Community Updates

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Community Updates

As we strive to make our development progress as open as possible, we do not provide delivery dates. Instead, we continuously report on the project status here and on our 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.

Contents

Current Status

GTA02 hardware production and qualification

GTA02v3 is quite solid, but a flaw in power distribution required another revision. A very small number of GTA02v4 have been manufactured. Evaluation by internal OpenMoko engineers should start any day now (relative to October 31, 2007).

gllin GPS driver for GTA01

We have received permission to distribute this driver in binary-only form, but the legal teams of Global Locate and OpenMoko have not been able to agree on a method for doing so.

November 13, 2007: We have heard that Global Locate is willing to let us release the binary without requiring any further legal steps, but we have not been able to confirm this with anyone of authority.

Note that the binary format of the driver will be OABI, which is different from what we now use (EABI). There are various work-arounds (chroot, wrapper).

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 only supports 3 bands. So, 850Mhz is not supported on the GTA01 board. Instead we support 900/1800/1900MHz.

Anyone interested in more details is welcome to email me.

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.

November 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.

We have permission to perform a Very Hacky Workaround: Get your Neo to me (Michael Shiloh), and I will perform the GSM firmware upgrade for you. Contact me for details.

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)

Oh no, more delays.

I read from Claes Mogren's notes "a hardware bug in power management with GTA02v4... ...release will be delayed even further... " So how long is this deadly delay? Are we talking days, weeks or months of further delay.

I'm sure I'm not the only person feeling disappointed (and getting a bit despondent) as I had really hoped to get myself a wifi version of the phone for a Christmas present, even if I have to use the command line just to make a call at least I would have it in my hand.

Previous Community Updates

Personal tools

Community Updates

As we strive to make our development progress as open as possible, we do not provide delivery dates. Instead, we continuously report on the project status here and on our 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.

Current Status

GTA02 hardware production and qualification

GTA02v3 is quite solid, but a flaw in power distribution required another revision. A very small number of GTA02v4 have been manufactured. Evaluation by internal OpenMoko engineers should start any day now (relative to October 31, 2007).

gllin GPS driver for GTA01

We have received permission to distribute this driver in binary-only form, but the legal teams of Global Locate and OpenMoko have not been able to agree on a method for doing so.

November 13, 2007: We have heard that Global Locate is willing to let us release the binary without requiring any further legal steps, but we have not been able to confirm this with anyone of authority.

Note that the binary format of the driver will be OABI, which is different from what we now use (EABI). There are various work-arounds (chroot, wrapper).

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 only supports 3 bands. So, 850Mhz is not supported on the GTA01 board. Instead we support 900/1800/1900MHz.

Anyone interested in more details is welcome to email me.

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.

November 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.

We have permission to perform a Very Hacky Workaround: Get your Neo to me (Michael Shiloh), and I will perform the GSM firmware upgrade for you. Contact me for details.

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)

Oh no, more delays.

I read from Claes Mogren's notes "a hardware bug in power management with GTA02v4... ...release will be delayed even further... " So how long is this deadly delay? Are we talking days, weeks or months of further delay.

I'm sure I'm not the only person feeling disappointed (and getting a bit despondent) as I had really hoped to get myself a wifi version of the phone for a Christmas present, even if I have to use the command line just to make a call at least I would have it in my hand.

Previous Community Updates