Free Maemo

2009-12-02T02:23:58Z

207.229.176.139: Direct port from http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/FreeMaemo

= Free Maemo =

The purpose of this page is to document efforts to free the
[http://maemo.org Maemo] mobile environment as well as document the
steps necessary to use the [http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/ N900]
device as a fully free phone.

At the time of writing, the N900 / Maemo 5 ship with a mix of free and
nonfree components. Our goal should be to figure out how to use only
free components while still maintaining a usable and enjoyable device.

Some discussion is happening at http://maemo.org/community/maemo-developers/double_checking_free-nonfree_packages/.

== Components in need of attention ==

Graph depicting status of free/nonfree components on the n900:

[[Image:Maemo_top_level_architecture.png]]

(nonfree components are in red, free components are in black)

(taken from [http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/Top_Level_Architecture Toplevel Architecture] page on the Maemo wiki)

'''NOTE:''' This list probably contains some items that are actually at the time of writing, actually free software. There is an [http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-developers/2009-December/022747.html email thread aiming to clarify this], and once those clarifications are made certain items will be removed from the following list of non-free packages.

=== Sharing plugins / libsharing ===

http://maemo.org/api_refs/5.0/5.0-final/libsharing-plugin/ch07.html

=== calendar-backend ===

Appears to be a free version:

http://maemo.gitorious.org/calendar-backend

=== libtime ===

Time management service is a new subsystem to provide a common library
for all time-related (not alarms, though) services.

http://maemo.org/api_refs/5.0/beta/libtime/

=== libcityinfo ===

From [http://maemo.org/api_refs/5.0/beta/libcityinfo/]:

Cityinfo library allows to get some informations about set of cities
from all over the world. Each city is connected with one timezone
(related to standard linux time zone database) so You can get local
time in given city by calling functions from libtime (clockd)
library.

Maemo mapper is apparently a free replacement:
http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/maemo-mapper/

=== startup wizard ===

Presumably this is the "wizard" that appears when a user first logs
in. This would be nice to be made free but is not critical.

=== factory store / clear user data ===

This would be nice to be made free but is not critical.

=== gypsy daemon ===

This appears to be free to me:

http://gypsy.freedesktop.org/wiki/

According to cool900:
http://cool900.blogspot.com/2009/11/closed-source-components-in-maemo-5.html

(2009-11-13: Gypsy daemon in location framework is in free.)

=== liblocation / location daemon ===

Some information here:
http://maemo.org/api_refs/5.0/5.0-final/liblocation/LocationGPSDevice.html

outdated stuff here:
http://maemo.org/maemo_release_documentation/maemo4.1.x/node10.html#SECTION001027000000000000000

=== backup ===

http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Generic_Platform_Components/Using_Backup_Application

=== Address book / "Contacts" application ===

http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Using_Generic_Platform_Components/Using_Address_Book_API

Sits on top of evolution backend stuff. So might not be too hard to
build a UI replacement that conforms to the the same backend?

=== Media player ===

This is allegedly nonfree

=== mission control ===

This is a strange one because Mission Control is itself free software,
which is a Telepathy component:

http://mission-control.sourceforge.net/

However they apparently have some nonfree bits:

: <wjt> paroneayea: MC itself is LGPL [15:13]
: <wjt> paroneayea: Maemo uses osso-mission-control, which is upstream MC plus
: some proprietary bits

=== rtcom-eventlogger ===

Apparently recently freed according to:

http://cool900.blogspot.com/2009/11/closed-source-components-in-maemo-5.html

=== libaccounts ===

http://rtcomm.garage.maemo.org/docs/libaccounts/

=== SSO ===

????

Not even sure what this is. Supposedly single-signon related?

=== PulseAudio PEP ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/Multimedia_Domain#PulseAudio_Policy_Enforcement_Point]:

PulseAudio plugin to manage volume levels, re-route streams and
eventually forcefully shutdown streams.

=== libplayback ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/Multimedia_Domain#libplayback]:

libplayback is a client API that allows an application to declare
its playback state. The library uses D-Bus to talk to a central
component that manages the states. Media applications can use the
API to synchronize their playback state.

=== EAP ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/Multimedia_Domain#EAP_and_AEP]:

The EAP (Entertainment Audio Platform) package is used for audio
post-processing (music DRC and stereo widening).

=== AEP ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/Multimedia_Domain#EAP_and_AEP]:

AEP (Audio Enhancements Package) is a full duplex speech audio
enhancement package including echo cancellation, background noise
suppression, DRC, AGC, etc. Both EAP and AEP are implemented as a
PulseAudio module.

=== FMTX middleware ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/Multimedia_Domain#FMTX_Middleware]:

FMTX middleware provides a daemon for controlling the FM
Transmitter. The daemon listens to commands from clients via dbus
system interface. The frequency of the transmitter is controlled via
Video4Linux2 interface. [...]

=== Funambol SyncML ===

Claims "Funambol is the leading mobile open source project and leading
provider of open source mobile cloud sync and push email for billions
of phones."

https://www.forge.funambol.org/DomainHome.html

If it's "open source", is it really nonfree then?

