SHIFT SHIFT6mq (shift-axolotl)

Features
Flashing	Works
USB Networking	Works
Internal storage	Works
SD card	Works
Battery	Works
Screen	Works
Touchscreen	Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration	Works
Audio	Works
Camera	Broken
Camera Flash
Connectivity
WiFi	Works
Bluetooth	Works
GPS	Broken
NFC	Broken
Modem
Calls	Works
SMS	Works
Mobile data	Works
Miscellaneous
FDE	Works
USB OTG	Broken
HDMI/DP
Sensors
Accelerometer	Works
Magnetometer	Works
Ambient Light	Works
Proximity	Works
Hall Effect
Haptics
Barometer

SHIFT SHIFT6mq
	; SHIFT SHIFT6mq (axolotl)
Manufacturer	SHIFT
Name	SHIFT6mq
Codename	shift-axolotl
Released	2020
Type	handset
Hardware
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 (SDM845)
CPU	Octa-core (4x 2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x 1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver)
GPU	Adreno 630
Display	1080 x 2160 AMOLED
Storage	128 GB UFS 2.1
Memory	8 GB
Architecture	aarch64
Software
Original software	Android
Original version	10.0
postmarketOS
Category	community
Pre-built images	yes
postmarketOS kernel	Mainline
Optional Generic Port	Qualcomm SDM845 (qualcomm-sdm845)

This page is about the dedicated port of this device. There is also an optional generic port available for this device - see Qualcomm SDM845 (qualcomm-sdm845).

Contributors

Users owning this device

Amartinz (Notes: Main device)
Caleb (Notes: postmarketOS porting)
Craftyguy
DylanVanAssche (Notes: postmarketOS)
Linmob (Notes: postmarketOS edge dual boot with Calyx)
Maxnet (Notes: daily driver with Android Distro (for now))
Pabloyoyoista
PL (Notes: Main device, running ShiftOS L (mostly AOSP Android))

Boot modes

By holding various button combinations while booting the device can be made to boot into different modes.

Unplug from USB, power off the device and press and hold the below buttons to enter the specific boot mode.

Boot mode	Power	Up	Down
Fastboot	Y	Y	N
Recovery	Y	N	Y
EDL	Y	Y	Y

Bootloader

The bootloader (ABL) is supported by Fwupd and can be upgraded.

Unlock bootloader

To unlock the bootloader, you need to allow unlocking it via enabling OEM unlocking within Android.

Go to Settings within Android and select About
Tap on Build number seven times to enable developer options
Go back and select System, Advanced and scroll down to Developer options
Enable Advanced restart and OEM unlocking
Reboot into bootloader by long pressing the power button, selecting Restart and Bootloader

After it has successfully rebooted into Fastboot mode, initiate unlocking the bootloader using fastboot:

$ fastboot flashing unlock

Please follow the prompts on the screen to finish unlocking the bootloader.

WARNING: This will erase your data, please back up important data before unlocking the bootloader.

Customization

Custom AVB key

This is not fully relevant for postmarketOS, as AVB is currently unsupported, but documented for the future.

The bootloader has support for setting an user provided AVB key to allow relocking the bootloader if an OS with proper support is flashed.

This is realized with exposing a virtual partition avb_custom_key where the custom user key can be flashed to:

$ fastboot flash avb_custom_key avb_key.bin

For more information please refer to the commit FastbootCmds: oem device-info: check if user public key is set.

Developer mode

Toggling developer mode requires the bootloader to be unlocked.

Supported since version 3.9.20221006 and enabling it has the following effects:

Ignore slot retry counter
- Disables marking slots as unbootable
Switch active slots within the bootloader GUI

To enable developer mode:

$ fastboot oem enable-developer-mode

To disable developer mode:

$ fastboot oem disable-developer-mode

To check the current status of developer mode:

$ fastboot oem device-info
(bootloader) Developer mode enabled: true/false

Mainline optimization

Bootloaders since version 3.9.20221006 support additional fastboot oem commands to enable certain Quality of Life improvements when running mainline.

