SlyBlog

GTA04 booting SHR in 17 seconds

slyon — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:30:25 +0000

Video

This video shows the Openmoko/Goldelico GTA04 booting SHR Linux in 17 seconds.
Note: SHR is not yet optimized for a fast bootup on the GTA04.

Got interrested?

If you’re interrested to participate in this open hardware and free and open source software effort, please jump in:
Get your GTA04 now by participating in the GTA04 Group Buy Tour.

Get more information at: www.gta04.org

OpenPhoenux – Independent Mobile Handheld

slyon — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:19:26 +0000

Goldelico GTA04 – OpenPhoenux

Here is a nice video featuring the Goldelico OpenPhoenux (GTA04), which is the successor of the Openmoko Freerunner (GTA02).

The video shows the GTA04 board booting and running the QtMoko GNU/Linux distribution which is based upon Debian GNU/Linux and optimized for smartphone usage. Furthermore it shows an early version of the 3D printed GTA04 case, which can easily be modified to everyones needs and ordered at Shapeways.

If you’re interresed in this awesome project, please have a look at its project page www.gta04.org and take part in the GTA04 Group Buy Tour.

GTA04 Installation Guide for SHR

slyon — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:05:50 +0000

GTA04 Installation Guide for SHR

This is a step-by-step guide, which should get you from zero to a working SHR on your GTA04 in just a few minutes.

Getting the files

shr-core image:
- shr-image-om-gta04.tar.gz (latest stable image)
- shr-image-om-gta04.tar.gz (latest staging image, for testers only)
gta04-init system:
- gta04-init

Preparing the microSD card

Your microSD card needs to have 2 partitions. One for the bootloader and one for the rootfs and the kernel:

1st partition: FAT32, “boot”
2nd partition: ext3, “rootfs”

Furthermore, it needs to be formatted with: 255 heads, 63 sectors/track.
To get this right, you can easily use this script: omap3-mkcard.sh

sudo ./omap3-mkcard.sh /dev/mmcblk0

Installing the gta04-init system

To install gta04-init, you have to untar the gta04-init archive (qtmoko-fat-v44.tar.vz) and copy all containing files to the “boot”-partition.

It is important to copy the 1st stage bootloader (MLO) to the microSD card as the very first file.

mkdir gta04-init
tar xzvpf qtmoko-fat-v44.tar.gz -C ./gta04-init
cd gta04-init/
cp MLO /media/boot/MLO
cp -r bootargs.scr boot.scr gta04-init menu.rgb16z \
      splash.rgb16z u-boot.bin uImage user.scr \
      x-load.flash /media/boot/

Installing SHR

To install the SHR image, you have to untar the image you downloaded to the “rootfs”-partition.

tar xzvpf shr-image.tar.gz --numeric-owner -C /media/rootfs

First boot

After you cleanly unmounted the 2 partitions and put the microSD card back into the GTA04 you can boot SHR.

You will be greeted by the gta04-init bootloader, where you have to select to boot from microSD. There is no feedback after a click, you just have to wait until SHR is booted.

Next, a first start wizard will pop up, which let’s you choose between some options.
Be aware to choose a scale factor of 2.0 when asked. Other than this you could just keep the defaults.

You can now login via USB networking at: 192.168.7.2

Installing Firmware

If you want to use the WiFi/Bluetooth chip, you have to use a non-free firmware from Marvell.
To get it you have to install linux-firmware-sd8686.

opkg install linux-firmware

Congratulations

You successfully installed SHR on your GTA04.
For further information or if you have any issues, please consult the SHR wiki.

Building a Case for the Goldelico GTA04

slyon — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:38:10 +0000

I just came home from my christmas holidays and found a nice, little parcel from Shapeways in my mail box. It contained my first experiment with the Blender 3D software and the Shapeways 3D printing service.

Update: Follow the efforts here: 3D printed GTA04 Case

The Story

A few weeks earlier I started to work on the original Openmoko Neo 1973 (GTA01) CAD files, as found at goldelico.com, with the intention of creating a 3D printable model, which I could print and use as a case for my new Goldelico GTA04 smartphone. To get started I got a Blender 3D crash course by a friend of mine.

