going to need to acquire a new smartphone which will be able to have VoLTE under LineageOS, and preferably one which will at least approximate meeting the other criteria which led me to select the Galaxy S5 in the first place and stick with it all this time. In particular, A: I all but insist on a conveniently user-swappable battery (I carry at least one fully-charged spare in my back pocket at all times), not so much for field battery life extension as to be able to replace the battery rather than the phone when the battery inevitably bloats and dies (I'm on something like my seventh battery for this S5), B: I really like having separate dedicated "home", "back", and (for lack of a better term) "active applications list" buttons, and the only model I know for sure has them is the S5 itself, and C: I very much want to have a traditional headphone jack. Expandable storage, in the form of a suitable SD-card slot, would also be nice but is not strictly required.
What models can I expect to be able to get VoLTE working on under LineageOS, with good support in other regards, within that January deadline? The model-support information I've been able to find in searching thus far does not seem to provide any clear indication on this point.
I don't expect recommendations on what smartphone models will be able to also meet my other criteria, although of course it would be nice; that would probably fit better under the "what phone should I buy next?" thread over in General Q&A.
No chance for adding volte. It's utopic to believe you could eben keep you phone setup.
You don't share your reason for using lineageOS. If it's about avoiding preinstalled apps, you can instead debloat stock rom.
kurtn said:
No chance for adding volte. It's utopic to believe you could eben keep you phone setup.
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I was afraid of that, but I did still have some hope.
Is that klte/S5-specific, or is it a more general statement about LineageOS at large, which holds true regardless of phone model?
If the latter, then LineageOS is soon to become unusable for anyone with T-Mobile service, which seems like a major problem that people would already be working actively to try to correct. (I also think I heard that other providers may make a similar change, which would make the problem more widespread; I specifically half-remember articles about AT&T in that regard. No concrete backup for that at the moment, though.)
If the former, then what phone models are there for which VoLTE does or can readily be made to work under LineageOS?
kurtn said:
You don't share your reason for using lineageOS. If it's about avoiding preinstalled apps, you can instead debloat stock rom.
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I'm a little surprised that the reasons would even be asked about, given that this is a LineageOS-specific forum; I wouldn't expect the people here to be up for directing people away from LineageOS to other ROMs.
My original impetus for using LineageOS (at the time, CyanogenMod) was simply one of principle about avoiding proprietary software and vendor lock-in/lockdown/et cetera. I also like the ability to control updates on my own, both in terms of being able to determine when I update to a new version and of being able to continue to get updates independent of whether the manufacturer/carrier/etc. continues to release them.
Avoiding preinstalled apps is certainly one aspect of it, but it's by no means the only one.
I also doubt that I could simply debloat the stock ROM, for the simple reason that I don't think I *have* the stock ROM - or if I do, it's years out of date (as I said, 2015). I left a search running overnight, and on that basis have managed to find the backup copy of the stock image that was on the phone when I received it, but unless trying to extract the necessary stack components for VoLTE support from it might be viable after all I don't know how useful that will turn out to be.
(I'm probably going to invest some time into looking into that today, anyway, but I don't really expect to get any results out of it.)
Alias Bongo said:
I was afraid of that, but I did still have some hope.
Is that klte/S5-specific, or is it a more general statement about LineageOS at large, which holds true regardless of phone model?
If the latter, then LineageOS is soon to become unusable for anyone with T-Mobile service, which seems like a major problem that people would already be working actively to try to correct. (I also think I heard that other providers may make a similar change, which would make the problem more widespread; I specifically half-remember articles about AT&T in that regard. No concrete backup for that at the moment, though.)
If the former, then what phone models are there for which VoLTE does or can readily be made to work under LineageOS?
I'm a little surprised that the reasons would even be asked about, given that this is a LineageOS-specific forum; I wouldn't expect the people here to be up for directing people away from LineageOS to other ROMs.
