Since I documented my journey with PostmarketOS on Nexus 5 – here. I briefly mentioned I neglected to document my journey of SailfishOS (OnePlus One.)

I can at the very least provide all of the resources I stumbled upon, or used to help me get it running.

Please note: Like I mentioned with the Nexus 5, my OnePlus One was already unlocked. It used to run Ubuntu Touch, but that quickly became deprecated. I only saw DivestOS supporting bacon with what is essentially LineageOS 13/14. However DivestOS is also deprecated. PostmarketOS seemed like a good choice but as I already have a few devices with it, I wanted to try something else. So I settled with SailfishOS.

SailfishOS is extremely tricky as the official website is very corporate forwarded. Requiring licenses and subscriptions for the OS, and an extremely limited amount of supported devices.

As usual there is a small community that makes an effort to port to other devices, and that's where my journey begins.

Getting Started: The most helpful resource for the fastest results getting SailfishOS running quickly was this website here somebody else shares a similar passion for the bacon device, and saw some potential with SailfishOS so here we go!

From the installation section the first step is flashing a version of CyanogenMod 12.1 and then immediately flashing SailfishOS. Both downloads are provided on the website. There is a bonus installation method using MultiROM but I was not interested in this, so I moved on.

Almost eveything is available on that website from installing packages (especially newer ones) to getting your terminal running, SSH, etc. The only time I deviated was when I ran into an error installing warehouse – source which was related to a missing package or dependency because this version of SailfishOS is quite old. In the source for warehouse, there is a newer package – here by the same developer Olf. I was able to get warehouse installed but that's it. Nothing else appears to load, refreshing, and rebooting doesn't do anything.

A quick look into the store front doesn't appear to have many apps to really use. It's closer to what was in the Ubuntu Touch store but even less.

Another resource: There was additional information on the Mer Wiki – here which points back to the previous website and also confirms the build: The current version is 3.4.0.24 (Pallas-Yllästunturi), released on 2020-11-26.

It's installed, now what? That's it. I only tested the stock apps, and a few of the Jolla apps recommended from – here but that's as far as this goes currently. Camera works, gestures work. Battery life is to be desired but that's expected on very old hardware.

I don't see this as a daily driver or anything, but it is very fun to see a sort of alternative timeline if somehow SailfishOS was able to compete back when the OnePlus was still on the market alongside Ubuntu Touch. Or maybe that's just me that finds that fascinating?

#SailfishOS #mobilelinux #linuxmobile #foss

Since I haven't been able to focus on my own blog entries on my personal site. I may as well leave a small note for myself here. I'll probably remember to come back, right?

PostmarketOS – website Once in a while I dust off an old device, or aquire one randomly. I check the PMOS wiki for supported devices, or just browse whatever and see what's available for testing/fun. Today's entry is focused on Google's Nexus 5 (hammerhead.) – Originally released in 2013 and launched with Android 4.4 KitKat. At the time of writing we are in 2025, and current android is on 15, with no fun codename.

Previous Notes: I already had this device unlocked and running DivestOS (now defunct.) which at its core was LineageOS 13/14? Very impressive as the performance was incredible to even see such an old device running modern android without too many hiccups. Granted it wasn't the fastest, but it also wasn't as slow as you might think. I mention this as the device was already unlocked and re-paritioned according to modern guides for LineageOS, TWRP, and of course DivestOS. This context is important to know before continuing reading.

Installation via PMOS Wiki: – Source Naturally most installation instructions are always on a dedicated wiki or thread of some kind. I used the official wiki which only has two steps (minus the unlocking step.)

while in Fastboot mode:

Flashing For installation you need to flash lk2nd and flash the rootfs. Do not flash the boot partition since lk2nd uses fs-boot functionality to boot the kernel from the /boot partition of the rootfs.

1. $ pmbootstrap flasher flash_lk2nd
2. $ pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs If flashing fails with an error like “Unknown chunk type”, you may need to update your bootloader. bootloader-hammerhead-hhZ20h.img comes with the latest firmware from the android image page and can be flashed with fastboot flash bootloader path/to/bootloader-hammerhead-hhZ20h.img.

This might seem straightforward but it's missing a crucial step. What isn't directly mentioned is that you need ADB tools (this typically is already installed if you're used to flashing Android.) and pmbootstrap. See now pmbootstrap is the key to getting everything up and running as once you have it installed and setup, you run the script (as the wiki suggests) and it walks you through whatever device is supported and gets you all setup. So in this case it would be hammerhead I get to select the device, the PMOS version (edge/stable) and a very important step, the desktop! Thankfully the script only shows you what is supported by the device so you don't accidentally install something that doesn't work by default. Although be aware just because it's supported doesn't mean it runs smooth. The wiki shows a photo of the Nexus 5 running with Plama Mobile, but I have already had a different device running this and know what to expect and I wanted to try something else. I ended up choosing FBKeyboard at first as I had an idea to use this device as a small testing server. Hey others use PMOS devices to run whole Minecraft servers, I figured I wanted a goofy project for the hell of it too, why not? spoilers: because one of the steps in pmbootstrap didn't take, I was missing the rootfs so obviously it didn't boot into anything. I was able to see the splash screen, and sometimes it dropped me into a special mode with a almost functional keyboard where I can dump logs, or continue booting, or reboot. It wasn't Fastboot but I am unsure what this mode is called.

Successful Instalation + Boot: Either way, I tried looking up similar errors, and it all brought me to the same thing. Something about a missing step. I went back to the wiki and sure enough under common errors, it said it was safe to reflash rootfs using pmbootstrap so I went ahead and did that. Sure enough it took just fine. I was not able to boot immediately after, and had to reboot a few times before I got past the splash screen. After that I was greeted with sxmo and I was able to connect to wifi, run updates (no updates at this time. Already ran them via pmbootstrap.) Eveything except Firefox was pretty much working. Enabling the terminal is hit or miss. Sometimes it crashes but this is expected. Wiki says it's not meant for daily use yet, and it's natural to expect some bugs.

Now what? I don't have any current plans, as I am happy this device is running something and if I come up with an idea I'll likely report back. I just wanted to document my journey both for myself or anyone else looking to try PMOS on thier Nexus 5. According to the wiki there is quite a handful of others who own this device and also run PMOS. How active is it? That's unknown. Still very nice to see regardless.

#postmarketos #mobile #foss