Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (07/2025): Reviews and Improvements
Table of Contents
FOSDEM reports in blog and podcast format by postmarketOS, a new OS, a FLX1 review by a known YouTuber, Lima improvements, some last minute camera hacks, and way more! Enjoy!
Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- postmarketOS Blog: FOSDEM 2025 + Hackathon
- PineGuild: Thunderbird desktop in mobile mode on PinePhone & PinePhone Pro
- Purism: PureOS Crimson Development Report: January 2025
- backtoanalog: "This is a review of a FLX1 phone.". Mastodon thread.
- Andy's Blog: Why Blog If Nobody Reads It?
Worth Listening
- postmarketOS Podcast: #45 FOSDEM 2025 Special
Worth Watching
- Brodie Robertson I Tried A Real Linux Smartphone, Its... Great video! (I have many nitpicks/explainers why apps are the way they are, almost warranting a reply video or a blog post, but there's no time doing that. It's just nitpicks, anyway.)
- Lemmy - linuxphones: I Tried A Real Linux Smartphone, Its...
- David Hamner: Linux Phones: Fresh Approaches and New Players in 2025
- Nima Fanniasl: I made an Operating System (I'm 14)
- veggero: My New Favorite Linux Laptop. Great video! My new favorite Linux Laptop is a different model, but also running postmarketOS on some Qualcomm SoC ... ;-)
- veggero: Introducing KDE Union and Plasma Next
- Continuum Gaming: Continuum Gaming E456: Sailfish OS – Tetri... um... Trites
- ra_xvii: Running mainline Linux on an ARM tablet - PostmarketOS 24.12 on the Lenovo Duet 3 with Snadpragon 7c
- Tu me reçois Mani ??: #Android#Linux#ubuntu touch v 154
- Ahmed Saed: Install Linux on a mobile phone - postmarketOS
- CapBoyan ENG [Boyan Mobile]: Nokia N900 - Phone Linux from 2009
- Living In Harmony: FOSDEM 2025 - Bringing Oniro to Mobile: Challenges in Hardware Enablement
Worth Noting
- cccac: Reminder: Our Mainlining-Workshop is in 5 days and there's still some free spots!Details: https://ccc.ac/post/2025-01-24-mainlining-workshop
- adrianyyy: "Initial workshop afterthoughts and notes, will write something more in depth later on the soon-to-come mainlining.org blog:- 1 Xiaomi tablet now boots mainline quite well and can boot to system from UFS- 1 Xiaomi phone can now boot mainline but fails early for yet unknown reasons- 1 Samsung phone now has a uniloader port and can boot mainline but crashes early (on first try!)- Motorola milestone is a long term project that research has been started on(1/?)" This is on the Mainlining Workshop that took place in Aachen, Germany this weekend.
- Sturmflut: "We can keep discussing about kernels, drivers and which are "true" Linux phones and which are not, or we can focus on getting as many people on the FOSS phone ecosystem and improving the rather sorry state of so many applications, and I would VERY much prefer the latter#LinuxMobile #linuxphone #linuxphones"
- axboe: "marcan on leaving the Asahi project: "No matter how much we did, how many impossible feats we pulled off, people always wanted more. And more."Yep this is basically ANY open source project. Doesn't matter what you give people, they will always complain about something."
- pi_crew: Impressive to see that #AndroidAbstractionLayer now seems to support running #AntennaPod Android version on #Linux :D #mobileLinux #postmarketOS https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer/android_translation_layer/-/merge_requests/141
- emersion: The Wayland color management protocol has landed! https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland-protocols/-/commit/452e943b4991
- cas: "@papiris wow it has been about 5 years, first submitted added support for the OnePlus 6/6T on May 11th 2020 and by May 26th already upgraded them to fix wifi and GPU https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/merge_requests/1271I'll have to do someething to celebrate 5 years of mainline on the OnePlus 6..."
- alienghic: @linmob @tuxdevices @jubei Anyone want to start a credit union?https://ncua.gov/regulation-supervision/manuals-guides/federal-credit-union-charter-application-guide/phase-1I had an initial silly idea for a community served definition of "people who can send & receive GPG encrypted email".But I bet with a 200-1000 interested people it'd be possible to create a digital credit union intended for the free software community.
- Liberux: "The Liberux NEXX will include 3 physical kill-switches for total privacy:1️⃣ Microphone + Cameras2️⃣ Wi-Fi + Bluetooth3️⃣ Communications Module1️⃣ ➕ 2️⃣ ➕ 3️⃣ OFF → all other sensors are also disabled. This was the original design… but we're now considering the possibility of one more switch: 4️⃣ , a slider integrated into the camera’s shutter button, to separate cameras and microphone. What do you think about it?#Liberux #linuxphone #killswitches #privacy". My Librem 5 experience tells me that seperating Microphone and Camera makes sense. Also, as speakers can be abused as microphones, I wonder if kill-switching microphones is enough.
