Boot into a different linux distro natively on Android with init.rc manipulation of your system/boot partitions (Graphics may not be included)

[Bireus]

Part one was still cut off, sorry for being a failure this year, here's where it starts https://forums.mangadex.org/threads...ics-may-not-be-included.2500019/post-28481264

For building your own custom distro for your device, I used chroot-distro; magisk required

• Boot into android and set up your device
• Check your storage to confirm it's been sliced in half (or however you sliced it)
• Connect to wifi and download magisk from your home screen, web browser; download termux, chroot-distro and UPDATE-Busybox.Installer.v1.36.1-ALL-signed from osm0sis
• Install termux, update termux (pkg update && upgrade or something like that) go to magisk and install both chroot-distro and busybox installer, restart after installing the second one. You may also need to install busybox within termux (I had a weird bug where busybox from magisk wasn't detected like a week before my device just refused to charge at least 20% in 12 hrs before it turned worse than that)
• Now use termux to install chroot-distro to your created partition

---> Move required files to root of SD Card (if you're using scripts for this)

-----> restart termux

------> ls -la /storage/

-------> su

--------> GRANT

---------> sh /storage/XXXX-XXXX/scriptname.sh

• create a script that can install packages, device nodes, etc or do it manually (alpine.sh/debian.sh)
• Or in TWRP/OrangeFox; extract a pre-existing ext4 distro to your newly split partition (see any script with 77* for install examples)
• You can modify files after extracting to that distro, along with repackaging back to a ext4.img (move.sh, folder.sh, any 88*.sh) or as a tar.gz (untested in twrp, but tested in termux, just change to the partition location instead of current path).
• No systemd distros unless you're gonna run it in a container because your kernel allows it (PID 1 is init second_stage in recovery). Also don't if you have "4GBs" or less. Just run termux with chroot-distro instead, same ram performance (most android devices runs on ram)

1. If it does have the namespace kernels (or you can rebuild that example kernel [lucky f#*k] look into libhybris distros).

• You need a tty dev node or config_vt in your kernel based on currently available libhybris/mir distros (Ubuntu Touch/Alphybris/Manjaro libyhbris)

Modify a new boot.img/vendor_boot.img/whatever_usesrecovery.img

• Now you need to modify your recovery .img ramdisk to boot into the newly installed partition (I used Android_boot_image_editor, again!)
• You can inspect some of the files within the partitions that are accessible (That payload thing you may have done earlier)
• You may need to use the 1.36 busybox and move it to your /system/bin folder (bash is great too).
• Also take some /system/bin files that you may think about using with your init.rc to help boot into your ext4 linux partition (also take other arm64 binaries, osm0sis has a repository full of them)
• Again, get the ueventd.rc for both system and vendor, combine them into a new ueventd.rc for your /system/etc if you see that /system/etc/init/hw/init.rc or /init.recovery.common.rc references them.
• /system has exec command (at least for my system-as-root experience), but if you try to overlay or bindmount improperly it will crash on you (Unless you use Alpine, more on that below)
• init.rc is your friend, change your /system/bin/recovery to /system/bin/realrecovery (thanks BlackSeraph and turtle) to test how your services are being used by init.rc and how your kernel operates
• Mount the linux partition with init.rc and make their paths accessible by creating the partitions folders in the ramdisk and in init.rc

Now this part is going to sound like I'm promoting Alpine. I'm kinnnnnnda am (donate if you end up using their distro or like, any other ones):

• Using overlayfs and bindmount method works perfectly with Alpine. The fallen 3Plus uses system-as-root, and when I bind mount the overlayfs merging of the extracted system.img from the super partition and android-rootfs.img from alpine's lxc, It easily unmounted /system and remounted the merged combination of systems (see Alphybris.zip, See! There's more!)
• Debian immediately stops the device from running when copying that method. So glibc can't touch bionic. Musl can. I easily got internet access via script (not like I can see what I'm doing) using the iw pkg downloading from alpine's package manager. While Debian was the reason I was able to test the drm because Alpine's weston is build different (Alphybris doesn't come with it)
• You need to put certain files within your ramdisk while also relying on the bindmount (I put /lib/ld-musl-aarch64.so.1 in my ramdisk, dunno if that helped but I was having issues discovering that alpine uses host's path and not chroot path before doing overlayfs and bindmounts and left it there)
• Create new scripts to run as services to load everything you need with on property (see my alp_* and and_* along with my init.recovery.common.rc and init.rc)
• "Always be testing" - The Full Nerd Network.
• Use your /system/bin/recovery as a script to test. The shebang line at the top uses the available binary in the ramdisk. What does that mean? Well you can use if you can open and close your boot.img and put any arm64 binary in it anywhere that makes sense:

