IRC log for #neo900 on 20180130

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00:40.24Joerg-Neo900Harald and Zecke, those guys are truly incredible
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01:19.38*** topic/#neo900 is http://neo900.org | CCCAMP15 lightning talks at http://neo900.org/stuff/cccamp15/ - major: http://neo900.org/stuff/cccamp15/ccc2015talk/neo900-wpwrak_CCC2015.webm | conversations are logged to http://infobot.rikers.org/%23neo900/ and http://irclog.whitequark.org/neo900 | Welcome newest team member metacollin! https://neo900.org/news/neo900-update-2017-09-03
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17:19.25paul_boddieWith regard to FSF RYF certification, take a look at "A Light Bulb Goes Off..." in this article:
17:19.32paul_boddiehttps://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/fsf-ryf-background
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19:35.02DocScrutinizer05paul_boddie: nice. Thanks a lot! anyway visibility of hw stuff in software tools still isn't really a stringent definition of what can get RYF certified and what can't, in my book. Note that Neo900 doesn't deliver any software, by product definition. We deliver hw docs that suffuce to allow FOSS developers to develop software for our hardware. If a subsystem like (Mali) GPU is _visible_ or not isn't really a criterion for us, rather if
19:35.03DocScrutinizer05we provide the hw docs for all the peripherals that are needed to operate the device. I don't see a better definition of what we can do to "respect [your] freedom"
19:37.33DocScrutinizer05from another perspective based on what's been the rationale in that article, we even strongly discourage "normal users" to buy a Neo900 until our primary customer group which is FOSS developers has provided the software that meets "normal users'" requirements. Does that mean our product is not RYF certifiable since our traget group are no "normal people"?
19:40.10DocScrutinizer05to put it simple: we hand all the freedom to all out customers that we possess ourselves, we have no "secret knowledge" and thus we *can not* ship any software that violates RYF rules
19:48.56DocScrutinizer05paul_boddie: the distinction between "normal users" and "cmdline-savvy users" makes perfect sense as long as you consider a product shipped with software. For a *hardware* certification it seems to be the wrong approach, a trap many software devels fall for.
19:50.28DocScrutinizer05it almost seems (and this article confirmed that another time for me) like RYF doesn't certify a certain HARDWARE property of a product but still a SOFTWARE property
20:04.11DocScrutinizer05is the absence of all RYF-violating software a sufficient criterion to grant RYF-certification or is it not?
20:04.51DocScrutinizer05I think RYF needs a massively augmented or altered definition of what it actually approves
20:06.26DocScrutinizer05"could a lightbulb get RYF approved?"
20:07.39DocScrutinizer05or a ASUS ISa PC motherboard, for that particular consideration
20:08.02paul_boddieI absolutely agree that proper documentation should be provided for anything that respects the user's freedom.
20:08.38DocScrutinizer05yeah, but that isn't even a complementary criterion of RYF certification
20:09.01paul_boddieIn practical terms, getting the sources of an ancient kernel that happens to work is not particularly enjoyable.
20:09.29DocScrutinizer05actually it seems totally irrelevant what hardware gets provided, as long as just the software shipped with the product meets the RYF criteria
20:10.01DocScrutinizer05makes it quite impossible to certify a product that's *only* hardware
20:10.12paul_boddieAnd it may not fully utilise the hardware, either. But having working software does at least test the practical aspects of the freedoms.
20:10.30DocScrutinizer05which sort of renders RYF ad absurdum
20:11.06paul_boddieYes, hardware without software almost means that there's nothing to certify.
20:11.33DocScrutinizer05s/almost//  and we fully agree here
20:11.57paul_boddieWell, I was using "almost" to cover myself. ;-)
20:12.27DocScrutinizer05we provide the DOCS to make your own software, which in my book per definition meets all aspects of RYF spirit
20:13.21paul_boddieBut on the topic of PVR/SGX, if it is optional and can be hidden, maybe the FSF are satisfied by that.
20:13.23DocScrutinizer05we do so since we ourselves don't have any better docs than these
20:14.26paul_boddieFrom what I understand, a lot of their concerns are about corrupting users by offering them proprietary things. "See no evil" as it were.
20:14.29DocScrutinizer05I don't know about "hiding stuff", I know the system may run from a stocl linux
20:15.18paul_boddieI have a MIPS CI20 that has PVR/SGX and you don't need it even to run a desktop. So I can imagine the DM3730 being a similar story.
20:18.51paul_boddiePersonally, I regard RYF as being about software, not open hardware. "Hardware for Free Software" as it were.
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20:27.10DocScrutinizer05((similar story)) yes it is
20:29.16DocScrutinizer05also there are a few efforts to provide a FOSS driver for PVR, not sure how far they got. Is it a reason to not provide hardware with PVR or is ot rather a reason to exactly do provide hardware for those who develop the software for it?
20:30.59DocScrutinizer05it feels like a chicken&egg problem where FSF rather smashes the egg since they don't like the existing chicken, while they don't even consider which chicken might come out of this egg
20:32.46paul_boddieIndeed. Interesting way of putting it! You have to work with what you've got, I guess.
20:33.14DocScrutinizer05a good RYF definition for me would be: this hardware has no blockers for free software to run on it
20:33.55paul_boddieSome of these bundled GPUs are a lottery, and there may be no perfect SoC in a given family that has "free everything".
