Binary blobs in the PinePhone

[amosbatto]

I'm trying to figure out what binary blobs exist in the PinePhone.

The Allwinner A64 has many GPL violations:

Kernel:

• lichee/linux-3.10/modules/aw_schw/libschw
  
• lichee/linux-3.10/modules/nand/sun50iw1p1/libnand_sun50iw1p1
  
• lichee/linux-3.10/drivers/input/touchscreen/aw5x06/libAW5306
  
• lichee/linux-3.10/drivers/video/sunxi/disp2/hdmi/libhdmi_sun50iw1
  
• lichee/linux-3.10/drivers/media/platform/sunxi-vfe/lib/lib{isp,mipicsi2_v1,mipicsi2_v2}
  

U-Boot:
(Only u-boot-2014.07 is checked here)

• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/arch/arm/cpu/armv8/wine/dram/libdram-homlet
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/arch/arm/cpu/armv8/wine/dram/libdram-pad
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/arch/arm/cpu/armv7/sun50iw1p1/dram/libchipid
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/arch/arm/cpu/armv7/sun50iw1p1/dram/libdram
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/drivers/video/sunxi/disp2/hdmi/libhdmi_sun50iw1
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/nand_sunxi/sun50iw1p1/libnand-sun50iw1p1
  

Allwinner is using binary blobs for the Flash memory, HDMI, DRAM, MIPI CSI interface and touchscreen. The question is whether all of these binary blobs have been removed in mainline Linux. Does anyone have links to the files so I can check?

The Realtek RTL8723CS Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip requires proprietary firmware in the /lib/firmware directory.

Are there any other components that require binary blobs?

[p1x3l3d]

Interesting question, thanks for asking

I'm interested in this information as well!

[Dmytro]

...
The question is whether all of these binary blobs have been removed in mainline Linux. Does anyone have links to the files so I can check?
...

Do you really need a link for 5.4.x kernel source?

[tophneal]

The Manjaro Arm team has announced on their forums an Alpha image for the Phone/Tab. Another person has already requested the repo to potentially contribute. You may check there when the repo link is posted.

[tllim]

I'm trying to figure out what binary blobs exist in the PinePhone.

The Allwinner A64 has many GPL violations:

Kernel:

• lichee/linux-3.10/modules/aw_schw/libschw
  
• lichee/linux-3.10/modules/nand/sun50iw1p1/libnand_sun50iw1p1
  
• lichee/linux-3.10/drivers/input/touchscreen/aw5x06/libAW5306
  
• lichee/linux-3.10/drivers/video/sunxi/disp2/hdmi/libhdmi_sun50iw1
  
• lichee/linux-3.10/drivers/media/platform/sunxi-vfe/lib/lib{isp,mipicsi2_v1,mipicsi2_v2}
  

U-Boot:
(Only u-boot-2014.07 is checked here)

• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/arch/arm/cpu/armv8/wine/dram/libdram-homlet
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/arch/arm/cpu/armv8/wine/dram/libdram-pad
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/arch/arm/cpu/armv7/sun50iw1p1/dram/libchipid
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/arch/arm/cpu/armv7/sun50iw1p1/dram/libdram
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/drivers/video/sunxi/disp2/hdmi/libhdmi_sun50iw1
  
• lichee/brandy/u-boot-2014.07/nand_sunxi/sun50iw1p1/libnand-sun50iw1p1
  

Allwinner is using binary blobs for the Flash memory, HDMI, DRAM, MIPI CSI interface and touchscreen. The question is whether all of these binary blobs have been removed in mainline Linux. Does anyone have links to the files so I can check?

The Realtek RTL8723CS Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip requires proprietary firmware in the /lib/firmware directory.

Are there any other components that require binary blobs?

The PinePhone developers work on mainlinux and don't use Allwinner BSP SDK which you have posted. I believed the mainline code is GPL compliance and there is no binary blobs. For more info, please explore on Linux-Sunix (https://linux-sunxi.org/Main_Page). I sincerely appreciates, solutes, and thanks on Linux Sunxi developers contribution, the PinePhone can happens due to their effort.

[amosbatto]

The Manjaro Arm team has announced on their forums an Alpha image for the Phone/Tab. Another person has already requested the repo to potentially contribute. You may check there when the repo link is posted.

According to Manjaro, they are using the Linux kernel found at:
https://gitlab.com/pine64-org

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what are the binary blob files are, so I'm not sure what to search for.

[tophneal]

I'm sure they'd be willing to answer your question on the Manjaro arm forum. They're quite responsive.

[MartijnBraam]

The kernel repo doesn't contain any blobs, like it should be.

The only thing that's a bit on the edge is that the rtl8723cs contains the firmware patch that's sent to the wifi chip in the C source as an array.

We're not using the allwinner code, we're using the reverse-engineered sunxi code.

[wibble]

That's as I expected, but good to hear confirmation, thanks. This blog post has a section on blobs saying much the same about the kernel. It also says the uboot uses a sunxi alternative to the blob for dram init. There's some history of the mainline uboot support on the sunxi A64 page.

[heocb]

I'm trying to figure out what binary blobs exist in the PinePhone.

I asked on postmarketos irc if there is any non free software in
their software? They said no. Except for the wifi card firmware, which
is non free software. You can deselect the wifi card firmware when
you compile postmarketos. Then all devices, not the wifi card, will work on the
pinephone. Some graphic features might not work at their best because
that would require pieces of non free software, which postmarketos has refrained
from.

The modem and gps require non free software. The non free software in question
is located on the usb modem chip.

If replicant decides to port replicant to the pinephone, they will utilize
usbguard.
https://usbguard.github.io/
In order to improve privacy and security. You can ask postmarketos, if
they also want to utilize usbguard.