Qemu-user-static on Librem 5

Hardware Librem 5
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I have had some luck in the past, getting Linux Deploy to run some x86 programs on an inexpensive Android phone, using Exagear (no longer available) as the x86 compatibility layer. I didn’t want to risk my note 9 so I used a $100 Pantec phone. A few people at work were surprised to see that I had one my employer’s proprietary x86 linux programs working on my phone, especially the software team who held their code closely and who had never compiled it to work on ARM.

At some point, I am hoping to see qemu-user-static (an ARM to x86 compatibility layer) running on the Librem 5. Considering how the weak resources found in that Pantec phone are and how well a few of those x86 linux programs ran, I see some hope in this area for the Librem 5. Even with a Desktop GUI, some programs can still be functional if you zoom and swipe to get to different parts of the screen as needed.

Has anyone looked in to getting qemu working in PureOS?

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Should be pretty simple. apt-get soruce qemu, then ./configure;make;make install (with the static user flags set).
Might be able to make it install as a package, and should be able to register the x86 binfmt easily enough.

Personally, I plan to put gentoo on the phone, so it’ll just be a USE flag for qemu. (Anyone wanting to put gentoo on it, set up distcc with a debootstrap chroot using qemu static arm, and a beefy host machine).

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One of the goals here is that it is based on open source and so for many Linux applications you can at least have a go at porting it directly to the phone i.e. no need for compatibility layer. The reality is often trickier …