Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf]

Re:Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf] by therealmarv on Tuesday December 30, 2014 @12:00AM (#8813413)

Are there any opensource baseband phones out there? Does opensource baseband actually exist? So many people think that they have a phone with opensource software but so many components, especially the baseband can give so much control over the phone.

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Re:Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf] by JoshTriplett on Tuesday December 30, 2014 @12:47AM (#8813496)

Osmocom is working on Open Source implementations of both basebands and cell towers, along with various other cell network components: see http://osmocom.org/ for the project and http://bb.osmocom.org/ for the baseband in particular.

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Re:Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf] by rsync on Tuesday December 30, 2014 @02:33AM (#8813715)

OsmocomBB is 2G only and it is functional only on calypso based phones, which are extremely old phones, most of which do not work on US GSM frequencies (IIRC there is one that does).

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Re:Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf] by remael on Tuesday December 30, 2014 @03:55AM (#8813846)

For one there is the Openmoko Neo Freerunner (GTA02) which has a US version. It also has a seperated baseband only connected by some serial and audio lines.

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Re:Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf] by dpifke on Tuesday December 30, 2014 @05:25AM (#8813997)

Related question: does anyone know of any no-baseband devices?

I've been unsuccessfully looking for a wifi-only phone, ideally a relatively modern one which comes with an unlocked bootloader and can easily run Cyanogenmod.

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Re:Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf] by deno on Tuesday December 30, 2014 @10:05AM (#8814842)

Your best bet is probably to use a phablet and a Bluetooth headset for answering if you want to do VoIP.

Actually that’s one of the reasons I’m excited for smartwatches. Headset + BT-only watch + phablet + Internet AP over Wi-Fi/Bluetooth + VoIP over VPN seems like the most elegant solution to the backdoor baseband and general security and privacy issue right now.

Google’s project Ara would be the most elegant, of course. I hope this is the future, but I don’t know.

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Re:Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf] by jacquesm on Tuesday December 30, 2014 @09:15AM (#8814633)

Can't you just run a regular phone without a sim and with a snipped antenna lead?

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Re:Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf] by dpifke on Tuesday December 30, 2014 @08:09PM (#8817792)

This is an excellent suggestion; thank you. I don't think there would be room for a tablet (or "phablet") in the pockets of any of my current pants or jackets.

I wonder how easy it is to identify the cellular antenna vs. the ones for wifi/Bluetooth/NFC/inductive charging, but definitely something to look into.

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Re:Reverse engineering a Qualcomm baseband processor [pdf] by userbinator on Tuesday December 30, 2014 @09:45AM (#8814744)

no-baseband devices

a wifi-only phone

If you're looking for "Android phone without the phone", you'd be better off looking for an Android tablet.

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