Deviceinfo reference

Most of the variables in deviceinfo have self-explanatory names and are used both when you are building postmarketOS (edit at .local/var/pmbootstrap/cache_git/pmaports/device/your_device_name/deviceinfo before flashing, and during runtime it is available at /etc/deviceinfo). if edited before flashing, be sure to rebuild the file with pmbootstrap install

All variables start with deviceinfo_ in the file - this is omitted here to save space.

Case sensitivity

The values of the deviceinfo variables are case sensitive. Most values are lowercase, but there are exceptions such as flash_heimdall_partition_kernel. See the "possible values" column for the right casing. For example, if it says true then using True or TRUE or tRuE is not valid.

device

Variable	Description	Possibles values
format_version	Used to distinguish between different versions of this file.	0
name	Device model	e.g. Nokia N900
manufacturer	Device manufacturer	e.g. Nokia
codename	Device codename	e.g. nokia-n900
uboot_boardname	Files for each u-boot board are placed under (/usr/share/u-boot/$uboot_boardname in alpine) directory, if u-boot port for device exists. Maybe obtained from board_configs var after : delimiter. A defconfig file exists for each board in u-boot repository in configs/${uboot_boardname}_defconfig file	e.g. pine64-lts
year	Release year of the device	e.g. 2012
chassis	The computer case of your device (!1933)	e.g. handset for phones, watch (all values)
dtb	Name of the device tree blob file (only used on mainline kernels or devices with a header version of 2). See the option append_dtb on how this is used.	e.g. allwinner/sun50i-a64-pine64-lts or qcom-msm8974-lge-nexus5-hammerhead
append_dtb	Set to true if the dtb should be appended to the Linux kernel image, if set to false the dtb will be copied to the /boot partition instead. (pmaports!387)	true, false
external_storage	Does the device have an sdcard or other external storage medium?	true, false
flash_method	Method used to flash the device (more info)
arch	Device architecture, must be supported by Alpine Linux	armhf, armv7, aarch64, x86, x86_64
dev_internal_storage	Path to the internal storage (eMMC) (currently only used by the on-device installer). Only set this if you will use it. (pmaports!1820)	e.g. /dev/vdb
dev_internal_storage_repartition	Allow the internal storage to be repartitioned by postmarketOS in the on-device installer. This makes it possible to install from SD card to eMMC (pmaports!1820). This is dangerous and should not be enabled for Android devices! For Android devices, we never change the partition table, because the bootloader expects the boot.img to be at a specific partition and changing the partition scheme would likely result in the original OS not being usable anymore.	true, false
dev_touchscreen	Path to the touchscreen device (only necessary if not automatically detected, more info)	e.g. /dev/input/event3
dev_touchscreen_calibration	Touchscreen calibration values (only necessary for devices with resistive touchscreen, more info)	e.g. 1.094563 -0.020949 -34.586121 0.009427 -1.148506 503.816956
keymaps	Lists keymap options that are available for this device, this will be shown as options in the pmbootstrap init command, this will be passed to Alpine's setup-keymap command	us/rx51_us ch/rx51_ch it/rx51_it
swap_size_recommended	Set recommended swap file size for device. If unset, no swap file will be created for the device.	Integer, in MB.
zram_swap_pct	The size of the ZRAM swap is based on a percentage of the device's RAM, this allows overriding the default percentage to use in the calculation. If set to 0, ZRAM swap is disabled for the device.	Integer, between 0 and 100. See /etc/conf.d/zram-init from postmarketos-base for default values.
tmp_as_tmpfs_size	The size at which /tmp will be mounted from memory as tmpfs. If set to 0, no mounting will happen.	This value is passed directly to the tmpfs size= param, e.g., 50% and 2g. See man tmpfs for more information.
disable_dhcpd	Do not set the static ip to the network interface and do not run the DHCP daemon on it. This makes sense for devices with an ethernet port, like the Raspberry Pi (!1580).	true, false
no_framebuffer	Do not wait up to 10 seconds until a framebuffer device shows up and do not try to configure it (pmaports!44).	true, false
initfs_compression	Format and compression level to use when compressing the initramfs. The format for this is: FORMAT:LEVEL, for example zstd:fast. Supported formats are zstd, lz4, lzma, gzip, none. Supported compression levels are: default, fast, best. This option does not impact the initramfs-extra archive, it is generated without any compression. (see postmarketos-mkinitfs!25). If this option is not specified, or cannot be parsed, gzip with the default compression settings are used. postmarketos-mkinitfs 2.0 is the first version with support for this option, previous versions of mkinitfs either did not use this option or expected different values for it.	default: gzip:default
create_initfs_extra	Instructs mkinitfs to generate an initramfs archive, and an initramfs-extra archive. The initramfs is a minimal/lightweight archive designed for devices with small boot partitions.	default: false
getty	Configure a getty on boot. Creates an entry in /etc/inittab	<port>;<baudrate> e.g. ttyS0;115200 default: not set
gpu_accelerated	Defines if the device has GPU acceleration support. This property is used by pmbootstrap init to hide UIs which require GPU acceleration if the device lacks such support.	default: false
super_partitions	For Androids with dynamic partitions, set the super partition(s) here. See Android dynamic partitions for details.	e.g. /dev/mmcblk0p68 /dev/mmcblk0p69

