Frequently Asked Questions for the Librem 5

[amosbatto]

@fsflover

In the question 1.7. Why does the Librem 5 cost so much compared to the PinePhone? we should emphasize the official answer to that by Purism.

I added a link to that article to the FAQ.

@microwave89-hv

I once heard that GitLab is claimed to be inaccessible from the Ukraine. Is that still the case? If yes, might it be better to publish the wiki in a place more open to such countries that are considered “problematic” by some other countries?

I have asked that Purism create a general community wiki that covers all Purism products. See this thread for the discussion.

My Google searches in English didn’t turn up anything about GitLab being blocked in Ukraine. Perhaps that is a rumor that arose from this story about GitLab and Russia. If the gitlab.com domain is blocked in Ukraine, it is unlikely to cover source.puri.sm, which is a local installation of GitLab in another domain.

@microwave89-hv

I want to find the lowest-level code that is run when the Librem 5 (insert batch here) boots. Where can I find it?..

…The closest I could come up with is the Files · master · Librem5 / Cortex_M4 · GitLab files for the DRAM training processor, and the arch/arm/cpu/armv8 · librem5 · Librem5 / uboot-imx · GitLab files for the main processors.

I can’t find the proprietary firmware for the DDR training which is stored in the SPI Flash chip. This page explains how SolidRun builds the flash.bin file that can be saved in the SPI Flash chip, but I don’t know if Purism does it the same way.

I added this text to the FAQ:

The following proprietary firmware for the Librem 5 is available for download in the Purism code repository:

• Texas Instruments TPS65982 USB Type-C and Power Delivery controller: Librem5 / firmware-tps6598x-nonfree · GitLab
• Redpine Signals RS9116 WiFi/Bluetooth: Librem5 / redpine-firmware-nonfree · GitLab

@microwave89-hv

Q3: What is the rough boot flow in the Librem 5 from the very first instruction to the last instruction before the Linux kernel finally takes over?..

…Maybe it is even possible to create a “developer” wiki or something like that, since Librem 5 newbies (except for me ) most likely won’t be interested in such deep matters?

Feel free to create a new page in the Librem 5 community wiki to explain what is the Librem 5 booting sequence. I don’t know enough to answer that question.