Sxmo/Tips and Tricks

Here is a growing list of tips, tricks and configuration snippets for using Sxmo. 
This pages is intended to focus mostly on "non-core" issues, such as running apps and everyday usability. The core configuration issues should end up in sxmo doc, as discussed on https://todo.sr.ht/~mil/sxmo-tickets/275
== Calls, SMS, Modem ==
See this writeup to understand how calling works.
=== Sometimes Modem gets stuck ===
Sometimes the modem does not respond, stops receiving/sending calls, etc.
Preferred solution: toggle 'Modem Daemons' in the menu under 'Config'.
Reliable solution: reboot.
=== Sometimes SMS messages aren't sent/received ===
The latest biktorgj firmware (0.5.3) should address this situation. Alternatively, check for stuck sms and delete them:
#:mmcli --modem any --messaging-list-sms
#:mmcli --modem 0 --sms 0
#:mmcli --modem 0 --messaging-delete-sms=##
#:mmcli --modem 0 -r
#:The identifying number of the modem may vary, being incremented upon toggles and sometimes reboots. you probably also can use: --modem any
=== How to send an SMS via command line (or ssh) ===
cat mysupersmsfile | sxmo_modemsendsms.sh +33123123123 -
=== Where to Delete SMS ===
.local/share/sxmo/modem/<sender>/sms.txt
=== How to call from the command line ===
Example:
sxmo_modemdial.sh 08003301000
=== How to change SIM pin ===
From 1234 to 1010:
mmcli -i any --pin=1234 --change-pin=1010
Disabling:
mmcli -i any --pin=1010 --disable-pin
=== How to activate data ===
In menu under Networks select Add a GSM. Enter the APN settings for your carrier.
find a list
here.
=== How to find Operator Name and other Infos ===
mmcli -m any
=== How to enable Roaming ===
This is not clear yet.
Test if roaming is enabled with: mmcli --modem=0 --bearer=0
Edit the .connection file and add: allow-roaming=true
since v1.20 its called
MMBearerRoamingAllowance
see more info here. We should really solve this puzzle.
=== How to send USSD ===
Try something like:
mmcli -m any --3gpp-ussd-initiate="*100#"
=== How to send AT command ===
==== Directly ====
# If desired monitor output as root:
#:cat /dev/ttyUSB2
# In another terminal, send the command, in this example to check the ADSP firmware version:
#:echo -ne "AT+QGMR\r" >/dev/ttyUSB2
==== Through modem manager ====
# Restart modem manager in debug mode:
#:sudo /sbin/rc-service modemmanager stop
#:sudo /usr/sbin/ModemManager --debug
# In another terminal, send the command, in this example to check the ADSP firmware version:
#:mmcli -m any --command="AT+QGMR"
# Stop modem manager in debug mode, then run:
#:sudo /sbin/rc-service modemmanager start
=== Retrieving signal strength information ===
See here.
=== Block Numbers ===
create:
 ~/.config/sxmo/block.tsv 
and add the numbers to block: blockedcontactnumber TAB blockedcontactname
there will be no notifications
=== Create contacts.tsv from Android data ===
This assumes you have developer mode enabled on your phone and usb debugging using adb.
I messed around with different API calls, I store the contacts locally on the device, what worked for me to get the full set of phone numbers was:
adb shell content query --uri content://com.android.contacts/data --projection display_name:data1:data3:data4 | grep '[0-9]\{10\}' | grep -v gprofile > raw_contacts
`create_contact_tsv.py` depends on python package `phonenumbers`, please install it.
