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Telephony / Modem crashes frequently

  • /e/ version: e-0.18-q-20210827132307 (and also e-0.18-q-20210813129945, 0.19-q-20211027142973, and 0.20-q-20211215151800)
  • Device model(s): FP2
  • Device rooted: yes (Magisk), seems to be irrelevant though

Summary

Since upgrade to 0.18, the telephony / modem subsystem frequently crashes spontaneously. The PIN(s) for the SIM(s) need to be re-entered. After that, phone calls generally seem to be possible while using mobile data is inhibited until the next reboot.

The problem

It is difficult do make out the exact circumstances which trigger the problem. On some days, there are only few (two or three occurrences per day) while today, I had two occurrences within two minutes.

The problem looks new to me (I did not recognize this fault pattern when using 0.17 or previous versions on the phone). The issue has been observed with different builds (see above). However, in my region, 3G has recently been turned off in favor of 4G (and 5G which cannot be used on the FP2). My phone occasionally changes between 4G and EDGE (it changed between 4G and 3G/H+ before); maybe this is related to the issue.

It seems to be unrelated whether mobile data was enabled or disabled: while my impression was first, that the issue is only triggered when mobile data is enabled, the two occurrences from today happened while mobile data was disabled.

Another aspect which might be of interest: I am using two SIM cards. The second one is used for mobile data.

What is the current behavior?

The PIN entry dialogs (or whatever the form is called which is usually only displayed once when the SIM card is activated at boot time) open spontaneously. Both SIM cards are affected and need to be unlocked with their PINs. After that, everything looks normal -- expect that mobile data does no longer work (no 4G sign is displayed in the status bar). Toggling mobile data via the Settings does not alter the situation. Only after a reboot of the phone, mobile data is available again.

What is the expected correct behavior?

This should be clear: the phone should just keep the SIMs activated.

Technical information

Relevant logs (adb logcat)

I am a little reluctant to post the complete logcat in public (as it might reveal sensitive information). Maybe logcat.txt is helpful. Otherwise, feel free to contact me for more details.

Workaround

None (expect for reboot).

Possible fixes

No idea.

Edited by Ingolf Steinbach