ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Chris Wayne <chris.wayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Tony Espy <espy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 04/28/2014 04:24 PM, Chris Wayne wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 4:16 PM, Tony Espy <espy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> <mailto:espy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>
>>     On 04/28/2014 03:30 PM, Chris Wayne wrote:
>>
>>         Hi guys,
>>
>>         One bit of customization that we have yet to implement is allowing
>>         carriers to have custom APNs setup on the device.  I understand
>> that
>>         we're moving towards using the Android DB for this, which would
>>         allow
>>         for OEM customization, but there's no easy way for a carrier to
>> add
>>         their own APNs this way.
>>
>>
>>     The provisioning code you're referring to will land in the next
>>     upload of ofono, probably later this week if all goes well.
>>
>>     The new provisioning logic actually uses both apns-conf.xml ( which
>>     is included in the device tarball ) and mbpi ( which is included as
>>     part of the Ubuntu filesystem ).
>>
>>
>>         The use case for a carrier wanting their own APN database could be
>>         having a special app that they want to allow zero-tariff data
>>         usage for
>>         (e.g. their usage app, or maybe they have a deal with some
>>         site/app that
>>         all data used is free for their customers).
>>
>>
>>     I'm not sure I understand your example.  We automatically provision
>>     GPRS contexts for network connnectivity and MMS support.  This
>>     provisioning is SIM-specific, and the result is a number of gprs
>>     contexts created ofono's gprs settings file:
>>
>>     in /var/lib/ofono/<ISMI>/gprs
>>
>>     NetworkManger and Nutium both examine these contexts via ofono's
>>     ConnectionManager DBus interface.  Eventually, we'll have a settings
>>     UI that will allow direct manipulation of these APNs/gprs contexts.
>>
>>     The only reason I see a carrier replacing our version of
>>     apns-conf.xml is if they've rolled out new APNs and/or have signed
>>     deals with MVNOs and want to ensure that the MVNO APNs are
>>     distributed.  Another reason would be to fix incorrect settings in
>>     our db.
>>
>> I think the MVNO use case is an important one for us to look out for.
>>
>>
>>
>>         The one restriction we would have is that any file/db would have
>>         to live
>>         in /custom.  Is this doable?
>>
>>
>>     Why wouldn't you just update the db in the device tarball?
>>     apns-conf.xml currently lives in /system/etc.
>>
>>
>> The device tarball is supposed to be for device-specific files, not
>> carrier customizations.
>>
>
> Sure although in AOSP this file is considered device-specific...
>
>
>      Also re: /custom, from what currently documented on the wiki, it can
>>     only install things in /home/<user>.  IMHOP, that's not really the
>>     right place to be installing a system-specific db file.
>>
>> The custom tarball installs files directly to /custom.  It *can* copy
>> stuff to $HOME, but it certainly would not for this example (I would
>> expect the db file would be just /custom/apns-conf.xml)
>>
>
> Is this directory partioned at all ( eg. /custom/etc ), or is everything
> just installed in this top-level dir?
>

It's broken into different directories under /custom (like
/custom/usr/share/backgrounds/).  More info can be found here:
http://developer.ubuntu.com/resources/oem/usage/


>
> We could certainly change the ofono code to look first in /custom before
> /system/etc if that makes sense.


Is it the case that only one DB file can be supported? Or could ofono read
APNS from both /custom and /system/etc?

>
> /tony
>
>