utopify.org - R&D https://publish.ministryofinternet.eu/utopify-org/ Research & Development progress about sustainable topics. Results will be published on the main utopify channel. Tue, 28 Apr 2026 06:15:53 +0200 Flashing old Smartphones with Custom Firmware https://publish.ministryofinternet.eu/utopify-org/flashing-old-smartphones-with-custom-firmware <![CDATA[We live in a world, where everything is thrown away after a short time. People aren't interested in repairing or reusing stuff, they just want the newest stuff, even if it doesn't have any advantage for them, but only disadvantages for the planet and all living being on it. Child labour and exploiting/destroying environments for rare elements to build electronic parts, which will be thrown away after a short time. This has to stop! !--more-- A good way to stop it, is to install an up-to-date operating system, which is most likely managed by programmers, who do this in their free time or by beneficial organisations. This process is called: "Flashing a custom firmware". Which old Smartphone should you use? Obviously the most sustainable one. For me it's the Samsung Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F), because it was the last powerful device, which has a replaceable battery. Replacing a battery could extend the life of a phone for around 7 years (if the system is up-to-date). And it has everything I need, a good camera, a slot for microSD cards, a headphone jack and wifi. The only reason why I need a sim card is, because Signal is using it for authentication. Otherwise I could even live without one... Please let me know (Mastodon or email) if you know about more sustainable phones. What do you need? Heimdall - Software to flash custom firmware plattform-tools - only adb to push the software on the phone LineageOS - the custom firmware/operating system and the custom recovery for SGS5 (SM-G900F) Mic Gain Mod - to gain the microphone (it is very quiet after flashing the custom firmware) F-Droid Privileged Extension - App store with permissions to install, update and remove applications How to flash custom firmware? Boot into download mode (Press HOME+VOLDOWN+POWER). Connect your phone with a USB cable. Execute following command: heimdall flash --RECOVERY lineage-18.1-20220814-recovery-klte.img --no-reboot It is important to have the no-reboot flag active. After that, remove the battery, put it in again and boot into recovery mode (Press HOME+VOLUP+POWER) and adb push the LineageOS image to /storage/emulated with the following command (your lineage version might vary) adb push lineage-18.1-20220814-nightly-klte-signed.zip /storage/emulated and choose "Apply Update - Choose from internal storage" and choose the uploaded zip file. If "Choose from internal storage" isn't selectable, just try adb sideload lineage-xxxx.zip after choosing "Apply Update - Apply from ADB". There is a bug at this point and adb sideload will stop at 47%. Just wait some minutes, your device is working now and it will show you if it's done. Check the screen of your phone. Factory reset/wipe data. Reboot into system and wait a while. The first boot takes some time... Important mods after system is ready: It's recommended to install a mic gain mod. I use MICGAIN-20201111-normal-no-speaker-gain.zip (modified by x2k13) and it works perfectly. This can easily be done with adb sideload in recovery mode. After that, install F-Droid Privileged Extension with adb sideload, too. It might be possible you have to reboot into recovery mod every time you used adb sideload. Congratulation! You've just saved a lot of resources and use this old phone with the newest Android version for a long time. Thanks for saving the planet... Recommended apps from F-Droid Store OsmAnd+ - Navigation with offline maps. You really don't need to be online while driving/walking. DAVx5 - CalDAV/CardDAV synchronization, e.g. for your contacts/calender on disroot Simpletask - Useful todo list to manage several projects, which I am using for my grocery list, too Tusky - Really good and customizable client for Mastodon Signal FOSS - Free version of Signal. You have to scan the QR-Code and use it with F-Droid to get the app Open Camera - Camera with a lot of useful features. Better than the stock camera AnkiDroid - Flash card software, which can sync your cards and progress with your computer/smartphone/tablet - Comment section <- --- Author: maxmoon Mastodon: @utopifyorg@social.linux.pizza | Main Blog]]> We live in a world, where everything is thrown away after a short time. People aren't interested in repairing or reusing stuff, they just want the newest stuff, even if it doesn't have any advantage for them, but only disadvantages for the planet and all living being on it. Child labour and exploiting/destroying environments for rare elements to build electronic parts, which will be thrown away after a short time. This has to stop!