1. #!/system/bin/sh
2. #!/system/bin/toybox
3. #!/system/bin/busybox
4. #!/bin/sh
5. #!/bin/bash
6. #!/and/many/more

At the end of the script, apply a fallback to the real recovery as the lack of watchdog doesn't restart the device and you'll just be stuck with a bootlogo. Use:

exec /system/bin/realrecovery "$@"

• Change /system/bin/recovery to /system/bin/realrecovery (thanks BlackSeraph and turtle for GarlicOS again) to test how your services are being used by init.rc. If you bind mount to the recovery /system with a system.img, change realrecovery back to recovery, as it will now detect the stock recovery that came with that system.img

End of part 1 (I couldn't post this because it was too long apparently)

 

[Bireus]

Part 2; Now, here's your graphical nightmare.

1. You got your /dev/nodes. That means you know what belongs to graphics

• You gotta problem to solve.

Got /fb*? Lucky fk. There's a bunch of framebuffers binaries built explicitly for you to use for various arm64 distros. Go be successful everywhere.

*those represents numbers.

If you have /dev/dri/card0, that's drm. Oof. You need to launch a seat(d). Weston can use drm backend if you have no /dev/tty after launching a seat. No gpu access though unless you got specific kernels that use it

Can you rebuild your kernel based on it's available distribution and your device accepts it? fcky fck fck. Rebuild your kernel. If your GPU falls under MESA, make sure you can use those kernel configs (if not, upgrade your kernel and import the existing kernel config) Go be successful.

Have more than 5GB? You can use devices built with libhybris. Even without DEVTMPFS and VT missing, as long as you have the required kernel configs for lxc those are easily modifiable as long as that distro you're using is openrc, as it uses runlevels. systemd is something I never touched again once I realized it needed PID 1 no matter what

What about a hacky way? Well, you can run HALs individually* from my tests.

• But Libhybris requires surfaceflinger
• Libhybris requires system_server
• system_server requires zygote
• So you're booting to Android instead of using selective HALs while running a different distro, what's the point?

My hacky way came to an end. The RP3+ is fine as an Android machine as long as you don't, have, issues.

• Got it from Amazon instead of their main site. Why? Insurance baby, and I'm cashing in on it to get my payout now but Asurion (I don't recommend btw) is making me put in work just to get a claim in. As someone who worked customer service and sold insurance for a few years, I get it and it fcking sucks. Battery won't even charge unless I'm at some company using their outlet (Starbucks/Barnes&Noble tested, stealing internet not buying things because 2025 sucked and everything's passed due). Also it charges at 1% per hour at either location.

 

[Bireus]

Finishing failure:
The only thing I haven't tested with that hacky attempt with Libhybris built with Alpine is with vndservicemanager to see if that will crash the HALs that worked by themselves before I tried to run surfaceflinger without system_server running. Running my advanced_init_diagnostics_test shows it tries to run vndservicemanager in recovery's ramdisk from it's init.rc (I assume that's the _natv stock init.rc).

