3 ms·

Does Australia use CDMA and not GSM?

david-given 11y ago
I think it uses GSM. But even then, it'd probably still be worth it simply as an ARM-in-a-box-with-wifi-battery-screen-and-input-device. I've been wondering about the hackability of a cheapo Sony Ericsson featurephone, available in the UK for about £10, for much the same reason. With this thing, I'd much prefer to wipe Android from it completely and install a custom Linux (or BSD) distribution, to get more control over how it works. Unfortunately, while this is most likely possible, by the time it gets stable the phone will probably have vanished from the market. The profit margin on these cheap devices is so slow it only takes a tiny market shift to drive them into unprofitability.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  I've been stalling on a project to run Debian on the Nexus 4 - maybe an older device would be easier (?). It's Qualcomm, so maybe the same serial-over-headphone jack trick works [1] 1: http://blog.voltagex.org/2015/08/01/booting-the-nexus-4-from-scratch/ http://blog.voltagex.org/2015/08/01/booting-the-nexus-4-from...
  - david-given 11y ago
    I am, right now, trying to beat a Nexus 7 into running stock Linux. I am failing. Looks like Ubuntu, Bodhi and something else all came out with distros for the N7, and then all gave up on them. The only current one is Ubuntu Touch, which is a total dead loss. (They've disabled apt-get...) At the moment I'm trying to run a Debian userland in a chroot, and it's not working particularly well. If only Android supported virtualisation!
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      Blog about it and/or email me. It depends which Nexus 7, but your path will be something like mine: get a kernel running (even if it doesn't complete booting), get libhybris [1] working, get userland working. You're going to need some kind of serial-out for this. 1: https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Adaptations/libhybris/porters https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Adaptations/libhybris/porte... Edit: https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo may be useful for both of us
    - dharma1 11y ago
      you can use apt-get (and everything else you'd expect) with Ubuntu Touch, just disable the read only mode

I think it uses GSM. But even then, it'd probably still be worth it simply as an ARM-in-a-box-with-wifi-battery-screen-and-input-device. I've been wondering about the hackability of a cheapo Sony Ericsson featurephone, available in the UK for about £10, for much the same reason. With this thing, I'd much prefer to wipe Android from it completely and install a custom Linux (or BSD) distribution, to get more control over how it works. Unfortunately, while this is most likely possible, by the time it gets stable the phone will probably have vanished from the market. The profit margin on these cheap devices is so slow it only takes a tiny market shift to drive them into unprofitability.

voltagex_ 11y ago
I've been stalling on a project to run Debian on the Nexus 4 - maybe an older device would be easier (?). It's Qualcomm, so maybe the same serial-over-headphone jack trick works [1] 1: http://blog.voltagex.org/2015/08/01/booting-the-nexus-4-from-scratch/ http://blog.voltagex.org/2015/08/01/booting-the-nexus-4-from...
- david-given 11y ago
  I am, right now, trying to beat a Nexus 7 into running stock Linux. I am failing. Looks like Ubuntu, Bodhi and something else all came out with distros for the N7, and then all gave up on them. The only current one is Ubuntu Touch, which is a total dead loss. (They've disabled apt-get...) At the moment I'm trying to run a Debian userland in a chroot, and it's not working particularly well. If only Android supported virtualisation!
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    Blog about it and/or email me. It depends which Nexus 7, but your path will be something like mine: get a kernel running (even if it doesn't complete booting), get libhybris [1] working, get userland working. You're going to need some kind of serial-out for this. 1: https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Adaptations/libhybris/porters https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Adaptations/libhybris/porte... Edit: https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo may be useful for both of us
  - dharma1 11y ago
    you can use apt-get (and everything else you'd expect) with Ubuntu Touch, just disable the read only mode