Discussion:
modem firmware
m***@dmatthews.org
2017-08-28 10:29:17 UTC
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hello

There are step by step instructions to upgrade the modem firmware of your freerunner to the latest moko13 release from the freecalypso community.

https://www.freecalypso.org/members/david/howtos/

The relevant howto includes a link to the release notes which include reasons why you might wish to do this.

--
David Matthews
***@dmatthews.org
joerg Reisenweber
2017-08-29 01:05:29 UTC
Permalink
Post by m***@dmatthews.org
hello
There are step by step instructions to upgrade the modem firmware of your
freerunner to the latest moko13 release from the freecalypso community.
https://www.freecalypso.org/members/david/howtos/
The relevant howto includes a link to the release notes which include
reasons why you might wish to do this.
--
David Matthews
Please carefully note that this update is not based on the original licensed
firmware for Openmoko devices, has not been checked and is not endorsed by
original manufacturer Openmoko and thus will void your device's (FCC/CE/...)
approval thus rendering any operation of the device outside controlled self-
contained lab environment illegal.

Best Regards
jOERG
(OM EE)
joerg Reisenweber
2017-08-29 01:14:18 UTC
Permalink
Post by m***@dmatthews.org
The relevant howto includes a link to the release notes which include
reasons why you might wish to do this.
Can't find any such link to release notes in the howto
/j
m***@dmatthews.org
2017-08-29 06:25:41 UTC
Permalink
hi Joerg
Post by joerg Reisenweber
Can't find any such link to release notes in the howto
https://www.freecalypso.org/pipermail/community/2017-August/000452.html

for the beta release of the firmware (the moko13 release has no significant changes from the beta) and

https://www.freecalypso.org/pipermail/community/2017-August/000464.html

for the latest release of fc host tools

Both those links are in the howto

--
David Matthews
***@dmatthews.org
Mychaela Falconia
2017-08-29 06:33:03 UTC
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joerg Reisenweber
2017-08-29 08:14:57 UTC
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Post by Mychaela Falconia
Post by joerg Reisenweber
thus rendering any operation of the device outside controlled self-
contained lab environment illegal.
Yup, just like using hormonal birth control from an overseas pharmacy
without allowing a doctor to sexually violate you under the guise of a
necessary exam. Laws like that are MEANT to be broken.
Thanks for taking care to lure users into breaking laws that need to get
broken according to your definition. Just, I don't need any help on that, I
need clear information about what I into when I follow your advice.

Can't you see how you're acting wrong?
Fernando
2017-08-29 09:06:29 UTC
Permalink
I think it is good that you warn people about the illegality of the situation.

I don't think it is good you claim the high ground of morals. According to your definition of right, the status of society would never change. Yes, one could do the legal fights to change the law, I guess. Good luck with that.

You appear to disregard that society has changed mostly with revolutions, fights for workers rights, etc, to arrive to a better world from which you probably benefit. And there is clearly room for improvement for a better society.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw <http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/George_Bernard_Shaw/>,

Having said that, I find the physical threats out of proportion for the intended benefit. Not to mention counterproductive.

Regards,
Fernando Martins
Post by joerg Reisenweber
Post by Mychaela Falconia
Post by joerg Reisenweber
thus rendering any operation of the device outside controlled self-
contained lab environment illegal.
Yup, just like using hormonal birth control from an overseas pharmacy
without allowing a doctor to sexually violate you under the guise of a
necessary exam. Laws like that are MEANT to be broken.
Thanks for taking care to lure users into breaking laws that need to get
broken according to your definition. Just, I don't need any help on that, I
need clear information about what I into when I follow your advice.
Can't you see how you're acting wrong?
_______________________________________________
Openmoko community mailing list
<http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community>
joerg Reisenweber
2017-08-29 09:20:29 UTC
Permalink
the moral aspects of calling somebody out for removing "no parking" signs so
people would have to pay tickets for unknowingly parking there, or not telling
people that they are in danger to even *do time in jail* when they install and
use a firmware that person provides, are not arguable in my world.