My original impetus for using LineageOS (at the time, CyanogenMod) was simply one of principle about avoiding proprietary software and vendor lock-in/lockdown/et cetera. I also like the ability to control updates on my own, both in terms of being able to determine when I update to a new version and of being able to continue to get updates independent of whether the manufacturer/carrier/etc. continues to release them.
Avoiding preinstalled apps is certainly one aspect of it, but it's by no means the only one.
I also doubt that I could simply debloat the stock ROM, for the simple reason that I don't think I *have* the stock ROM - or if I do, it's years out of date (as I said, 2015). I left a search running overnight, and on that basis have managed to find the backup copy of the stock image that was on the phone when I received it, but unless trying to extract the necessary stack components for VoLTE support from it might be viable after all I don't know how useful that will turn out to be.
(I'm probably going to invest some time into looking into that today, anyway, but I don't really expect to get any results out of it.)
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I think your chances for volte are better if you change from samsung to motorola.
kurtn said:
I think your chances for volte are better if you change from samsung to motorola.
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That's unfortunately fairly vague, as a basis for going out and buying a smartphone.
What I'm looking for in terms of "VoLTE does or can readily be made to work under LineageOS" is something for which a statement like one of the following can be made:
"Yes, VoLTE works on this model under LineageOS out of the box; you don't need to do anything special to get it working, just flash LineageOS and go."
"Yes, it's possible to get VoLTE working on this model under LineageOS; here's what you need to do to get it working, beyond just flashing LineageOS."
Do you know of any specific smartphone models for which you can make one of those statements?
While I'm not against investigating and experimenting and trying things out to get things to work, and in fact sometimes that can even be fun, I do not want to do that in a production environment - and I'm under deadline (albeit with a few months to go), with limited resources for experimenting (in the form of money to buy smartphones which might work), before this becomes a critical production environment.
(Also, I've found what look like IMS-related files in the backup copy of the stock ROM, which don't seem to exist in the LineageOS that's currently running on my phone. Depending on what they look like on further examination, I may try pulling them in and seeing if anything changes; worst-case scenario, I should just have to boot to recovery and restore a backup.)
Alias Bongo said:
That's unfortunately fairly vague, as a basis for going out and buying a smartphone.
What I'm looking for in terms of "VoLTE does or can readily be made to work under LineageOS" is something for which a statement like one of the following can be made:
"Yes, VoLTE works on this model under LineageOS out of the box; you don't need to do anything special to get it working, just flash LineageOS and go."
"Yes, it's possible to get VoLTE working on this model under LineageOS; here's what you need to do to get it working, beyond just flashing LineageOS."
Do you know of any specific smartphone models for which you can make one of those statements?
While I'm not against investigating and experimenting and trying things out to get things to work, and in fact sometimes that can even be fun, I do not want to do that in a production environment - and I'm under deadline (albeit with a few months to go), with limited resources for experimenting (in the form of money to buy smartphones which might work), before this becomes a critical production environment.
(Also, I've found what look like IMS-related files in the backup copy of the stock ROM, which don't seem to exist in the LineageOS that's currently running on my phone. Depending on what they look like on further examination, I may try pulling them in and seeing if anything changes; worst-case scenario, I should just have to boot to recovery and restore a backup.)
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Yes. Moto e2 lte surnia has volte in LineageOS out of the box.
kurtn said:
Yes. Moto e2 lte surnia has volte in LineageOS out of the box.
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Thanks! I'll investigate that option, then, in addition to any others that present themselves.
Alias Bongo said:
(Also, I've found what look like IMS-related files in the backup copy of the stock ROM, which don't seem to exist in the LineageOS that's currently running on my phone. Depending on what they look like on further examination, I may try pulling them in and seeing if anything changes; worst-case scenario, I should just have to boot to recovery and restore a backup.)
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Unsurprisingly, it doesn't seem to be that simple. The files involved in this are themselves few enough, and most although not all of them don't seem to exist in the currently-running image, so they can be copied in without further ado - but there are enough references to them in other files, which either *do* exist (and so would need to be edited, in a way that leaves things compatible with both systems) or seem likely to themselves (need to) be referenced elsewhere, that the whole thing turns into a mess of cascading complexity.
