Jorijn van der Graaf
b986eb3750
imsd-ofonod presents imsd on the system bus as an oFono modem — Manager at /, Modem + VoiceCallManager at /imsd, a VoiceCall object per call — which is what GNOME Calls' bundled ofono provider drives; Calls, Phosh and GNOME Shell run unmodified. org.gnome.Calls is not a seam a third party can provide (Calls exports it, nothing feeds it), and Calls' provider plugins link private headers, so org.ofono is the only D-Bus contract available. Pure GDBus translation of net.catcrafts.IMS1, no core, like imsd-dialerd. Packaged as the opt-in imsd-ofono subpackage: the daemon, its unit (Conflicts=ofono.service), the system-bus policy and a gschema override that points Calls at the ofono provider instead of mm (the ModemManager origin would offer the modem's CS voice path, which carries no audio on these phones). The policy grants root send_destination=org.ofono: under dbus-broker a broadcast is checked against the sender's send policy for every name the receiver owns, so without it imsd's call signals never reach the daemon. Verified on a Fairphone 6 with GNOME Calls 50.0: outgoing and incoming calls with audio both ways, answered and hung up through org.gnome.Calls.Call. Known Calls-side gap documented in the README: after the VoiceCallManager interface is withdrawn and re-added, Calls keeps the old origin's CallAdded handler and eventually crashes.
319 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
319 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-only -->
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<!-- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (C) 2026 Catcrafts® -->
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# imsd
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Userspace IMS/VoLTE daemon for mainline Linux phones.
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Modem firmware on typical mainline-Linux phones will bring up the IMS PDN but
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can't be used for actual call audio. imsd implements the whole IMS client in
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userspace instead: SIP registration with USIM AKA authentication over kernel
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IPsec (ESP), call signalling, and the AMR-WB RTP media plane wired into
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PipeWire so a stock mobile dialer — Plasma Dialer, or GNOME Calls under Phosh
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and GNOME Mobile — can place and receive real VoLTE calls on a commercial
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network.
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## Status
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Call-capable, both directions. Outgoing VoLTE calls place, answer, carry
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full-duplex AMR-WB audio, and tear down; incoming calls ring, answer via
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`Accept`, and carry media the same way — driven end-to-end from a stock
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dialer over the frozen D-Bus ABI. Current state:
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The engine core (`imsd-core`) is a GLib-free, pure-`std` static library whose
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every decision — SIP framing, SDP selection, the AKAv1-MD5 digest, the
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`ip xfrm` command sequence, and the whole call FSM — is unit-tested on a dev
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box with no bus, modem, or phone; several suites pin output byte-for-byte
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against recorded network traffic. GLib/GDBus, sockets, and subprocess control
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live only in the `imsd` daemon shell.
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## Architecture
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C++26 modules, built with Crafter Build. Five build products:
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- **imsd-core** (static library) — the engine, pure `import std` C++ with no
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GLib and no I/O side effects. Everything here is unit-testable on any dev
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box without a modem, a bus, or a phone; several suites pin output
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byte-for-byte against recorded network traffic.
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- **imsd** (executable) — the daemon shell: GLib main loop, GDBus service,
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sockets, subprocess control (`qmicli`/`mmcli`/`ip`), and the registration
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sequence + run loop that pumps the core. All GLib and I/O live here.
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- **imsd-media** (executable) — the RTP/AMR-WB data plane, spawned once per
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call. Pure `import std` + POSIX, no GLib; links `-ldl` and dlopen's the
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codecs. A separate process for crash isolation and the far-end-hangup
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exit-code contract.
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- **imsd-dialerd** (executable) — the Plasma Mobile integration: a session
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daemon owning `org.kde.telephony.{CallUtils,DeviceUtils,UssdUtils}`,
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bridging them to imsd on the system bus. GDBus translation only, no core.
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It is a separate process because those are per-user *session*-bus names
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that the root system daemon cannot own; built with `-- --product=dialerd`,
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autostarted from an `.desktop` file in place of plasma-dialer's
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`modem-daemon` (whose autostart must be disabled).
