Hello, On Wed, 8 Apr 2015 16:26:47 GMT [email protected] (Spacefalcon the Outlaw) wrote:
[] > But the crowdfunding campaign isn't going too well, See below. > so I have to have > a backup plan. I want a phone in my purse that runs free firmware, > and I will not settle for anything else. If the community is not > interested in funding the development of new hardware, I have to [] > > I can't believe you missed the fun of > > http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297 . > > Missed? I saw that post and corresponded with Bunnie about his > project months ago. And here are some points you may have missed: > > * Bunnie's project is primarily about using MT6260 as a general > purpose SoC Yes, Bunnie and Xobs had a very specific aim: take such a chip and achieve Arduino-like functionality (with both hardware and software), and they achieved it. The rest up to the community. > for non-GSM applications, and they don't seem to have much > confidence in *ever* being able to exercise the GSM part of it; That's because project lacks people like you, who need GSM part working. Hardware-wise, they implemented and tested everything, as they clarified. > * Judging from Bunnie's description of the reverse eng he had to do, > the amount of documentation he was able to scavenge (and he does > speak Chinese unlike me) is far less than what we have for TI; And I see it differently: they show that vendor forgetfulness regarding releasing a datasheet can hurt only vendor itself in lost sales. Good people of the world will still know what they want to know. Availability of documentation is a shortcut, not something to pray on. > * Here is the only leaked "source" for this chip in question which > I am aware of: > > ftp://ftp.ifctf.org/pub/GSM/MTK/ Ah, you mirrored it, cute! > > I urge you to download the listing files before you burn my server > bandwidth on a 2+ GiB tarball, but let me give you a spoiler: the > entirety of the GSM radio protocol stack from the bottom to the top is > in binary blobs (object libraries for linking), and the only part that > is given as C source is the "MMI", which is their sexist term for the > User Interface. My crystal ball tells me different story. It tells that it's complete setup to build a firmware for some specific product. And majority of that setup is in source form. The crystal ball asks your expert opinion regarding what is contained in l1d_ext dir. > > > But available a lot (but then > > not all, but that's apparently the case with TI stuff either). > > With TI's stuff we got about 95% of the total. The spots where the > original source is missing and I had to resort to RE to fill the gaps > were few and far in between. > > The part which I miss the most is TI's reference PCB layout for their > Leonardo board from 2003. I wasn't able to find it anywhere, and the > chances of finding it now (12 y later) are slim to none. We can copy > Openmoko's PCB layout instead, but I don't have the means to RE an > 8-layer PCB myself, hence I would need to send it to a professional > shop. I was given an estimate of $6000, which seems reasonable to me > for that kind of a job, but that is more than I can personally afford > at the moment - hence the crowdfunding campaign. And you see the irony - with TI, you have everything, except hardware design, and then it suddenly blocks you. And you need several Ks, but that's only for starters, to setup production you'll need 100Ks. With MTK, you have 2 hardware reference designs, both open-source: one from independent party, another directly from a vendor (that's LinkIt ONE, which has MT2502 which is a new name for the same classy stuff), and gonkai reference code for a complete system (you've got to appreciate how carefully that leak was prepared - for example, it lacks cracked ARM RealView compiler which shanzhai usually use for their dirty deeds - so Western dudes can't point a finger and shout "it's illegal, it's illegal!"). You also don't need to setup production for that hardware - everyone and their grandma in China already produce it in gazillion of shapes and colors. But if you want to set up your production, you can - and an investor will find such business plan much more reasonable A tough choice. And what I argue is not that you're doing wrong thing with TI stuff - one of the biggest issue with open-source RE is a moving target. What I argue is that hanging all your hopes on TI Titanic doesn't scale. > > Also, let me know if you plan to act on suggestion to add more > > diversified perks - I'd be happy to forward your announcement to > > more lists, but most people will only look at the campaign once, so > > if they don't see something right away to make them act, they never > > look back. > > I just added a new perk: anyone who contributes $500 can get a Mot > C139 reflashed with our free firmware, i.e., almost instant > gratification, much sooner than waiting for the project to design and > build our own handset. Well, I can't believe you didn't understand my hints, so I'll be straight to finish with that part. Nobody will give you $500 (well, somebody may, that's not the point). That's too much for an abstract free phone (or something salvaged from a dumpster). And if you think about it, it would be much better if the project was funded by big crowd of mere people who approve of phone freedom than by several zealots/paranoids. So, I suggested to add $10/$20 perks with good dramatic/humorous descriptions, like "Little step towards freedom" or "In the appreciation of Free GSM Library" which allowed mere people to chime in and have a good day. You don't want to do that, good. Just don't blame community that it doesn't want something. And regarding "campaign doesn't go well" - well, I'm on few lists/sites where I'd expect to see its announcement, but so far I saw only here on the Replicant list. Are you doing your homework to let community know? > > SF -- Best regards, Paul mailto:[email protected] _______________________________________________ Replicant mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osuosl.org/mailman/listinfo/replicant
