Android 6.0 based Source Code Missing

Help Fairphone 2
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Hi all,

since the beginning normally I’m using FPOOS software images compiled by myself.

The software repository is not updated anymore since Android 6.0 is available and also not the description on code.fairphone.com how to compile the software.

Missed I something?

When the Marshmallow-based Fairphone Open Source Code will be available?

If I remember correctly large parts of Android are GPL’ed and so there is an obligation to share the source code.

igs

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I moved your post and edited it as I’m pretty sure you are talking about Fairphone Open OS (FP O OS).

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Apparently, there should be a new branch branch: fp2-m-sibon. Hope this helps…

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Thanks.
No, that does not help. The referenced thread is about kernel sources only.

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Only the kernel is GPL licensed, as far as I know. @z3ntu has had some talks with Fairphone devs about the source code. He will know the latest stuff there is to know. :slight_smile:

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Stefan,
that is not correct. Beside the kernel there are several other utilities, libraries and components under GPL or LGPL on the phone.

I do not want to discuss the topic on legal level. The simple question is: Has Fairphone’s commitment to Open Source ended?

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That’s what I know:

  • They are quite busy at the moment due to the upgrade to Android 6
  • They released the kernel source for Android 6 (after several months of pushing)
  • The other (L)GPL parts are probably not modified by Fairphone so you can look at Qualcomm/CodeAurora sources if you want them (but why?). They aren’t legally obliged to publish anything of their modifications to Android as most parts are Apache-2.0 licensed.

Quote from @Douwe from Matrix/IRC:

we’ve been over our head with work here with the launch of Android 6. Also I was on holidays for a month, so yes, sorry that ‘we are working on it’ was the only communication the past few weeks.
Now that both GMS and Open are on Android 6 we hope we can settle on a more predictable release path, also for the source.
also I hope that you understand that we are limited in our resources and sometimes we have to make hard descisions to work on A and not on B.
Fixing a bug in GMS that affects the (by far) biggest amount of FP2 users can therefor be prioritized over releasing the source code.

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Hi z3ntu,
thanks a lot

If they would host the source code always on a public repository (Github) there would be no additional effort to publish the source code.

Yes you’re right. Like I said, it is not a legal issue. I think there is already something completely wrong if I have to ask for the source code from a company everywhere writing about being ethical, fair and transparent for a piece of software called Fairphone Open OS.

On the other side if the source code had not been missing I would not have come here and find the thread about porting LineageOS.

Yesterday I installed it on my phone and I’m really impressed. Thanks to you, @z3ntu, and the other people. Really great work!

I think at this point the topic FP Open is over for me and I see no advantage of FP Open to Lineage OS at all. So taking it all together maybe FP Open is dead already.

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They are still maintaining their closed-source version of Android and FP Open re-uses a lot of components in my understanding. They can be much more careless when they keep their normal development private and only publish what was reviewed to not contain proprietary parts (like blob source code). So even if they would do that public, it wouldn’t be complete they aren’t legally allowed to publish some parts.

I do not disagree, that they should have the source ready at the release of a new FP Open version but I’m just writing what I know :wink:

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