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- **imsd-ofonod** (executable) — the GNOME Calls integration, for Phosh and
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GNOME Mobile: a system daemon owning `org.ofono` and presenting imsd as an
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oFono modem, which is the seam GNOME Calls' bundled `ofono` provider plugin
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drives. GDBus translation only, no core; built with `-- --product=ofonod`.
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See [GNOME Calls (Phosh, GNOME Mobile)](#gnome-calls-phosh-gnome-mobile).
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### Desktop integration
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imsd itself is desktop-agnostic: everything a dialer needs is on the system
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bus as `net.catcrafts.IMS1`. Each desktop gets a small translation daemon
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speaking whatever backend protocol its dialer already consumes, so the dialer,
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the shell and the call-history/contacts stack all stay unmodified.
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| Desktop | Daemon | Owns | Consumed by |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| Plasma Mobile | `imsd-dialerd` | `org.kde.telephony.*` (session bus) | plasma-dialer + kde-telephony-daemon, replacing `modem-daemon` |
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| Phosh / GNOME Mobile | `imsd-ofonod` | `org.ofono` (system bus) | GNOME Calls' `ofono` provider plugin |
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Phosh's own call UI needs nothing extra: it consumes `org.gnome.Calls`, which
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GNOME Calls exports once it has a working origin.
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### Terminating-network dependency (incoming)
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A UE only receives a VoLTE call as a SIP INVITE if the network's Terminating
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Access Domain Selection (T-ADS) routes it to the PS/IMS domain rather than
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paging the modem over CS. That requires the IMS registration to advertise
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voice capability — the MMTEL ICSI (`+g.3gpp.icsi-ref=...mmtel`) and
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`+sip.instance` media-feature tags in the REGISTER Contact, which
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`Imsd:Messages` emits. T-ADS may still select CS for reasons outside the
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client's control (operator policy, the modem's own radio-capability
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signalling, a competing registration). When it does, no INVITE reaches imsd;
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that is a network/modem-integration matter, not a daemon defect.
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## Supported hardware & carriers
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imsd talks to the modem through ModemManager plus `qmicli` over QRTR (USIM
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AKA via a UIM logical channel), so in practice it currently needs a Qualcomm
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modem on a mainline kernel with working WWAN/MM integration, kernel ESP
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(`ip xfrm`), and PipeWire for audio.
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Everything below has been verified by community members to be fully workking:
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| Device | OS | Carrier
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| The Fairphone (Gen. 6) | postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 | KPN NL |
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| The Fairphone (Gen. 6) | postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 | Telekom Deutschland GER |
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| The Fairphone (Gen. 6) | postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 | Phonero |
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| The Fairphone (Gen. 6) | postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 | Telia Norge |
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## Build
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[Crafter Build](https://forgejo.catcrafts.net/Catcrafts/Crafter.Build) +
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gio-2.0 headers (`glib2` on Arch, `glib-dev` on Alpine).
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```sh
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crafter-build # bin/imsd-<target>-<march>/imsd (the daemon)
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crafter-build -- --product=media # bin/imsd-media-.../imsd-media (the media leg)
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crafter-build -- --product=dialerd # bin/imsd-dialerd-.../imsd-dialerd (Plasma backend)
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crafter-build -- --product=ofonod # bin/imsd-ofonod-.../imsd-ofonod (GNOME Calls backend)
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crafter-build test # unit tests (Util, Aka, Ipsec, Messages, Engine, Sip, Sdp)
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```
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### Building with make (distro packaging)
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For environments without crafter-build, the Makefile mirrors the same clang
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module pipeline: GNU make, clang++ with libc++ and the libc++ std module
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sources (`std.cppm` — package `llvm-runtimes` on Alpine, `libc++` on Arch),
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lld, and gio-2.0 headers.
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```sh
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make # build/make/{imsd,imsd-media,imsd-dialerd,imsd-ofonod}
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make check # the same 7 unit-test suites
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make install # DESTDIR/PREFIX staged install incl. the packaging/ files
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```
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`project.cpp` stays the canonical build description; the Makefile tracks it.
