Strip the UI, kill the sleep, keep the wake-lock.

Droidian is just Debian with a phone kernel. That makes a $40 Pixel 3a or Redmi Note 9s in my case a perfect 2-4W ARM64 server — until Phosh, ModemManager, and Android-style deep sleep keep putting it to bed. This is the minimal setup I use to turn Droidian into a reliable, always-on box you can SSH into .

Heads-up: Do this over SSH with a static IP or USB-ethernet first. Once Phosh is masked, the screen goes permanently black.

1) Kill the UI completely

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# Stop it now
sudo systemctl stop phosh

# Prevent auto-start
sudo systemctl disable phosh

# Make it impossible to start
sudo systemctl mask phosh.service

On first reboot you’ll see 1-2 bootloops, then a black screen. That’s normal — SSH should come up after ~30 seconds.

2) Strip phone hardware you don’t need

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# Disable cellular modem
sudo systemctl disable --now ModemManager

# Disable the telephony stack
sudo systemctl disable --now ofono

3) Memory tuning

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# check current swappiness
cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
# set to 10
sudo sh -c 'echo "vm.swappiness=10" >> /etc/sysctl.conf'
sudo sysctl -p

4) Murder all sleep targets

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sudo systemctl mask sleep.target suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target

Edit logind:

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sudo nano /etc/systemd/logind.conf

Set:

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HandleLidSwitch=ignore
HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=ignore
HandleLidSwitchDocked=ignore
IdleAction=ignore

Then:

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sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind

5) The permanent “never sleep” service

Android kernels use /sys/power/wake_lock. If you don’t hold one, the phone enters deep sleep after 10-15 minutes even with systemd masked.

Create:

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sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/keep-awake.service

Paste:

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[Unit]
Description=Server Hardware Stability Master
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c "\
  sleep 10 && \
  iw dev wlan0 set power_save off && \
  echo -n 'server_master_lock' > /sys/power/wake_lock && \
  (echo 0 > /sys/class/backlight/panel0-backlight/brightness || true)"
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

6) Verify it’s actually awake

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sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/wakeup_sources | grep server
cat /sys/power/wake_lock

You should see server_master_lock.

7) Clean up the last GNOME power bits

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gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type 'nothing'
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type 'nothing'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 0

Enable it:

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sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now keep-awake.service

What this does:

1. iw dev wlan0 set power_save off — prevents the Wi-Fi to go idle.
2. echo ‘server_master_lock’ > /sys/power/wake_lock — tells the Android kernel “stay awake”
3. brightness 0 — turns the panel off in case backlight wants to kick in.

6) Verify it’s actually awake

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# You should see your lock counting active time
sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/wakeup_sources | grep server

# Should return "server_master_lock"
cat /sys/power/wake_lock

If you see microseconds increasing, you’re golden. If not, check your wlan interface name (ip a — some phones use wlp1s0).

7) Clean up the last power bits Even headless, gsettings can still fire:

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gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type 'nothing'
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type 'nothing'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 0

Result

upower gives us the power state of our server and battery related stats . ps filtered out gives us the ram used by the top 12 ram consumption process.

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upower -i $(upower -e | grep 'battery')

ps -eo size,pid,user,command --sort -size | awk '{ hr=$1/1024 ; printf("%13.2f Mb ",hr) } { for ( x=4 ; x<=NF ; x++ ) { printf("%s ",$x) } print "" }' | head -n 12

My curtana now idles at: • 0,3W , 900MB RAM used • 67 days uptime (before I updated) • Running tailscale , vaultwarden, jellyfin and a amall go tsnet service .

Halium/Android layer stuff like Netmgrd,Qcrild and Cnd/Qseecomd occupy like 200mb of ram and cant be disabled without risking a brick .