Bananarchy Linux

Bananarchy is a keypad-first Linux distribution hardforked from postmarketOS (v26.06 / Alpine edge armv7), built for Qualcomm MSM8905 (Snapdragon 205) and Qualcomm MSM8909 (Snapdragon 210) smart feature phones with 240x320 QVGA non-touch displays and physical 12-key T9 keypads.

Current public release: a1025 (codenamed argonaut) — see the changelog for release notes.
Project philosophy: read The Bananarchy Manifesto for the background and goals behind the distribution.
User and flashing guide: see the user manual for installation, keypad navigation, and hardware details.

Key features

System and hardware support

Mainline Linux 6.12 kernel: custom patches and out-of-tree drivers for Qualcomm QDSP6/Q6Voice audio routing, Dual-SIM modem control, the rear 2MP GalaxyCore GC2395 camera (/dev/video0), the SY7807 flashlight LED (white:torch), physical keypad/slider events, and clean PM8909 poweroff.
Alpine Linux Edge base: full access to the Alpine package ecosystem with < 95 MB idle RAM usage on 512 MB devices and full local root access out of the box.
Pure X11 graphical stack: cross-compiled Xlibre (X11Libre/xserver) display server paired with a customized Sxmo (sxmo-de-dwm) window manager (240x320 vertical stack layout, Conky desktop clock and system status widget, < 2 ms slider/key wake latency, and zero Wayland overhead).

Keypad-first user experience and native DWM plugins

Instead of spawning slow shell scripts for everyday phone tasks, Bananarchy runs a suite of preloaded C/C++ plugins inside DWM that sleep at 0% CPU and open in < 2 ms:

System and context menus (dmenu): instant full-screen 10-line vertical menus with live T9 filtering, built-in submenus, and hardware toggles.
Global controls drawer (xdrawer): press both softkeys together from anywhere to adjust speaker, earpiece, and ringtone volume, ringer mode, flashlight, sound and microphone mute, screen brightness, and keypad backlight.
Phone dialer (xdialer), call log (xcalllog), and call screen (xcallscreen): press any digit on the home screen to start dialing with live T9 contact matching, run interactive carrier USSD codes (*100#, etc.), or type *#06# to inspect both IMEIs. Incoming and active calls open a dedicated call screen with earpiece/speaker switching, microphone mute, DTMF keypad, and one-key call recording (~/Recordings/).
Contacts (xcontacts) and SMS manager (xsms): full phonebook editor with direct Qualcomm QMI SIM card contact import and export across SIM 1 and SIM 2, paired with a threaded SMS conversation view and multi-tap message composer.
Modem and Dual-SIM manager (xmodem): 4-tab cellular control center (SIMs, Radio, AT, Log) supporting physical SIM 1 / SIM 2 active slot switching, SIM PIN unlock and PUK unblock wizards, 2G/3G/4G radio mode selection, interactive USSD sessions, and a live AT command console.
Networks and Bluetooth manager (xnetworks): 3-tab connectivity manager for Wi-Fi networks, WPA2 password entry, Wi-Fi hotspot, USB tethering, mobile data and APN editing, and Bluetooth pairing.
File manager (xfiles), music and tracker player (xmusic), and camera (xcamera): keypad directory browser with built-in text and image viewers (plus one-click actions to play audio, preview images, set any image as wallpaper, or install any audio file as ringtone), a 3-tab music and chiptune tracker module player (WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, Opus, MOD, XM, IT, S3M, and more), and a live V4L2 camera viewfinder with digital zoom, flash/torch control, self-timer, and photo gallery.
Themes (xthemes), wallpapers (xwallpapers), and ringtones (xringtones): installable .Xresources color and font themes (~/.xthemes/*.xth, 20 preinstalled schemes) with live zero-restart reload across the entire UI and terminal, alongside dedicated managers for desktop wallpapers and call ringtones/vibration.

Input, terminal, and developer tools

6-mode fcitx5-t9 keypad input: press # to cycle between abc, Abc, ABC, Sym (all 32 ASCII punctuation symbols), Ctl (Ctrl sequences, arrows, PageUp/PageDown, F1–F12), and 123 numeric modes with a fixed bottom candidate bar.
First-class Linux terminal (st): patched with HarfBuzz OpenType ligatures (Fira Code as the default system and terminal font), XIM T9 input, and live theme reloading.
On-device development and AI: preinstalled gcc/g++, make, git, GNU coreutils, nano, ed, sqlite3, perl, tcl, the Janet language and jpm, the Bantam coding agent, frotz (interactive fiction), and standalone X11 keypad games (Snake and Tetris).

Supported MSM8909 and MSM8905 devices

Device	Codename	SoC	CPU / RAM	Display and panel firmware	Device tree (`.dtb`)
Nokia 8110 4G	`nokia-argon`	Qualcomm MSM8905 (SD205)	2x Cortex-A7 @ 1.1 GHz, 512 MB	2.4" 240x320 SPI (`nokia,argon-gc9305-v2-panel.bin`)	`qcom-msm8905-nokia-argon.dtb`
Nokia 2720 Flip	`nokia-beatles`	Qualcomm MSM8905 (SD205)	2x Cortex-A7 @ 1.1 GHz, 512 MB	2.8" 240x320 SPI (`nokia,beatles-gc9305-panel.bin`)	`qcom-msm8905-nokia-beatles.dtb`
Nokia 800 Tough	`nokia-tough` (`nokia-coconut`)	Qualcomm MSM8905 (SD205)	2x Cortex-A7 @ 1.1 GHz, 512 MB	2.4" 240x320 SPI (`nokia,coconut-gc9305-panel.bin`)	`qcom-msm8905-nokia-coconut.dtb`
Nokia 8000 4G	`nokia-sparkler`	Qualcomm MSM8909 (SD210)	4x Cortex-A7 @ 1.1 GHz, 512 MB	2.8" 240x320 SPI (`nokia,sparkler-gc9307-hlt-28-panel.bin`)	`qcom-msm8909-nokia-sparkler.dtb`
Nokia 6300 4G (sibling)	`nokia-leo`	Qualcomm MSM8909 (SD210)	4x Cortex-A7 @ 1.1 GHz, 512 MB	2.4" 240x320 SPI (`nokia,leo-gc9305-hlt-24-panel.bin`)	`qcom-msm8909-nokia-leo.dtb`

