Community Updates

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(Binary driver for GPS?)
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11/29/2007 - Not sure what you mean. The GPS module does not work that way. Could it be you're confusing it with the GSM module, which does?
 
11/29/2007 - Not sure what you mean. The GPS module does not work that way. Could it be you're confusing it with the GSM module, which does?
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 +
Check the top of the page: "gllin GPS driver for GTA01" is a proprietary driver (with scary EULA as well). This *sucks*, OpenMoko not so "open" anymore.
  
 
==Previous Community Updates==
 
==Previous Community Updates==

Revision as of 00:21, 30 November 2007

Contents

Even though OpenMoko strives to keep the community informed of the development progress, OpenMoko does not provide delivery dates. Instead, OpenMoko reports the project status here and on the openmoko-community mailing list.

The status is usually updated at least twice a month, usually by Michael Shiloh. Updates are also mailed to the community mailing list (see below for previous updates), and major updates are also sent to the announce list.

You are invited to add questions or topics you think should be included in the Community Updates.

The latest Community Update is the November 29, 2007 Community Update.

Discussion of current issues

GTA02 hardware design and test

The information below has been collected from various sources, feel free to add questions and comments here.

While writing a device driver for the new battery which provides an accurate counter of the charge state of the GTA02, the driver developer discovered that the device driver does not get a reading of the charge state due to a very long response time with only one I/O signal when trying to read the charge state. To be able to read the battery status properly, it has been written that it will be necessary to re-design that part of the GTA02 for hardware version GTA02A5 to use two I/O signals to reduce the response time (one for transmitting commands, one for receiving data?). Bug 957 may have more information.

11/29/2007 - GTA02a5 is a minor variation from GTA02a4, so it shouldn't take very long. We are waiting for confirmation of Wifi hardware on GTA02a4 before we manufacture even a small test run of GTA02a5.

gllin GPS driver for GTA01

11/29/2007 - Thanks to a tremendous amount of hard work by many people, we have ready a release of gllin, the GPS drives. Instructions at [1] or grab the ipk directly from [2].

850 MHz band not supported in USA+Canada (e.g. comment 24 on bug #256)

The GSM chip set is capable of quad band operation but the circuit implemented in GTA02 only supports 3 bands. Currently GTA02 supports only 900/1800/1900MHz.

11/29/2007 - We would like to offer an 850/1800/1900MHz version of GTA02 for areas that need it. We are looking into whether this is feasible or not. This requires a number of changes (components, firwmare, calibration, etc.) and so is uncertain until we test it.

Conversion of GTA02 to quad band would require major changes and so will not happen.

Delivery of a GSM firmware update for the 3G SIM bug (#666)

Background:

A bug in the GSM firmware prevents some USA 3G SIM cards from working properly. The bug has been fixed, but since the GSM module is under extremely tight legal protection, it is not clear whether or how we can allow customers to perform this upgrade themselves.

11/13/2007 - We have heard that TI has figured out a way to let you, our customers, upgrade the firmware, but we have not been able to get hold of the person at TI who can tell us how we should do this.

A temporary workaround was that I would perform the GSM firmware upgrade for you, but unfortunately, I've not been able to connect reliably with the GSM hardware debug serial port. I'm working on solving this with the crew in Taiwan. GSM firmware upgrade is pretty much done by one person at one computer setup, so I suspect there is something different between his setup and mine that we have not yet identified.

11/27/2007 - Sean has been able to make progress with the legal process that would allow you to upgrade your own GSM firmware. While this isn't finalized yet it's getting closer. I would imagine that with more of us trying to establish the serial connection we would quickly figure out how to do it reliably.

Questions or Topics you think are missing

SMedia 3362 Documentation & OpenGL ES Drivers

There is an open source kdrive driver being written for the GTA02 which will use hardware to accelerate the XRender extension. While the chip is capable of 3D graphics, no OpenGL ES driver/library is avaliable and OpenMoko developers will not be writing one in the near future (although they have not ruled it out in the long-term).

Documentation for the SMedia 3362 has been promised (see this post). However, this refers to documentation OpenMoko developers will be writing themselves, not the technical documentation SMedia have provided OpenMoko with. The OpenMoko developers had to sign an NDA with SMedia to obtain this documentation and are therefore unable to pass this information on to community developers. (See this post for details)


Binary driver for GPS?

Last time I read, the GPS module would be identified as a serial port device that could be dealt with by existing GPS Free Software without needing binary drivers, what's this setback on user's freedoms due to? I was so hoping for a computer who could make calls and give me directions which was 100% Free Software. Is this only temporary or definitive?

