Pyra news partially stale from the dragon's mouth

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

Pinephone with hardware switches!

Probably that or the Librem 5. Though PinePhone is looking pretty good because it's cheaper.

 

[EvilDragon]

And leaving again already. Boarding starts in 15 minutes, the plane will leave in 45 minutes.
See you guys later

 

[Djoga'Ro]

ED's coming to Berlin? Darn, I need to tidy up, fast. Ahh! Panic!

 

[EvilDragon]

Berlin? Why Berlin? I'm flying back to Munich.

 

[comradekingu]

The type of coffee @Djoga'Ro is.
Roasted.

 

[matzesu]

No, BER isnt our only Airport in Germany, even Saarbrücken got its own Airport..

I wonder how long EvilDragon would need to drive from Ingolstadt to Greece whit an Electric Bycicle, ^^

Im looking forward for the Big Newspost he will make in some days, maybe the last News before the First Mass Produktion Run..

 

[Djoga'Ro]

Berlin? Why Berlin? I'm flying back to Munich.

You said "See you guys later." and this guy's in Berlin to see.

The type of coffee @Djoga'Ro is.
Roasted.

I don't get it, but roasted coffee sounds good.

 

[Phlyra]

The Pine Phone has hardware switches as well.

Really? I thought I remembered reading that they were only software ones, or not as many hardware killswitches as the Librem5 has?

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

Really? I thought I remembered reading that they were only software ones, or not as many hardware killswitches as the Librem5 has?

I read somewhere that they were harder to access though.

 

[ashcloud]

Berlin? Oh noes! What have you done??? Now his plane is circling above, waiting for the airport construction to get finished.

 

[Swordfish II]

Really? I thought I remembered reading that they were only software ones, or not as many hardware killswitches as the Librem5 has?

Yep right at their specs page

HW switches: LTE/GNSS, WiFi, Microphone, Speaker, Cameras

 

[EvilDragon]

Hardware switch doesn't mean there has to be a physical switch on the device.
A hardware switch can also be a software controlled switch (as we have on the Pyra for the modem) which cuts the power to a component.

The idea is to make sure that stuff with closed firmwares (Wifi, Modems, etc.) don't do anything they shouldn't, and that can be done by cutting the power.
A software controlled switch on the board does its job

 

[Phlyra]

Fair enough!

 

[faeredia]

I read somewhere that they were harder to access though.

You have to remove the back cover to access them.
Mine arrived this week, but I won't be home until Tuesday!

 

[mrpalmtop]

You have to remove the back cover to access them.
Mine arrived this week, but I won't be home until Tuesday!

They are DIP switches that can be accessed after the cover is removed. They're very small but can be readily actuated with a pointy object.

I still haven't had time to try Ubuntu Touch. PostmarketOS Plasma somehow has a screen lock password that I can't find out what it is... I haven't looked very much on the web tho.

In terms of hardware, it feels solid but not that much heavier than a mid range phone. Definitely a fingerprint magnet on front and back, however.

I haven't had time to pop in a SIM yet but am planning to since some parts for a NAS project I'm beginning are delayed due to Corona virus so that time is now freed up.

 

[Djhg2000]

Hardware switch doesn't mean there has to be a physical switch on the device.
A hardware switch can also be a software controlled switch (as we have on the Pyra for the modem) which cuts the power to a component.

The idea is to make sure that stuff with closed firmwares (Wifi, Modems, etc.) don't do anything they shouldn't, and that can be done by cutting the power.
A software controlled switch on the board does its job

I'd say that's on the edge of what most people mean when they say "hardware switch". What they really mean is a "mechanical switch", but nonetheless a software operated hardware switch can theoretically be operated by malicious software. I'd actually argue both qualify as physical switches since they're discrete components on the board, but that definition becomes a bit fuzzy as you go down to the silicon level (would an exclusively externally gated transistor count as a physical switch?). It gets philosophical at some point.

The switch is still in our control beyond the realm of the modem software so it's good enough for me. Then again I wasn't originally planning on using mine as a phone either, it's just that I'm not happy with the current selection of Android phones and the PinePhone needs a while to mature into a daily driver.

 

[Splintercat]

I do appreciate that both RockChip and AllWinner are at least attempting to get their devices into the mainline Linux Kernel.

One of my annoyances with the Pandora is being stuck on an old kernel (if I want to keep gpu acceleration at least).
For the Pyra, does the team have some way to get binary drivers from TI that are built for later kernels? I'm not asking about open sourcing the drivers, just some way to provide matching binary blobs every once in a while that keep up with the latest Linux kernel LTS release.

 

[levi]

To be precise, these types of binary blobs usually consist of two parts; a strictly binary blob and a shim that's GPLed to interface with the right kernel (but out of tree for testing reasons I guess). It should be only a matter of porting that shim to the latest kernel's ever moving internal ABI, but I don't know exactly why that's so difficult to do.

 

[Lao Rebel]

it's been so long now. i put down $300 maybe $400 yrs ago. my life had been very bumpy and i lost touch w/pyra community. when this is all ready and complete how will you contact me for delivery? my contact info have changed and i lost every info i had on my order.

 

[levi]

If you've lost the 'Thanks !' emails you might be in trouble. They contained the voucher numbers that you can use to pay for your actual order. These numbers do not appear to be duplicated anywhere else.