To enable mainline optimization:

$ fastboot oem enable-mainline-optimization

To disable mainline optimization:

$ fastboot oem disable-mainline-optimization

To check the current status of mainline support:

$ fastboot oem device-info
(bootloader) Mainline optimization enabled: true/false

Fastbootd

Fastbootd is a userspace implementation of Fastboot. For axolotl it is located within the recovery.

To access it, you can boot the recovery and select a menu option to enter fastbootd mode. Optionally you can also enter it via ADB and Fastboot:

$ # Enter fastbootd via adb
$ adb reboot fastboot
$ # Enter fastbootd via fastboot
$ fastboot reboot fastboot

You can only access dynamic partitions within fastbootd.

As fastbootd lives within the recovery, you need a valid recovery image installed in the currently active slot to access it.

Installation

Follow the pmbootstrap instructions to build your own image, using shift as the vendor and axolotl as the codename but stop before following flashing instructions, as these are different for axolotl.

There are currently different ways to install postmarketOS (only select one).

UBports Installer

You can use UBports Installer to flash a prebuilt image of postmarketOS onto your SHIFT6mq. Just select postmarketOS in the OS selection and choose the desired UI and lean back!

Manual installation on userdata partition

Installation on userdata is the most generic and universally supported way, however it does not allow for dual boot or utilizing the full flash storage of the device.

Reboot into Fastboot mode and install postmarketOS:

$ # Flash rootfs to userdata partition
$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs --partition userdata
$ # Flash kernel to boot
$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel
$ # Erase dtbo partition, as it conflicts with our mainline kernel
$ # Note: this operation takes some time to complete
$ fastboot erase dtbo
$ # Reboot into postmarketOS
$ fastboot reboot

fastboot can sometimes misbehave, if any of the fastboot commands fail you should run fastboot reboot bootloader (or reboot manually using the interface on the device) and then repeat the failed command.

Manual installation on super partition

WARNING: This is currently work in progress and actively worked on.

First select a slot (a or b) you want to install postmarketOS on.

This guide assumes you want to install onto the a slot. Replace a with b depending on the slot you want to install on.

To install on super partition, a valid recovery with proper fastbootd implementation needs to be installed into the slot, which you want to install postmarketOS on. You can download the stock recovery image, provided by the manufacturer and install it within Fastboot mode:

You can select the slot to install on via appending _SLOT to the partition name (for example boot_a, boot_b, ...).

$ # Install recovery in "a" slot
$ fastboot flash recovery_a recovery_stock.img

Enter Fastbootd and ensure it is working as expected:

$ # Set "a" as active slot and reboot to fastbootd
$ fastboot --set-active=a
$ fastboot reboot fastboot
$ # Verify current slot is "a"
$ fastboot getvar current-slot

After you verified fastbootd works in the slot you have selected, you can install postmarketOS:

$ # Flash rootfs to system_a partition
$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs --partition system_a
$ # Flash kernel to boot
$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel --partition boot_a
$ # Reboot to bootloader, as erasing dtbo is not working in fastbootd
$ fastboot reboot bootloader
$ # Erase dtbo_a partition, as it conflicts with our mainline kernel
$ # Note: this operation takes some time to complete
$ fastboot erase dtbo_a
$ # Reboot into postmarketOS
$ fastboot reboot

The phone will now always boot into postmarketOS until you switch slots with fastboot again:

$ fastboot --set-active=b

If you are unable to boot into your former OS after installing postmarketOS and then switching back to the previous slot, you may have to re-flash the image (e.g. from here) by booting to recovery and sideloading via adb. Keep in mind that you must have slot a active to flash the image to slot b.

