[Replicant] [vendor_replicant] [PATCH] Release Replicant 6.0 0004 RC4

Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli GNUtoo at cyberdimension.org
Sun Dec 27 21:22:08 UTC 2020


Signed-off-by: Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <GNUtoo at cyberdimension.org>
---
 CHANGELOG.mkdn   | 166 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 config/common.mk |   2 +-
 sign-build       |   2 +-
 3 files changed, 168 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.mkdn b/CHANGELOG.mkdn
index bb654f14..b3647b53 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.mkdn
+++ b/CHANGELOG.mkdn
@@ -1,6 +1,172 @@
 Replicant
 =========
 
+### Replicant 6.0 0004 RC4 Images
+
+This new release fixes some very serious freedom and privacy issues:
+* We found an issue within the phone application: it was leaking the
+  phone numbers of both inbound and outbound calls to third parties
+  as part of a feature called phone lookup providers. More details
+  are available in the [bug report][2].
+  Even if it was not trivial to reproduce and find the bug it’s now
+  fixed as the feature has been completely disabled with 3 patches
+  ([3], [4], [5]).
+* F-Droid has been removed as many applications shipped in it are
+  not compliant with the [guidelines][1] for distributions recommended
+  by the FSF.
+  It was kept so long because we expected to get it fixed upstream
+  fast enough, but that didn’t happen for various reasons.
+  We have setup a [wiki page][6] and a [forum section][7] for more
+  information about the issue and how to deal with it.
+* Several binary firmwares (without source code) related to the back
+  and home "touch" buttons were found and removed with 4 patches
+  ([8], [9], [10], [11]).
+  The firmwares seem to have only been used for factory testing,
+  so the buttons should still work on the devices that have them.
+* The touchscreen firmware for the Galaxy Note 8.0 was also
+  lacking any corresponding source code (bug [#2194][12]).
+  That was fixed by removing it ([13]).
+* On all the currently supported devices with a modem, when users
+  set the device in flight mode, the modem is only asked to go in
+  low power mode.
+  Because of that the modem is probably still on and its OS is
+  probably still running. Because of that we fixed the wiki and
+  added [the scripts to disable (and enable back) the modem][14]
+  to the new Replicant images.
+  They work by preventing Replicant to load the modem OS.
+* We also got [a report on the mailing list][15] that a nonfree
+  ambient SDK was added in CyanogenMod and was not removed either
+  by LineageOS 13 or Replicant 6. So [we removed it as well][16].
+
+This release may also fix [several bug(s) which made some SIM cards
+not recognizable by Replicant 6.0][17]: we have now merged a fix for
+one of the bug ([#1909][18]) but as we don’t know if all the "SIM card
+not recognized" bugs are related.
+We would highly appreciate if those that opened the original bug report
+could confirm if it also fixes their issues as well.
+
+Several issues still need to be fixed, but we didn’t want to delay
+even more this release, as that would prevent users from getting the
+fixes mentioned above:
+* It’s still not possible to build Replicant 6.0 from a
+  [distribution that is recommended by the FSF][19] (bug [#1861][20]).
+* While removing the firmware of the Galaxy Note 8.0 touscreen driver,
+  many more firmwares without corresponding source code were found in
+  the [driver/touchscreen directory][21] in the kernel used by most of
+  the devices supported by Replicant 6.0.
+  However they weren’t removed yet. Help is more than welcome to help
+  with that.
+* While investigating if it was possible to upgrade WebView, the Android
+  builtin web browser component (bug [#1786][22]) we also discovered that,
+  because Android build system doesn’t use a package manager, finding the
+  license of each repository wasn’t trivial (bug [#1973][23]).
+* More investigations are needed as well to replace WebView with a
+  free software and up to date implementation (bug [#1786][22]).
+* The bug related to a bad sound quality during calls in some circumstances
+  (bug [#1773][24]) is not fixed yet, but there is a workaround that works
+  for some use cases.
+* The [Let’s Encrypt][25] certificates may stop working in Replicant
+  6.0 the first September 2021. So we might need to make a new
+  release before that to include their root certificate in Replicant
+  before that.
+  If a new release doesn’t happen by then many applications that are
+  using the Android certificates will be affected, but web
+  browsers like IceCat will continue to work. See the [Standing on
+  Our Own Two Feet][26] blog post by letsencrypt for more details.
+
+As the internal WiFi doesn’t work with free software, some new network
+related features improving usability were merged :
+* RepWiFi has been removed as it’s now possible to use the stock
+  Android menus to handle the WiFi.
+  This was done by patching Android to also accept external dongles.
+  It is less reliable than with RepWiFi because in some cases reboots
+  are needed for the WiFi to be recognized, and enabling the WiFi most
+  probably also powers on the Internal WiFi chip as well, increasing
+  the power consumption.
+  However it should reduce the probability of applications like
+  F-Droid being broken in the future, as it’s better integrated in
+  Android.
+  In the event that Replicant 6.0 stops being maintained and that
+  Replicant 11 doesn’t get support for all the Replicant 6.0 devices,
+  this patch should increase the lifetime of the affected devices.
+* Ethernet support has been added but it doesn’t work on all the
+  devices.
+* The USB networking scripts has also been added to the devices.
+* Support for some rt2500-usb dongles that don’t need the OS to load a
+  firmware [has been added to the Galaxy SIII 4G (i9305)][27], which
+  is an uncompleted device.
+  It wasn’t added to the other devices to make the release happen a
+  bit faster.
+
+Other improvements were also made:
+* llvmpipe is now the default OpenGL renderer. On devices with an
+  Exynos CPU / [System on a chip][28], this allows running many
+  applications that weren’t working before.
+  Unfortunately llvmpipe significantly slows down some system
+  components used in the graphical interface.
+  This has been catered for by patching Android to use the old
+  libagl renderer for those system components.
+* [Scripts to switch between OpenGL implementations globally][29]
+  have been added to the image as well. Thus, if you want to revert
+  back to the old behaviour, just run androidsw.sh in a root
+  terminal. To switch back to the new behavior you can instead use
+  llvmpipe.sh. Note that llvmpipe.sh will still keep the old OpenGL
+  implementation for the system components mentioned above, so there
+  is little risk in trying the scripts.
+* It’s now easier to build Replicant as there is a new script that
+  wraps part of the building process.
+  It’s also more convenient as it stores build logs.
+  The  script has been used to build the release, and the build
+  instructions also use it now.
+* It has became easier to modify the installation instructions as
+  they now apply to all devices, and were split into parts that
+  are reusable. This way a modification needs to be done only once
+  and not 10 or 30 times like before.
+* [Instructions to backup the modem data partition][30] have been
+  added. The modem partition can [become corrupted][31] in some
+  conditions.
+  As it can be very difficult or impossible to recreate that
+  partition, and that it’s required for the modem to work,
+  we strongly advise users to do a backup.
+
+Many of the improvements and fixes were also made possible thanks to
+the work of new contributors.
+
+References:
+-----------
+[1]https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
+[2]https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/1827
+[3]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/vendor_cmsdk/commit/?id=de9e5b00e2a4072d2fd7e89e9abfc512a50d77e3
+[4]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/vendor_cmsdk/commit/?id=2d8ae47d9919f83cdf7244c3eeb34f919d83a33d
+[5]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/packages_apps_Dialer/commit/?id=c730399d4854875a76baa24ab653fbc049b8deef
+[6]https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/F-DroidAndApplications
+[7]https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/boards/40
+[8]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/kernel_samsung_smdk4412/commit/?id=160424ba716cde87e4ff213972a03388e90bf75e
+[9]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/kernel_samsung_smdk4412/commit/?id=1fe39350b36767cc60ae58c2b2ea5fa29d484be0
+[10]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/kernel_samsung_smdk4412/commit/?id=0ee78af736ce947d286d21b5fdc2c0212b2f8d38
+[11]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/kernel_samsung_smdk4412/commit/?id=e40b2fa239e15c3ea8ea9407be704882916bcacc
+[12]https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/2194
+[13]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/kernel_samsung_smdk4412/commit/?id=43720e41c7f36873718fc24746277bbf7d24e6f1
+[14]https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/ModemDisable
+[15]https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2020-November/003138.html
+[16]https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2020-November/003178.html
+[17]https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/SIMnotRecognized
+[18]https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/1909
+[19]https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
+[20]https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/1861
+[21]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/kernel_samsung_smdk4412/tree/drivers/input/touchscreen?h=replicant-6.0
+[22]https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/1786
+[23]https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/1973
+[24]https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/1773
+[25]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Encrypt
+[26]https://letsencrypt.org/2020/11/06/own-two-feet.html
+[27]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/kernel_samsung_smdk4412/commit/?id=a2ad1c05d8e609e3daf820deebf477c5f93d6f3e
+[28]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_on_a_chip
+[29]https://git.replicant.us/replicant/vendor_replicant-scripts/tree/display/renderer/device-files
+[30]https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/BackupTheEFS
+[31]https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/1869
+[32]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repair_caf%C3%A9
+
 ### Replicant 6.0 0003 images
 
