How much opensource is my boot-loader?
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Hello everybody,
I'm Charlie from Rome, on this forum for the first time.
Since many years, I’m interested in modding and mobile opensource development (Openmoko, Linage OS, Replicant, Ubports, Librem 5...) and I can say the Ubports project is one of the most interesting.
Moreover, unlike other projects, Ubports is not addressed to experts only. Really, a winning idea...
I own myself a BQ Aquaris 4.5 Ubuntu edition (bought during the Canonical development years), now with Ubports on it (WOW!), plus a Replicant Samsung Galaxy Nexus and a PinePhone (now, with Mobian OS).
I’m writing these lines because there are some technical issues a bit hard for me to get myself.
As everyone knows, there isn’t a fully opensource phone (still).
Every project has its own unsolved problems.
For exemple, Librem 5 and PinePhone have not a opensource modem firmware.
Replicant devices, excluding the Openmoko one, has not a opensource bootloader.
Even the Openmoko phone, has not a opensource GPS.
Read a lot about the UBPorts project, but I’m not an engeneer or a programmer and something is a bit too techical for me.
I'm concerned about the bootloader on my BQ Aquaris.
I read that the Ubports project works on Halium.
Halium definition on https://halium.org/, though, is “the collaborative project to unify the Hardware Abstraction Layer for projects which run GNU/Linux on mobile devices with pre-installed Android”.
So, I’m wondering if my Aquaris 4.5 Ubuntu edition (a device born with Ubuntu Touch pre-installed and not an Android BQ Aquaris 4.5 on which I installed Ubuntu Touch) has Halium on it.
Does Halium (fully open-source, as far as I know) contains the bootloader?
In any case, can we say that my Ubuntu Touch device has a opensource bootloader?
I’m wondering, in other words, how much opensource is my Ubuntu Touch device, excluding the camera, GPS, modem … firmwares, all prorpietary, as far as I know.
Thanks.
Charlie