A good way to stop it, is to install an up-to-date operating system, which is most likely managed by programmers, who do this in their free time or by beneficial organisations. This process is called: “Flashing a custom firmware”.

Which old Smartphone should you use?

Obviously the most sustainable one. For me it's the Samsung Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F), because it was the last powerful device, which has a replaceable battery. Replacing a battery could extend the life of a phone for around 7 years (if the system is up-to-date). And it has everything I need, a good camera, a slot for microSD cards, a headphone jack and wifi. The only reason why I need a sim card is, because Signal is using it for authentication. Otherwise I could even live without one...

Please let me know (Mastodon or email) if you know about more sustainable phones.

What do you need?

  • Heimdall – Software to flash custom firmware
  • plattform-tools – only adb to push the software on the phone
  • LineageOS – the custom firmware/operating system and the custom recovery for SGS5 (SM-G900F)
  • Mic Gain Mod – to gain the microphone (it is very quiet after flashing the custom firmware)
  • F-Droid Privileged Extension – App store with permissions to install, update and remove applications

How to flash custom firmware?

Boot into download mode (Press HOME+VOLDOWN+POWER).

Connect your phone with a USB cable.

Execute following command:

heimdall flash --RECOVERY lineage-18.1-20220814-recovery-klte.img --no-reboot

It is important to have the no-reboot flag active. After that, remove the battery, put it in again and boot into recovery mode (Press HOME+VOLUP+POWER) and adb push the LineageOS image to /storage/emulated with the following command (your lineage version might vary)

adb push lineage-18.1-20220814-nightly-klte-signed.zip /storage/emulated

and choose “Apply Update –> Choose from internal storage” and choose the uploaded zip file.

If “Choose from internal storage” isn't selectable, just try adb sideload lineage-xxxx.zip after choosing “Apply Update –> Apply from ADB”. There is a bug at this point and adb sideload will stop at 47%. Just wait some minutes, your device is working now and it will show you if it's done. Check the screen of your phone.

Factory reset/wipe data.

Reboot into system and wait a while. The first boot takes some time...

Important mods after system is ready: It's recommended to install a mic gain mod. I use MICGAIN-20201111-normal-no-speaker-gain.zip (modified by x2k13) and it works perfectly. This can easily be done with adb sideload in recovery mode.

After that, install F-Droid Privileged Extension with adb sideload, too.

It might be possible you have to reboot into recovery mod every time you used adb sideload.

Congratulation! You've just saved a lot of resources and use this old phone with the newest Android version for a long time.

Thanks for saving the planet...

  • OsmAnd+ – Navigation with offline maps. You really don't need to be online while driving/walking.
  • DAVx5 – CalDAV/CardDAV synchronization, e.g. for your contacts/calender on disroot
  • Simpletask – Useful todo list to manage several projects, which I am using for my grocery list, too
  • Tusky – Really good and customizable client for Mastodon
  • Signal FOSS – Free version of Signal. You have to scan the QR-Code and use it with F-Droid to get the app
  • Open Camera – Camera with a lot of useful features. Better than the stock camera
  • AnkiDroid – Flash card software, which can sync your cards and progress with your computer/smartphone/tablet

