How to use GPS on Nexus 4?

You can use GPS in two ways on Nexus 4.

1. With Normal GPS.
2. With A-GPS (Assisted GPS with anonymized Wi-Fi and cellular network info; it can be named as Nokia HERE service as well).

1. Usage with GPS

Go to location settings and select "Using GPS only".

The problem this is option, that it can take a long time to get position the first time. So put your phone near the window, open uNav app (Ubuntu navigation application), tap on a button to find your position, and leave it for an hour with uNav app open untill it finds your position. If it does not find the position, review the GPS settings (check at the bottom of battery settings too), try enable/disable. If everything is OK, try reboot a device. Then go to uNav application and try again untill it finds your position.

Then it finds your position, then navigation works very well. But if you experience any issues using navigation (navigation stops, is choppy or does not the direction), close other apps that might be using navigation as well at the same time (if it does not help, remove GPS permissions from other apps) (this is a known bug, bug report here)

2. Usage with A-GPS

Benefit of this way is that it immediately finds your position and you don't have to wait.

Main Ubuntu channel does not use third-party services, so this option is only available if you flash bq-aquaris.en channel to your device. This channel is adapted for use of several devices, including mako (Nexus 4).

Instruction how to change channel:

1. Install developer tools on your computer (more info here)
2. Enable developer mode on your phone (Settings > About > Developer mode > Enable)
3. Connect the phone to the computer.
4. In terminal write "adb reboot recovery"
5. Phone restarts automatically and enters screen with android picture.
6. In terminal write "ubuntu-device-flash touch --channel=ubuntu-touch/stable/bq-aquaris.en"
7. Wait untill ubuntu flash the image and boots up. Finish.

Now you will find A-GPS setting on your device, select it.

If it does not find your position immediately, restart your phone and try again.

If after finding the position navigation does not work well, then again, close other apps that might be using navigation as well at the same time for it to work well (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/location-service/+bug/1468020)

Other notes:

1. A-GPS works independent of radio version, it can be old or new, does not matter.
2. Compass is not yet implement on Ubuntu Touch, but it calculates your correct direction then you are driving, so its fine.

Just FINALLY got something to work after months of it being broken. I flashed the latest radio available from Google. Go here, link, scroll down to the Nexus 4 section, the bottom one is the latest. Download it, extract it, cd to the directory extract it, then do:

adb reboot bootloader

fastboot flash radio radio-mako-m9615a-cefwmazm-2.0.1701.07.img

Then I flashed the rc bq-aquaris.en channel:

ubuntu-device-flash touch --channel=ubuntu-touch/rc/ubuntu/bq-aquaris.en

Now HERE maps and uNav work as expected, as does google maps and the weather app.

I found that switching to the bq-aquaris.en stable channel solved the problem. I was on ubuntu-touch/stable/ubuntu with latest Nexus 4 radio (radio-mako-m9615a-cefwmazm-2.0.1701.07.img) and GPS was not working.

With the phone plugged into my computer, run this:

ubuntu-device-flash touch --channel=ubuntu-touch/stable/bq-aquaris.en

and the phone switched to the bq-aquaris.en channel with all my data and settings preserved, plus working GPS!

An uNav developer here |o/ Maybe I could help you a little.

Check the phone configuration is like these screenshots:

• https://goo.gl/ztIXcI
• https://goo.gl/4j4oQu

• https://goo.gl/7vHPrF

• Try the apps with WIFI OFF ;) There is a bug about that (fixed for next OTA).

• I suppose you haven't HERE maps? In stable release you need to allow access.
• Could you put the phone near to a window ~1 hour?

A hug!