Show HN: A modern port of Linux to a ten-year-old QWERTY phone | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: A modern port of Linux to a ten-year-old QWERTY phone

49 pointstmzt14 comments

I ported modern Linux to a ten-year-old HTC QWERTY phone as a handheld terminal.

I wrote it up here: https://tmzt.github.io/blog/a-modern-port-of-linux-to-a-ten-...

You can see the code here: https://github.com/tmzt/linux-stable-msm-dtsi

> The history and context are included in the git history and you can see the progression, different approaches, and other details.

As someone interested in this area: thank you

I pushed all the intermediate branches as well.

The HTC Evo 4G isn't a QWERTY phone though? https://www.gsmarena.com/htc_evo_4g-3427.php

Even doing a Google search for "Sprint EVO 4G" doesn't reveal a keyboard.

Do you have the gsmarena link to the exact model?

Edit: Did further digging, seems like you're talking about the HTC EVO Shift 4G. If so, you should update your blog with the correct model name.

https://www.gsmarena.com/htc_evo_shift_4g-3702.php

Thanks. I will.

Updated and added links to gsmarena, thanks for that.

I would love to see a UEFI phone (for standardised hardware support, without Device Tree) with a keyboard.

agree, none of us ever wanted to type on a piece of glass

Maybe the keyboard could be removable to satisfy those users as well.

The fact this phone is 15 years old and has seen minimal obvious replacements is such a shame. I love this work!

The unihertz titan series is decent for a more modern option. It's a blackberry style keyboard instead of the slide out type, which is a bit of a shift, but still pretty usable.

>but with a Wimax radio

That's a blast from the past, I remember WiMax being touted as the data saviour

I’ve wanted something similar for me, and just ordered one of these devices. I’ll be tracking your project closely!

Awesome. I'd love to see this evolve into something, maybe a Matrix server of our own.

For now, I've been hanging out here as tmztmobile: https://matrix.to/#/#pocket-bootloaders:samcday.com

Good write up. interesting idea. thank you

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