ANN: ModemManager 1.18 released

Thu Sep 9 09:28:05 UTC 2021

Hey hey,

This is a new major release of ModemManager, which will be the base for the 1.18.x stable series (the new "mm-1-18" branch in git). The release has been tagged as "1.18.0".

This is probably the biggest major release we have done since 1.0, and that is thanks to a lot of people!
  * Thanks to Iñigo Martinez for the meson build system integration not only in MM but also in libqmi, libmbim and libqrtr-glib.
  * Thanks to the postmarketOS devs (Stephan Gerhold, Dylan Van Assche, Joel Selvaraj, Caleb Connolly...), working on the MM integration and testing for various devices (Qualcomm SoCs, PinePhone...) and features (QMI voice call management, quick sleep/resume procedure, QRTR+IPA integration...).
  * Thanks to the Google ChromeOS team (Eric Caruso, Andrew Lassalle, Pavan Holla...) working on multiple different features (Multi-APN support, Dual SIM, profile management, QRTR+IPA integration...).
  * Thanks to Teijo Kinnunen for the work cleaning up the MNC PCS digit management in QMI devices and the new SIM preferred network APIs.
  * Thanks to Michal Mazur for the work implementing the APIs to disable facility locks.
  * Thanks to the Fibocom team (Zhang Mingjie, King Sun...) for developing the DSSA support in MBIM-only devices.
  * Thanks to Loic Poulain for the continuous support in the new PCIe module integration.
  * Thanks to Bjørn Mork, Daniele Palmas, Carl Yin and many more for the help and support during the development of major features in this release.

ModemManager 1.18.0
-------------------------------------------
This is a new stable release of ModemManager.

The following notes are directed to package maintainers:

  * This version now requires:
    ** glib2 >= 2.56
    ** libgudev >= 232
    ** libmbim >= 1.26.0 (for the optional MBIM support)
    ** libqmi >= 1.30.2 (for the optional QMI support)
    ** libqrtr-glib >= 1.0.0 (for the optional QRTR support)

  * The ModemManager.service file for systemd integration provided in the sources is updated as follows:
    ** 'CAP_NET_ADMIN' is now required in the 'CapabilityBoundingSet' field.
    ** 'AF_NETLINK' and 'AF_QIPCRTR' are now required in the 'RestrictAddressFamilies' field.
    If the system where ModemManager is being integrated provides a custom systemd service configuration, these updates should be considered.

  * The LEGACY and PARANOID filter types that were allowed options in the '--filter-policy' option in the ModemManager daemon were deprecated in version 1.16.0 and have now been completely removed, along with the vid:pid blacklist of devices and the vid:pid greylist of RS232<->USB adapters.

  * Building from git no longer requires autoconf-archive, the needed AX_ macros are now shipped inside m4/.

  * In addition to building from a source release tarball, or building from git checkouts using the GNU autotools suite (autoconf/automake/libtool), this release includes the initial support for the meson build system. The meson port is not fully complete yet, as there are some missing things in the doc generation and test steps, but for system integration or development purposes, the port should be fully operational. This major release, including all its stable updates in the 1.18.x series, will be the last ones providing support for GNU autotools. The next major release will likely be a meson-only one, and will therefore not be based on a source release tarball any more, but on specific git tags instead.

The most important features and changes in this release are the following:

  * Data session multiplexing can now be enabled in QMI and MBIM modems, e.g. so that multiple different APNs can be connected separately over a single network interface. The multiplexing is disabled by default in this release, except for cases where it's required (e.g. if non-multiplexed sessions aren't supported) like IPA based Qualcomm SoCs. Users can request the multiplexing support explicitly via settings when creating the connection bearer object.

    In order to allow easy testing of the multiplexing feature without requiring any additional change in the stack, a new '--test-multiplex-requested' option in the daemon allows to switch the default (when not explicitly given by the user) to attempt to use multiplexing.

    It is worth noting that when multiplexing is enabled, the data network interface used by the modem will be a virtual network interface created in runtime, and will therefore have a different name than the real network interface exposed by the modem. If there are additional settings in the system relying on the data network interface name (e.g. iptables rules), they
    may need to be updated.

