[Gen8, Gen9, Gen10 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] letama:
God, Google translation is awful :)

Here is my approximate translation of cajl interview:

1) Le Tama, master of archos roms, present yourself

I fall into computers when I was very young (11 year old, no personal computer at this time, I start programming on paper with a book :)) and since then virus never left me. I'm 42, I'm technical director of a small software development company. As my current job don't give me much occasion to dig into code, I'm pursuing my passion as a leisure, and especially on Archos tablet these days.

2) Why Android ?

I came to Android with my HTC HD2. At that time, Android just started to show some great potential and Windows Mobile was getting old. I started to follow HD2 development efforts on Android. It was stuck on a kernel problem, it pushed me to start looking into linux kernel source code. I then took part of the desire kernel port to HD2 with Cotulla and the others and I also participated to the first Android release working on HD2.

3) Why Archos

I started looking at Archos when Google annonced ICS and annonced that they will be using Omap as reference platform. I always wanted to have a look at omap (too much qualcomm with hd2 :)), so I started to look for a platform that would let me play with it without being too costly. That's why I naturally came to Archos. I started toying with my co-worker A70 and then purchased my A101G9.

The more I work on Archos, the more I like the "openness" of the platform. Gen8 bootloader is easy to crack, gen9 bootloaders are not even locked. Better, Archos thinks about us, hackers, by letting entry points like SDE, a reserved partition on gen9,...

4) By the way, what's the purpose of rooting ?

Ah! What's the purpose of root:

From a developer point of view, to give complete access to resources. With root, we can do a complete dump of disk and partitions to study firmware, install things we couldn't do without, like SDE for Gen9. It's the first necessary step to modify stock firmware. It's also mandatory if you want to do some specific operations like partitioning.

From an user point of view, it let you use application that demands root. My favorites are:

- Busybox

- Root Explorer

- Titanium backup

- Chainfire 3D

And I certainly forgot some. Just looking at market, we see thousands of applications that requires root to work.

5) Easy or not easy to find exploits ?

No, not easy with a well-made firmware. Except big mistake from manufacturer, exploits (weakness abused to obtain a temporary root) are fixed after discovery, and it's getting more and more difficult to find new weaknesses. Thankfully, our current exploit is not fixed, crossing finger.

6) What are you currently working on ?

I'm working a bit on too many fronts and not enough free time, but here is what I'm working on:

- Internal disk partitioning for g9 to let us install sde firmware on a separated native ext4 partition, without interfering with stock firmware and internal storage. It works on mine, I'm working on way to do it simply and safely to let everyone benefit from it.

- Clockworkmod Recovery. It also works on mine, but is only useful if tablet has been partitioned. It let us do complete backups, rom+apps+internal storage (nandroid backup), it let us use zips to install firmware and firmware updates, and it make our tablet feels more "android native".

- CM9: I built one for gen9 that worked not too badly, but there is a lot of work to get something completely functional.

- I also launched a first overclocked kernel for 1.0Ghz Gen9, stable on mine up to 1.2, almost at 1.3. I will have to work on this again when Archos will release a new firmware that fix current ICS problems.

- I'm working on the IT2, I activated SDE and I have a rooted firmware. I will try to port 3.0 kernel and ICS on it.

- I'd like to work on bootloader too, but this is another story...

7 How can we help ?

Explain my boss that I have to stop working on his projects! More seriously, I'll certainly need beta-testers that are willing to take risks for their tablets with partitioning, but I'm not there yet.

8 Why this nickname ?

Le Tama ? This is a wink to my wife! Sshhh!

9 Anything more ?

Nah, enough talk, back to work!