FreeCalypso > hg > freecalypso-reveng
diff se_k200i/README @ 393:6c31d8c54ae4
se_k200i: preliminary analysis
author | Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org> |
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date | Sun, 06 Nov 2022 01:13:43 +0000 |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/se_k200i/README Sun Nov 06 01:13:43 2022 +0000 @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +In 2022-10 Vadim Yanitskiy discovered the existence of a previously unknown +family of Calypso phones: Sony Ericsson K200/K220, usually with 'i' suffix. +The only diff between K200 and K220 appears to be the FM radio receiver +(present on K220, unpopulated PCB footprints on K200), whereas the suffix letter +indicates GSM frequency bands: 'i' for 900+1800 MHz, 'a' for 850+1900 MHz. + +As of this writing (early 2022-11) Vadim and steve-m appear to be working on +adding support for this phone model to their beloved pet OsmocomBB. In +contrast, I (Mother Mychaela) currently have no plans to add support for this +phone model to FreeCalypso fw: it is not an interesting target for the purpose +of turning it into a liberated end user phone by way of FC fw (for one thing, +K200a or K220a phones with North American frequency bands appear to be +unobtainium), and we don't need yet another alien phone running voice +pseudo-modem firmware. + +However, I am gathering some notes about K200/220 hw and original fw in this +directory, for two reasons: + +1) To provide better guidance to Vadim in his quest to support this weird phone + model in his beloved pet project; + +2) To gather knowledge in case the situation changes and a use case does arise + for porting our FreeCalypso fw to this target. + +If anyone does fancy the idea of running FreeCalypso fw on these SE K200/220 +phones, even if only as an experiment, the primary pain points will be mostly +the same as with any other alien phone: + +* Like with almost every other alien Calypso device (phone or modem), the FFS + maintained by the original fw is not directly suitable as-is for FreeCalypso, + i.e., sharing the same FFS between original fw and FC, freely going back and + forth in fw with the same FFS, would be a bad idea. Therefore, we would have + to decide whether to put our own FFS (with different content) in the same + sectors as the original, perhaps even produced from the original with our FFS + editor tool, or to put our aftermarket fw FFS in some other sector location. + +* In the case of Pirelli DP-L10 we were lucky to find an area of flash which + the original fw leaves unused and untouched in the vast majority of use cases + (staging area for OTA fw updates, unused at all other times), thus we could + put our separate-from-original FFS instance there. This separate FFS + arrangement is what allows our FC fw on the Pirelli to be run via fc-xram, + without flashing. But we don't have the same luck on K200/220: looking at + flash dumps, there does not appear to be any area that is totally unused and + could be repurposed for aftermarket fw FFS without disturbing the original fw. + Therefore, we won't have the option of non-invasive run-from-RAM operation, + and we would have to flash our fw instead, like on Mot C1xx. + +* The requirement of having to flash our fw, as opposed to running from RAM, + combines badly with the lack of phone UI functionality in voice pseudo-modem + fw: a phone that appears completely dead to the user but speaks some special + binary protocol on the UART when you press the PWON button feels extremely + weird and unnatural. + +* Having to flash our fw also means that we would need to either implement + battery charging in our fw (requiring thorough reverse eng of charging + specifics on this model) or use another phone (running original fw) to charge + batteries, moving batteries back and forth between phones. + +All of the above factors, which apply to *any* alien (meaning not FC-made) phone +model, should make it clear why running our fw on alien Calypso phones is no +longer the direction of interest in FreeCalypso - instead we need to focus on +our own FreeCalypso hardware with phone handset functionality, starting with +FC Venus.