PostmarketOS Installation

If my phone is so smart, why am I only using it to do silly things? Installation steps on how to 'Linux your Android' using PMos

PostmarketOS, a touch-optimized, pre-configured Alpine Linux with own packages, that can be installed on smartphones

For this (...) we are using a Samsung Galaxy A3 2015 but you can find your device in the community section.

1.Install heimdall and fastboot. In the terminal run the following:

sudo apt-get install heimdall-flash fastboot

2.Download Samsung A3 1k2nd bootloader lk2nd-msm8916.img
If you use a browser to download this file, it will end up in the users Downloads folder. In order to follow along with the guide, make sure you cd to the Downloads folder by writing cd ~/Downloads in the terminal

3.Shutdown the phone, and boot it holding the

HOME + Volume DOWN + POWER

4.Connect the phone to the PC using a micro USB cable

5.In the terminal, enter the following command to flash the downloaded firmware:

heimdall flash --BOOT lk2nd-msm8916.img

6.The phone should boot into the ik2nd bootloader

7.Download a pre-built image with sxmo-de-sway (Stable). Make sure to download the .xz file without boot in the filename.

8.Unpack the .xz archive

unxz --keep 20241002-0701-postmarketOS-v24.06-sxmo-de-sway-1.15.0-samsung-a3.img.xz

9.Flash PostmarketOS

fastboot flash userdata 20241002-0701-postmarketOS-v24.06-sxmo-de-sway-1.15.0-samsung-a3.img

10.Erase system and reboot the phone

fastboot erase system && fastboot reboot

11.DONE! The phone should boot into PostmarketOS