If the Noveau guys can reverse engineer the NVIDIA drivers, why hasn't someone done the same thing for the PowerVR drivers?
Lack of interest? Legal issues/concerns/threats? Difficulty of doing it?

Can't you see? The emperor has no clothes!

How's that openness coming along?

About the only hardware in the N900 that isn't documented in some form is the 'GPU and the GPS, as far as I know everything else is documented and understood (e.g. cellmo is documented through ofono)

Ask TI for gfx driver.

actually there is 1.4 driver available for download from TI (maemo5 has 1.3). Still, it is closed source binary. Yet I fail to see the reason what exactly you want gfx source for? Who and what is stopping the lack of the source code.

And for the GPS - you can find some (incomplete?) driver source over the inet.

I seem to recall (enfasis on seem) that the GSM modem stack/drivers MUST be closed source to pass the FCC requirements as otherwise IMEI spoofing and other illegal activities can be accomplished, it would not surprise me if the EU had a similar requirement


Uhm... Uboot?? I have Android, Maemo and Ubuntu booting with Uboot with no troubles on an N900, sure the same can be done with other devices, one does not need grub on this platform as far as I am aware (if it brings any advantages over uboot please inform me, learning is always good )

The GSM modem firmware (which runs on a separate CPU) is closed source and for good reason.
There is nothing in the regulations that requires the interface libraries to remain closed source (if there was, ofono would be illegal as a large amount of the N900 support was contributed by Nokia people IIRC)

If you want to do something for this community then i very strongly suggest you get the FULL release of Maemo and Meego source and all components released to this community because untill this happens this community will never put together anything in the way of an OS for any Nokia device.

The Wiki tell's lies by the way because Maemo is NOT developed by this community, how can it be when this community has no access to source from Nokia.

For any developer to do his job then he must have 100% full access to all source and components, without this he can not develop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maemo

Read the wikipedia entry because it is complete rubbish.....

"Maemo is a software platform developed by the Maemo community for smartphones and Internet tablets.[1] It is based on the Debian Linux distribution, but has no relation to it. The platform comprises the Maemo operating system and the Maemo SDK.

Maemo is mostly based on open source code"

Only when the code is completely open and fall's TRULY into the FOSS catagory will it have any chance of being developed by anyone other than Nokia who hold the source in full.

CSSU prove's that it is just no way possible to develop or improve either Maemo or Meego further than it has been developed by Nokia without full access to source.

Please see this for what it really is now after over 3 years of "development" by this community !!!.

abill_uk: Nokia will not open any Fremantle or Harmattan components. It's a clear message, repeated many times. There is nothing Kate or myself can do to change this, no matter how hard you try in this forum.

Wikipedia is a collaborative project encouraging any contributors to improve any aspect of its content. Have you tried? If not I can recommend it. I have been volunteering in my free time, but never in anything Maemo (or MeeGo, Qt etc) related since it is generally discouraged that company employees write about their products. For instance, I don't think Nokia employees have done any significant contribution to that page.

But we are digressing. Back to topic and thank you Kate for digging the details with Nemein.