gsmd and modem power on

[Mike (mwester)]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alexandre d'Alton" <alex at alexdalton.org>
To: <gsmd-devel at lists.openmoko.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 2:23 PM
Subject: gsmd and modem power on


> Hi all,
>
> I just though about something regarding the init sequence of gsmd.
>
> Currently, on cold start, my openmoko gsmd is not up and running fine
> without killing xsession, restarting gsmd, and starting again xsession.
> Or by adding a gsmd restart at the beginning of matchbox session file.

How recent is the image that you are running?  I believe that the issue
which you describe was fixed earlier this week; recent images should not
exibit this behavior.  You can tell by seeing if the line "stty -F
"$GSM_DEV" -echo" is present in your /etc/init.d/gsmd file.  If it is not,
try upgrading to a more recent image (or just upgrade the gsmd ipkg - that
should get you the updated startup script as well).

> As I really suspected that the power-on of the modem takes a bit of time
> till it's ready to issue at commands, I moved the actual power on (echo
> 1 > ..../power_on) into a separate init file that I call really early in
> the init stages.

This would be contrary to what I've found, in fact.  I have complete success
(with the change mentioned above) -- in fact, it turns out that the 1 second
delay after the power_on is completely unnecessary -- the only thing it does
for me is waste one second of time at boot.  Just to clarify, from your
/tmp/gsm.log file, is the problem that you are solving the inability of gsmd
to syncronize with the GSM modem and establish communications, or is that
the GSM modem is unable to register?

> This trick allows the gsmd to be up and running each time I rebooted my
> moko without any gsmd restart trick required.
>
> what do you guy think about this approach ?

I agree completely with starting gsmd earlier in the boot, and in general
with the concept of re-ordering and optimizing the boot sequence to reduce
the (lengthy) startup time.  However, in my opinion, we should be able to
start gsmd at any time, and it should be able to establish communications
with the GSM modem.  If we rely on ordering, and bootup delays to get the
communications established, then we're just deferring the problem -- our end
goal should be a system that boots, and is able to place a call, in a matter
of seconds and when we get there, I'd hate to find that we've been depending
on long startup delays for other tasks in order to get gsmd to work.  JMO.


> Thanks,
>
> Alex.


Mike (mwester)