Community Updates

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This page gives you access to some regular updates released by the projects, OM or community. All communications channels of the Openmoko community are listed at the [[Community Resources]] page.
  |}
+
  
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 official Openmoko updates (discontinued early 2009) can be found in [[Weekly Engineering News]].
  
The status is usually updated at least twice a month, usually by [[User:Michaelshiloh|Michael Shiloh]]. Updates are also mailed to the community mailing list and major updates are also sent to the announce list.
+
You can see the latest edition [[Community_Updates/current]]
  
You are invited to add questions or topics you think should be included in the Community Updates by emailing community@lists.openmoko.org or by editing section 2 of this wiki page.
+
= Post launch series =
 +
* [[Community Updates/Draft]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2011-12-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2011-09-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2011-05-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2011-03-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2011-02-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-12-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-11-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-09-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-08-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-07-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-06-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-05-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-04-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-03-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-02-10]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2010-01-14]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-12-31]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-12-09]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-11-25]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-11-11]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-10-28]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-10-14]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-09-30]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-09-16]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-09-02]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-08-19]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-08-06]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-07-23]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-07-09]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-06-25]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-05-22]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-04-30]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-04-17]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-04-05]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-03-20]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-03-06]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-02-20]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-02-06]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-01-23]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2009-01-12]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2008-12-29]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2008-12-15]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2008-12-01]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2008-11-16]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2008-11-02]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2008-10-19]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2008-10-03]]
 +
* [[Community Updates/2008-09-17]] - Activity since launch
  
The latest Community Update was posted to the community mailing list on [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-February/013555.html February 25, 2008 Community Update].
+
== Rules for community updates ==
Michael stated on March 18 "the status is in fact the same ...
+
After May 22nd 2009 OM stopped working on community updates. These rules are here to make it possible for the community to keep the updates running.
There is some confusion as to whether A5 is known to be inadequate and
+
whether A6 will be a necessity. I am trying to get to the bottom of this.".
+
  
 +
The draft of the news will be listed here but not on the main page until it gets released. (example, see [[Community Updates/Draft]] ). Upon the release of the current updates a new page should be created. The news will be added there. On release, the link will be set on the main page. Detailed instructions below.
  
 +
'''Adding news'''
 +
# Don't expect someone else to add it, add it yourself and make it nice
 +
# Add links to blog posts, applications, mailing list posts that you think are worth to announce to the whole community
  
See [[Community_Updates#Previous_Community_Updates | below]] for a list of previous updates.
+
'''Releasing'''
 +
# If it's The Release Date and you notice the news has not been released, DO IT! Don't expect someone else to do it for you.
 +
# When you release, move the content of Talk: page to the actual wikipage.
 +
# Add a link to the released update page to http://wiki.openmoko.org/index.php?title=Community_Updates
 +
# Prepare the draft page for the next community news: captions, dates etc.. Releasing news on Thursdays every two weeks sound's good to me.
 +
# Send a post to the community mailing list with the link to the released news and the draft of the next news.
  
==Discussion of current issues ==
+
= Ramp up to launch series =
<!--- this summary was updated by community members because it was not updated by [[User:Michaelshiloh|Michael Shiloh]]--->
+
  
 +
Even though Openmoko strives to keep the community informed of the development progress, Openmoko does not provide delivery dates. Instead, Openmoko Inc. reports and discusses the project on a day to day basis, using the [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/ openmoko-community mailing list]. Developers will wish to follow the progress on the [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/openmoko-kernel/ openmoko-kernel mailing list] and the [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/devel/ devel mailing list]. Major updates notices are sent to the [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/announce/ announce mailing list].
  
 +
As FreeRunners started shipping, that series of Community Updates mostly related to the expected release date has been taken over by a more community-oriented newsletter.
  
===GTA02 hardware design and test===
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-June/019384.html 2008-06-14 - When it will be possible to buy Openmoko?]
The information below has been collected from various sources, feel free to add questions and comments here.
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-June/018887.html 2008-06-10 - SMT is running!]
 
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-June/018575.html 2008-06-05 - Cleared to start Mass production]
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?). [http://bugzilla.openmoko.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=957#c1 Bug 957] may have more information.
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-May/017531.html 2008-05-20 - Whats up with the freerunner mass production?]
 
