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Theo wrote about software that flash hardware firmware (both provided as blob package), as I understood. Though flashing firmware is rather uncommon, but using

by frik 11y ago

Theo wrote about software that flash hardware firmware (both provided as blob package), as I understood. Though flashing firmware is rather uncommon, but using a specific device driver for the operating system is a lot more common - and then I can understand that there is a wish for more open source device drivers in the Unix/BSD world. One usually rarely flashes the motherboard firmware (BIOS/EFI) or the graphic card firmware. A lot can go wrong, if the power goes down or the computer crash during a firmware flash-process, then the hardware is dead (except there is a backup-chip/logic like on more expensive motherboard e.g. Asus and Android devices). > hard disk controllers One usually never flash the HDD firmware. The same goes for the GSM/3G modem in your smartphone which is a separate real time OS on a separate ARM CPU. It's a blob and one buys it and cannot change it. It's also a black-box for Apple and Google and they cannot change them. There only less than a handful real completely open source smartphones with open source firmware ("open source hardware"), one example is OpenMoko (2011): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko The Linux/*BSD/Android world has a historical deficit in the availability of suitable drivers. Also the binary ABI isn't stable like on WindowsNT which means older drivers don't work with never kernels (e.g. Android upgrade means no camera). There are open source projects that could make a difference, if they get more donations like: ReactOS which aims to be binary compatible with Windows NT series hardware drivers. And NDISwrapper, that recreated a partial Windows NT kernel (using ReactOS code) inside a Linux kernel making it possible to execute modern Windows drivers in Linux. It consists of a NTOSKRNL API, a basic WDM controller, and a set of Windows call wrappers such as Wireless/NDIS/USB/PnP to Linux APIs.

seba_dos1 11y ago
There are no open source smartphones with open source firmware for their modems. The closest you can get is Openmoko Neo Freerunner with OsmocomBB installed, but you cannot legally use it to transmit anything on public networks before you obtain new certification for the modem, as replacing the firmware voids the one vendor got for you. The best you can get regarding openness of devices that can be practically used is to completely separate the main CPU from baseband processor (sans some generic interface like USB or serial) and this is exactly what Openmoko, and now also Neo900 are doing. Neo900 project goes one step further - it assumes the modem is a rogue black box by default, so deploys systems that allow the user to monitor the modem. Unfortunately, mainstream devices go further and further away from that separation and now most of the time use fully integrated designs, where the non-free firmware of the baseband has full access to user OS via shared RAM or even shared CPU.

by frik 11y ago

seba_dos1 11y ago

There are no open source smartphones with open source firmware for their modems. The closest you can get is Openmoko Neo Freerunner with OsmocomBB installed, but you cannot legally use it to transmit anything on public networks before you obtain new certification for the modem, as replacing the firmware voids the one vendor got for you. The best you can get regarding openness of devices that can be practically used is to completely separate the main CPU from baseband processor (sans some generic interface like USB or serial) and this is exactly what Openmoko, and now also Neo900 are doing. Neo900 project goes one step further - it assumes the modem is a rogue black box by default, so deploys systems that allow the user to monitor the modem. Unfortunately, mainstream devices go further and further away from that separation and now most of the time use fully integrated designs, where the non-free firmware of the baseband has full access to user OS via shared RAM or even shared CPU.