flash

These are used for flashing and booting the device, and most of them are fastboot specific. Here is a guide on how to get these values for a specific Android device (by extracting the boot.img)

Variable	Description	Possible values
flash_offset_base	Used for flashing	default: 0x10000000
flash_offset_dtb	Used for flashing on header_version 2, see boot-deploy!15
flash_offset_kernel	Kernel offset used for flashing
flash_offset_ramdisk	Ramdisk offset used for flashing
flash_offset_second	Used for flashing
flash_offset_tags	Used for flashing
flash_pagesize	Page size	usually 2048
flash_sparse	Set this to true if your device expects a sparse system image flashed
flash_sparse_samsung_format	Generate a sparse image according to Samsung's own format. Currently the only allowed value is "1". See solutions for postmarketOS for more informations. In order to work flash_sparse must be set to true in conjuction to this option
flash_kernel_on_update	Android devices need the kernel and initramfs to be flashed to a dedicated partition. Set this variable to true to automatically do this with the postmarketos-update-kernel script. Your device package also needs to depend on postmarketos-update-kernel. This is dangerous and should only be enabled after reading the script and verifying that it works for a given device! Double-check that it will not flash to a wrong partition, otherwise you might render a device unbootable. Related: pmaports!2215
kernel_cmdline	Kernel command line (When modifying /etc/deviceinfo: Use kernel_cmdline_append instead. Unless you really want to override the whole kernel command-line, which is usually a bad idea.)
kernel_cmdline_append	Additional kernel command line. Anything in this variable gets automatically added after kernel_cmdline. This is aimed to customize kernel_cmdline by users without having to modify the package shipped by the device package.
bootimg_amazon_omap_header_size	Prepend a certificate exploit header to boot.img, required by the exploit chain used for most OMAP based Amazon Kindles.	Typically 1024, 848 for soho.
bootimg_blobpack	Create a flashable blob for the ASUS Transformers from boot.img using BlobTools	true, sign, false
bootimg_qcdt	Append dtb file to boot.img (more info)	true, false
bootimg_qcdt_type	Define the format of dt.img	exynos, sprd, qcom
bootimg_mtk_label_kernel	Prepend a MediaTek boot header to the kernel before adding it to boot.img; needed on a select few MediaTek devices.	The LABEL portion of the kernel header, usually KERNEL.
bootimg_mtk_label_ramdisk	Prepend a MediaTek boot header to the initramfs before adding it to boot.img; needed on a select few MediaTek devices.	The LABEL portion of the ramdisk header, usually ROOTFS.
bootimg_override_payload	File name in mkinitfs working dir to be used instead of linux kernel file in android boot image	filename, i.e.u-boot.bin
bootimg_override_initramfs	File name in mkinitfs working dir to be used instead of initramfs file in android boot image. See also boot-deploy!10	filename, i.e.boot_image.itb
bootimg_override_payload_compression	Compression method, used to compress override_payload file. Stock bootloader usually expect gzip payload, and fail, if it's not.	Compression method, i.e. gzip
deviceinfo_bootimg_prepend_dhtb	Some Samsung devices need 512-byte header prepend to the boot.img before it will even attempt to boot. If is "true" prepends "DHTB" and 508 NULL bytes to boot.img.	e.g. true, false
