OpenStick/OpenStick resource
reverse engineering on msm8916 based 4G modem. observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
23/100
- Activity 0
- Release rhythm 8
- Longevity 100
Flags: no_license
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-02. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: n/a
- age_days: 1744
- days_rel: n/a
- days_push: 1559
- n_releases_24m: 0
Adoption not part of the score
1148 stars · 117 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded
OpenStick is a reverse-engineering and mainline Linux porting project for msm8916-based 4G modem dongles, documenting how to replace the stock Android-based firmware with a full Linux system. It provides flashing images, kernel patches, and wiki documentation so these cheap USB modems can run Debian, postmarketOS, or an OpenWrt-derived build called HandsomeMod.
Use cases
- turn a cheap msm8916 4G USB modem dongle into a small Linux computer
- run mainline Linux or postmarketOS on a Qualcomm msm8916 stick
- flash a custom Debian or OpenWrt image onto a 4G modem
- reverse engineer Qualcomm msm8916 firmware and peripherals
- use a 4G dongle as a self-hosted mini server or router
- learn how to port mainline kernel drivers to an embedded ARM device
- build a tiny ARM Linux board from commodity modem hardware
When to choose
- you own an msm8916-based 4G modem stick and want to repurpose it as a Linux device
- you want to experiment with mainline Linux on very cheap ARM hardware
- you need documentation and images for flashing these dongles and driving their peripherals
- you are interested in reverse engineering Qualcomm modem firmware for learning purposes
When to avoid
- you need a supported production product or commercial use - commercial use is explicitly forbidden
- you need working hardware video encoding, which is not yet functional
- you expect support for every WiFi model, since some are not yet supported
- you want to keep the device running Android or restore the stock firmware, as flashing overwrites partitions and the bootloader with no provided rollback
Facets
learning-resource · maturity active
reverse-engineering embedded embedded-systems hardware operating-systems reverse-engineering self-hosted embedded windows msm8916 4g-modem mainline-linux postmarketos openwrt handscemod qualcomm firmware-dump flashing-tool arm-trusted-firmware u-boot device-tree wifi-driver modem-driver debian rootfs partition-table bootloader community-wiki non-commercial-license linux-kernel-porting device-driver linux arm
1 source
- readme: https://github.com/OpenStick/OpenStick · fetched 2026-08-28 · bbc79dcf6f96
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStick/OpenStick | main | 23 |
For agents
markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="OpenStick/OpenStick")
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem