It does have the compile time option “--disable-shell-alias” but annoyingly the condition is only applied when your shell is “sh“, not “bash“, so I’ve ended up having to patch Modules to make this work for bash as well. This patch is against 3.2.9c:

--- utility.c.orig      2011-11-29 08:27:13.000000000 +1100
+++ utility.c   2012-05-16 15:08:34.012038000 +1000
@@ -1422,7 +1422,7 @@
         **  Shells supporting extended bourne shell syntax ....
         **/
        if( (!strcmp( shell_name, "sh") && bourne_alias)
-               ||  !strcmp( shell_name, "bash")
+               || ( !strcmp( shell_name, "bash") && bourne_alias )
                 ||  !strcmp( shell_name, "zsh" )
                 ||  !strcmp( shell_name, "ksh")) {
            /**
@@ -1471,7 +1471,7 @@

            fprintf( aliasfile, "'%c", alias_separator);

-        } else if( !strcmp( shell_name, "sh")
+        } else if( ( !strcmp( shell_name, "sh") || !strcmp( shell_name, "bash") )
                &&   bourne_funcs) {
        /**

Hopefully this patch will be of use to people..

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Patch for Modules to use shell functions with BASH, not aliases

Spent afternoon at friends 80th birthday party, great time. No need to eat for a while! http://t.co/aTYgcl9J #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-05-13

Spent afternoon at friends 80th birthday party, great time. No need to eat for a while! http://t.co/aTYgcl9J #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-05-13

.@BBCBreaking usually "making something safe" is lingo for stopping it going off – so they want to stop the Olympics? #

So tomorrows @TheTimeTeam is Dunwich, I wonder if @FluffCthulhu and relatives will make a guest appearance? #

Looks like #GNOfficialUpdate needs an update itself, doesn't recognise the new @googlenexus "takju" build as official #

It appears @Google hide or remove Google Wallet from takju #Android @googlenexus firmware if you're not in the US.. #

Went with @donna_williams to see "Contact, the netball opera" – great fun, first experience of both opera and netball. #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-05-06

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-29

However, other than some photos of it on Twitter details have been a little lacking, but now the ZaReason CEO (who is in New Zealand working on setting up a store there) tweeted the URL for pre-orders which includes the details about it:

• Pure Android
• Allwinner A10 SoC
• 9.7″ IPS 1024×768 display
• 5 point capacitive touchscreen
• 16 GB internal storage + microSD for additional storage
• 1 GB ram
• b/g/n WiFi
• Front and Back cameras
• Sturdy metal back
• High-capacity 8000 mAh battery
• Ultra-light 630 grams

Ports:

• Headphone
• microSD card slot
• mini-HDMI video out
• 2x micro-USB ports

The device is shipping with CyanogenMod 9 (so based on Google’s Android Open Source Programme – AOSP – Ice Cream Sandwich release) and yes, it has root access available (CyanogenMod 9 doesn’t enable it by default, but it is just a configuration option). I would suspect this means it won’t ship with the Google Apps package which are not open source and so you won’t have access to the Google Play Store (formerly the Android Market), but you could still access the F-Droid open source application repository from it and should you feel the need for the proprietary Google Apps then you could reflash CyanogenMod9 with the Google Apps package available from their site. Most importantly it ships with all the source code.

The Socket on a Chip (SoC) is the Allwinner A10 which has a 1GHz ARM Coretex A8 and a MALI 400 MP1 GPU. Whilst the GPU manufacturer releases GPL driver code you apparently need a proprietary DDK to be able to produce a functional driver and so the Lima project has been born to create a fully open driver. Quite how the ZaReason people are dealing with this is unclear, if they are really shipping a fully open tablet then perhaps the Lima driver is a lot more stable than their project website claims. (Clarified below in the update)

They’ve also promised the boot loader is unlocked so you can put whatever software you should wish to try out on it, on Twitter they said that they intend to try and get KDE going on it (presumably the KDE Plasma Active project, possibly using Mer as the supporting distribution). There’s even been a tongue-in-cheek reference to Gentoo..

Update:

Two updates on the ZaTab:

• firstly that the pre-orders they are taking are limited to FOSS people, they want you to contact them via email as part of the process (they have concerns about fraud).
• Secondly on the openness and GPU driver, they have confirmed that “Initially there may be some binary blobs. Lima isn’t far enough along at this time, but we have high hopes for it”.

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The ZaTab from @ZaReason – a fully open source Android (or whatever you want to load) tablet (UPDATED)

Tonight's odd soup with @donna_Williams is chicken, swertcorn, onion, bacon and brussel sprout. #

Unfortunately that idle3ctl from idle3-tools doesn't seem to work with WD 6400AAV external USB drives. #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-22

Had a go with archery with @donna_williams. Last time was at university in Aberystwyth 20 years ago. Had a great time! #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-15

Had a go with archery with @donna_williams. Last time was at university in Aberystwyth 20 years ago. Had a great time! #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-15

The NULL packet – http://t.co/WA9BV3Zq #

Trying to install CyanogenMod on a friends ZTE v9, hampered by fact that root exploit and superuser package are 403 #

Ummm, wow, @Nokia just posted my old #N900 photo of #RMIT – flattered! http://t.co/9q11Pv3x #

When running Arch #Linux it's good to run pacman -Sc occasionally, just gone from 300MB to 2.3GB free #

I appear to have successfully root'd and installed CyanogenMod on friends ZTE V9 (Optus My Tab) for first time. #

Grilled pineapple with minced ginger and cinnamon – awesome creation of @donna_williams #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-08