Short of input from someone with expertise on IMS/VoLTE implementation from some other model, I suspect this won't turn out to be a viable avenue to pursue, at least not unless and until I have my hands on a Galaxy S5 which isn't my production phone and as such can be used for experimentation. Even then, I'll probably need to basically build my own custom ROM (or custom local build of LineageOS, at least) rather than just inserting files into a system built from an existing one.
I've looked briefly into the Moto E2, and while it does look like the newest/final models of it would support VoLTE in a way that LineageOS would plausibly be able to handle, it's also at least nearly as old as the S5 and is less capable and desirable in other ways. It'd be better than nothing, but not something I would prefer as my first choice.
I'm hoping that other people chime in with more models to suggest. As this is going to become increasingly important as more carriers shut down their 3G/2G networks, and VoLTE becomes the only way to do voice calling, I'd ideally like to see a page - possibly this thread, possibly another one, possibly a Wiki page - with as comprehensive a listing of phone models which *are* known to have working VoLTE support under LineageOS (and/or possibly other non-stock ROMs) as possible, including links to any necessary how-to directions per model and notes on any special criteria (e.g., carrier-specific support or support differences between regions or the like). I hoped something like that would already exist, given the apparent upcoming VoLTEpocalypse - but as it doesn't seem to (or at least I haven't managed to find one thus far), it wouldn't hurt to start trying to create one.
My understanding is that Verizon is apparently going to make the "VoLTE mandatory" transition in January, much the same as T-Mobile, and AT&T is planning to do it sometime in 2022. With Sprint out of the picture after the T-Mobile merger, that's basically all of the major US wireless carriers that I'm aware of, so this will be universal (at least in the USA) before too very long. Some amount of preparation to make sure the custom-ROM field will remain viable past that point would seem appropriate; I'm surprised by how little activity in that area I've been able to find thus far.
Alias Bongo said:
Unsurprisingly, it doesn't seem to be that simple. The files involved in this are themselves few enough, and most although not all of them don't seem to exist in the currently-running image, so they can be copied in without further ado - but there are enough references to them in other files, which either *do* exist (and so would need to be edited, in a way that leaves things compatible with both systems) or seem likely to themselves (need to) be referenced elsewhere, that the whole thing turns into a mess of cascading complexity.
Short of input from someone with expertise on IMS/VoLTE implementation from some other model, I suspect this won't turn out to be a viable avenue to pursue, at least not unless and until I have my hands on a Galaxy S5 which isn't my production phone and as such can be used for experimentation. Even then, I'll probably need to basically build my own custom ROM (or custom local build of LineageOS, at least) rather than just inserting files into a system built from an existing one.
I've looked briefly into the Moto E2, and while it does look like the newest/final models of it would support VoLTE in a way that LineageOS would plausibly be able to handle, it's also at least nearly as old as the S5 and is less capable and desirable in other ways. It'd be better than nothing, but not something I would prefer as my first choice.
I'm hoping that other people chime in with more models to suggest. As this is going to become increasingly important as more carriers shut down their 3G/2G networks, and VoLTE becomes the only way to do voice calling, I'd ideally like to see a page - possibly this thread, possibly another one, possibly a Wiki page - with as comprehensive a listing of phone models which *are* known to have working VoLTE support under LineageOS (and/or possibly other non-stock ROMs) as possible, including links to any necessary how-to directions per model and notes on any special criteria (e.g., carrier-specific support or support differences between regions or the like). I hoped something like that would already exist, given the apparent upcoming VoLTEpocalypse - but as it doesn't seem to (or at least I haven't managed to find one thus far), it wouldn't hurt to start trying to create one.
My understanding is that Verizon is apparently going to make the "VoLTE mandatory" transition in January, much the same as T-Mobile, and AT&T is planning to do it sometime in 2022. With Sprint out of the picture after the T-Mobile merger, that's basically all of the major US wireless carriers that I'm aware of, so this will be universal (at least in the USA) before too very long. Some amount of preparation to make sure the custom-ROM field will remain viable past that point would seem appropriate; I'm surprised by how little activity in that area I've been able to find thus far.
