Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (02/2024): Plasma 6 rc1, Phosh 0.35.1, and WiFi/BT progress

Aside from progress regarding the next releases of major desktop environments (that always provide some goodies for mobile), this week saw improvements on WiFi/BT things on Sailfish OS, but also some promising work towards a mainline-able rtl8723cs driver, the infamous WiFi/BT solution of the OG AllWinner A64-powered PinePhone. Also: libcamera 0.2.0, a progress report on KDE PIM, Mobian on the Fairphone 5, and a postmarketOS progress report.

Commentary in italics.

Software

Apps

LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Eloquens A few of the following apps could not be evaluated before adding them. Help with that is appreciated! The idea behind this move is to get rid of "additional lists" like apps-to-be-added - so expect a lot of the content listed there (that's not abandoned for years) land soon on LinuxPhoneApps.org.
LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Fielding
LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Journald Browser
LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: KleverNotes
LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Licentia
LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: MarkNote
LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Merkuro Mail
LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Notae

Kernel

phone-devel: [PATCH] drm/bridge: Select DRM_KMS_HELPER for DRM_PANEL_BRIDGE
phone-devel: [PATCH v8 1/9] clk: mmp: Switch to use struct u32_fract instead of custom one
Phoronix: Linux 6.8 Merge Window On Hiatus Due To Winter Storm
Phoronix: Linus Torvalds On Linux 6.8 DRM: "Testing Is Seriously Lacking"
Phoronix: Linux 6.8 Adds New Gaming Handhelds, Google Tensor & Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 + X Elite SoCs
Phoronix: EROFS Adds Sub-Page Compressed Data Support To Help Out Android & ARM64 Servers
Phoronix: F2FS Improves Zoned Block Device Support With Linux 6.8

Stack

Phoronix: XWayland Adds "-Output" Option For Better Rootful Fullscreen Control
Phoronix: Mesa 24.0 Feature Development Ends With Many OpenGL & Vulkan Driver Features
libcamera: libcamera v0.2.0
Phoronix: PulseAudio 17.0 Released With A Few New Features

Matrix

Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2024-01-12
Matrix.org: Meet us at FOSDEM

Worth Noting

Volker Krause: "Added semantic annotation to @foss_events, so you can now import events you are attending from there into #KDE Itinerary by just opening/pasting/dnd'ing the URL :)…"
Federico Izzo: "I repurposed my old Mi A1 smartphone as a Linux-based audio player!…"
Fiona: "Sweet, my first kernel update MR for postmarketOS has been merged! …"
Fiona: "I said I'd share code when I have something that doesn't crash, and I do now: The "rfe 0 isn't supported" error is because data tables with transmit power and regulatory information are missing, so that'll have to be the next thing. Help with that or other parts welcome!…" Impressive work on an upstreamable rtl8723cs (PinePhone WiFi/BT) driver!
papiris: "My first #btrfs patches to #pmbootstrap were accepted 🙌 (ty @ollieparanoid!)…"
Guido Günther: "Livi (a little video player for #LinuxMobile) (but it also has a wide mode for convergent use now) will soon remember stream positions so it's easy to continue watching.…" - Librem Social
Schmiddi on Mobile: "Pipeline 1.14.3 is now available for download on Flathub and the AUR!…"
Alexey Min: "USB working in U-Boot on sdm660 device!…"
Robert Mader: "Got the last bug fixed to make #gtk4 play video with overlay in full zero-copy / hardware plane only mode \o/…"
Mishaal Rahman: "Wow - Google may be planning to ship a major kernel upgrade to all its (Tensor-powered) Pixel phones!…"l. Effing finally!
Cassidy James: "Remember to share positive posts, memes, etc. about open source things you use and like. A simple “I like this” or “thanks for working on this” can go a long way!…". This!
PinePhoneOfficial (Reddit): Self Hosting on PPP?
PinePhoneOfficial (Reddit): pinephone vs oneplus 6
PinePhone (Reddit): is the PINEPHONE – Beta Edition With Convergence Package Linux SmartPhone worth the money
PINE64official (Reddit): Trouble booting some microsd images on Pine Tab 2
Purism community: Recommendations for Pocket Keyboards?
Purism community: Unified GPU renderer in GTK. AFAIK, work is ongoing to achieve OpenGL ES 3.0 support with etnaviv for the GC7000Lite GPU, but some confirmation would be great!
Purism community: MyGNUHealth on Librem 5

Worth Reading

tenstral: Wayland really breaks things… Just for now?
feaneron: 2023 in retrospect
Purism: Centralized or Decentralized There is No Question

Worth Watching

Continuum Gaming: Continuum Gaming E399: SFOS App – Parkscheibe
The Linux Cast: Is Linux Mobile Ready?
1nkerx: PinePhone Pro screen replacement
ClarinTux: PinePhone Pro with Arch Linux ARM Phosh [UPDATE January 2024]

The video section is shorter than usual, as the way to conveniently aggregate YouTube videos by using a searX instance, that allows RSS feeds, is currently unavailable, as the the searx instance is down. I was unable to quickly find another searX(NG) instance that supports this. Help with finding another searX(NG) instance supporting RSS feeds or with the collection of relevant videos is highly appreciated!

Thanks

Huge thanks to Plata for the nifty set of Python scripts that speed up collecting links from feeds by a lot.

Something missing? Want to contribute?

If your project's cool story (or your awesome video or nifty blog post or ...) is missing and you don't want that to happen again, please just put it into the hedgedoc pad for the next one! Since I am collecting many things there, this get's you early access if you will ;-) If you just stumble on a thing, please put it in there too - all help is appreciated!

Software

Gnome Ecosystem

Plasma Ecosystem

Sailfish OS

Ubuntu Touch

Distributions