Flashing

[Mychaela Falconia]

Hello anonymous OM user,

> Using a Tor-friendly email provider supposedly hosted by someone named Dan.

I noticed that something was significantly off with the time it takes
for your posts to reach the list.  Your initial post and the quick
follow-up you posted right after say Aug 16 in the RFC822 Date:
headers, but they only reached our freecalypso.org mailing list server
about 48 hours later on Aug 18.  Your present reply also shows a delay
of about 23 hours between what the Date: header says and us actually
receiving it.  It looks like your Tor mail gateway is inserting some
huge delays.

> And I'm delighted you're making this all possible.

Donations are always appreciated: 159Yx6JRJ4oMLPTYrh1jW7fQ5D5tPHdnoM (BTC).

> Yes, I received this phone with an old SHR version and everytime I
> connected the SIM englightment would segvault. I flashed a newer version
> via neotool (shr-2012.07/) and able to make/receive calls. but my only
> issue now is that I can't install packages because there is no ipk
> repository at http://build.shr-project.org/shr-2012.07/.

This is the part which I unfortunately won't be able to help you with.
I don't understand any of the application processor software distros
for the FreeRunner (neither QtMoko nor SHR nor any others), and in
fact I was never able to use my own FR as a phone (or in any other end
user manner) because all that AP software is way too complex for my
taste.  Instead the only phones which I can use are simple phones aka
dumbphones that have only one processor, no application vs. baseband
separation.  And because I have not yet produced my own FreeCalypso
Libre Dumbphone and won't be able to even start working on it until
after I get my sex correction surgery done and paid for (it's a money
issue: I can't allow myself to direct any money toward project costs
when I have to save every dollar toward my surgery), I currently use a
Pirelli DP-L10 which runs proprietary fw - but at least it is close
enough to TI/FreeCalypso to allow me to exercise most debug functions.
What it really boils down to is that my distaste for excessive software
complexity is greater than my distaste for proprietary sw, i.e., I
would rather use a proprietary product that is so simple that I can
thoroughly reverse-engineer it than a "free" solution that is so
complex that I can never understand it, making its freeness a moot
point for me.  Having the source code freely available does no good if
it is so complex that I can never do anything with it except use
official releases as-is, same as one would with proprietary sw.

When it comes to the support which I am able to provide for Openmoko
devices, I support *only* the modem, and when I say "support", I
exercise the modem part of the FreeRunner as a "thing in itself",
*without* any AP software.  GTA02 devices have a NOR U-Boot which is
physically unmodifiable without the debug board (hardware write
protection which only the debug board can lift), and I use this NOR
U-Boot to operate the FR in a state where the AP software does not
enter the picture at all, i.e., this NOR U-Boot is the only code which
I run on the AP.  This U-Boot provides a serial console via USB, and
this console includes commands that turn on and operate the GSM modem.

I fully realize that my personal preference for using dumbphones like
the Pirelli DP-L10 as opposed to smartphones like GTA0x is just that,
a purely personal preference, and others have every right to prefer a
two-processor phone with separate application and baseband processors,
like Openmoko has.  But in that case Someone Other Than Me needs to
take responsibility for maintaining the AP software while I provide a
solidly working baseband, and in the case of Openmoko the fundamental
problem is that there is no one left to maintain all of that extremely
complex AP software they wrote, making it unmaintained abandonware of
very questionable usability.

> I want to flash this firmware because it's the only point I bought this
> phone in the first place a few months ago, to further liberate my life.

You need to be more careful and specific in exactly what you ask for.
If all you wish to do is to simply "liberate" the GSM modem part of
your FreeRunner, you don't need to change your firmware at all,
instead you can just download and study the Corresponding Source for
the moko11 firmware which you are already running:

ftp://ftp.freecalypso.org/pub/GSM/GTA02/gsm-fw/moko10-11-src.tar.xz

You will also need this explanatory document to make any sense of it:

ftp://ftp.freecalypso.org/pub/GSM/GTA02/gsm-fw/moko-fw-history.txt

The Calypso GSM modem was liberated when the source linked above was
salvaged from the ruins of OM-Inc; all subsequent technical work done
in the FreeCalypso project is not liberation per se, instead it is
ordinary, non-political technical improvements - although of course
none of these technical improvements would have been possible without
the liberation part happening first.

Seen in this light, moko11 is simply an old version, and we have had
several new fw versions released since then.  Since the Corresponding
Source for the old moko11 version has been published, there is no
difference in freeness between old and new versions, just the same
kind of ordinary evolutionary technical differences as would be found
in any other actively maintained and evolving piece of software.

Given that you seem to be struggling with getting a working software
environment up and running on the AP side of your FR, my recommendation
to you would be to leave the moko11 modem fw as-is for now, and focus
on the AP software, as that is where the real difficulties lie.  You
can then update the modem fw to the latest FreeCalypso version at a
much later point when the rest of your FreeRunner becomes solidly
working, which it currently doesn't seem to be, based on what you
wrote.

> I remember goldelico selling GTA02 debug boards for a symbolic 1 EUR a few
> months back,

I thought it was Sysmocom rather than GolDeliCo who offered up those
debug boards for 1 EUR apiece - or did GolDeliCo make a similar offer?
In any case, if you really need an OM debug board and can no longer
get one, you can always pay me (or any other board design engineer of
your choice) to design and build a semi-clone of that debug board for
you - it is a fairly simple FT2232D-based adapter with a custom FPC
connector.  But please also keep in mind that this debug board is only
for AP (application processor) work and will not help you in any way
with Calypso modem development or debugging or flashing - instead for
Calypso work you need an entirely different hardware article, namely,
a special cable from one of these vendors:

http://shop.sysmocom.de/products/cp2102-25
https://www.ebay.com/itm/262274039940
https://www.ebay.com/itm/252275767181

> Is it possible to run fc-loadtool on SHR?

