[G1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] zeek1636:
As the title above suggests, I am after building and using a complete Linux native-built (not over-android and such like) system, which is build from source (no propriety google and other such closed-source nonsense) with the following features:

- 'standard' kernel (again, built from source) with, possibly, the SELinux hooks enabled (see below);

- NO GUI (at least not for now anyway) - just plain old terminal environment;

- iptables and associate tools;

- SELinux + associated tools built and installed - this, although not mandatory, it is highly desired. I can build the security policy myself, though the tools I need to use require recent working version of perl, python & m4 to name a few packages required.

- auditd (highly desirable and obviously dependent on whether SELinux could be build & installed);

- dev-mapper tools;

- vim (minimal configuration);

- bash;

- crond

- openvpn - i have my own 'customised' sources for this, which I use on all of my machines;

- linphonec - this, from what I understand, could be build from source for armv7 (which is what G1 is based on afaik);

That's it. I don't need any other fancy tools/packages. I would also like the root image (/) to be as a 'live cd', though I am not sure with the 192MB RAM available to G1 whether this is at all possible?

As evident from the above, I intend to use the phone as a mini-pc-station, which connects to my network (via vpn) and uses sip-based voip. The intended method of connection is about 70% wifi (various hotspots as well as my own wifi router when I am at home) and 30% gps 2/3g, HSDPA/HSUPA when no hotspots/wifi is available (that probably means the use of sim card, I guess). I also need the audio to be usable in full-duplex mode.

My G1 phone is already rooted and contains custom android 2.1 rom upgrade from here, though I have to admit that even though I have quite a bit of skills as a programmer, my experience with embedded devices - and g1 in particular - is the grand total of nil, I am complete n00b as far as this goes, so if anything I have included in this post is a bit...erm...stupid, I apologise in advance.

I did a bit of research and came across various attempts to build and install Debian[1][2], build and use OpenMoko[3][4] and SHR[5], as well as getting rid of the unnecessary - bulk - stuff[6][7] and according to some[8] what I want to achieve seems 'doable', though as a newbie I am not sure what route to take, thus I ask for a 'second opinion' from the more knowledgable on here before I dive-in and start spending more time on this.

What concerns me are the crucial bits that seem to drive the G1 hardware - wifi and gps connectivity in particular - they all seem to be propriety and closed-source[8]. I don't know whether this problem has been overcome (if so, I'd like to know how exactly?), but I would like my phone to be 100% build from open source and have the functionality I described briefly above, if that's possible.

Also, I'd like to build the phone image on a 'regular' PC - I have quad core CPU (x86_64 arch), which should be sufficient for the task, I think. I tried to build x86-64 -> armv7 (arm11) cross toolchain, but do not know enough about what 'flavour' of the core c library is in use or shoud be in use on G1?

Again, any help with this would be much appreciated, thanks. As a newbie with less than 10 posts I am only allowed to post on here instead of the dev forum, which was my intention initially!

[1] Debian & Android Together on G1 - Jay Freeman (saurik)

[2] Native Debian on HTC Dream G1 | Novaspirit - Notepad

[3] Main Page - Openmoko

[4] Openmoko on HTC-Dream

[5] Devices/HTCDream/InstallGuide - SHR

[6] xda-developers - View Single Post - [Q] G1 rom without phone bulk?

[7] Official "Native Linux/Debian" Thread - xda-developers

[8] Dream - Htc-linux