[Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBox in the Chronicle of Higher Education

[Eugen Leitl]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 12:47:39AM +0200, Marc Manthey wrote:
>>> Huawei sells Serval-capable phones for 100 USD, or thereabouts.
>
> thanks for the pointer, i  will try to get one at
>
> http://www.lidl.de/de/Handy-Zubehoer/HUAWEI-Technologies-Smartphone-Huawei-X3

Make sure that Ideos X3 can be rooted, or has alternative firmware available.
Cursory web search indicates it can be rooted.

http://www.android-hilfe.de/root-hacking-modding-fuer-huawei-ideos-x3/145672-how-root-your-ideos-x3-clockworkmod-recovery-systemapps-entfernen.html

Notice that while you have e.g. SSH and busybox, and can login into your
phone via WLAN there are no Debian-like depositories from which you can
apt-get your packages. That needs to be fixed to make a smartphone a
useful platform for FBX.

> or
>
> http://www.fonic.de/html/android_smartphone_huawei_ideos_x3.html
>
>> I was going to say that no activist in Yemen, libya or Egypt could
>> afford these prices
>
> If thats the case , what is the solution ? Waiting 3  years till devices 
> gets cheaper ?

Smartphones are bought instead of personal computers, and are
frequently community-owned (e.g. a village in Africa buys a single
smartphone with multiuser capabilities).

> Otherwise a linksys WRT54 series router http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series
> would be the only affordable device whitch could run a linux  
> distribution e.g. https://openwrt.org/
> (bought several used on ebay for about 30 € )


-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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