# Install FreeBSD on a Smartphone



## Idk (Jun 29, 2022)

Hello,

i wanna install FreeBSD on my old Smartphone, but there are no Apps or Videos on Youtube belong to Linux. How can i install FreeBSD with an App like "Linux Deploy" or "Termux" but no qemu or Linux.
Are there some Apps or should i install Linux?

Thank you for the Answers!


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## SirDice (Jun 29, 2022)

Short answer, you cannot install FreeBSD on a smartphone device. Longer answer, while there are several ARM based boards that work, none of them have any kind of "phone" capabilities. Phones contain various chipsets and the ARM SoC is just a small part of it. The SoC alone is tricky because they're all different and not all of them provide adequate documentation to even begin writing drivers for them. 



			arm - FreeBSD Wiki


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## kpedersen (Jun 29, 2022)

You generally can't install a regular Linux on a smart phone either. Termux and all those chroot technologies are really just leveraging the fact that Android is already just a (messy, horrible) version of Linux.

It will be fairly slow but I have used this in the past to run Plan 9 and OpenBSD on Android (https://github.com/limboemu/limbo). A novelty but not fantastically usable considering smart phones are fairly terrible compared to even a cheap laptop found in a dustbin.


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## Beastie7 (Jun 29, 2022)

Idk said:


> i wanna install FreeBSD on my old Smartphone



I wanna put an electric motor in my Ferrari.


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## ayleid96 (Jun 29, 2022)

I think this is troll.


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## Deleted member 70435 (Jun 30, 2022)

SirDice​delete the topic he is trolling,


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## Menelkir (Jun 30, 2022)

Idk said:


> Hello,
> 
> i wanna install FreeBSD on my old Smartphone, but there are no Apps or Videos on Youtube belong to Linux. How can i install FreeBSD with an App like "Linux Deploy" or "Termux" but no qemu or Linux.
> Are there some Apps or should i install Linux?
> ...


_Linux Deploy_ and _Termux _works more like a chroot, so it'll reuse the system calls from android (linux if you must) so no, unless you have some sort of hypervisor or emulator for android (which I don't know if exists).


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## SirDice (Jun 30, 2022)

ayleid96 said:


> I think this is troll.


Yes, I agree. Nobody is this clueless. 



Vadim Alexandrov said:


> delete the topic he is trolling,


Aaaww, I just wanted to have a little fun.


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## kpedersen (Jun 30, 2022)

To be honest, the OP has probably already lost interest, disappeared and is back to scrolling through reddit.


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## SirDice (Jun 30, 2022)

He spent 6 hours on the forums yesterday. Most of them are typically gone 5 minutes after signing up and posting. So I'm kind of hoping it's not a troll, just somebody that doesn't know any better.


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## zirias@ (Jun 30, 2022)

Menelkir said:


> unless you have some sort of hypervisor or emulator for android (which I don't know if exists).


Not sure about hypervisors (in theory, with a Linux kernel, you might be able to get kvm running), but emulators exist for sure, e.g. Bochs for running some x86 systems.


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## sidetone (Jun 30, 2022)

If it were possible to install a BSD on a smart phone, the best bet is NetBSD, but I doubt that's possible. NetBSD works with more hardware architectures. The architecture of that phone has to be supported by that operative system. If something for that is only available in Linux, then use that. Something like this would be for browsing the Internet on a smart phone through your home wifi.

There's Pinephone, https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/, which is a physical smart phone that works with opensource software. It comes with its own version of Linux.

If you want a phone system, that goes on your computer, that allows other softphones and hardphones to work off of, try Freeswitch or Asterisk as a PBX (Private Branch Exchange). Using TrueNAS or a custom GUI OS of Freeswitch or Asterisk would be easier than installing a PBX on FreeBSD. These go on the computer and not on the individual phones that use the PBX system. I never heard of using a smart phone with open source software as a soft phone for use with Asterisk or FreeSwitch. There's softphone software, though this is for a computer. If it were possible, it would be using the phone over wifi, and not through a SIM card.

I use an old smart phone over Wifi for browsing the Internet, but it retains the original Android operating system that came with it. It always has an indication that it needs the SIM card. I haven't even checked if the Android/Google store is accessible on it. I doubt it is, and I wouldn't try it without a working SIM card, because it's probably not intended to be. That's something you would want to read about online before even trying. There's nothing for SIMs in terms of opensource that would only work on Wifi or a bring your own hardware phone IP phone service.

As a similar task, for me, installing a BSD or Linux firewall on a gateway is something I can't wrap my head around achieving. There's operating systems made for that, but there's no place to put the USB for installing it, maybe it's done over the network. Using Raspberry Pi or a BugleBoard which are supported by many open source operating systems is something I haven't tried, but I could remotely see myself trying that. Operating systems are meant to work on many of those hardware architectures, as they're listed on their download pages. I can't wrap my head around installing FreeBSD on an old smart phone, and it won't work if the phone's hardware architecture isn't supported by the particular OS. I've been here a while, and can't do many of these tasks which are possible.


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## Phishfry (Jun 30, 2022)

Three cheers for Pinephone. That is our best option looking forward

I would take a half working Pinephone over any smartphone anyday.
I need more control of my tracking device.



SirDice said:


> He spent 6 hours on the forums yesterday.


Jeez I would hate to see my specs.
What kinda stats can you glean from me? Daily, Weekly or Monthly hour count?


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## SirDice (Jun 30, 2022)

Don't have any "extensive" stats. Just the information from the profile.

```
Joined:     Yesterday at 2:17 PM
Last seen:     Yesterday at 8:36 PM
```

Most spammers (or trolls) usually don't spend that much time hanging around. They usually sign up, post their nonsense, then bugger off. Never to be seen again.


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## Phishfry (Jun 30, 2022)

I have defiantly seen that profile.
Sometimes troll, sometimes leaving because its too hard. Many flamethowers with temp accounts.


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