Vsmart Active 1 (vsmart-zangyapro)

Features
Flashing Whether it is possible to flash the device with pmbootstrap flasher.	Works
USB Networking After connecting the device with USB to your PC, you can connect to it via telnet (initramfs) or SSH (booted system).	Works
Internal storage eMMC, SD cards, UFS...	Works
SD card Also includes other external storage cards.	Untested
Battery Whether charging and battery level reporting work.	Partial
Screen Whether the display works; ideally with sleep mode and brightness control.	Works
Touchscreen	Broken
Multimedia
3D Acceleration	Works
Audio Audio playback, microphone, headset and buttons.	Untested
Camera	Untested
Connectivity
WiFi	Works
Bluetooth	Works
GPS	Untested
NFC Near Field Communication	Untested
Modem
Calls	Untested
SMS	Untested
Mobile data	Untested
Miscellaneous
FDE Full disk encryption and unlocking with unl0kr.	Untested
USB OTG USB On-The-Go or USB-C Role switching.	Untested
Fingerprint Fingerprint reader.	Untested
Sensors
Accelerometer Handles automatic screen rotation in many interfaces.	Untested
Magnetometer Sensor to measure the Earth's magnetism	Untested
Ambient Light Measures the light level; used for automatic screen dimming in many interfaces.	Untested
Proximity	Untested
Haptics	Untested
Power Sensor Sensor to monitor current, voltage and power. Not fuel gauge!	Untested

Vsmart Active 1
	; Vsmart Active 1 running postmarketOS
Manufacturer	Vsmart
Name	Active 1
Codename	vsmart-zangyapro
Model	PQ6001
Released	2018
Type	handset
Hardware
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 (SDM660)
CPU	4x 2.2 GHz Kryo 260 Gold; 4x 1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver
GPU	Adreno 512
Display	1080 x 2160 LCD, Himax HX83112A (DJN)
Storage	64 GB
Memory	4 GB
Architecture	aarch64
Software
Original software The software and version the device was shipped with.	Android 9
Extended version The most recent supported version from the manufacturer.	Android
FOSS bootloader	no
postmarketOS
Category	testing
Pre-built images Whether pre-built images are available from the postmarketOS Installation page.	no
Mainline Instead of a Linux kernel fork, it is possible to run (Close to) Mainline.	yes
pmOS kernel The kernel version that runs on the device's port.	Mainline 7.0.x
Unixbench score Unixbench Whetstone/Dhrystone score. See Unixbench.	0.0
Firmware package	firmware-vsmart-zangyapro out-of-tree

This device has been tested with postmarketOS, but its device package has not yet been added to the postmarketOS repositories.
This means that it cannot be selected in pmbootstrap.

This device is based on the Snapdragon 660.
See the SoC page for common tips, guides and troubleshooting steps

The Vsmart Active 1 (codename vsmart-zangyapro) is a 2018 Snapdragon 660 handset. It is a rebrand of the BQ Aquaris X2 Pro and very close to the Xiaomi Mi A2 (xiaomi-jasmine_sprout); this port is derived from the latter and shares its mainline kernel. It is used here as a small headless home server.

The Vsmart bootloader enforces dm-android-verity and injects skip_initramfs /

dm=...android-verity... into the kernel command line, which blocks Android GSIs. The mainline kernel ignores these parameters (they are passed to userspace), so postmarketOS boots without any verity

workaround. lk2nd is not required.

Contributors

Fudio101

Users owning this device

Unlocking the bootloader

WARNING: Doing this will ERASE ALL DATA on your device. Please backup all your personal data before continuing!

Enable OEM unlocking and USB debugging in Android developer options.
Reboot to fastboot (Volume Down + Power) and run:
```
fastboot flashing unlock
fastboot flashing unlock_critical
```

fastboot oem unlock is not supported on this bootloader.

How to enter flash mode

Hold Volume Down + Power to boot into fastboot mode.

Installation

Follow the Installation guide. The mainline kernel sidesteps the OEM verity, so a plain boot image works:

pmbootstrap init        # vendor: vsmart, device: zangyapro
pmbootstrap install
pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel     # -> boot partition
pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs     # -> userdata
fastboot reboot

To test without flashing: pmbootstrap flasher boot (or fastboot boot boot.img).

Flashing the rootfs over a 32-bit fastboot.exe (Windows): large

fastboot flash userdata transfers fail on this stack ("Invalid sparse file format" / "Write to device failed"). Split the raw image into ~20 MB sparse chunks (img2simg +

simg2simg ... 20000000) and flash them sequentially; a USB-2.0 hub improves stability.