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### Cross-compiling for a phone (aarch64 Alpine/postmarketOS)
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```sh
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packaging/make-sysroot.sh # one-time: Alpine aarch64 sysroot from the CDN
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crafter-build -- --target=aarch64-alpine-linux-musl \
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--sysroot=$HOME/.cache/imsd/sysroot-aarch64-alpine \
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--march=armv8.6-a+fp16fml+aes+sha3+sm4 --mtune=cortex-a720
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# same flags after `crafter-build test --target=aarch64-alpine-linux-musl`
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# run the suite under qemu-aarch64 against the sysroot
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```
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## Run (development)
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```sh
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./bin/imsd-*/imsd --session # own net.catcrafts.IMS1 on the session bus
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busctl --user call net.catcrafts.IMS1 /net/catcrafts/IMS1 net.catcrafts.IMS1 GetStatus
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```
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On a phone the daemon runs as root on the system bus (policy in
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`packaging/net.catcrafts.IMS1.conf` — it grants the postmarketOS default
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account `user` access; adjust it alongside `AUDIO_USER` if your session
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account is named differently), started by `packaging/imsd.service`
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after `packaging/ims-pdn-up.sh` has brought up the ims PDN through
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ModemManager. It spawns `/usr/libexec/imsd-media` per call. Registration
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resumes an in-kernel IPsec SA when one is present (avoiding the network's
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fresh-SA throttle) and keeps itself alive with a re-REGISTER refresh at half
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the granted lifetime. `packaging/APKBUILD` builds the apk from source via
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the Makefile; `packaging/APKBUILD.binary` + `make-bin-tarball.sh` wrap a
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cross-compiled build into an apk instead.
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## GNOME Calls (Phosh, GNOME Mobile)
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`imsd-ofonod` presents imsd on the system bus as an oFono modem — a Manager at
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`/`, one Modem + VoiceCallManager at `/imsd`, and a VoiceCall object per live
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call — which is what GNOME Calls' bundled `ofono` provider plugin drives.
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Calls, Phosh and GNOME Shell run unmodified.
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`org.ofono` is the seam because it is the only one a third party can
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implement. `org.gnome.Calls.Call` is what Calls *exports* so a shell can
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observe and control a call that already exists (Accept, Hangup, SendDtmf,
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Silence — there is no Dial); Phosh consumes it from Calls. Calls' own backends
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are libpeas provider plugins (`mm`, `ofono`, `sip`, `dummy`) linked against
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private headers that no distro installs.
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Setup:
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```sh
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apk add imsd-ofono # or install the files by hand
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systemctl enable --now imsd-ofonod # system service; org.ofono is a system name
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# point Calls at the ofono provider (the package ships this as a gschema
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# override; this is the per-user equivalent)
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gsettings set org.gnome.Calls autoload-plugins "['ofono']"
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```
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Drop `mm` from `autoload-plugins` rather than adding `ofono` alongside it: the
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ModemManager provider would offer the modem's own CS voice path as a second
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origin, and on a phone whose voice path is imsd that origin carries no audio.
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Do not run this alongside a real `ofonod` — there is one `org.ofono` name and
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one owner; the unit declares `Conflicts=ofono.service` and the daemon exits if
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it loses the name. Running `imsd-dialerd` at the same time is fine (different
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bus, different consumer).
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Verified on a Fairphone 6 (postmarketOS, dbus-broker) with GNOME Calls 50.0:
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outgoing and incoming calls with audio both ways, answered and hung up through
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`org.gnome.Calls.Call` — the surface Phosh drives. One dbus-broker detail is
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load-bearing and lives in the policy file: dbus-broker checks a broadcast
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against the sender's send policy for every name the receiver owns, so root
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(imsd) must be allowed `send_destination="org.ofono"` or imsd's call signals
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never reach the daemon.
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Known gaps, all inherited rather than introduced:
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- **USSD is refused** with `org.ofono.Error.NotSupported`; the IMS stack has no
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USSD path. It is deliberately not advertised in the modem's `Interfaces`.
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- **No hold, multiparty, transfer or call waiting** — imsd is a single-call
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stack, so those methods return `org.ofono.Error.NotImplemented`.
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- **Per-call caller-ID withholding is refused** rather than silently ignored:
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imsd cannot honour a CLIR request, and failing is safer than dialling with
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the caller ID exposed.