–> Comment section <-

Author: maxmoon

Mastodon: @utopify_org@social.linux.pizza | Main Blog

]]> https://publish.ministryofinternet.eu/utopify-org/flashing-old-smartphones-with-custom-firmware Wed, 17 Aug 2022 13:41:55 +0200 The Search for a Sustainable Operating System - Part 1 - Updates vs. Stability vs. Virtualisation https://publish.ministryofinternet.eu/utopify-org/the-search-for-a-sustainable-operating-system-part-1-updates-vs <![CDATA[After using Arch Linux and Manjaro Linux for years I just figured out, that I download a lot of software only to update my system. It was really a lot, like 2 GB within a short time. That's just too much! !--more-- Every bit that gets transferred over the internet is using a lot of energy and produces CO2 emissions. The bigger the files, the bigger the environmental impact. So if you always want to get the fancy new stuff for your software, you have to do a lot of updates and download them frequently. Another problem with having always the newest stuff is, you will have the newest bugs and problems, too. I broke my system several times after updating it and I have been at a point where I don't wanted to update it anymore, because I had to do backups and complete all urgent tasks before updating the system, which is just ridiculous. Not updating your system for several months could lead into security issues. So I even stopped online banking (on this system), because you should never use it on an old system (Seriously! Update your system and get newest security updates before doing something sensible). The solution would be to get a stable Linux distribution, like Debian Stable. I've never used it as my daily os, but in a virtual machine and I figured out pretty fast, that I need a "workaround" for some exceptions, because there is software I use, which must be the newest, like Signal-Desktop to communicate with friends or the newest Kdenlive to edit my videos. What did I end up with? Currently I am using MX Linux 19 and if you ask me why 19 and not 21, I just have to say "I don't know!". The upgrade process must be something different than using sudo apt get update && sudo apt upgrade. Maybe I do too much distro hopping and just don't have the knowledge of how to upgrade main versions (Please let me know if you know it). But anyway... MX Linux is based on Debian and it is really stable. If you want to have fancy new stuff, which isn't in the mx-packageinstaller, you have to "beg" for it in the forum so a developer can put it in the mx repository. I don't know the exact process, if they check if it contains harmful code or if they just copy Ubuntus repos. It's just a black box to me. But after asking, the package will be added (after days or weeks) and they might be even up-to-date. But sometimes they are not up-to-date and another workaround is needed, because it is just a lot of effort. Yes, it's Flatpak with the package browser Flathub. I have a stable (and old) system on which pretty new software is running and it works. I just have to put flatpak update into my terminal and everything gets updates. My problem with it is, that it brings the old huge-updates-problem back, because Flatpak is a virtualisation software, which is called a sandbox (even if it isn't), which is like it's own operating system on top of the main system. It brings advantages, but disadvantages, too. The biggest disadvantage is the huge package size and updates. This time an update doesn't kill my whole system, but it is still not sustainable if I have to download whole operating systems to be up-to-date for a few programs I use. So I end up to pollute a stable system with virtualisation, which uses a lot of energy to run and brings back the huge-update-problem, which rolling-release distributions have. At this point I don't know any other solution, which can satisfy my simple 2 requirement: Have a stable and secure system Have the newest/fanciest updates for a few applications [UPDATE] I've started discussions on Mastodon and Reddit Because a lot of people reacted to this blog article on Mastodon to post their opinions and recommendations, I read a lot of names of Linux distributions, I've never heard and I started discussions on their subreddits to get more information about if they are sustainable or not. Here are the names of the most interesting Linux distributions: Debian NixOS Solus Linux (general) Mastodon thread --- Author: maxmoon Mastodon: @utopifyorg@social.linux.pizza | Main Blog]]> After using Arch Linux and Manjaro Linux for years I just figured out, that I download a lot of software only to update my system. It was really a lot, like 2 GB within a short time. That's just too much!

Every bit that gets transferred over the internet is using a lot of energy and produces CO2 emissions. The bigger the files, the bigger the environmental impact.

So if you always want to get the fancy new stuff for your software, you have to do a lot of updates and download them frequently.

Another problem with having always the newest stuff is, you will have the newest bugs and problems, too. I broke my system several times after updating it and I have been at a point where I don't wanted to update it anymore, because I had to do backups and complete all urgent tasks before updating the system, which is just ridiculous. Not updating your system for several months could lead into security issues. So I even stopped online banking (on this system), because you should never use it on an old system (Seriously! Update your system and get newest security updates before doing something sensible).

The solution would be to get a stable Linux distribution, like Debian Stable. I've never used it as my daily os, but in a virtual machine and I figured out pretty fast, that I need a “workaround” for some exceptions, because there is software I use, which must be the newest, like Signal-Desktop to communicate with friends or the newest Kdenlive to edit my videos.

