libera/#neo900/ Saturday, 2019-05-04

xmnsurprise you like the cosmo over the Lmr5. Since the cosmo has all the android blobs in it and never was branded as privacy aware. I get why a lot of ppl don't like purism. But at this point they are the only med size company with money trying.00:00
dos11ugh, there was a netsplit and I seem to be routed to /dev/null since00:03
dos11[23:30] <dos1> Purism's phone isn't a rebranded design, they develop it in house00:03
dos11[23:31] <dos1> they released devkit's design already: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/dvk-mx8m-bsb00:03
dos11[23:32] <dos1> (devkit is based on EmCraft's module in similar way Neo900 wanted to use BeagleBoard)00:04
dos11[23:33] <dos1> I'm not a big fan of some parts of their marketing, but when it comes to what they actually do I don't have much to pick on00:04
dos11[23:34] <dos1> (that's about the phone; I don't know much about their other hardware)00:04
dos11[23:38] <dos1> I believe Purism does it right (well, lack of hw keyboard aside ;))00:04
dos11[23:43] <dos11> is Cosmo's Mediatek modem supported on GNU/Linux?00:04
dos11[23:44] <dos11> I heard that it isn't very Linux friendly, but it's just a rumor - haven't fact checked yet ;)00:04
dos1ugh, nestplit...00:08
dos1netsplit*00:08
dos1ping00:08
Joerg-Neo900pong00:08
Joerg-Neo900last seen: [3 May 2019 23:32:33] <dos1> (devkit is based00:09
Joerg-Neo900then [4 May 2019 00:03:17] <dos11> ugh,00:09
dos1back to normal?00:10
dos1yup! ok, everything important went through :)00:10
Joerg-Neo900like http://maemo.cloud-7.de/irclogs/freenode/_neo900/_neo900.2019-05-03.log.html00:10
Joerg-Neo900compliant little logger facility00:11
dos1those last three "ugh, nestplit / ping" messages were older than the rest, just arrived with a huge lag :P00:11
Joerg-Neo900hehe00:12
Joerg-Neo900wait! 40 min lag?00:12
Joerg-Neo900meh nm00:13
dos18 minutes, earlier were dropped00:13
Joerg-Neo900that's damn huge lag00:13
Joerg-Neo900I had inbound lag sending me a 6 min batch at once, some weeks ago00:14
Joerg-Neo900 /fnstatus00:15
Joerg-Neo900gnnn00:15
Joerg-Neo900dos1: PM00:18
Joerg-Neo900dos1: you still around?00:19
xmnheh, a little web vomit dos1. Yeah I wish hope that purism does a keyboard eventually.00:34
Joerg-Neo900the cosmo claims to have best palm size full qwerty ever00:51
Joerg-Neo900>>cosmo has all the android blobs in it<< not sure. It definitely has modem integration, that's true. (I looked at "partitioning" on their wiki and almost choked)00:52
Joerg-Neo900but then, it allows debian etc pp, even dualboot00:53
xmnI did really like the Psion when they were around.00:53
Joerg-Neo900it doesn't advertice privacy-aware but then the Purism does and doesn't deliver much00:53
Joerg-Neo900on hw level the cosmo lacks modem separation. I personally don't miss that nonsensical hw-switch00:55
xmnI thought that it was like most android device that you can load up alt OS on (sailfish, etc) in that you need the android blobs to access gpu and some hardware? no?00:55
Joerg-Neo900check cosmo wiki. I think they are quite open00:56
xmncool, will do.00:56
xmnThough I think there are more than a few devices that fit the bill of open these days which is great. Next step is for me a device that never needs android :D00:58
Joerg-Neo900anyway, runs sailfish, android (also rooted, they explain how), kali, debian...01:01
Joerg-Neo900http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Main_Page01:02
Joerg-Neo900ok, this is all about gemini01:03
Joerg-Neo900most01:03
xmnwould assume they are similar01:04
Joerg-Neo900http://support.planetcom.co.uk/index.php/Gemini_Firmware#NEW_Gemini_Multi-Boot_Firmware_.28Debian_Linux.2C_Sailfish_OS_3_Beta_Community_Edition.2C_Kali_Linux.2C_Standard_and_Rooted_Android.2C_TWRP.2901:04
xmnhmm, interesting01:07
Joerg-Neo900yeah, indeed. That's the "open spirit" I want to see and missing with Purism01:07
xmnI wonder if you even need the android partition after you load up your other OS's01:07
xmnYeah, I will agree with you there01:07
Joerg-Neo900that's one of the reasons I might prefer communicator over librem501:08
Joerg-Neo900not sure yet if I actually do01:08