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-April/015189.html 2008-04-14 - next costumers location]
12/06/2007 - GTA02a5 is a minor variation from GTA02a4, so it shouldn't take very long. We are waiting for confirmation of Wifi and a few other parts of the GTA02a4 hardware before we manufacture even a small test run of GTA02a5.
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-April/015080.html 2008-04-11 - FreeRunner Pricing and PVT update]
 
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-April/014928.html 2008-04-07 - Any updates on the PVT status?]
01/30/2008 - A small number of GTA02A5 have been made and are now being tested. Since much of the hardware is being verified by kernel and driver code, an excellent place to monitor this is on the openmoko-kernel mailing list.
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-March/014361.html 2008-03-25 - Production status Update]
 
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-February/013555.html 2008-02-25 - Community Update]
03/18/2008 - The Freerunner design is currently staged to go through Production
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-February/013356.html 2008-02-14 - Community Update]
Validation Test (PVT). The hardware design A5 is, we believe, solid. We are updating this design to A6 to maximize production yields.
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-February/013280.html 2008-02-10 - Community Update]
 
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-January/012821.html 2008-01-24 - Community Update]
The purpose of PVT is to make sure the yield is high enough, and to make sure the manufacturing and testing process is smooth and efficient.
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-January/012499.html 2008-01-10 - Community Update]
 
+
* [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-January/012357.html 2008-01-02 - Community Update]
===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 driver. Instructions at [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2007-November/011916.html] or grab the ipk directly from [http://3rdparty.downloads.openmoko.org/gllin/].
+
 
+
===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.
+
 
+
12/09/2007 - Since the GSM section is essentially the same between GTA01 and GTA02, we thought a good experiment would be to modify a couple GTA01 handsets for 850MHz and to test them out here in the USA.
+
 
+
12/20/2007 - Due to the enthusiastic response I received to my request for testing volunteers I've asked our hardware group to modify a few more phones. I don't know when, or even if, they will be able to do this. Meanwhile, I'll be sending out the units I have to the testers, along with a simple test plan.
+
 
+
We have no intention of manufacturing 850MHz GTA01s, nor can we modify user's phones this way. We modified a couple of units ONLY so that we could test the circuit that we might use in GTA02. When the experiment is done, these modified units must be returned to OpenMoko.
+
 
+
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 ([http://bugzilla.openmoko.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=666 #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.
+
 
+
12/09/2007 - We've been informed that everything legal has been agreed upon by all parties regarding the process that would allow you to upgrade your own GSM firmware. All that remains is to get everything signed. Apparently the process of getting things signed takes a few weeks!
+
 
+
12/20/2007 - Meanwhile, we have resolved the difficulties I was having performing the upgrade, and I am now able to upgrade your handsets. Anyone interested in having me do this should contact me at michael@openmoko.org.
+
 
+
==Questions or Topics you think are missing==
+
 
+
===Touch screen===
+
What about talking with the touch screen? There doesn't seem to be any kind of proximity sensor to feel the presence of ear + cheek to disable the touch screen, so error presses can be an issue. I feel the need to both be able to talk with the phone on my ear and still be able to use the programs while calling so simply disabling touch screen while talking can't be a possibility. I've heard multiple possibilities to remedy this with shaking the phone to enable/disable touch screen and et cetera, but none of them have been easy enough for everyday use. It '''has''' to work seamlessly.
+
 
+
=== 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 ([http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2007-September/010175.html 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 [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2007-November/011349.html this post] for details)
+
 
+
=== Power Management on the Neo1973===
+
It is still not clear if it will be possible to have "reasonable" battery life on the Neo1973 (GTA1) hardware or if there are hardware problems that make  this impossible.([http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-January/012456.html see this post]). Can this be officially clarified?
+
 
+
Further questions and comments regarding this by a GTA01 Neo owner:
+
 
+
This is the single most important issue keeping european users (not affected by the 850MHz issues) from using the neo as a regular phone. After reading in various places (IRC, Lists, this Wiki), it seems like this issue divides into several ones and a more detailed answer would be helpful for each:
+
 
