
Purism Librem 5 Hardware Schematics - blendergeek
https://puri.sm/posts/a-different-kind-of-transparency/
======
pretendgeneer
(Not a criticism of purism but of how little is required to say "Open
Hardware" in general). I have to say how disappointing it is what counts as
open hardware. A simple schematic and some xrays? Why not the Kicad(I'm pretty
sure that's what they said they used to make it) files, or maybe an
openboardview [1] .brd file that would actually help for device repair and
hacking on the phone at a hardware level.

As a comparison to FOSS this is the equivalent of releasing a binary and some
header files.

[1] [https://openboardview.org/](https://openboardview.org/)

~~~
seba_dos1
>I'm pretty sure that's what they said they used to make it

That was said about the devkit.

Gerber files are supposed to be released in a few years, after recouping
development costs.

~~~
beatgammit
I sure hope this is true, and it would be a show of good faith to give it to
anyone who asks that also signs an NDA or something until the development
costs are recouped so people can at least repair them easily.

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cia-killer
Pretty interesting, I hope they make something similar for the laptops. I use
an x200 with Libreboot to avoid the proprietary software in new Intel chips
and the bios. It's still fast since I use Arch with dwm, but at some point in
the future I would like to switch.

~~~
icefog
> x200 with Libreboot

How safe are those now that the Intel vulnerabilities are known? I doubt
hardware that old is getting microcode updates.

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thinkmassive
You can disable hyperthreading to mitigate a lot of Intel vulnerabilities.
Qubes, which is a popular OS choice within the coreboot crowd, does this by
default.

~~~
icefog
But not all of them, right? Some of the vulnerabilities do require upstream
microcode updates, and without them, I feel like the risk introduced outweighs
any benefit provided by Libreboot.

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songshuu
So far I have heard of maybe one end user with a phone IRL. Are there any
examples of non-promoters / paid reviewers / internal employees (like plain
ole' end users) showing off the phone?

~~~
blendergeek
There have been a few reviews popping up. Here are some:

[https://0net.io/1EwAh4KUfGgRw1re7uyrmTUWKZYV9SHVcW/](https://0net.io/1EwAh4KUfGgRw1re7uyrmTUWKZYV9SHVcW/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/e2mqgb/i_have_my_li...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/e2mqgb/i_have_my_librem_5_ama/)

~~~
seba_dos1
Also: [https://azdle.net/2019/11/comparing-apples-and-
gnomes/](https://azdle.net/2019/11/comparing-apples-and-gnomes/)

~~~
azdle
Can confirm, I am not a promoter / paid reviewer / internal employee.

~~~
ncmncm
You don't report the weight...

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azdle
My garbage kitchen scale says 231 g.

~~~
ncmncm
Thank you, good enough!

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chme
What I find strange that they still don't have specs for the dimensions and
weight... That is something they have been very coy about...

[https://puri.sm/faq/index.html#faq-
Whatarethephonespecs](https://puri.sm/faq/index.html#faq-Whatarethephonespecs)

~~~
smacktoward
I suspect this has to do with the current scheme of shipping out the devices
in iterative "batches." Presumably they are assuming the early batches will be
heavy and clunky, with size and weight of each batch decreasing over time as
they learn more about manufacturing.

I find this more troubling than the idea of early batches shipping with pre-
beta quality software. At least improvements to software can be pushed out to
older devices. If you buy an early batch and get a phone the size and weight
of a brick, though, that phone is always going to be the size and weight of a
brick.

~~~
wmf
You have to opt in to the early batches and don't they post photos showing how
ugly it is? It seems like customers are informed about what they're getting.

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scoutt
Nice move from puri.sm

At page 15 and 16 there are some M.2 connectors. One has an USB line named
USB2_WIFI_D* and the other USB2_4G_D* so I guess these are used for 2 external
radio modules (WIFI/BT and 4G).

I wonder what these modules are. Will it ship with the same from the devkit
(RedPine WiFi/BT M.2 module on SDIO, SIMCom SIM7100E)? Pretty important from a
security/privacy standpoint.

~~~
seba_dos1
The WiFi/BT module is the same. The modem module is BroadMobi BM818; at later
batches there will be an option to get Cinterion PLS8 instead too.

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yepthatsreality
Was the title changed to get around this exact story being posted
yesterday?[0] This title is wrong and is not the schematics but a blog post
announcing the release of the Birch schematics. The correct title is “A
Different Kind of Transparency”

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21690269](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21690269)

~~~
dang
It doesn't count as a dupe if the story hasn't had significant attention yet.
This is in the FAQ:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)

~~~
yepthatsreality
Ah, I had forgotten about this. Thanks!

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mattl
Calls don't work yet it seems

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m463
The reviews said the speaker isn't wired up. I wonder if you can call with the
headphone jack?

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azdle
My understanding is that the microphone (& speakers?) isn't wired directly to
the modem, but needs the CPU to replay the audio to the modem so that the
modem (aka, baseband) doesn't have access to the microphone audio except when
it actually needs it. So, I would think that the headphone mic wouldn't work
either.

~~~
zzo38computer
This is good for privacy, but can this way of not wiring the microphone
directly would also be helpful to do recordings and to send/receive faxes, or
does that not work?

~~~
azdle
Normal phones can record phone calls, right? I assume that this wouldn't make
anything possible that isn't already possible. But, again, I really don't know
what I'm talking about here, this is just my understanding from what I've
read.

~~~
narag
Before I bought a Xiaomi it was impossible to record any call (Samsung, HTC)
and it seems it was by design. The only way was installing an app that somehow
routed the recording through their servers (no, thanks) otherwise you could
only record outgoing (or was it incoming?) sound.

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lvs
Why has it become so acceptable to launch half-baked products that don't
actually work? Twenty years ago, you launched a product and it had to work
right out of the box. What's gone wrong here?

~~~
seba_dos1
It's a crowdfunded project where some of the backers opted in to receive a
device from an early batch. What's so unacceptable about that?

~~~
beatgammit
And they've been pretty clear that this batch is expected to have issues
resolvable in software. I'm sure the audio issue for calls will be fixed in
the next few weeks, along with some improvements to battery life and whatnot.

If you don't want a pre-production product, don't opt in for it and wait for
Evergreen.

