[Q] What specifically needs to happen to have wimax work on evo 4g using ics

I have a general IT background of 10+ years with basic scripting skills so understand on a general level about drivers but I have been reading for several months trying to understand the EXACT nature of the problem for why i still don't see a ICS rom for the evo4g with working (or semi-working) wimaxx.

Can someone please educate me? Here is my version....

Sprint has retired the evo4g via end of life decision process and so does not have a formal team working on an ICS build of any kind for my phone. I don't agree with this decision, but i understand why Sprint is not providing me with one.

Because Sprint has retired the phone, HTC is not doing any development for the phone and so THEY aren't providing me with any drivers. I'm not sure who of these two made the business decision, Sprint or HTC, probably HTC. Either way, no formal support from either of them. I don't agree, but accept that.

As for developers coming up with their own, this is where I'm expecting magic and so instead of just crying "where are my drivers, where is my rom" i am attempting to learn why they aren't here and am requesting an education on the subject.
From my understanding, AOSP is Googles contribution for free to the world. This is a great operating system for running phones for a variety of reasons. From there, manufacturers take the basic kernel and modify it to work with their equipment. This is where it gets a bit confusing for me.

I think that the manufacturers do two things. One, is that they work with chip manufacturers to obtain proprietary drivers for specific chipsets that integrate into the basic kernel. Two is that phone manufacturers ALSO modify the kernel so as to make a proprietary version of the kernel. So HTC made a propritary version of the kernel and incorporated SENSE (among other things) into that proprietary kernel, and hooked up proprietary drivers that may or may not work with the AOSP kernel to provide services such as video and wimax and sound etc.

I know teamwin some how reverse engineered or manufactured a wimax driver for gingerbread such that the wimax driver was available for the AOSP Gingerbread kernel, but teamwin or nobody else has done that such that a wimax driver is available for the AOSP ICS kernel

I know that HTC has wimax working on some of its phones that have ICS via threads that talk about it being leaked (i.e Nexxus 4g).

So here are some questions... I suspect none of them are accurately asked.

Version1
Does AOSP ICS kernel have the ability to have a wimaxx driver built/interfaced into it?
If so, is it HTC that technically owns this driver or another specific company?

Version2
If AOSP ICS kernel does not, does that mean we currently need both a specific evo4g ICS kernel AND the wimax driver built?
Or are either of these easy to build and we just need one part of them built...meaning the wimax driver is out in the world for developers now and all that needs to happens is for someone to put some "hooks" into a new evo4g kernel such that they would work with the driver.


I apologize in advance if i broke some posting rules. I can't post in developement section yet so i placed in q/a where it says "any question". I did some basic research on the subject so i'm not just whining i don't have my driver. I am trying to get at the specific thing that needs to happen for my evo4g rom to have wimax working on ICS.

My theory is "HTC owns the wimax driver for ICS but won't release the source code as they only want to bring certain wimax devices into the ICS generation. It is proprietary to a specific kernel so if it was released, it would not instantly work with the AOSP kernel and other kernels. It would still need further development (but on which end???). It is illegal and difficult for someone to reverse engineer this ICS WIMAXX driver. It is legal, but still difficult for someone to create a generic ICS WIMAXX driver. Since both are difficult they will not happen soon."

Thanks for your thoughts in advance.

*DISCLAIMER - everything I say below is based on belief and may be wrong.

Believe that the majority of what you said is correct.
Slight thing - nexxus 4g (I believe this is sammy/goog, no?)
While kernel may have specific customizations for sense, believe sense is built on top of OS (ICS) and not IN the kernel itself per se.

(MOST LIKELY SCENARIO): Believe that HTC has to release an update where ICS and Sense crap all play nicely together and sprint has to test it and release it and then xda devs need to fix it to remove bloat, optimize, and ensure no more CIQ-ish kind of crap or htc spy crap or root removal...can't trust any of these bastards. The update will have ICS + Sense + Kernel (including the proprietary or binary blob drivers for things like wimax, camera, screen).

(IDEAL SCENARIO): HTC quit being little Apple-tards, realize that their differentiator is that they ARE NOT a walled garden - that customer enthusiasm is a good thing. They get off their asses and send a working kernel source for ICS AOSP (just the kernel) to team douche/team win/team kang... somebody cool (officially or unofficially) and BAM - everything works great in the AOSP/AOKP world. I mean really - if we are going to be in a walled garden, is not Apple's the best? Why not just buy iphones if HTC's gonna be a giant douche? Turd sandwich or Samsung would be better options.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. This is a learning experience for me too!

One of the biggest problems for the ics rom is its not based on the kernel its supposed to be running. The kernel has been frankenkerneled from tiamats gb kernel with the correct settings to run as ics. While I know that the kernel has been updated to somewhat but its not the true ics kernel some of these other phones are running and also while team douche or team win got the wimax working on aosp gb back in the day...they are no longer working on the evo and also wimax back then wasn't a quick fix. It was on the back burner for the longest time. I commend you on wanting to work on the drivers and learn. I would start by contacting prelude drew via twitter and or atyoung the current dev for the mason ics kernel that hes had great success with. Those two could point you in the right direction or bring on board with them on getting everything working especially with your strong IT background it will come in handy.

spyke1999 said:

See the driver isn't my issue I had a base my friend and I can figure it out we are currently trying cm7 drivers as a base

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Do you really think the more experienced devs haven't already tried that. GB drivers WILL NOT WORK, period. The drivers from GB to ICS changed ENTIRELY they aren't even close to the same.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

I think that it's important to note that it makes no financial sense for a manufacturer (be it HTC, Samsung, LG...) to continue to develop/support old handsets. They are in the business of selling new phones. If everyone falls in love with their EVO 4Gs, and never have a reason to move to the EVO5G, HTC will go broke. Additionally, carriers like Sprint will stop wanting to do business with that manufacturer because a "support old handsets" policy will encourage people to not buy new phones/sign new contracts, thereby hurting the carrier's bottom line.

Do I agree with it? No, but it's just business and I can at least accept that. While I'd love to say I have a full native ICS build on my EVO, being limited to GB doesn't actually affect my love of the phone. It is still the same device that won me over, and it still does everything that I need it to do. Getting mad at the manufacturer for not providing upgrades for the handset is sort of like getting mad at Ford for not offering a hybrid drivetrain conversion for my '97 Ranger.


All that aside, I think the OP and other devs who try to keep the EVO 4G on its feet are some of the coolest people around. I wish you all the best of luck in sorting this mess out.