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Totally agree, I'm surprised this news hasn't gotten more attention in the community. First came to mind, "ah crap, no more custom roms." (perse).
I started a thread on this on the LG v50 forums to raise awareness, hopefully there can be workarounds:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v50-thinq/help/att-t-mobile-to-off-3g-networks-disable-t4163491
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By forcing VOLTE, this can potentially lock out some unlocked phones and also exclude custom roms, forcing users to buy carrier branded phones. In addition, shutting down 3G and forcing 4G VOLTE will ensure that lots of customers upgrade/buy new phones when their current phone may be perfectly fine otherwise(unnecessary costs and more perfectly working phones in the land fill in vain).
IIRC, you could use a stock from on your S5 and just remove the bad parts. It's no substitute for AOSP but you got to do what you got to do. Plus it's free. The stock files should be available and you can use recovery to image your phone so you don't lose your data. That is the route I would go and can't really do on my S3.
Other phone selections are looking GRIM in terms of removable batteries, reasonable size, etc. You can look to the V20 or G5 from LG but you will have to do the above process and that is almost where I'm at. Poked and prodded rom isn't the end, I did it for years on my gS2 when AOSP couldn't get HW fully functional.
Motorola has models that do work but they are mostly sealed units and everything is really hard to find as its plastered all over XDA in posts from years ago. Do all rom links even work?
While we were sleeping people got taken over by the machine and the devs didn't know what was coming or couldn't figure out the proprietary implementations.
The question with Tmo is also, is band 12 mandatory or will other phones work on 2 and 4 and volte over that. Nobody has even asked the question. I'm going to try to be safe.
DUP deleted
So odd that such a fatal issue seems to be imminently coming without some progress being made to avert it because unneeded and dangerous 5g is crowding out 2g & 3g. The s5 and note 4 are THE gold standard of excellent screen and hardware and thus the only real choices of replaceable battery phones - the REAL reason that phone mfg force millions of phones to be tossed in the landfills - shame on them! Custom Roms provide extremely important current security updates and allow apks that are updated and no longer work on slightly older android 6 versions (chase, Starbucks, united, etc). Pretty bad to discover after factory resetting a phone that play store won't let you download current or working version.
Perhaps we can crowd fund developers to attack this looming disaster soon?
uds0 said:
So odd that such a fatal issue seems to be imminently coming without some progress being made to avert it because unneeded and dangerous 5g is crowding out 2g & 3g. The s5 and note 4 are THE gold standard of excellent screen and hardware and thus the only real choices of replaceable battery phones - the REAL reason that phone mfg force millions of phones to be tossed in the landfills - shame on them! Custom Roms provide extremely important current security updates and allow apks that are updated and no longer work on slightly older android 6 versions (chase, Starbucks, united, etc). Pretty bad to discover after factory resetting a phone that play store won't let you download current or working version.
Perhaps we can crowd fund developers to attack this looming disaster soon?
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Attack
ＧΛËＬＤＵＶΛＬ (@[email protected])
We're in the process to backport VoLTE support to /e/OS on Samsung Galaxy S9 (Exynos). We're looking for strong expertise here. If you know some true experts in the VoLTE support field, please get in touch! (mailto: [email protected]) #VoLTE #engineering...
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Hardware/software wise, open schematics, binary blob free?
Pretty much not open at all.
I believe it lacks mainline support, needs blobs (and they only exist for Android, so you need to use libhybris for other operating systems to work), and I'm not aware of schematics or freely licensed designs or anything of that sort.
You can unlock the bootloader, you can flash another OS to it. It's maybe on-par with a OnePlus phone in that sense, but quite a bit worse off in terms of popularity and community support.
The MediaTek SoC I think is the root of a lot of the issues. I think MediaTek devices tend to be hard to support. MediaTek themselves are probably rather anti-freedom.
