debian-sheng

Project Status
This project is still in its early development stage. Functionality may be incomplete and build results may contain unknown issues.
If you encounter any problems, please open an Issue.

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Overview

This project uses GitHub Actions to automatically build a Debian root filesystem for the Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro (sheng), providing a flashable rootfs.img and boot.img.
Simply start a workflow in your own repository and you will have a ready-to-use Debian environment.

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Getting Started

1. Fork & Enable Actions

Click the Fork button at the top right to copy the repository to your GitHub account.

Navigate to the Actions tab of your forked repository.
If Actions are disabled, click I understand my workflows, go ahead and enable them.

2. Run the Build Workflow

In the Actions page, select "Build RootFS" from the left sidebar, then click the Run workflow dropdown on the right.

You will see a list of configurable options (see Advanced Configuration for details).
If you leave everything unchanged, the build will proceed with the default settings.

Click the green Run workflow button to start the build.

3. Download Artifacts

Once the workflow finishes, open the summary page of that run.
Under the Artifacts section, download rootfs.img and boot.img.

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Advanced Configuration

When you trigger the Build RootFS workflow via workflow_dispatch, the following inputs are available:

Parameter	Description	Options	Default
Debian Version	Debian version to install (Trixie = Debian 13, Forky = Debian 14)	trixie / forky	trixie
Desktop Environment	Preinstalled desktop environment. Select server for a headless (no GUI) system.	GNOME / KDE Plasma / server	KDE Plasma
Plasma Mobile	Install plasma-mobile instead of plasma-desktop when Desktop Environment is KDE Plasma.	true / false	false
Autologin	Whether the created user should be logged in automatically.	true / false	true
Username	Username for the non-root user.	string	username
Hostname	System hostname.	string	xiaomi-sheng
System language	System locale for the generated root filesystem. Selecting None (C.UTF-8) keeps the default locale; selecting another option generates that locale together with en_US.UTF-8 and sets it as the system default.	None (C.UTF-8) / en_US.UTF-8 / zh_CN.UTF-8 / zh_TW.UTF-8 / ja_JP.UTF-8 / ko_KR.UTF-8 / de_DE.UTF-8 / fr_FR.UTF-8 / es_ES.UTF-8 / ru_RU.UTF-8	None (C.UTF-8)
Boot mode	Determines which partition Debian boots from. See the Flashing section for details.	single (userdata) – use the entire userdata partition; dual (linux) – use a dedicated linux partition (dual boot); custom – use a custom partition name (must be specified below)	dual (linux)
Quiet boot	Enables a quieter boot flow with Plymouth splash support. For prebuilt kernels, this selects the _plymouth.img boot image; for custom kernels, it appends quiet splash plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles fbcon=map:1 to the boot cmdline. This is ignored when Desktop Environment is set to server.	true / false	true
Custom partition	Partition name to flash the rootfs to. Required only when Boot mode is custom.	any partition name (e.g. debian)	(empty)
Kernel source	How to obtain the kernel image. prebuilt is not available when Boot mode is custom.	prebuilt – use a prebuilt kernel from ianchb/sm8550-mainline; custom_build – clone and compile a custom kernel from the repo specified below	prebuilt
Kernel Repo URL	Git repository URL for the custom kernel. Required when kernel source is custom_build.	valid Git URL	https://github.com/ianchb/sm8550-mainline
Kernel Branch	Branch to checkout from the kernel repository. Required when kernel source is custom_build.	branch name	sheng-7.2.2
Kernel Config	Kernel config file name inside the repository. Required when kernel source is custom_build.	file name (e.g. sm8550.config)	sm8550.config
Firmware Repo URL	Git repository URL for device firmware files.	valid Git URL	https://github.com/ianchb/sheng-firmware
Firmware Branch	Branch to checkout from the firmware repository.	branch name	master

Notes

• To use a custom password, you must create a repository secret named ROOTFS_PASSWORD before running the workflow. The workflow maps this secret to an environment variable and uses it as the password for both the configured user and root.
• If ROOTFS_PASSWORD is not set, the image will still be built, but the password will fall back to the insecure default value: password.
• If you choose Boot mode = custom, you must fill in the Custom partition field.
• If you choose Kernel source = custom_build, you must provide the Kernel Repo URL, Kernel Branch, and Kernel Config fields.

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About Some Packages...

Package	Description
xiaomi-mipps-auth	Automatically negotiates MIPPS when a charger is connected, enabling fast charging up to 120 W and providing charging notifications.
xiaomi-charger-mode	Shows a simple charging screen and prevents a full system boot when a charger is connected while the device is powered off.
xiaomi-sheng-thp	Processes touch data for finger input and stylus support.
xiaomi-pen-status	Shows stylus connection and battery status, and automatically attempts the initial Bluetooth connection.
xiaomi-sheng-fingerprint	Provides TEE-based fingerprint reader support, including patches for libfprint and fprintd.
xiaomi-sheng-keyboard-helper	Supports the microphone indicator on the official keyboard and disables keyboard input based on the hinge angle.

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Flashing to Your Device

Prerequisites

• Device with an unlocked bootloader.
• TWRP recovery installed.
• fastboot properly set up on your computer.

Warning
The following steps modify device partitions and may brick your device or cause data loss. Back up your important data and make sure you understand each command.

Partition Setup (Two Modes)

1. Dual boot (keep existing OS)
   Inside TWRP, use parted to shrink the userdata partition and create a new partition at the end, named e.g. linux.
   The exact parted commands depend on your partition layout; only the concept is given here. You can refer to alghiffaryfa19/Linux-xiaomi-sheng for more information.

2. Single boot (replace OS completely)
   Use the userdata partition directly for Debian (erasing all previous data).

Flashing the Images

The commands below assume:

• You will boot Debian using slot B
• The Debian partition is named linux

# 1. Erase dtbo
fastboot erase dtbo_b

# 2. Flash the boot image
fastboot flash boot_b boot.img

# 3. Flash the root filesystem to the linux partition
fastboot flash linux rootfs.img

# 4. Reboot
fastboot reboot

After rebooting, the device should start from slot B and boot into Debian.

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Credits

This project benefits from the following outstanding work and community support:

• map220v – for TWRP, the mainline kernel port and many device-specific adaptations that make Linux run on the Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro (sheng).
• alghiffaryfa19 – for providing the original build scripts, from which this project is derived and modified.