Repository structure

bananarchy/
├── README.md                              # Project overview, repository layout, and build workflow
├── CHANGELOG.md                           # Public release build history
├── MANIFESTO.md                           # The Bananarchy Manifesto
├── MANUAL.md                              # Complete flashing, keypad, plugin, T9, camera, and modem manual
├── flash-edl.sh                           # Automated USB EDL flasher wrapper (sudo + ModemManager handling)
├── flash-edl.py                           # Multi-device Qualcomm Sahara/Firehose EDL flasher
├── rebuild-image.sh                       # Builds boot.img and partitioned MBR .img
├── chroot-shell.sh                        # Rootless Docker armv7 package and rootfs customization shell
├── artwork/                               # Bananarchy master icon, generated icons, wallpapers, and splashes
├── bootloader/                            # lk2nd secondary bootloader and Sahara/Firehose programmer (8110.mbn)
├── devices/                               # Device definitions, DTBs, and MIPI-DBI panel init sequences
├── patches/                               # Upstream kernel, EDL, Sxmo, Xlibre, and fcitx5-t9 patch sets
├── src/
│   ├── sxmo-dwm/                          # Patched sxmo-dwm (240x320 bstack, Pango bar, softkey bar, and plugin API)
│   ├── dwm-plugins/                       # DWM plugins (dialer, calllog, callscreen, contacts, sms, files, camera,
│   │                                      #   themes, modem, networks, ringtones, wallpapers), theme.h, and runner
│   ├── xdrawer/                           # XDrawer global phone controls DWM plugin (xdrawer.so / xdrawer)
│   ├── sxmo-dmenu/                        # Resident DWM menu plugin (dmenu.so) and client (dmenu / xdmenu)
│   ├── sxmo-st/                           # Patched sxmo-st terminal with HarfBuzz Fira Code ligatures and XIM
│   ├── xf86-input-libinput/               # Xlibre xf86-input-libinput DDX driver
│   ├── xf86-video-fbdev/                  # Xlibre xf86-video-fbdev fallback DDX driver
│   ├── fcitx5-t9/                         # 6-mode fcitx5-t9 keypad input method
│   ├── games/                             # Standalone keypad X11 games (snake.cpp, tetris.cpp)
│   ├── leds-msm8905-torch/                # Kernel driver for SY7807 torch LED, WCD codec init, and PON shutdown
│   └── msm8905-cam/                       # Kernel V4L2 driver for GC2395 2MP rear camera (/dev/video0)
├── overlay/rootfs/                        # System configuration overlay applied over the target rootfs
├── prebuilt/                              # Pre-compiled armv7 binaries and kernel modules
└── scripts/                               # Cross-compilation, artwork generation, version, and overlay scripts

Build and customization workflow

1. Regenerate artwork assets

Whenever artwork/icon-large.png is updated, regenerate all icons, 240x320 wallpapers, and animated boot splashes:

./scripts/generate-artwork.py

2. Recompile core components (optional — prebuilts included)

All components are pre-compiled in prebuilt/ and overlay/rootfs/, and can be rebuilt from source at any time using rootless Docker (alpine:3.24):

# Rebuild cross-compiled Xlibre (X11Libre/xserver) + libinput/fbdev DDX drivers
./scripts/build-xlibre.sh

# Rebuild patched sxmo-st, sxmo-dmenu, sxmo-dwm, and all 13 C++ DWM plugins
./scripts/build-sxmo-x11.sh

# Rebuild standalone X11 games (snake, tetris)
./scripts/build-games.sh

# Rebuild multi-mode fcitx5-t9 input engine
./scripts/build-fcitx5-t9.sh

# Fetch latest master from https://code.luxferre.top/luxferre/bantam-cpp and cross-compile Bantam AI agent
./scripts/build-bantam.sh

# Rebuild Linux 6.12.1-msm8916 QDSP6/Q6Voice audio modules, torch LED module, camera module, and DTBs
./scripts/build-kernel-audio.sh

3. Customize rootfs packages or configs

./chroot-shell.sh
# Inside the container shell:
#   pkg-add <pkg>
#   pkg-del <pkg>
#   pkg-search <pattern>

4. Build flashable device images

# Build for Nokia 8110 4G (default)
./rebuild-image.sh nokia-argon

# Or build for Nokia 2720 Flip, Nokia 800 Tough, or Nokia 8000 4G:
./rebuild-image.sh nokia-beatles --mkinitfs
./rebuild-image.sh nokia-tough --mkinitfs
./rebuild-image.sh nokia-sparkler --mkinitfs

Output images are written to images/:

images/bananarchy-<device>.img: partitioned MBR image with pmOS_boot + pmOS_root for EDL userdata, fastboot flash userdata, or a microSD card.

Flashing via USB EDL (`05c6:9008`)

sudo ./flash-edl.sh nokia-argon

See MANUAL.md for complete EDL, Fastboot, and microSD installation instructions, keypad navigation shortcuts, and the multi-mode T9 reference.

Credits

All Bananarchy-specific components were initially created by Luxferre and released into the public domain with no warranties.

Alpine Linux, postmarketOS/Nura, and other third-party components are guided by their respective licensing terms.

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