  * The ModemManager daemon can run now in a 'quick suspend/resume' mode, in which no explicit data disconnection is triggered on suspend, and no explicit device re-probing from scratch is launched on resume. Instead, the daemon will try to refresh the state of all interfaces upon suspend, e.g. to see if the module keeps registered to the same operator, to see if it is still connected, and so on.

    This mode of operation is useful when the WWAN module stays awake while the host is suspended, and can be enabled with the '--test-quick-suspend-resume' option in the daemon.

  * API:
    ** New '3gppProfileManager' interface, providing operations on the list of connection profiles stored in the 3GPP module. This interface is implemented for all AT, QMI and MBIM protocols.
    ** New 'DisableFacilityLock()' method in the 3GPP interface, implemented for QMI and MBIM devices.
    ** The 'MaxBearers' property is now deprecated, as it didn't provide any additional information to what 'MaxActiveBearers' already provides.
    ** New 'MaxActiveMultiplexedBearers' property, listing how many bearers can be connected at the same time if multiplexing is enabled.
    ** New settings in the bearer properties, applicable to both the 'Simple.Connect()' and 'Modem.CreateBearer()' methods:
       *** 'multiplex': which allows the user to specify whether multiplexing should be avoided ('none'), whether it should be mandatory ('required') or whether it should be enabled if available or skipped if unavailable ('requested').
       *** 'profile-id': which allows the user to request a connection attempt with an existing profile stored in the module.
       *** 'apn-type': which allows the user to specify the purpose of a given connection, e.g. the user could create a connection to an APN providing default internet connectivity and another one to an APN providing access to the MMS gateway. This setting may or may not be stored in the module itself, it depends on the type of module.
    ** New 'Multiplexed' boolean property in the Bearer object, specifying whether the bearer is connected through a multiplexed interface.
    ** New 'ConnectionError' property in the bearer object, specifying the last error reported by the module during a failed connection attempt or during a network-initiated disconnection.
    ** Updated the list of enum values in the MMMobileEquipmentError' type, according to the error codes defined in v17.1.0 of 3GPP TS 27.007.

  * Core:
    ** iconv() features support is detected at runtime, and logged when the daemon starts.
    ** Updated the base modem object to allow plugins to specify the types of data ports they support, based on the specific plugin implementations, e.g. so that a modem supporting only AT+PPP can ignore NET ports and vice versa.
    ** Added support for modems exposing control ports via QRTR channels.

  * Modem interface:
    ** The Dual SIM logic that would iterate over all slots during initialization is updated, so that we only report the information that we can gather without any explicit slot change. E.g. with QMI we can know whether there is a SIM in the non-active slot, and the ICCID of that SIM, but we cannot know the MCCMNC or the operator name of the SIM unless we change to that slot. We must not do slot changes arbitrarily like that, and so that logic is removed, even if we lose some of the information that we were providing in the interface.

  * Location interface:
    ** The multi-sentence NMEA trace support is updated to include additional possible trace types in addition to GSV (e.g. ALM, GSV, RTE, SFI) and also when coming from other constellations, not just GPS.

  * SIM:
    ** New 'PreferredNetworks' property and 'SetPreferredNetworks' method, implemented using '+CPOL' for generic AT modems and 'NAS Get/Set Preferred Networks' for QMI modems. Several different modules and plugins (e.g. Sierra Wireless EM7345, Telit LN930, SIM7070, all Option and Iridium devices...) have this feature explicitly disabled due to '+CPOL' not behaving properly (even crashing the module sometimes).

  * QMI:
    ** The logic that decides which data mode (802.3 or raw-ip) is used in modules managed by the qmi_wwan driver changes in this release. Until now, if a module reported itself as configured in 802.3 mode on boot, that mode would be the one used in normal operation. Due to the new multiplexing feature, this is no longer true, and if possible the daemon will always try to switch the module to raw-ip, and fallback to 802.3 only if raw-ip is unsupported.
    ** Enabled both AT and QMI indications for the messaging and voice interfaces so that new SMS and call events are reported via both channels. This solves issues seen in the Pinephone when waking up from suspend.
    ** Enabled network reject indications.
    ** If operator name not updated through standard indications, it will be explicitly queried with 'NAS Get Plmn Name'.
    ** Added support for transfer-route MT messages.
    ** Increased the QMI open timeout to 45s, as required by the newest modules.
    ** Implemented additional logic to read the status of the different facility locks in the module.
    ** Updated ICCID reading logic to parse it as hex instead of BCD.
    ** Improved handling of the MNC PCS digit in the operations involving MCCMNC.
    ** Automatically run the 'DPM Open Port' logic on IPA based setups to bind the hardware tx/rx endpoints with the logical ones in the QMI protocol.
    ** Implemented support for the Voice interface and its operations, not only standard voice call management, but also support for the supplementary services. Voice call management will be done completely using QMI, even if the new call indications are notified via AT URCs.

