Good Potential Targets¶

Requirements¶

Basic¶

List of the bare minimum requirements for a device to be ported to Replicant:

• The device must be supported by CyanogenMod officially (better) or via 3rd party repos
• There must be a way to flash images (via bootloader or recovery) using a free program
• The kernel must not be signed: the bootloader must not check the kernel signature
• The kernel sources must have been released
• The network type must be GSM, no CDMA phone can be supported for now

Good target¶

What makes a good target for Replicant:

• Bootloader must be ready to flash images, or be very easy to unlock
• Free user-space implementation for most of the hardware already available
• Standard or well-known protocols used in the hardware (V4L2/ALSA/NMEA, etc)
• Firmwares needed only for WiFi/Bluetooth, and not sound, screen, touchscreen, camera, etc
• Freedom-compliant hardware design: Modem isolation (no shared mem, GPS, audio)

Ideal target¶

An ideal target for Replicant would be:

• Free bootloaders that allow easy flashing for the user
• All the hardware using standard protocols, kernel-drivers and no user-space binary blobs
• Components that do not require loadable firmware
• Ways to update the internal firmwares of the chips (for instance to allow a free software modem implementation)
• Total modem isolation (doesn't control audio, nor GPS, mem, NAND, etc)

Devices status¶

Openmoko Neo Freerunner¶

Has root: YES
Sim Unlocked: YES
In production: NODetails:

We never ported Replicant 2.2 to the Neo Freerunner but there is a project to run Android on it called android-on-freerunner

People from this project reported that Android 2.2 was to slow on the Neo to be usable at all.

Other major issues are: it has an ARMv4t architecture that brings some apk compatibilities issues because lots of apk packages use native code, often compiled for higher arm versions.A solution could be to recompile each application but it’s heavy work.

Update: the new Openmoko Beagle Hybrid uses an

ARM Cortex A8 board that is based on ARMv7 architecture (the same of Nokia N900 and Palm Pre).

Nokia N900¶

Has root: Depends on Simlock(if no simlock is there you should be able to get root by running a command)
Sim Unlocked: Depends
In production: ?(can be bought in regularly)

We never ported Replicant to the Nokia N900. There is a project for it called Nitdroid that have nearly everthing working.

One issue is is that voice calls depend on cmt_speech pulseaudio plugin, that is free software but not included in Android.

Another big issue regards source code: the main nitdroid developer told us it was hard to build and its build was not documented.

The project also doesn’t seem very freedom friendly in the sense that their goal seem to be able to run some proprietary android software.

Apple iPhone 3G¶

Has root: NO
Sim Unlocked: YES (if you buy it without annual contract)
In production: ?

The idroid project ( http://www.idroidproject.org/wiki/Main_Page ) is porting android to the iphones and other apple mobile devices.

It seems that the iphone2g is the most supported phone and that they made it usable. Although because no current replicant developpers own an iphone. So no one could verify.

Most of the hardware seem standard(libertas,AT commands on modem side(with a lot of customs comands),alsa,standard accelerometers…) which is better(no driver to write from scratch)
We didn’t check other iphone version.

Windows Phones¶

Has root: ?
Sim Unlocked: ?
In production: Depend on the phone model

There are many windows mobile phones, like the HD2, however no one investigated it a lot and we are unsure if Android can be booted without haret(in other words haret can boot android from windows mobile, which means that you have to start windows mobile first…).

The key project for that is HTC-Linux

Geeksphone One¶

Has root: YES
Sim Unlocked: YES
In production: NO

The geeksphone one is very similar to the htcdream.
The screen resolution is lower, and they have a different wifi chip(the same than the freerunner which uses WEXT(not an issue for android))
Note that there is an android project with sources for it available here: https://github.com/rmcc/

Geeksphone Zero¶

Has root: YES
Sim Unlocked: YES
In production: YES

The Geeksphone Zero allows custom Android and Linux images to be run instead of the deault ones.
Cyanogenmod (the android derivate Replicant is based on) provides support for the Geeksphone Zero.

SoC is Qualcomm MSM7227 (easy to support on Android).

GizmoForYou FLOW G1.55¶

Has root: YES?
Sim Unlocked: YES?
In production: ?

Overo boards used in this phone are OMAP 3 with free xloader and u-boot (like in GTA04).
Modem uses AT and Android reference RIL (free) is used. Audio is ALSA.

Instructions to build Android 2.2 for it are provided: http://www.gizmoforyou.net/wiki/index.php/Building_G155_Android
The Android 2.2 source code is availble here: https://gitorious.org/flow-g1-5/

Non-free firmwares are needed for WiFi, bluetooth, etc on the Overo boards that include these.
Also, a non-free gralloc lib is used (for graphical acceleration). The 0xdroid project should be able to provide a free gralloc for OMAP 3 boards as a working replacement.

Documentation (datasheets) are also available for most hardware components.

Unfortunately that phone isn’t cheap.

DIY Phones¶

Has root: ?
Sim Unlocked: ?
In production: ?

There is a small number of Do-it-yourself phones where the user is
expected to assemble his phone.
Examples of this include the odroid
( http://www.hardkernel.com/ ) phones with comes with android support.
However the issue is that not all users wants or are able to assemble their own phones.

Comparison of potential targets¶

Support easyness¶

Phone	Android target version	Gralloc	RIL	Audio	camera	sensors	GPS
Geeksphone one	maybe 2.3?	Easy, probably supported by hardware/msm7k audioHardware libraries	AT possible(TODO:contact VquickSilver for details),but proprietary ril uses RPC binary protocol(TODO:contact morphis for details)	Easy, probably supported by hardware/msm7k audioHardware libraries	difficult since no one finished support for msm camera yet.	unknown	unknown yet
Samsung Galaxy Nexus	4.x, unsure if backporting to 2.3 is doable	recovery from replicant ics-preparation worked but not the gralloc(garbage on screen)	Easy thanks to samsung-ril+libsamsung-ipc	ALSA with free software module in cyanogenmod and AOSP	Seem to have a free camera library	?	doable(SIRF)
Samsung Galaxy SII	?	?	Easy thanks to samsung-ril+libsamsung-ipc	no free software module available, but is ALSA (seems doable) however the yamaha CODEC source code seem to be somehow offuscated according to some people	?	?	doable(SIRF)
Samsung Galaxy SIII	4.x, unsure if backporting to 2.3 is doable	?	Easy thanks to samsung-ril+libsamsung-ipc	free software audio libraries available in cyanogenmod	?	?	unknown
Nokia N900	? (look at Forking Nitdroid)	?	Documented in free software GNU/Linux compatible code	Documented in free software GNU/Linux compatible code	Standard interface	Should be easy	?

Hardware freedom¶

Phone	Bootloader	Firmwares	Modem transport	Modem peripherals	Modem Storage
Geeksphone One	proprietary	Wifi, ?	shared memory	Mic, GPS	Shared NAND
Samsung Galaxy Nexus	Proprietary, partially signed	Wifi,?	High speed serial if OMAP4 SOC (shared memory for other versions)	?	?
Samsung Galaxy SII	proprietary	Wifi, ?	?	?	?
Samsung Galaxy SIII	proprietary	Wifi, ?	?	?	?
Nokia N900	proprietary, partially signed	wifi,camera,bluetooth,?	High speed serial	GPS	?