then run on the terminal
python3 create_contacts_tsv.py raw_contacts | sort | uniq > contacts.tsv
For completeness, entire content of the python file `create_contact_tsv.py`
import csv, sys, phonenumbers as p;
with open(sys.argv[1], 'r') as file:
 reader = csv.reader(file)
 for row in reader:
 name = row[0][str(row[0]).find("=") + 1:]
 for match in p.PhoneNumberMatcher(str(row), None):
 number = p.format_number(match.number, p.PhoneNumberFormat.E164)
 print(number + "\t" + name)
=== Create contacts.tsv from vcard export (e.g. vcf export from nextcloud) ===
We can convert an export in vcard format of a contact list to a file, work with with the following commands:
git clone https://github.com/gled-rs/cvf2csv.git && cd cvf2csv && pip install phonenumbers
Put the downloaded vcard export into the same directory as the convert.py script and name it contacts.vcf
See README.md to change the default behaviour of the convert script.
python convert.py && cp contacts.csv ~/.config/sxmo/contacts.tsv
== General configuration ==
=== Set Darkmode ===
For Gnome apps:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme prefer-dark
For Kde plasma-mobile apps:
sudo apk add plasma-integration
sudo apk add qqc2-breeze-style
Get the style file here.
Move it to where it belongs:
mv kdeglobals ~/.config
Now we need to set the environment variables (not sure if we need this, pasted once into terminal):
QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_STYLE=org.kde.breeze
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=kde
For Flatpaks
some flatpaks just refuse to run in dark mode, edit the launcher of each flatpak to contain the dark theme like this:
flatpak run --env=GTK_THEME=Adwaita-dark org.gnome.Fractal
GTK Apps
can be forced with a prefix:
GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark application 
=== How change idle/suspend time ===
Add with your time in seconds:
export SXMO_UNLOCK_IDLE_TIME="30"
in 
~/.config/sxmo/profile 
=== How to display the percentage of battery ===
along with the icon in the status bar,
add:
export SXMO_BAR_SHOW_BAT_PER=1 
in ~/.config/sxmo/profile 
on the homescreen,
add:
${alignc}${font goto:size=22:style=Bold}${exec echo "Power: "}${exec upower -d | grep -m1 'percentage:' | awk '{print $2}'}
in ~/.config/sxmo/conky.conf 
=== How to easily change the size of the text, system-wide? ===
Change the value in:
/usr/share/sxmo/appcfg/xresources_xft.xr (try 160!)
Xft.dpi: 192
(chaning it in ~/.Xresources works as well)
if you remove the dpi line there you can set dpi on the fly via 
xrandr --dpi x
=== How to change the keyboard layouts? (wvkbd/wayland)? ===
edit your .config/sxmo/profile and add default command lines options for wvkbd like this:
export KEYBOARD_ARGS="-l full,special -H 200 -fn 'Hack 11'"
To see a list of possible options for KEYBOARD_ARGS, enter: 
wvkbd-mobintl --help
Possible keyboard layouts for option -l are: Full, Special, Emoji, Simple, SimpleGrid, Nav, Dialer, Cyrillic, Arabic, Persian, Greek, and Georgian.
=== How to type Umlauts & Special Keys ===
Umlauts: Cmp followed by the according letter.
e.g.
ä => AGr + a
F keys with AGr-N
e.g.
F10 => AGr + 0
(F11 + F12 don't exist)
€ => AGr + -
£ => AGr + =
=== How to change the size of the virtual keyboard? ===
edit KEYBOARD_ARGS in your ~/.config/sxmo/profile and add "-H <height>" to change the portrait height, "-L <height>" to change the landscape height.
=== How to launch programms on startup? ===
If you run dwm, edit:
~/.config/sxmo/xinit 
If you run sway, edit: 
~/.config/sxmo/sway 
Instead, you can also copy 
cp /usr/share/sxmo/default_hooks/start ~/.config/sxmo/hooks/start and edit that file. 
NOTE:
Make sure to make it executable
 chmod +x ~/.config/smxo/hooks/start 
=== How to set screen brightness on start ===
add:
/usr/bin/sxmo_brightness.sh setvalue 50
to the bottom of:
/usr/share/sxmo/default_hooks/s
xmo_hook_start.sh
=== mount /tmp/ in RAM, to save write cycles on storage device===
add the following in /etc/fstab 
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,nodev 0 0
=== Help with adding cronjobs ===
You can edit your crontab via
crontab -e
This website https://crontab.guru/ has proven useful in making cronjobs.