Appears to be under the AGPL?
https://core.forge.funambol.org/source/browse/core/trunk/LICENSE.txt?revision=28308&view=markup

=== xml2wbxml ===

Appears to be linked to the wbxmllib project, which is under the gpl?
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wbxmllib/develop

=== ICD2 ===

From [http://maemo.org/api_refs/5.0/beta/icd2/]:

The Internet Connectivity daemon, ICd2, is responsible for network
connectivity in the device. It is started at system boot time from
the init script /etc/init.d/icd2, and stopped with the same script
at system shutdown.

Applications requesting network connections do not interact directly
with ICd2, but instead use the shared libconic library API. The
libconic library is the stable maintained API for network
connectivity, which uses internal D-Bus APIs com.nokia.icd and
com.nokia.icd2 APIs to communicate with ICd2. These D-Bus APIs are
internal and may change without further notice.

libconic appears to be free though

https://stage.maemo.org/svn/maemo/projects/haf/branches/libconic/0.13/COPYING

=== Modem Services & Cellular Modem Software ===

Proprietary, hard to find documentation?

Presumably should be replaced and made free by OFono:
http://ofono.org/
http://git.kernel.org/?p=network/ofono/ofono.git;a=summary

=== softupd ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/Core_Domain#Softupd]:

Program for flashing the eMMC contents
- Unpacks a FIASCO image fed to it
- Copies the unpacked contents to eMMC

=== sysinfod ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/Core_Domain#Sysinfod]:

Provide interface for accessing device information

Provide a DBUS interface to device specific information (HW id, WLAN
MAC, …)

=== CertMan ===

Appears to be free or have a free implementation?
http://gitorious.org/+mer/mer/certman

=== OpenGL ES 2.0 ===

Can't seem to find out details about this package

There appear to be some free software implementation tests here, but
not really usable?:
http://www.khronos.org/developers/resources/opengles/

Vincent 3d is a free software implementation?
http://www.vincent3d.com/Vincent3D/index.html

Hm, looks like the problem may be on the driver end:
http://forum.openhandhelds.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=341

And it does not look likely that this is free or that it will be free
soon.

=== Nolo bootloader ===

NoLo bootloader not only is proprietary and sucky, there's almost no
documentation available for it anywhere.

Some questions here:
http://maemo.org/community/maemo-developers/debian_on_the_n900-_configuring_nolo/

Could u-boot be a possible replacement?:
http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot

Nobody appears to have tried such a thing and there is no
documentation on whether or not that will be possible.

In the meanwhile people seem to be using bootmenu as a workaround for
this completely unconfigurable bootloader:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=344412&postcount=16

However this isn't ideal, either from a practical or a free software
perspective. U-boot is probably the best replacement option?

=== Flasher ===

http://wiki.maemo.org/Flasher

Not clear if this needs a free software replacement. If we can
replace the bootloader, probably doesn't.

Is this a free software replacement?:
http://www.nopcode.org/0xFFFF/

=== System UI ===

Part of the "System Control" whatever.

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/System_Software#System_UI]:

SystemUI provides services to other components to display UI
elements (dialogs, notifications, alarms) that does not have native
UI on their own.

Powerlaunch aims to provide a free replacement:
http://powerlaunch.garage.maemo.org/

=== DSME ===

Freed according to:
http://cool900.blogspot.com/2009/11/closed-source-components-in-maemo-5.htmlci
(2009-11-13: DSME is in free).

Part of the "System Control" whatever.

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/System_Software#Device_State_Management_Entity_.28DSME.29]:

DSME is responsible of device state management , process lifeguard
support, watch dogs and thermal management. DSME architecture is
based on modular plugin architecture. DSME core provides message
handling capabilities to modules. Each module is dynamically loaded
library. DSME runs in single process and is single threaded. The
D-Bus interface provides services to request reboot, shutdown or
powerup (from acting dead mode), indication of shutdown, thermal
events and data save.

=== BME ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/System_Software#BME]:

Provides battery monitoring and charging service.

Provides battery identification, monitoring, charging and BME API.

TSS interface for A/D converter calibration.

Emulation libraries for Nokia OS services.

=== Clockd ===

From [http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/System_Software#Clockd]:

Provides centralized place for handling time.

=== MCE ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/System_Software#Mode_Control_Entity_.28MCE.29]:

MCE is responsible of handling display control (active/dim/blank),
activity monitoring (keys, buttons), keyboard backlight, ambient
light sensor (ALS), LEDs and device mode control. In addition, MCE
is responsible for providing interface to proximity, accelometer and
vibra devices.

Powerlaunch aims to provide a free replacement:
http://powerlaunch.garage.maemo.org/

=== IPHBD ===

Apparently used for synchronization, according to:

http://cool900.blogspot.com/2009/11/closed-source-components-in-maemo-5.html

=== Profiled ===

From
[http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Architecture/System_Software#Profiled]:

Provides centralized place for handling (user) profiles related data
and notifications.

=== sounds ===
=== icons ===
=== fonts ===
=== themes ===

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Free Maemo