Partition map

 beep:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.10

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Warning! Main partition table overlaps the first partition by 6 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.
Disk /dev/sda: 29765632 sectors, 113.5 GiB
Model: H28S8Q302CMR
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096/4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): A066299D-8C81-0394-2A42-780CDF59A84B
Partition table holds up to 32 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 2
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 29765626
Partitions will be aligned on 2-sector boundaries
Total free space is 0 sectors (0 bytes)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1               6               7   8.0 KiB     A02C  ssd
   2               8            8199   32.0 MiB    A026  persist
   3            8200            8455   1024.0 KiB  A01F  misc
   4            8456            8583   512.0 KiB   A02D  keystore
   5            8584            8711   512.0 KiB   FFFF  oem
   6            8712            8839   512.0 KiB   FFFF  frp
   7            8840         3154567   12.0 GiB    FFFF  super
   8         3154568         3158663   16.0 MiB    FFFF  metadata
   9         3158664        29765626   101.5 GiB   A03A  userdata
beep:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdb
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.10

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sdb: 1024 sectors, 4.0 MiB
Model: H28S8Q302CMR
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096/4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): F3CBB5D3-3124-BE05-2C19-1F43C179B3EC
Partition table holds up to 32 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 2
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 1018
Partitions will be aligned on 2-sector boundaries
Total free space is 85 sectors (340.0 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1               6             901   3.5 MiB     A012  xbl_a
   2             902             933   128.0 KiB   FFFF  xbl_config_a
   3             934            1018   340.0 KiB   FFFF  last_parti
beep:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdc
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.10

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sdc: 1024 sectors, 4.0 MiB
Model: H28S8Q302CMR
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096/4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 30462848-044C-9159-BC91-584C52DE397A
Partition table holds up to 32 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 2
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 1018
Partitions will be aligned on 2-sector boundaries
Total free space is 85 sectors (340.0 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1               6             901   3.5 MiB     A012  xbl_b
   2             902             933   128.0 KiB   FFFF  xbl_config_b
   3             934            1018   340.0 KiB   FFFF  last_parti
beep:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdd
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.10

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sdd: 32768 sectors, 128.0 MiB
Model: H28S8Q302CMR
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096/4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): FDA3E752-75E6-C6AC-FF7A-14D41DA71B6B
Partition table holds up to 32 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 2
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 32762
Partitions will be aligned on 2-sector boundaries
Total free space is 32443 sectors (126.7 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1               6              31   104.0 KiB   FFFF  ALIGN_TO_128K_1
   2              32              63   128.0 KiB   A01B  cdt
   3              64             319   1024.0 KiB  A01A  ddr
   4             320           32762   126.7 MiB   FFFF  last_parti
beep:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sde
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.10

