Pox Kernel for Redmi Note 8 Pro (begonia)

Pox Kernel is an advanced, rock-solid custom Linux kernel engineered for the Redmi Note 8 Pro (begonia / begonia_in, MediaTek Helio G90T / MT6785).

"We aim for stability, not for anything else."

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Table of Contents

• Overview & Specifications
• Rock Editions (v0.9)
  • Granite (Stability Foundation)
  • Obsidian (Memory Enhanced)
  • Onyx (Zero Frame-Drop Gaming)
• Repository & Branch Organization
• Installation Guide
• Verifying on Device
• Building from Source
• Credits & Acknowledgments
• License

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Overview & Specifications

Component	Specification
Device	Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro (begonia / begonia_in)
SoC	MediaTek MT6785 / Helio G90T (12nm FinFET)
CPU Architecture	Octa-Core: 2x Arm Cortex-A76 @ 2.05 GHz + 6x Arm Cortex-A55 @ 2.00 GHz
GPU	Arm Mali-G76 MC4 @ 800 MHz
Base Kernel	Linux 4.14.357 LTS (arm64 / AArch64)
Partition Scheme	A-only (/dev/block/by-name/boot)
Root Compatibility	APatch / KernelPatch ready (CONFIG_KALLSYMS_ALL=y), Magisk, KernelSU
Compiler Toolchain	Google Android Clang 11.0.1 (r383902) + GCC 4.9 / 9.3 AArch64 Binutils

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Rock Editions (v0.9)

Pox Kernel releases are categorized into distinct Rock Editions, designed to cater to different daily driving and high-load usage profiles:

                          ┌─────────────────────────────┐
                          │     Pox Kernel (MT6785)     │
                          │   "We aim for stability"    │
                          └──────────────┬──────────────┘
                                         │
        ┌────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┐
        ▼                                ▼                                ▼
 ┌──────────────┐                 ┌──────────────┐                 ┌──────────────┐
 │   GRANITE    │                 │   OBSIDIAN   │                 │     ONYX     │
 │  (v0.9 LTS)  │                 │  (v0.9 iOS)  │                 │ (v0.9 Gaming)│
 └──────┬───────┘                 └──────┬───────┘                 └──────┬───────┘
        │                                │                                │
        ├─ UVLO Call Reboot Fix          ├─ iOS Memory Engine             ├─ Unified Gaming Mode
        ├─ SCP Watchdog Fix              ├─ Watermark Scale 150           ├─ FPSGO Ultra-Rescue
        ├─ PPM Throttling Fix            ├─ Page Cluster 0 (0ns)          ├─ Mali-G76 Touch Boost
        └─ APatch KALLSYMS               └─ Multi-Stream LZ4 ZRAM         └─ 500us Schedutil Ramp

1. Granite: Rock-Solid Stability Foundation

• Target Branches: main / granite
• Key Features:
  • Hardware UVLO Battery Collapse Prevention: Resolves sudden 2sec_reboot brownout panics during high-current operations (voice calls on 2G/3G/4G with battery < 15%).
  • SCP SensorHub Watchdog Protection: Fixes MT6785 SensorHub nanohub ringbuffer timeouts during deep sleep.
  • PPM Low-Battery Lag Elimination: Disables crippling CPU clock throttling when the battery drops below 10%, ensuring smooth UI responsiveness until shutdown.
  • APatch / KernelPatch Ready: Full CONFIG_KALLSYMS_ALL=y symbol table exposed for clean, systemless kernel hooking without bootloop risks.

2. Obsidian: iOS-Style Compressed Memory

• Target Branch: obsidian
• Key Features:
  • iOS-Style Asynchronous RAM Management: Transparent, on-demand memory compaction keeping foreground processes completely jitter-free.
  • watermark_scale_factor = 150: Increases the buffer between free pages and the low watermark, initiating background kswapd reclaim long before any app frame drops.
  • page-cluster = 0: Single-page I/O swapping eliminating read-ahead overhead and reducing ZRAM decompression latency to effectively zero.
  • Balanced Swappiness (100) & Low VFS Pressure (60): Keeps active app caches pinned in memory, preventing aggressive background app termination when multitasking.

