Redmi K30 Pro (lmi) → postmarketOS / Linux

Turning a Redmi K30 Pro / POCO F2 Pro (lmi, Qualcomm SM8250 / Snapdragon 865) into a native Linux device with postmarketOS. The archived stable baseline uses the downstream LineageOS 4.19 vendor kernel with Clang/LLVM under WSL2 + pmbootstrap. The project now tracks two separate version lines:

• Downstream (D-vNN): LineageOS 4.19 downstream kernel, currently highest artifact D-v46; strongest verified hardware milestone D-v43 with Wi-Fi interfaces and scan working.
• Mainline/copydown (M-rNN): SM8250 mainline/copydown path, currently recorded through M-r7; host-side builds and guarded writes work, but no observable initramfs/USB milestone is proven.

Status

• ✅ Kernel + DTBs + full image build (Clang/LLVM, pmbootstrap).
• ✅ Rootfs mounts on real hardware from userdata using nested GPT loop partitions (/dev/loop0p2 as /, /dev/loop0p1 as /boot).
• ✅ Normal userspace + SSH works on the downstream v27 baseline, including prior RAM-only fastboot boot validation.
• ✅ USB networking works on Windows as RNDIS gadget (0525:a4a2 POSTMARKETOS, host 172.16.42.2, device 172.16.42.1).
• ✅ Persistent downstream v27 boot was installed: boot and userdata boot into postmarketOS without fastboot boot.
• ✅ Downstream Wi-Fi bring-up works at D-v43: wlan0, p2p0, and wifi-aware0 appear, CNSS stays ONLINE with crash_count=0, and iw dev wlan0 scan succeeds.
• ⏳ Latest downstream artifact is D-v46 (v46-daemon-status-idempotent); it is a cleanup build after the verified Wi-Fi path, with no separate runtime verification found in this repo.
• ⚠️ Mainline/copydown reached M-r7 but is not boot-verified. M-r6 and M-r7 writes were accepted, but reboot testing stopped at the Redmi logo with no postmarketOS USB, telnet, SSH, ADB, or fastboot interface observed.
• ⏳ Display userspace takeover — kernel DRM/KGSL and the DSI panel are present, but the screen remains on the Redmi logo because no compositor takes over the continuous splash.
• ⏳ Audio / mic and Bluetooth — next hardware focus. ALSA has no soundcard and Bluetooth remains incomplete; Wi-Fi has a verified downstream bring-up path but still needs service and policy cleanup.

Project tracks

Start with the track index:

• docs/tracks/README.md — version-label rules and file placement.
• docs/tracks/downstream.md — downstream D-vNN features and progress.
• docs/tracks/mainline.md — mainline/copydown M-rNN features and progress.

The mainline/copydown release records are still archived under docs/release/. Large images are not committed; release identity and hardware gates are documented in:

• docs/release/lmi-r6-bootmem-release-manifest-20260624.md
• docs/release/lmi-r6-bootmem-execution-checklist-20260624.md
• docs/release/lmi-r7-earlydebug-build-result-20260624.md

The lmi-r6-current-handoff-20260624.md file is older than the r6/r7 result documents; prefer the per-result release records when judging current state.

Static release checks can be run locally with scripts/59_release_static_ci.sh. A GitHub Actions workflow template is kept at docs/release/edge-release-checks.workflow.yml; copy it to .github/workflows/ only with a token that has workflow scope. To refresh all local r6 release reports and docs, run scripts/62_refresh_lmi_release_docs.sh --quick.

The reusable host-side automation loop is documented in docs/mainline-automation-loop-20260624.md. Use scripts/68_mainline_progress_loop.sh --once --quick for the default read-only loop, and scripts/69_audit_lmi_resources.sh --network when local mainline resources need to be compared with remote repository refs.

