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diff --git a/posts/2016_08_replicant-6-early-work-upstream-work-and-f-droid-issue.md b/posts/2016_08_replicant-6-early-work-upstream-work-and-f-droid-issue.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b15b55 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/2016_08_replicant-6-early-work-upstream-work-and-f-droid-issue.md @@ -0,0 +1,118 @@ +date: 2016-08-08T17:39:16+00:00 +title: Replicant 6.0 early work, upstream work and F-Droid issue +authors: GNUtoo +tags: Replicant news, GNUtoo +licenses: CC-BY-3.0 OR CC-BY-4.0 +--- +**Replicant 6.0 early work and associated efforts:** At Replicant, things are +moving again: Replicant is being updated from Android 4.2 to Android 6.0 by +Wolfgang Wiedmeyer. The status and feedback takes place [in the forums][1] +before it is reviewed and integrated in the official Replicant repositories. +This work is currently being done for the Galaxy S 3 (I9300). + +At the same time, Wolfgang Wiedmeyer is also working on the following for +Replicant 6.0: + +* Graphics acceleration with mesa and llvmpipe: while this still uses the + CPU, it should be faster and more feature-complete than the default + implementation. This will hopefully fix some of the previously non-working + applications in F-Droid. + +* Building the toolchains: Replicant has always used some pre-built + toolchains and utilities. Building such tools and/or using the ones from + GNU/Linux distributions will make Replicant more trustworthy. + +Replicant 6.0 should also bring full device encryption and SELinux support. + +**Future directions:** In the future we also want to be able to support the +upstream Linux kernel for devices with a minimal amount of effort. This was +made possible thanks to: + +* Android becoming more standard: it now requires very few changes to the + upstream Linux to work. Linux also received changes that made it possible. + +* The fact that the amount of work required to mainline a device in Linux + has drastically been reduced, for some of the devices we target. + +Devices such as the GTA04 and the Optimus Black are good targets for upstream +Linux kernel support. They also allow running free bootloaders. + +In a similar fashion, we also want to be able to support upstream bootloaders, +such as U-Boot. + +We hope that this will allow us to have longer term support for such devices. +Even if Replicant is unable to continue to support such devices in the future, +having them supported by upstream software will potentially enable users to +use them with other free software distributions. + +We have thus started the work to support devices such as the Optimus Black and +the Kindle Fire (first generation) in upstream Linux and U-Boot. Other +projects and individuals are also very actively adding support for other +devices, such as Allwinner tablets, that will benefit Replicant eventually. + +**Helping Replicant by contributing to F-Droid:** Replicant is supported, +recommended by the FSF and [listed as a fully free software distribution][2] +that respects the [GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines][3], along with +other GNU/Linux distributions such as [Trisquel][4] or [Parabola][5]. +Replicant +ships the F-Droid package manager in its images. + +F-droid is committed to distributing only free software, and it does. However +some of it does not comply with the [GNU Free System Distribution +Guidelines][3]. + +Practically speaking some of the applications F-Droid distributes: + +* [Promote non-free software][6] + +* [Depends on non-free software][7] + +While the list of such anti-features is displayed in red when selecting an +application in F-Droid, applications with anti-features are still listed aside +compliant ones. This is also quite confusing since free software isn't +expected to contain +such anti-features in the first place. + +It took Replicant a long time to realize the issue, this is due +to its developers being very busy, to the fact that the anti-feature +display is confusing and that there was no clear smoking gun. + +After an investigation, that was delayed due to the lack of time, a +smoking gun was finally found, and [a bug report][8] was opened on the +Replicant side. + +At FOSDEM 2016, the issue was discussed with F-Droid developers in order to +find a way to fix it. On their side, F-Droid developers also opened [a bug +report][9]. Due to various reasons, progress was very slow and we recently +learned that efforts to fix this issue came to a stall. + +Replicant developers are more dedicated and used to working on system +programming than writing or modifying Android applications. They are also +really busy doing so. However, some individuals wanting to help Replicant may +be able to work on Android applications, with some time to do so. This is +exactly the kind of skills required to solve this issue in F-Droid. Getting it +fixed is crucially important for Replicant. + +If you're interested to jump-in and help resolve this issue, please get in +touch with us or with F-Droid developers directly to get directions on how to +get started. + + [1]: <https://redmine.replicant.us/boards/21/topics/12057> + + [2]: <https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-non-gnu-distros.html> + + [3]: <https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html> + + [4]: <https://trisquel.info/> + + [5]: <https://www.parabola.nu/> + + [6]: <https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/Antifeature:NonFreeAdd> + + [7]: <https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/Antifeature:NonFreeDep> + + [8]: <https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/1629> + + [9]: <https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroidclient/issues/564> + + |