What did I end up with?

Currently I am using MX Linux 19 and if you ask me why 19 and not 21, I just have to say “I don't know!”. The upgrade process must be something different than using sudo apt get update && sudo apt upgrade. Maybe I do too much distro hopping and just don't have the knowledge of how to upgrade main versions (Please let me know if you know it).

But anyway... MX Linux is based on Debian and it is really stable. If you want to have fancy new stuff, which isn't in the mx-packageinstaller, you have to “beg” for it in the forum so a developer can put it in the mx repository. I don't know the exact process, if they check if it contains harmful code or if they just copy Ubuntus repos. It's just a black box to me. But after asking, the package will be added (after days or weeks) and they might be even up-to-date. But sometimes they are not up-to-date and another workaround is needed, because it is just a lot of effort.

Yes, it's Flatpak with the package browser Flathub. I have a stable (and old) system on which pretty new software is running and it works. I just have to put flatpak update into my terminal and everything gets updates. My problem with it is, that it brings the old huge-updates-problem back, because Flatpak is a virtualisation software, which is called a sandbox (even if it isn't), which is like it's own operating system on top of the main system. It brings advantages, but disadvantages, too. The biggest disadvantage is the huge package size and updates. This time an update doesn't kill my whole system, but it is still not sustainable if I have to download whole operating systems to be up-to-date for a few programs I use.

So I end up to pollute a stable system with virtualisation, which uses a lot of energy to run and brings back the huge-update-problem, which rolling-release distributions have.

At this point I don't know any other solution, which can satisfy my simple 2 requirement:

  • Have a stable and secure system
  • Have the newest/fanciest updates for a few applications

[UPDATE] I've started discussions on Mastodon and Reddit

Because a lot of people reacted to this blog article on Mastodon to post their opinions and recommendations, I read a lot of names of Linux distributions, I've never heard and I started discussions on their subreddits to get more information about if they are sustainable or not. Here are the names of the most interesting Linux distributions:

Author: maxmoon

Mastodon: @utopify_org@social.linux.pizza | Main Blog

]]> https://publish.ministryofinternet.eu/utopify-org/the-search-for-a-sustainable-operating-system-part-1-updates-vs Sat, 13 Aug 2022 17:43:56 +0200 A new blog about tech, linux, open source (floss), coding https://publish.ministryofinternet.eu/utopify-org/even-if-i-already-have-a-blog-utopify-org-as-a-static-site-i-am-starting-a <![CDATA[Even if I already have a blog as a static site, I am starting a new blog in the FediVerse. !--more-- But why? First of all I want to do more activism against #gafam and for more #privacy and even if it looks like it's extreme to avoid Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and even more huge companies it feels just amazing every time another bug was removed from my life. What will be the new blog about? Because I already have a blog about topics like self-development and sustainability, I would like to write about tech, especially about Linux, coding and open source software. Even if those topics are very close together, the tech topics might be too nerdy and I could scare away readers, which are enjoying my main blog. So let's start to change the world... --- Author: maxmoon Mastodon: @utopify_org@social.linux.pizza | Main Blog]]> Even if I already have a blog as a static site, I am starting a new blog in the FediVerse.

But why?

First of all I want to do more activism against #gafam and for more #privacy and even if it looks like it's extreme to avoid Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and even more huge companies it feels just amazing every time another bug was removed from my life.

What will be the new blog about?

Because I already have a blog about topics like self-development and sustainability, I would like to write about tech, especially about Linux, coding and open source software. Even if those topics are very close together, the tech topics might be too nerdy and I could scare away readers, which are enjoying my main blog.

So let's start to change the world...

Author: maxmoon

Mastodon: @utopify_org@social.linux.pizza | Main Blog

]]> https://publish.ministryofinternet.eu/utopify-org/even-if-i-already-have-a-blog-utopify-org-as-a-static-site-i-am-starting-a Sat, 06 Aug 2022 15:48:37 +0200