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Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

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401 points Bluestein | 5 comments | 23 Jun 25 15:29 UTC | HN request time: 1.09s | source
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sylware ◴[24 Jun 25 10:20 UTC] No.44364594[source]▶
I have to buy such a smart phone hardware: issue, I won't run android for sure, probably something based on a super custom linux. I will need open source and _LEAN_ drivers (including their SDK) with complete hardware programming manuals for at least the modem (the critical part, and the drivers on complex hardware is NEVER enough, not to mention the official list of known hardware bugs) and the remaining hardware blocks.
replies(1): >>44365760 #
FirmwareBurner ◴[24 Jun 25 13:01 UTC] No.44365760[source]▶
Lemme know when you get all that.
replies(1): >>44368690 #
sylware ◴[24 Jun 25 17:37 UTC] No.44368690[source]▶
To be fair, I am more interested in a 4G/5G modem to connect some modular computer. A smart phone is an expensive one.

Do you know of a simple modern 4G/5G modem, USB? Only IPv4/IPv6 bridge, I guess you need USB CDC or something for that (NDIS is deprecated)?

Any tip?

replies(1): >>44368755 #
msgodel ◴[24 Jun 25 17:42 UTC] No.44368755[source]▶
This looks like the chip that was used in the Pinephone as well as the modem card in the machine I'm typing this on. It works well on Linux although sometimes it's not available after waking from suspend (I think that was fixed although I've gotten used to not expecting it to be so I haven't been checking it.)

It's pretty easy to dial the PPP (IP) connection with network manager + modem manager, doing it from scratch with expect scripts is awful, I got that to work once but haven't been able to do it again.

https://www.amazon.com/EXVIST-Dongle-EG25-G-M2M-optimized-Mo...

In theory you can actually make phone calls with it, I've enabled the usb AC device on mine and dialed out with it but haven't actually gotten the loopback set up to work. It's hard to tell if the issue is with Pulseaudio or something in the modem firmware or a regulatory issue or what.

SMS works OOTB with modem manager. MMS works if you're willing to hunt down the MMSD source and build it yourself.

replies(1): >>44379392 #
1. sylware ◴[25 Jun 25 16:51 UTC] No.44379392[source]▶
Need a driver?

I think there are a few USB standards for IPv4/IPv6 bridges (CDC and more), namely, it should not require a specific driver.

replies(1): >>44379434 #
2. msgodel ◴[25 Jun 25 16:54 UTC] No.44379434[source]▶
No. It's just PPP over USB CDC. In theory you could even use it with the FreeDOS USB drivers and Windows 3.11's network drivers if you were willing to write the appropriate modem script.
replies(1): >>44381238 #
3. sylware ◴[25 Jun 25 19:52 UTC] No.44381238[source]▶
I wonder if the 4G/5G PPP commands are well "standard". For instance, network scan, network selection, mode selection 4G/5G/auto, SMS, pin, etc. Or you have to pass some custom AT commands via PPP.

Is everything documented and public for this modem?

replies(1): >>44382588 #
4. msgodel ◴[25 Jun 25 22:59 UTC] No.44382588{3}[source]▶
>Is everything documented and public for this modem?

LMAO I've found typos in the manufacturers documentation. It's actually terrible. It's one of those situations where so many people use it though you can usually find what you need on a wiki.

>I wonder if the 4G/5G PPP commands are well "standard".

Absolutely not but modem manager and network manager is pretty good at figuring a lot of it out these days.

replies(1): >>44385596 #
5. sylware ◴[26 Jun 25 09:13 UTC] No.44385596{4}[source]▶
2025, clean and complete hardware programming manual still an issue, even on medium complexity hardware.

Sad.