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sde: 1048576 sectors, 4.0 GiB
Model: H28S8Q302CMR
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096/4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 405FB141-98DB-DAE5-BD7C-3CBD70D53BA7
Partition table holds up to 64 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 3
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 1048570
Partitions will be aligned on 1-sector boundaries
Total free space is 799435 sectors (3.0 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1               6             133   512.0 KiB   FFFF  aop_a
   2             134             645   2.0 MiB     FFFF  tz_a
   3             646             773   512.0 KiB   A017  hyp_a
   4             774           31493   120.0 MiB   0700  modem_a
   5           31494           31749   1024.0 KiB  FFFF  bluetooth_a
   6           31750           32773   4.0 MiB     FFFF  mdtpsecapp_a
   7           32774           40965   32.0 MiB    FFFF  mdtp_a
   8           40966           41221   1024.0 KiB  FFFF  abl_a
   9           41222           49413   32.0 MiB    FFFF  dsp_a
  10           49414           49541   512.0 KiB   FFFF  keymaster_a
  11           49542           65925   64.0 MiB    FFFF  boot_a
  12           65926           66053   512.0 KiB   FFFF  cmnlib_a
  13           66054           66181   512.0 KiB   FFFF  cmnlib64_a
  14           66182           66213   128.0 KiB   FFFF  devcfg_a
  15           66214           66229   64.0 KiB    FFFF  qupfw_a
  16           66230           66245   64.0 KiB    FFFF  vbmeta_a
  17           66246           68293   8.0 MiB     FFFF  dtbo_a
  18           68294           68325   128.0 KiB   FFFF  storsec_a
  19           68326           68581   1024.0 KiB  FFFF  ImageFv_a
  20           68582           93157   96.0 MiB    EF00  recovery_a
  21           93158           93173   64.0 KiB    FFFF  vbmeta_system_a
  22           93174           93189   64.0 KiB    FFFF  vbmeta_vendor_a
  23           93190           93317   512.0 KiB   FFFF  aop_b
  24           93318           93829   2.0 MiB     A016  tz_b
  25           93830           93957   512.0 KiB   FFFF  hyp_b
  26           93958          124677   120.0 MiB   FFFF  modem_b
  27          124678          124933   1024.0 KiB  FFFF  bluetooth_b
  28          124934          125957   4.0 MiB     FFFF  mdtpsecapp_b
  29          125958          134149   32.0 MiB    FFFF  mdtp_b
  30          134150          134405   1024.0 KiB  FFFF  abl_b
  31          134406          142597   32.0 MiB    FFFF  dsp_b
  32          142598          142725   512.0 KiB   FFFF  keymaster_b
  33          142726          159109   64.0 MiB    A036  boot_b
  34          159110          159237   512.0 KiB   FFFF  cmnlib_b
  35          159238          159365   512.0 KiB   FFFF  cmnlib64_b
  36          159366          159397   128.0 KiB   FFFF  devcfg_b
  37          159398          159413   64.0 KiB    FFFF  qupfw_b
  38          159414          159429   64.0 KiB    FFFF  vbmeta_b
  39          159430          161477   8.0 MiB     FFFF  dtbo_b
  40          161478          161509   128.0 KiB   FFFF  storsec_b
  41          161510          161765   1024.0 KiB  FFFF  ImageFv_b
  42          161766          186341   96.0 MiB    FFFF  recovery_b
  43          186342          186357   64.0 KiB    FFFF  vbmeta_system_b
  44          186358          186373   64.0 KiB    FFFF  vbmeta_vendor_b
  45          186374          186377   16.0 KiB    A01D  sec
  46          186378          186378   4.0 KiB     A021  devinfo
  47          186379          186634   1024.0 KiB  FFFF  dip
  48          186635          186698   256.0 KiB   A022  apdp
  49          186699          186762   256.0 KiB   A023  msadp
  50          186763          188810   8.0 MiB     FFFF  spunvm
  51          188811          197166   32.6 MiB    FFFF  splash
  52          197167          197167   4.0 KiB     A040  limits
  53          197168          197423   1024.0 KiB  FFFF  toolsfv
  54          197424          199471   8.0 MiB     FFFF  logfs
  55          199472          199983   2.0 MiB     FFFF  sti
  56          199984          232751   128.0 MiB   A01C  rawdump
  57          232752          249135   64.0 MiB    FFFF  logdump
  58          249136         1048570   3.0 GiB     FFFF  last_parti
beep:~$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdf
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.10

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sdf: 393216 sectors, 1.5 GiB
Model: H28S8Q302CMR
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096/4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 8969EFAC-14F0-A607-B0D3-195CAFCF2A9D
Partition table holds up to 32 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 2
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 393210
Partitions will be aligned on 2-sector boundaries
Total free space is 391611 sectors (1.5 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1               6              31   104.0 KiB   FFFF  ALIGN_TO_128K_2
   2              32             543   2.0 MiB     A027  modemst1
   3             544            1055   2.0 MiB     A028  modemst2
   4            1056            1567   2.0 MiB     A02A  fsg
   5            1568            1599   128.0 KiB   A029  fsc
   6            1600          393210   1.5 GiB     FFFF  last_parti