First Attempt

As I never did any 3D work before I started with the easiest part – the battery cover:

This first prototype was printed using the “White Strong & Flexible” material offered by Shapeways. As you can see on the pictures, this material is a little rough, but still feels nice in the hands. Furthermore I removed the hole at the bottom, as it was pretty hard to design.

The printed part fits nicely on my existing Openmoko Neo Freerunner (GTA02) case, which contains my GTA04 board at the moment:

Future Plans

Now, that my first attempt was pretty successful, I plan to further work on this topic, to acquire a full case for my GTA04, so I can use the old case for my beloved Openmoko Neo Freerunner (GTA02) again.
As a next step I’ll modify the Neo 1973′s middle and front parts to be printable with a 3D printer and I’ll probably try to print them using a less rough material, to compare the results.

How you can help

If you like this effort, I’d be happy if you’d go to my Shapeways site (“SlyParts”) and order the first part of your GTA04 case, which will raise 1€ for myself, which I’ll use to order further prototypes.

If you don’t have a Goldelico GTA04, yet, you should take a look at the GTA04 Group Buy Tour, where we collect a batch of 350 orders which will be produced at once, so the price can get squeezed down.

If you ordered a part at my Shapeways site, please leave a comment here about which material you used and how it feels.

Updated: Openmoko Community Survey 2011

slyon — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:48:12 +0000

Update 9.1.2012: results are updated.

As the year 2011 nears it’s end, we – the Openmoko Community – did a poll [0] about which is the most popular hardware and which is the most popular software in our community. The poll was open for one week now and we got votes from 73 people.

I decided to close the poll now and release the results to the public. To create a ranking I gave 1 point to a “YES” vote and 0.5 points to a “(YES)” vote. The maximum (100%) is 73 points.

Rankings

Software Side:

1. SHR                  112.5 points    (61%)
2. QtMoko                99.5 points    (54%)
3. Debian                75.5 points    (41%)
4. Other Distro          40.0 points    (22%)

Hardware Side:

1. Om GTA02             158.5 points    (86%)
2. Goldelico GTA04       71.0 points    (38%)
3. Nokia N900            34.0 points    (18%)
4. Other Device          26.0 points    (14%)
5. Palm Pre (+variants)  14.5 points    ( 8%)
6. Om GTA01               9.5 points    ( 5%)
7. Google Nexus S         7.0 points    ( 4%)

Conclusion

On the software side SHR is still the most popular distro, directly followed by QtMoko. Quiet a few people commented, that they intend to code their own software/GUI mostly to educated themselves.

On the hardware side the Om GTA02 is the clear winner (which was expected). Surprisingly the Goldelico GTA04 is the 2nd most interesting device in this community, even though very few people have one, yet. Still, most of the developers already own one and you should get yours soon [1], as it seems to become a common target of this community. The Palm Pre, Om GTA01 and Google Nexus S got very few points and thus are probably not worth to support…

Happy New Year

Now, i’d like to wish all you Open Hard- and Software-Enthusiasts out there a good start into the year 2012. I hope the GTA04 project will flourish in 2012 and will help our community to grow and free the phone again!

Links

[0] http://www.doodle.com/sh6insnivnvqyz7h
[1] http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04 Group Tour

webOS is going to be OpenSource Software

slyon — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:13:29 +0000

HP the company which bought Palm some time ago just announced, that they are going to release webOS as open source software! The Linux kernel side of webOS was open souce since the beginning, with a few exceptions like the PowerVR 3D driver and the touchscreen driver.
We’ll see how far HP will go and what parts they’ll really open up (their announcement didn’t mention the modem protocol for example).

webOS is probably the best and most intuitive software running on smartphones today. And was said to be “the iPhone killer”. Unfortunately the first device it was sold on (Palm Pre) wasn’t exactly the best hardware as it had serveral flaws like a bad keyboard slider. Thus webOS wasn’t adopted by masses of developers and suffered from a lack of applications, which in turn made it uninteresting to end users.

