Group:Hardware/TODO/DUPLICATE INFO/Freest

Work in progress

Looks like we need some things that are on wikipedia mediawiki [1] but not here or default in 1.12 [2] for this to look good. I'm copying a lot of syntax from this wikipedia article [3].

Specifically this syntax is not working:

Footnote / reference syntax

<ref name="coreboot-on-dbe61c-usb">http://wiki.thincan.org/DBE61#Caveats states that "USB boot is not possible without highly experimental code."</ref>

Example:

Template syntax

{{yes}}
{{no}}
{{rh}}

Example: style="background: #90ff90; color: black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-yes"|Yes

Please help

Please add to this list, and speak up if you see something that you know is non-free!

Desktops

Definition

These systems at minimum should have:

• The ability to work stand-alone - no reliance on other computers being available
• Libre boot firmware (BIOS)
• No components that can not be replaced by a person with a screwdriver that require drivers with binary blobs to function
  • Usually wifi adapters and graphics adapters are the issues here - you can help with this if you are a hacker with appropriate skills...
• Not make an insane amount of noise or have a form factor that is aimed at the server market

Comparison: Basic properties

	Release year	Approx System Price	Architecture	Boot firmware	Wifi chipset	Video chipset	Links
BeagleBoard RevC2	2008	$206.30 BeagleBoard + Power Supply + Case	armel	u-boot	-	PowerVR(framebuffer can be used without proprietary driver,3d needs proprietary drivers)	Detailed Specifications
ThinCan DBE61C-USB	2005	$395 (for a two-pack)	i386	coreboot "USB boot is not possible without highly experimental code." [4]	-	todo	todo

Comparison: Where purchasable and lowest-cost shipping option

	World	BE	CN	FR	US
BeagleBoard RevC2	Yes				$22
ThinCan DBE61C-USB	Yes				$125

Please use ISO Country Codes.

World indicates that there is at least one reseller that is willing to ship anywhere in the world as a standard part of their business.

Misc Notes

BeagleBoard RevC2

• 3D graphics require a binary blob, but you can just not use 3D graphics.
• Boot loader is u-boot. ROM source isn't open, but ROM is really ROM, in the chip, not flashable from software. There is a loader between the ROM and u-boot called x-loader, but it is based on u-boot and is free software.
• x-loader is also called MLO when put on a sd-card : from the #beagle channel: "<khasim> MLO is x-loader, x-loader is strip down version of u-boot, used to get a minimal bootloader onto OMAP3's internal RAM, generally used with NAND and MMC booting as they are don't support executing in place"
• the tools for compiling and flashing x-loader are free software : "<Gnutoo> ok are the tools for compiling x-loader and flashing it free software? => <jpirko> Gnutoo: yes" and the source of some uttilities can be find here
• The Always Innovating Touch Book is basically a BeagleBoard in a (*really* :-) nice case.
• See IRC logs starting here for more...
• It's *really* tiny. The box is about the size of 2 packs of playing cards.
• http://kamejoko80.wikidot.com/news
• Kridner observed that the board's HDMI video port is not actually HDMI-compliant. However, he said it "works great" with low-cost HDMI-to-DVI adapters and ordinary LCD flat panel displays. "The splashscreen is 1280 x 1024, but the bottleneck is on the pixel clock, which has a 75MHz limitation. So right now we can do 720p — 1280 x 720 — at 30 frames per second," he said. [5] - This is good as HDMI is usually DRM-encumbered [6].

ThinCan DBE61C-USB

Really expensive shipping.

lshw output

Output from lshw.

BeagleBoard RevC2

TODO

ThinCan DBE61C-USB

TODO

Machines to evaluate when possible

• Lemote Fuloong Mini - not available outside of china to the general public as far as I know - might be possible to get if you are a hacker and contact them directly. Need someone who speaks a Chinese language to comment on price and availability within China (this info doesn't seem to be available in English).
• ThinCan DBE63 - should be available in Q2 or Q3 2009.

