Contributing to Sony Open Devices: Sony Xperia 5 IV enablement

Last month, like every year since 2016 or so :D, I attended FOSDEM.

I had the pleasure to finally meet Caleb, who I had known for their efforts in mainlining the Snapdragon 845 SoC, but also Alin Jerpelea, Senior Open Source Software Architect at Sony, who I had so far mostly interacted with via the Sony Open Devices github bugtracker, where I had been been reporting issues affecting Sony’s AOSP image on my XZ2 Compact.

I had been following the Open Devices project for a few years already , but I recently got in closer contact with their community in an effort to contribute some time to mainlining their devices and contributing to Sony’s effort.

As part of that, I will be spending some of the very little spare time available to lend a hand and iron out issues in running Sony’s AOSP Android 13 on Sony Xperia 5 IV (aka pdx224, Nagara platfom) 🙂

Mainlining Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact: can I?

Those of you who know me well, know that I am particularly passionate about mobile OSes.

One of the top criteria when choosing a new phone is how “hackable” it is, i.e. whether it allows things unlocking the bootloader, flashing other firmwares and ideally mainline Linux support, but also how OSS-friendly its manufacturer s.

That is why, a few years ago, I bought the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact.
Compact, powerful, hackable.

I have been a long time Jolla fan (I was doing my internship there when we released the first Jolla phone! Oh, memories…) and it’s been a long time wish of mine to bring Sailfish OS to my phone.

Meanwhile, the awesome @rinigus has made it 🙂

I also always kept an eye on Sony’s efforts in the open-source world, especially the Sony Open Devices Program.

After attending @caleb‘s session on implementing Linux mainline support for the Snapdragon 845 SoC (the same XZ2 Compact is based on!) I started thinking I could join that project and contribute to mainlining my device.

Life with a toddler is incredibly busy , but I have finally decided to dedicate some of the very, very, very little spare time I have to this cause. Something like 1-2hrs per week, mostly in the evenings.

I know this will be fun!

Long time no see!

Wow, it’s been a while.

So many things happened since last post.

I quit Canonical, where I was working on Ubuntu Touch, right before the project was closed.

I joined Samsung R&D UK, where I spent 3 amazing years developing software for Samsung’s flagship phones, from a kernel driver for the Samsung S9 to an AI-based system service for game performance optimisation, like a smart CPU/GPU governor.

I was then approached by CrowdStrike, who gave me the opportunity to dive into cybersecurity and to start my first remote job.
What an amazing bunch of people was waiting for me, there!
Fast-forward 2 years, I am still at CrowdStrike.

Last but not least, we are now parents of a wonderful little princess <3