The device and Planet Computers have been a pretty big disappointment in general. My Gemini collects dust at this point and is running a rather old Android version. The need of the specialized MediaTek flashing tool is quite a bother as well. Since I've got an Android and Debian dualboot on the thing, I can no longer get OTA updates for Android, and I haven't got the tool set up and working on any computers anymore.
If you don't already have a Gemini, I would suggest instead looking into the PinePhone. They're working on a keyboard addon, and it's already a lot more free than the Gemini. I run postmarketOS on a PinePhone and it's most of what I wanted out of the Gemini already, despite the rough edges.
If you do have a Gemini already, I think our best bet is someone very dedicated choosing to reverse-engineer the thing. Considering the hardware issues with the keyboard, it would take a lot to make this thing usable. If someone were willing to put in the work to make a replacement keyboard, they'd probably be better off hacking on a different device altogether. The Gemini is just e-waste at this point.
If you were interested in trying to get mainline support for it and such, it may be worth working with some of the postmarketOS guys. There's a page for the Gemini on their wiki, but support so far isn't great. Only one person is marked as owning it / working on it, and there haven't been any updates in a while. It also is replying on libhybris, which would ideally be avoided in favor of getting proper support working.
This is supposed to be in the ROM/Recovery section, I plan to use this as a central thread for development on this device if it comes to that.
Anyone who owns an A80, must have by now have had a love hate relationship with it.
Even the S21 doesn't look that good and a look alike phone is often spotted in samsung's ads to this day which has the same edges so i guess they use it as a prop instead of editing out the punch hole. (See images, one is from the 1UI3 ad). It could have been a timeless device if the software implementation was paid more attention to.
Currently these are the problems with this device on OneUI2.0
- HDR video playback doesn't work from youtube but does with the camera (was present on S9)
- Severly Nerfed Camera
- Slowdown/Battery drain/High ram usage
- Aggressive PWM on the display (opposed to DC mode on OnePlus)
- No Android 10 Nav bar despite it being on Android 10.
- No wireless charging (more on that later)
- Poorly made kernal I read?
Which doesn't make sense because even the older Gen phones got these resolved and the alternative A series phones as well.
I am currently very frustrated and would love to join the devs/owners of this device and put our contributions in a LineageOS build for this however I have never done more than basic builds for a device.
Having an All screen no notch display made me realise it's all about software.
Here is a very clean S10 Rom and I wish we can get there with this thing too
Lastly about the wireless charging, Im an engineering undergrad familiar with the WPC Standard and if you have seen strange part's video on adding wireless charging to the iPhone 7, this is certainly a glass back phone with a modular charging port assembly that exact thing can be done on this device as well, I have ordered the parts found in the S10 and some after market tags that I'll try and see which work while keeping the battery cool, I'll share my findings if it's successful.
I definitely agree with you but you know, unfortunately Galaxy A80 isn't sold too much such as A70, A71 and other A series without A80 are popular -because they are more cheap than A80-, so I think developers don't want to make, develop or port any ROM for uncommon and under-sold devices like A80 because making and porting any ROM is super harder you know. And developers want to receive a recompense for their hard work. We are so unlucky for buying A80. No one wants to make or port for uncommon device.
By the way, English isn't my primary language, so if I did make mistakes in my paragraph, sorry.
Demirag said:
I definitely agree with you but you know, unfortunately Galaxy A80 isn't sold too much such as A70, A71 and other A series without A80 are popular -because they are more cheap than A80-, so I think developers don't want to make, develop or port any ROM for uncommon and under-sold devices like A80 because making and porting any ROM is super harder you know. And developers want to receive a recompense for their hard work. We are so unlucky for buying A80. No one wants to make or port for uncommon device.
By the way, English isn't my primary language, so if I did make mistakes in my paragraph, sorry.
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and also, source code issue
Demirag said:
and also, source code issue
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people who bought this device for video and photos they hardly change their device i can bet you on this they have bought the A80 twice