bootimg_override_payload_append_dtb	File name in mkinitfs working dir to be appended to the payload. Stock bootloader usually expect dtb appended to the payload, and fail, if it's not. Usually you should create a dtb with memory and chosen nodes, and install it in a place, where mkinifs script will pick it up, for example board's u-boot directory.	filename, i.e. dumb.dtb
bootimg_dtb_second	Place the dtb in the "second" area of the Android boot image. See pmaports!700 for details.	true, false
bootimg_append_seandroidenforce	Append SEANDROIDENFORCE file to boot.img See pmaports!1000 for details.	true, false
bootimg_pxa	Set this to true if the device is based on the Marvell PXA1088/1908 chipset, which has header layout differences. Makes mkinitfs generate the boot image with a different mkbootimg. pxa-mkbootimg should be added as a dependency to your device package.	true, false
bootimg_custom_args	Additional custom arguments to pass to mkbootimg. Caution: adding contents to this variable removes the --header-version and --dtb arguments, which need to be added manually in that case	e.g. --vendor_cmdline ...
header_version	Header version of boot image as defined by Android documentation	Number in range 0..4
generate_bootimg	Set this to true for fastboot device, so the mkinitfs command will generate a boot.img file after creating the initfs. Add mkbootimg as dependency to your device's APKBUILD!	true, false
generate_extlinux_config	Set this to true for U-Boot device, so the mkinitfs command will generate a /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf file after creating the initfs.	true, false
generate_grub_config	Set this to true for EFI device, so the mkinitfs command will generate a /boot/grub/grub.cfg file after creating the initfs.	true, false
generate_systemd_boot	Generate the configuration for systemd-boot or gummiboot, and install it on the system.	true, false
generate_uboot_fit_images	Set "true" to generate U-boot FIT images, one image per *.its file in board's u-boot directory	true, false
generate_legacy_uboot_initfs	For the Nokia N900, we use a legacy version of the uboot bootloader right now. When setting this variable to true, the initramfs will generate an uboot legacy compatible initramfs file. Modern versions of uboot can load regular initramfs files.	true, false
legacy_uboot_load_address	Set a custom load address for the legacy uboot initfs (see pmaports!578, only makes sense in combination with generate_legacy_uboot_initfs).	default: 80008000
legacy_uboot_image_name	Set a custom uboot image name, required by some device bootloaders that expect a specific image name. (boot-deploy!11)	default: postmarketos
flash_fastboot_partition_kernel	Only relevant for fastboot flash methods, the partition where the kernel or boot.img will be stored (!1741).	default: "boot"
flash_fastboot_partition_system	Only relevant for fastboot flash methods, the partition where the system image will be stored (see also: partition-layout).	default: "userdata"
flash_fastboot_partition_vbmeta	For AVB devices: set vbmeta partition to be flashed with a custom vbmeta.img which has verity flag disabled (!1885).	partition name, e.g. vbmeta
flash_fastboot_partition_dtbo	For devices that require dtbo populated: set dtbo partition to be flashed with a custom dtbo.img that's generated by the linux package (!2099).	partition name, e.g. dtbo
