If that is the case, it's OK. So if the memory chip containing bootloader
will get damaged we can still use the phone?
My main idea was to have 2 SD card slots: one for the card with the
bootloader and operating system, and one with the card for the file storage.

Best regards,

Liviu
On May 12, 2015 8:52 PM, "Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller" <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Am 12.05.2015 um 19:37 schrieb Liviu Farbas <[email protected]>:
>
> i was thinking at something like the Raspberry Pi, which does not have any
> memory built in, and everythin including bootloader is stored on sd card.
>
> What would be the benefit?
>
> On the GTA04 you can store bootloader and kernel either in NAND or uSD or
> both. By pressing the AUX button you can choose which memory the system
> boots from.
>
> And, the NAND and the RAM are combined in a single multi-chip-module, so
> you can’t remove just the NAND. You can erase it and then it will be
> skipped when booting. So this would simulate a non-existing chip.
>
> IMHO a mix of boot loader in NAND and kernel/device-tree/rootfs on uSD is
> the most flexible setup so that you can simply swap SD cards for different
> OS versions to run.
> Please also note that having the boot loader on the SD card requires a
> two-parition layout and is quite inflexible. We have a tool that can
> partition and format and fill SD cards in quite flexible choices [1].
>
> So what are you missing or trying to improve?
>
> BR,
> Nikolaus
>
> [1]: http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-makesd/
>
>
>
> On May 12, 2015 11:37 AM, "Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> the GTA04A5 has a NAND flash of 512 MB and a uSD reader up to 32 GB (see
>> photos on www.gta04.org). The NAND flash is mainly used for the boot
>> loader and a small rescue Linux system but real OS operation is done by
>> swapping such uSD cards. So you can for example have a uSD card for
>> Replicant and another one for QtMoko. Or put both on one in different
>> partitions.
>>
>> BR,
>> Nikolaus
>>
>> Am 12.05.2015 um 10:12 schrieb Liviu Farbas <[email protected]>:
>>
>> What about the emmc module? Will that module be removable? Or instead a
>> built in emmc, wouldn't be a better choice to add a SD card slot? It would
>> be really great to experiment with operating systems without the risk of
>> corrupting the emmc.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Liviu
>> On May 11, 2015 10:37 AM, "Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller" <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>> you may wonder what is going on with this project. Did it turn into a
>>> black hole? Or
>>> did someone do a “rm -rf /“ :)
>>>
>>> No, nothing of that. Therefore, I think we owe you some short status
>>> update on this project.
>>>
>>> There hasn’t been much to report in the last months, but now we have
>>> several news
>>> within some days.
>>>
>>> 1. I have checked again and we can still get the GTM601W, but the
>>> distributor says
>>>     the risk is high that OPTION declares EOL any time and in that case
>>> we would have
>>>     to make an order of at least 3000 units so that they restart
>>> production just for us.
>>>
>>>    This means we must secure these modules for us now, since there is no
>>> replacement
>>>    that easily fits into the space constraints of the GTA04 (resp.
>>> GTA01/02 board).
>>>
>>>    Cinterion modules would be nice since they are planned for the Pyra
>>> and the Neo900,
>>>    but they are approx. 10% too big.
>>>
>>> 2. we see some difficulties in getting the W2SG0084 GPS module, but that
>>> is some
>>>     paperwork the distributor has to do with Wi2Wi.
>>>
>>>    Nevertheless, this is also a risk candidate for EOL because only one
>>> distributor shows
>>>    stock.
>>>
>>> 3. There are also good news:
>>>     we participate in the risk buy of Samsung 1GB RAM+512MB NAND chips
>>> (as
>>>     planned for the Neo900). So the GAT04A5 gets twice as much RAM :)
>>>
>>>     This chip has already been tested by reworking a BeagleBoard XM and
>>> modifying
>>>     the boot loader (kernel didn’t find the NAND yet, but U-Boot did.
>>> This is a problem
>>>     that will jointly be fixed with the Neo900 software team).
>>>
>>> 4. Production: we still are a little away from the quorum of 100
>>> preorders (at the
>>>     moment of this writing we have estimated approx. half = 45 units).
>>> So it is still
>>>     not possible to make final decisions about production dates and
>>> final pricing.
>>>
>>>     So we need to get a little more support for our project. If you
>>> have ideas, please
>>>     let us know or start activities. Many small activities are as good
>>> as a big one!
>>>     And we know that this is a niche product that requires an existing
>>> GTA01/02
>>>     device. So it is not possible to “attract the masses”. We must find
>>> and convince
>>>     the previous GTA01/02 owners whose devices are collecting dust.
>>> There had been
>>>     produced ca. 15k such devices so that we just need another 1/3% or
>>> in other
>>>     words only 1 out of 300 GTA02 owners needs to decide for a GTA04A5.
>>>
>>> 5. Regarding the risk buy of the GTM601W, RAM chips and W2SG0084, I plan
>>> to
>>>     take the budget (~5100 EUR) that we already have collected.
>>>
>>>     This will transform the vouchers into ownership of components. So
>>> it has the
>>>     consequence that we can’t refund in money (cash, bank transfer) any
>>> more, but
>>>     only in unused hardware components (i.e. 100 EUR ~
>>> 1*GTM601+1*RAM+1*GPS)…
>>>
>>>     For future preorder vouchers you would also buy such a component
>>> set (which we
>>>     would keep in safe warehouse of course) until we can really build
>>> the whole devices.
>>>
>>>
>>> So quite some news and I would be happy if we can fill up the missing
>>> preorders [1]
>>> sooner than later so that we can start production. Please think about
>>> securing your
>>> set of components for the last production batch of the most open
>>> smartphone platform
>>> that we already have.
>>>
>>> BR and thanks for continued support,
>>> Nikolaus Schaller
>>>
>>> [1]: http://shop.goldelico.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04A5
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Community mailing list
>>> [email protected]
>>> http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community
>>> http://www.openphoenux.org
>>>
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