#RabbitHole: @okias@floss.social is doing a lot work to mainstream #sdm845 patches to the #linux kernel. During a meeting of Phosh.mobi e.V. members I learned that there seem to be not many testers for #Shift6mq #axolotl. I still had a broken Axolotl sitting on my desk…
- repaired the phone that originally had been bought as part of a #ShiftPhone8 deal
- cleaning inside (residue from water contact)
- new display (two lines of broken pixels)
- new usb-c pcb (didn't charge, data broke during testing)
- learned about
edlto recover if phone wouldn't boot to fastboot anymore (yes, really had that situation later
) - learned about the difference of fastboot and fastbootd mode
- learned about u-boot and the boot chain on the phone
- learned about dynamic partitions used in Android and how to use them from #linux
- learned about
pmbootstrap- to build my own device images (mixture of existing
axolotlandsdm845to be compatible to the phone and the usage with u-boot and dynamic partitions) - changed pmbootstrap to build small (92M) boot image for boot_a/b partition
- to build my own device images (mixture of existing
- tried to get more space for out of the phone for boot & root than provided by boot_a/b and system_a/b
- resized userdata of Android
- created two additional partitions for postmarketOS
- learned how to recover from kernel not booting without re-flashing
- learned how to compile a kernel using
./envkernel.shand pmbootstrap
Now I'm quite sure I can recover from any failure I will encounter while testing sdm845 kernels and I have the following setup on my Shift6mq:
- ShiftOS-L with small userdata partition in slot_b
- applications for demoing the phone installed
- work profile to contain closed source applications
- postmarketOS edge installed on partitions behind userdata
- u-boot on rescue_a
- 1GB pmOS_boot
- 60GB pmOS_root
- applications for demoing
- multi-user: my testing user, demo user
- everything except cameras work
- dual-boot possible on-the-go: enter fastboot (by holding vol-up at start), change slot, reboot
I put my notes on the postmarketOS wiki.
I started two merge requests:
- support audio configuration when started through u-boot in alsa
- add support for booting using u-boot and dynamic partitions to axolotl
I'll carry the phone at #clt2026 - Chemnitzer Linux Tage 2026 - on saturday 28th this month. I'll mostly be around the "Linux on Mobile" booth.
Chris Vogel shared 7 days ago
Looking forward to work with #modemmanager upstream on improving dual SIM support in our #LinuxMobile stack: https://nlnet.nl/project/Linux-MultiSIM/ .
Thanks a lot to @NGIZero for supporting this!
Chris Vogel shared 11 days ago
New blog post: Why "digital sovereignty" requires a free software alternative to Android and iOS, and how we're building towards that 🏗️
Chris Vogel shared 23 days ago
We have so many #flohmarkt instances that advertise their location now!
https://codeberg.org/flohmarkt/flohmarkt/wiki/flohmarkt-instances
Here’s a map:
Chris Vogel shared a month ago
Chris Vogel shared a month ago
Goguma v0.9 has been released!
Hey #flomis 
!
The #flohmarkt developers have been busy and released version 0.14.0 a while ago. @Profpatsch@mastodon.xyz prepared an upgrade. I just published the new version.
Please look through the settings sections to adopt the new options available.
@webmink
Chris Vogel shared 2 months agoNew year, new release candidate!
We've tagged #Phosh 0.52~rc1 together with #feedbackd 0.8.8, gmobile #0.6.0 and #pfs 0.0.6 . pfs now ships a simple example file selector app, excuse the logo but we were thinking about a mobile file cabinet:
Happy 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣ everyone!
Chris Vogel shared 2 months ago
@spipau @tbernard Thus, rather than forking Android, we'd be better advised not to build on top of AOSP and instead use the free software platforms we already have as a basis, making use of the huge amount of developer effort and research put into free software Linux distributions and apps running on them, and making that available to smartphones.
@postmarketOS is laying the groundwork here and initiatives like @modal are pushing to build the remaining pieces to have something that can compete.
Chris Vogel shared 2 months ago@spipau @tbernard microG could be continued without me. There are other contributors and certainly enough developers that could contribute. But that is because microG is a free software community project.
Android in contrast is exclusively developed by Google. AOSP is merely a code dump, it's almost impossible for non-Googlers to contribute to Android or AOSP. Even if you were to fork it, you won't have the necessary developer and security researcher power to compete.
Chris Vogel shared 2 months agoA often requested feature was the ability to change brightness on the lockscreen without having to pull down the settings menu. This can be useful in changing ambient conditions when not using automatic brightness. #Phosh 0.52 will have a two finger swipe gesture for that:
Chris Vogel shared 3 months ago
The #flohmarkt features we are most proud of are:
* We overthrew the geographical concept for an entirely new one.
* We offer you new ways to authenticate yourself than just username/password (Fediauth and LDAP)
* and much, much more…
Stay tuned :)
Chris Vogel shared 3 months ago
Chris Vogel shared 3 months ago
My friend seems genuinely baffled that I am an AI researcher who refuses to use AI! Not only that, but I argue against it from theory, not experience. Why don't I just give it a try for a while, and see what it's really about before I judge it?
I guess I see where he's coming from. Part of the problem is the word "AI." LLMs are not my research focus, so it's less of a contradiction than it sounds. But I admit, being a non-user makes my arguments against LLMs less credible.
I just don't understand why I owe it to anybody to give AI a shot. I know how LLMs work in gory detail, and I don't trust them. I've seen the mediocre work they produce. I've read studies about the seductive illusion of competence and caring they create, and how people fall for that. I know it's all built on an incredibly exploitative business model.
I feel entirely justified in not giving them a chance. I guess I'm just as baffled by how badly he wants me to try it, and how sure he seems to be that it would change my mind.
Chris Vogel shared 3 months agoWow, #phosh got a mention from #ACLU . Thanks @nikodunk for letting us know: https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/app-store-oligopoly
Chris Vogel shared 3 months ago#ldap integration in #flohmarkt is coming along great! We now have a full user lifecycle support implemented :)
Chris Vogel shared 3 months ago
We've released a new version of mobile-broadband-provider info. Besides updated provider info and more #cellbroadcast channel information we also added emergency number information:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mobile-broadband-provider-info/-/releases/20251101
Hey @ruud@mastodon.world - welcome amongst the #flohmarkts of the world!
Thanks for your ping about the installation in 
Netherlands.
I added you to the list of known instances on the wiki and sent you a federation request.
addressing a passerby: Uh, hey, nice to meet you! You're running a flohmarkt as well? You'd like to have some more visibility and reach? Come on - let's federate!
Chris Vogel shared 3 months ago
@me I created a new #flohmarkt instance: https://flomarkt.nl
I need to finish some configuration and then I'll open registrations. You can add it to the wiki.
Chris Vogel shared 4 months ago#flohmarkt geographic sorting and search is nearing completion and will be available in the next release :)