Pie Day

It's Pi Day. And Pie Day. Breakfast, lunch and supper will include something pie-like.

And hopefully the end of a PRL update adventure.

My phone is on Ting, which is partly a CDMA MVNO (virtual network provider) who resells their access to one of the big carrier's networks. CDMA mobile networks have a Preferred Roaming List (PRL), which is basically a condensed list of towers that are on the provider's network and those that are available for roaming. (GSM networks don't have to do this kind of update.) Normally this is just a menu option away, but I run alternate OS on my phone, specifically Cyanogenmod, which doesn't include PRL update functionality.

Performing a PRL update thus requires flashing a stock OS image, executing the update, then restoring the normal OS. I did this two days ago, but didn't test calling and texting afterward. It turns out my phone no longer believed it was active on the mobile network. And my SD card wasn't behaving correctly.

I've backed up the card via a desktop, reformatted it, restored it, and also redone the PRL update. Now everything is working again.