Read this first

docs/porting-sm8250-downstream-to-postmarketos.md — the field log of every non-obvious problem and its fix (SELinux host tools, kheaders, the LLVM ld config trap, building/installing the qcom overlay DTBs, deviceinfo_dtb for header-v2 + overlay devices, WSL/usbipd papercuts), plus the complete working APKBUILD. Most of it applies to any SM8250 / downstream-MSM device, not just lmi. (中文版)

The recipe

The postmarketOS packaging that produces a bootable image:

• artifacts/wsl-pmaports/linux-xiaomi-lmi/ — kernel package (APKBUILD, merged config-xiaomi-lmi.aarch64) with devtmpfs and configfs RNDIS enabled.
• artifacts/wsl-pmaports/device-xiaomi-lmi/ — device package (deviceinfo, modules-initfs) configured for 4096-byte rootfs image sectors and RNDIS USB networking.

Kernel source: LineageOS/android_kernel_xiaomi_sm8250 @ a5b3099 (matches the stock 4.19.325-cip128-st12-perf-ga5b3099017ae).

Build it

# in WSL, with pmbootstrap configured for the downstream v27 xiaomi-lmi baseline
pmbootstrap checksum linux-xiaomi-lmi
pmbootstrap build    linux-xiaomi-lmi          # ~16 min cold
pmbootstrap checksum device-xiaomi-lmi
pmbootstrap build    device-xiaomi-lmi
pmbootstrap install  --no-fde
pmbootstrap export                              # -> /tmp/postmarketOS-export/
fastboot boot /tmp/postmarketOS-export/boot.img # RAM only; writes nothing

For the mainline/copydown r6 route, use the release checklist instead of the downstream quick recipe. The staged persistent path is documented in docs/release/lmi-r6-bootmem-execution-checklist-20260624.md.

Repo layout

• docs/ — the porting write-up (EN + 中文) and the pmaports MR notes.
• docs/tracks/ — current downstream/mainline split, version labels, features, and progress.
• artifacts/wsl-pmaports/ — the device + kernel pmaports packages.
• artifacts/mainline-pmaports/ — imported mainline package references.
• artifacts/kernel-source/ — config fragments and device-tree evidence used to derive the kernel config.
• artifacts/images/ — local image artifacts and manifests; see artifacts/images/README.md.
• notes/ — compact archive notes for the current v27 baseline, rollback plan, and hardware enablement plan.
• scripts/ — current WSL/device helper scripts for rebuilding v27/v28, checking exported images, collecting hardware evidence, and staging guarded mainline/copydown operations; see scripts/README.md.

Current hardware focus

The downstream line has moved from boot/rootfs repair into hardware enablement. The immediate targets are:

• display: start a minimal compositor or DRM/KMS test so userspace visibly takes over the panel;
• sound and microphone: restore ADSP/audio firmware/service bring-up until ALSA exposes real cards instead of auto_null;
• networking: verify D-v46 if it should replace the verified D-v43 Wi-Fi bring-up, then clean up service status and NetworkManager MAC behavior;
• Bluetooth: unblock and initialize BT after WLAN/firmware service dependencies are understood.

The latest downstream Wi-Fi evidence is summarized in notes/wifi-bringup-live-2026-06-24.md. The stable v27 baseline remains summarized in notes/archive-summary-2026-06-23.md.

The hardware enablement workflow is tracked in docs/hardware-enablement-workflow.md, docs/hardware-enablement-subagents.md, and notes/hardware-enablement-queue-2026-06-23.md.

Safety

This project never flashes the phone without an explicit decision and a confirmed recovery path. userdata rootfs writes were performed only after explicit confirmation. The v27 boot partition write was also performed only after explicit confirmation. dtbo, vbmeta, super, modem/EFS, and calibration partitions have not been written. The install plan and rollback notes are in notes/flash-plan-2026-06-17.md and the dated repair notes under notes/.

Not in this repo (by design)

Stock/recovery boot images for the device (proprietary third-party binaries), full pmOS images, and rejected flash candidates are not distributed here — they are gitignored. Raw device logs (which contain serial numbers, CPU IDs, bootloader tokens, and MAC addresses) are gitignored too. Only explicitly redacted logs may be committed.

License

MIT for the original work here (notes, scripts, recipes); the kernel and its derived config are GPL-2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.