Tips and tricks

SSH Config
When postmarketOS is reinstalled, a new ssh host key will be generated. Your SSH client will detect this, and refuse to connect, requiring you to run  each time a new host key is generated.

To disable this check, and to allow you to connect by running, add the following to your  : Host postmarketos HostName 172.16.42.1 StrictHostKeyChecking no    UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null

SSH with Suckless Terminal
When you ssh into postmarktetos using the suckless terminal (st) on your host, you will get errors with vim:

Furthermore, gpg will refuse to decrypt files and return the following error:

To fix, simply add  to your   file on your postmarketos phone.

Some interesting ideas
Here are some interesting ideas that you can do with your device with postmarketOS
 * Use it as a mini retro handheld gaming device. As there are many good retro emulators that can make your device one great gaming device.
 * Use it as a mini penetration testing device. As postmarketOS is a pure linux os, you can run Wireshark and other penetration testing software with it.
 * You can run full Desktop Environment, with Inkscape, GIMP and full desktop browser with extensions in your device,.

VNC
Using x11vnc, which is in the Alpine repos. You need a running X server (e.g. running Xfce), then you just run x11vnc on the device in a terminal/tty and connect to it. From there, you can manipulate the previously running X server. You might need to specify the X server if x11vnc does not detect it (e.g. by passing -display :0 to it or doing a export DISPLAY=:0 before running it, assuming the display is at :0)

Update the architecture of your device
Some devices have the armhf-architecture but the device supports armv7/aarch64. Some packages can not be built for armhf, so it is useful to update the architecture.

from armhf to armv7

 * Update the architecture in the following files:


 * Update the name of the config-wiki-example.armhf in device/linux-wiki-example to config-wiki-example.armv7


 * Create new checksums for the device package  as well as for the kernel package ,  , and reinstall.

Due to CI-Updates in the Gitlab-repository it may be necessary to also modernize your aport before you can upstream your work.

Misc

 * The splash screen is highly configurable (scroll down for an example)!
 * Browse the Linux source with links to all references here
 * Qualcomm and maybe some other Androids can simply reboot from postmarketOS (or any Linux distro) into your bootloader or recovery with  and
 * Battery capacity can be monitored to trigger low battery actions. See Battery capacity monitoring for more information.

Copy a port
If you know a port of another device works on your device too, you can copy the port.

Reasons for copying a port:
 * You cannot make your device boot yourself, or you want to save the time it takes to do it
 * There are no kernel sources available for your device
 * The devices are very similar (e.g. same SoC), but need small adjustments

Keep in mind that if you copy a port, you copy all the problems and bugs as well. For example, it can be better to create a new up-to-date port than to copy a port which only compiles under gcc6 and still uses armhf.

If you want to copy the port of a device, copy all the files of the device in your device-folder and rename them to the new ones. Then simply follow the porting guide. If the config-file of your new device is available, try to use it instead of the old one.