Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (06/2026): Fairbruary Mainline Calling
Table of Contents
This past week: Sailfish OS 5.0.0.73 Tampella early access released (approaching Sailfish OS 5.1 branch with BeaconDB for faster location fixes planned for March), Jolla C2 out of stock, Nemo Mobile reaches major milestone booting Lipstick on openSUSE, postmarketOS adds Bhushan Shah as Trusted Contributor and shows progress on Fairphone 5 call audio, Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.2 and 20.04 OTA-12 call for testing. Enjoy!
Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- LibreNews: I'm A Proud Luddite. That's Why I Use Linux.
- FuriLabs: FOSDEM 2026 Recap
- Neil Brown: Reflections on my first day (ever) at FOSDEM. Yes, FOSDEM can be overwhelming.
Worth Watching
- Continuum Gaming: Continuum Gaming E507: Sailfish OS – Naval Battle Torpedo & the new EA update + AAS Bluetooth
- UBports: Ubuntu Tuch Q&A 183. Good one!
- Anino Ni Kugi: I made my huge phone usable with one hand | Fairphone 4 Ubuntu Touch
- orailnoor: "I Installed Native Linux on my Phone — KDE Plasma Mobile (Android Apps, Docker, VS Code)"
- AD Tech: The Future of Open Source Smartphones 2026: Ubuntu Touch vs /e/OS vs postmarketOS Battle
- Smokin' Silicon: I bought a Phone that DOESN'T run Android or iOS... 🤔. PinePhone Braveheart in 2026? What?
- Jozef Mlich: Start of nemomobile lipstick on open suse
- Jozef Mlich: Run nemo in virtual machine
- DHOCNET Workbench: Failed to Get Shell Login | Messy Setup Script Implementation on PostmarketOS v25.12
FOSDEM 2026
- FOSDEM 2026 - NewPipe - Porting an Android app to Sailfish OS
- FOSDEM 2026 - Phosh: What's new and where are we going?
- FOSDEM 2026 - Towards a Local-First Linux Desktop with Modal, Reflection and p2panda
- FOSDEM 2026 - libcamera software ISP status update
- FOSDEM 2026 - No Line Like Mainline: Update On The Fully Mainline Software Stack For Rockchip SoCs
- FOSDEM 2026 - Add Support for New Boards to Mainline Linux, U-Boot and Yocto
- FOSDEM 2026 - Wayland input method wrap up
Worth Noting
- stsdc: It was fun porting motor driver to support latest #sm7150 kernel for Xiaomi Mi 9T#Phosh #postmarketos. So cool!
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): Recently huge progress was made and we got the first audio coming out of the Fairphone 5 speaker. But now, @bshah and @z3ntu even got call audio working!Coming soon to a Fairphone 5 near you!#fairphone #fairphone5 #postmarketOS
- cas: "Do any moots know someone who we might be able to consult about restructuring a mid-size FOSS project? Essentially to migrate from a BDFL model to a more flat-structured democratic organisation. We are discussing how to restructure #postmarketOS so that it can continue to scale up and be a truly community-run project.…"
- fizzo: @as400 @khalid @postmarketOS Pixel 3a has reliable phone calls on pmOS. I'm using it as daily driver with my main SIM on it. I carry a second commercial phone for the functionality that is not yet supported.
- pabloyoyoista: "Even though things still need a lot of work, we keep making progress on the hardware-CI (https://postmarketos.org/blog/2026/01/21/hw-ci-mvp/) for #postmarketOS During #FOSDEM I managed to reproduce @mupuf setup, and connect @cas original OP6 for testing! And today @fizzo got a OP6T connected too: https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/jobs/1507082 !Exciting times ahead :D"
- r/MobileLinux: Plasma Mobile 6 VPN quick setting
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Wait - when did Ubuntu Touch get VoLTE support???