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- **Phosh's emergency-call screen lists nothing.** Not for want of the data:
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`imsd-ofonod` publishes `org.ofono.VoiceCallManager.EmergencyNumbers` (112,
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911, plus `EMERGENCY_NUMBERS`), which is oFono's standard place for it.
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Calls' ofono provider simply never reads it — it makes no `GetProperties`
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call on the VoiceCallManager, and returns NULL for the origin's
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`emergency-numbers`, which is what
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`org.gnome.Calls.EmergencyCalls.GetEmergencyContacts` is built from. (The
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ModemManager provider does read it, via `mm_sim_dup_emergency_numbers()`.)
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An upstream fix would close this. Dialling an emergency number from the
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normal dialpad is unaffected — that reaches imsd's own classifier.
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- DTMF is forwarded to imsd, where `SendDtmf` is still a stub (RFC 4733 is not
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implemented yet) — the same limitation Plasma has.
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- **Restart GNOME Calls after restarting `imsd-ofonod` (or imsd).** When the
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modem's `VoiceCallManager` interface goes away and comes back, Calls 50.0
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adds a new origin but leaves the old origin's `CallAdded` handler connected:
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after one such cycle every call is added twice, after a few the stale handler
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runs on freed memory and Calls dies with SIGBUS in `g_hash_table_lookup`
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(measured on the FP6). Calls-side; an upstream fix belongs in
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`plugins/provider/ofono/calls-ofono-provider.c`.
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Development, without a phone or root:
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```sh
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./bin/imsd-*/imsd --session & # imsd's ABI on the session bus
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./bin/imsd-ofonod-*/imsd-ofonod --session
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busctl --user call org.ofono / org.ofono.Manager GetModems
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# or keep org.ofono on the system bus and imsd on the session bus:
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IMSD_BUS=session imsd-ofonod
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```
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## Configuration
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Everything is environment variables. The packaged unit reads
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`/run/imsd.env` (written by `ims-pdn-up.sh`: the connected ims netdev) and
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then `/etc/imsd.env` (your configuration, wins on conflict). Minimum viable
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`/etc/imsd.env`:
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```sh
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# REQUIRED until P-CSCF discovery from the PDN's PCO is implemented: your
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# carrier's P-CSCF address. Find it in a stock-firmware capture or your
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# carrier's IMS documentation.
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PCSCF=2001:db8::105
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```
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### imsd
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| Variable | Default | Meaning |
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| `PCSCF` | *(none — required)* | P-CSCF address; without it registration fails with a clear error |
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| `PCSCF_PORT` | `5060` | unprotected SIP port for the initial REGISTER |
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| `DEV` | `qmapmux0.0` | ims-PDN netdev; the packaged service passes the real one via `/run/imsd.env` |
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| `LOCAL` | *(auto)* | UE address; default = the global IPv6 on `DEV` |
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| `USER_AGENT` | `imsd/<version>` | REGISTER User-Agent. Some networks fingerprint UAs; setting your device's stock build string reproduces the stock modem's registration exactly. Empty omits the header |
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| `STATE_FILE` | `/var/lib/imsd/imsreg.state` (root) / `$XDG_STATE_HOME/imsd/imsreg.state` | persisted registration context for warm resume |
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| `RESUME` | `auto` | `0` forces a fresh registration (ignores a warm SA) |
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| `REFRESH_INTERVAL` | *(auto)* | keepalive re-REGISTER period in s; default = half the granted expiry, clamped to [120, 1800] |
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| `EALG` | `aes-cbc` | offered ESP cipher (`aes-cbc`, `des-ede3-cbc`, `null`). From the 401's `Security-Server` list imsd selects the highest-preference `ipsec-3gpp` mechanism that matches this offer (RFC 3329 §2.3.1) and takes the SPIs/ports from the entry carrying them (some cores list every mechanism they support and put the SPIs on the one they applied); when no entry matches, the P-CSCF's SPI-carrying entry is installed as listed (`hmac-md5-96`, an absent `ealg` = null) and the journal says so. The line, the selection and the SA parameters are logged at every fresh registration |
