Topics

1

Astro Slide - General Discussion / Community issue tracker & wiki

« on: March 01, 2023, 08:50:46 am »

Community issue tracker

We now have a GitHub repository for use as an unofficial public issue tracker for Planet Computers devices, thanks to @shymega. If you encounter a bug, please make sure it's filed here so we can have one place to keep track of outstanding problems and avoid duplication. OESF and the other chat groups are still valuable as a place for ideas, questions, discussions, etc., and device-specific issues or if you're not sure whether something also affects others enough to be filed as an issue.

Community wiki

The GitHub repo also includes a community-maintained wiki for Planet devices. Planet Computers' support wiki still has no mention of the Astro Slide, so this is the place to go for that kind of information. Notably, the wiki includes a guide for how to root the Astro Slide. Further contributions more than welcome! If you're not comfortable with using Git to edit/add documents, you can do so in the browser.


@Varti Can this topic be pinned please? 🙂

2

Astro Slide - General Discussion / Network speed testing

« on: February 28, 2023, 09:36:26 am »

I've just done some testing of the 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi speeds of my Astro Slide against my Cosmo and laptop; I thought I'd share my results 🙂 I'd be interested in the results of others

3

Astro Slide - General Discussion / Poll: Have you received your Astro Slide yet?

« on: February 26, 2023, 10:11:49 pm »

Poll: Have you received your Astro Slide yet? (in lieu of Planet Computers providing stats)

4

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Battery replacement experience

« on: January 14, 2022, 09:52:23 pm »

Hey folks,

I thought I'd share details of my recent experience trying to get a Cosmo battery replacement.

The battery in my Cosmo Communicator started to noticeably balloon, as of a few weeks ago. It was only slight, but the lid no longer completely closed (about 2mm gap), and the middle of the backplate was raised in the middle (about 1mm).

I emailed Planet to ask if they'd be able to send me a replacement battery. I really didn't want to part with my device, especially for an indefinite period of time, given I rely on it and how screwed up the international shipping network is right now. So I was preferring to install the new battery myself (or take it to a repair shop here in Melbourne, Australia).

I take it that it's not under warranty anymore (if it ever was, having backed it on Indiegogo).

Sadly, they said it was prohibited to ship the battery only, and needed me to send them the Cosmo. They'd install the battery for £75.00 plus £20.00 P&P. Surely posting a device containing a damaged battery is far less safe than sending an intact battery on its own, safely encased? And I thought the restrictions only applied to airmail anyway? I said I was happy to wait for surface mail (sea shipment) if necessary.

They responded saying the company needs to follow the rules governing shipping batteries; and that if I could find a suitable carrier to pick it up from them in London, they could do that. I spent a couple of hours researching last night, and could not find anything suitable for a reasonable price that would not leave Planet liable for potential mispackaging. I had no idea how arduous shipping is from the UK/EU!

Thanks to this teardown guide thread, I discovered that the Cosmo and my now-unused Gemini use the same battery (SXX600). I disassembled both and installed the battery from the Gemini; I'll see if there's enough life left in it.

The 3rd-party battery linked from there is no longer available; I have ordered this one just in case the one from my Gemini is not good enough. Whilst still expensive, this is significantly cheaper than sending my Gemini to Planet for a new battery (3rd-party battery = AU $94.66 = £49.93. As opposed to: £42.72 sending to them + their £75.00 & £20.00 P&P = £137.72 = AU $261.11!)

I highly recommend that Planet Computers set up the ability to have batteries be sent from elsewhere (the factory in China maybe) where the restrictions are less.

Hopefully this information is helpful for others As these devices age, I'm sure more and more people will be in need of new batteries!

It is so satisfying to have my Cosmo able to snugly snap shut again!

5

Cosmo Communicator - Android / [HOWTO] Quickly refresh broken App Bar icons

« on: June 26, 2020, 10:45:26 pm »

Ever since I first got my Cosmo, I frequently see broken app icons in Planet's App Bar. I believe this happens when an app is updated (by the Google Play Store).

