The Kernel Source Saga
aka
How Samsung Is Continuing to Violate the GPL
aka
How Samsung Is Continuing to Violate the GPL
As you are all aware, there are still no custom kernels or any functioning custom recoveries for this fine (despite its flaws) device - the Samsung Galaxy Indulge (specifically, the SCH-R910). We'd love to be able to say that's not the case, but it is - and will continue to be, for as long as the issues outlined below continue. Samsung has left us not just in the lurch, but completely screwed - whether it is simple incompetence, disregard for the prepaid device community, interference by MetroPCS, or flat-out malice, the outcome is the same.
The Symptoms
The problem here is not that Samsung has not published some sort of source package. They have done at least that - enough to keep most observers happy. However, this package was broken from the start. The first package that Samsung published for the R910 included a badly-broken netfilter, which stumped our kernel experts for a good while before the decision was made to simply substitute the three pieces of netfilter from another device.
Doing this allowed our kernel developers (and myself) to compile a kernel, linked with a clean initramfs extracted from the stock kernel. In a properly-released source package, this should be enough - but it wasn't. These kernel attempts would appear to boot, but about 10-15s after completion of the boot animation, would die completely. The LTE and CDMA baseband versions, in About Phone, would display as Unknown, if one could get there quickly enough.
Three of the top Epic kernel developers, myself, and a long-time Android veteran analyzed kmsg logs (see below) and other factors, and determined that it was impossible to generate what is in the stock binary blob from the source package published by Samsung.
Warning: technical details! The following IRC log summarizes the issue:
Logs: Bad Boot #1 Bad Boot #2 Clean Boot
Source and initramfs as of these logs: Github
What Has Samsung Done?
I have been in contact with SamsungJohn (John Imah), Samsung's official developer representative on Twitter. On first notification of the issue, no action had been taken, and it took an RT campaign to catch Mr. Imah's eye. Approximately one week later, Mr. Imah joined me in IRC, and took note of the information above. Shortly after that, Samsung released a new source package on opensource.samsung.com. That was great - except that the only difference was an end to the out-of-the-box compile errors. Everything else about this source package was identical. The results were the same.
Within the next business day, Mr. Imah requested that I send the information to his corporate email address, as he had an "HQ team" there with him. Unfortunately, that was June 22. Mr. Imah has not responded to tweets or DMs since then, and we have been given absolutely no indication that any work has been done on this issue. The source package has not been updated again.
I have given Samsung ample notification and time to work with myself and my fellow developers to resolve this issue without a public expose. They have failed to so much as maintain the appearance of progress, let alone make any. It was, is, time for the saga to end. Samsung is hereby on notice. They, by failing to provide the source necessary to generate what is included in the stock kernel binary, are violating the General Public License.
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html said:
How Can You Help?
Tweet, email, and otherwise contact every public-facing Samsung representative.
Tell your friends. Have them do the same.
Send a copy of this report to license-violation@gnu.org - the source in question is the Linux kernel, which is owned by the Free Software Foundation.
Just spread the word - until Samsung feels the heat from this (feel free to contact their legal department!) we will not see results. Development for the Indulge will continue to be held back. Only the users will suffer.
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Follow me on Twitter @k0nane/@publik0.
