Raspberry pi makes one step towards freedom
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Good news, I guess:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/02/28/1937251/broadcom-releases-source-for-graphics-stack-raspberry-pi-sets-bounty-for-port
I hope we'll be able to boot the pi without a non-free blob once the free version got released.
I didn't investigate this in much detail, but as far as I know, the other single board computers which can be used in freedom have major practicle disadvantages.
For instance, running a 100% free operating system on the olinuxino is not easy since it has an exotic cpu architecture, so you can't just install debian.
В 12:29 +0100 на 02.03.2014 (нд), name at domain написа:
> Good news, I guess:
I'll call it great. :)
> easy since it has an exotic cpu architecture, so you can't just install
> debian.
The Raspberry PI itself is usable with Debian without floating point
hardware, because the port (Debian armhf) that supports this is based on
later version of the ARM specification. It is supported by the armel
port, but floating point operations are slow. The official distribution
of the Raspberry PI is Debian based and is compiled out of the armhf
port with support for the Raspberry PI architecture, has packaged from
experimental, behaves differently than Debian on upgrades and by default
includes non-free software. [1]
When you write "floating point operations are slow" what exactly do you mean with "slow"?
Is it useable in praxis?
I didn't know about the problems of raspbian.
В 13:06 +0100 на 02.03.2014 (нд), name at domain написа:
> When you write "floating point operations are slow" what exactly do you mean
> with "slow"?
I'm practically quoting the Debian wiki. :) I haven't used yet my
Raspberry PI which was a gift, since it cannot work with free software
only. One I've tried to boot it and it failed because the SD card I've
made was corrupted. I'm waiting for the released code to be integrated
into something, so I can play around with it.
The Raspberry Pi is (perhaps until now) unable to boot without the proprietary driver. This quote is from the FSF single board computer page:
----
The Raspberry Pi requires nonfree software to start up. It can't reach the point of executing free software unless this nonfree program is part of the installed system software.
The startup program is, in fact, the same program that runs the GPU and the video decoding hardware. Thus, the GPU and the video decoding hardware are unusable in the free world, but these jobs can be done with free software on the CPU.
That program appears to implement intentional restrictions, such as blocking the video decoding hardware for MPEG-2 and VC-1 in the absence of a key that is specific to the machine in hand.
Did you actually read what this topic is all about?
Some people here seem to act like bots, scanning the site for keywords and posting the corresponding fsf or gnu page.
В 00:10 +0100 на 10.03.2014 (пн), name at domain написа:
> unable to boot without the
> proprietary driver.
> The Raspberry Pi requires nonfree software to start up.
As I've said already, I'm perfectly aware of all this. That is why I've
wrote to the FSF about the attempt to reverse engineer the GPU.
> That program appears to implement intentional restrictions, such as blocking
> the video decoding hardware for MPEG-2 and VC-1 in the absence of a key that
> is specific to the machine in hand.
That is (was?) proprietary software. It is not a news that it has
restrictions. That is absolutely normal for proprietary software. The
real problem is the boot process and the OS running on the GPU. The GPU
has access to the memory of the CPU. The hardware decoding is a feature
that is not critical. Now with the code available I think all this is
fixable.
That post was for ivaylo.
В 21:18 +0100 на 11.03.2014 (вт), gramex[@nospam] написа:
> That post was for ivaylo.
I'm perfectly aware that the Raspberry PI was not usable and practically
still isn't with free software only. I wrote [1] [2] to the FSF around
January that some people attempt to reverse engineer the GPU and that it
might help the high priority project they have on the topic. About a
month later the FSF responded with a link to the Raspberry PI page and
informed me for the release of the code. The text on the Raspberry PI
page was posted about and hour before I've read it. So I'm probably one
of the first to know about the release of the code.
We were discussing the potential use of the Raspberry PI entirely with
free software, now when the code is released.
[1] https://identi.ca/valkov/note/B4x_ictKTTSirGr5JQ_8rA
[2] https://identi.ca/valkov/note/8vfpgLheQqGWEA6MpsfmEA
Okay!
I couldn't tell that from your post. :)
В 22:57 +0100 на 11.03.2014 (вт), name at domain написа:
> Okay!
>
> I couldn't tell that from your post. :)
Well, the post was about the (potential) liberation of the Raspberry PI,
at least the future usage with free software should have been
obvious. :)
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