[Gta04-owner] GTA04 Status

[Boudewijn]

On Sunday 21 August 2011 10:34:54 Johannes Schauer wrote:
> @nikolaus: thanks again for this wonderful update on the progress! Let
> me just reiterate (just as many of the previous posts to this list
> already did) how incredibly awesome it is to be kept up to date with the
> development status in this amount of detail!
+1 from me ;-)

> On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 09:58:29PM +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
> > a) working (hardware and linux drivers are available):
<cut long feature list> 
> > b) works but quality is unclear:
<cut 2 issues...>
> > c) flaws (not easily fixable without running a new board layout):
<... and a couple more>
> > d) not tested (mainly because Linux drivers are missing and/or not
> > properly configured):
<cut lots of features; "extra's", apart from UMTS voice>

> (...) It would be great if the early adopter boards
> had at least confirmed that a working audio path to the modem is only a
> software issue.
> > (...) And for UMTS, there are some proprietary
> > AT commands where we need the written permission to
> > publish them. Unfortunately, two of the commands are very
> > nice to make UMTS networking simple and to enable the
> > Voice PCM path.
That seems technically a smaller problem than a software issue, and seems to 
imply that there is no hardware issue?  Such a pity NDA's can have such an 
influence :-(

Concluding I can only agree with Josch: there's a lot to play with, there 
seems to be more there already in this EA board than there was in the GTA02. I 
also agree that voice calls would be nice, so that I might actually replace my 
day-to-day motherboard instead of the testing one.

> > 4. Kernel Drivers
> > 
> > So we need your help. I.e. your Linux expertise and willingness
> > to learn new things together with us. Mainly to develop the missing
> > Linux kernel drivers and interfaces. And port new Userland code.
> > 
> > Therefore, we decided to build all remaining EA Boards next week
> > despite some flaws and untested areas.
Haha, it sounds like: thanks for enjoying the ride so far, and now to work! 
After months of anticipation, this news is quite exciting, with or without 
voice calls.

> > Two areas are still in negotiation with the chip manufacturers.
> maybe there is the chance to get those commands from some pdf hosted on
> a chinese server?
No matter how: NDA is NDA. It's difficult to open up without permission from 
those who have the official key, even if there are shaded workarounds. Brute 
forcing sounds daunting to me: I guess we're not only dealing with proprietary 
AT commands, but with a sequence as well. 
 
> > Where we need more Kernel Expertise for testing the final bits
> > of the hardware:
> Hopefully people from the community with enough expertise and free time
> show up for these tasks. Sadly I must admit I'm lacking the former :/
Well, there was no "I'm no kernel-dummy"-agreement when I ordered mine, just 
the warning. Time to start building expertise, but lacking time as well (other 
languages got different words for points in time and periods of time ;-) )

> > David has got his GTA04 right for Chaos Communication Camo
> > (did you meet him?)
> cheers david! hope everything goes well!
Do your best!

> Btw, what is the status of arm in linux? I recently skimmed some news
> about the apparent mess that arm is in the kernel due to the many
> different boards out there. This probably means that upstreaming gta04
> changes will not be possible until a solution to this is found?
Is it not because of different options used in different flavours of arm? I 
remember reading that the situation was improving, but if someone with more 
actual knowledge could elaborate: welcome!


> > 6. Questions?
> > Please ask us what you ever wanted to know about the GTA04
> > but were afraid to ask...
> So, yeah: only pressing question right now: will the gta04 early adopter
> board have the ability to make a working phone call or could there exist
> a potential hardware blocker avoiding it?
I thought I had some questions, but between starting to write and being 
interrupted far too often by children running around, they slipped my mind.

Once again: keep up the good work and thanks for the update! 

Boudewijn

PS: I received some openmoko-list-messages, so I added them as a receipient in 
case the servers are up again.