I noticed that I could refresh the icons by killing and restarting the App Bar app. I put together a Tasker task that does this, so I could have an icon on my home screen which quickly resolves this for me. Many months later, Planet still haven't fixed the issue, so I thought I should probably share my workaround here.

To install it on your Cosmo:

Install Tasker, then click here from your Cosmo to easily install the task. Accept adding the task, then (importantly) press Back a couple of times to properly exit out of Tasker. Then add Tasker's Task Shortcut widget to your home screen (however you do that on whichever launcher app you're using - probably by long-pressing on an empty space), and select the 'Restart app bar' task.

Here's how it looks on mine:

6

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Compiling Cosmo Android kernel

« on: June 26, 2020, 08:04:00 pm »

Anyone know how to compile the Cosmo Android kernel? I'd like to have a go at fixing keyboard debounce (pressing a key generating multiple of the character).
Is this repo even the source from the latest OTA? https://github.com/dguidipc/cosmo-android-kernel
It doesn't look like there are any public forks yet, which is not encouraging =\
I see there are Linux kernel compilation instructions here, but I doubt it's the same: https://github.com/gemian/gemian/wiki/KernelCompilation
I've also asked this in the Telegram group: https://t.me/GeminiPDA/26704 I'll collect any gathered info here in this OESF thread

7

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Secure Element service crash logged every 5 seconds

« on: December 04, 2019, 05:14:58 am »

I happened to be checking out what was shown in adb logcat (to attempt some investigation into the issue of the screen randomly locking) when I noticed a process had crashed. And in fact, it consistently crashes every five seconds!

Each crash is the same, with the only difference I've noticed being that D AEE_AED : Count: 415 gets incremented.

I'm not clear on what /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.secure_element@1.0-service does. I'd initially suspected it was to do with the fingerprint reader, but from some Googling, I think it's related to NFC. Disabling NFC didn't make the crashes stop though.

The crash log mentions ese_config.cpp:50] Check failed: config_path != "", which I think could be referencing this Android source code. Which would seem to indicate that the device is missing a config file, libese-nxp.conf, from any of /odm/etc/, /vendor/etc/, or /etc/.

I haven't tried to use NFC yet, but I wonder whether it's working correctly.

I don't know if I've done something to cause this crashing, but I think it unlikely - I'd appreciate it if someone else could confirm they see this too. Do you have this crashing? Is NFC working? And have you rooted?

I reckon this crashing would be having an adverse impact on battery life, so it'd be good to get it sorted out. I'm going to try to see if I can find/create a suitable libese-nxp.conf. I've found a couple of examples (for other devices):

- https://android.googlesource.com/device/goo...libese-nxp.conf
- https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/an...ese-nxp.conf#13

Or maybe the Cosmo doesn't actually have a Secure Element and its NFC works without it (I don't know how this stuff is supposed to work) - I haven't found much from Googling 'Secure Element' with 'MT6771V/CT' or 'Helio P70'. If it doesn't have one, we should find out how to disable this service which would then seem to be unnecessary.

I haven't found libese-nxp.conf in the directories mentioned, but there are the below config files. Maybe they're used instead:

- /vendor/etc/libnfc-nci.conf
- /vendor/etc/libnfc-nxp.conf

To aid readability, I've attached a screenshot of the same logs shown in Sublime using the ADB syntax highlighting. And I've attached a copy of the above files.