11/29/2007 - Not sure what you mean. The GPS module does not work that way. Could it be you're confusing it with the GSM module, which does?

Check the top of the page: "gllin GPS driver for GTA01" is a proprietary driver (with scary EULA as well). This *sucks*, OpenMoko not so "open" anymore.

Previous Community Updates

Personal tools

Contents

Even though OpenMoko strives to keep the community informed of the development progress, OpenMoko does not provide delivery dates. Instead, OpenMoko reports the project status here and on the openmoko-community mailing list.

The status is usually updated at least twice a month, usually by Michael Shiloh. Updates are also mailed to the community mailing list (see below for previous updates), and major updates are also sent to the announce list.

You are invited to add questions or topics you think should be included in the Community Updates.

The latest Community Update is the November 29, 2007 Community Update.

Discussion of current issues

GTA02 hardware design and test

The information below has been collected from various sources, feel free to add questions and comments here.

While writing a device driver for the new battery which provides an accurate counter of the charge state of the GTA02, the driver developer discovered that the device driver does not get a reading of the charge state due to a very long response time with only one I/O signal when trying to read the charge state. To be able to read the battery status properly, it has been written that it will be necessary to re-design that part of the GTA02 for hardware version GTA02A5 to use two I/O signals to reduce the response time (one for transmitting commands, one for receiving data?). Bug 957 may have more information.

11/29/2007 - GTA02a5 is a minor variation from GTA02a4, so it shouldn't take very long. We are waiting for confirmation of Wifi hardware on GTA02a4 before we manufacture even a small test run of GTA02a5.

gllin GPS driver for GTA01

11/29/2007 - Thanks to a tremendous amount of hard work by many people, we have ready a release of gllin, the GPS drives. Instructions at [1] or grab the ipk directly from [2].

850 MHz band not supported in USA+Canada (e.g. comment 24 on bug #256)

The GSM chip set is capable of quad band operation but the circuit implemented in GTA02 only supports 3 bands. Currently GTA02 supports only 900/1800/1900MHz.

11/29/2007 - We would like to offer an 850/1800/1900MHz version of GTA02 for areas that need it. We are looking into whether this is feasible or not. This requires a number of changes (components, firwmare, calibration, etc.) and so is uncertain until we test it.

Conversion of GTA02 to quad band would require major changes and so will not happen.

Delivery of a GSM firmware update for the 3G SIM bug (#666)

Background:

A bug in the GSM firmware prevents some USA 3G SIM cards from working properly. The bug has been fixed, but since the GSM module is under extremely tight legal protection, it is not clear whether or how we can allow customers to perform this upgrade themselves.

11/13/2007 - We have heard that TI has figured out a way to let you, our customers, upgrade the firmware, but we have not been able to get hold of the person at TI who can tell us how we should do this.

A temporary workaround was that I would perform the GSM firmware upgrade for you, but unfortunately, I've not been able to connect reliably with the GSM hardware debug serial port. I'm working on solving this with the crew in Taiwan. GSM firmware upgrade is pretty much done by one person at one computer setup, so I suspect there is something different between his setup and mine that we have not yet identified.

11/27/2007 - Sean has been able to make progress with the legal process that would allow you to upgrade your own GSM firmware. While this isn't finalized yet it's getting closer. I would imagine that with more of us trying to establish the serial connection we would quickly figure out how to do it reliably.

Questions or Topics you think are missing

SMedia 3362 Documentation & OpenGL ES Drivers

There is an open source kdrive driver being written for the GTA02 which will use hardware to accelerate the XRender extension. While the chip is capable of 3D graphics, no OpenGL ES driver/library is avaliable and OpenMoko developers will not be writing one in the near future (although they have not ruled it out in the long-term).

Documentation for the SMedia 3362 has been promised (see this post). However, this refers to documentation OpenMoko developers will be writing themselves, not the technical documentation SMedia have provided OpenMoko with. The OpenMoko developers had to sign an NDA with SMedia to obtain this documentation and are therefore unable to pass this information on to community developers. (See this post for details)


Binary driver for GPS?

Last time I read, the GPS module would be identified as a serial port device that could be dealt with by existing GPS Free Software without needing binary drivers, what's this setback on user's freedoms due to? I was so hoping for a computer who could make calls and give me directions which was 100% Free Software. Is this only temporary or definitive?

11/29/2007 - Not sure what you mean. The GPS module does not work that way. Could it be you're confusing it with the GSM module, which does?

Previous Community Updates