GPS not working?

albertdhuran

I've recently bough a Pixel 8A and installed GrapheneOS. I've set up two profiles, one where I have play store with an account and where I installed Waze. Another where I'm using another Google account and I have Google Maps.
I've tried both apps and they don't seem to work.
They both ask me to enable the location services, and if I do they open correctly. But they get no GPS signal. For example, Waze doesn't show me my position as it should in the main screen (no map appears at all, in fact). If I try to choose a destination to calculate the route, i get the error "No GPS connection".
Google Maps instead simply can't find my location anywhere, I get no blue dot.
I need to specify I still don't have a SIM card inside the phone, as I want to first set up everything correctly. Thing is, both apps work fine with my old phone with Wifi Only and indoors. So why don't they seem to work in Graphene?
Do I need to change the settings?
I know the "Sandboxed Google Play" setting page has a couple relating to location services, but changing them seems to do nothing to solve my issue.

soupslurpr

albertdhuran are you indoors? GNSS signals might not penetrate the ceiling if so depending on the material. You're used to having network location which enables fast indoor location. GrapheneOS has a network location feature but it's disabled by default since it's not as private as A-GNSS. It's better than Google's service though.

You can see https://grapheneos.org/usage#network-location for more info and instructions for using it.

secrec

albertdhuran So why don't they seem to work in Graphene?

They might, it could just take a little while to get a lock. Try running "Gpstest" https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.android.gpstest.osmdroid/ -- go outside and watch it for a few minutes to see how the gps is actually working. It needs to get a LOCK before any gps software will actually work. This could take anywhere from just a moment to several minutes.

mynameis_

albertdhuran Did you get this working?

I recently had to get an app working and couldn't get GPS to work for it. And, Google Maps wouldn't find/load the directions to a destination. It turned out that I did have Google Play Services installed (see GrapheneOS app store) but I didn't give Google Play Services the location permission (or maybe it was 'sensors'?). I probably removed it at some point when I was locking down my phone and didn't need GPS for awhile.

To find Google Play Services...GrapheneOS "App Store" (app on your phone) > Google Play Services > Settings > Permissions.

albertdhuran

soupslurpr Yeah outdoors it seems to work fine... Weird

redacted42

I got a brand new 8a from a carrier, loaded up graphene and magic earth, worked perfect with android auto. Actually found out my speedometer was off the GPS was so accurate

secrec

redacted42 Most car speedometers read a little high. This is by design since if you think you're going faster than you are, then you may tend to speed a little less, which results in reduced fuel consumption and fewer speeding tickets, and ultimately, greater satisfaction.

soupslurpr

albertdhuran if you need it to work in those indoors locations, you need to enable network location by following these instructions: https://grapheneos.org/usage#network-location

legreteco

mynameis_ google play services shouldn't need the location permission for GPS to work. https://grapheneos.org/usage#network-location might be a helpful resource.

Lilly

legreteco I can second this fix though, even if you say it shouldn't be needed.
I've had location issues with mutliple apps, mainly a german speedcam app and the "Yale Home" App to control my smart lock.
Following mynameis_'s advice, I enabled location for the play services and it instantly started working - like within a second of me enabling that, the Yale Home app notification came up showing working location access. The speed cam app also has had no issues since.

And on top of that, it fixed my awful battery runtime on Graphene, I didn't even make it through half the day before. Now I assume that the yale home app was at fault, because it probably kept trying to get location even though it couldn't, and the play services not having location access isn't something it was programmed to consider?

But yeah, mainly posting this for others that might run across the same issue, even if play services shouldn't need location permission, if you've got location/gps issues, give it a try.

I'm glad I found mynameis_ 's post, because I was about to leave grapheneos and go back to stock pixel over this issue

GrapheneOS

mynameis_ Lilly wizoatk No, giving the Location permission to Play services isn't at all required for other apps to use the location services APIs. It isn't required for the core Google Maps functionality and definitely isn't needed for non-Google apps. There's no reason that the Yale Home app would need Location granted to Play services. You likely broke the default configuration by disabling location request rerouting for sandboxed Google Play which results in the requests not being routed to the OS instead.

wizoatk The information you're quoting was specifically about internal usage of the location services APIs. You're misinterpreting it as being about other apps, which it isn't. It only applies to Google Play's own location sharing feature between Google accounts which is exposed in Google Maps but not implemented by Google Maps. That's not relevant to apps using location APIs. Location rerouting was recently extended to applying to Play services using it internally and those requests do get redirected to the OS so that information you're misinterpreting is outdated anyway and will be deleted now. It doesn't change that using location sharing to other Google accounts implemented in Play services requires it to have the Location permission but it does use the OS location APIs instead of the Play services location APIs by default now.

wizoatk

Lilly even if play services shouldn't need location permission

As you've found out, some play services do need the location permission. This is called out in the same Usage document linked above in the section describing Sandboxed Google Play itself.

https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play
https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play-location-sharing

Location sharing

Location sharing in Google Maps is implemented in Google Play services. It requires enabling both the Location permission with "Allow all the time" and the Physical activity permission for Google Play services. Our location rerouting feature reimplementing the Google Play location service using the OS location service does not apply to Google Play services itself, so Google Play services won't use the OS network location service. You can use the instructions above for enabling network location via Google Play if you want this. You could continue using rerouting for other apps or disable it to avoid needing 2 separate network location services enabled.