Re: 8.9" CT-PC89E ARM netbook .... UPDATE 04 FEB 2010 12:00
Hi,
2010/2/4 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <luke.leighton@googlemail.com>:
>> Let me explain our experience. A bunch of Debian Developers met at
>> Taipei (.tw) and we got a netbook (MIPS based) under $100. After we
>> got it, we had *no shell*, *no root*, *no loader access*, *no
>> serial*,...
>>
>> We had to exploit a vulnerability in the pdf reader order to start
>> telnetd and we were lucky to get a remote shell. After making some
>> pressure to the company to release source code because they were
>> violating GPL, they putted up some source packages, but not kernel
>> (linux), nor bootloader (uboot).
>
> ouch!
>
> *sigh* yes, a chinese MIPS cpu, whilst wonderfully cheap,
> reverse-engineering - i've done it: i have 9 HTC Linux phones and one
> ETEN G500+ to prove it - is a complete pain. i'm not doing it again
> :)
>
> so, this time we play a different game: use the fact that of the 20
> people wanting machines _fifteen_ of them are software engineers who
> will happily help this factory to improve its value for the world
> market by getting debian packages on it, right?
That was our main argument, but they did not listen to us. After lots
of mails and advising gpl-violations.org we got a package source
release which we did not want as we already had our debian packages
for the rootfs. Kernel and loader still missing bits.
--
Héctor Orón
"Our Sun unleashes tremendous flares expelling hot gas into the Solar
System, which one day will disconnect us."
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