[catfish_ext] Step counter works in nanohub but no STEP_COUNTER events reach sensorfw

[p6zem0]

Device

• Watch: Mobvoi TicWatch Pro WF12106
• AsteroidOS device codename: catfish_ext
• AsteroidOS version: 2.1
• Architecture: armv7vehf-neon

Problem

The step counter shown by asteroid-health always remains at zero.

The nanohub firmware itself detects walking and counts steps correctly, but no STEP_COUNTER events appear to reach sensorfwd. As a result, asteroid-sensorlogd only records zero values.

Heart rate, accelerometer, light sensor and wrist-tilt events work.

Installed package versions

asteroid-sensorlogd - 0.9+git0+f46ac73ac2-r1
libhybris - 1:0.1.0+git0+9f61f26c44-r1
libqt5sensors-plugins - 5.15.16+git0+d1b4005610-r0
libqt5sensors-qmlplugins - 5.15.16+git0+d1b4005610-r0
libqt5sensors5 - 5.15.16+git0+d1b4005610-r0
sensorfw - +git0+bec350b88a-r1
sensorfw-hybris-hal-plugins - +git0+bec350b88a-r1

Relevant configuration

/etc/sensorfw/primaryuse.conf contains:

stepcounteradaptor = hybrisstepcounteradaptor

/etc/sensorfw/sensord.conf.d/20-sensors-default.conf contains:

stepcountersensor=True

/etc/xdg/QtProject/Sensors.conf contains:

QStepCounterSensor=sensorfw.stepcountersensor

The relevant plugins are installed:

/usr/lib/sensord-qt5/libstepcountersensor-qt5.so
/usr/lib/sensord-qt5/libhybrisstepcounteradaptor-qt5.so
/usr/lib/libhybrissensorfw-qt5.so.1.0.0

Android/vendor HAL

The vendor HAL contains both step sensors:

Step Detector
android.sensor.step_detector
Step Counter
android.sensor.step_counter

This was confirmed with:

strings /vendor/lib/hw/sensors.nanohub.so |
grep -Ei 'step|counter|detector|pedo'

The device also declares:

/vendor/etc/permissions/android.hardware.sensor.stepcounter.xml
/vendor/etc/permissions/android.hardware.sensor.stepdetector.xml

Nanohub result

The nanohub firmware initializes the step counter:

[STEP_STATUS] Power on: Counter
[COUNTER] Step Counter initialization
[COUNTER] Current version: 1.2.5
[STEP_STATUS] Last step counts: 0

During walking, the nanohub correctly increases the value:

[COUNTER] Change to walking. Steps = 113
[COUNTER] Change to idle. Steps = 196

A later test produced:

[COUNTER] Change to walking. Steps = 218
[COUNTER] Change to idle. Steps = 253

So the accelerometer, nanohub firmware and step-counting algorithm are working.

SensorFW result

sensorfwd repeatedly reports:

"stepcounteradaptor" No initial data for step counter

With SensorFW debug logging enabled using SIGUSR1, accelerometer, light and wrist-tilt events are visible:

QUEUE HYBRIS EVE ACCELEROMETER
HYBRIS EVE ACCELEROMETER
QUEUE HYBRIS EVE LIGHT
HYBRIS EVE LIGHT
QUEUE HYBRIS EVE WRIST_TILT_GESTURE
HYBRIS EVE WRIST_TILT_GESTURE

However, while the nanohub counter increases, there are no events such as:

HYBRIS EVE STEP_COUNTER

or any other step-counter/step-detector event in the sensorfwd journal.

Sensor log

asteroid-sensorlogd writes only zero values:

1785304559:0
1785305187:0
1785306121:0
1785307234:0
1785308313:0
1785308562:0

The file is:

/home/ceres/.asteroid-sensorlogd/stepCounter/2026-07-29.log

Additional observations

There is no Android framework sensorservice available:

Can't find service: sensorservice

The vendor HIDL sensor service and HAL files are present:

/vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.sensors@1.0-service
/vendor/lib/hw/android.hardware.sensors@1.0-impl.so
/vendor/lib/hw/sensors.nanohub.so

Nanohub firmware reported at runtime:

Nanohub FW version: 0x19061201

The firmware file available in the image is:

/vendor/firmware/nanohub.full.catshark.20033010.bin

I did not attempt to flash or replace the nanohub firmware.

Expected result

HybrisStepCounterAdaptor::processSample() should receive cumulative STEP_COUNTER events from the vendor HAL and expose them through SensorFW and Qt Sensors.

Actual result

The nanohub counts steps, but no STEP_COUNTER event reaches SensorFW. HybrisStepCounterAdaptor::sendInitialData() therefore reports that no initial data is available, and Asteroid Health displays zero.

Suspected area

The issue appears to be between:

sensors.nanohub.so
→ libhybris / libhybrissensorfw
→ HybrisStepCounterAdaptor

It may involve activation or event handling for the Android SENSOR_TYPE_STEP_COUNTER on catfish_ext.

Please let me know if additional logs or tests are needed.

catfish-sensorlogd-steps.log
catfish-nanohub-stepcounter.log

catfish-sensorfwd-stepcounter.log

[p6zem0]

A potentially related detail: in the original catfish port issue #11, it was reported that revoking sensor/storage permissions from Tic Health before disabling it could break the step counter on the low-power LCD.

On my device, the nanohub algorithm is already counting steps internally, but no Android STEP_COUNTER events reach sensorfw. Could a vendor-persisted setting initialized by Tic Health be required to enable step-counter reporting from the nanohub HAL?

[p6zem0]

I reproduced the issue again after a completely fresh reinstall of AsteroidOS 2.1.

asteroid-sensorlogd is now running correctly only as user ceres, and writes to:

/home/ceres/.asteroid-sensorlogd/

The nanohub still counts steps correctly:

[COUNTER] Change to walking. Steps = 150
[COUNTER] Change to idle. Steps = 188

However, the step counter log still contains only zero values.

This confirms that the issue is reproducible on a clean installation and is not caused by package installation as root, stale configuration, or a duplicate root sensorlogd process.

[dodoradio]

hi, this is a known issue. on catfish, you need to run lcd-tools --enable-stepcounter to make the step counter work. For some reason, mobvoi tied the functionality of the stepcounter to whether it's shown on the segment LCD - we're not sure why they did this, but this seems to be baked into the firmware, so we can only offer a workaround.
I've just checked and I can see this isn't mentioned in the wiki. It probably should be