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: I'm now using my Pebble with my Linux phone
Events
- modal: "#BoilingTheOcean 9 is next weekend (Feb 13-15)! This time our main topic is identity in peer-to-peer systems. How can we prevent impersonation? What about large groups? What are defenses against physical attacks?On Friday night we'll have a talk and discussion on these questions at @offline. Over the weekend we're at Cultivation Space to work through some of these questions (and hack on our other usual topics like mobile, GNOME UX, and more!)Sign up here: https://pad.gnome.org/G2dIYp3-Tl2bVC7Ii1HaCA". I won't be able to make it, but don't let that discourage you!
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #235 Integrating Fonts
- Allan Day: GNOME Foundation Update, 2026-02-06
- Matthias Clasen: GTK hackfest, 2026 edition
- Lucas Baudin: Being a Mentor for Outreachy
- Christian Hergert: Mid-life transitions
- Phoronix: GNOME's Glycin 2.1 Beta Enables JPEG 2000 Support By Default
- Phoronix: VRR Improvements Merged To GNOME 50 For Lower Latency, Wayland Commit Timing
- Phoronix: GTK Developers Working On Session Saving Support & Better Accessibility This Year
Phosh
- Phosh (gotosocial): Nice, hopefully some of these improvements make it back into calls/chatty/contacts https://fosstodon.org/@alaraajavamma/1159...
- #phosh: So turns out the #gpi dmae driver/component works as intended but there will be timeouts if the I2C device doesn't respond.I fixed the regulator configurations around my touchscreen and now it gets detected and even works in #phosh
- #phosh: If you're at #FOSDEM you have a couple of hours left to grab some stickers, play with phones, chat with us or grab one of two very exclusive #Phosh T-Shirts (sizes M & L)!#Phosh #LinuxMobile #MobileLinux #ShotOnLibrem5
- #phosh: Phosh Mobile Phone UI Making Progress On GTK4 Port https://www.phoronix.com/news/Phosh-GTK4-Progress #Phosh #Linux #Fosdem
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: beefed-up Window List widget
- KDE Announcements: KDE Gear 25.12.2
- Volker Krause: FOSDEM 2026
- jbb: Generating GTFS Feeds
- anditosan: FOSDEM 2026
- Phoronix: KDE Plasma 6.6 Fixing Significant Issues With Fingerprint Authentication
Sailfish OS
- Community News - Sailfish OS Forum: Sailfish Community News, February 5th 2026 - FOSDEM 2026 debrief
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: [Release notes] Tampella 5.0.0.73 - Early Access - Announcements
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: Jolla C2 out-of-stock - Announcements
- frankps: Yet another Sailfish Community Newsletter has just been released.Most exciting for me is that @jolla is very close to publish a Sailfish OS 5.0 update release, and that they approaching branching of the Sailfish OS 5.1. The 5.1 update is planned to be released somewhere around March. It will contain support for BeaconDB, which should help Location services to get a fix faster. Not much else is announced about this release yet...https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/sailfish-community-news-february-5th-2026-fosdem-2026-debrief/27554#SailfishOS #SailfishCommunity
- adampigg: Some pics from the #fosdem @jolla #sailfishos stand and meetup. Visible a @pine64 PPP and keyboard, a @volla tablet, and the J2 models
- vattuvarg: Jut as I thought the pace of the pre-orders has picked up. 21 days left to get your mittens on a #SailfishOS phone by #jolla. At 8400 already and that means the opportunities are running out. ...slightly quicker day by day, it seems. At 10K pre-orders two things will happen: 1️⃣ A lucky person gets the very last enthusiast-priced J2 phone. 2️⃣ All J2 phones get pogo-pin-connectors (TOH) for further experiments. 🔘
- aegg: Yet another reason why I love my #SailfishOS phone.I forgot my phone this morning, ohh well I can survive a day without.Except for the fact I need SMS 2fa to log into all work services.So.. it's a linux phone I have ssh access to it!I manage to vpn home, ssh into my phone and extract all sms messages.All of this took me 2-3 minutes.#linux #linuxphones
Ubuntu Touch
