Replicant

h1. Devices donations

{{toc}}

h2. Introduction

While Replicant has some money to buy devices, and from time to time does use it to do that, it's very time consuming to look and find the devices we are looking for.

Giving devices directly to Replicant's (paid and volunteer) developers enables them to focus as much of their time as possible on development instead.

To this end, we very much welcome device donations. 

Since we spend a lot of time researching which devices would be good for our project to port to, the types of devices we are interested in obtaining is somewhat limited.

If you have any of the devices below, please contact the Replicant project or developers.

h2. Contacting the Replicant project or developers

Replicant developers can typically be found on the #replicant IRC channel on Freenode, or in the mailing list. It's a good idea to contact them through such means to donate devices. We also have a contact address for the project but it's often better to post to the mailing list, as more people might be interested in specific devices for doing specific work, especially when some Replicant developers already have the device you want to donate.

As Replicant developers also go to conferences, it's also possible to meet them there and give the devices directly. This saves time and money, as it can avoid shipping the devices.

h2. Devices

As the Replicant project evolves, and developers comes and leave, it is hard to precisely predict in advance which device models we will need and how many we need at a given point in time. However, it's still possible to have a rough idea of which devices are needed or might be useful.

h3. Maintained device

To make a Replicant release, it's a very good idea to make sure that at least one developer that is actively working on the release has at least every supported devices.

Without that we would need to wait (potentially indefinitely) for someone to test the release before it's released, or hope that the other devices are similar enough and that everything will work fine.

* When devices are very similar (like the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and the Galaxy Tab 2 10.0), the probability of having one but not the other working is still small enough so we could take our chances.

* In some cases it's also interesting for a single developer to have multiples time the exact same device, as it can help saving a lot of time when comparing things or when working on two totally different parts of the code or different Replicant versions for the same device. For instance Replicant developers working on upstream Linux and Replicant 6 might have GNU/Linux installed on one device and Replicant 6 installed on another one.

A list of maintained devices is available on the "supported-devices":https://replicant.us/supported-devices.php page

[[People#Denis-GNUtoo-Carikli|Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]] still lacks the following devices:

* 1 Galaxy Note 8.0 WiFi (GT-N5110)

* 1 Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 WiFi (GT-P3110)

* 1 Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 WiFi  (GT-P5110)

* 1 Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 GSM  (GT-P5100)

However this is not crucial as he already has a Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (P3100) and a Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100).

h3. Device variants for porting or testing Replicant

Replicant has been tested on very few variants of a given device. For instance for the Galaxy Note II, we only support the GT-N7100 variant. Having more variants would enable us to test Replicant on them, and if some more work is needed and that we can find the time to do it, to also port Replicant to them. Though right now most people are probably busy with Replicant 6.0 or Replicant 10.

h4. Samsung Galaxy S3

In addition to the GT-I9300 variant which is already supported by Replicant, Replicant developers are lacking the following variants of the Galaxy SIII:

* GT-I9300X

* GT-I9305T

* GT-I9305N

* SGH-N035 (SC-03E)

* GT-I9308

* SCH-I939

* SCH-I939D

* SHV-E210K

* SHV-E210L

* SHV-E210S 

Some Replicant developers also probably lack the Galaxy SIII 4G (GT-I9305) and are really needing one to work on the Replicant 10 port and/or the modem.

h4. Samsung Galaxy Note II 

In addition to the GT-N7100 variant which is already supported by Replicant, Replicant developers are lacking the following variants of the Galaxy Note II:

* GT-N7102

* GT-N7105

* GT-N7105T

* GT-N7108D

* GT-N7108

* SGH-i317

* SGH-i317M 

* SCH-i605

* SCH-R950

* SCH-N719

* SGH-T889

* SGH-T889V

* SPH-L900

* SGH-N025 (SC-02E)

* SHV-E250K

* SHV-E250L

* SHV-E250S

h3. Broken devices with Exynnos 4412

Two new Replicant developers (juri and clever) are working to understand if we can find a way to run fully free software bootloaders on the devices that have an Exynos 4412 like the Galaxy SIII (GT-I9300). Even devices with broken screens or completely broken devices are useful for them.