Code: [Select]

12-04 17:59:41.228 15651 15651 D nxpese@1.0-service: Initializing State Machine...
12-04 17:59:41.228 15651 15651 D StateMachine: ProcessExtEvent: enter state:1 event:5
12-04 17:59:41.228 15651 15651 D StateMachine: ProcessExtEvent: exit state:1
12-04 17:59:41.228 15651 15651 D nxpese@1.0-service: Registering SecureElement HALIMPL Service v1.0...
12-04 17:59:41.229 15651 15651 F /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.secure_element@1.0-service: ese_config.cpp:50] Check failed: config_path != ""
12-04 17:59:41.229 15651 15651 F libc    : Fatal signal 6 (SIGABRT), code -6 (SI_TKILL) in tid 15651 (android.hardwar), pid 15651 (android.hardwar)
12-04 17:59:41.256 15654 15654 I crash_dump64: obtaining output fd from tombstoned, type: kDebuggerdTombstone
12-04 17:59:41.257   843   843 I /system/bin/tombstoned: received crash request for pid 15651
12-04 17:59:41.258 15654 15654 I crash_dump64: performing dump of process 15651 (target tid = 15651)
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   : *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   : Build fingerprint: 'Planet/Cosmo_Communicator/Cosmo_Communicator:9/PPR1.180610.011/1563439284:user/release-keys'
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   : Revision: '0'
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   : ABI: 'arm64'
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   : pid: 15651, tid: 15651, name: android.hardwar  >>> /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.secure_element@1.0-service <<<
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   : signal 6 (SIGABRT), code -6 (SI_TKILL), fault addr --------
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   : Abort message: 'ese_config.cpp:50] Check failed: config_path != "" '
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     x0  0000000000000000  x1  0000000000003d23  x2  0000000000000006  x3  0000000000000008
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     x4  0000000000000000  x5  0000000000000000  x6  0000000000000000  x7  7d1b062b070c3c5a
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     x8  0000000000000083  x9  00000079bafb8b40  x10 fffffff87fffffdf  x11 0000000000000001
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     x12 00000079ba60d6b0  x13 0000000000000001  x14 ffffffffff000000  x15 5a3c0c072b061b7d
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     x16 00000079baff12c8  x17 00000079baf2f2d8  x18 0000007fd43d3c9a  x19 0000000000003d23
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     x20 0000000000003d23  x21 0000000000000083  x22 0000007fd43d4a51  x23 0000000000000003
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     x24 00000079bb74f5e0  x25 0000000000000000  x26 0000000000000000  x27 0000000000000000
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     x28 0000000000000000  x29 0000007fd43d4990
12-04 17:59:41.260 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     sp  0000007fd43d4950  lr  00000079baf23a90  pc  00000079baf23abc
12-04 17:59:41.263 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :
12-04 17:59:41.263 15654 15654 F DEBUG   : backtrace:
12-04 17:59:41.263 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     #00 pc 0000000000021abc  /system/lib64/libc.so (abort+124)
12-04 17:59:41.264 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     #01 pc 00000000000081d4  /system/lib64/vndk-sp-28/libbase.so (android::base::DefaultAborter(char const*)+12)
12-04 17:59:41.264 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     #02 pc 0000000000008d2c  /system/lib64/vndk-sp-28/libbase.so (android::base::LogMessage::~LogMessage()+724)
12-04 17:59:41.264 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     #03 pc 000000000000fb88  /vendor/lib64/ese_spi_nxp.so (EseConfig::EseConfig()+1112)
12-04 17:59:41.264 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     #04 pc 000000000000fdf4  /vendor/lib64/ese_spi_nxp.so (EseConfig::getString(std::__1::basic_string, std::__1::allocator> const&, std::__1::basic_string, std::__1::allocator>)+172)
12-04 17:59:41.264 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     #05 pc 00000000000030fc  /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.secure_element@1.0-service (main+244)
12-04 17:59:41.264 15654 15654 F DEBUG   :     #06 pc 00000000000ae760  /system/lib64/libc.so (__libc_init+88)
12-04 17:59:41.284   375   375 D AEE_AED : $===AEE===AEE===AEE===$
12-04 17:59:41.285   375   375 D AEE_AED : p 2 poll events 1 revents 1
12-04 17:59:41.285   375   375 D AEE_AED : PPM cpu cores:8, online:8
12-04 17:59:41.285   375   375 D AEE_AED : aed_main_fork_worker: generator 0x721962d2c0, worker 0x7fed88c320, recv_fd 10
12-04 17:59:41.288 15657 15657 D AEE_AED : u:r:hal_secure_element_default:s0
12-04 17:59:41.288 15657 15657 V AEE_AED : dashboard_record_update() : rec->module = /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.secure_element@1.0-service
12-04 17:59:41.288 15657 15657 D AEE_AED : Skip duplicated exception !
12-04 17:59:41.288 15657 15657 D AEE_AED : Exception Class: 3
12-04 17:59:41.288 15657 15657 D AEE_AED : Module: /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.secure_element@1.0-service
12-04 17:59:41.288 15657 15657 D AEE_AED : Count: 415
12-04 17:59:41.288 15657 15657 D AEE_AED : Last exception time: 1575442776
12-04 17:59:41.288 15657 15657 D AEE_AED :
12-04 17:59:41.288 15657 15657 V AEE_AED : aed_crash_dump_session - skipped
12-04 17:59:41.288 15654 15654 I crash_dump: crash_dump_notify exit
12-04 17:59:41.289  1156  1365 W NativeCrashListener: Couldn't find ProcessRecord for pid 15651
12-04 17:59:41.289   375   375 D AEE_AED : clear ppm settings
12-04 17:59:41.290   843   843 E /system/bin/tombstoned: Tombstone written to: /data/tombstones/tombstone_01
12-04 17:59:41.291   375   375 D AEE_AED : $===AEE===AEE===AEE===$