flash_fastboot_max_size	Set this if the fastboot required by your device has an upper limit to the size of system images it will flash.	Size, in MB
flash_heimdall_partition_kernel	Only relevant for heimdall flash methods, the partition where the kernel or boot.img will be stored.	default: "KERNEL"
flash_heimdall_partition_initfs	Only relevant for the heimdall-isorec flash method, the partition where the initramfs will be stored.	default: "RECOVERY"
flash_heimdall_partition_system	Only relevant for heimdall flash methods, the partition where the system image will be stored (see also: partition-layout).	default: "SYSTEM"
flash_heimdall_partition_vbmeta	For AVB devices: set vbmeta partition to be flashed with a custom vbmeta.img which has verity flag disabled (!1936, !1885).	partition name, e.g. VBMETA
flash_rk_partition_kernel	Only relevant for rk flash method, the partition where the kernel will be stored. !2165	e.g. cache
flash_rk_partition_system	Only relevant for rk flash method, the partition where the system image will be stored (see also: partition-layout). !2165	e.g. userdata
flash_mtkclient_partition_kernel	Only relevant for MTKClient flash methods, the partition where the kernel or boot.img will be stored.	default: "boot"
flash_mtkclient_partition_rootfs	Only relevant for MTKClient flash methods, the partition where the system image will be stored (see also: partition-layout).	default: "system"
flash_mtkclient_partition_vbmeta	For AVB devices: set vbmeta partition to be flashed with a custom vbmeta.img which has verity flag disabled.	partition name, e.g. vbmeta
flash_mtkclient_partition_dtbo	For devices that require dtbo populated: set dtbo partition to be flashed with a custom dtbo.img that's generated by the linux package.	partition name, e.g. dtbo
boot_filesystem	Sets the filesystem used for the /boot partition containing initramfs-extra	default: "ext4", "fat16", "fat32"
root_filesystem	Sets the filesystem used for the / partition (!2011)	default: "ext4"
rootfs_image_sector_size	Some devices made after 2016 with UFS storage use 4096 byte sectors and therefore need this option to boot. Read !1725 for details.	default: 512
sd_embed_firmware	A comma-separated list of binary:offset (where binary is under /usr/share) (!1739)	e.g. firmware/librem5dev/u-boot.bin:33,firmware/librem5dev/m4.bin:2
sd_embed_firmware_step_size	The number of bytes for each increment of the offset specified in the sd_embed_firmware	default: 1024
partition_blacklist	A comma-separated list of partitions that should not be flashed, because they brick the device. There are only very few devices where it is necessary (e.g. Ouya). !1759	e.g. boot,recovery
boot_part_start	Number of sectors from the start of the drive to place the boot partition. Some devices may need this increased, if their bootloader takes up more space (like the Librem 5). (!1856)	default: 2048
partition_type	Type of partition table to be generated (!2160). The default was changed from msdos to gpt with pmbootstrap 3.0.0 (!2426).	default: gpt
mkinitfs_postprocess	Define a script to run after generating the initramfs, historically used to append headers/footers to boot.img. Prefer adding this functionality to boot-deploy instead.	e.g. previous implementation for amazon-soho

