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this webpage is hosted on a drawer-bound fairphone 2 from 2015, running postmarketos

in this tutorial you will be guided through the steps taken to get there

you will end up with a small home server, able to run basic services

we aim to reduce e-waste, encourage reuse and give a second life to forgotten chips

you will need

• an unused android phone
• a charger and power source
• a wifi connection
• a computer running linux (natively or in a virtual machine)

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step 1: installing postmarketos

first step is installing postmarketos on your phone

find your device in the devices page and verify that your device is properly supported

keep that page open throughout the installation

install pmbootstrap, the main command-line application for postmarketos

we’ll first generate the image, then flash it to the device

generate the image

update the ports and initialize your device information:

$ pmbootstrap pull
$ pmbootstrap init

when asked for the codename for your device, provide the one listed in your device’s page you opened above

when asked for which user interface to use, you can choose console (which should be the most minimal option) or fbkeyboard to have a minimal keyboard on-screen (which you shouldn’t have to use thanks to ssh, but just in case, it’s fun)

generate the image:

$ pmbootstrap install

flash the image

check your device’s page for how to boot your device in flash mode

usually this means powering the device on with the “volume down” button pressed

connect the phone into your computer and boot it in flash mode

next, check the Installation section of the page and follow any instructions listed there

finally, if you have not already, flash the image to the device:

$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs

then, reboot the device and verify that postmarketos starts-up correctly

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step 2: setting up your server

now that your phone is postmarketos’ed, let’s log into it

the default postmarketos username/password combination is user/147147

keep the phone connected to your computer and ssh into it:

$ ssh user@172.16.42.1

connect the phone to your wifi network:

$ nmcli device wifi connect your_wifi_network --ask

congrats, you now officially have a little local phone server

running this command should show you the phone’s local ip address:

$ ip -4 addr show wlan0 | grep inet | awk '{print $2}' | cut -d'/' -f1

on a typical home router it will have the form 192.168.1.x

you can now plug the phone somewhere safe and connect to it via wifi:

ssh user@192.168.1.x

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step 3: serving a web page

create the /var/www/html/ directory:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/

write a simple hello world html file:

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "<h1>hello world</h1>" > /var/www/html/index.html'

add a nftables rule to allow incoming packets on port 80, in /etc/nftables.d/99_http.nft:

inet filter input tcp dport 80 ct state new accept

then restart nftables:

$ sudo systemctl restart nftables

run the following to launch your webserver:

$ httpd -h /var/www/html/

test out the server by curling the website from your computer:

$ curl 192.168.1.x

you should see the <h1>hello world</h1> text from above

now type the ip address in the web browser of any device connected to the same wifi network, and marvel at your own tiny local digital garden

note that this http server will not be automatically restarted if your phone reboots for any reason

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extra: remote access

as a preemptive security measure, i would recommend not to open port 22 (used for ssh) to the wider internet

instead you should set up a vpn access to your router box (most support this on their web interfaces) if you need remote access

once you are connected to your local network, access the phone using ssh as before

if you know what you are doing and still want to open up port 22 to the internet, remember to disable password login and set up ssh keys

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extra: maintenance

to update the packages on your server, run:

$ sudo apk update
$ sudo apk upgrade

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next steps

In the advanced part of this tutorial (still under construction), you will learn how to:

• setup a domain and https
• make the http server persist after reboot

built by louis merlin under the cc by-nc-sa 4.0 license