[ 3.096697] init: Parsing directory /system/etc/init...
[ 3.096745] init: Parsing file /system_ext/etc/init...
[ 3.096766] init: Unable to read config file '/system_ext/etc/init': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.096778] init: Parsing file /product/etc/init...
[ 3.096790] init: Unable to read config file '/product/etc/init': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.096812] init: Parsing file /odm/etc/init...
[ 3.096826] init: Unable to read config file '/odm/etc/init': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.096838] init: Parsing directory /vendor/etc/init...
[ 3.097772] init: processing action (SetupCgroups) from (<Builtin Action>:0)
[ 3.097800] audit: type=1400 audit(1762662833.955:3): avc: denied { read } for pid=234 comm="init" name="bin" dev="rootfs" ino=6996 scontext=u:r:vendor_init:s0 tcontext=ubject_r:rootfs:s0 tclass=dir permissive=1
[ 3.099209] init: processing action (SetKptrRestrict) from (<Builtin Action>:0)
[ 3.099403] init: processing action (TestPerfEventSelinux) from (<Builtin Action>:0)
[ 3.099507] init: processing action (early-init) from (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:3)
[ 3.100654] audit: type=1400 audit(1762662833.959:4): avc: denied { add_name } for pid=1 comm="init" name="prefetch_cluster" scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=ubject_r:sysfs:s0 tclass=dir permissive=1
[ 3.100694] audit: type=1400 audit(1762662833.959:5): avc: denied { create } for pid=1 comm="init" name="prefetch_cluster" scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=ubject_r:sysfs:s0 tclass=file permissive=1
[ 3.100831] init: Command 'exec -- /system/bin/linkerconfig --target /linkerconfig/bootstrap' action=early-init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:16) took 0ms and failed: Could not start exec service: Cannot find '/system/bin/linkerconfig': No such file or directory
[ 3.100887] init: Command 'copy /linkerconfig/bootstrap/ld.config.txt /linkerconfig/default/ld.config.txt' action=early-init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:18) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/linkerconfig/bootstrap/ld.config.txt': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.101122] init: starting service 'ueventd'...
[ 3.102822] init: cpuset cgroup controller is not mounted!
[ 3.104796] init: processing action (wait_for_coldboot_done) from (<Builtin Action>:0)
[ 3.137047] ueventd: Parsing file /system/etc/ueventd.rc...
[ 3.137355] ueventd: Parsing file /vendor/ueventd.rc...
[ 3.137379] ueventd: Unable to read config file '/vendor/ueventd.rc': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.137392] ueventd: Parsing file /odm/ueventd.rc...
[ 3.137406] ueventd: Unable to read config file '/odm/ueventd.rc': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.137416] ueventd: Parsing file /ueventd.ums512_1h10.rc...
[ 3.384870] init: Wait for property 'ro.cold_boot_done=true' took 280ms
[ 3.384990] init: processing action (MixHwrngIntoLinuxRng) from (<Builtin Action>:0)
[ 3.385023] init: /dev/hw_random not found
[ 3.385051] init: processing action (SetMmapRndBits) from (<Builtin Action>:0)
[ 3.385449] init: processing action (KeychordInit) from (<Builtin Action>:0)
[ 3.385489] init: processing action (init) from (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:28)
[ 3.387117] init: Command 'symlink /system/bin /bin' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:41) took 0ms and failed: symlink() failed: File exists
[ 3.387204] init: Command 'symlink /system/etc /etc' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:42) took 0ms and failed: symlink() failed: File exists
[ 3.387396] init: Command 'mount cgroup none /acct cpuacct' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:44) took 0ms and failed: mount() failed: Device or resource busy
[ 3.400620] audit: type=1400 audit(1762662834.259:6): avc: denied { write } for pid=1 comm="init" name="watermark_scale_factor" dev="proc" ino=7994 scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=ubject_rroc_watermark_scale_factor:s0 tclass=file permissive=1
[ 3.400633] audit: type=1400 audit(1762662834.259:7): avc: denied { open } for pid=1 comm="init" path="/proc/sys/vm/watermark_scale_factor" dev="proc" ino=7994 scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=ubject_rroc_watermark_scale_factor:s0 tclass=file permissive=1
[ 3.403323] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/cpus /dev/cpuset/foreground/cpus' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:190) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/cpus': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.403358] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/mems /dev/cpuset/foreground/mems' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:191) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/mems': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.403678] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/cpus /dev/cpuset/background/cpus' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:193) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/cpus': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.403707] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/mems /dev/cpuset/background/mems' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:194) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/mems': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.404101] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/cpus /dev/cpuset/system-background/cpus' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:200) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/cpus': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.404131] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/mems /dev/cpuset/system-background/mems' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:201) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/mems': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.404435] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/cpus /dev/cpuset/restricted/cpus' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:206) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/cpus': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.404470] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/mems /dev/cpuset/restricted/mems' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:207) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/mems': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.404758] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/cpus /dev/cpuset/top-app/cpus' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:210) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/cpus': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.404793] init: Command 'copy /dev/cpuset/mems /dev/cpuset/top-app/mems' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:211) took 0ms and failed: Could not read input file '/dev/cpuset/mems': open() failed: No such file or directory
[ 3.409268] init: Command 'start logd' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:312) took 0ms and failed: service logd not found
[ 3.409356] init: Command 'start lmkd' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:318) took 0ms and failed: service lmkd not found
[ 3.412250] init: Command 'start servicemanager' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:348) took 0ms and failed: service servicemanager not found
[ 3.412837] init: Command 'start vndservicemanager' action=init (/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc:350) took 0ms and failed: service vndservicemanager not found
[ 3.412851] init: processing action (init) from (/init.recovery.common.rc:73)
[ 3.413136] audit: type=1400 audit(1762662834.271:8): avc: denied { setcheckreqprot } for pid=1 comm="init" scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=ubject_r:kernel:s0 tclass=security permissive=1
[ 3.414019] init: Command 'symlink /storage/sdcard0 /mnt/sdcard' action=init (/init.recovery.common.rc:93) took 0ms and failed: symlink() failed: File exists
[ 3.414179] init: Command 'symlink /system/etc/bluetooth /etc/bluetooth' action=init (/init.recovery.common.rc:94) took 0ms and failed: symlink() failed: File exists
[ 3.424759] audit: type=1400 audit(1762662834.283:9): avc: denied { add_name } for pid=1 comm="init" name="idVendor" scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=ubject_r:sysfs_android_usb:s0 tclass=dir permissive=1
[ 3.424772] audit: type=1400 audit(1762662834.283:10): avc: denied { create } for pid=1 comm="init" name="idVendor" scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=ubject_r:sysfs_android_usb:s0 tclass=file permissive=1
[04:34:01]