I won't comment the rest since it's totally missing the point

BR
/j
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Fernando
2017-08-29 09:38:30 UTC
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Obviously freecalypso should have a disclaimer about the legal aspects involved, but I guess people actually interested in this would be aware (e.g., discussed many times) and the lack (?) of such a disclaimer is not necessarily done in bad-faith as you claim ("lure"). But I do understand you are entitled to a fair bias against the possible good faith of their actions.
Post by joerg Reisenweber
the moral aspects of calling somebody out for removing "no parking" signs so
people would have to pay tickets for unknowingly parking there, or not telling
people that they are in danger to even *do time in jail* when they install and
use a firmware that person provides, are not arguable in my world.
I won't comment the rest since it's totally missing the point
BR
/j
--
() ascii ribbon campaign
/\
against html e-mail - against proprietary attachments
<http://www.georgedillon.com/web/html_email_is_evil.shtml>
<http://www.nonhtmlmail.org/campaign.html>
<http://www.georgedillon.com/web/html_email_is_evil_still.shtml>
<http://www.gerstbach.at/2004/ascii/> (German)
joerg Reisenweber
2017-08-29 08:34:26 UTC
Permalink
for the rest:
telling OM about alleged violations of rules while bluntly admitting that you
yourself don't care abouzt rules, have no clue about them and think they are
made to get violated... YES that is the spacefalcon we know and love ... *NOT*

wanna come shoot me once more? Or do you think you tricked us once more?
Honestly you never were close to that. The only one's foot you are constantly
shooting is your own.
--
() ascii ribbon campaign
/\
against html e-mail - against proprietary attachments
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http://www.georgedillon.com/web/html_email_is_evil_still.shtml
http://www.gerstbach.at/2004/ascii/ (German)
Mychaela Falconia
2017-08-29 19:02:31 UTC
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Mychaela Falconia
2017-08-29 20:13:26 UTC
Permalink
Post by joerg Reisenweber
the moral aspects of calling somebody out for removing "no parking" signs so
people would have to pay tickets for unknowingly parking there, or not telling
people that they are in danger to even *do time in jail* when they install and
use a firmware that person provides, are not arguable in my world.
Please explain *just how* someone can be in danger of doing time in
jail for installing and using my bugfix updates for your buggy fw when
the actual radio transmissions from the modem remain exactly the same
whether you run the old buggy fw or one of my newer versions. They
remain exactly the same because:

a) The hardware is obviously unchanged.

b) The RF calibration values in FFS originally written there on your
factory production line remain the same. I do plan on offering a
recalibration service whereby a GTA01/02 device owner can send their
device to my FreeCalypso warranty service center, it gets recalibrated
at my family company on our R&S CMU200 (the same RF test machine we
use to calibrate the new FreeCalypso devices we produce ourselves) and
sent back to the owner with this fresh calibration, but this service
is not up yet, and when it does become available, it is naturally quite
separate from an end user merely installing a firmware update.

c) The L1 code in my current firmware is a perfect match in logic to
TI's 20070608 version which appears in your old fw versions moko3
through moko8, inclusive, a range which certainly includes whatever fw
version you used in your type approval process.

d) The radio protocol stack layers above L1 (collectively called L23)
have not changed since moko8 all the way through my current moko13,
with the exception of a few functional bugfixes which do not affect
radio operation in any way.

The only way in which the modem's radio operation can be changed after
installing one of my fw updates would be if the user not only installs
the actual fw update, but also changes the /gsm/com/rfcap file afterward
(with the fc-fsio utility's set-rfcap command) to reflect the actual
triband configuration of the hw. But even in that case the only change
will be that the modem will no longer attempt to operate in the
unsupported and uncalibrated 4th band, which means *less* possible
radio transmission, not more.

Or are you saying that my fw updates are illegal simply because you
have made that public post from an openmoko.org email address saying
that is not officially endorsed by Openmoko the company? If that is
your argument, then it can be easily proven that Openmoko the company
no longer exists as a legal entity in any country and that you
personally as a mere ex-employee of that no-longer-existing company
have no special power to make statements on its behalf.

And please give me at least one documented example of any police force
using extrasensory psychic powers to detect and arrest a user of a
phone whose firmware has been updated in a way which they deem to be
illegal. Given that the actual radio transmissions remain absolutely
unchanged, they would need ESP in order to detect such an illegal fw
update.
Post by joerg Reisenweber
telling OM about alleged violations of rules while bluntly admitting that you
yourself don't care abouzt rules, have no clue about them and think they are
made to get violated... YES that is the spacefalcon we know and love ... *NOT*
While I do not care for any of the laws imposed by any of the self-
appointed and ultimately illegitimate national governments, as an
engineer I am very diligent about making my very best effort to comply
with sensible technical standards, and I continue to argue that my
products are better in this regard than yours.