+
* if it's a bug in the firmware failing to trigger an IRQ, is at least the kernel sufficiently prepared to wake up?
+
* there are rumours that a wrong resistor value on the GTA01 board yields a very high quiescient current for the GSM in suspend mode. Is there any further information on this (what's the battery life in proper suspend with and without this fix) and maybe a short document describing a fix available? Is it doable at home (replacing a 0402 surely counts as doable!)
+
* what is the status of failed resumes after a suspend?
+
 
+
'''Another''' vote for power management, Neo is practically useless with all the configurability and features if it needs to be plugged on a charger every day. I'm expecting more from Neo in terms of power management and battery life time than from for example E90 which is packed with many hw and sw features. I hope the hardware is re-checked so that these kind of errors in the design (unreasonably high currents etc) get worked out.
+
 
+
=== A couple of things I have noticed via the various mailing lists - no inside info at all - JW ===
+
 
+
Written by JW 28 jan 08 - not official Michael Shilloh update! - will go out of date soon!
+
 
+
Think of it as the Openmoko weather forecast :-)
+
 
+
# Feel free to change this michael/others
+
# The kernel guys seem to have been quite pleased about the ease of merging Openmoko with its new parent which is the brand new Linux kernel 2.6.24 which was only released formally by Linus this week. This was done first for GTA02 and then when it looked OK for GTA01 as well. This brings some good things of which a new wireless stack for the former (improved wireless performance) and tickless kernel for both GTA01 and GTA02 are the most important probably (many power saving features can be enabled by using this in due course). Boot from SD card may have been broken for GTA01 during this change (used by people to dual boot from Qtopia and Openmoko on the same phone for ex) but will be brought back for both machines in due course (not top priority).  Suspend/resume which was working for GTA01 (?) has been broken (possibly) by this change.
+
# Several (non openmoko) people report that the daily image from 27 Jan 08 is quite stable for use on GTA01 and that with it you can both SMS and make and receive voice calls with good stability although (understandably) tweaks to the UI are far from complete. However, SeanC reported that under pressure testing of the GSM daemon (ie cycling it through hundreds of commands) there are still failures so some way to go yet until the GSM side is sorted.
+
# Kernel developers are deciding on bootloader and filesystem options in the next few days. These issues are crucial to bringing the boot time down from 2 minutes to 30 secs (design target). As always there are compromises to be made.
+
# GPS for GTA02 - this uses a different chipset from the GTA01 so needs some work - not sure what stage this is at but they will need to be able to test this before ordering a production run of GTA02
+
# Wifi driver is being developed just now and again is a priority task (presumably on the back of the new 2.6.24 stack)
+
# Power management is a lower priority than all of the above for obvious reasons.    However, I suspect suspend/resume will get some attention before GTA02 ships
+
# External developers contributing patches. There have been at least 5 patches submitted by external developers to the kernel team (make a bug report and then cc to the kernel mailing list) in recent days - much appreciated by the openmoko team. They are all in Andy Green's testing branch and will be merged soon.
+
# Timing for GTA02 - pure speculation on my part but there seems still a lot to do for March! There is some mention in some (unguarded emails) of a 1 Feb decision date - I guess this the date they HAVE to decide if the current hardware is OK or they have to make another revision.
+
# If you want an easy way to browse / keep up with how the project developers are getting on without subscribing to all the lists i recommend gmane e.g for the kernel list - http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.openmoko.kernel you can find the full list here http://dir.gmane.org/index.php?prefix=gmane.comp.handhelds.openmoko
+
 
+
==Previous Community Updates==
+
*[[September 28, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[October 12, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[October 13, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[October 15, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[October 16, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[October 25, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[October 31, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[November 6, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[November 13, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[November 26, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[November 29, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[December 09, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[[December 20, 2007 Community Update]]
+
*[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-January/012357.html January 2, 2008 Community Update]
+
*[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-January/012499.html January 10, 2008 Community Update]
+
*[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-January/012821.html January 24, 2008 Community Update]
+
*[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-February/013280.html February 10, 2008 Community Update]
+
*[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-February/013356.html February 14, 2008 Community Update]
+
*[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-February/013555.html February 25, 2008 Community Update]
+
  
 +
[[Category:Community Update| ]]
 
[[Category:Community]]
 
[[Category:Community]]
[[Category:Information]]
 

Latest revision as of 06:50, 25 November 2011

This page gives you access to some regular updates released by the projects, OM or community. All communications channels of the Openmoko community are listed at the Community Resources page.

