Bug 254806 - GPS data not received from maemo - hangs
Summary: GPS data not received from maemo - hangs
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: marble
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Maemo 5 Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0 (KDE 4.6)
Assignee: marble-bugs
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2010-10-20 23:36 UTC by jack
Modified: 2012-02-04 18:49 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description jack 2010-10-20 23:36:39 UTC
Version:           unspecified (using Devel) 
OS:                Linux

Often position tracking fails with message "waiting for current location" where it hangs (maemo remains responsive by GPS data is not processed).

This behavior seems erratic - in the same room on one occasion GPS was received and processed, and on another it wasn't. Today I was walking around the street for about 20 mins and this message remained the entire times.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
open and close marble several times in the open on an N900 with position tracking set to 'maemo' and wait.

Actual Results:  
"waiting for current location message" hangs

Expected Results:  
GPS data received and processed, marker appears on current location on map.
Comment 1 Dennis Nienhüser 2010-10-21 08:33:38 UTC
Did the GPS icon of the N900 itself indicate that it had a position? It blinks while waiting for a position (enough satellites seen) and stops blinking once it has enough satellites. I mean the white icon on the top-right of the battery icon in this screenshot: http://nienhueser.de/marble/desktopsummit/marble-route-guidance.png

Receiving an initial GPS position can be problematic in both situations you describe: In closed rooms, only a few satellites are typically seen, so GPS often does not work. When moving while not having an initial fix, the satellites seen change shortly (due to occlusions by e.g. houses). Therefore it can take quite long to get the initial fix. To work around it, have the device at a fixed position where as much as possible of the sky can be seen.

Maybe we should add a small widget that shows how many and which satellites are being seen by the device currently. This allows to adjust the position initially slightly for optimal satellite visibility to have it get the needed initial fix. Currently our plugin interface does not allow for this kind of information though.
Comment 2 jack 2010-10-21 11:59:01 UTC
> Did the GPS icon of the N900 itself indicate that it had a position?

I guess not because it continued to blink.

> Maybe we should add a small widget that shows how many and which satellites are being seen by the device currently.

This info would be very helpful, but it need not necessarily be part of marble on maemo if its a problem for it to be a plugin. A separate app could be recommended, or bundled, assuming one already exists. If not then I guess we're out of luck. Perhaps the documentation for marble could include a terminal command to show this information if such a command exists.
Comment 3 Dennis Nienhüser 2010-11-16 23:39:06 UTC
SVN commit 1197890 by nienhueser:

Switch to "user select" mode, which does more what i want: Use network information if available, activate gps if network and gps both down, but don't bother the user to enable the network if it's down currently. The documentation is a bit unclear on it. The difference to the previous setting is that now information from the network is used if it is enabled, which often shortens the time to first fix considerably.
CCBUG: 254806

 M  +1 -1      MaemoPositionProviderPlugin.cpp  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=1197890
Comment 4 Thibaut Gridel 2012-02-04 18:49:31 UTC
Does the issue arise anymore? Looks like the fix is working.
Please reopen otherwise.