M~
Mychaela Falconia
2017-08-29 23:01:09 UTC
Permalink
Post by Troy Benjegerdes
Please advise how I may best encourage you to stop talking
and take my money.
Take your money? Which product are you seeking to buy? An FCDEV3B
board? I am hoping to have those boards available for retail sale by
the end of September, i.e., only one month of waiting left. I have an
outstanding order for a batch of boards with my contract manufacturer,
the CM acknowledged the order on 20170810 and said it was going to be
3 to 4 weeks, so they are supposed to deliver by Thursday of next week
(20170907) and I am going to bug them at that time if they don't
deliver by then. Once the CM delivers the assembled boards to me, I
will need to take them to my home lab and put them through the
production test and calibration process (I have successfully recreated
the CMU200-based RF calibration process despite never having obtained
a copy of OM's original software for it), that production test will
reveal how many of the assembled boards are actually good (so far the
good yield has been about 50%), and then the good boards will become
sellable.
Post by Troy Benjegerdes
Now if only we could
properly finance you to find bugs and reverse-engineer a
better 4GLTE software defined radio...
Reverse engineering and SDR do not go together; with an SDR approach
there is nothing to reverse-eng and instead you have to forward-eng
everything yourself from scratch.

However, none of the mainstream commercial 4G/LTE modems are SDR-based,
instead they all use custom silicon. USRP-style SDR approach is
totally unsuitable for a cellphone which you could carry in your
pocket, instead you would need custom silicon of the kind that
Qualcomm and MTK and their ilk make.

On the note of "if only we could properly finance you", I actually
happen to know some very good recently retired ASIC design engineers,
and if there were "proper" financing available, I might be able to
convince them to come out of retirement and work on a libre LTE modem
ASIC project with me. But the "proper" financing for a project of
that sort would need to be well into millions of dollars, hence I am
not holding my breath for any such venture.

On the other hand, you can have a libre modem for GSM/2G based on the
elderly Calypso chipset for much much less: the already-developed
FCDEV3B modem boards for hobbyists and tinkerers will probably go for
somewhere in the $500-600 USD range retail, and if you are interested
in an SMT modem module (directly competing with SIM900 etc) based on
the FreeCalypso core, the development cost would be somewhere in the
low 5 digits USD, as opposed to the 7 digits for a new LTE modem ASIC.

M~
Troy Benjegerdes
2017-08-29 23:26:33 UTC
Permalink
Post by Mychaela Falconia
On the note of "if only we could properly finance you", I actually
happen to know some very good recently retired ASIC design engineers,
and if there were "proper" financing available, I might be able to
convince them to come out of retirement and work on a libre LTE modem
ASIC project with me. But the "proper" financing for a project of
that sort would need to be well into millions of dollars, hence I am
not holding my breath for any such venture.
On the other hand, you can have a libre modem for GSM/2G based on the
elderly Calypso chipset for much much less: the already-developed
FCDEV3B modem boards for hobbyists and tinkerers will probably go for
somewhere in the $500-600 USD range retail, and if you are interested
in an SMT modem module (directly competing with SIM900 etc) based on
the FreeCalypso core, the development cost would be somewhere in the
low 5 digits USD, as opposed to the 7 digits for a new LTE modem ASIC.
Have you looked at the crazy things that have raised stupid amounts
just because they say 'blockchain buzzword buzzword PROFIT' recently?

If there was ever a time to do a $100 million dollar coin offering
for open-source hardware silicon, it would probably be now.

Choice of venue to incorporate said offering should be left to
supporting blockchain partner company lawyers.

Troy Benjegerdes
2017-08-29 20:34:04 UTC
Permalink
Post by Mychaela Falconia
Post by joerg Reisenweber
and thus will void your device's (FCC/CE/...)
approval
The fact that a modem running your official firmware that falsely
believes itself to be quadband when running on triband-calibrated hw
VIOLATES the actual technical specs for the transmitted signals can
only mean that the approval you got was fraudulent or at least
erroneous (the certification testers overlooked the technical spec
violation), and the actual radio operation of the modem with my fw is
in BETTER compliance with the specs than with your fw.
Please advise how I may best encourage you to stop talking
and take my money. This is quite likely the most usefull
public service I have seen done in quite awhile.

It is unfortunate that previous bankrupt vendors released a
product with shoddy qualifications. Now if only we could
properly finance you to find bugs and reverse-engineer a
better 4GLTE software defined radio...
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