As far as I understand from the docs, while the OS is opensourced, certain parts needed to build an image and flash it to own device are proprietary so, outside of Mudita organization it is not possible to build muditaOS from source and use it on own device. Is this true or did I missed some important detail?
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@pki Thanks for your VERY interesting question!
I have to admit, I don’t have the answer to this right now, but I’ve reached out to our dev team to help me get your the right answer.
I will get back to you once I have the info 
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@pki Quick question about what type of phone you want to install this modified version of MuditaOS on? Is it on a phone other then Mudita Pure?
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I want to install it on Pure.
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Pure comes with it, just keep it updated.
In general, question is nice; will OS have wider availability and licensing to other non Mudita devices?
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Sadly stock MuditaOS is very limited in functionality in terms of what I would expect from phone, so stock MuditaOS, even up to date is not enough. Luckily it is GPL’ed, so one is free to modify the OS to suit his/her purposes. Sadly there is no clear path to get those modifications back to the phone, because, as far as I understand, Mudita Pure uses non-free software components for install image and build process dependencies (private repos with restricted access).
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@urszula were you able to find an answer for my question? If I do modifications to MuditaOS, will I be able to install such modified OS on the Pure phone I own, or will I run into problems due to dependency on some non-free software components?
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Hi,
I’m also interested in modifying Mudita OS and reinstalling it on my Mudita Pure.
In my case, my vision is considered “low-vision”, and there are times where to protect what remains, in certain situations where I can’t tell dark from light.
I’d like to add voice naration for all menu options and button pushes, and a larger, bolder font.
Please get back to us about how to modify Mudita OS for our needs/wants, and then how to install it on the Mudita Pure phone.
Thank you,
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We are currently investigating to ability to open the process of building MuditaOS for our users. This process involves resolving some legal issues with regard to proprietary assets, fonts and configuration files for our e-Ink display. Right now, we are trying few potential solutions and will provide updates as soon as we can confirm whether any of them work.
Currently, as things stand, we are not able to offer this option.
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extremely disappointing
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There are a lot of open source fonts. That should be easy to solve. I saw something that the big hold up was one .bin file, that is the drive for the eink display. Is that the biggest challenge?
I’m wondering if a suitable open source drive could be3 taken from one of these projects:
Quill OS
The Open Book Project
Libros, the firmware for the open book project
Would any of those help provide missing pieces to make it possible to fully open the mudita phone and mudita os?
Cool. But, as a person with low-vision, how difficult/dangerous would it be to learn to solder?
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Thats funny Thanks, but no. Regarding MuditaOS, I think there is no point of opensourcing the OS and so giving people option to modify it, if there is no path for them to use the modified system in any other way than on a simulator. Currently Android AOSP with properly choosen phone seems to offer better options for customizations than Pure with Mudita OS which offers none.
For now, I’ve managed to switch to CAT B26, which obviously has it’s own annoyances (suprising how difficult can it be to develop high quality dumbphone on a market with decades of dumbphone experience), but outperforms Pure in aspects that are the most important for me. With this I have no further desire to spend time on making Pure usable for me.
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Hi @urszula , it sounds like Mudita is trying to gain visibility by opensourcing its OS without actually letting people do anything useful with it.
It’s not what is expected by people in free software communities.
I’m considering buying one of you phone but only if I can modify the OS by myself.
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Indeed, at that level it is “open source washing”, and that will harm Mudita reputation.
I understand that Pure being sold out, it is not very motivating for the team to work on it. But I hope this will be solved nevertheless.
Having a good reputation in the free software community could be a big source of customers in the future.
To give a idea, there are several millions of Linux users in Europe (1,36%, cf Operating System Market Share Europe | Statcounter Global Stats )
→ so yes, it is minority, but that’s a lot of motivated potential customers !
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It saddens me that Mudita’s response to this thread is, “you can read the code but aren’t given a path to actually do anything with it for the Mudita Pure.” And a link to a project, that while cool, is unsafe for me to do with my disabilities and unrelated to fixing the problems of my purchase of an “Open source” phone that I cannot modify.
I need a timeline for a path forward for how this will be fixed, and I need it to be fixed before winter to keep it usable with my disabilites.
If this can’t happen, I’d be saddened to say that I need to warn the open source community that Mudita is “Open Source Washing,” and that I bought a phone because I believed I could add my voice to the menu, and enlarge the font, and this is not so. I love Mudita’s design ethic, and would hate to have to honestly explain my experience so far to my dev friends in the open source community and the Esperanto community that the Mudita Pure is a locked down brick of false promises.
So, I’ve provided some links that may help Mudita open the phone. Please tell me, what are Mudita’s next steps towards opening the phone?
Maybe the bigger goal right now would be to ensure the operating system of the Kompakt can be modified and reinstalled by the user. Is that planned for the Kompakt?
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I’m sorry to hear about your disappointment and truly appreciate your feedback. We understand your concerns regarding the implementation of custom software on the Mudita Pure.
To further explain, I’d like to share some insights into the technical challenges and proprietary aspects of our technology.
A significant challenge involves the proprietary nature of the e-ink technology in our devices. Our e-ink display manufacturer uses Look-Up Tables (LUTs) or waveforms, which are crucial for the performance of the e-ink display. These files are highly valued and patented. Unfortunately, we can’t obtain permission to release this proprietary data. That’s why access to raw partitions has to be password-protected in our bootloader, which prevents from loading your custom OS builds.
The situation with the Look-Up Tables (LUTs) for Kompakt will be the same as with Pure. However, a decision regarding the code itself has not yet been made.
When we opted to open-source Mudita OS, our goal was to allow users to verify the code themselves, ensuring that we fulfill our commitments, particularly regarding privacy. Our decision to embrace openness and transparency was guided by a commitment to reveal our code to the world, a value we believe is rare in the industry.
I hope this explanation clarifies the situation. We are very grateful for your feedback and insights!
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Ngl. This is fair and understandable. Disappointing, but fair.
Thanks for taking the time to explain the motivation behind the code and purpose of the open source components.
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