Vitaliy Alexeyev

· synmobile

Arch Linux on Xiaomi 12T Pro: boot and login

Dual boot with Android, a boot splash drawn straight to KMS, the login and lock screens.

#synmobile

My Xiaomi 12T Pro boots real Arch Linux ARM next to Android. Not a chroot and not Termux: the stock GKI 5.10 kernel with the phone's own vendor modules, systemd, and my Wayland shell synshell on top. Android stays where it was, and Arch lives in an image file on /data.

The boot menu has no screen: the phone vibrates, Vol+ starts Arch, Vol− starts Android, no key repeats the last choice.
The boot menu has no screen: the phone vibrates, Vol+ starts Arch, Vol− starts Android, no key repeats the last choice.

You can try it without flashing anything: fastboot boot loads the image once. For everyday use the boot partition gets a small menu; the stock image is backed up first.

The spinner turns once every 0.96 s, as on the device.
The spinner turns once every 0.96 s, as on the device.

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