xmnpurism has it's own mission which is not always aligned with open01:08
Joerg-Neo900exactly01:08
Joerg-Neo900sorry folks, I will try now to leave my flat to get away from PC and vicious circle - first time since... a week?01:10
xmnbut come on you got to be excited for the current state of alternate hardware and sw for phone. After the fall of firefox, ubuntu, webos I was thinking it was a done deal .. at least for awhile.01:10
Joerg-Neo900sure01:10
xmnhave a good time away! Joerg-Neo900.01:10
xmnImportant to get away01:10
KeroGemini Oreo coming up, with still an ancient kernel. Debian/Kali use libhybris. Not sure about sailfish, but assuming so.10:43
KeroYou can ditch the android partitio, ttbomk10:43
Kerofor the size of the company and the presumably-lack-of-mediatek-cooperation they're actually fulfilling more promises than I expected them to. Albeit in on a schedule that is *always* slower than they promise.10:45
Joerg-Neo900Kero: many thanks! valuable info10:46
KeroGot the Gemini for a year now, or so. Use it a lot. Sturdy enough, esp regarding the mechanical parts to set the screen in its angle on a table10:47
KeroI expect the Cosmo to be a decent revision/improvement over the Gemini, but I would not expect much in terms of opening up mediatek blobs.10:48
Joerg-Neo900definitely not10:48
Joerg-Neo900I'm pretty sure they don't even _have_ much to disclose/open10:49
Joerg-Neo900even OEMs don't get much info about the content of those modem firmware partitions10:50
Keroheh. The modified kernel from mediatek (mtk) is available. mtk didn't even bother to provide git history - indeed, if they have any.10:50
Keroand the code is not mainline-mergable at all.10:50
Kero(but the source is available, minus the blobs, which is already better than I feared at certain moments in time)10:51
Joerg-Neo900wait, they run a modified linux kernel for "userland" system?10:51
Keroyeah. One android kernel, with libhybris to access pretty much all the hardware from linux userland10:52
Joerg-Neo900ouch10:52
* Joerg-Neo900 had hoped they run a hypervisor and two concurrent OS: plain linux and a whatever RTOS-younameit for the radio stack10:54
Keronope. there are people building mainline drivers for the mtk platform. Even the Mali GPU is making large strides. I believe @TheKit has mainline booting on the Gemini, but not a usable system, yet.10:57
KeroBut that's all outside the Gemini community, raelly.10:57
KeroNeither Planets nor mtk is assisting there.10:57
Keroand of course, cosmo will have a different chip10:59
Joerg-Neo900they got enouch cores they could afford assigning one to hypervisor and modem stack exclusively and thus run two completely unentangled systems where the plain linux could use whichever kernel we want10:59
Joerg-Neo900modified kernel means I can't update kernels, omg11:01
KeroSure; I don't think Planets does any of the software themselves. Outsourced what they needed.11:01
KeroBuilding your own kernel from source, installing it; works fine.11:01
Joerg-Neo900what about the proprietary stuff?11:02
KeroKeyboard has ghosting, unfortunately - there is a patch to improve that, which I have running.11:02
KeroNot the proprietary stuff, no11:02
Joerg-Neo900I don't get it. When I build a plain vanilla kenel then what does work and what doesn't?11:03
Joerg-Neo900you said MTK did modify the kernel to make modem work I guess11:04
KeroOh, sorry. Built a kernel myself, ancient android version (3.late), sources provided by Planets, with two or three tiny patches.11:05
KeroI do not know what works with mainline linux. Best ask @TheKit in #gemini-pda here on freenode11:06
Joerg-Neo900great :-) many thanks!11:08
* Joerg-Neo900 ponders asking them for cooperatiomn or a job11:09
Joerg-Neo900meanwhile, running backup of backup, 294G. 244 to go11:13
Joerg-Neo900happy about my 400M downlink11:14
dazinism> I personally don't miss that nonsensical hw-switch11:17
dazinismI forget what your thoughts are?11:17
dazinismJoerg-Neo90011:19
dazinismI notice the pinephone is also getting switches11:19
gr8morning guys11:33

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