- Ubuntu Touch Forums: Call for testing: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.2
- Ubuntu Touch Forums: Call for testing: Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-12
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 183 call for questions
- UBports - Development - Issues: Dismissing Drawer by clicking outside while a fullscreen app is in the foreground, brings up the app behind
- UBports - Development - Issues: Caller ID is wrong
- UBports - Development - Issues: [24.04.2.x]: Some sensors are no longer working
- UBports - Development - Issues: Tracking issue for minor release: 20.04 OTA-12
- UBports - Development - Issues: Tracking issue for minor release: 24.04-1.2
Nemo Mobile
Distributions
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): We are excited to announce that @bshah is now a trusted contributor in postmarketOS!He has recently returned to KDE Plasma Mobile upstream development as well, which he has been doing for several years beforehand. Furthermore he is helping with improving certain mainline devices, such as the Fairphone 5 where he recently collaborated with @z3ntu to get call audio from the speaker working for the first time!📜 TC page:https://postmarketos.org/team/#bhushan-shah-bshah📽️ FP5 live-action video:https://social.treehouse.systems/@postmarketOS/116007536246724076#plasmamobile #linuxmobile #postmarketos
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): For hackathon movie night, we followed the theme of movies with UI names in them again. Previously: "For the Plasma" (2014) and "The Gnome-Mobile" (1967).This time:"COSMIC Journey" (1936 !!!)Reviews coming in below!
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): Recently huge progress was made and we got the first audio coming out of the Fairphone 5 speaker. But now, @bshah and @z3ntu even got call audio working!Coming soon to a Fairphone 5 near you!#fairphone #fairphone5 #postmarketOS
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): #postmarketOS hackathon 2026 is off to a flying start.
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): We had a great FOSDEM yet again, thanks everybody for stopping by! It was fun hearing appreciation of our project by existing users, but also to explain our project to people that have never heard of us.We can't wait to be back next year!Our hackathon is starting now and we'll report about what happened there later this week.
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): Day 2 of #FOSDEM2026 and we're back ready to show our project! If you still want a t-shirt come by quick as they're running out fast!
- postmarketOS Wiki New Pages: Radxa Dragon Q6A (radxa-dragon-q6a)
- postmarketOS Wiki New Pages: Gigaset GS4 (gigaset-gs4)
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Lotti
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Oboete
- Lemmy.ml - linuxphones: Any Kiwix client?
- Lemmy.ml - linuxphones: Too Good To Go: API client (Python)
- bjawebos: "🎉 Filmbook 0.2.1 is here! 🎞️I’m excited to share the latest update of Filmbook, your open-source app for tracking analog film usage.…"
Kernel
- Phoronix: KMS Recovery Mechanism Being Worked On For Linux Display Drivers
- Phoronix: Linux 6.19 Sees Last Minute Scheduler Regression Fixes
- Phoronix: New Linux Patches Allow Preserving Apple Mac Backlight Brightness Across Reboots
- Phoronix: Qualcomm QUPv3 Firmware Upstreamed For Snapdragon X1 Elite Linux Users
- phone-devel: [PATCH 1/2] dt-bindings: mfd: syscon: Add mt8516-syscfg
- phone-devel: [PATCH 2/2] arm64: dts: mediatek: mt8516: fix syscfg-pctl compatible
- phone-devel: [PATCH 0/2] Fix syscfg-pctl compatible for MT8516
- phone-devel: [PATCH] testing! arm64: dts: qcom: decrease WiFi antenna regulator minimum to 3.0V
- Phoronix: ML-LIB: Machine Learning Library Proposed For The Linux Kernel
Stack
- Phoronix: Mesa 25.3.5 Brings Vulkan Driver Fixes & Other Minor Changes -- Even For The Old R600g
- Phoronix: GNU Nettle 4.0 Released With SLH-DSA Support
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2026-02-06
- Matrix.org: FOSDEM 2026 Wrap Up
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!