Group: Hardware/Computers/e-readers
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Revision as of 11:18, 25 March 2018
Contents
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.
RYF interpretation and resulting hardware choices
- Devices without WiFi/Telephony network are old. This typically results in the device having very few RAM. Deactivating the WiFi chip in hardware might be a way to get around this issue. TODO: Look how to do it for WiFi chips commonly used in e-readers (for instance look if there is a disable pin).
- If a hardware block is present but typically not used (for instance if a device has a GPU but doesn't use it because it uses an e-ink display which has a high latency) does it requires fully functional free software for it?
Existing hardware
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 to do 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.
Software support that helps:
- Most of the hardware of the device already supported by upstream projects (Linux and a free software bootloader).
Hardware features that helps:
- Serial port that is easy to access
- Booting the Bootloader from the USB or serial port
- Ethernet (unlikely to be found on such devices)
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: This enables to use most of the GNU/Linux applications and alleviate the need for custom software that works with buttons only.
- 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 | work required to add a device | Self hosting | FSDG compliant |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Parabola |
Packages: |
? (low) |
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Yes | Yes |
GuixSD |
Packages: Requires (cross) compilation: |
? (low) |
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Yes | Yes |
LibreCMC |
Packages: Requires (cross) compilation: |
? (lowest) |
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No | Yes |
Replicant |
Requires (cross) compilation:
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424M for Android 6.0 (High) |
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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
Reader software
- Off the shelf free software pdf readers (check RAM usage)
- FBReader
- Calibre
Hardware
Candidates without WiFi
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 | Display | Touchscreen | developement facilities | source code | Ammount of work required for upstreaming | Ammount of work for RYF | Issues | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Story HD | iRiver | Story HD (Basic) | NXP (formerly Freescale) I.MX508 | 128MB | e-ink |
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iRiver source code for Story HD Basic:
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? | Sony | PRS-600 | NXP (formerly freescale) I.MX31 | 128MB | e-ink | ? |
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EB600 |
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Samsung S3C2440AL-40 | 32MB | e-ink |
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? |
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Candidates with WiFi
Deactivating the WiFi chip in hardware might be sufficent to make the devices RYF compliant
Board | Vendor | Product | SOC | RAM | Display | Touchscreen | developement facilities | source code | Ammount of work required for upstreaming | Ammount of work for RYF | Issues | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A6 series |
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Samsung <?> (Arm9 400MHz) | 128M | ? | ? | ? | ? |
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Boox 60 |
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I.MX31 | 128M | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
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Story HD | iRiver | Story HD (WiFi) | NXP (formerly Freescale) I.MX508 | 128MB | e-ink | ? | ? |
iRiver source code for Story HD WiFi:
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Bad candidates
Board | Vendor | Product | SOC | RAM | Display | Touchscreen | developement facilities | source code | Ammount of work required for upstreaming | Ammount of work for RYF | Issues | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon | Kindle Fire (first generation) | OMAP4430 | 512M | Standard (Tablet) |
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Being evaluated
Board | Vendor | Product | SOC | RAM | Display | Touchscreen | developement facilities | source code | Ammount of work required for upstreaming | Ammount of work for RYF | Issues | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bookeen | Cybook Gen1 | Probably not available: Proprietary OS | ||||||||||
Bookeen | Cybook Gen3 | S3C2410 or S3C2440? | 16M or 32M? | e-ink | ? |
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Bookeen | Cybook Opus | S3C2440 | 32M | e-ink | ? |
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Bookeen | Cybook Orizon | |||||||||||
Bookeen | Cybook Odyssey | |||||||||||
Bookeen | Cybook Muse | |||||||||||
Bookeen | Cybook Ocean | |||||||||||
Bookeen | Bookeen Saga | |||||||||||
Kobo | eReader WiFi | NXP (formerly Freescale) i.MX357 | e-ink |
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Source code available:
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Kobo | Wi-Fi | SOC: NXP (formerly Freescale) i.MX357 | 128M | e-ink | ||||||||
Kobo | Touch | e-ink | ||||||||||
Kobo | Mini | e-ink | ||||||||||
Kobo | Glo | e-ink | ||||||||||
Kobo | Aura | NXP (formerly Freescale) i.MX507 | e-ink |
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Kobo | Aura HD | e-ink | ||||||||||
Kobo | Aura H2O | e-ink | ||||||||||
Kobo | Glo HD | e-ink | ||||||||||
Kobo | Touch 2.0 | e-ink | ||||||||||
Kobo | Aura One | e-ink | ||||||||||
Kobo | Aura Edition 2 | e-ink | ||||||||||
A9 series | Jinke | A9 series | Samsung <?> (Arm9 400MHz) | 128M | ? |
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E60 | Samsung | S5PC100A66 | 256M |
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PocketBook Pro 912 | Samsung <?> (arm) | 256M |
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iRiver | Cover Story | ? | ? |
? |
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EB100 |
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EB600 |
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See also
Building hardware
Considerations
Components
System on a chip and associated companion chips
Vendor | Product | Minumum quantities | Available until | RYF issues | Linux upstream status | Bootloader upstream status | Companion chips |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NXP | I.MX 25 | ? | ? | No issues | Mostly complete | Mostly complete? (bareobx?, u-boot?) | ? |
NXP | I.MX 50 | ? | ? | ?
Issues:
TODO:
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Mostly complete | Mostly complete? (bareobx?, u-boot?) | ? |
NXP | I.MX 51 | ? | ? | ?
Issues:
Optional: |
Mostly complete | Mostly complete? (bareobx?, u-boot?) | ? |
NXP | I.MX6Q | ? | ? |
Issues:
Optional:
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Mostly complete | Mostly complete? (bareobx?, u-boot?) | ? |
Allwinner | A20 | ? | ? |
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very few missing drivers | ? | ? |