Public bug reported:

Ubuntu version: 20.04.1 LTS
modemmanager version: 1.12.8-1
modem-manager-gui version: 0.0.19.1-2

What I expected to happen: SMSes in the GUI have correct timestamps; the
operator name is reported correctly in the GUI; USSD communications work
correctly in the GUI and through the mmcli interface.

What is actually happening: SMSes in the GUI have no timestamps; the
operator name disappears from the GUI; USSD communications randomly fail
both in the GUI and on the commandine. I understand that the maintainers
of this package are not responsible for the GUI application, but below I
explain my rationale for filing this bug against this package and why I
think these issues are related.

I use modemmanager and modem-manager-gui to manage a GSM modem in my
Thinkpad. In 18.04 everything worked correctly, but since I upgraded to
20.04 I have noticed multiple issues which I believe may have the same
underlying cause:

1. Received SMSes logged in modem-manager-gui no longer have timestamps.
This may be the same issue as is reported here in the Fedora package,
since the upstream version appears to be the same:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1839752

2. When I start up modem-manager-gui, I can see the operator name
displayed correctly in the info tab, but after some time it disappears,
and I see "Searching" as the value in the "Registration" field.

3. This is the most critical issue and the primary reason that I'm
reporting this. When I interact with any USSD menu, I experience
intermittent "Invalid USSD message received" errors which disrupt any
sufficiently long chain of USSD interactions and make it near-impossible
to complete certain tasks via USSD. It's only through extensive trial
and error that I found that sometimes it's possible to retry the same
reply successfully, although this is very sensitive to timeouts. After
initially observing this behaviour in modem-manager-gui I tried to use
the mmcli interface on the commandline to access these USSD menus, and
found the same erratic behaviour. This is why I'm filing this bug
against the modemmanager package.

The exact error messages are always in this format:

error: couldn't send response in USSD session: 
'GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.ModemManager1.Error.Core.Failed: Invalid USSD 
message received: '^NWNAME: "MTN-SA","","65510"
                                                           
^NWTIME: 21/01/20,13:13:31+08,0''

My layperson's hypothesis is that these are messages from the operator
containing the name of the network and the system time of the network,
but modemmanager is not expecting them and therefore not processing them
correctly for some reason, which is why 1) the network name and time is
not being set in modem-manager-gui and 2) USSD communications are being
disrupted by unexpected messages.

I'd be happy to help to debug this further if there is any other
information that I can provide.

** Affects: modemmanager (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1912491

Title:
  Incorrect processing of network name and time messages from operator
  leads to multiple issues

Status in modemmanager package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Ubuntu version: 20.04.1 LTS
  modemmanager version: 1.12.8-1
  modem-manager-gui version: 0.0.19.1-2

  What I expected to happen: SMSes in the GUI have correct timestamps;
  the operator name is reported correctly in the GUI; USSD
  communications work correctly in the GUI and through the mmcli
  interface.

  What is actually happening: SMSes in the GUI have no timestamps; the
  operator name disappears from the GUI; USSD communications randomly
  fail both in the GUI and on the commandine. I understand that the
  maintainers of this package are not responsible for the GUI
  application, but below I explain my rationale for filing this bug
  against this package and why I think these issues are related.

  I use modemmanager and modem-manager-gui to manage a GSM modem in my
  Thinkpad. In 18.04 everything worked correctly, but since I upgraded
  to 20.04 I have noticed multiple issues which I believe may have the
  same underlying cause:

  1. Received SMSes logged in modem-manager-gui no longer have
  timestamps. This may be the same issue as is reported here in the
  Fedora package, since the upstream version appears to be the same:
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1839752

  2. When I start up modem-manager-gui, I can see the operator name
  displayed correctly in the info tab, but after some time it
  disappears, and I see "Searching" as the value in the "Registration"
  field.

  3. This is the most critical issue and the primary reason that I'm
  reporting this. When I interact with any USSD menu, I experience
  intermittent "Invalid USSD message received" errors which disrupt any
  sufficiently long chain of USSD interactions and make it near-
  impossible to complete certain tasks via USSD. It's only through
  extensive trial and error that I found that sometimes it's possible to
  retry the same reply successfully, although this is very sensitive to
  timeouts. After initially observing this behaviour in modem-manager-
  gui I tried to use the mmcli interface on the commandline to access
  these USSD menus, and found the same erratic behaviour. This is why
  I'm filing this bug against the modemmanager package.

  The exact error messages are always in this format:

  error: couldn't send response in USSD session: 
'GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.ModemManager1.Error.Core.Failed: Invalid USSD 
message received: '^NWNAME: "MTN-SA","","65510"
                                                             
  ^NWTIME: 21/01/20,13:13:31+08,0''

  My layperson's hypothesis is that these are messages from the operator
  containing the name of the network and the system time of the network,
  but modemmanager is not expecting them and therefore not processing
  them correctly for some reason, which is why 1) the network name and
  time is not being set in modem-manager-gui and 2) USSD communications
  are being disrupted by unexpected messages.

  I'd be happy to help to debug this further if there is any other
  information that I can provide.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/modemmanager/+bug/1912491/+subscriptions

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