<div dir="ltr"><div>This is hugely helpful guys. And a wonderful first start for us. Obviously we need to start with porting Halium and going from there. <br></div><div><br></div><div>Mediatek isn't our only choice in terms of hardware as we have some other options (including Qualcomm). We will invesitgate and come back to you. We would love any assistance or recommendations on the hardware as we design this - and would really appreciate any help you could provide.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks again for the prompt responses!</div><div><br></div><div>-Eddie<br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 4:21 PM, JBBgameich <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jbb.mail@gmx.de" target="_blank">jbb.mail@gmx.de</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
Hi Station X guys,<br>
<br>
The hardware you are going to use will not directly be able to run
Plasma Mobile as it's drivers are designed to work with Android. You
will need to port Halium, which is the hardware adaption of Plasma
Mobile, to the device, using an Android kernel and a device tree.
For that, you need to have access to at least the kernel sources and
the device tree which (I heard) could be a little bit difficult with
Mediatek.<br>
<br>
I think it would be very important for the community and potential
customers (also the community of Plasma Mobile in the end), that the
device has a quite new kernel (most phones have old kernels but
maybe something that's not EOL like 3.18 which many manufacturers
currently use) and that the device tree and kernel are available to
the community as open-source. <br>
<br>
The old bq devices with Ubuntu Touch (also Mediatek powered) are
mostly closed-source, first, there wasn't even the kernel source
released due to some contract with Mediatek.<br>
This closed-source model worked fine as long as canonical had access
to the source and could work on the Hardware support, but it's now
making problems for the UBports community when they need to fix some
bugs in code they don't have.<br>
As your previous messages sounded like you want to work together
with the community, you should take care of using hardware for which
the developers can get the source code.<br>
<br>
Some people say it is very difficult to run Linux on Mediatek
hardware and prefer Qualcomm. Qualcomm seems to release the kernel
source on codeaurora at least.<br>
I'd say the screensize is not that important for development, but
that the board used is well supported by open-source android (Halium
needs sort of LineageOS support, which you'd need to create from the
sources you get from Mediatek or Qullcomm) and that the kernel and a
few other parts are open source.<br>
<br>
I hope I could help a little bit with the hardware choice (<span id="m_-5497269791550168074result_box" class="m_-5497269791550168074short_text" lang="en"><span>the
little knowledge</span></span> I have about this is from reading
the messages in the Halium Telegram group and the docs).<br>
<br>
I wish you good luck with your project!<div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<div class="m_-5497269791550168074moz-cite-prefix">On 04.10.2017 15:52, Eddie Vassallo
wrote:<br>
</div>
</div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div class="h5">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Hi Guys,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It's great to meet you all - and really appreciate you
getting back to us so quickly! <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We're actually in the stage now where we are considering a
number of ODM hardware manufacturers for the handset - so
would really love to sync with you - first and foremost - on
the prefrred hardware requirements for Plasma Mobile - and any
steer on the type of hardware (from screen size to
processor/ram) you would recommend. <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Obviously I know the project is still being developed and
shaped, but we would love to get a few prototype devices (best
matching your criteria) in house and perhaps collaborate on
firming up an initial working prototype that can be passed to
production stage. We could then evolve from there and
hopefully get to the point where we could offer a 'Developer
Edition' for the community (as a first release) as I know
everyone is dying to get their hands on Plasma Mobile, even to
help test and iron things out at this stage.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So you know, the hardware we are mainly looking at is
between 5.5 - 6.0 inch screen sizes, 720p and 1080p version
with Mediatek processors and from 3-4GB RAM. These hardware
options have been designed for Android (obviously) but are
unlocked, rooted, and ready to go in terms of retrofitting
Plasma Mobile. I know I have grossly simplified things there
;-) but both Darren and myself are excited to get some
hardware prototypes in house, and start testing and seeing how
we could make this work.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Do let me know your thoughts on minimum system requirements
- and any other info that could help steer us - and we'll keep
shooting questions over to the mailing group. Perhaps we could
set up a Slack Channel at some point to discuss further?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks again - and looking forward to working with you
guys!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Best,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-Eddie<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 2:41 PM, Bhushan
Shah <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bhush94@gmail.com" target="_blank">bhush94@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hey Eddie
(and Darren)<br>
<br>
On Wed, Oct 04, 2017 at 11:34:20AM +0100, Eddie Vassallo
wrote:<br>
> <a href="http://stationx.rocks" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://stationx.rocks</a><br>
<br>
Good to know about you.. :)<br>
<span><br>
> Obviosuly I know you guys are working with others
like Purism on the<br>
> release of their upcoming Librem 5 which looks
excellent - but I know that<br>
> won't be available until 2019. We are hoping to go
much sooner, and<br>
> obviously can start releasing from potentially Q1
2018 on a 'Developer<br>
> Edition' of a mobile using Plasma Mobile.<br>
<br>
</span>Do you have any more details about the hardware you
are going to use?<br>
<br>
Thanks<br>
<span class="m_-5497269791550168074HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Bhushan Shah<br>
<a href="http://blog.bshah.in" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://blog.bshah.in</a><br>
IRC Nick : bshah on Freenode<br>
GPG key fingerprint : 0AAC 775B B643 7A8D 9AF7 A3AC FE07
8411 7FBC E11D<br>
</font></span></blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
<div class="m_-5497269791550168074gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">:::::::::</p>
<p dir="ltr">Eddie
Vassallo<br>
Founder</p>
<p dir="ltr">Station
X<br>
Bletchley Park Science & Innovation Centre<br>
Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire<br>
MK3 6EB</p>
<p dir="ltr">T:
<a href="tel:+44%2020%203036%200863" value="+442030360863" target="_blank">+44 (0) 203 036 0863</a><br>
M: <a href="tel:+44%207740%20595753" value="+447740595753" target="_blank">+44 (0) 7740 595 753</a><br>
E: <a class="m_-5497269791550168074moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:eddie@stationx.rocks" target="_blank">eddie@stationx.rocks</a></p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://stationx.rocks" target="_blank">http://stationx.rocks</a><br>
@stationXlinux</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="m_-5497269791550168074mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<br>
</div></div><span class=""><pre>______________________________<wbr>_________________
Plasma-mobile mailing list
<a class="m_-5497269791550168074moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Plasma-mobile@kde.org" target="_blank">Plasma-mobile@kde.org</a>
<a class="m_-5497269791550168074moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/plasma-mobile" target="_blank">https://mail.kde.org/mailman/<wbr>listinfo/plasma-mobile</a>
</pre>
</span></blockquote>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">:::::::::</p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Eddie Vassallo<br>Founder</p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Station X<br>Bletchley Park Science & Innovation Centre<br>Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire<br>MK3 6EB</p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">T: +44 (0) 203 036 0863<br>M: +44 (0) 7740 595 753<br>E: eddie@stationx.rocks</p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><a href="http://stationx.rocks" target="_blank">http://stationx.rocks</a><br>@stationXlinux</p></div></div>
</div>