Group: Hardware/Computers/e-readers

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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 ?
  • 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
Story HD iRiver Story HD (Basic) NXP (formerly Freescale) I.MX508 128MB iRiver source code for Story HD Basic:
  • Upstream to the devicetree (fast)
  • TODO: look if devices drivers are upstream
  • Port it to a bootloader (uboot or barebox)
 ?
  • Low ammount of RAM

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
Boox 60
  • Onyx Boox 60
  • Wolder Boox
 I.MX31 128M ? ? ? ?
  • Both devices have WiFi

See also

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