Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (02/2026): Plasma on a Comet
Table of Contents
This past week: Mecha Comet prototype (NXP i.MX 8M Mini modular handheld) can run Plasma Mobile, Ubuntu Touch Q&A 181 covers Morph Browser Qt6 beta and two hardware teasers, FuriLabs has a FLX1s sale and announces Convergence Dock, a call for your opinions on Apps on #LinuxMobile and way more. Enjoy!
Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- etbe - Russell Coker: Phone Charging Speeds With Debian/Trixie. For reference: At least according to the Powersupply app, I managed to charge my Librem 5 with 5V at 3A - but only with two specific chargers.
- Jesse Smith for DistroWatch: postmarketOS 25.06 and 25.12
- Luigi311: Pinephone Pro
- FuriLabs: Happy 2026 with a HUGE sale! - FuriPhone FLX1s Linux Phone
- Matthew Garrett: What is a PC compatible?. Also off-topic, but ... knowing the story of the standardized PC market can help when explaining the difficulties to run $distro on ARM or smartphones.
- JustSoup321 Development Blog: Middle-Click on Linux: An Objective View Just leaving this in for all Linux Desktop users upset about a GNOME change I as a TrackPoint user am very much in favor of.
Worth Watching
- Continuum Gaming: Continuum Gaming E503: News about Sailfish OS – Sailfish OS & Surface Duo
- UBports: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 181. Morph Browser Qt6, xdg-portal-lomiri, two hardware teasers and way more exciting stuff!
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 181
- daunsoft: Trying Mobian Linux 13 with Plasma Mobile on Poco F1
- daunsoft: Trying Mobian Linux 13 with Phosh on Poco F1
- DistroTester: Phosh 0.52 GNOME-Based Mobile Shell Brings QR Codes for Wi-Fi Hotspots
- David Hamner: Linux Phone That Actually Works
- Adrian Ortega: How to install/build postmarketOS with pmbootstrap.
- DansDesigns: DIY Smartphone OS | OSM-Phone | 02
- orailnoor: I Installed Native Linux on Phone (So Should you?) - YouTube. Missed this when it was new.
Worth Noting
- goldfish: "#OpenBSD 5.4 on a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100.While 6.0 was the last version to support Zaurus, X breaks in 5.5. I don't have a working network card yet, but hopefully will soon.#NetBSD still supports the Zaurus, but I wasn't able to install it."
- tbernard: If anyone's looking for a fun illustration project or an opportunity to get into the GNOME artwork style: Crosswords needs some illustrations for the "How to Play" instructions :) https://gitlab.gnome.org/jrb/crosswords/-/issues/361 Example from Sudoku:#gnome #icons #illustrations
- bradlinder: "Starting this year, Google will only release new builds of Android's source code twice a year instead of four times each year. The new schedule will involve major updates in Q2 and smaller updates in Q4. https://www.androidauthority.com/aosp-source-code-schedule-3630018/". To be fair: This sounds worse than it may be, as it used to be once a year not that long ago.
Hardware (enablement)
- okias: The
novatek,nt36672aDisplay Driver IC need a serious rework... maybe a HERO 🦸 will show up and fix it?I heard there is floating datasheet around, so if someone will be brave enough, it shouldn't be that hard.There are at least two people who would be willing to give a guidance on getting there.DDIC is at least in Xiaomi:Poco F1 - tianma versionRedmi Note 7 - Shenchao panel#MobileLinux #LinuxMobile #sdm845 #sdm660 - bshah: Running @kde @plasmamobile on the Mecha Comet prototype hardware.https://mecha.so/comet If all goes according to plan you will see this device at KDE booth at @fosdem running Plasma Mobile!#plasmamobile
- mntmn: qcs8550 displayport up yesss
Events
Call for feedback super selfish!
- @linmob: As I was working my upcoming #FOSDEM talk "The Linux Phone App Ecosystem" (https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/VH3GYN-linu...), I thought should ask my followers.. So here we are: What do you want to know? Which projects do I have to mention? What should I focus on? Which apps do you enjoy the most? What are you missing? What are you worried about?
- @linmob: Open poll, please just reply (and mention your OS): What is your favorite #LinuxMobile app?
