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I have a GT-S5830 Samsung smartphone with Android 2.xxx, that I am not using as a phone.

It would be nice if the device could be used as a wifi repeater. Unfortunately, this is impossible or not easily achievable.

Sadly, the device is not listed among the CyanogenMod supported devices.

Here it is explained that complete replacement of the Android for Ubuntu is impossible, and there exists some app, that installs a limited version of Ubuntu to run besides the Android, at the same time.

Unfortunately the internal RAM appers to be quite limited:

Card slot 2 GB included Internal
RAM 278 MB

I need the CPU and the wifi radio. If the camera works and is accessible from OpenCV, it would be a bonus.

Can I flash a generic Linux system on this phone - with the abovementioned drivers and optionally a standard repository?

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    If you are doing this as a hobbyist adventure, rock on. If you are looking for the functions and much less hassle, find a cast-off notebook pc and pretend it is just a very big phone.
    – msw
    Sep 18, 2013 at 11:29
  • @msw, this is a hobby project. My next choice would be a 30BGN wireless router. However, I would LOVE to attach keyboard and open up a terminal on the device!
    – Vorac
    Sep 18, 2013 at 11:35
  • WiFi-Repeating is AFAIK called "tethering" on Android - why is this not possible on your phone? I even saw reverse-tethering solutions via USB for rooted phones...
    – Nils
    Sep 18, 2013 at 13:43

1 Answer 1

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You can still install Android 4.2 on your device, which will solve your original problem. Here is the xda-developer forum.

Or if you want to flash something like debian and want to get benifit by apt-get, you can install Lil' Debi: Debian Installerby guardianproject. Here is Google Play Link

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  • It turned out that both the current android on my phone, and my Fedora 19 laptop, have easy gui options to work as an AP. However, the antenna cannot be shared, so currently I am experimenting with tethering them together. All this to save 30BGN for a two-antenna router. Lil Debi looks great, but I think I'll be too lazy to try it for now. Until the next challenge.
    – Vorac
    Oct 1, 2013 at 11:26
  • Asked about the single antenna thing: Can a device with a single wireless antenna work as a repeater?
    – Vorac
    Oct 1, 2013 at 11:29

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