3. Onyx: Zero Frame-Drop Gaming

• Target Branch: onyx
• Key Features:
  • Unified Kernel Gaming Mode Controller: Direct kernel interface (/proc/perfmgr/gaming_mode) toggleable between Normal (0), Gaming (1), and Extreme (2).
  • ROM Performance Auto-Trigger: Automatically activates full gaming profile when Performance Mode or GameSpace is toggled in any ROM (MIUI / HyperOS, LineageOS, PixelOS, Chaldea).
  • MediaTek FPSGO V3 Ultra-Rescue: Preemptive frame deadline rescue tightening (rescue_percent = 20%, variance sensitivity = 15) and DRAM bandwidth locking to 2133 MHz on heavy draw calls.
  • Mali-G76 MC4 Instant Touch Boost & Headroom: Instant GPU clock ramp on input events + 20% proactive DVFS margin (DYNAMIC_MARGIN_MODE_PERF).
  • 500μs Schedutil Frequency Ramp: Reduces scheduler clock step delays from 2000μs down to 500μs with 20ms anti-jitter hold-down.

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Repository & Branch Organization

Branch Name	Edition Name	Version	Purpose & Contents
main / granite	Granite	0.9	Official stable release branch with core stability fixes
obsidian	Obsidian	0.9	Granite + iOS-Style compressed memory engine
onyx	Onyx	0.9	Obsidian + Zero Frame-Drop Gaming Controller

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Installation Guide

Prerequisites

1. Redmi Note 8 Pro with an unlocked bootloader.
2. Custom Recovery installed (TWRP, OrangeFox, or PBRP).
3. Download the flashable AnyKernel3 zip corresponding to your preferred Rock Edition.

Flashing via Recovery

1. Reboot into recovery (Power + Volume Up).
2. (Optional but recommended) Create a NANDroid backup of your current Boot partition.
3. Tap Install and navigate to your downloaded package:
   • Example: Pox-0.9-Onyx-onyx-<commit>-begonia.zip
4. Swipe to confirm flash.
5. The AnyKernel3 installer will verify the device, display the edition details, inject ramdisk init scripts, and flash the kernel image.
6. Tap Reboot System.

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Verifying on Device

Once booted, verify the installation in your ROM:

1. Android Settings

Navigate to Settings → About Phone → Android Version / Kernel Version:

4.14.357-Pox-0.9-Onyx-gaming-2c3077e4c
TXO_R@PoxKernel #2 SMP PREEMPT Thu Sep 17 16:25:05 CET 2026

2. Terminal / Termux / ADB

# Check kernel version
uname -r
# Output: 4.14.357-Pox-0.9-Onyx-gaming-2c3077e4c

# Check full compile banner
cat /proc/version
# Output: Linux version 4.14.357-Pox-0.9-Onyx-gaming-2c3077e4c (TXO_R@PoxKernel) ...

# Check gaming mode status (Onyx Edition)
cat /proc/perfmgr/gaming_mode

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Building from Source

Pox Kernel features a fully self-contained build workflow. No external toolchain installation is necessary.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/txorav/pox-kernel-begonia.git
cd pox-kernel-begonia

# Build kernel and package AnyKernel3 flashable zip
./build.sh

# Build specific components
./build.sh kernel      # Compile kernel Image.gz-dtb
./build.sh zip         # Package AnyKernel3 flashable zip
./build.sh menuconfig  # Interactive kernel menuconfig
./build.sh clean       # Clean build objects
./build.sh distclean   # Wipe entire build directory

Dynamic Customization Flags

You can dynamically override build metadata without changing the source tree:

KERNEL_NAME="Pox" KERNEL_VERSION="0.9" VERSION_NAME="Onyx" ./build.sh

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Credits & Acknowledgments

• Lead Developer & Maintainer: TXO R (Pox Project) (@txorav)
• Linux Kernel Organization: Linus Torvalds and the worldwide Linux kernel developer community.
• MediaTek Inc.: MT6785 / Helio G90T board support packages and performance drivers.
• osm0sis @ XDA: AnyKernel3 flashable zip packaging template.
• Redmi Note 8 Pro Community: Developers and testers keeping begonia fast and reliable.

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License

Pox Kernel is free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPL-2.0). Refer to COPYING for complete licensing terms.