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| `SIP_TRANSPORT` | `auto` | transport of the protected leg (the second REGISTER and everything after it): `tcp`, `udp`, or `auto` = TCP, falling back to a fresh registration over UDP when the P-CSCF leaves two TCP connects unanswered — but only on a phone that has never registered over TCP: once the state file (`/var/lib/imsd/imsreg.state`) records a TCP registration, a silent connect is treated as an outage, not a policy (delete the file or set `udp` to override, e.g. after a SIM change). The challenge (first REGISTER) is always UDP. Over UDP a REGISTER or INVITE larger than ~1.2 KB leaves as IPv6 fragments at the ims PDN's 1280-byte MTU (the journal says so once per flow); there are no SIP retransmission timers over UDP yet, so a lost datagram costs a timeout. The SAs, the listener and the firewall rule cover both transports |
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| `EMERGENCY_NUMBERS` | *(empty)* | comma-separated additions to the builtin 112/911 emergency numbers (e.g. a private test core's short code). SIM `EF_ECC` is not read yet |
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| `RTP_PORT` | `50004` | local RTP port advertised in SDP |
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| `PRECOND` | `0` | `1` offers SDP QoS preconditions |
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| `CODECS` | *(empty — defaults)* | comma-separated codec preference list over `AMR-WB`, `AMR` (or `AMR-NB`), `PCMA`, `PCMU`: restricts and orders both the codecs offered on an outgoing call and those accepted from an inbound offer (default: offer AMR-WB + AMR, accept all four in that order). A bench knob — a network whose gateway transcodes every caller up to AMR-WB otherwise never lets the narrowband path run |
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| `DUMP_SIP` | `0` | `1` writes raw REGISTER-200/SUBSCRIBE-200 dumps, the last inbound INVITE (`imsd-invite-in.raw`) and the last outgoing INVITE (`imsd-invite-out.raw`), mode 0600, for debugging — they contain your IMSI/MSISDN and addresses |
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| `DUMP_DIR`, `OUT_DIR` | state dir | where dumps / per-call media stats land |
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| `IMSD_MEDIA` | *(auto)* | path to `imsd-media` (default: next to `imsd`, else `/usr/libexec/imsd-media`) |
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The protected client/server ports are fixed at 45061/45062
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(`imsd::util::kPortUc`/`kPortUs`) — changing them in source also requires
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updating the firewall rules `ims-pdn-up.sh` installs.
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### imsd-media (per-call, set through imsd's environment)
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| Variable | Default | Meaning |
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|---|---|---|
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| `MIC`, `PLAY` | `1`, `1` | uplink mic capture / downlink playout via PipeWire |
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| `AUDIO_USER` | `user` | desktop user whose PipeWire session carries call audio (postmarketOS default account) |
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| `GAIN`, `PLAY_GAIN` | `10`, `1.0` | uplink / downlink gain |
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| `AMR_MODE` | `2` | AMR-WB encoder mode (0–8) |
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| `DTX` | `0` | encoder discontinuous transmission |
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| `MEDIA_TIMEOUT` | `6.0` | seconds of downlink silence before exit 3 (far-end-hangup signal) |
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| `RTP_DUMP` | `0` | `1` captures raw downlink RTP next to the stats file |
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## D-Bus ABI
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`net.catcrafts.IMS1` at `/net/catcrafts/IMS1`. The ABI is frozen — dialer
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integrations depend on it:
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| Member | Signature |
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|---|---|
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| `Dial(number)` | `s → s` (callUni) |
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| `HangUp(callUni)` | `s` |
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| `Accept(callUni)` | `s` |
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| `SendDtmf(callUni, tones)` | `ss` |
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| `GetCalls()` | `→ aa{sv}` |
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| `GetStatus()` | `→ a{sv}` |
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| `CallAdded` | `s a{sv}` |
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| `CallStateChanged` | `s s s` (callUni, state, reason) |
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| `CallDeleted` | `s` |
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| `RegistrationChanged` | `b` |
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Both `imsd-dialerd` and `imsd-ofonod` are pure translations of this ABI; a new
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desktop needs a new translation daemon, not changes here.
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## License
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GPL-3.0-only — see [LICENSE](LICENSE).
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## Copyright
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Copyright (C) 2026 Catcrafts®
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catcrafts.net
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