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Making the root partition read-write

Enable temporarily

• Open "System Settings"

• In "About" enable "Developer Mode"

• Install "UT Tweak Tool" from OpenStore

• Open "UT Tweak Tool"

• In the menu (top-left) select "System"

• In "Make image writable" select "[Read-Write]"

I do not recommend enabling this permanently. You should probably add individual writable directories

SSH Access

• Open "System Settings"

• In "About" enable "Developer Mode"

• Install "UT Tweak Tool" from OpenStore

• Open "UT Tweak Tool"

• In the menu (top-left) select "System"

• In "SSH Settings" enable SSH access

Installing packages

• Make the root partition read-write

• Run sudo apt update

• Install using sudo apt install (package)

Create writable directories in root

• Make the root partition read-write

• Run sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/(service name, arbitrary).mount

• Enter the following:

[Unit]
Before=local-fs.target

[Mount]
Where=(target location)
What=/userdata/system-data/(target location)
Type=none
Options=bind

[Install]
WantedBy=local-fs.target

• Run sudo systemctl enable (service name)

• Run sudo systemctl start (service name)

Changing the desktop environment

Note: many Ubuntu Touch ports do not have DRM support, so a lot of DEs will not work

• Make the root partition read-write

• Run sudo systemctl stop lightdm

• Run sudo systemctl disable lightdm

• Run sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/desktop.service

• Enter the following:

[Unit]
Description=User Session Starter
Conflicts=getty@tty7.service plymouth-quit.service
After=systemd-user-sessions.service getty@tty7.service plymouth-quit.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/su phablet -c (session command e.g. startx)
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=graphical.target

• Run sudo systemctl enable desktop

• Run sudo systemctl start desktop

Setting up startx

• Make the root partition read-write

• Install xinit

• Set up your .xinitrc

• Edit /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config

• Change allowed_users=console to allowed_users=anybody

The screen turns off after a minute

To fix permanently

• Make the root partition read-write

• Run sudo rm /lib/systemd/system/lightdm.service

The screen does not update when running an X11 WM

To update the screen once run: cat /sys/class/graphics/fb0/modes > /sys/class/graphics/fb0/mode (as root)

To fix permanently

• Make the root partition read-write

• Run sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/fb-refresher.service

• Enter the following:

[Unit]
Description=Fix the screen

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/sh -c "while [ ! ]; do cat /sys/class/graphics/fb0/modes > /sys/class/graphics/fb0/mode; done"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Run sudo systemctl enable fb-refresher

• Run sudo systemctl start fb-refresher

Enable swap

Enable temporarily

• Run sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/userdata/swapfile bs=1024 count=(desired size in kilobytes) status=progress

• Run sudo chmod 600 /userdata/swapfile

• Run sudo mkswap /userdata/swapfile

• Run sudo swapon /userdata/swapfile

Enable permanently:

• Make the root partition read-write

• Run sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/swap.service

• Enter the following:

[Unit]
Description=Enable swap

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/swapon /userdata/swapfile
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Run sudo systemctl enable swap

• Run sudo systemctl start swap

Installing nix and home-manager

Installing nix:

• Create /nix

• Install curl

• Install xz-utils

• Disable writable root

• Run sudo chown -R phablet /nix

• Run sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --no-daemon

You might get ERROR: ld.so: object 'libtls-padding.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded. It can be safely ignored. To disable this warning:

• Add unset LD_PRELOAD to the end of ~/.bashrc

Installing home-manager:

• Follow the home-manager standalone guide