Rockbox and OpenMoko and the Neo1973

[freeway986]

FIC is releasing a phone that is supposedly 100% open sourced.  A community has grown around it called OpenMoko that is making the software for it.  I believe it has a memory card slot.

It seems to me, a phone with a GPS that was an iPod replacement would be quite something.  Has anyone in the Rockbox community looked at their project.?

[Llorean]

Rockbox is a firmware, it wouldn't really be suited for a phone unless someone began working on converting the simulator into a better application.

[freeway986]

I see.  Basically, when I thought about listening to music on this phone, I instantly thought of Rockbox, and how you guys might relish a chance to actually use some open  hardware, instead of having to reverse engineer everything.  Oh well.  Keep up the good work, and I'll keep recommending Rockbox to everyone I meet.

Cheers.

[GodEater]

What Llorean's trying to say is, *yes* in theory we could put Rockbox on this phone - only then it wouldn't be a phone anymore - since Rockbox would have replaced the original firmware, and last time I looked, Rockbox didn't support making phone calls

[freeway986]

Yes, that makes sense.  Clearly, it should remain a phone.  I suppose I envisioned Rockbox as a firmware component, and a software component, and I wondered if the software component might be well adapted to the electronic paths a phone might offer.  I want a Rockbox branded player!  

Which gives me an idea.  Has anyone made a Rockbox Winamp skin?  Then I could feel like I was using it on my desktop too.

[rasher]

It would make a lot more sense in my eyes to create a version of the simulator that could run on the phone, inside the real firmware, assuming SDL is available. This goes for many other devices as well (gp2x, PSP, smartphones etc.).

[Llorean]

As I said, someone just needs to adapt it to being an application better. Start with the "Simulator" code, and give it perhaps the option to interact with a mouse. :-P

[markun]

OpenMoko runs on the Samsung S3C2410 of the Neo1973, which is very similar to the S3C2440 used in the Gigabeat F/X. I believe that all the components were chosen to have public documentation. There is a separate phone module which does the actual calling and is controlled through some serial connection.

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Category:Neo1973_Hardware

All in all I don't think a Rockbox port is so far fetched.

[saratoga]

Might be possible to have the cell phone hardware issue an interrupt that unloads rockbox when theres a phone call.  Still, starting with the simulator is probably a better solution.

[Lear]

There is a separate phone module which does the actual calling and is controlled through some serial connection.

Wouldn't surprise me if it was done using good old AT-commands... If so, adding (basic) support for phone calls shouldn't be all that difficult, as all the GSM stuff would be handled by the phone module.

Still, making Rockbox a good phone firmware would be a big task.

[AceNik]

guys i had recommended this during the devcon too, i also feel it would be a nice chance to enter into a new phase of development & devices altogether, just if things could be worked out would b nice, i know, people have tried to get in contact with the "open moko" project guys, but there was no answer, probably their support system or contact system didnt function at that time  

[markun]

I got in touch with Harald Welte from the OpenMoko project:

> There are some people interested in making a port of our firmware for
> the Neo1973 phone

this sounds like a lot of work, and a real waste of resources to me.
This device has a 266 (current model) or 400 MHz ARM920 CPU, with
640x480 display, very advanced audio codec/routing infrastructure,
sophisticated power management circuitry, ...

I believe you definitely want to run a media player on top of an
operating system in this kind of device.  It's a smartphone
architecture, basically PDA and phone in one case, not to be confused with
feature phones.

> What do you think of the possibilities? It's not related to the
> OpenMoko project, but maybe you still like the idea. Are the phones
> for sale yet? Would it perhaps be possible to get some phones for
> developers even if it's not officially for sale yet?

sale: unfortunately still not yet.  the battery doesn't have the proper
certifications yet, so we cannot ship any of the phones produced at
FIC's mass production factory in mainland china.

[Llorean]

So, best served as an app.