libera/#neo900/ Wednesday, 2018-07-18

user`hi will it be possible to upgrade my nokia n900 to a neo900 or will I have to buy the complete phone?01:59
houkimeJoerg-Neo900:^^^02:16
houkimeuser': actually your answer is here http://neo900.org/faq02:21
houkimespoiler: yes02:22
user`houkime: thank you!02:22
user`when will the neo900 be available?02:22
houkimeIt is hard to say unfortunately.  We're in the process of laying out 2 out of 3 needed boards right now and will call this 2/3 assembly with external cpu "v2"02:25
houkimeschematics is there, everything is sort of ok, laying out in process, testing ahead02:25
houkimelayout is done by me and gitlogs are avalible here http://neo900.org/rss/ee-full-houkime-layout.xml02:25
user`what components of neo900 will be proprietary?02:26
user`houkime: thanks for the info02:26
houkimealso issue tracker here https://notabug.org/Houkime/Neo900-Issues/issues02:27
houkimeanbout components: more than I personally want (( We had lots of discussions about it here however possibilities are really liomited by legislation02:28
houkimefor example my personal pain - modem02:28
houkimeThe thing is it is literally illegal to have an opensource modem (nor that there is sth readily avalible)02:29
houkimecertification cannot be passed if the user has the ability to control signal at will02:30
user`is the gpu going to be completely open?02:30
user`free software*02:30
houkimeAgain you can just see the faq. will copy the answer here02:32
houkimeWill there be free GFX drivers available?02:33
houkimeUnfortunately, not free as in "Free Software" (i.e., Open Source). The Neo900 CPU chip will come with a built-in PowerVR graphics processor, for which no free drivers exist yet. However, closed drivers for the PowerVR are available, e.g., for the N900 and N9 (bundled with Maemo), or from TI (used for example by OpenPandora). Fortunately, Neo900 will still support running a 100% free operating system, as 3D acceleration is not necessary for the device to02:33
houkimefunction. Distributions like SHR or QtMoko already run very smoothly on GTA04 without any non-free blobs02:33
houkimeactually the more I think and answer the questions the more I think that full binary compatibility with N900 requirement really ruins many things.02:40
houkimeYou won't believe but we actually use 2 battery gauges, and the old one needed for compatibility is several times bigger than a new advanced one02:41
houkimeand the old gauge again, like a powerVR is requiring a proprietary blob02:43
galivenThat's been a disappointing reality I've noticed in all the attempts at making "open" hardware.  It's all a best-effort within the limitations of the ICs available.  There is no such thing as a "completely open GPU" which user` wants, nobody manufactures it, and there aren't enough (currency) to create a company to manufacture it.  The modem as houkime says is even worse because of regulations.02:48
houkimegaliven: In this regard I support Fossi and opencores/librecores efforts to at least DEVELOP such things02:49
galivenNo matter how much people hope or wish for something "open", it requires lots of money to make it happen.  user`, how much money do you have to spend to support creating "open" hardware?02:49
galivenThought "Fossil" was a watch brand. . .02:50
houkimegaliven: FOSSi Free and open Silicon02:51
houkimeLike these guys but they lack people even more than OpenMoko02:51
galiven:-( can't even search for "fossi" because it assumes I misspelt "fossil".02:51
houkimehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_Open_Source_Silicon_Foundation02:52
houkimewiki is power. love wiki02:52
houkimeNow the thing is that if using FPGAs it ios actually possible to have an open-ish cpu like zipcpu02:53
houkimehttps://github.com/ZipCPU/zipcpu02:54
houkimeand actually it might be even possible to combine it with osmocomm-bb to have an open GSM modem02:55
houkimeBUT such a modem is illegal02:55
houkimeSo the question is actually: dear user, what do you like more: freedom or being lawful?02:55
user`galiven: not much money. i'm a broke musician02:56
galivenYeah, there's a difficult to navigate line trying to guess if you can use 'illegal' hardware, but hope it works close enough to not get caught.02:57
galivenI'd probably be willing to try because the risk seems relatively low.02:57
galivenI'm not as scared as Joerg-Neo900 of "pirate" radio.02:58
houkimeme actually too. Although this solution was never really implemented yet02:58
user`where can i buy an openmoko?02:58
houkimeand smb needs to put a lot of effort in development of needed softcores and drivers02:59