I got a Palm Pre in the early days and I also got a HP|Palm Pre2 developer device some months ago, which I still enjoy to use. All in all I enjoyed developing for those devices, too, but it was pretty depressing to reverse engineer parts of the modem protocol, to be able to have it communicate with the FreeSmartphone.org (FSO) middleware and run a really free and open source operating system like SHR.

So with this news from HP what we could probably get in 2012 is:

an open smartphone like the Openmoko/Goldelico Phoenux (GTA04), which is available for preorder in big batches since some weeks (I got mine already and am happily developing for it)
this nice, open hardware running FSO as it’s middleware
using SHR as it’s distribution, with the possibility of using some of the webOS applications for a good user experience

Let’s hope the best for the mobile FOSS community in 2012!

Openmoko/Goldelico GTA04 is available for the masses!

slyon — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 08:59:13 +0000

Goldelico GTA04 – free your phone!

The Goldelico GTA04 >OpenPhoenux< finally made it!
Order your GTA04 replacement board for your Openmoko Freerunner (GTA02) and/or 1973 (GTA01) now! (www.handheld-linux.com)

Technical Specifications

800 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor
PowerVR SGX integrated graphics
2.84” (43mm x 58mm) VGA touchscreen
HSDPA 3G modem
512MB RAM
512MB internal memory + SDHC card slot
WLAN, Bluetooth, GPS, FM Transceiver
Accelerometer, Compass, Gyroscope, Barometric Altimeter
USB 2.0 port, 2.5mm headset port, GPS antenna port, video out

Info: The GTA04 project only provides a mainboard, which can be used to upgrade a Neo 1973/Freerunner, while still using their case, touchscreen, antennas, speakers and buttons/leds.

The release announcement

Dear all, I take for granted that you all are eagerly waiting for an annoucement that another batch of GTA04 boards becomes available. We did wait with an announcement until we can really answer all questions.


Now, we think we can.
Components have all been ordered for another (small) batch so that we

can get them from production in December. If everything goes well, we

can even ship out some boards before Christmas.
The boards are named GTA04A4 (meaning the PCB revision). They

are fully featured from hardware side:
* DM3730@800 MHz

* UMTS module with 3.75G (up to 14.4 MBit/s)

* Sensors (Barometer, Compass, Gyroscope, Accelerometer)

* GPS

* connector for optional camera module

* well documented building blocks so that you can write your own

   boot loaders and kernels. Nobody stops your creativity and

   nobody is pretending to protect you from yourself!
So you get something that is unique. A motherboard upgrade for

a handheld device. With open documentation to develop free and

open software. And, a community dedicated to continue the pioneering

work of the first Openmoko team. Last but not least, a team that listens

to your wishes for future upgrades and trying to fulfill them.
How much will it cost?
We know that most of you do expect that it is not too expensive, something

in the range of the GTA02. Unfortunately, we can't fulfill this specific wish.

There are two main reasons (besides we are not financial magicians):
1. the device has some very expensive components (CPU + Memory +

    UMTS module)
2. we have really small production batches and therefore, have to pay

     much more for the components than e.g. Apple or HTC (factor 2-3

     compared to reports from iSuppli).
And, we can't subsidize devices because this is not a feasible long-term

strategy from an economical point of view.
But since raising the size of the batches ("bulk purchasing") has a

big effect ("economies of scale"), we have developed a strategy that should

make everyone happy:
A) there will be units available from (limited) stock shortly before Christmas,

    at a high price. We try to produce more of these units to fulfill orders

    within days. This offer is also good for getting samples for projects.
B) you can participate in a group-buy at a lower price. This requires

    that we reach a certain number of units before we can start production.
So the price and availablility are:
a) 666,66 EUR; available for shipment from stock; planned to start

    on 19th December
b) 499.99 EUR; requires 300 ordered units before 10th February 2012

   (week after FOSDEM); production start expected for April 2012. There

   is also a rebate for the first 100 early bookings.
There are rebates for quantites: 5% for orders of 5 units, 10% for 10 units,

