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+tags: Replicant news, Wolfgang Wiedmeyer
+date: 2017-02-01 19:18
+title: Replicant 6.0 development updates
+---
+Replicant 6.0 is moving forward and quite some work has been done over the
+last months.
+
+## Galaxy S2
+
+Only the Galaxy S3 was supported for a very long time. Recently, [support for
+the Galaxy S2 was added][1]. This was made possible because two community
+members, Grim Kriegor and dllud, sent me a device. The initial work on the
+device by another community member, Jookia, also gave me a head start for the
+port.
+
+## GTA04
+
+In December, I attended the [8th Open Hard- and Software Workshop][2] which
+was a great opportunity to discuss and work on various topics related to the
+GTA04. I assisted Lukas Märdian from Goldelico with porting Replicant 6.0 to
+the GTA04 and at the end of the workshop, we were able to boot Replicant 6.0
+and had basic functionality working. Lukas continues to work on the port and
+I’m planning to integrate his changes and get Replicant 6.0 ready for the
+GTA04.
+
+## Support for external WiFi dongles with the AR9271 chipset
+
+After you have installed Replicant on one of the supported devices, you will
+notice that WiFi doesn’t work. The reason is that the WiFi chips on all
+supported devices need a proprietary firmware to be loaded onto the chip. As
+Replicant only ships free software, this firmware is not included in an image.  
+An alternative is to use an external WiFi dongle with an USB OTG cable. A free
+firmware exists for the AR9271 chipset and various WiFi adapters use this
+chipset. [Tehnoetic provided patches][3] for initial support in Replicant 4.2.
+For Replicant 6.0, I went a different way and backported the necessary changes
+from the 3.4 Linux kernel to the kernel for the Galaxy S2 and S3. Such dongles
+are now operable with these two devices. Fil Bergamo is working on scripts to
+make it easy to use WiFi adapters. You can find more information in [this
+forum thread][4].
+
+## Graphics rendering
+
+[ The previous blog post ][5]already metioned that I’m working on the graphics
+acceleration. Mesa llvmpipe can now be used as an alternative to the Android
+software renderer. Unfortunately, llvmpipe is still too slow and the Android
+software renderer stays the default graphics renderer for now. But it’s
+possible to use some more apps like Firefox-based browsers with llvmpipe that
+wouldn’t work with the Android software renderer. Llvmpipe also makes it
+possible to use a recent webview. For now, Replicant 6.0 is stuck with the
+last webview version that worked with the Android software renderer.
+Optimizing llvmpipe for ARM likely would make it fast enough. Any help in this
+regard would be greatly appreciated!  
+Another long-standing issue is related to the software rendering: QR code
+scanning or in general barcode scanning didn’t work with Replicant because the
+software renderer requires a camera preview format that is incompatible with
+barcode scanner apps. I was able to fix it by doing the neccessary conversions
+of preview frames that are requested by barcode scanner apps.
+
+## Toolchain
+
+I moved the build system from Debian Jessie to the upcoming Debian release
+with the codename Stretch. The Debian Android Tools team has packaged quite a
+few more build tools in Stretch which can now be used instead of prebuilt
+binaries from the default Android toolchain. The whole effort makes the
+Replicant build process more trustworthy and ensures that all build tools are
+verifiable and built using only free software.
+
+## Security/privacy enhancements
+
+Besides fixing various bugs, I’m especially committed to making Replicant more
+secure. Originally, I started contributing to Replicant by submitting patches
+for known security issues in Replicant 4.2. Security updates for the kernel
+and the Android system are included in Replicant 6.0 as quickly as possible,
+but delays can always happen due to various reasons. Furthermore, I started to
+include some security/privacy enhancements from CopperheadOS.
+
+## Current work and future plans
+
+Porting Replicant 6.0 to more devices is a priority right now. Besides devices
+that are already supported by Replicant 4.2, some new targets are evaluated.
+An interesting target is the LTE variant of the Galaxy S3 (GT-I9305).
+Currently, only the non-LTE variant (GT-I9300) is supported by Replicant and
+Replicant doesn’t support any 4G-enabled phone yet. It’s possible to build a
+Replicant 6.0 image for the LTE variant, but it lacks support for the modem.
+The main task of the port will be to write a free implementation of the modem
+interface for telephony, SMS and mobile data.  
+I also played with the mainline kernel on the Galaxy S3 and I was able to boot
+Replicant 6.0 on top of the Linux 4.8 kernel with a few patches so that it was
+usable with very limited functionality. I will share more results from this
+endeavor in the future.  
+Replicant is based on CyanogenMod 13.0. As the CyanogenMod project was
+discontinued, future Replicant 6.0 versions will be based on its successor,
+LineageOS 13.0.
+
+ [1]: <http://redmine.replicant.us/boards/21/topics/14009>
+
+ [2]: <http://www.ohsw.org/>
+
+ [3]:
+<https://git.replicant.us/tehnoetic/kernel_samsung_smdk4412/commits/ath9k_htc>
+
+ [4]:
+<http://redmine.replicant.us/boards/9/topics/13932?r=14005#message-14005>
+
+ [5]: <http://blog.replicant.us/2016/08/replicant-6-early-work-upstream-
+work-and-f-droid-issue/>
+
+