The official Openmoko updates (discontinued early 2009) can be found in Weekly Engineering News.

You can see the latest edition Community_Updates/current

[edit] Post launch series

[edit] Rules for community updates

After May 22nd 2009 OM stopped working on community updates. These rules are here to make it possible for the community to keep the updates running.

The draft of the news will be listed here but not on the main page until it gets released. (example, see Community Updates/Draft ). Upon the release of the current updates a new page should be created. The news will be added there. On release, the link will be set on the main page. Detailed instructions below.

Adding news

  1. Don't expect someone else to add it, add it yourself and make it nice
  2. Add links to blog posts, applications, mailing list posts that you think are worth to announce to the whole community

Releasing

  1. If it's The Release Date and you notice the news has not been released, DO IT! Don't expect someone else to do it for you.
  2. When you release, move the content of Talk: page to the actual wikipage.
  3. Add a link to the released update page to http://wiki.openmoko.org/index.php?title=Community_Updates
  4. Prepare the draft page for the next community news: captions, dates etc.. Releasing news on Thursdays every two weeks sound's good to me.
  5. Send a post to the community mailing list with the link to the released news and the draft of the next news.

[edit] Ramp up to launch series

Even though Openmoko strives to keep the community informed of the development progress, Openmoko does not provide delivery dates. Instead, Openmoko Inc. reports and discusses the project on a day to day basis, using the openmoko-community mailing list. Developers will wish to follow the progress on the openmoko-kernel mailing list and the devel mailing list. Major updates notices are sent to the announce mailing list.

As FreeRunners started shipping, that series of Community Updates mostly related to the expected release date has been taken over by a more community-oriented newsletter.

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 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 by emailing community@lists.openmoko.org or by editing section 2 of this wiki page.

The latest Community Update was posted to the community mailing list on February 25, 2008 Community Update. Michael stated on March 18 "the status is in fact the same ... There is some confusion as to whether A5 is known to be inadequate and whether A6 will be a necessity. I am trying to get to the bottom of this.".


See below for a list of previous updates.

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.

12/06/2007 - GTA02a5 is a minor variation from GTA02a4, so it shouldn't take very long. We are waiting for confirmation of Wifi and a few other parts of the GTA02a4 hardware before we manufacture even a small test run of GTA02a5.

01/30/2008 - A small number of GTA02A5 have been made and are now being tested. Since much of the hardware is being verified by kernel and driver code, an excellent place to monitor this is on the openmoko-kernel mailing list.

03/18/2008 - The Freerunner design is currently staged to go through Production Validation Test (PVT). The hardware design A5 is, we believe, solid. We are updating this design to A6 to maximize production yields.

The purpose of PVT is to make sure the yield is high enough, and to make sure the manufacturing and testing process is smooth and efficient.

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 driver. 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.

12/09/2007 - Since the GSM section is essentially the same between GTA01 and GTA02, we thought a good experiment would be to modify a couple GTA01 handsets for 850MHz and to test them out here in the USA.

12/20/2007 - Due to the enthusiastic response I received to my request for testing volunteers I've asked our hardware group to modify a few more phones. I don't know when, or even if, they will be able to do this. Meanwhile, I'll be sending out the units I have to the testers, along with a simple test plan.

We have no intention of manufacturing 850MHz GTA01s, nor can we modify user's phones this way. We modified a couple of units ONLY so that we could test the circuit that we might use in GTA02. When the experiment is done, these modified units must be returned to OpenMoko.

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.

12/09/2007 - We've been informed that everything legal has been agreed upon by all parties regarding the process that would allow you to upgrade your own GSM firmware. All that remains is to get everything signed. Apparently the process of getting things signed takes a few weeks!

12/20/2007 - Meanwhile, we have resolved the difficulties I was having performing the upgrade, and I am now able to upgrade your handsets. Anyone interested in having me do this should contact me at michael@openmoko.org.