houkimeopenmopko you can buy at golden delicious I believe02:59
galivenuser`: https://github.com/nextcloud/notes/releases/download/v2.3.2/notes.tar.gz02:59
galivenThat wasn't the right link. . .02:59
galivenuser`: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Distributors02:59
galivenI got mine from http://openmoko.kd85.com/03:00
galivenThen the GTA04 from the mailing list.03:00
user`galiven: thank you03:03
houkimeBack to initial topic: unfortunately from the openness POV conversion phones with full software compat requirement looks like they will be always behind because of said requirement03:03
houkimeand any real open phone should not be required to be compatible with anything proprietary03:04
houkimeomg my english hurts today almost physically.03:06
galivenBut even if we weren't trying so hard to be compatible with Maemo, we can't get the newest chip that runs Apple or Samsung hardware because they won't even sell it to a small company, much less give out the documentation to write software for it.03:06
user`i just want to be able to run programs and scripts from the terminal with the neo90003:06
galivenYou could probably find a used N900 and run a terminal on it.03:08
houkimegaliven: if a man looks for Neo900 and asks about the degree of openness he is unlikely to be satisfied with N900.03:10
galivenI would hope that getting so far as finding the IRC channel for such an esoteric device means they care about more than just 'run[ing] programs and scripts from the terminal'. . .03:11
galivenBut who knows, maybe even windows phone has a terminal emulator. . .03:13
houkimeoh man. Now my job title of "unpaid esoteric devices layouter" looks cpmpletely cheesy.03:13
galivenAt least you're unique.03:13
galivenPossibly the only in the world.03:13
galivenEven H. Nikolas Schaller is getting paid something for the Pyra work.03:14
galivenI was keeping up with the GTA development too, but I already put too much money into that ecosystem.03:17
DocScrutinizer51houkime: why would anybody but you not believe thateuse an nice new battery gaughe on top of the old compatible oen?03:17
galivenAnd unfortunately they didn't have enough money to work through the soldering troubles :-(03:19
DocScrutinizer51and MAYBE we even optimize out one of both after testing both03:19
DocScrutinizer51houkime: why would you need a FPGA for m&ing a modem?03:26
houkimeDocScrutinizer51: because this way it is as open as it can theoretically be even if there's a firmware thay you need to compile and download yourself via usb or hackerbus?03:29
galivenhttps://fossi-foundation.org/organization all white guys :'(03:32
galivenAt least the blog planet on librecores is relatively alive.03:34
houkimegaliven: there's also a significant archive of cores here. Site design is extremely dated though no wonder part of the opencores people decided to do librecores https://opencores.org/03:37
houkimelack of people in open hw is tremendously suboptimal. Sth needs to be done to lower entrance barriers.03:41
houkimeit's not the problem with just neo900 unfortunately.03:42
houkime*tremedous (without suboptimal)03:44
houkimethe privacy nightmare becomes only worse with modern cars and stuff.04:04
houkimeHow will you ensure that your Tesla is not listening to you and tracking you for example?04:04
houkimeproducing OSHW Tesla on the other hand requires true DIY printing revolution04:07
houkimeof the magnitude that is likely to shaken governments and thereby be antagonized as "anarchical"04:08
galivenCan only hope that Elon Musk is enough of a megalomaniac to say "No" to the government, but then the government could just get someone upstream that makes the cell radio for Tesla instead.05:31
Joerg-Neo900hey folks, *all that* is already possible (except the FPGA / SDR idea) and I'd not be surprised if it already been done. It however tries to implement something for just doing so, for getting excited about the buzzword. The rationale for doing it doesn't stand any closer scrutiny just like (or actually even much more than) systemd or openoffice does: It doesn't matter how much FOSS (or here: open hardware) is is, you simply never can run a08:07
Joerg-Neo900comprehensive audit or contribute in any substantial non-trivial way since the whole blob is waaay too complex08:07
DocScrutinizer51mains blackout once more. Only this time they say the need to dig up street where we got a house construction skeleton buit up right now. So aby ETA is completely undefined09:00
DocScrutinizer51any*09:01

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