If using mnc, make sure that commands run via sxmo_rtcwake.sh.
Example:
55-59/2 7 * * 1-5 sxmo_rtcwake.sh /home/user/script
=== How to customize the colours/fonts of the interface? ===
==== xorg/dwm ====
Get example in the alpine blooms theme by Tetrakist, as entries to add in /home/user/.Xresources
==== wayland/sway ====
* .config/sxmo/sway 
* bemenu parameters through BEMENU_OPTS env variable. for instance in .profile:
export BEMENU_OPTS="--fn 'FiraMono Nerd Font 13' --tf '$MYCOLOR' --tb '#00000090' --nb '#00000090' --nf '$MYCOLOR' --hb '$MYCOLOR' --hf '#000000' --sb '$MYCOLOR' --sf '$MYCOLOR' --scb '#000000' --scf '$MYCOLOR' "
* mako config in .config/mako/config
* In depth guide on editing colors in Sway, bemenu, Foot, and wvkbd with all color options detailed. At the bottom of the guide is the link to a script which will do it all for you once you set the colors.
=== Some notifications stay stuck on the screen! ===
If in dwm:
pkill dunst
If in sway:
pkill mako
=== A simple way to share Internet through USB (aka "USB tethering") ===
Select 'Networks' in the menu and add a USB hotspot.
On your connecting device, you may need to configure IPv4 configuration Manually, as your pmOS device is not going to act as a DHCP server by default.
Set "Addresses" to 10.42.0.2/24, and set Gateway to 10.42.0.1 (which is your pmOS device's address). If you're running DNSmasq, you may also use that for DNS server, otherwise set DNS server to your favorite server.
=== Where can i read logs for sxmo? ===
try
less /home/user/.local/state/tinydm.log 
or
tail -f /home/user/.local/state/tinydm.log
or
logread -f for the generic pmOS log, that also displays some of sxmo deamons (modemmanager, etc.) information
=== Move sxmo's bar below your phone's notch ===
Find the bar entry in ~/.config/sxmo/sway and add a gaps configuration to it.
 bar { gaps 42 0 } 
See https://todo.sr.ht/~mil/sxmo-tickets/494 and https://man.archlinux.org/man/sway-bar.5.en
=== Working around the Notch ===
By filling in some useless items in the notch area.
If not already done,
cp /usr/share/sxmo/default_hooks/sxmo_hook_statusbar.sh ~/.config/sxmo/hooks/
then add a few ooooo between the battery and the wifi symbol just above the line containing
sxmobar -a -f "$fgcolor" -b "$bgcolor" -t "$style" \
with adding this line to the hook:
sxmobar -a notch 22 oooooooooo
Then disable tray icons in swaybar:
nano ~/.config/sxmo/sway
Scroll down to the 
Status Bar:
section and just below position top
add
tray_output none
Then reboot and enjoy.
=== LED blinking not working with feedbackd ===
When postmarketos-default-camera is installed, it adds a udev rule that changes ownership of the LED devices to the feedbackd group. This means the default user won't have permissions to use the LEDs on a clean install. This only occurs on devices with a working camera (i.e. PinePhone).
The simplest workaround is to add your user to the feedbackd group:
sudo adduser $(whoami) feedbackd
An alternative option is to add a udev rule to override this behavior.
Create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/99-sxmo-led.rules with the following contents:
ACTION=="add|change", SUBSYSTEM=="leds", DEVPATH=="*/*:status", RUN+="/bin/chgrp input /sys$devpath/brightness /sys$devpath/pattern /sys$devpath/repeat"
ACTION=="add|change", SUBSYSTEM=="leds", DEVPATH=="*/*:indicator", RUN+="/bin/chgrp input /sys$devpath/brightness /sys$devpath/pattern /sys$devpath/repeat"
This was discussed in this mr https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/merge_requests/4758 and there were not any ideal solutions discovered.