12% for 50 units. So if you build buying groups (like for the Freerunners),

you can save some more money.
Both offers are ready for preorder/subscription through this link:
http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04
There is a third type of offer - a customized GTA04 board. This means you

can order a board variant where not all components are installed. And the

display connector can be replaced by a Board2Board connector. This allows

to plug the GTA04 like a module on a master board and develop different

handhelds and tablets based on the GTA04 design.
An example of such a device can be seen here:
http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%20Custom
Finally, I have compiled some FAQ we have received in the past. If your

question is not amongst them, please ask.
So let's prove that the Openmoko community can not only design and

build samples of a GTA04 but also go into perpetual mass production.
Nikolaus Schaller
FAQ:
Q: Do I need a GTA01 or GTA02?

A: Yes. The GTA04 is a motherboard that fits into a GTA01 or GTA02

case. It does not have all electromechanic compontents. Missing are:

GSM antenna, internal GPS receiver, Earpiece speaker, Handsfree

speakers, Vibracall motor, Battery holder, Battery, USB power supply,

and very important: it does not include a display module. So you have

to take all missing parts from an existing GTA01 or GTA02.
The only exception is the LCD module where we can provide spare

parts.
But you can operate the board without these components - but then

it is not a handheld portable computer with phone functionality.
Or you can try to build your own case. Some inspiring proposals

and samples have been shown recently (e.g. wooden case).
Q: Does the device support the US frequencies?

A: Yes, it is Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA (3.75G), but not

CDMA2000 1x nor EV-DO
Q: Does it have FCC and CE approvals?

A: At the moment partially. The UMTS module and the WLAN chipsets

are fully precertified. And the GTA04 system has successfully passed

the CE emmission tests, that it does not produce harmful interferences.

We are just missing the CE ESD and safety tests.
Q: Why do I have to wait so long if I participate in the group buy?

A: The reason is that our project has no external funding and needs

to collect enough money before we can order chips and components.

This introduces two types of delay: the preorder-window and then

the delivery time of components. E.g. PCBs are built to our specific

request and that needs between 20 and 30 working days. And

producing and testing several 100 units needs quite a while 
Q: Will there be variants?

A: We have decided to run only a single variant with all components

installed. It turned out to be cheaper in total than to have a low-end

variant (e.g. without sensors) and a high-end variant.
We have one variant that we can provide on demand: the module

version. You can use it as the basis for connecting larger displays

and experiment with alternate cases. Details how to mount mechanically

and the pin layout can be found in the System Manual
Q: Does it work with a GTA01 case?

A: Yes. You will even get stereo speakers since the speaker box of the

GTA02 has two. One was sacrificed in the GTA02 to provide WLAN.
Q: Do you have complete phones?

A: We have a handful of complete phones built from returned GTA02

units. They are also available in the shop:
http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%20Complete
Q: Do I get the money back if the group buy does not reach the minimum

quantity within the preorder window?

A: Yes. 100% (less money transfer cost).
Q: What is the status of the software?

A: We (Goldelico) do offer a hardware validation kernel and a

Debian/LXDE rootfs, but this does not comprise a phone software.

Projekts like SHR, QtMoko and others are in the middle of porting

their distros to the GTA04 platform. So the software is not completely

ripe but on good progress.
But we already can do phone calls by a simple shell script and

apt-get install through UMTS.
Q: Is there driver support for every bit and piece of the hardware?

A: We do not yet have drivers for Camera, IrDA, Audio IN, Torch/Flash,

FM radio. If you can support the development, please help!
Please also note that these hardware parts have not been tested in

detail. So they may not work at all.
Q: Where are the schematics?

A: The System Manual includes the schematics:
http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/downloads/37/
They will be updated soon to reflect the changes from the GTA04A3 (Early

Adopter) to the GTA04A4 board.
Q: Do you have spare components like case, antenna etc.?

A: We can't buy or produce these parts and have no steady supply.

We will try to get some replacements, but can't promise.
Q: Is it possible to downgrade from the GTA04 to GTA02?

