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posted by mrpg on Tuesday September 11 2018, @10:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the I'd-buy-one dept.

Progress update from the Librem 5 hardware department:

[...] Making a non-Android mobile phone that will run an FSF-approved OS that supports all the features that we've all come to rely on (cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, touchscreen input) has and continues to involve a lot of pathfinding, given that a RYF phone has never been attempted before and discovery involves solving issues as they come up.

The industry offers all the hardware to create a smartphone on a fast path, as the SoC vendors typically provide the modem (cellular and wifi) integrated directly on the SoC. Like a recipe in a cookbook—take an SoC, place it on a PCB, add RAM and flash chip on top of it (called a package on package—PoP), add antennas and finally power. The difficulty comes down to the firmware and the software that run these devices. The necessary firmware to operate the cellular modem, WiFi, BT etc. is provided by the chip maker, including the drivers for the GPU and more. The firmware and software included is proprietary with no source code with little to no alternatives.


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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 11 2018, @03:40PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 11 2018, @03:40PM (#733176) Journal

    I've been waiting since my old n900 died round 2012 for some kind of replacement "pure Linux" open phone

    What are you waiting for?
    Come on, quick, start a project to design one!

    (grin)

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