PinePhone MMS with Matrix

Screenshot of fractal displaying an MMS conversation

The one known way to get MMS fully working is by relaying all SMS and MMS to a matrix server and using a matrix client to interact with them. This allows fully working group and image messaging.

On Mobian, incoming and outgoing MMS works with images displayed in line. Outgoing messages over the max size are sent as a link. The link will not resolve if matrix is hosted on the PinePhone itself, so resize your images. An easy way might be to take a screenshot of your image viewer and send that image instead.

On Arch it works for SMS, but images don't go through in or out. Unresolvable links are sent out with an older mmsd, nothing but an error in the log with a newer mmsd. This is probably a configuration issue.

This works with either a local-to-the-pinephone matrix server, or a public one on the internet. Free accounts on matrix.org should work fine for example.

Install packages

Arch

Start with a nice and up-to-date Danctnix' Arch ARM PinePhone installation, mine is from April 20 2021. SSH into the PinePhone and then run this to install all the needed packages

sudo pacman -Sy matrix-synapse fractal python-matrix_client python-gobject git meson ninja base-devel python-matrix-nio python-dbus

Start the service

sudo systemctl enable synapse
sudo systemctl start synapse

Mobian

Flash a fresh mobian nightly (Tested September 28 2021) and install the following:

sudo apt install matrix-synapse fractal mmsd-tng python3-matrix-nio python3-vobject python3-aiofiles git

Set up Matrix Synapse on localhost

Skip this if you will be using a remote homeserver. Make a new config with the server name set to local host.

Arch

cd /etc/synapse/
sudo python -m synapse.app.homeserver --server-name localhost --config-path homeserver.yaml --generate-config --report-stats=no

sudo vi /usr/lib/systemd/user/matrix-synapse.service

[Unit]
Description=Multimedia Messaging Service Daemon
After=ModemManager.service

[Service]
ExecStart= python3 -m synapse.app.homeserver --config-path=/etc/matrix/homeserver.yaml

Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10s

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Start the service

systemctl enable matrix-synapse --user
systemctl start matrix-synapse --user

mobian

cd /etc/matrix-synapse/
sudo rm homeserver.*
sudo python3 -m synapse.app.homeserver --server-name localhost --config-path homeserver.yaml --generate-config --report-stats=no
sudo service matrix-synapse start
register_new_matrix_user -c homeserver.yaml http://localhost:8008

and add a new user.

in /etc/synapse/ (arch) or /etc/matrix-synapse/ (mobian)

register_new_matrix_user -c homeserver.yaml http://localhost:8008 # New user name and pw will both be pp
register_new_matrix_user -c homeserver.yaml http://localhost:8008 # New user name and pw will both be mm

Open fractal and log into the homeserver at http://localhost:8008 with username pp and password pp

Set up MMSD

from git (historical, no longer needed, mmsdtng commonly packaged)

Grab the git repository and install it:

cd ~
git clone https://source.puri.sm/kop316/mmsd.git
cd mmsd
meson _build
meson compile -C _build
meson test -C _build
sudo meson install -C _build

sudo vi /usr/lib/systemd/user/mmsd-mm.service

[Unit]
Description=Multimedia Messaging Service Daemon
After=ModemManager.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/mmsd -n -d

Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10s

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

sudo chmod 644 /usr/lib/systemd/user/mmsd-mm.service
systemctl enable mmsd-mm.service --user
systemctl start mmsd-mm --user

Settings for T-Mobile

This config works for me

After starting mmsdtng the first time it should generate a config. Edit the following 3 options:

vi ~/.mms/modemmanager/ModemManagerSettings

CarrierMMSC=http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc
MMS_APN=fast.t-mobile.com
AutoProcessSMSWAP=true

Restart MMSD ModemManager service

systemctl restart mmsdtng

Install MMS bridge

Grab it from git and put things in places

cd ~
git clone https://gitlab.com/untidylamp/mmmpuppet.git
cd mmmpuppet
chmod +x mmmpuppet.py
sudo cp mmm*.py /usr/local/bin/
mkdir -p $HOME/.config/mmm/
cp conf.json.sample $HOME/.config/mmm/conf.json

Configure MMS bridge

This will mostly take care of editing the config for you if you are running a local matrix server.

sed -i 's^"https://matrix-client.matrix.org"^"http://localhost:8008"^' $HOME/.config/mmm/conf.json
sed -i 's^"@bot_account:matrix.org"^"@mm:localhost"^' $HOME/.config/mmm/conf.json
sed -i 's^"Change_me"^"mm"^' $HOME/.config/mmm/conf.json
sed -i 's^"@your_accounts:matrix.org"^"@pp:localhost"^' $HOME/.config/mmm/conf.json

You actually have to fill these two out yourself. I put "US" and my +1 and rest of 10 digit number.

vi  $HOME/.config/mmm/conf.json

"cell_number":      "+15554441234",
"cell_country":     "CA",

Now we need to run it once to process the config file and remove secrets (It will say it has done this and exit on first run)

/usr/local/bin/mmmpuppet.py

check it out now

cat $HOME/.config/mmm/conf.json

If it doesn't change the file to remove all the linebreaks then it didn't like it. Figure out why by looking at the log file.

cat ~/.config/mmm/mmmpuppet.log

Go fix whatever went wrong. Which should be nothing. You should have seen a message like this as output before it returns you to a prompt:

Login successful. Config updated with token. Run again to start bridge.

Set up MMS bridge service

Make systemd unit

sudo vi /usr/lib/systemd/user/mmmpuppet.service

[Unit]
Description=Starts mmmpuppet interface
After=mmsd-mm.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/mmmpuppet.py
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10s

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

and start it

sudo chmod 644 /usr/lib/systemd/user/mmmpuppet.service
systemctl enable mmmpuppet.service --user
systemctl start mmmpuppet.service --user

done? see if services are running:

ps aux | grep mm

should show something like this even after reboot

alarm       6374  0.0  0.3 235364  7752 ?        Ssl  22:44   0:00 /usr/local/bin/mmsd -n -d
alarm       6825  9.8  2.7 224976 54188 ?        Ssl  22:52   0:05 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/mmmpuppet.py

Done

At this point if you get a message a new room should be created by the bridge bot which you will be invited to. Outgoing works for replies but I can't seem to find the 'set topic' button so new rooms can't be created that the MMS bridge can use. The ones the bridge creates work fine though. Using another matrix client, perhaps a command line one, would work.