A: If you swap the display again, yes. You can also get a second

display module so that you can simply swap the GTA02 and GTA04

boards+display units within minutes:
http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=LCD%20Module
Q: Do I need a debug board?

A: No. The TI OMAP is "unbrickable" and you just may need a

RS232 cable to boot and reconfigure NAND flash parameters.
Q: I want to use it in a project and need 50, 100, 500, 1000 units.

A: For samples or small quantities, please order them from our

shop. For larger batches, please contact us and we will find out

how fast we can produce and at which volume rebate. Depending

on quantities, we can develop and produce variants.
Q: What can I do to increase the likelihood that the group buy

reaches the minimum quantity?

A: Convince your fellow GTA01/02 owners to think about buying

a GTA04 board. Talk, Mail, Blog about the GTA04 to make it

known that the Openmoko project did lift off again.
Q: I don't feel comfortable to replace the motherboard myself.

A: The most critical part is to remove the LCD module from the

GTA01/GTA02 board. Either find someone to do it for you. Or

get a spare part. Or send the device to us and we will do it for

you at a small fee.
Please follow the instructions like for a buzz rework:
http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%20Installation%20Service
Q: I am a reseller. How can I get devices?

A: You are welcome to support the Openmoko movement. But

we can't give any big dealer margins because the components

and production are already very expensive. Please contact us

for details.

Q: My country is not listed in your shop. A: Running export into all countries on this world needs a lot of paperwork and knowledge to follow all the customs regulations. And worse, we have some US-Technology inside the GTA04 that is classified by EAR. So we need a re-export permission. This is all beyond our capabilites. Therefore we have to regret that we can't serve all countries on this world. But you may find friends who live in a country we can directly serve and you manage the export yourself.

I’m attending OHSW 2011

slyon — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:47:47 +0000

I’m attending the Open Hardware- and Software Workshop 2011, which will take place at 2nd – 4th December in Munich.

At this nice, little conference/workshop FOSS enthusiasts get together to discuss and debate on topics like free software and open hardware.

This year some of the interesting topics will be:

Experiences with the Openmoko/Goldelico GTA04 project.
Presentation of a selfmade and low cost multitouch couch table.
Vala programming course.
and much more…

You can find further information and the agenda at:
http://www.ohsw.org

HP|Palm Pre – msmcomm

slyon — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:06:05 +0000

Msmcomm
FSO
Status
Links

As you may already know^[1], I got a free HP|Palm Pre2 developer device some time ago.

The first project I started with this really nice piece of hardware is Bootr^[2] – a multiboot solution for all HP|Palm Pre devices, which let’s you select an OS (SHR, WebOS, Android, …) at startup.

Msmcomm

I pledged that I’ll work on the SMS part of msmcomm^[3] next, which is a free and open source utility to communicate with the Palm’s Qualcomm/MSM modem.

Now I’m happy to announce that I’ve finished quite some work on msmcomm’s SMS part and I’ve upstreamed all bytes of it. This starts at the (almost) lowest level of reverse engineering the structures used in the protocol to communicate with the modem and building useful data structures out of it. Then gathering suitable data to stuff into those structures and send them to – and receive them from – the modem.

FSO

To make my work usable to distributions like SHR^[4], QtMoko^[5] and Aurora^[6], I integrated my work with a higher level layer – the FreeSmartphone.org middleware^[7]. You can now use the usual FSO DBus commands as stated in FSO’s docs^[8] to send SMS’ and listen for new, incoming SMS’.

As FSO is an abstraction layer between the low msmcomm/modem level and the higher userspace/distribution level, all my work can now be used by the abovementioned distributions automagically without any change needed – isn’t this awesome?!

