Tiny Steps Towards Liberating Bootloaders and Modem Firmware of MediaTek Phones

I bought an MTK phone several years ago, when the MT6589 was the one to have, solely because the full datasheet for that SoC had been leaked and it had a bootloader that was "unlocked by design". SPFlashTool and the BROM pretty much makes them unbrickable. The culture around modding these relatively unbranded, cheap, and featureful devices is interesting --- and the sharing of ostensibly "confidential"[1] leaked datasheets/source/etc. is almost encouraged, unlike a certain fruit company. ;-)

It's a curious contrast to companies like Qualcomm, who will release source code openly but keep their documentation very secret. I guess that's why I'm not too bothered by MTK not releasing source code or complying with GPL --- the source only says how, but they've already leaked the why which I find far more useful for modding, or like this project, eventually fully open-source replacement.

[1] Chinese companies in general have a more collectivist approach to IP. I've heard that the main reason they mark those documents confidential/NDA'd, and yet don't seriously pursue leakers, is that it gains them sales (and "street cred" among the modding scene...) but they can still go after those who use that information to compete against them. There's a good overview at https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297

> The downside to [the MIT] license is that it also allows the vendor to create a fork of the bootloader without giving the customers the changed source code, and unfortunately it is common practice for vendors to make use of this right.

One of the many advantages of the GPL over licenses such as MIT.

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> postmarketOS Low-Level: Tiny Steps Towards Liberating Bootloaders and Cellular Modem Firmware of MediaTek Phones

I wonder this can be used to port a normal Linux userspace to android tv's (which all seem to use mediatek)

is there a donation page? how can I support this work?