In addition, [[People#Denis-GNUtoo-Carikli|Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]] would also be interested if the devices PCB are working (no screen needed) and already have wires soldered to get a direct UART and a JTAG connection, as, unlike the two new developers, he's not confident enough with micro-soldering to try that (the connections are really tiny).

h3. Single Board Computers with Exynos4412

In our research to understand if it's possible to run fully free bootloaders on devices with the Exynos 4412, it would be interesting to be able to use the JTAG to understand if code is being run or not at very early stages.

The following Single Board Computers have an Exynos 4412 and seem to have a connector for the JTAG:

* Odroid Q[1]

* Odroid Q2[2]

References:

fn1. https://wiki.odroid.com/old_product/odroid-x_u_q/odroid-xq

fn2. http://odroid.us/mediawiki/index.php?title=ODROID-Q2

h3. Phones devkits

Phone devkits might be useful to [[People#Denis-GNUtoo-Carikli|Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]] in the future (once Replicant 10 is ready) to do tests on modem isolation:

* The Pinephone "Project Don't Be Evil" devkit

* Librem5 devkit

Both devkits have an mPCIe connector, which enables to test way more easily the modem isolation by replacing the modem with an mPCIe to USB adapter and plugging various peripherals like a keyboard for instance.

h3. GNU/Linux smartphones, tablets and PDAs

Once Replicant 10 will be ready we will be able to add support for new devices. 

We're really interested in the following devices:

* The Pinephone smartphone

* The Librem5 smartphone

* The Necunos NC_1 PDA

Some developers are probably interested in getting them before having a Replicant 10 release as it's possible to add support for them in parallel.

The following developers are also interested in getting them after the Replicant 10 release:

* [[People#Denis-GNUtoo-Carikli|Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]]

Sending them before the release also works, but the work will probably not start before the release.

h3. No longer supported devices

While Replicant decided to stop supporting devices with RAM between the modem and the main System-On-a-Chip, it might nevertheless still be a good idea to keep the following devices working in libsamsung-ipc:

* Galaxy S (GT-I9000)

* Nexus S (GT-I902x)

* The Galaxy Tab that is supported by libsamsung-ipc (which variant?)

The Galaxy S (GT-I9000) and the Nexus S (GT-I902x) are supported by Replicant 4.2 that still builds with Trisquel7.

This could help testing libsamsung-ipc with such devices.

[[People#Denis-GNUtoo-Carikli|Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]] is interested in getting the following devices, but it's not crucial as he will get a Galaxy S (GT-I9000) that will most probably be sufficient for testing.

* Nexus S (GT-I902x)

* The Galaxy Tab that is supported by libsamsung-ipc (which variant?)

h2. Requesting devices

When the devices are paid for by Replicant's money, it is common practice to ship devices to people that are already working on Replicant or related projects, to limit the risk of not having any work done.

However, if the devices are donated by individuals or companies, it's up to them to decide whom to give the device to.

h3. Insurgo

If you need a device to work on specific tasks, you can ask packetup[m] from Insurgo on the #replicant IRC channel. It's however up to packetup[m] to decide if it's worth spending time and money to find, buy and ship the device(s).

The advantage of this method is that it saves Replicant developers lot of time.

h3. Replicant

It's also possible to use Replicant funds to buy devices as it was done before.

The people on the [[SteeringCommittee|Steering Committee]] have to approve the usage of the funds for that.

Once it is approved there are several possibilities:

* Someone from the Replicant community has to buy find and ship the device, and get reimbursed by Replicant funds. To do that people from the Steering Committee have to ask the FSF for reimbursement, and it can take some time to be processed.

* You can also buy the device and get reimbursed by the FSF once the people from the Steering Committee ask to the FSF to reimburse you. You will have to send payment details to the FSF and it can also take some time to be processed.

h3. Adding yourself to that page.

If it's not urgent, you could also add yourself to that page stating why you need the devices: We occasionally have some people that want to donate specific devices to Replicant, but we don't always need them. Lately (Around 2019/2020) we had offers on the mailing list for a tablet with 512M of RAM, non replaceable battery but a free bootloader and a Galaxy Note II (I think it was a N7100), but no one was interested as most people already working on Replicant seemed to already have enough Galaxy Note II (for instance I've already got one and I don't need a second one for working on Replicant so far), and for the tablet people seemed busy with other tasks already.