An OpenMoko update [LWN.net]

An OpenMoko update

Posted Jan 10, 2007 18:57 UTC (Wed) by hathawsh (guest, #11289)
Parent article: An OpenMoko update

Very exciting. Thanks for posting this.

However, I have one major request for this phone: no proprietary kernel modules. If it has even one, that's a deal-breaker for me. My Zaurus SL-5500 requires only one proprietary kernel module (the SD card driver), but that one module turns out to be quite unstable and ends up crashing the PDA. The OpenZaurus guys have done a great job in attempting to work around that module, but they have not succeeded, so the device is now collecting dust. I'm not going to buy another device with the same flaw.

Also, it would be nice if this phone had an 802.11 option so I can connect for free when in range of a wi-fi router, but that's not a requirement.

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An OpenMoko update

Posted Jan 10, 2007 19:02 UTC (Wed) by cjb (guest, #40354) [Link] (2 responses)

The phone does indeed have no proprietary kernel modules. Harald Welte (of gpl-violations.org) did much of the kernel work on the phone.

It does, however, have one proprietary userspace daemon, to control the GPS device. It can be removed if you want a 100% free device.

An OpenMoko update

Posted Jan 10, 2007 19:19 UTC (Wed) by hathawsh (guest, #11289) [Link]

Wow. All I can say is thankyouthankyouthankyou. :-)

An OpenMoko update

Posted Jan 10, 2007 23:21 UTC (Wed) by sepreece (guest, #19270) [Link]

My understanding is that there's also some proprietary stuff in the radio stack, but it's hidden in a separate hardware module, so you might not want to count it. Don't know whether it's reprogrammable or permanently loaded.