New blogpost: "Installing postmarketOS with full disk encryption on a OnePlus 6"
The start of my adventure with @postmarketOS, bringing Linux-based life back to an old phone.
postmarketOS isnβt just a fun technical project - although it is a fun technical project - it is part of an important movement of recognising and mitigating the impact of electronic waste and excess consumerism, and giving perfectly functional hardware a new lease of life, without ads or trackers.
neilzone.co.uk/2025/05/installβ¦
Installing postmarketOS with full disk encryption on a OnePlus 6
tl;dr: I installed postmarketOS, an βalternativeβ Linux-based operating system, on a OnePlus 6 phone, and it rocks.neilzone.co.uk
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Paul
Unknown parent • • •Colin the Mathmo
in reply to Neil Brown • • •are you ok for me to post this to the orange site?
CC: @postmarketOS
Colin the Mathmo
Unknown parent • • •I've been reading the web site and haven't found an answer to this:
If you plug in a SIM card, can you then use it like a phone?
No doubt one can connect via WiFi and use Signal, but can one connect via 4G/5G and/or send SMSs?
Szymon Nowicki
Unknown parent • • •Szymon Nowicki
Unknown parent • • •Hans-Cees π³π³π€’π¦ππππππ
in reply to Neil Brown • • •@concretedog thats a nice development a #alpineLinux #linux phone
Far from ready too use but seems a good #philosophy for me to build on top of the normal linux kernel
here a list of Phones you can tinker with it on postmarketos.org/install/
postmarketOS // Install postmarketOS
postmarketOSachill@{39c3,fosdem}
in reply to Hans-Cees π³π³π€’π¦ππππππ • • •Vivien π³οΈββ§οΈ
in reply to Neil Brown • • •stu
in reply to Neil Brown • • •How is the install process
@postmarketOS@fosstodon.org
stu
Unknown parent • • •stu
Unknown parent • • •eva lauren, πΈβοΈ
Unknown parent • • •Teapot Ben
Unknown parent • • •Colin the Mathmo
Unknown parent • • •π
@postmarketOS
kcxt (casey)
in reply to Neil Brown • • •awesome article! I see you ran into every possible permutation of the "Qualcomms USB drivers are shit" problem :/
I would mostly agree that the wiki doesn't feel overly cohesive, we have some ideas around this already (like some standard data format akin to the ubports install configs that would render on the website like lineageOS do) but it will take time and effort to get there (if you're reading this and find it interesting do get in touch!)
For the op6 specifically i think the long term solution will be switching to U-Boot (which you'd install via a web flasher probably?) and then flash everything else via that (with its much better usb drivers)
Thanks for sharing our focus on the philosophy, there is a (much more philosophical) movement called permacomputing, which postmarketOS evolved in parallel with but i would definitely describe it as a part of permacomputing by now
permacomputing.net/Principles/
Principles
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Joshua Aspinall
in reply to Neil Brown • • •appreciate your write-up as always!
I dug out my OP6t when I saw your first post and had another go with it (first attempt I got stuck for some reason).
Up and running this time around, with disk encryption too! I find the installation and pmbootstrap wiki pages to be the most complete, supported by any errata on the device-specific pages.
@postmarketOS if the Web installer supports FDE in the future, you're on to a winner; it's great!
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vestige
Unknown parent • • •Definitely! For people comfortable with flashing Android ROMs from the command line with fastboot and adb, setting postmarketOS up properly is not much more complicated.
I mostly use my pmOS device as a homelab "server" with built in UPS, and it's been fantastic. 10GB RAM, 256GB storage, 8 cores, it's great.
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iooioio
in reply to Neil Brown • • •Elias
in reply to Neil Brown • • •> more importantly, postmarketOS is a way of reducing eWaste
I firmly disagree about the relative importance of things here.
In my opinion, the more important issue is reducing our dependence on Google.
The most important thing that makes postmarketOS great is that it allows people to be more independent from Google. Google's dominance in the world (in which Android plays a big part) is a bigger threat to humanity than eWaste.
#MobileLinux #LinuxMobile
@linmob @mobian
kcxt (casey)
in reply to Elias • • •@linmob @mobian @eliasr
potato potahto? these things go hand in hand and through an anti-capitalist lens they are really one and the same
it's no use having an alternative os if it doesn't provide good alternatives to google services imo, but we can't build those alternatives without having said os and devices to run it on (that people can get their hands on).
assigning relative value to one or the other while the world burns feels like a waste of energy to me
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pan
in reply to kcxt (casey) • • •Valentin Pratz
in reply to Neil Brown • • •Bustebartepinn
in reply to Neil Brown • • •Andres
in reply to Neil Brown • • •"As an aside, Iβm not sure if there is a way of locking the bootloader again afterwards, for security."
I'm not sure if you're asking about in theory or in practice, but at least in theory - yes. DivestOS supported locking the bootloader on a #Oneplus6 despite being a custom rom. I haven't heard of anyone managing to do it with pmOS, though.
David Clubb
Unknown parent • • •indyradio
in reply to Neil Brown • • •indyradio
Unknown parent • • •