Vernee Thor (vernee-k506)

Features
Flashing It is possible to flash the device with pmbootstrap flasher.	Partial
USB Networking After connecting the device with USB to your PC, you can connect to it via telnet (initramfs) or SSH (booted system).	Works
Battery Charging and battery level reporting works	Works
Screen Display works. Ideally with sleep mode and brightness control.	Works
Touchscreen	Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration	Broken
Audio Audio playback, microphone, headset and buttons.	Broken
Camera	Broken
Connectivity
WiFi	Works
Bluetooth	Broken
GPS	Broken
Modem
Calls	Broken
SMS	Broken
Mobile data	Broken
Miscellaneous
FDE Full disk encryption and unlocking with unl0kr.	Untested
Sensors
Accelerometer Auto screen rotation works in desktops e.g. Phosh or Plasma Mobile	Untested

Vernee Thor
	; pmOS splash
Manufacturer	Vernee
Name	Thor
Codename	vernee-k506
Released	2016
Type	handset
Hardware
Chipset	MediaTek MT6753
CPU	Octa-core Cortex-A53 1.3GHz
GPU	Mali-T720 MP3
Display	5" IPS 720x1280
Storage	16GB
Memory	3GB
Architecture	aarch64
Software
Original software The software and version the device was shipped with.	Android 6.0
postmarketOS
Category	downstream
Mainline Instead of a Linux kernel fork, it is possible to run (Close to) Mainline.	no
pmOS kernel The kernel version that runs on the device's port.	3.18.99
Device package	device-vernee-k506
Kernel package	linux-vernee-k506

Contributors

Dahrkael

Users owning this device

Dahrkael

How to enter flash mode

Recovery: Power on the device with both Power and Volume Up buttons. Then select Recovery pressing Volume Up and confirm with Volume Down.
Fastboot: Do the same as for Recovery, but select the Fastboot option in the menu.
MediaTek Preloader: The preloader triggers automatically everytime the phone turns on or reboots.

Installation

Fastboot doesn't allow flashing on this phone.

pmOS can be installed either using a Recovery ZIP through TWRP or using MediaTek's SP Flash Tool.

Unlock the bootloader

Enable Developer Mode in Android tapping 5 times the Build Number in Settings -> About Phone.
Then go to Settings -> Developer Options and tap OEM Unlock.

Install using Recovery ZIP

Follow the Installation from recovery mode guide.

Install using SP Flash Tool

Export the pmOS files running pmbootstrap install && pmbootstrap export
Open SP Flash Tool.
Select the MT6753 scatter file.
Asign boot.img-vernee-k506 to partition boot and vernee-k506.img to partition system
Click Download and turn on/restart the phone. It will automatically flash the files.

SoC features

WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and FM Radio are all integrated into the SoC and need to be initialized all at the same time.

To do this the proprietary firmware files matching the kernel need to be copied into /lib/firmware/postmarketos.

To initialize the chip and drivers MediaTek provides two proprietary programs:

wmt_loader: initializes the chip and starts the drivers.
6620_launcher (or connsys_launcher): finds and loads the firmware files into their respective chips.

These tools are not officially available outside Android, but there are source code versions available that do work.

In the case of the Vernee Thor all the required connectivity drivers are compiled into the kernel, so theres no need to load them prior to executing these programs.

Execute sudo ./wmt_loader without parameters. /dev/wmtDetect should appear.
Execute sudo ./6620_launcher -p /lib/firmware/postmarketos. This program needs to keep running, so better send it to background with &.

If it worked now there should be a bunch of /dev/stp* entries and /dev/wmtWifi.

For debugging use dmesg | grep wmt. Execute sysctl -w kernel.printk=7 to improve verbosity.

Caution: the phone will crash if wmt_loader runs twice.

WiFi

To get WiFi working first initialize the chip and driver.

Execute sudo chmod 644 /dev/wmtWifi
Execute sudo echo "1" > /dev/wmtWifi
Check with ifconfig that the interface wlan0 appeared

To connect to a network:

Bring the interface up: ifconfig wlan0 up
Scan to find out what WiFi networks are detected: iw dev wlan0 scan
Connect to WPA/WPA2 WiFi network: wpa_passphrase SSID PASS >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Start wpa_supplicant to connect to the network: wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Verify that you are indeed connected to the SSID: iw wlan0 link
Start udhcpc to get an ip address: udhcpc -b -i wlan0

If everything seems fine but theres no network traffic (ping postmarketos.org doesn't work) it probably means the firmware files are not the correct ones.