More Software News
Distributions
- cas: "Coldbrew (formerly "iced") has been added to the Alpine package repos by @fossdd and will now be included in #postmarketOS duranium immutable images, allowing you to install and use anything from the Alpine package repos without modifying your real rootfs!It works on regular Alpine installs too of course, if you want to manage software per-user or without needing root accesshttps://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/coldbrew#LinuxMobile #immutable #alpinelinux https://social.treehouse.systems/users/cas/statuses/115775491821295297 "
- Breaking updates in pmOS edge: postmarketOS Tweaks integrated into Phosh Mobile Settings
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): Thanks to @newbyte's efforts and @agx's reviewing, everything relevant from the "postmarketOS tweaks" app has been integrated into Phosh Mobile Settings so that we were able to sunset the legacy app in postmarketOS edge and have one less settings app in total! 🎉 As a bonus, Phosh Mobile Settings now has a generic conf-tweaks interface that can be used to add other custom settings with config files as well!Details in the edge post:https://postmarketos.org/edge/2026/01/04/postmarketos-tweaks-replaced/#postmarketos #linuxmobile #phoshhttps://social.phosh.mobi/users/phosh/statuses/01KE52S074EH28WZR7K13EW0XT
- postmarketOS pmaports issues: Clarify merge rules in the case of multiple maintainers
- postmarketOS Wiki New Pages: Using a phone as a server
- Phoronix: Debian 13.3 Released With Many Security & Bug Fixes
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #231 Blueprint Maps
- Sebastian Wick: Improving the Flatpak Graphics Drivers Situation
- Engagement Blog: GNOME ASIA 2025-Event Report
- Allan Day: GNOME Foundation Update, 2026-01-09
- Phoronix: AI Assistant App For GNOME Adds MCP Server Support To Integrate With Much More Software
Phosh
- Phosh Releases: Phosh 0.52.1
- Phosh Releases: Phosh 0.52.0
- jbz: ｢ Phosh (short for Phone Shell), a graphical user interface designed specifically for Linux-based mobile devices built on GNOME technologies and uses Wayland as its display protocol, has just released version 0.52 ｣ https://linuxiac.com/phosh-0-52-brings-qr-codes-for-wi-fi-hotspots/#phosh #wayland #linuxphone #opensource
- phosh: There's now a lock screen gesture in #phosh to change brightness. See this post for a demo: https://social.phosh.mobi/@phosh/statuses/01KC9P6S2PW182WPGTNFTHF1E92/x
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: car of the year edition
- Carl Schwan et al.: This Week in KDE Apps
- KDE Announcements: KDE Ships Frameworks 6.22.0
- KDE Announcements: KDE Gear 25.12.1
- Volker Krause: 39C3
- Carl Schwan: Events in December 2025
- Planet KDE: KJournald Update January 2026
- Phoronix: KDE Plasma 6.6 Adds oo7 Secret Service Provider Support, Save As New Global Theme
Sxmo
- #sxmo: The sxmo stickers have arrived and they fit perfectly with my Fairphone 4 slim case.#sxmo #postmarketos #linuxmobile #fairphone
- #sxmo: thanks for integrating @fizzo nightlight in sdm845-next!A feature i really use a lot on my #sxmo driven #linuxmobile.#sxmop6
Sailfish OS
- Community News - Sailfish OS Forum: Sailfish Community News, 8th January 2026 - New Year
- frankps: @jolla has just passed 7.000 preorders on their upcoming community phone!This is gonna be a great year for the Sailfish Community ❤️https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-preorder#SailfishOS #SailfishCommunity #LinuxMobile
- adampigg: Looking for a micro sd card, i found that i have more micro->standard adapters than micro or standard cards combined
- sailfishOS news: Jolla at #FOSDEM 2026 (@fosdem) The event will take place during the weekend of 31 January and 1 February 2026 in Brussels. #Jolla can be found at the #Linux on Mobile stand and will organize once again a #SailfishOS meetup on Saturday evening. Infos will follow here: https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/fosdem-2026-sailfish-os-meetup/Get the FOSDEM app for Sailfish OS: https://openrepos.net/content/flypig/fosdem-org
- #sailfishOS: @Natanox To get the best impression of what it's like to use a Sailfish OS smartphone, I would recommend getting a used Xperia 10 III first. It is the last Xperia model officially supported by #Jolla. With the Xperia 10V, there will still be slight hardware limitations. #sailfishOS https://shop.jolla.com/details/12596a34-597b-47d4-a502-c0ef15d2a4de/ @aplanteatingant
- #sailfishOS: @Natanox About#SailfishOS: #Jolla is currently also doing a preorder of a new phone: https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-preorder
Ubuntu Touch
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 181 call for questions. Video linked above.
