Techrights

Introducing Mission:Libre and FreeXR (and BreakXR)

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 05, 2025

Free software has some anniversaries coming. 40? Maybe 50? (Not really 50, but inspiration began around 1976)

There are also efforts that accompany the foundations put there by the Free Software Foundation in 1985 (the seeds that also helped plant the Web, Wikipedia, Creative Commons and so much more).

After some downtime (many hours) of this subdomain and therefore this page - perhaps due to DDoS by LLM slop bots (my IP address was not blocked, everything was blocked or turned away [0]) - we get a couple of self-promotional updates from Mission:Libre [1] and FreeXR (and BreakXR) [2].

Regarding Mission Libre, we wrote about it earlier this year when Carmen had a crowdfunding campaign and not yet this initiative name (she suggested "LaunchLibre" at the end of last year). Her message links to this page which says:

Mission:Libre's office hours are set aside so you can join me on Jitsi to chat about Mission:Libre and free software. All ages are welcome.

More information about how to connect will be here in during the week of 18 August.

Would a different time suit you? Just ask.

Let's hope it works out for them. I was a very early adopter of Jitsi (well before it was even known as Jitsi). █

____________

[0] The domain or subdomain was not reachable from other networks as well, it had nothing to do with the UK Online Safey Act or some CDN.

[1] Launching Mission:Libre

>

Hi everyone!

Let me begin by saying this is the last time I'll post about Mission:Libre

here. Pinky promise; cross my heart and hope to die. You're probably sick of me

already.

But I am _very_ excited to tell you I'm starting Mission:Libre's actual work

this month. (If you don't know, Mission:Libre is my project to bring teens to

free software and get them on their way to becoming tomorrow's activists and

contributors. There's more info on missionlibre.org about it if you're curious.)

I've got a lot to do :) On August 31, I'm publishing the first issue of

Mission:Libre's magazine (table of contents here: missionlibre.org/libre). I'm

also going to spread the word about free software and Mission:Libre to teens

outside our movement while I build Mission:Libre's online community. Finally,

I'm working on a new website on free software issues for younger teenagers --

this will be up in September!

Please help me by telling people about this. Mission:Libre can do a lot for

free software, but it can be hard for new projects of this kind to get

attention. The more people know about this, the better.

Also, there'll be a couple of office hours on Jitsi on the 20 and 22nd of

August, if you want to drop in and come talk to me about anything

Mission:Libre. The exact times are on missionlibre.org/upcoming-events. There

should be some casual online meetups for teens later in the month as well (more

about those on the site later).

- Carmen

[2] HELP WANTED: The Year of Spacial Linux!

>

Hey everyone i am messaging you to ask for help.

I and other developers created project FreeXR (and BreakXR) where our

ultimate goal is to enable running replicant or linux-libre on

standalone Extended Reality Headsets e.g. META Quest which are very

economical and available to the general public.

We were able to discover root exploit that still affects all firmware

versions, but due to QFPROM being used as tivoization we can't run it

as it's using QFPROM which is a memory inside of the SoC that stores

public key which is used to verify the secure boot and the

manufacturers are refusing to provide these for us so that we can boot

our software stack. We are already in talks with a law firm about

approaching this legally, but we are going against huge corporations so

it will take some time to do.

So i am here asking you for help.. We are trying to break the secure

boot so that we can load our own software on the devices and enable

further development..

Our members already ported some of the parts close to mainline

([1]https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/merge_reque

sts/6748) and are cooperating with StardustXR

([2]https://stardustxr.org) to implement the User Interface (which is

already ready to use) as there currently isn't any other alternative

beyond wlx-overlay-s which is not standalone and with mercury

hand-tracking ([3]https://monado.freedesktop.org/handtracking) to

enable user input using computer vision.

Additionally to software we are also working on hardware, these

headsets have resin lenses that are very easy to scratch and so i am

developing a very user-friendly and economical method to fix those. We

are also going to do 3D scans to enable custom chasis designs and want

to eventually expand on OSHW headset.

If you want to help us then all the firmware versions of META Quest are

currently vulnerable, you can get these devices for around 150-250

EUR/USD and with

[4]https://xdaforums.com/t/app-5-0-private-quest-vr-headset-management-

tool.4695491 you can bypass the "first time nux" application that

forces update (WARNING: IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO DOWNGRADE! So try to stay

on as low version as possible) and requires you to have meta account to

use the device or just contact me and i will run experiments for you.

There is also a matrix bridge if you prefer direct messages:

[5]https://matrix.to/#/#quest-rooting:matrix.org

Thanks for anything relevant,

- Kreyren

References

1.

https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/merge_requests/6748

2. https://stardustxr.org/

3. https://monado.freedesktop.org/handtracking

4.

https://xdaforums.com/t/app-5-0-private-quest-vr-headset-management-tool.4695491

5. https://matrix.to/#/#quest-rooting:matrix.org