Running as a headless server

Power draw (idle: WiFi + Bluetooth + console) is about 2.4 W; under heavy CPU load ~4-5 W.
The 3100 mAh battery (manufacturer rating; the device tree uses a 3000 mAh design value for the fuel

 gauge) acts as a built-in UPS: at idle it lasts roughly ~4.5 h from 100% (~3.5 h from 80%)
 on battery alone. Figures are indicative — computed from the 3000 mAh design figure on a used unit with a
 degraded battery.

qbootctl (hard dependency) marks the active A/B slot "successful" at every boot.

 Without it the bootloader counts down the slot retry counter and eventually drops to fastboot.

Connect over USB (ssh user@172.16.42.1) or WiFi. Bluetooth auto-starts at boot.

WARNING: Charging needs a real ≥2 A wall charger. BC1.2 detection works: a weak/laptop (SDP) port is

capped at ~450 mA, less than the running load, so the battery slowly drains even while "Charging". A 2 A DCP charger pulls ~1.5 A and charges at ~1.1 A while running. A warm reboot on a low/weak battery may

brown out and hang; keep the device on a 2 A+ charger.

Forcing USB Host Mode

Only needed if you want USB host (drive/hub/keyboard); skip for plain headless use. Not yet

verified on this device — the Active 1 device tree currently sets dr_mode = "peripheral"; the procedure below is adapted from the Mi A2 and would also need the device tree switched off peripheral-only

mode.

This device shares the SDM660 kernel linux-postmarketos-qcom-sdm660 with the Xiaomi Mi A2: the DWC3 controller does not auto-switch to host mode. On the Mi A2 the shared kernel is rebuilt with Host only mode and a powered USB-C hub is required (the port does not supply VBUS):

pmbootstrap kconfig edit linux-postmarketos-qcom-sdm660
# Device Drivers -> USB support -> DWC3 -> DWC3 Mode Selection -> Host only
pmbootstrap build linux-postmarketos-qcom-sdm660 --force
pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel

Hardware

Component	Chip
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 (SDM660)
GPU	Adreno 512 (freedreno, zap shader `a512_zap.mbn`)
Display / Touch	Himax HX83112A (DJN), 1080x2160 — touch in-cell parked
WiFi / Bluetooth	Qualcomm WCN3990 (ath10k `board-2.bin`)
PMIC	Qualcomm PM660 + PM660L
Fuel gauge	PMI8998 (`pmi8998_fg`)

Quirks / Known issues

Touchscreen (Himax HX83112A) — Parked

Touch IC on i2c-0 (c175000.i2c) at 0x48 (irq gpio67, reset gpio66), product id 0x83112a. The mainline himax_hx83112b driver only knows 0x83112b; the wrong variant bound and probe failed. Parked; not needed for headless use.

TODO: Add the 0x83112a chip variant to the HX83112x touch driver.

microSD slot

Enabled in the device tree but not yet runtime-tested (no card on hand).

WiFi MAC address is randomised

The WCN3990 has no MAC stored for mainline to read, so the WiFi interface gets a random MAC on every boot. WiFi itself works; if you rely on DHCP reservations, pin a fixed MAC (e.g. a NetworkManager cloned-mac-address setting or a systemd-networkd .link file).

Audio

Untested — not used on this headless server.

Battery percentage inaccurate after a flat discharge

pmi8998_fg reads state-of-charge directly from the fuel-gauge register (no DT OCV table). After a flat discharge the FG loses its reference until a full charge cycle recalibrates it.

Modem (calls / SMS / data)

TODO: Test the modem — firmware is present but calls/SMS/data are untested.

Dropped to fastboot after running flat

A/B device: if the active slot is not marked "successful", the bootloader decrements its retry counter each power-cycle and eventually lands in fastboot. Recovery: fastboot set_active a && fastboot reboot. Fixed permanently by the qbootctl dependency.

Notes

Display works through the real DPU + DSI + panel pipeline. The mainline panel-himax-hx83112a

 (Fairphone 3, 1080x2340) was extended with a djn,a1-hx83112a 1080x2160 variant for this device.

WiFi/BT use the same WCN3990 as the Mi A2; the firmware (board-2.bin) lives in the rootfs

 (firmware-vsmart-zangyapro), so it is absent during fastboot boot probes.