== Applications specific ==
=== Set default applications ===
e.g. Define which app opens images:
sudo nano mimeapps.list 
edit:
image/png=loupe.desktop
image/jpg=loupe.desktop
make sure you create a desktopfile for loupe in:
nano ~/.local/share/applications/loupe.desktop
containing:
Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=/usr/bin/loupe
Name=loupe
MimeType=image/png;image/jpg
=== Osmin, Pure-Maps, Mepo ===
To use navigation properly, first enable GPS:
mmcli -m any --location-enable-gps-nmea
mmcli -m any --location-enable-gps-raw 
mmcli -m any --location-get 
/usr/libexec/geoclue-2.0/demos/agent > /dev/null 2>&1 &
get userscript here.
In the time of writing, you need to have a sim card inserted, but you can manually compile a newer modemmanager and enable gnss to have gps without sim.
get launchscripts for osmin and pure-maps here
Pure-Maps comes with osmscout-server, after install, execute osmscout-server-gui and download some maps.
In Pure-Maps you need to get API-keys by registering on all the map provider services and enter them in settings, it takes a moment, but is easy. For Offline Navigation, first launch osmscout-server, wait a few seconds, then launch Pure-Maps.
Also see the Documentation.
See https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Applications_by_category#Geography for geography applications.
Mepo also needs mepo-scripts to be installed, otherwhise menu will not work. To make the menu bigger, rotate 3 fingers on the screen.
=== Krita ===
Works very well for image editing.
Load this custom workspace to ~/.local/share/krita/workspaces/ and select in krita in landscape view: Windows => Workspaces => krita_phone.kws
Launch krita without splash krita --nosplash
if you customized an even nicer workspace, please contribute.
=== Kdenlive ===
When it is not availiable via repo, install it via flathub!
For video editing in portrait mode, you need to do following modifications:
Go to View => Manage Layouts and import the phn layout. 
Make sure to delete all other layouts to get space for the menu.
Turn your phone layout to landscape (you might prior switch scaling to 2) and go to: 
Settings => Configure Toolbars => TimelineToolbar
In the right window, remove:
*Track Menu
*Timeline Edit Menu
*Separator
Remove everything after the Timecode 00:00:00:00
After the Spacer Tool, add:
*Favorite Effects
*Delete Selected Item
*Insert Track...
Under the View menu, enable only:
*Media Browser
*Clip Monitor
*Project Monitor
*Project Bin
*Timeline
Now give it a try. The File => New dialog is still challenging and might need scaling:
=== QT app doesn't fit the screen (scaling) ===
with sway, scaling can be achieved via cmd line:
 swaymsg output \"DSI-1\" scale 2 
or try adding the following in your .config/sxmo/xinit 
export QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1
export QT_SCALE_FACTOR=0.7
(change the factor until it suits your need)
You can also copy https://git.sr.ht/~anjan/sxmo-userscripts/tree/master/item/scripts/scale_display.sh to ~/.config/sxmo/userscripts/scale_display.sh
=== Cmus: the application related bemenu is not loaded as soon as a song is played. ===
change the title of the terminal in the cmus config file $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cmus/rc to contain the string "cmus": 
echo "set format_title= %a %t %c cmus" >> .config/cmus/rc
=== Flatpak ===
If you use Flatpak apps, you probably will have problems with sound. That is because Flatpak requires a PulseAudio-compatible sound server, but SXMO uses by default only ALSA. To install and setup PipeWire as well as its PulseAudio implementation, please refer to SXMO's documentation.
NB: it seems that as of latest (1.8.2 at time of writing), pipewire now comes as default in sxmo
==== Flatpak File Permissions ====
Fractal and others can not save any content to the device until you give it permission:
flatpak override org.gnome.Fractal --filesystem=/home/me/
=== Foliate ===
Tab top edge to make the menubar visible,
=== Telegram Desktop ===
The onscreen keyboard may overlap the text input field on Wayland. See https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/3274 . As a workaround set the scaling to 1.75 or less via SXMO_SWAY_SCALE in $HOME/.config/sxmo/profile.
