help me get my FR working

[Brian]

On Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:15:10 -0700
"Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn" <zooko at zooko.com> wrote:

> Folks:
> 
> I've decided I do need to own a cell-phone after all. It has been a
> delightful few years of cell-phone-free life. How long as it been?
> Maybe ten years? Anyway, I've decided I need to own a cell-phone, and
> I would much rather it be my Neo FreeRunner than anything else.
> 
> So, please help me get it working. It almost always stays in the state
> where it says "Registering..." and therefore is never able to use the
> cellular network to make or receive calls. A couple of times it
> instead went into the registered state soon after bootup, and those
> times I was able to make or receive calls, but it almost never does
> that. I'm using whatever firmware came with it when I bought it. I
> should probably start by upgrading the GSM modem firmware or the FR
> firmware, right? What's the best-supported firmware available
> nowadays? And where are the best instructions in how to upgrade? Thank
> you very much for taking the time to help me out.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Zooko
> 
Yes, for starters you'll want to update the modem firmware[1]. Which
distro are you running currently? OM2008.x? The openmoko wiki may be a
bit dated but it is still a viable resource for learning how to flash a
newer OS via dfu-util. There are quite a number of options for OS and
you can easily dual boot as well.

Currently I am using AoF on SD[2] and QtMoko v39 in NAND[3]. I find
that Android is a bit on the slow side performance wise to use the Neo
as a phone but MoonReader+ is miles ahead of FBReader for e-books.
QtMoko is my preferred distro for phone usage. I almost exclusively use
AoF as a bookreader. There is also SHR[4] but the last time I tried it
(shr-core) it still had unreasonable power settings which are set in
stone unless or until you edit something(been to long for me to recall
what) via a terminal it will shut down while waiting to configure it. I
was also unable to use my Neo as phone while it was installed. Sorry
SHR fans, I'm simply disappointed in the the usability factors but some
of the UI improvements are very nice.

Brian

[1]http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GSM/Flashing
[2]https://code.google.com/p/android-on-freerunner/
[3]http://qtmoko.sourceforge.net/
[4]http://trac.shr-project.org/trac