20:34.15DocScrutinizer05alas I have to insist it's FSF's duty to verify that by finding the software they like
20:34.28DocScrutinizer05there isn't
20:35.04paul_boddieI can understand that they don't want blobs that provide important functionality where other people get to construct those blobs but not the users.
20:35.32DocScrutinizer05;ali GPU was promising, I don't know how far they went with FOSS drivers. I pushed with the guys directly involved, so they remove their copyright from a .h file and put it under GPL. They wouldn't
20:35.44DocScrutinizer05Mali that is
20:35.50paul_boddieSo, saying that no-one gets to use the blobs does make some sense, as long as you don't need the thing the blob is powering.
20:36.26DocScrutinizer05yes, absolutely
20:36.40paul_boddieThe Mali stuff was being reverse-engineered, but the guy apparently got hounded out of his job for his trouble.
20:37.17DocScrutinizer05(Mali .h file) this was ST-Ericcson Snowball board(?) with NovaThor Soc
20:38.09DocScrutinizer05I worked for ST-E back when, on NovaThor
20:38.22DocScrutinizer05on the modem though
20:38.33paul_boddieI don't know the details of the reverse-engineering, but I'm thinking of the Lima project. I know that ARM has non-free drivers that people use.
20:39.26paul_boddieWith Lima, fairly recently, it looks like someone from AMD picked it up. So ARM, if they were playing hardball, managed to get a much more established player involved.
20:39.43DocScrutinizer05afaik ST-E published an official (not a REed) Mali driver, just a .h file was not under GPL, they kept their copyright and license
20:40.22DocScrutinizer05I didn't follow closely though
20:40.36paul_boddieOK. I didn't know about that, or I don't remember about it.
20:41.26DocScrutinizer05the PVR driver source code leaked. Nobody touched it for a long while since that is totally colliding with GPL
20:42.25DocScrutinizer05but anyway OMAP work with the FOSS 2D PVR drivers. 3D is blob
20:42.44DocScrutinizer05the shader and whatnot stuff
20:43.14DocScrutinizer05openGL-ES(-2?) 2D parts
20:43.51paul_boddieYes. If you only need a framebuffer then you can ignore the 3D stuff, even the entire PVR stuff, I think.
20:44.31DocScrutinizer05I'm not sure about compositor, a part of PVR
20:44.36paul_boddieI see that Nikolaus is trying to make the PVR stuff easier to deal with for those who have/want to.
20:45.37paul_boddieActually, your points about documented hardware apply nicely to PVR. The programming manuals I've seen for products with PVR just have "white paper" details for the PVR hardware.
20:45.49DocScrutinizer05yes, Nikolaus and Pandora/Pyra folks have a rich historical knowledge of PVR driver stuff
20:46.07paul_boddieSo, if RYF were about documentation, the PVR stuff would fail on that alone.
20:46.40DocScrutinizer05yes, but then you don't need it
20:46.44enycdid you see Wizzup etc...have some beta  newer software for  n900 ?
20:46.46paul_boddieNikolaus did notice some more documentation about PVR not that long ago, but it was difficult to see if it changed anything about free drivers or not.
20:46.53DocScrutinizer05yes
20:46.54enycdevuan with  h-d  and all that
20:47.02enycusing newer kernel
20:47.12enycpresumably be easier to get that  running on neo900 similarly ....
20:47.16DocScrutinizer05parazyd just pinged me about it this very moment
20:47.41DocScrutinizer05what's running on N900 also runs on Neo900
20:47.42enycthats' all going to be good news....
20:49.29enycbut what about layout/production help for proto_v2 ?
20:50.09DocScrutinizer05enyc: we need a lot of things, see ToDo list
20:50.31DocScrutinizer05more preorders is one of them, and for that prolly a kickstarter
20:50.58enycDocScrutinizer05: i foresee checiken-ad-egg problem?
20:51.02DocScrutinizer05we also need metacollin back
20:51.28enycDocScrutinizer05: origianlly, proto_v2 success would  give much more credance to project being do-able, to put out for thing slike that.
20:52.23DocScrutinizer05yes, this develops again into a chik&egg prblem which I hoped I had finally solved by contracting metacollin so I could "leave the project alone" for urgently needed reconvalescence
20:52.56enycwhow unknown is the metacollin situation?
20:53.03enycis it likely to be resolved?
20:53.22DocScrutinizer05I have no funds and no energy and no time and not the mental capacities to *again* solve it
20:53.42DocScrutinizer05no idea
20:53.49DocScrutinizer05no answer to my email
20:54.16DocScrutinizer05he might be in holiday and return tomorrow, or (God forbid) been hit by a bus
20:54.28enycor blown-up on a bus, or whatever
20:55.56DocScrutinizer05sorry afk
21:19.55croxhttps://electronics.stackexchange.com/users/33870/metacollin <= " Last seen 53 mins ago "
21:23.16DocScrutinizer05hmmmm
21:26.01DocScrutinizer05/msg nickserv info metacollin  <=  [Notice] -NickServ- Last seen  : Dec 07 02:24:04 2017 (7w 5d 18h ago)
21:26.22DocScrutinizer05sorry I really need to be afk now
21:40.55paul_boddieSee you again, doc!
23:06.01Oksanametacollin's location: "Strongly inaccessible" Newest posts on electronics.stackexchange : Jan 16
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