Try the PinePhone firmware rewritten by Claude Code in your browser
Claude Code was used to rewrite the PinePhone firmware from the Linux kernel up, transforming the seven-year-old device into a snappy feature phone, with an in-browser demo available to try now.
- Developer Elian Doran used Claude Code to rewrite the firmware for the original PinePhone from the Linux kernel up, turning it into a fast-booting feature phone.
- The UI utilizes the LVGL graphics library, with most screens running at 66 fps.
- You can test the WebAssembly build in a browser or flash the firmware to a microSD card.
- The firmware currently only runs on the original PinePhone, with support for the PinePhone Pro under consideration.
Table of Contents
What this guide helps you do
This guide helps you test the new open-source firmware for the PinePhone in two ways: running it in a browser or flashing it directly to hardware. The firmware currently runs only on the original PinePhone, though the author is considering porting it to the PinePhone Pro.
The project was created by embedded software developer Elian Doran. He bought the seven-year-old Linux phone a few years ago but shelved it because it was too sluggish. His solution was to repurpose the device as a feature phone that boots in seconds and handles daily essentials with ease. He used Claude Code to build the firmware from the Linux kernel up, using Buildroot and a patched mainline Linux kernel.
Step 1: Test the browser demo
Head over to the project website and click "Try it live." The interface loads via WebAssembly, closely mirroring the hardware experience. The demo includes a few sample ebooks, photos, and music tracks for testing.
Because the demo only emulates the hardware, the camera is unavailable and incoming calls ring silently. The UI renders directly to the framebuffer via LVGL, with most screens hitting 66 fps. Out of the project's 81 patches, 46 target the Linux kernel, covering battery charging, camera support, and waking the device on incoming messages.
Development took nine days, with Doran sending 2,290 prompts across 187 sessions with Claude. He reported using around 5 billion tokens in total, with 93% being cached reads, while Claude generated 16.8 million output tokens. By his estimate, the API costs would have totaled around 1,750 USD. According to Doran, the hardest part was not writing C code, but tracing drivers and logs to determine where fixes were needed.
Step 2: Flash the firmware to an original PinePhone
If you still have an original PinePhone lying around, you can flash the firmware to a microSD card and boot the device from it. The original article does not provide step-by-step instructions for flashing the card, so you should check the guide on the project page.
To revert to your previous operating system, shut down the phone, remove the microSD card, and power it back on. The existing OS on the internal storage remains untouched.
Things to keep in mind
On real hardware, the firmware supports installing custom apps, including a Telegram client, Doom, and a Sega Genesis emulator. The browser demo lacks camera support and audible ringing, so do not expect a complete daily-driver experience. It also does not support the PinePhone Pro at this stage.
The project shows how AI coding assistants can drastically cut down on time-consuming tasks like tracing drivers and logs, breathing new life into aging hardware. That said, the firmware remains an experimental hobbyist project. Users should test it in the browser first, and only flash it via a microSD card to easily revert to their previous system.
Source: MakeUseOf (how-to)
Reviewed by: Hero Association
