[Community] GTA04A5 / Letux 2804

Michael Spacefalcon msokolov at ivan.Harhan.ORG
Thu Jan 16 21:31:08 CET 2014


Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller <hns at goldelico.com> wrote:

> Why do you assume that your (IMHO unlawful) procedure done to "free" the
> Calypso is not possible for a Qualcomm modem?

Because all "modern" baseband processors (MTK, Qualcomm etc) have ROM
bootloaders which perform cryptographic verification of downloaded fw
images, and will not boot any image that has not been signed by the
secret key corresponding to the public key whose hash is burned into
OTP (one-time programmable) fuses right in the modem chip silicon!
The FSF term for this freedom-robbing feature is tivoization.

Even the later chips from TI (Calypso+ and LoCosto) have this "feature",
but the classic Calypso used in Openmoko GTA0x and Pirelli DP-L10
phones does not - that is the critical distinction.

Of course the classic Calypso chips are no longer made, but I have a
stash of 100 of them sitting right here in a desk drawer - should be
enough to make illegally-free phones for the true freedom lovers among
us.  And if I'm not mistaken, some Chinese sellers still have quite a
bit more available.

> So I think your conclusion is just based on your pure incapability to do the
> same.

s/incapability/disinterest/

If I wanted to obtain a bootleg copy of Qualcomm's modem source code,
I could probably do it.  Don't forget that I operate in the very same
geographical area where Qualcomm has its HQ, Qualcomm has a habit of
employing "desperate for a job" programmers for stupid grunt work at
offensively low pay rates (with high turnover as a result), and people
in USA are not as obsessed with being "law-abiding citizens" like
Europeans.

But life is short, I have plenty of other things I wish to accomplish
before I kick the bucket (building a new quad-band GSM-only "dumbphone"
based on the Calypso being just one of them), so I leave the task of
freeing Qualcomm/MTK/etc modems to someone else who, for whatever
reason beyond my comprehension, finds the good old GSM and the good
old Calypso to be "not good enough" for him or her.

If and when someone posts sources and instructions on this list that
do for the GTA04 modem what my hack does for the Calypso, only then
will GTA02 and GTA04 become equally free.  Until then, GTA02 is
significantly more free, and GTA04 is a freedom downgrade.

VLR,
SF

P.S. As to your "IMHO unlawful" comment, if some lawmaker decides to
make a law that makes it illegal to breathe, does it mean that we
should all obediently suffocate ourselves?



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