 Common:
diff --git a/config/common.mk b/config/common.mk
index a3847459..418aa401 100644
--- a/config/common.mk
+++ b/config/common.mk
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ PRODUCT_VERSION_MAJOR = 6
 PRODUCT_VERSION_MINOR = 0
 PRODUCT_VERSION_MAINTENANCE = 1
 
-REPLICANT_VERSION := "replicant-6.0"
+REPLICANT_VERSION := "replicant-6.0-0004-rc4"
 
 PRODUCT_PROPERTY_OVERRIDES += \
   ro.cm.version=$(REPLICANT_VERSION) \
diff --git a/sign-build b/sign-build
index 3c5dfd7f..5e61b97c 100755
--- a/sign-build
+++ b/sign-build
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ TARGET_DIR=$OUT_DIR/target/product/$DEVICE
 TARGET_FILES=$TARGET_DIR/obj/PACKAGING/target_files_intermediates/replicant_${DEVICE}-target_files-${BUILD_NUMBER}.zip
 
 DIST_OUT_DIR=$OUT_DIR/"dist"/$DEVICE
-RELEASE=replicant-6.0
+RELEASE=replicant-6.0-0004-rc4
 
 read_var() {
     local prompt="$1"
-- 
2.29.2



More information about the Replicant mailing list