Someone did it back in 2013, and the write-up used to be at this URL:

http://norayr.arnet.am/log/?p=113

But the site appears to have bit the dust...

If you are still interested in updating your modem fw version now that
you know that it is a simple technical update and not a "liberation"
per se, I very strongly urge you to buy a cable from one of the links
above.  Given that there is no one left around to provide significant
support for FreeRunner AP software, you would have to go through some
enormous contortions in order to perform the modem flashing procedure
from inside the FR, i.e., from the AP, without using the headset jack,
and you would have to do it without having anyone to help you.  But if
can spend a few dollars or euros on the cable, then you can flash your
modem using only the NOR U-Boot on your FR, i.e., with *zero* dependency
on any QtMoko/SHR/etc kind of software.  When using a headset jack
serial cable, there is no need to run fc-loadtool under QtMoko or SHR
or whatever, instead you run it on your PC.  Here is the latest version
of the FC host tools package which you will need to install:

ftp://ftp.freecalypso.org/pub/GSM/FreeCalypso/fc-host-tools-r11.tar.bz2

The instructions for flashing the modem using the headset jack serial
cable and NOR U-Boot are given in the INSTALL file inside the firmware
release tarball:

ftp://ftp.freecalypso.org/pub/GSM/GTA02/gsm-fw/moko-new-fw-20190128.tar.bz2

> because QTmoko seems to have
> proprietary components according to wikipedia, and I want to stay
> absoluterly clear from that.

The way I see it, *all* former Openmoko AP software distros, whether
QtMoko or SHR or anything else, are now no better than proprietary sw
by virtue of being abandoned and unmaintained.  The advantange of free
sw over the proprietary kind is that if you get bitten by a bug, you
can fix it yourself, without being beholden to the vendor - but what
if the software is so complex that you can never figure it out, and
there is absolutely no one to ask for help because it is completely
abandoned and disowned by its original creators?  Unless, of course,
*you* have the necessary technical skills and the time commitment to
take over the ownership and further maintenance of some FR AP software
distro like SHR...

For myself I seek a completely different route: because I really don't
want my phone to be anything other than a basic phone for making phone
calls and sending/receiving SMS (for every other function my Lenovo
X200 laptop running good old Slackware is much better than any "phone"
type of device can ever be), all of that enormous extra complexity of
a device like the FreeRunner will always be unwanted and unwelcome
from my perspective, even if we did have someone to maintain all of
that software.  Instead I want a dumbphone like my lovely Pirelli
DP-L10, but with fully published board schematics and with the
firmware built from source which I maintain, i.e., a FreeCalypso Libre
Dumbphone.  Unfortunately the Pirelli DP-L10 cannot be turned into a
Libre Dumbphone by way of aftermarket firmware (the hardware contains
too many extra components which are not only undocumented, but also
completely unwanted in the first place, as in camera and WLAN), hence
we would need our own hardware too, not just firmware.  I have all of
the knowledge, skills and dedication to successfully design and build
that hardware (as proven by my successful FCDEV3B GSM MS development
board hardware product), but the problem is money, or more precisely,
my unfortunate birth defect which also requires tens of thousands of
dollars to correct.

I got the misfortune of having been born in a body of the wrong sex:
my brain and soul are female, but they got mismatched with a body that
was male prior to the various feminization treatments I've been doing
since 2014.  Now I need to make a trip to Thailand to this lovely place:

https://goo.gl/maps/xcSWgY3Ppvu

to make my body 100% female, and I need to save up about 21 kUSD in
total by May of 2020 in order to get my surgery done on schedule.  It
is an extreme financial marathon for me, and if I am not able to save
up enough money in time, I will have to reschedule my surgery for some
time in 2021, in which case it will be even longer before I can go
back to spending money on further FreeCalypso development.

For anyone who may be in a position to provide significant financial
help, I make the following offers:

1) If anyone donates 20 kUSD or more, in return I will be to start
working on new FreeCalypso hardware development *immediately* as soon
as I receive the money, without waiting till mid-2020.  Whoever puts
forth the money will also get to decide *which* new FreeCalypso
hardware I develop first, with the two choices being either the Libre
Dumbphone or a packaged modem module which could be incorporated as a
component into new smartphone designs like Librem 5, Neo900, ZeroPhone
etc.

2) If someone donates 10 kUSD (half of what I need to get my surgery
done on time), I will in return commit to start working on new FC hw
development no later than September of 2020.  Why that date?  With
10 kUSD from outside sources, I will most definitely be able to hit
the May 2020 surgery date and won't have to worry about possibly
rescheduling, but I would still need to tightly save every dollar of
my own money in order to cover the other half of the total cost, hence
I won't be able to start directing my own money toward FC hardware
development costs until after all of my surgery costs are taken care
of.  I have listed 2020-09 as the worst case date if I have to put all
of my money toward the surgery and then recover from the hit of taking
unpaid time off during the immediate post-op recovery period.

And if no one donates anything substantial, I will still do new
FreeCalypso hw development all on my own, all with my own money, but
it may be very far out in the future, probably looking at 2022 or
later.

Did you say that you live some place in Europe where the local powers
that be are committed to keeping GSM/2G until at least 2030?  Any idea
regarding their immigration policies?  Asking 'cuz I will be looking
for a new place to live if I have to do my FreeCalypso Libre Dumbphone
development all on my own without any outside financial help, which
would put it well past the sunset date for GSM/2G in USA.

Hasta la Victoria, Siempre,
Mychaela aka The Mother