I wanted to set up a homelab and first explored Raspberry Pi boards. That search led me to postmarketOS, a Linux distribution for smartphones. OnePlus 6T had good mainline Linux kernel support in postmarketOS.
I found a OnePlus 6T where the display had been replaced with an LCD, lock and volume buttons weren’t very clicky. Even though it was a bit of a gamble, I bought the device out of curiosity to try postmarketOS.
Advantages of using OnePlus 6T as a homelab
The main advantage was the price — I bought this device for less than the cost of a Raspberry Pi 5 (excluding the power supply and case).
It also has a built-in battery, which effectively makes it a portable server and a relatively powerful processor for its size. The device even has a display, although it didn’t work in my case because it was an LCD replacement. postmarketOS currently supports the original AMOLED display, so I assume the display driver mismatch caused this issue.
these lines comes and goes randomly on reboots
Another major advantage was postmarketOS Edge. Unlike Android-based setups, postmarketOS provides a real Linux environment based on Alpine Edge, which is lightweight and minimal. The Edge version includes systemctl support and has relatively good compatibility with tools like k3s.
Workloads Running on the OnePlus 6T
llama.cpp – Using llama.cpp with Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B, I was able to run a fast and efficient local LLM. The Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B model is only around 650 MB, which makes it suitable for constrained hardware. With the Continue VS Code plugin, I could chat with the model directly from VS Code, although code autocompletion did not work reliably.
k3s
Setting up k3s was straightforward using the apk package manager. I ran Jellyfin inside the k3s cluster, Jellyfin is a media server similar to Plex.
I created a persistent volume and mounted it to the Jellyfin pod, where I stored my media files. Jellyfin also supports multiple users and SyncPlay, which is similar to Spotify Jam.
Headless Setup: Accessing the Device Without a Display
Since the device supports USB networking, I can connect it to any laptop and SSH into it. Through this connection, I configure and connect the device to a Wi-Fi network.
I also connect the OnePlus 6T to my main Android phone Hotspot and SSH into the postmarketOS device from there. This allows me to access my homelab even while traveling, and even in situations where I don’t have a laptop with me.
Is It Worth It?
This device has a lot of limitations.
Without a display, I always have to rely on another device to SSH into it.
Because of the ARM architecture, I am not able to run some Docker images.
Networking is the biggest challenge — I have to create flannel configurations and dummy network interfaces to make k3s work reliably on the OnePlus 6T hotspot. While doing this, I learn a lot about Linux networking.
However, many of these problems also exist with a Raspberry Pi. The main difference is that on a Raspberry Pi, I can install almost any Linux distribution, whereas on the phone I am mostly restricted to Alpine Linux through postmarketOS.
Finally
I did this mainly for fun and learning, and along the way I ended up with a setup that actually works. I can now use SyncPlay with friends, and the device runs reliably as a small, always on system.
This may not be a traditional homelab, especially since installing Linux on a phone is a different process, but it served its purpose. If you’re curious or have ideas for other workloads to try on this setup let me know.
I ll write follow-up posts with in-depth setup details for the workloads I run on this homelab.
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