Routers

A lot of router run or are capable of running a GNU/Linux distribution,but most of them have non-free wifi drivers despite of having a free bootloader(which replace the bios)

• /brcm47xx HOWTO free your wrt54*/brcm47xx router : running a 100% free GNU/Linux distribution on your wrt54*/brcm47xx router router is possible...it just need to be polished
• routers with atheros wifi cards usually come with wifi driver named madwifi and that contain(need to verify if it's still the case) a blob named HAL. but Master mode may be possible with the ath5k driver + wireless-compat

Laptops

Lemote

The Lemote yeeloong is the first fully free laptop, including the Bootloader(that replaces the BIOS) and the operating system.There are no firmwares in the wifi card. A port of gnewsense is beeing developed for this laptop,and the laptop is used by Richard Stallman.

Characteristics

• MIPS 64 CPU@800MHz
• 512MB or 1GB of DDR2 RAM
• 1024x600 screen
• 160GB hard disk or 2GB SSD or 8GB SSD

Non-Free Components

While Lemote has made an amazing effort to make the hardware as free as they possibly could, there are still a few non-free software components (in the form of binary blobs):

• The Embedded Controller (EC) - Code belongs to Quanta, Lemote cannot release
• The PCI expansion ROM that initializes the SM712 - Code is actually designed for x86 (runs in an emulator), likely is owned by SiliconMotion
• Hard Disk firmware

Servers

• Some server can be bought with coreboot pre-installed,informations are here

Mobile Phones

• Openmoko Freerunner is currently the most free mobile phone
• There is an effort to liberate the Palm Pre as much as possible

Android

An android phone should not be used as is:

• It spy on you [1]
• The G1 and the dev phone have non-free ati 3d driver[2]
  

[1] http://www.linuxtogo.org/android-on-g1
[2] http://lwn.net/Articles/313116/ inside http://lwn.net/Articles/311715
If you buy one expect to have to do some work such as:

• jailbreak/root it if it's not a dev phone
• reflash a bootloader
• create a GNU rootfs
• port the FSO stack to it: in order to have the telephony part you should write some code for suporting the specificities of your modem

Components

The components are part of a computer,such as the graphic card and can be used to choose laptop and embedded computers ,or to make or choose Desktop computer

Graphic cards

• Free Graphic cards drivers must be checked in order to see if there are some sort of microcode loaded.

Intel Cards

Most of intel card come with a free software driver but some cards like the GMA 500 are instead a Powervr which lacks free software driver for something else than framebuffer.
Note that the Poulsbo chipset incorporate a Powervr

Ati Cards

The status of the most common Ati chipset support in the free software driver can be find here
The correspondence between the chips and the cards models are here

Nvidia Cards

The support for Nvidia cards in the free software driver(nouveau) is very experimental,status can be find here,there is also a Status Matrix
Note that the nv driver while beeing under a free software license, is ofuscated.

Wifi cards

• ath5k
• ath9k
• rtl8187

Mainboards

Mainboards for x86 system

Usually Mainboards comes with a bios already present,but that's not always the case:

• some alix boards but not all of them comes with a free software replacement for the BIOS named tinybios
• some system can be bought with coreboot preinstalled(where?)

Otherwise the only solution is to install coreboot if the mainboard is suported or port it if the chip are suported but not the mainboard. This is a complicated procedure which include the removal and replacement of the bios chip(the Eprom memory chip) while the computer is running. Here is the list of Supported Motherboards

Other Hardware

Hobbyist hardware

• BUGlabs's bug: 100% free software, apart from the possible firmwares, schematics are avaliable
• Arduino
• Pinguino,the blog of the project is here

See Also

• Hardware Devices that Support GNU/Linux

http://wiki.thincan.org/DBE61#Caveats states that "USB boot is not possible without highly experimental code."