Hardware testing
Physical testing or hacks for hardware are better covered by hardware-related documentation, so this page mostly focuses on the software aspects of testing the hardware of Mobian devices.
Physical hacks
For physical hacks on your particular device running Mobian, see the device-specific page listed at Mobian/Devices. For example, there are physical hacks for the PinePhone microphone and bottom speaker that might work for you.
Software tests
Store kernel logs using
journalctl |& tee myjctllogfile dmesg |& tee mydmesglogfile
and read and analyse the files myjctllogfile and mydmesglogfile. Remove personally identifying information (such as serial numbers) before posting these to public forums for analysis.
Vibrator motor
You can test your vibrator motor in out-of-the-box Mobian with feedbackd using fbcli, or using the lower-level tool fftest, or independently from Mobian using tow-boot if you have the tow-boot loader installed.
feedbackd
As of Oct 2024, Mobian/trixie uses the daemon feedbackd for sound/led/haptic feedback for events such as phone calls, tapping touchscreen keys, or notifications. With the default settings,
fbcli --event message-new-instant --profile quiet
will give you a vibration on typical devices such as the PinePhone if the vibrator motor is working.
fftest
For a low-level test of your vibrator motor, install joystick
apt install joystick
Find out what event ID corresponds to your motor
ls /dev/input/by-path/
Run fftest, e.g.
fftest /dev/input/by-path/platform-vibrator-event
and follow the instructions. If there are no vibrations, then your vibration motor is likely not working.
tow-boot
If you have tow-boot as your bootloader, then the initial few seconds of a reboot should tell you if your vibration motor is working, since tow-boot does several vibrations when starting.