Additionally the window decorations can be removed via Telegram Settings > Advanced > System Integration > Use System Window Frame > Enable (restart required).
== Extra features, advanced tweaking ==
=== Lockscreen / Screenlock ===
By default there is no lockscreen, you can manually add
Peanutbutter.
To set your custom passcode for example to "1234" (TOP_LEFT`, `TOP_RIGHT`, `BOTTOM_LEFT`, `BOTTOM_RIGHT`:
export PEANUTBUTTER_PASSCODE="1234"
It is highly recommended to disable inputhandler until we are unlocked.
Add following line just below the variables to /usr/share/sxmo/default_hooks/sxmo_hook_inputhandler.sh
# Check for 'peanutbutter'
if pgrep -x "peanutbutter" > /dev/null; then
 exit 0
If you use the x11 version you can use https://codeberg.org/jackc/smlock instead.
It should be started in sxmo_hook_unlock.sh hook because it will take input and therefore you cannot exit screenoff state (no touchscreen).
Make sure to have https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/package/edge/main/x86_64/mkfontscale installed.
Notifications can be displayed above and you can use the gesture to open the OSK.
=== Notification for all apps ===
You can have notification in menu with the green led as for texts/calls.
For example using a simple script you can have matrix notifications:
#!/bin/sh
# before sxmo version 1.17.0/1 you can use this
#sxmo_notificationwrite.sh random nheko none "New matrix message"
sxmo_notifs.sh new nheko "New matrix message"
Replace nheko with your client.
You need to trigger it with something, I used dunst.
This is the section that I added to ~/.config/dunst/dunstrc:
[mtx_message]
 appname = nheko
 summary = "*"
 format = ""
 script = matrix_message.sh
=== A Wayland version of Sxmo, really?? ===
Yes. Really! It's the default now. Use WM Toggle in the menu under 'Power' to toggle between dwm and sway.
=== How to Add Apps to the List? ===
Copy
/usr/share/sxmo/default_hooks/sxmo_hook_apps.sh 
to
~/.config/sxmo/hooks/sxmo_hook_apps.sh 
and edit that file.
=== List all available icons for the hook entry ===
cat /usr/share/sxmo/default_hooks/sxmo_hook_icons.sh
=== change filechooser / filepicker ===
change the default, not mobile friendly filechooser to one which fits the sxmo style and is mobile friendly:
xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser
sudo apk add yazi #filebrowser
sudo apk add fd #the search module
git clone https://github.com/hunkyburrito/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser.git
cd xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/
meson build
ninja -C build
sudo ninja -C build install
after this, we copy the configs to the right place:
# create the config dir
mkdir -p ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/
#copy the configs
sudo cp ~/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/contrib/config ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/
sudo cp ~/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/contrib/yazi-wrapper.sh ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/
sudo cp ~/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/termfilechooser.portal 
/usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals/
mkdir -p ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal
create
~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/portals.conf with content:
[FileChooser]
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.FileChooser=termfilechooser
now reboot and then execute:
GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 firefox-esr
and visit any page to upload something, you should have a beautiful filepicker now.
By default the system is using GTK_USE_PORTAL=2 so we need to do one final step:
~/.config/sxmo/profile
add on the end:
# export GTK_USE_PORTAL=1
export GTK_USE_PORTAL=1
export GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark
== Customize Gestures ==
Mdify gestures/swipes and button presses in:
~/.config/sxmo/hooks/sxmo_hook_lisgdstart.sh
more details about this topic here.
== Errors ==
=== after an upgrade ===
if something is not working anymore after you updated the system, for example errors like:
Error: Connection activation
failed: No suitable device found
for this connection (device usb0
not available because profile is n..
try:
 sudo apk fix 
and then reboot.