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Replicant 9 requirements
Added by Jack K about 4 years ago
Dear Replicant leadership,
I read on https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2020-January/002452.html that for Replicant 9 support, devices will need to have batteries that are user-replaceable. I was just wondering what, if any, are the list of requirements for devices to be considered for Replicant 9 support?
Must they use the upstream kernel being used with the i9300/other Exynos 4412 devices? If so, what does that mean for the OMAP devices currently supported? Is there a plan to upstream their kernel code (I imagine that would be a large task if it is an old kernel), or will Replicant 6 be their last version?
Finally, I read (somewhere on here) that the idea is not to add support for devices with less freedom than currently supported devices. I know there is currently an effort to bypass the bootloader signature verification of the Exynos 4412 devices. If this is successful, and if the OMAP devices are not receiving support in Replicant 9, I suppose this would mean that a free bootloader would be a requirement? Would that be accurate?
Sorry, that is a lot of questions. I am just wondering what the plan for the future is. I am very grateful for all the hard work being done and would like get involved with Replicant 9 testing/development when I get my i9300 fixed.
Thanks a lot,
Jack K
Replies (2)
RE: Replicant 9 requirements - Added by Jack K about 4 years ago
I read about improving the freedom of supported devices here in GNUtoo's post - "we try to improve things over time". I guess 'try' doesn't sound like a definitive rule...
https://redmine.replicant.us/boards/27/topics/6927?r=15459#message-15459
Jack K
RE: Replicant 9 requirements - Added by Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli about 4 years ago
Jack K wrote:
Dear Replicant leadership,
Hi,
I read on https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2020-January/002452.html that for Replicant 9 support, devices will need to have batteries that are user-replaceable. I was just wondering what, if any, are the list of requirements for devices to be considered for Replicant 9 support?
Must they use the upstream kernel being used with the i9300/other Exynos 4412 devices?
I've added that to the wiki here:
https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/TargetsEvaluation#section-5
If so, what does that mean for the OMAP devices currently supported?
It means that if people to add support for them in Replicant 9, they would need to have a kernel that is closely based on upstream Linux.
Is there a plan to upstream their kernel code (I imagine that would be a large task if it is an old kernel), or will Replicant 6 be their last version?
This is hard to tell. It depends on people's free time which is hard to predict.
Since Replicant 9 will depend on upstream kernel interfaces, once you have an upstream kernel, it's probably not very different to add support for an Galaxy SIII 4G (I9305), a Pinephone, a Librem5, or a Galaxy Nexus. In all theses cases, the main work will probably be the modem.
Finally, I read (somewhere on here) that the idea is not to add support for devices with less freedom than currently supported devices. I know there is currently an effort to bypass the bootloader signature verification of the Exynos 4412 devices. If this is successful, and if the OMAP devices are not receiving support in Replicant 9, I suppose this would mean that a free bootloader would be a requirement? Would that be accurate?
It's also hard to tell in advance.
Getting to the point where all the devices we support have fully free bootloader may take a long time.
For instance if we want to support the Librem5, there is a nonfree DDR4 firmware.
What could also happen is that we could also rely on u-boot for the boot interface in order to support many different devices with the same image.
For the N900, u-boot can be flashed in the kernel partition, and the code to do that is in upstream u-boot.
Denis.