When you bust that TWRP boot.img open, that uses vndservicemanager.

So, does that mean for android during my alphybris tests of being able to load HALs individually, could I use vndservicemanager to see how to configure graphics since TWRP did it (still draws to the screen I believe [been a while since I examined twrp files within boot.img] based on the files that relate to drawing/graphics) Again, my device is sort of shit with it's lack of longevity. Bought in June/July 2023, only used in 2024 really for Year of the Arcade and now in 2025 for PC gaming for Year of the Fans it's been showing that it can't take a charge (only after a factory reset with SPD Flash Tool it acts like it's "normal", but it goes back to a shit battery state after like a week) so I couldn't test that as I now GIVE UP! Maybe you can? Have fun with that. I was going to test Debian with the hwclock modification after the Alphybris failure but then I had an even larger device failure with it's inability to charge at a good rate.

Or for a DRM setup (no GPU):

• Weston using drm backend
• SDL implementation (GarlicOS did this, I got their screen to appear at the library but hey, I didn't screenshot proof so don't believe me I guess)

So yeah, you can run many commands with binaries and scripts using other distros or the current android distro in normal boot or recovery. But you're doing it, blind. With your only output being sent to the sdcard or a partition you mount and make accessible for that script while running. That you can only access when booted to normal Android or taking out your sdcard or having access to UART that can access the console if your bootloader/cmdline allows it. So yeah, you can run arm64 programs with ease and even if you don't have graphical utility, maybe you will script a bunch of phones like someone did with a bunch of PS4s https://www.techpowerup.com/284422/...-mining-farm-with-3800-playstation-4-consoles

*​

• Perplexity has a tendency to change models while in use (and hiding that it did it!) and push comet browser which is a security nightmare if you're using it on a browser
• It's also unfortunately the best LLM search engine for a power user who's a fact checking, proof reading machine:

1. You can use every "official popular model" that's VC backed or just flushed the stock market empty for a few days for tech companies.
2. When you force web search with your selected model, you can see what it uses as a search query AND see the sources it used which you can use instead of it's response

