Today i bring the working main camera!
Building on the work nondescriptpointer did on the wide lens camera i have written the driver for the main camera and now its working alongside auto focus and color correction.
The color correction still a work in progress, but you can already see how much it improved the image.
before:
After:
But the after is still very grainy, plasma camera storing in jpg isn’t exactly helping either, ill be working to get rid of the grain.
If we look at the same scene form my android galaxy A16 you see that there still is alot of work to be done:
I’ll continue to work on the camera, but i wanted to get something out today (mainly so i could send to nondescriptpointer xd)
I asked him what role he wanted to play in the upstreaming and we agreed he would send it and i would review and assist. So i successfully pulled down another soul into the linux phone kernel rabbit hole muhahahahaha
News roundup
Alot of things happend lately so good thing to discuss them, the big one:
Emergency calling test
You may have noticed that everywhere i put warnings that emergency calling is not verified yet. i wanted to fix that but after searching i couldn’t find anything about it.
So i just called the police non emergency line and explained the situation, the operator told me that the information wasn’t public but provided me with an email to send my application too.
I was a bit sad cause if its a non public thing its probably gated behind being big tech, but i send the email anyway, and much to my suprise i got back.
De testen zijn goedgekeurd voor dinsdag 18 augustus tussen 13:30 en 14:15 uur.
Met vriendelijke groet,
(name censored) B ICT,
Tactisch & Technisch Beheer 1-1-2 (TB112)
Translation:
The tests have been approved for Tuesday, August 18, between 1:30 p.m. and 2:15 p.m.
Kind regards,
(name censored) B ICT,
Tactical & Technical Management 1-1-2 (TB112)
So Im really excited for this, and then you know for sure that you can reach the emergency number with your linux phone.
Fairphone 6+
So the Fairphone 6+ has been officially announced an as soon as i can buy one im buying one, testing my image, and fixing any issues.
Im really glad for the donations so i can justify to myself this purchase instead of spending 650 euros for a phone that i already have.
Donations
I’m really grateful for all the people that donated and still continue to donate, i was over the moon when i got my first donation and i never expected to get this much. From the bottom of my heart thank you all very much.
I want to be open on where it’s going. And i think as donators you deserve to know that its being spent wisely. so i made a script that builds this page from my bank statement:
https://catcrafts.net/financials
If it all works then donations should be reflected live and it will show the expense for the FP6+ when i buy it, net will drop in the negative as the remainder is coming out of my pocket.
If you want to send a donation please do so to the updated link: https://catcrafts.net/shop/donation this will be reflected in the dashboard live and for tax reasons its now mega clear that its a donation.
Catcrafts as a company
Im contacting a notary with the plans to have Catcrafts corporated as a non profit company (stichting), this is is depending on all the legal stuff however so this isn’t set in stone.
If and if this company goes somewhere and i could quit my job, i will pay myself a salary to live on that will be publicly visible on the financials page. Dutch law requires for non profits that salary to be at max market confirming and not a shadow way for paying out dividends, so its guaranteed that any money in the company will go towards furthering the mission.
I think a non profit phone company has a genuinely good proposition, i praise fairphone alot for the things they do right but in the end they are still an profit seeking business so im a bit wary, and they still post on Musk’s X so my long term judgement on their company is still out there
I applied to be a fairphone partner with in my eyes a pretty good pitch, if they accept my opinion will be improved ;) hopefully i just need to have more patience or they are ghosting me ;-;
Shipping restrictions
I’m sad to announce this but i don’t think i can do worlwide shippng, earlier i said i would be shipping worlwide but i must sadly retract that statement for reasons out of my control. I will be shipping worldwide with the following exceptions:
US, CA: It’s seemingly impossible to get a Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering (corporate liability insurance) for the United States and Canada in the netherlands, its all worldwide excluding US and CA. Getting coverage for those requires “contact us” with probably a very hefty premium, and selling without insurance is too risky as that would mean financial ruin if i get sued.
I would appreciate if anyone that isn’t a massive company has experience with this, will be contacting my insurer aswell to see what’s possible on this front
RU, BY, KP: Sanctions make it a criminal offense for me to ship to these countries.
imsd
| Device | OS | Carrier |
|---|---|---|
| The Fairphone (Gen. 6) | postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 | KPN NL |
| The Fairphone (Gen. 6) | postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 | Telekom Deutschland GER |
| The Fairphone (Gen. 6) | postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 | Phonero |
| The Fairphone (Gen. 6) | postmarketOS, Linux 7.1.2 | Telia Norge |
Thanks to the community we now have 4 confirmed working carriers! If you are using the image please let me know so i can add it to the list!
Making a Linux phone
Ever since this project i’ve been dreaming about making my own linux phone, i’ve been looking into it here and there and while this might just be the sleep deprivation talking i think i can do it.
Making a good linux phone however is the hard part, and i don’t think i can make an better arm linux phone then the fairphone 6 as those qualcomm chips are impossible to buy.
So im not going to, i’ll make a RISCV one. will it be bad? yes, will it end up like the pinephone? most probably, will it run hot and have terrible battery life?, most likely. will it cost me a ton of money?, yes.
BUT
It will be a phone as open as i can make it, with good software, and a (in my eyes ethical) non profit company backing it. i think there is a good business proposition to made there, whatever the case its very long term anyway.
Meeting the lead pmos dev
Imagine my surprise when i see the lead pmos dev on a dutch tech forum, and i’m named, and then heart sank trough the floor when i’m being made out for something that can be disproved with a 10s search.
Luckily the record was set straight fast!
Translation:
I don’t want to hide context so here is the full thread:
What’s next
- More color correction
- Laser rangefinder autofocus instead of software only.
- Selfie camera
- Fingerprint sensor
- Extensive testing
And then the FP6 is done, i will open my shop and continue with the FP6+
Since a long time i feel purpose in my life again, and i have alot of stuff still planned! And getting all the patches upstreamed is also probably a half year commitment atleast.
If you made it this far thank you for reading! As always ask me anything in the comments and ill do my best to answer.
Not that I know of.
Theoretically imsd should work on any qualcomm modem based phone, so if it does work let me know!