Group:Hardware/Computers/e-readers

Rationale

This page aims to document which existing ebook readers could become RYF certified without too much work. This is to see what the pros and the cons of liberating an existing e-reader versus making one.

Hardware Requirements

Basic requirements

• No WiFi unless the Wifi chip works with free software.
• Free boot software or the ability to easily port one to the e-reader.
  • If the code is signed, the system on a chip should have hardware flaws to enable users to bypass it. Some old I.MX are affected by that.
  • If there is no free software, enough documentation should be available as source code to enable porting an existing bootloader to it.
• Enough RAM to run free software operating systems.

Requirements hardware support work faster =

Since e-readers without WiFi or telephony network connection are old, the software they come with and the corresponding source code is also really old. To be able to use modern GNU/Linux or Android distribution on them, the source code needs to be used to add support for the device in recent hardware support software such as Linux or free software boot software like u-boot. Because of that it's better to pick a device that already has has much hardware supported upstream.

Additional requirements

• More RAM is better: Devices with not enough RAM may not be able to use modern FSDG distributions. Creating a specific distribution for such devices would require someone to maintain it.
• Touchscreen
• CPU that is supported by FSDG distributions or the ability to support the CPU with very few maintenance cost.

Issues

• Hardware availability: Older models are not manufactured anymore, and some vendors even went bankrupt.
• Batteries: Batteries might need to be changed. The availability and compatibility of replacements were not researched yet. We need your help to do it.

Software

Operating systems and distributions

Distribution	Architectures	RAM Requirements	Self hosting	FSDG compliant
Parabola	ARMv7 Hard Float i686 x86_64	? (low)	Yes	Yes
GuixSD	i686 x86_64 armv7? probably other if compiled	? (low)	Yes	Yes
LibreCMC	?	? (lowest)	No	Yes
Replicant	ARMv7 (which extra requirements) Not about other architectures	several hundred of megs (High)	No	Yes

e-ink displays

e-ink displays have a huge latency. I'm not sure if special software is needed to handle it or if Linux standard e-ink drivers are enough. Available software:

• F-droid has a laucnher for e-ink displays

Hardware

Good candidates

This list devices that:

• can run free boot software, potentially with some work
• don't have WiFi (or have a WiFi chip that works with free software)

Board	Vendor	Product	SOC	RAM	developement facilities	source code	Ammount of work required for upstreaming	Ammount of work for RYF	Issues	References
?	Sony	PRS-600	NXP (formerly freescale) I.MX31	128MB	?	Linux: main sources headers sources, custom modules sources Custom bootloader sources	Finish porting the I.MX31 to devicetree Port the device hardware support code to devicetree TODO: look if devices drivers are upstream Port the bootloader code to a standard bootloader (u-boot or Barebox)	Probably none	Low ammount of RAM	official source code
Story HD	iRiver	Story HD (Basic)	I.MX508	128MB	iRiver source code for Story HD Basic: Linux-2.6.35.3 Bootloader: [u-boot-2009.08]	Upstream to the devicetree (fast) TODO: look if devices drivers are upstream Port it to a bootloader (uboot or barebox)	?	Low ammount of RAM	OpenInkpot wiki

Bad candidates

Board	Vendor	Product	SOC	RAM	developement facilities	source code	Ammount of work required for upstreaming	Ammount of work for RYF	Issues	References
A6 series	Jinke A6 series		Samsung <?> (Arm9 400MHz)	128M		?	?	?	Has WiFi	OpenInkpot wiki
Boox 60	Onyx Boox 60 Wolder Boox		I.MX31	128M	?	?	?	?	Both devices have WiFi	OpenInkpot wiki

See also

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-readers