Status

What’s working

sending/receiving SMS
works for SMS containing special chars like “äöüß”
works for multi part SMS (e.g. SMS > 160 chars)
acknowledging (single) incoming SMS
works using the FSO and the Msmcomm DBus APIs

What’s left

acknowledging multi part SMS
SMS status report
squeezing out bugs

Note: This only represents the SMS part of msmcomm. There is whole lot more working in the context of calls, 3g internet, sim, phonebook, …

Links

[1] HP|Palm developer device – blog.slyon.de
[2] Bootr – github.com
[3] Msmcomm – git.freesmartphone.org
[4] SHR project – shr-project.org
[5] QtMoko project – qtmoko.org
[6] Aurora project – wiki.freesmartphone.org
[7] FreeSmartphone.org – freesmartphone.org
[8] FSO API documentation – docs.freesmartphone.org

Goldelico/Openmoko GTA04 at last production stage

slyon — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:54:37 +0000

Goldelico GTA04
Testing
Future
Support
Links

The replacement SoC for the Openmoko Neo Freerunner and Neo 1973 – called Goldelico GTA04 alias “Phoenux” – just arrived at it’s final production stage after another slight delay.

Goldelico GTA04

The Goldelico GTA04^[1] is a state of the art hardware upgrade for your Openmoko Neo Freerunners and Neo 1973s. It has an ARM Cortex A8 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a HSDPA 3G modem, an OpenGL ES 3D graphics chip, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and much more…
For a detailed overview of it’s technical specification and the story behind it, see my other post^[2].

Testing

The first three “GTA04 Early-Adopter Boards” arrived at the labs of Golden Delicious Computers in Munich^[3] and successfully went through the semi-automated hardware validation test. The remaining GTA04 EA boards are expected to arrive later this week.

Future

After those remaining boards passed the test, they are ready to ship to their new owners, who are already very excited about their new free smartphones and ready to develop free software for it.

It is expected that the FreeSmartphone.org^[4] middleware will quickly support the GTA04, which makes it possible to run phone distributions like SHR^[5], QtMoko^[6] and Aurora^[7] on it. And of course Debian GNU/Linux will run on the Goldelico GTA04 as well, as it is the default OS on the EA boards^[8].

Support

If you want to know how you can support this project, which now needs to shoulder the production of the next batch of GTA04 boards, which will then be available to the public, you have serveral opportunities:

Make a donation to the project ^[9], so Golden Delicious Computers can stock the chips needed for new GTA04 boards.
Buy a cool Letux 400 ^[10] MIPS Minibook, so Golden Delicious Computers can clear their warehouse, to stock GTA04 parts.
Preorder a GTA04 replacement board ^[9] for your Neo 1973/Freerunner, after it became available again.
Spread the word about this ^[1] awsome project.

Links

[1] GTA04 project – gta04.org
[2] specs and story of the GTA04 – blog.slyon.de
[3] Golden Delicious Computers – goldelico.com
[4] FreeSmartphone.org project – freesmartphone.org
[5] SHR project – shr-project.org
[6] QtMoko project – qtmoko.org
[7] Aurora project – wiki.freesmartphone.org
[8] GTA04 Debian rootfs – projects.goldelico.com
[9] Preorder a GTA04/donate – handheld-linux.com
[10] Buy a Letux 400 Minibook – handheld-linux.com

SlyBlog

GTA04 booting SHR in 17 seconds

Video

Got interrested?

OpenPhoenux – Independent Mobile Handheld

Goldelico GTA04 – OpenPhoenux

GTA04 Installation Guide for SHR

GTA04 Installation Guide for SHR

Getting the files

Preparing the microSD card

Installing the gta04-init system

Installing SHR

First boot

Installing Firmware

Congratulations

Building a Case for the Goldelico GTA04

The Story

First Attempt

Future Plans

How you can help

Updated: Openmoko Community Survey 2011

Rankings

Conclusion

Happy New Year

Links

webOS is going to be OpenSource Software

Openmoko/Goldelico GTA04 is available for the masses!

Goldelico GTA04 – free your phone!

Technical Specifications

The release announcement

I’m attending OHSW 2011

HP|Palm Pre – msmcomm

Table of Contents

Msmcomm

FSO

Status

What’s working

What’s left

Links

Goldelico/Openmoko GTA04 at last production stage

Table of Contents

Goldelico GTA04

Testing

Future

Support

Links