8

Gemini PDA - Linux / No audio after accepting new config during update

« on: February 17, 2019, 09:46:18 pm »

Hey guys,

I did an `apt upgrade` yesterday for the first time in about six weeks. In the process, I was prompted whether to replace the existing config for I think PulseAudio. Thinking it'd be fine (and maybe help with the lack of automatic output switching), I accepted the replacement, but after rebooting, sound has not worked at all. Nothing comes out of the speakers or headphone jack. Adjusting the volume from alsamixer doesn't help. I still get the interference noise through the headphone jack when not playing music, which goes away when music is (silently) playing, so it feels like it's almost working.

Do you know of a way to recover this config file?

Is there a logfile which would tell me what file it was? I should have made a note of it!

I'm guessing I'll need to pull it out of the Debian installation image. Maybe mount it somehow in order to do that.

Cheers!

9

Gemini PDA - Linux / Kali dependency issues

« on: December 24, 2018, 09:52:03 am »

Hey guys, I'm having some trouble with Kali. Running `sudo apt install kali-linux-full` or `sudo apt upgrade` now results in it being unbootable. iirc I'd had success with both these commands before, but started having trouble a few days ago.
The former, I think is because it removes `libhardware2 libhybris libhybris-common1 libmedia1 pulseaudio-module-droid repowerd xserver-xorg-video-hwcomposer` due to an incompatible dependency on a slightly older version of `libc6`. I know hybris is required for graphics, given it's using that as a compatibility later to use the Android driver, so that makes sense.
The latter might be due to an upgrade of `lxc` (that's used for hybris, right?), but I don't know.
I think the fix would be for the packages Re4son supplies to be updated to support the new versions of their dependencies in the Kali repos, or provide compatible versions of them.
After letting the hybris removal go through once, I tried to reinstall the original package versions, but they were not available. Do the Kali repos drop older package versions?
Cheers! =)
apt plans for the commands: https://gist.github.com/ZimbiX/2ea188095de1...88f43913df937b4
I am impressed with the graphics performance in Kali, so well done for that! It is very usable; way better than when I briefly tried TP1

This is a repost from IRC on Saturday. I haven't tried it again since, as I'm using TP2 now with great success! :D

btw, it seems `kali-linux-full` depends on `vim`, which conflicts with the preinstalled `vim-tiny`; best to uninstall `vim-tiny` first thing.