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Open store Stats 2025
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Morph Qt 6 in the OpenStore
- UBports - Development - Issues: Clicking on the current active workspace in the Spread automatically closes the Spread
- UBports - Development - Issues: Binding loop detected for property "temporarySelectedWorkspace"
- UBports - Development - Issues: Use Super for dragging windows instead of Alt
- UBports - Development - Issues: [Qt 6] Fix warnings when built (QML module) against Qt 6 (Follow-up from "Port QML module to Qt 6")
- UBports - Development - Issues: Workspace list in the Spread starts out in an angle
- UBports - Development - Issues: Restoring window via double click on the titlebar puts it on the top-leftmost
- UBports - Development - Issues: Broken Spread when switching workspace with keyboard then opening Spread with keyboard
- UBports - Development - Issues: Mouse scroll only works on the first tab you scroll
- UBports - Development - Issues: [Qt 6] fix webapp container
- UBports - Development - Issues: [Qt 6] re-enable tests for Qt 5 builds (and optionally Qt 6 builds)
- UBports - Development - Issues: accounts-qml-module: Enable Qt 6 QML module build
- #UbuntuTouch: I am creating a #Meshtastic app for #UbuntuTouch called Indra: https://git.agnos.is/projectmoon/indra/releases It is ready for alpha testing and needs people to help find issues with it before a minimum viable product can be released to the Ubuntu Touch #OpenStore. See the forum thread for more information!
- #UbuntuTouch: @anon_4601 @ubuntu@ubuntu.social @ubuntu@lemmy.ml I installed #UbuntuTouch on my 5yo #lenovo tab M10 x65l. I'm happy it works but there are a few things to be done still.
- Phoronix: Canonical Builds Steam Snap For Ubuntu ARM64 Leveraging FEX
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Emergency Alerts
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Duel!
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Web App Hub
- postmarketOS: Apps by Category: Magdesign: /* Gemini browsers */
- adampigg: Tweaking the UI of my #Subsonic media player for #SailfishOS and @kde Plasma for large screens, and the @volla tablet is pretty big for a mobile device :)
- schmiddionmobile: "I've now released version 0.18.0-beta.1 of Flare on flathub-beta. This release includes fixes for using Flare as a primary device, which I have done successfully for a while now. Feel free to test it out and provide feedback. Note that if you want to try it out, I would heavily encourage linking Signal-Desktop to Flare in order to set your profile information and to start new chats. Feel free to give feedback if you have any issues with this beta in the Matrix room or issue tracker."
- linuxphoneapps: "If you would like to have an #Instapaper client for #LinuxMobile, the creator of Cauldron ( https://flathub.org/en/apps/it.dottorblaster.cauldron ) is open to contributions that make Cauldron work well on narrow/mobile devices: https://github.com/dottorblaster/cauldron/issues/201#issuecomment-3710730745#LinuxPhoneApps #LinuxOnMobile"
Kernel
- phone-devel: [PATCH v3] media: ccs: Accommodate C-PHY into the calculation
- phone-devel: [PATCH] arm64: dts: qcom: kodiak: Add missing clock votes for lpass_tlmm
- phone-devel: [PATCH 0/2] Add devicetree support for aw88261 amplifier driver & minor cleanup
- phone-devel: [PATCH v4 0/2] Introduce Pixel config fragment for chainloading u-boot
- Phoronix: Linux 7.0 Readying Improvement For Rust + LTO Kernel Builds
- Phoronix: Latest SteamOS Beta Now Includes NTSYNC Kernel Driver
- Phoronix: Linux Kernel Considers Linking The Relocatable x86 Kernel As PIE In 2026
Stack
- Phoronix: QEMU 11.0 Could Finish Removing 32-bit Host CPU Support
- Phoronix: Linus Torvalds: "The AI Slop Issue Is NOT Going To Be Solved With Documentation"
- Phoronix: Etnaviv Driver Wires Up PPU Flop Reset Support Needed By Some Vivante Hardware
- Phoronix: Mesa 26.0 RADV Lands Dedicated Transfer-Only Queue Using SDMA
- Phoronix: Mesa 26.0 RADV Merges The Big Ray-Tracing Improvement For UE5 Lumen
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2026-01-09
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2026-01-05
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 this 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!