• POE's better if you're using local documentation, here's an example but web search is left to individual users and a few poe distributors and they're specific models instead of every model you use to search the web.
• While I said POE is better (on discord they've admitted to why they changed their subscription to points for cost and kept being honest about why do what they do instead of you know, on your website where it's more easily accessible), they're still another company. You're still kinda fcked when you're not looking. Also, electricity and water for basic living.
• I'm done with Spreadtrum/Unisoc and Retroid
• Lack of open source documentation and access, I'm good. What's that mean? For any future device, find out it's board and see it's available open source tools and documentation, and methods to access it to modify it to your leisure.

Why? Well, OWN YOUR DEVICE. LIKE ACTUALLY, FULLY, OWN, IT.

• Unless you want to be known as the one who made it available for full access. Or die feel pain trying. Enjoy one of the most, monetizable times of the year. Later.

 

[Bireus]

I just noticed part one beginning was still cut off. Fck me.


Sorry if this whole thing is hard to read, English is my only language.

I was going to do this in a video format after I succeeded in booting to a different distro for a 4.14.193 kernel I'm unable to change for my device. I'm not a developer.

Well, 2025 has been shit for me. So, here's another diary documentation of my many failures (like all the Regarding your application emails I got. Maybe you'll learn something if you're willing to read all this for arm64 configurations.

Dunno if you got a get out of jail free card to flash a clean os via your usb to pc by pressing hardware keys to flash partitions/rom files

• If you do, test away

This was tested on a Retroid Pocket 3 Plus. A Car Multimedia dashboard (ums512_1h10_natv) turned Android 11 handheld

My Sources:
My Github hell of documentations https://github.com/Seriousattempts/rp3plus-native-attempts
My Device Info HW test https://deviceinfohw.ru/devices/item.php?item=108681
3DMark test results (couldn't search for the android results like you can find x86 results) https://github.com/Seriousattempts/...eleases/download/1.05/3D_MARK_ANDROID_RESULTS

The cmdline is everything. You need to find out how it's defined in your device. Is it:

• Kernel?
• Bootloader?
• init.rc?

Find it and determine if it's read only (News flash, it is, probably). For us unisoc survivors, uboot is god that couldn't be changed. uboot is signed and while on certain devices you can unlock the bootloader, you can't change it unless you're one of the lucky spreadtrums for Ubuntu Touch, postmarketOS or SailfishOS. Here's my uboot with bootloader unlocked (see orange) to give you an idea of the cmdline:

earlycon=sprd_serial,0x70100000,115200n8 console=ttyS1,115200n8 loglevel=1 init=/init root=/dev/ram0 rw printk.devkmsg=on androidboot.boot_devices=soc/soc:ap-apb/71400000.sdio swiotlb=1 androidboot.init_fatal_panic=true androidboot.hardware=ums512_1h10 androidboot.dtbo_idx=1 lcd_id=ID0 lcd_name=lcd_FC11339_mipi_hd lcd_base=9e000000 lcd_size=1336x752 pixel_clock=64000000 logo_bpix=8 androidboot.ddrsize=4096M androidboot.ddrsize.range=[4096,5120) androidboot.lwfq.type=0 androidboot.auto.efuse=T618 androidboot.auto.chipid=UMS512-AC sysdump_magic=82100000 androidboot.wdten=e551 modem=shutdown ltemode=lcsfb rfboard.id=0 rfhw.id=32816 crystal=6 32k.less=1 marlin.clktype=0 androidboot.pmic.chipid=2730 modemboot.method=emmcboot androidboot.verifiedbootstate=orange androidboot.flash.locked=0 androidboot.serialno=0123456789ABCDEF androidboot.vbmeta.device=PARTUUID=1.0 androidboot.vbmeta.avb_version=1.1 androidboot.vbmeta.device_state=unlocked androidboot.vbmeta.hash_alg=sha256 androidboot.vbmeta.size=39104 androidboot.vbmeta.digest=7f89a3b80f939a922bf62e137ca2225ff4c7fb02ca46a05ba5bfe882504c1adf androidboot.vbmeta.invalidate_on_error=yes androidboot.veritymode=enforcing androidboot.slot_suffix=_a androidboot.force_normal_boot=1 bootcause="Pbint triggered"
Also, you probably need to unlock the bootloader. Have fun jumping that hurdle, I'm no dev, I'm just a research organizing fiend.