 axolotl:/ # df -h                                                                                                    
 Filesystem      Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
 tmpfs           3.7G 1.5M  3.7G   1% /dev
 tmpfs           3.7G    0  3.7G   0% /mnt
 /dev/block/sda8  11M 160K   11M   2% /metadata
 /dev/block/dm-1 1.2G 849M  476M  65% /
 /dev/block/dm-2 971M 489M  482M  51% /system_ext
 /dev/block/dm-0 1.8G 378M  1.4G  21% /product
 /dev/block/dm-3 732M 482M  250M  66% /vendor
 tmpfs           3.7G 8.0K  3.7G   1% /apex
 tmpfs           3.7G 524K  3.7G   1% /linkerconfig
 /dev/block/sda2  27M 0.9M   26M   4% /mnt/vendor/persist
 /dev/block/sde5  64M 704K   63M   2% /vendor/bt_firmware
 /dev/block/sde4 120M 115M  5.0M  96% /vendor/firmware_mnt
 /dev/block/sde9  27M  24M  3.1M  89% /vendor/dsp
 /dev/block/dm-8 101G 1.7G  100G   2% /data
 tmpfs           3.7G    0  3.7G   0% /data_mirror
 /data/media     101G 1.7G  100G   2% /mnt/runtime/default/emulated
 /dev/fuse       101G 1.7G  100G   2% /mnt/user/0/emulated

UART

Requirements

SHIFT6mq
Screwdriver that came with your SHIFT6mq
- Alternatively any T4 Torx screwdriver should be suitable
Wires to connect test points
UART-TTL USB Adapter (I have used this one)

Optionally

Depending on whether you want to permanently have wires attached to your 6mq (which makes it less suitable as an actually usable phone) or just a temporary connection, you need:

Soldering iron
- And a steady hand!
Something to temporary hold the wires in place during your UART usage

Removing the case

First of all, properly shutdown your 6mq in case it is powered on!
Next remove the backcover, remove the battery and unscrew all 14 screws securing the housing of the 6mq.

Gently insert your fingernail (or any tool for this purpose) between display and the device frame to loosen their connection and remove the display.

You can also follow this iFixit guide until Step 5.

You should end up with the top PCB exposed

Removing the top PCB

Remove the connector (responsible for the POWER and VOLUME buttons) on the right side at the top PCB to expose another screw.
Then remove all 3 screws as shown in the picture.

Remove highlighted components

Afterwards gently remove the top PCB.

Top PCB of the SHIFT6mq removed

After you have removed the top PCB, the test points we need are still covered by the SIM card tray.

Remove SIM card tray from top PCB

Gently pry off the SIM card tray - YouTube

Explanation of test points

After removing the SIM card tray, the test points we need for UART are exposed.

Top PCB of the SHIFT6mq with the SIM card tray removed

These are the test points together with the color of the wire used in this guide:

TH - Thermal test point -> blue
1.8 (left) -> green
1.8 (right) -> yellow
- You can connect these two points while booting up to force boot into EDL mode
- Especially useful if you ever brick the bootloader, as it allows you to unbrick your device using QFIL
T - Transmit -> orange
R - Receive -> red
G - Ground -> brown

T, R and G are required for UART.

Extras for permanent connections

If you want to keep using the device's housing when having UART wires soldered, you may need to extend the SIM card tray opening to guide the wires through. This is possible with soldering away the housing itself.

It looks ugly but it works

When putting the device together, be sure to carefully connect the fingerprint reader connector, as this is a bit tricky to connect.

Carefully re-insert the top PCB into the empty housing

Usage of UART

If you want to use UART for reading logs, connect as follows:

T (orange) of the PCB to RXD of the USB adapter card
G (brown) of the PCB to GND of the USB adapter card

Afterwards launch minicom (or any other program you prefer):

 sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyUSB0

Camera

The state of the implementation of the camera is tracked on https://gitlab.com/sdm845-mainline/linux/-/issues/21

Troubleshooting

If your 4G connection only shortly appears and then falls back to 2G/3G, your EPS initial bearer might be wrong. You can check if the EPS bearer is wrong if there's no initial bearer path in the output of mmcli -m any under the 3GPP category.

For Telenet (Belgium), you need to clear username, password and APN of the initial bearer. There's no UI for it, but you can with mmcli:

 mmcli -m any --3gpp-set-initial-eps-bearer-settings="ip-type=ipv4,user='',password='',apn=''"

After that, disable and enable your modem in GNOME Settings.