#RabbitHole: @okias 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 edl to 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 axolotl and sdm845 to 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
• 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
  • u-boot usb mass storage mode exports the mass storage of the phone over usb-c
  • phone connected to an aarch64 system (#Librem5 running #Mobian)
  • mounting encrypted partition, boot and what-else is needed
  • installing kernel packages via apk while in chroot on Librem5
• learned how to compile a kernel using ./envkernel.sh and 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.

We have updated our AI policy to explicitly forbid generative AI. This and more in our latest monthly blog post "postmarketOS in 2026-02: generic kernels"  

https://postmarketos.org/blog/2026/02/26/pmOS-update-2026-02/

#linuxmobile #postmarketos

Following a decision by the Codeberg e. V.'s Presidium, Codeberg e. V. has joined the ranks of many organizations as a co-signatory of the draft letter of the "Keep Android Open" initiative: https://keepandroidopen.org/draft-letter/

Apart from the impact on the many independent developers hosting their source code on https://codeberg.org, we are concerned by the greater societal implications the Android ecosystem's current trajectory will cause. For more information, see: https://keepandroidopen.org

You might have noticed a new banner at our website.

It's not just IzzyOnDroid that is threatened by #Google's upcoming "developer verification" rules – it's ALL OF YOU, ALL OF US, who live in the free #Android world, and want to decide ourselves what gets installed onto our devices.

If Google gets away with this, on the majority of Android devices, you will only be able to install what THEY allow. No more freedom of choice.

Join the resistance! Act for your freedom!

https://keepandroidopen.org/

RE: https://chaos.social/@SylvieLorxu/115989122037781142

#FOSDEM was exhausting but amazing. Was lovely to see so many #IzzyOnDroid users and to hear how much people love #Droidify and #NeoStore!

Learning more about #SHIFT and #BlissLabs was great too, what great projects to share our stand with!

And y'all are sticker monsters, I started running out of #Catima stickers so much faster than expected but it was lovely to hear how many people love the project :)

Thank you all for making #FOSDEM2026 this fun and memorable! :)

Droid-ify v0.6.7 released  

Added:
- IzzyOnDroid's Download Stats (https://dlstats.izzyondroid.org/)
- Reproducible build badge
- Certificate pinning for 9 repositories
- App unarchiving support
- market:// search URI support

Changes:
- Repo UX improved
- Website moved to https://droidify.app

Fixed:
- Loading in home pages
- Update notification not going away after auto update

Misc:
- Repo list changes
- Bug fixes

Full changelog available here: https://github.com/Droid-ify/client/releases/tag/v0.6.7

#droidify

(1/2) We are happy to announce a new milestone for transparency in #IzzyOnDroid: public metadata

Starting today, all info on all IzzyOnDroid apps is now publicly available on Codeberg in our new metadata repository: https://codeberg.org/IzzyOnDroid/repodata

You can now submit your updates to listed apps (e.g. AuthorName, links) directly via PRs – and we're looking forward to your contributions! We're now working on updating our documentation, to help you with this. Stay tuned!

=> continued…

Excited to announce #IzzyOnDroid will be at #FOSDEM! Our stand request got approved! https://fosdem.org/2026/news/2025-11-16-accepted-stands/

We'll be sharing a stand with @shiftphones and @BlissLabs, showing just what a great experience our little corner of #Android can be.

Repairable devices, a FOSS #AOSP ROM and an "app store" (or repository if you prefer) for all the privacy and user respecting apps you could want to run on it :)

Of course the teamwork doesn't end there, we'll love to tell you more at the stand :)