  * MBIM:
    ** Implemented support for Dual SIM in non-QMI MBIM devices, using the Microsoft Basic Connect Extensions service.
    ** Increased the timeout for the MBIM_CID_HOME_PROVIDER query to 30s.
    ** Updated to load model string using QMI over MBIM if available.
    ** Increased the MBIM open timeout to 45s, as required by the newest modules.

  * SMS:
    ** Defined a common timeout of 180s for all send operations.

  * libmm-glib:
    ** Updated with new methods and types to handle all the DBus API updates.
    ** Extended with additional methods in the Location3gpp object to get/set the full operator MCCMNC string, instead of integers without MNC PCS digit info.
    ** Extended the 'ModemLocation' interface with methods to get the signaled location updates; i.e. without requiring an explicit GetLocation(), and obviously only supported when location signaling is explicitly enabled.
    ** Updated the way the internal monitored properties are handled in the different types, now using some handy helper macros to share the same logic among all.

  * Plugins:
    ** zte: disabled CIND/CMER support.
    ** qcom-soc: added support for QRTR+IPA based setups.
    ** qcom-soc: added support for the WWAN subsystem instead of RPMSG.
    ** quectel: enabled QGPSXTRA by default when starting the GNSS engine.
    ** quectel: add support for EM120/160 PCIe modules.
    ** quectel: added Firehose update method.
    ** ublox: added additional URAT combinations.
    ** ublox: flagged UBANDSEL as unsupported in the SARA-R4 and -N4 modules.
    ** cinterion: added new custom MBIM based modem with shared reset operation.
    ** cinterion: ignored the MBIM Intel Firmware Update service completely.
    ** foxconn: added custom carrier config setup for the T77W968 module.

The following features which were backported to 1.16.x releases are also present in ModemManager 1.18.0:

  * core: added support for the new 'WWAN' subsystem in Linux kernel 5.13, enabling PCIe-only modules.
  * core: The charset conversion methods rework, including the avoiding of the iconv() //TRANSLIT extension support, which isn't available in all libc implementations.
  * qmi: the logic managing allowed/preferred modes was fixed for multimode devices like the MC7304, making sure the acquisition order preference always had the same items.
  * serial: when modem is connected with AT+PPP, ignore forced disconnections, so that we don't take ownership of the PPP port before pppd has released it.
  * foxconn: added support for the T99W175 (SDX55) module, including built-in FCC unlock procedure.
  * foxconn: added new MBIM QDU firmware update method.

----------------------------------------

About ModemManager:
     https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/ModemManager

Download here:
     https://www.freedesktop.org/software/ModemManager/ModemManager-1.18.0.tar.xz
     https://www.freedesktop.org/software/ModemManager/ModemManager-1.18.0.tar.xz.asc

Verify it:
     $ sha256sum ModemManager-1.18.0.tar.xz
     48ede5b4f9fb2678a86f5aca74ae3bb32dcb35c61543afb30f20c184f8a69e5d  ModemManager-1.18.0.tar.xz
     $ gpg --verify ModemManager-1.18.0.tar.xz.asc ModemManager-1.18.0.tar.xz

APIs and manpages here:
     https://www.freedesktop.org/software/ModemManager/doc/1.18.0/ModemManager
     https://www.freedesktop.org/software/ModemManager/doc/1.18.0/libmm-glib
     https://www.freedesktop.org/software/ModemManager/man/1.18.0/ModemManager.8.html
     https://www.freedesktop.org/software/ModemManager/man/1.18.0/mmcli.1.html

Please report bugs either to:
     modemmanager-devel at lists.freedesktop.org

Or to gitlab:
     https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mobile-broadband/ModemManager/issues

-- 
Aleksander
https://aleksander.es
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