The Dragonbox Pyra contains only one proprietary blob (GPU driver), but the Mobile (phone) Edition has more
Some hardware components used in phones require drivers (or firmware) to run. For many components, only proprietary drivers are available[1] (open source phones usually seek components with open drivers.[citation needed]) If firmware is not updatable and does not have control over any other part of the phone, it might be considered equivalent to part of the hardware. However, these conditions do not hold for cellular modems.[1]
As of 2019[update], all available mobile phones have a proprietary baseband chip (GSM module, cellular modem),[2][3][4] except for the Necuno, which has no such chip and communicates by peer-to-peer VOIP.[5][6] The modem is usually integrated with the system-on-a-chip and the memory.[4] This presents security concerns; baseband attacks can read and alter data on the phone remotely.
The Librem 5 mobile segregates the modem from the system and memory, making it a separate module, a configuration rare in modern cellphones.[3][4] There is an open-source baseband project, OsmocomBB.
Operating system: middleware and user interface
Family tree of Maemo
Generally, the phones included on this list contain copyleft software other than the Linux kernel, and minimal closed-source component drivers (see section above).
There are numerous versions of Android which seek to replace the proprietary components, such as LineageOS (successor to the now-defunct[9][10]Cyanogenmod) and Replicant, that can be installed on a large number of phones after-market. There are also devices using Ubuntu Touch and Droidian which are using GNU/Linux and Android hardware adaptation layer Halium.[11] Phones natively running these are included.
WebOS (LG Electronics) was initially available only under a proprietary license but the source code was later released under a free permissive license by HP. Open WebOS will not run on all WebOS devices. LuneOS is Halium based fork of WebOS.[15]
Firefox OS was released under a permissive MIT license but its KaiOS successor is proprietary; the former is included.
Note that it is often possible to install a wide variety of open-source operating systems on any open-source phone; the higher-level software is designed to be largely interchangeable and independent of the hardware.[16]
There are also an increasing number of phones that come with a proprietary operating system pre-installed (usually Android), but allow the user to install mainline Linux (such as the Fairphone 5 and SHIFTphone 8). These are listed under #Devices with 3rd party support.
Devices with formal support
These are mobiles that can be ordered with the open-source software pre-installed. Some also have an option where they can be ordered with proprietary OS pre-installed.
Volla Phone X23
Hallo Welt Systeme UG
Volla OS (based on Android Open Source Project), Ubuntu Touch, multiboot option[17]
Beta "Braveheart" Edition had a choice of user-installed OS;[49] Later "Community Editions" sold from June 15, 2020 to February 2, 2021, each of which donated $10/phone to the developer community that wrote the OS it shipped with.[50][51][52] Subsequently, Pinephones all shipped with Manjaro and Plasma Mobile.
Yes. Twenty-odd different operating systems[51] can be user-installed as of March 2021[update]; OS can be swapped by swapping out an SD card.
postmarketOS, Ubports, and KDE Neon are open-source distributions running on existing smartphones originally running Android. Maemo Leste is available for Nokia N900 and Motorola Droid 4.
There exists a database listing which older phones will run which open-source operating systems.[79][80]
Custom-made phones
A CircuitMess Ringo phone, running a video game.
It is possible to home-build a phone from partially open hardware and software.[81][82] The Arduinophone[82] (touchscreen) and the MIT DIY Cellphone (segmented display)[83][84] both use the Arduinoopen-hardwaresingle-board computer, with added components. Circuitmess Ringo (previously MakerPhone) is another DIY Arduino phone with open source firmware[85] and available schematics,[86] focusing on education. The PiPhone,[87] ZeroPhone[88] and OURphone[89] are similar, but based on the Raspberry Pi.
The main components to make an open mobile phone are:
^Welte, Harald (5 February 2010). "OsmocomBB Project Rationale". Retrieved 26 September 2013. Every mobile device that is connected to a cellular network runs some kind of baseband processor with highly proprietary and closed-source firmware.
^ abcFaerberCTO, Nicole (4 September 2018). "Progress update from the Librem 5 hardware department". Purism. The cellular modem is arguably the most complex part of a mobile phone. The modem is the component that has to implement all the familiar protocols you would associate with a phone (like 2G, 3G, 4G and the upcoming 5G). It does so by running its own proprietary black box operating system. The cellular modem is also covered by thousands of patents held by hundreds of patent owners. Now imagine this… This cellular modem sits right on the same RAM bus as the SoC! Non-free software not only has access to the data flowing to and from the SoC, but also has the ability to modify it. Because this modem operating system is a propreitary black box, we have no idea what this component does or what kind of vulnerabilities it has... The situation is further complicated by the fact that during our research into cellular modems, we realized that there are only a handful of silicon vendors in the world that make these chipsets and nearly all of them integrate their model with the SoC on the same bus. In addition, you historically need to acquire a license to run the proprietary firmware to power the modem on SoCs.. This left us with only one choice: to use ready-made modem "modules" and our own layout that isolates the modem from the SoC. There are a number of these modem modules available in different form factors with various available options in speed, bands, etc. By going the module route we can both provide supplier choice in modems that meet our strict standards, and also allow modem isolation from the RAM and host CPU.(text is CC-by-SA 4.0)
^Stallman, Richard (5 August 2012). "Android and Users' Freedom – Support the Free Your Android campaign". gnu.org. Retrieved 9 September 2012. Even though the Android phones of today are considerably less bad than Apple or Windows smartphones, they cannot be said to respect your freedom.
^ ab"The Pyra". Official Pyra and Pandora Site. Retrieved 13 August 2020. The mobile edition adds mobile internet, and also has telephony services (making the Pyra a phone)
^"PinePhones Start Shipping - All You Need To Know". PINE64 +. 15 January 2020. As for software, the phone arrives preloaded with a factory test image rather than an end-user operating system. This preloaded factory test suite is running on Linux – postmarketOS to be precise – which allows you to test various features of the phone and run an automated test. ... I assume that everyone getting a Braveheart PinePhone understand that it's up to them to find the operating system build they are interested in, flash it and take part in the community discussion and ongoing development. Most builds are available on the PinePhone Wiki
.jpg)
