this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2026
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Turning an old Pixel 3a XL into a fully offline, battery-powered web server with postmarketOS & Lighttpd (www.muttmutt.us)
submitted 1 day ago by MuttMutt@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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I had an old Google Pixel 3a XL sitting around and decided to see if it could handle running as a fully offline, self-contained web server.

I flashed postmarketOS 26.06 (headless Alpine Linux base) to it and set up a portable media node that broadcasts its own Wi-Fi AP, serves static pages, and streams video over a captive portal - no cell data or upstream internet needed.

Quick Hardware/Tech Stack Breakdown:

  • Device: Google Pixel 3a XL (2019)
  • OS: postmarketOS 26.06 (CLI base with OpenRC)
  • Networking/AP: hostapd for the AP, dnsmasq for DHCP & wildcard DNS routing
  • Firewall: nftables redirecting port 80 requests to trigger the captive portal popup automatically
  • Web Server: Lighttpd handling HTTP requests and MP4 video range requests

Performance & Power Draw: Under a test load streaming 720p video to 4 concurrent devices, total CPU usage averaged around 5% (load avg 0.51). Power draw stayed around ~2.4W off the internal battery, with temps holding steady at 54°C.

Why build this? Mainly as an offline entertainment and information node. I run a non-profit foundation providing SCUBA training to young survivors of childhood abuse, and having a tiny, battery-powered web node lets us provide offline information and videos to people while traveling. I will also be able to use it to provide training videos if I am teaching in a location that does not have internet access available.

I wrote up a complete overview covering the setup, and performance metrics if anyone wants to replicate it or build something similar. Over the coming weeks I will be posting configs and some other information to Github with a link from my site.

https://www.muttmutt.us/geeky-stuff/portable-web-server-on-an-android-phone-for-offline-access/

Happy to answer any questions about postmarketOS setup or the networking config!

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[–] MuttMutt@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

If the bootloader can be unlocked you can do a ton of things like this. If not you are limited to using Termux and the packages you can install without roof permissions.

[–] dmalteseknight@programming.dev 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What are you planning on doing on the roof?

[–] MuttMutt@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Damn swype... I replaced the roof 2 years ago. And I mean that literally tore it off completely all (4 layers) and put a new one on by myself.

[–] dmalteseknight@programming.dev 1 points 2 hours ago

Who gave you permission to do that!?

[–] kenopsik@piefed.social 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Hopefully installing solar panels on spite of the HOA

[–] MuttMutt@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Yes on the solar panels. No on the HOA. Small town life is good. I installed the system controller 3, IQ Combiner 5, and two IQ 5P battery's already. Never pulled a single permit, nor had anyone tell me I couldn't do it. 7.2KW with IQ8A's will be on the roof soon.

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I keep a oneplus 6t to test Linux images, but maybe it can do other things for a bit...

Postmarketos runs well on it.