Project Netrunner

this project's goal was to make an MNT Pocket Reform into a badass cyberdeck and well, this story begins in late 2023, when I was playing TONS of Cyberpunk 2077, and getting really really overzealous with my Netrunner build and getting heavy into modding the game to be even more fun and chaotic, and during this time i thought “I wish I could have something like a cyberdeck”. sure enough, I carry this idea into the winter when I have more downtime spent on my PC and I start researching. I find the Astro Slide, and realizing it’s near exactly what I want, I spent that winter going down the rabbit hole of phones like the PinePhone with the keyboard attachment, and so on, hunting for a phone with a keyboard that can run mainline Linux, including Kali Linux penetration testing tools added in, with the interest of advancing my dream of becoming a cybersecurity and physical security penetration tester, basically being the go to person for knowing your servers and building are secure. near the end I found out about netbooks and how they’re a staple in Japan, and yet america where I live hasn’t had them since the early 2000s. after finding out about netbooks, I eventually find the subreddit r/cyberDeck, and fell down the rabbit hole once again through the beginning of 2024.

through 2024 I kept seeing MNT mentioned, and I finally saw it as MNT Reform and realised "huh, I should google that", and sure enough, I found the MNT Reform, a badass full laptop that was cool, and after poking around MNT's site, I found the MNT Pocket Reform, and realised that is exactly what I want, and so began saving furiously powered by a drive to need this device

I eventually got enough money from saving and the holidays of 2024, and ordered it christmas day

it arrived in March on the 25th, all ready to be assembled, resulting in this mess on my desk (tell you I'm autistic without telling you I'm autistic, I know)

after assembling I finally had the full device, and let it sit like this, charging for a while before booting it up

eventually I finally got more stuff in mid 2025, including things I made like this battery bar holder and this cellular card extension thing which can be seen in these two photos in the carousel, as well as some of the extra internals like upgraded thermal pads, antennas, etc. if you notice on the antennas, I gave them some electrical tape surgery to cover the solder points, just for some extra safety to avoid shorts, since I'm a lil paranoid.

3D printing notes:
for the battery holder bars, 0.1 layer height and 20% infill is plenty. any infill, lines is good, but cubic is nice too, and no support needed.
for the cellular extension, 50% infill, 0.1 layer height, no support, and cubic infill pattern. this gives it plenty of flex but a good internal structure.

note the original cellular card slot extender I made in the above photo, it served me well, but I've iterated on it and made it better since then.

this brings us to late 2025, I finally installed plain debian using the system images from reform.debian.net, and it worked perfectly. this enabled me to install waydroid to get access to android apps I still needed, since debian unstable (the default os) didn't support waydroid. after installing waydroid I installed Signal Messenger in Waydroid, since I need the mobile version on my "phone". outside Waydroid I also installed Chats (from flatpak) and Modem Manager GUI for the cellular functions and an easier SMS experience. I also recommend adding some basic office software like Libreoffice, a few chat apps, and whatever else you may want

I also created a custom systemd service called POW-Lock, or Prisoner Of War Lock, since many governments are beginning or have already started a war on privacy, and so in the interest of security, I've added a script that watchdogs the screen lock, and if it's been unlocked within 24 hours, if it hasn't and it's been 24+ hours, the device shuts down or reboots, thus locking it behind the encryption password and clearing said password from RAM. the script makes it so that you can have a user password that only needs to last for 24 hours of brute force attempts, before the device is locked behind the encryption password, this means you can have a short user password, even a PIN for convenience when using the device, and trust that as long as it's relatively long (6+ characters and not easily guessed) then the encryption password will back it up when the POW-Lock kicks in and thus locks out any attacker from accessing the device, whether it be a thief, corrupt government officials/enforcers, or just a nosy sibling that doesn't understand boundaries.

on top of POW-Lock, I'm considering adding CID, or Chassis Intrusion Detection, but I won't detail how that's done on here for security since if that's detailed, bypassing it would become vastly easier. you can think up your own CID methodology should you wish to replicate this setup

at this point you're all caught up outside of the recommended software and the rest of the stuff I installed as my personal stuff. if you wanna replicate this guide and do the same, I plan to make a guide on the MNT Community Forums for how to replicate this exact process, as well as my personal programs. if you want to replicate it, go for it, and if you want help, I make no guarantees outside of trying my best.

if you enjoyed reading and wanna throw me some money for the entertainment, guide, and CAD files, Monero address is as follows in bold italics.

85FQn3qWjFuK6FFBQz4LJzVo1EzhiuhN4ZkJcTAuuuKW6Z9j1pWcV1J8dLCKSUxP3E3mafJfctzjAPGEyKWpbb7LUiX9KPd

be sure to copy it exactly, and thank you in advance for any donations : )