OESF Portables Forum

General Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: Mickeyl on May 18, 2006, 08:49:28 am

Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: Mickeyl on May 18, 2006, 08:49:28 am: Hi guys,

the OpenEZX project aims to replace the Motorola distribution on these phones with a stack fully based on open source software. The kernel guy is making great progress with 2.6.16 and I added first support for the phone in OpenEmbedded.

If you want to get one of those, then act now or come too late - unfortunately the phone seems to be nearly sold out and MOTO stopped producing it. I just ordered mine at ARP DATACON (http://www.arp.com) who seems to have some in stock.

For me it's a great opportunity to have an Embedded Linux phone with (not now, but hopefully soon) Opie, E and GPE on it, this is why I'm posting about it.
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: Da_Blitz on May 19, 2006, 03:49:22 am: My friend has one of those, what i am intrested in from the project is A2DP support for wireless headphones thogh that would be on the open source motorlla page, the idea of torrents over gprs on the move is intresting
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: lpotter on May 19, 2006, 02:11:41 pm: The Universal HTC (sole under various names) is also on track for linux. In fact, it already runs Opie.
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: Mickeyl on May 19, 2006, 05:37:27 pm: Cool. Give us photos! (No, not just screenshots )
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: speculatrix on May 19, 2006, 06:18:11 pm: Quote
The Universal HTC (sole under various names) is also on track for linux. In fact, it already runs Opie.
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true, but there's a VERY long way to go with it still - last I read it still didn't actually suspend properly. I think that the uni will gain a big following, unless Sharp pull a hat out of the bag. I'm sure Microsoft MUST have signed some special contract with HTC to stop HTC providing any sort of opensource packaging on this unit.
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: Da_Blitz on May 20, 2006, 01:45:34 am: they dont need to, the telcos dont like open sourcing their stuff as the fcc might tell tham to pull the product as the user could use it to cause inteference and sugh

IMHO they should have put that stuff in the devices firmware rather than the driver.
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: danboid on May 20, 2006, 05:22:58 am: Indeed, the uni is the most promising Linux phone right now.

A uni-owning friend of mine tells me he heard they actually had Linux fully functional on the uni as thats what they used to test the hardware when it was in development.

Anyone know if brand x of the uni is better than the others, or are they all identical?

I still want something like the uni but with 2700G graphics, although I've never been able to find info on the status of an accelerated xorg server with DRI etc. for this chipset. I know intels i915 (and related) line has open source drivers so I presume the 2700G does too?
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: Ferret-Simpson on May 20, 2006, 03:34:37 pm: I think GPE is functional too.

Current stuff needing the most work (According to Handhelds.org)

Power Management
Cameras
Phone (Unknown Data protocol)
Modem (See above)
Bluetooth Headset
Phone
Wifi

So basically, it "almost" works as a PDA, but it's no phone yet.

As soon as they get even basic phone capabilities on this thing, I'm getting a contract. THEN burying the Sim so I never run up a huge bill like most people my age.
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: Tom61 on May 20, 2006, 04:13:07 pm: Quote
I still want something like the uni but with 2700G graphics, although I've never been able to find info on the status of an accelerated xorg server with DRI etc. for this chipset. I know intels i915 (and related) line has open source drivers so I presume the 2700G does too?
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There are no accelerated Linux drivers right now, AFAIK. However, Intel has all the documentation one would need to create drivers for it, at least from what I can tell with my limited knowledge of display driver development. Windows Mobile programmers figured out how to use the 2700G's hardware DivX playback very soon after the Dell X50v was released, using the documentation I mentioned earlier, yeilding a large boost in battery life when watching DivX movies. As soon the X50 gets a fully functioning distro (power management, etc.), 2700G accelerated Linux drivers shouldn't be to far behind.
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: Da_Blitz on May 21, 2006, 07:04:38 am: all unis are identical, itl just the software the bundle with it
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: Mickeyl on May 26, 2006, 07:46:23 pm: First pictures and videos @ http://www.vanille.de/temp/a780/ (http://www.vanille.de/temp/a780/)

Site gets updated as I make progress porting Opie, GPE, E etc.
Title: A780/e680 - Full Fledged Linux Phone
Post by: drnick on September 10, 2006, 01:34:45 pm: Moto has a new PDA/Smartphone with touchscreen on the horizon, the e690. Another candidate for openEZX? The interface looks like the one on the A780. http://board.phonehk.com/viewthread.php?ti...&extra=page%3D1 (http://board.phonehk.com/viewthread.php?tid=190533&extra=page%3D1)