multiboot involving Android

See U-Boot porting for more information.

Variable	Description	Possibles values
bootimg_vendor_dependent	a list of source files for generating boot images, dependent on vendor boot image file presence on a device	space separated bootloader payload source filenames
bootimg_vendor_android_boot_image	Filename. Place your android boot image in a /boot directory with that name. It also may be copied by pmbootstrap during installation. See also: boot-deploy!19	filename.
bootimg_vendor_device_tree_identifiers	space separated list of patterns, used to identify dtb for Android.	regex patterns, i.e. "qcom,msm-id\s*=\s*<0x141\s*0x20001>; qcom,board-id\s*=\s*<0x08\s*0x0e>;"

splash

Variable	Description	Possibles values
screen_width	The width of the display (DEPRECATED: no longer required)	800, 720, 1440... anything really
screen_height	The height of the display (DEPRECATED: no longer required)	1280, 2560... other

usb

Change how the target device shows up when connected with USB to a host PC. pmaports!706 added support for these variables in the mkinitfs script, when using the configfs network method.

Variable	Description	Default
usb_idVendor	Vendor ID	0x18D1 ("Google Inc.")
usb_idProduct	Product ID	0xD001 ("Nexus 4 (fastboot)")
usb_serialnumber	Device's serial number string	postmarketOS
usb_network_function	Name of the network function to use, located in /config/usb_gadget/g1/functions/	ncm.usb0 with a fallback to rndis.usb0
usb_network_udc	Name of the USB Device Controller (UDC) to use, typically found in /sys/class/udc	whatever UDC is found in /sys/class/udc

The correct IDs can be seen in init.*.usb.rc of Android/TWRP sources for that device (or directly in rootfs, boot into twrp and see) OR plug in device running stock Android/TWRP and watch dmesg for things like

[    3.939519] usb 1-2.4: New USB device found, idVendor=2717, idProduct=ff40, bcdDevice= 4.14
[    3.939521] usb 1-2.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[    3.939521] usb 1-2.4: Product: MI 9
[    3.939522] usb 1-2.4: Manufacturer: Xiaomi

cgpt/depthcharge

These variables are used with ChromeOS devices (pmbootstrap!2163).

Variable	Description	Possible values
cgpt_kpart	Path to the file to be written to kernel partition	e.g. /usr/share/u-boot/google-peach-pit/u-boot-dtb.img.kpart, /boot/vmlinuz.kpart
cgpt_kpart_start	Number of sectors from the start of the drive to place the kernel partition	e.g. 8192
cgpt_kpart_size	Size of kernel partition	e.g. 32768
depthcharge_board	Board codename used in depthcharge-tools, see https://github.com/alpernebbi/depthcharge-tools/blob/master/depthcharge_tools/boards.ini	e.g. kevin
generate_depthcharge_image	Set this to true, so the mkinitfs command will generate a vmlinuz.kpart file after creating the initramfs. Add depthcharge-tools as dependency to your device's APKBUILD!	true, false

Obsolete options

weston

• weston_pixman_type: used to be a Weston specific workaround for the "red screen bug" (#54): we patched Weston to accept a --pixman-type argument to override the framebuffer mode that the kernel driver reports. However, this patch was quickly incompatible with future changes in Weston, and it is not as good as patching the kernel to report the right framebuffer mode, so it was removed (pmaports#136).
• Various options from weston.ini used to be duplicated, but this was removed in !739. If you need to set weston specific options from your device (such as the output backend or the keymap), please add a weston.ini file to your pmaport (example).

device

• nonfree: Components of the device, that only run with closed source firmware. This is now legacy due to nobody uses it. (pmaports#438)
• dev_keyboard: Originally intended to point osk-sdl to the hardware keyboard, but was never used. (It should detect hardware keyboards automatically...)
• keyboard: programs should automatically detect if the device currently has a keyboard or not (oftentimes it can be plugged in anyway). (pmaports#3145)
• modules_initfs: Kernel modules to include in the initramfs, has been replaced with the modules-initfs file in the device package (pmaports!4169). See Device_specific_package#Kernel_modules for more information.
• mesa_driver: This was used by osk-sdl, which will be dropped from pmaports in pmaports!4732

flash

• flash_fastboot_vendor_id: fastboot used to have a -i option, but this was removed (#1830). Since we only had one device using this and nobody to verify if the option is really needed with this device, we decided to remove it. If you are interested in bringing it back, please create a new issue.
• bootimg_mtk_mkimage: Did the same as bootimg_mtk_label_kernel and bootimg_mtk_label_ramdisk but with hard-coded LABEL values. Replaced in boot-deploy!49 when it was discovered that not all devices follow the exact same format.
• generate_gummiboot: Generate necessary config for and install gummiboot (Dropped in boot-deploy 0.11)

splash

• framebuffer_landscape: removed by the switch pbsplash with no apparent replacement (#2660).

usb

• usb_rndis_function: renamed to usb_network_function in pmaports!3669.

See also

• Device specific package