[maemo-developers] Corporate ownership of open source projects [LWN]

[From: Frantisek Dufka]

Igor Stoppa wrote:

> -serial console:
> that can be obtained with some hacking by attaching a level shifter and
> a serial connector to the serial pads exposed, it would be enough to
> release schematic and layout (although i think there are already
> unofficial howtos)

For 770 those pin are known, there is a schematics with pin 
descriptions. For N800 it is harder, there is also schematics on the net 
but those pins are sadly not documneted there. For N810 we even don't 
have schematics.

Personaly I have tried it with clone of CA-42 cable
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.446, there is PL-2302 usb to 
serial converter in the blue connector so in theory one could just cut 
nokia plug, attach rx,tx and gnd to 770 pads and connect it over USB. 
When I tried I had no output in terminal when booting (with r&d and 
serial console flags) so most probably I did something wrong or my plug 
made from pins and rubber had bad contact or the cable was faulty or 
whatever. I guess I'll try some soldering next time.

> There are some bits that are quite trivial. I don't think anybody with
> some programming experience would have problem at stitching together a
> replacement for dsme & mce, given the functional specifications. The
> state machines implemented are not so straightforward, but a simple
> start to get going is probably not too difficult to obtain.

brightness, watchdog kicking, ... all relatively easy, the hardest part 
is IMO /usr/lib/dsme/libcalmodule or /usr/lib/libcal.so, these modules 
implement access to config partition /dev/mtd1. There is some sort of 
filesystem which stores quite interesting and vital information. It can 
be reverse-engineered but I fear that trying to write there can be fatal 
if done wrong. Hopefully current work on qemu N800 emulation will allow 
us to play with it safely.


> In the end I think what would be realistically possible - and i'm
> already completely sure that many won't be satisfied and will complain -
> is that Nokia provides one person whose sole task is to support the
> community by mantaining the closed code and providing new binaries that
> link against recent libraries.

Yes, that's what I sugested here (end of mail, point 2)
http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-users/2008-April/010183.html

for those who missed it (in maemo-users) whole thread relevant to this 
discussion is here
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/maemo/users/36150

Frantisek