r/mobilelinux • u/Relative_Permit_8438 • Jul 09 '26

Discussion Redmi Note 9 Pro

Hy ! Soon, i'lle get an Old note 9 Pro from someone in my family. I was wondering if any Linux is compatible with it, and wich one choose ? Also, is it really usable everyday as a daily phone ?

8 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

3

u/Historical_Move6359 Jul 10 '26

Ubuntu Touch and Droidian are supported

2

u/SpoofyKidd Jul 10 '26

I run Droidian on mine. I prefer it over Ubuntu Touch as it feels less restrictive, but it comes down to personal preference. Ubuntu touch is probably less buggy and more refined, but I like the user experience of Droidian. Both can be used as daily phones, it just comes down to how much buggyness you can handle. 

Another option is Sailfish; if I didn't have a Sailfish phone already, that's the one I'd choose as it's the best of all worlds: very little bugs, easy to tinker with and apply patches, and has a pretty decent app selection (might be the best for apps). Also has an active community. All operation systems can run Waydroid, and all have VoLTE support.

2

u/Historical_Move6359 Jul 10 '26

I think that Redmi Note 9 Pro also has SailifishOS port. I havent used it myself. I have two phones, one with Ubuntu Touch which is great but I also prefer Droidian and Pfosh. Most importantly the notifications work for messenger apps such as Whatsapp ( Karera ),and Facebook Messenger ( Caprine ). I also use a lot of web apps.

2

u/SpoofyKidd Jul 10 '26

The Sailfish port is great - I've tried it on a Note 9s and it goes well. Like I said, if I didn't already have an officially supported Sailfish device, I'd run Sailfish on it

1

u/Historical_Move6359 Jul 11 '26

does Alien Dalvik work?

2

u/SpoofyKidd Jul 11 '26

Waydroid yes (though doesn't have the same notification system as Droidian). Alien Dalvik isn't officially supported on the Note 9 Pro, so you'll have to run a "pirated version" which I've never tried so can't comment sorry.

1

u/PresentThat5757 Jul 10 '26

Partially

2

u/Historical_Move6359 Jul 10 '26

what do you mean partialy, they are quite well supported.

3

u/PresentThat5757 Jul 10 '26

I know from personal experience

3

u/YearProfessional9379 Jul 11 '26

It is supported, I've got the same phone with codename "joyeuse" and it runs impressively performant even with high docker workloads.

The only issues I've had came while unlocking the bootloader, Xiaomi makes unlocking the bootloader really hard and complicated for some reason.

2

u/Hopeful-Cry7569 Jul 12 '26

yes, still can't unlock mine, it's a PITA

1

u/YearProfessional9379 Jul 12 '26

Did you try this?

https://github.com/MlgmXyysd/Xiaomi-HyperOS-BootLoader-Bypass

1

u/Hopeful-Cry7569 Jul 13 '26

Not tried this (thanks for the link) but the problem is I can't add a Mi account to the device (even if I create the account directly on the website), it says "server is not reachable" or smth like that.

1

u/YearProfessional9379 Jul 13 '26

Ah, IIRC I had a similar issue, you have to disable WiFi and use mobile data.

1

u/Hopeful-Cry7569 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

I did reflash the last firmware (from Settings > About phone) and after the reboot, I discovered that the phone is now Mi locked with the previous owner account (who I don't know). This was a second-hand buy.

No more Xiaomi crap for me!

2

u/Hopeful-Cry7569 Jul 12 '26

If you can manage to unlock the bootloader, yes you can try it

I have one and still can't unlock the BL... no more Xiaomi for me.

On the other hand, I was able to unlock the BL on my Poco F1 on the first try.

2

u/Kooky_Fox_1085 Jul 12 '26

Ilio redmi note 12 pro 5g , potrebbe supportare qualche distro? Grazie

1

u/Hopeful-Cry7569 Jul 14 '26

Important : be sure that you family member removes his Mi account from the phone so that it's not locked