Questions or Topics you think are missing

Touch screen

What about talking with the touch screen? There doesn't seem to be any kind of proximity sensor to feel the presence of ear + cheek to disable the touch screen, so error presses can be an issue. I feel the need to both be able to talk with the phone on my ear and still be able to use the programs while calling so simply disabling touch screen while talking can't be a possibility. I've heard multiple possibilities to remedy this with shaking the phone to enable/disable touch screen and et cetera, but none of them have been easy enough for everyday use. It has to work seamlessly.

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)

Power Management on the Neo1973

It is still not clear if it will be possible to have "reasonable" battery life on the Neo1973 (GTA1) hardware or if there are hardware problems that make this impossible.(see this post). Can this be officially clarified?

Further questions and comments regarding this by a GTA01 Neo owner:

This is the single most important issue keeping european users (not affected by the 850MHz issues) from using the neo as a regular phone. After reading in various places (IRC, Lists, this Wiki), it seems like this issue divides into several ones and a more detailed answer would be helpful for each:

  • if it's a bug in the firmware failing to trigger an IRQ, is at least the kernel sufficiently prepared to wake up?
  • there are rumours that a wrong resistor value on the GTA01 board yields a very high quiescient current for the GSM in suspend mode. Is there any further information on this (what's the battery life in proper suspend with and without this fix) and maybe a short document describing a fix available? Is it doable at home (replacing a 0402 surely counts as doable!)
  • what is the status of failed resumes after a suspend?

Another vote for power management, Neo is practically useless with all the configurability and features if it needs to be plugged on a charger every day. I'm expecting more from Neo in terms of power management and battery life time than from for example E90 which is packed with many hw and sw features. I hope the hardware is re-checked so that these kind of errors in the design (unreasonably high currents etc) get worked out.

A couple of things I have noticed via the various mailing lists - no inside info at all - JW

Written by JW 28 jan 08 - not official Michael Shilloh update! - will go out of date soon!

Think of it as the Openmoko weather forecast :-)

  1. Feel free to change this michael/others
  2. The kernel guys seem to have been quite pleased about the ease of merging Openmoko with its new parent which is the brand new Linux kernel 2.6.24 which was only released formally by Linus this week. This was done first for GTA02 and then when it looked OK for GTA01 as well. This brings some good things of which a new wireless stack for the former (improved wireless performance) and tickless kernel for both GTA01 and GTA02 are the most important probably (many power saving features can be enabled by using this in due course). Boot from SD card may have been broken for GTA01 during this change (used by people to dual boot from Qtopia and Openmoko on the same phone for ex) but will be brought back for both machines in due course (not top priority). Suspend/resume which was working for GTA01 (?) has been broken (possibly) by this change.
  3. Several (non openmoko) people report that the daily image from 27 Jan 08 is quite stable for use on GTA01 and that with it you can both SMS and make and receive voice calls with good stability although (understandably) tweaks to the UI are far from complete. However, SeanC reported that under pressure testing of the GSM daemon (ie cycling it through hundreds of commands) there are still failures so some way to go yet until the GSM side is sorted.
  4. Kernel developers are deciding on bootloader and filesystem options in the next few days. These issues are crucial to bringing the boot time down from 2 minutes to 30 secs (design target). As always there are compromises to be made.
  5. GPS for GTA02 - this uses a different chipset from the GTA01 so needs some work - not sure what stage this is at but they will need to be able to test this before ordering a production run of GTA02
  6. Wifi driver is being developed just now and again is a priority task (presumably on the back of the new 2.6.24 stack)
  7. Power management is a lower priority than all of the above for obvious reasons. However, I suspect suspend/resume will get some attention before GTA02 ships
  8. External developers contributing patches. There have been at least 5 patches submitted by external developers to the kernel team (make a bug report and then cc to the kernel mailing list) in recent days - much appreciated by the openmoko team. They are all in Andy Green's testing branch and will be merged soon.
  9. Timing for GTA02 - pure speculation on my part but there seems still a lot to do for March! There is some mention in some (unguarded emails) of a 1 Feb decision date - I guess this the date they HAVE to decide if the current hardware is OK or they have to make another revision.
  10. If you want an easy way to browse / keep up with how the project developers are getting on without subscribing to all the lists i recommend gmane e.g for the kernel list - http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.openmoko.kernel you can find the full list here http://dir.gmane.org/index.php?prefix=gmane.comp.handhelds.openmoko

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