Before I buy... is PinePhone actually open source?

[wibble]

I've been off the internet for quite some time. Can anyone recommend good courses or moocs that would help me dive in to everything I need to develop the PinePhone as well? Courses without much theory or history that would allow me to start working and customising the device for different scenarios would be great. I am guessing I need basics of electrical engineering because those schematics looked like extraterrestrial hieroglyphics ^_^. GSM Stack and I guess C++ for the linux os?

That's a big one - what level are you starting from? Any electronics or programming experience at all? Are you looking for general understanding, or do you have a specific goal in mind?

The GSM side is abstracted by oFono or ModemManager depending on which front end you're using. You communicate with these via dbus, and they translate to/from the AT, QMI or whatever else the modem hardware uses.

Thanks so much for the links! I love learning. As far as courses my background is general IT security, personnel security and investigation, networking, data science. As far as programming basic web design. Can solder, but electrical background is basic. For instance had to recently research how to figure out how big of a battery bank I need to power all my devices based on their hourly drain. Didn't know the calculations for this off the bat.

My goal is find a way for my children to not be tracked or spied on when they grow up and I'm long gone. I don't know where the world is going but the future globally looks oppressive authoritarian if not totalitarian and I don't believe there are any political solutions other then responsible educated citizens who have the capabilities and assets needed to check the power of every state on this planet and soon off.

As far as my linux background been a Qubes user for more than a year and have had no major problems that I couldn't figure out. This is forced to me to figure out fedora, debian and whonix. Also this made me aware of pernicious closed sourced firmware that could have backdoors or zerodays on all devices marketed as "secure". This false advertising bothers me to my core.

So my hope is to be able to get a foundation in the entire radio spectrum so I'm able to discern and adapt to the privacy and security flaws of new communication standards from non-benevolent, negligent, inconsiderate actors by being able to design and deploy devices that make the flaws of any communication standard irrelevant.

I'm currently in an amateur radio course where we're required to build on our own radio and antenna from recycled parts then use the radio for various tasks such as making contacts, signal detection, multilateration, radio discipline and encrypted transmission.

So got the PC down, now trying to get COMMS down. That's why I'm here. Thanks for any advice you can give.
[/quote]
This has been a solid reference that's stood the test of time (the fundamentals haven't changed) and got an update a few years ago. I can't comment on the companion book, but it may help with individual learning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Electronics

There are any number of online introductions to electronics but I haven't looked at any of them. When you already understand things it can be hard to judge what will make sense to someone who doesn't, plus different approaches to explanation work for different people.

On the programming front python is reasonably approachable way to start. They link to a bunch of tutorials aimed at different experience levels, so you should be able to find something at the right level.
https://www.python.org/about/gettingstarted/

[megous]

You don't need to use any blobs in PinePhone. The functionality will be limited (no modem, wifi). Also there's no blob used during boot.

[deedend]

Pine64 started a challenge to reverse engineer the BL602 WiFi/Bluetooth module, to have a 100% blob free wireless module. I think this is great, and it's as much as we can go for now (AFAIK the 3/4/5G protocols/modem are unfortunately off reach for regulatory reasons).
If you are interested and want to help this is the link: https://www.pine64.org/2020/10/28/nutcra...-wifi-ble/

[JuniperFury]

This has been a solid reference that's stood the test of time (the fundamentals haven't changed) and got an update a few years ago. I can't comment on the companion book, but it may help with individual learning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Electronics

There are any number of online introductions to electronics but I haven't looked at any of them. When you already understand things it can be hard to judge what will make sense to someone who doesn't, plus different approaches to explanation work for different people.

On the programming front python is reasonably approachable way to start. They link to a bunch of tutorials aimed at different experience levels, so you should be able to find something at the right level.
https://www.python.org/about/gettingstarted/

Excellent. Already downloaded the book, will start the python guides and be puttering around the forums. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. With so much information nowadays it can be hard to know where to start.

Pine64 started a challenge to reverse engineer the BL602 WiFi/Bluetooth module, to have a 100% blob free wireless module. I think this is great, and it's as much as we can go for now (AFAIK the 3/4/5G protocols/modem are unfortunately off reach for regulatory reasons).
If you are interested and want to help this is the link: https://www.pine64.org/2020/10/28/nutcra...-wifi-ble/

Thanks for pointing me to this. The project is absolutely necessary. Will get involved as best I can as my skill level evolves.


And thank you everyone else for all the great input. I suspect I'll be here for the long haul