Flashing postmarketOS on a Samsung gtexswifi Device from an Incus VM

The first thing we’ll want to do is pass the USB device to the VM so it can see it. On the host:

# Install the 'qemu-hw-usb-host' package, if not already installed
chimo@xps:~$ apk add qemu-hw-usb-host
...
# List USB devices
chimo@xps:~$ lsusb
...
Bus 001 Device 007: ID : SAMSUNG SAMSUNG USB DRIVER
...
# Add the USB device to the VM
chimo@xps:~$ incus config device add alpine-vm android usb \
    vendorid=<vendorid> productid=<productid>

In the VM, lsusb should list a device with the matching vendorid and productid.

After that, it’s pretty much standard procedure.

One clarification: before running the pmbootstrap commands, one needs to bootup the device in “Download mode” (Power + Volume Down + Home Button).

Once the device is booted-up and running, this is what I had to do on my Alpine host machine to SSH to the device (the Samsung device registered the “eth0” network interface. Yours might differ.):

# Set MAC address
chimo@xps:~$ doas ip link set dev eth0 address 12:12:12:12:12:12
# Bring interface up
chimo@xps:~$ doas ip link set dev eth0 up
# Give the interface an IP address
chimo@xps:~$ doas ip addr add 172.16.42.2/24 dev eth0
# SSH to the device
chimo@xps:~$ ssh user@172.16.42.1
(user@172.16.42.1) Password:
Welcome to postmarketOS! o/
...

You can then fix the screen being upside-down, if you’re running into that issue, by creating a “/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-fbdev-rotate-UD.conf” file with the following content (credit to an XDA forum post):

Section "Device"
    Identifier "LCD"
    Driver "fbdev"
    Option "Rotate" "UD"
EndSection