# OpenStick/OpenStick

reverse engineering on msm8916 based 4G modem.

Repository: https://github.com/OpenStick/OpenStick
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/openstick
License Family: other
Last push: 2022-05-27T15:23:41+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1744, "days_push": 1559, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1148, forks 117 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:46.217497+00:00)

## What it is
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
- artifact type: learning-resource
- maturity: active
- function: reverse-engineering, embedded
- domain: embedded-systems, hardware, operating-systems, reverse-engineering, self-hosted
- platform: embedded, windows
- tags: 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

## Member repositories
- OpenStick/OpenStick (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:46.217497+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:33:48.001619+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/OpenStick/OpenStick (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:46.217497+00:00, sha bbc79dcf6f96)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.