Android PID 1 is ran by init.rc. It follows it to run binaries with basic commands. You can test how this works without cracking your /system with your recovery ramdisk.

• That is either your boot partition, vendor_boot partition or somewhere else (this was tested on Android dynamic partitions that uses a recovery ramdisk instead of halium boot.img [halium's boot.img is much thinner as it doesn't replicate the expected root filesystem, thought I mention that just in case])
• Busting it open with software like Android_boot_image_editor (if applicable), modifying it and reclosing it as if you never touched it.

1. Linux only! Windows use WSL/Ubuntu/VirtualBox/whateveruseslinuxcmdline ---- Copy boot.json and save that thang somewhere else. boot.img uses avb verification, idk about vendor_boot or other recovery ramdisks. Download Android_boot_image_editor to open that .img that uses the recovery ramdisk using ./gradlew unpack on your pc

• If you have access to the latest payload.bin update for your device, extract the partitions with payload_dumper on your pc

Can check sites like needroms (don't catch a bug!) and other sites for your device to save on the hassle as well if your manufacturer didn't provide the update outside of downloading via phone (you can extract them via TWRP/OrangeFox via their partitions)

TWRP/OrangeFox​

• Regardless if your boot.img uses recovery ramdisk or not, take that boot.img and build twrp boot.img with hovatek
• After being built, install the magisk apk for your android device.
• Use that twrp boot.img to build the new boot.img with magisk.
• Congrats, you have a magisk twrp boot.img!
• If that doesn't work, try OrangeFox. I never got it working for me to create my own, but someone else's RMX3261 would load on my device after signing it, but I had no touch screen support and I couldn't replicate how they did it (Again, not a dev).
• With that new boot.img, open that ramdisk with Android_boot_image_editor and replace that boot.json with the stock boot.json

-> Connect device to computer

--> open cmd line where platform tools were downloaded and extracted (google's android site provides it, open cmd in file explorer's web address by typing cmd and hitting enter

---> Settings, About console, tap last item Build number 8 times

----> Go back a page, click system, advanced, developer options usb debugging

------> Allow USB debugging when connected to your PC

-------> in cmdline | adb devices

---------> in cmdline | adb reboot bootloader

----------> in cmdline | flashboot flash boot_a magisktwrp.img

-----------> in cmdline | fastboot reboot

------------> in cmdline | adb reboot recovery

• Dunno if anything changes to boot into TWRP if your boot.img doesn't use a recovery ramdisk.
• Your boot.img NEEDs magisk to continue if you're gonna build your own distro partition from scratch using your android device as the builder via termux

Note, my SD card was formatted on windows using SD Card Formatter by Tuxera.

Get a list of all your partition mounts and loop devices in TWRP. (bootloader doesn't expose loop devices, I don't think, maybe.) not a dev

• Build a script that will export the results to a txt to your external sd sgdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0 --print will print everything, save it somewhere.
• Find the userdata partition (oh, you're reformatting the device btw, userdata has the most room, which has your data, which we're separating [you probably understand divorce by now at your age]). We're slicing that mofo in half or quarters after the misunderstand I had on Zackptg5's dualboot mod. The extra partition will be formatted to ext4
• The scripts I used in TWRP are in this zip under the TWRP path. Note that 76v3 (lets you control the amount of space you want for either partitions) and 77_50v2 are untested because, crappy rp3plus gave out. I used 76v2 to make a raw block to use for zram swap with alp_mnt

After you reboot back into recovery, you have a choice:

• If you plan to build your own distro:

1. Run a modified version of my 77 file after running a modified version of my 76 file (alpine.sh/debian.sh).
2. Erasing your data and then erasing data and metadata at the same time before booting into system so the storage is properly calculated. Example:

