# postmarketOS Low-Level: Tiny Steps Towards Liberating Bootloaders and Cellular Modem Firmware of MediaTek Phones

DevFeed: [postmarketOS Low-Level: Tiny Steps Towards Liberating Bootloaders and Cellular Modem Firmware of MediaTek Phones](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/postmarketos-low-level-tiny-steps-towards-liberating-bootloaders-and-cellular-modem-firmware-of-mediatek-phones-41677.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://postmarketos.org/blog/2018/04/14/lowlevel/>)

Published: 2018-04-14T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [postmarketOS Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/postmarketos-blog.md>)

Topics: [Embedded Software Dev](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/embedded-software-dev.md>), [Linux](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/linux.md>), [Mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mobile.md>), [Hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/hardware.md>), [Android](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/android.md>), [Software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software.md>)

Tags: [android](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android.md>), [architecture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/architecture.md>), [bootloader](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bootloader.md>), [community](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/community.md>), [developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developers.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [embedded](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/embedded.md>), [firmware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/firmware.md>), [hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hardware.md>), [linux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux.md>), [low-level](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/low-level.md>), [modem](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/modem.md>), [phones](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/phones.md>), [postmarketos](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postmarketos.md>), [project](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/project.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>), [system-on-a-chip](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/system-on-a-chip.md>)

## AI overview

A postmarketOS community update describes early efforts to replace closed MediaTek phone bootloaders with upstream Little Kernel code and support mainline Linux. It also introduces the project's low-level hacking group and its goal of extending mobile phone lifecycles.

## Source excerpt

Introducing #postmarketOS-lowlevel As a community project, and one that encourages contributors to work on what they like, we have attracted people with a broad range of interests and skill levels. Recently a small hacking group #postmarketOS-lowlevel has emerged, and its masterminds @McBitter and @unrznbl are eager to introduce you to the madness that awaits when digging deeper and deeper in the embedded hardware and software stack. But before we get started, please keep in mind that these are moon shots. So while there is some little progress, it's mostly about letting fellow hackers know what we've tried and what we're up to, in the hopes of attracting more interested talent to our cause. After all, our philosophy is to keep the community informed and engaged during the development phase! For those new to postmarketOS, we are a group of developers, hackers, and hobbyists who have come together with a common goal of giving a ten year life cycle to mobile phones. This is accomplished by using a simple and sustainable architecture borrowed from typical Linux distributions, instead of using Android's build system. The project is at an early stage and isn't useful for most people at this point. Check out the newly-updated front page for more information, the previous blog post for recent achievements, and the closed pull requests to be informed about what's going on up to the current minute. Let's dive in! Open Bootloader for MT6735P On the right you can see photos of a Coolpad Modena 2, which was built around MediaTek's MT6735P SoC (System on a chip). In case you are wondering why we're not showing a picture with postmarketOS running on it: we can't! This is because the vendor decided to ship it with a closed down bootloader, which prevents users from running custom kernels. Just like most Android phones, the bootloader of this particular device is based on LK (Little Kernel). In fact the source code for LK is available under the MIT license and just about every smar