-> Boot into recovery

--> Advanced

---> external_sd (or whatever actually shows the files in your sd card, or if you can see your data path because you don't have dm_verity or can unlock the dm_verity because your bootloader doesn't enforce it uboot style. Unisoc lifestyle)

----> Hit bottom right blue button, Open Terminal Here

------> sh 76.sh or whatever modification you made

Reboot back to recovery

--------> Middle home button

---------> Bottom right Reboot button

Now that you're back in recovery

----------> Advanced

-----------> Your sd path

------------> bottom right blue button, Open Terminal Here

-------------> sh 77.sh or whatever modification you made for that ext4 partition

--------------> Middle home button

---------------> Wipe

----------------> Format data

-----------------> yes

------------------> Go back one page (botton left)

-------------------> Select Data and Metadata

--------------------> Swipe to Wipe

---------------------> Reboot to System

3. Install linux through termux with magisk and a few magisk packages installed or extract a ext4.img/tar.gz file (read the scripts to see how I did it!). 4. You need to know your device nodes, ones created by ueventd.rc (unless your kernel uses devtmpfs)

• You can use adb shell to determine what's build by the kernel and ueventd and what's made only accessible by software*
• You got root access, so this is doable as you can get really specific with creation

Now go back to the rest of part 1 here https://forums.mangadex.org/threads...ics-may-not-be-included.2500019/post-28473908

 

[pedronimo]

Congratz (?)
Dude I've daily drived arch for some time, gentoo for longer, and debian for the longest and i still have no clue what I read LMAO

on the upside you could 100% work as a sysadmin

 

[Bireus]

Congratz (?)
Dude I've daily drived arch for some time, gentoo for longer, and debian for the longest and i still have no clue what I read LMAO

If you ever had to restore android to factory and ever had to break open it's boot.img you'd get it. It's just telling the boot.img to instead run these sections of binaries/script which is me telling it to run a different distro that uses a different system (Alpine musl or Debian glibc in these specific tests). Musl works with android's bionic the best but gpu is tied to android's system_server and has not been ported to other distros and the drm has a timing issue so those were 2 hurdles I couldn't cross before my device's battery just reached it's end.

on the upside you could 100% work as a sysadmin

I can't find a job, been unemployed since April 1st outside of a one day job where I assembled and organized furniture and did inventory for a woman who recently franchised a company for a few years now and online surveys. Plus you get more chances of being hired for publishing successes not failures, from my experience.

 

[pedronimo]

April fools!

 

[Bireus]

April fools!

No, the contract expired at the end of March and I was unemployed on the 1st of April.

 

[Garett]

I see. However, my PC (Linux) is powerful enough to run Docker.

I use Termux in general and have a spare https://github.com/termux/proot-distro only if necessary. Layer abstraction is slow, btw.

 

[Bireus]

I see. However, my PC (Linux) is powerful enough to run Docker.

I use Termux in general and have a spare https://github.com/termux/proot-distro only if necessary. Layer abstraction is slow, btw.

None of that is incorrect. The RP3Plus has 3.8GB of available ram (3.4 in recovery). 1.8GB of that is used by Android when booted to Android. I wanted more RAM. Can't get more when running Android's OS, hence this failure of a project.

 

[Garett]

I see. I wished for Framework level smartphone. 😤

 

[Bireus]

I see. I wished for Framework level smartphone. 😤

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_mobile_phones

Fairphone and pine phone is your closest match. After that you have to determine how your device uses it's system partition, modify the init.rc of it or it's recovery's init.rc and have it simply overlay a different OS (I recommended alpine as musl has shown through my experiments to run android's bionic files within ramdisk) but ensuring that your display has been accessible for other distributions unless you're going to go through the efforts of doing it yourself.

 

[Garett]

None mentioned replaceable battery. Unless I missed.

 

[Bireus]

None mentioned replaceable battery. Unless I missed.

I only checked for Fairphone because I'm limited on time right now but:

https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/fairphone-3-battery-36?category=4

Recommended from their community forum https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fairphone-3-swollen-batteries/109812

This is a reminder if you can remember, whenever buying electronics since we cannot rely on OEMs, check the community forums to see how active and responsive they're. It will make the investment more worth it, which is why open source is king of the board.