- valpackett: #postmarketos #linuxmobile an annoying power management problem: VCM/Lens drivers typically just pm_runtime_get on open() and pm_runtime_put on close()… so these devices only get autosuspended when they aren't held open by anyone… and VERY HELPFULLY pipewire&wireplumber (via libcamera?) permanently hold all the relevant v4l subdevs open including the lens >_<
- matk: "I am very honored to be part of the first Sovereign Tech Fellowship program!This will directly support my work on #FreeDesktop, #AppStream and #PackageKit, so expect a lot more changes faster, and also way faster patch reviews.This is also the first time ever that I have dedicated time to work on fd.o, and I am excited about the possibilities! You can expect blog posts about it in future 😄 You can read more about the amazing program and the other fellows here:https://www.sovereign.tech/news/meet-the-sovereign-tech-fellows"
- kirschner: "❤️ Thank you to the @postmarketOS community, the contributors to @gnome + @phosh ( @agx ), the Plasma mobile contributors from @kde and others in the community who make the programs mobile friendly, and many others who are working for many years now on #GNU #Linux for mobile phones! I highly appreciate your work for #FreeSoftware 👏👏👏👏 #ilovefs ❤️"
Last minute camera hacks
- PocketVJ aka magdesign: "annoyed that #gnome #snapshot on #postmarketos #linuxmobile displays and takes pictures with the wrong zooming/sacaling factor on #op6 or #pocof1 ?". Great find! I briefly tested this change (by changing this patch and rebuilding the Alpine package for my custom repo), and I see similar, good results on the Google Pixel 3a. The negative trade-off is a way more stuttery viewfinder, but I think it's worth a try for daily drivers. You can always also install Snapshot as a Flatpak (I recommend the nightly build, which by now can recognize QR codes) to have also access to an 'unpatched Snapshot'.
Meetups and Events
- #UbuntuTouch: FossFEST 2025 the open source full #foss online / location hybrid Hackathon is nearing. You can still register and sponsor the event. We have two Masterclass positions left. Currently 318 participants have registered, who are going to work on #UbuntuTouch and #Odoo #oca apps. Registration is FREE. https://os-sci.com/event/foss-fest-2025-international-hackathon-14/register
- digitalprivacy: "Just a reminder about the meetup in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 26.The topic is Linux Mobile and I (Dan) will bring 4 devices:#OnePlus6- OS: #postmarketOS | Environment: #plasmamobile#PinephonePro- OS: postmarketOS | Environment: #gnomemobile- OS on SD card: #Mobian | Environment: #phosh#Pinephone (braveheart + upgraded motherboard)- OS: #Archlinux | Environment: #sxmoPinephone (braveheart)- OS/Environment: #UbuntuTouch1/2#Christchurch #NewZealand #meetup #linuxmobile"
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #187 Triple Buffered Notifications
- Cassidy James: GNOME Should Kick the Foot to the Curb… Mostly. I for one like the foot and its evolution since the 1.x days (GNOME 1.2 was my earliest GNOME, IIRC on RedHat 6.x. Fond memories.
- Phoronix: Firefox User Manages Experimental Browser Port To GTK4 Toolkit
- Phoronix: GNOME 48 Beta Released With HDR Bits, gdctl, Adwaita Fonts Default & More
- Phoronix: Dynamic Triple Buffering Merged For GNOME 48
- Phoronix: GNOME Software May Eventually Drop RPM Support In Favor Of Flatpaks
Phosh
- Phosh.mobi: Phosh 0.45.0
- cypherpunks: Phosh 0.45.0 released
- Phosh (Mastodon): Note to distributions: This release needs an additional wlroots patch that is merged upstream but didn't make it into a release yet: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/merge_requests/4973 (backport to 0.18: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/merge_requests/4985)
- agx: I always wanted a simple way to put the phone to silent mode when e.g. placing it on the table next to the 🛏️ . Since Biemster got NFC to work on the Oneplus 6/6T (https://github.com/biemster/pmos-openbox-conky/blob/main/nxp_nci_i2c.py) we can leverage that and have feedbackd's profile adjusted when certain RFIDs are seen (https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/feedbackd/-/merge_requests/154). For this to land we want to move the NFC support from a python script to s.th. like nfcd (https://github.com/biemster/pmos-openbox-conky/pull/18#issuecomment-2653920089). Help on this would be appreciated.#phosh #feedbackd #rfid #LinuxMobile
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: Post-Release Polishing
- Carl Schwan et al.: This Week in KDE Apps
- KDE Announcements: KDE Ships Frameworks 6.11.0
- KDE Announcements: Plasma 6.3
- Kaidan blog: Kaidan 0.11.0: Qt 6
- Basyskom: PySide6, Qt for Python
- Nate Grahem: About the Plasma release schedule
- tsdgeos: KDE Gear 25.04 release schedule
- Quantum Productions: Moving KDE's styling into the future
- thelibre.news: The Future of KDE Styling and Design
Sailfish OS
- #sailfishOS: #sailfishos updated
- #sailfishOS: @lateinhemd I've been using #SailfishOS for about 10 years now and as #Jolla is a small company (of mainly ex Nokia personnel) they cannot really keep up with data guzzlers like Google or Apple feature-wise. But you can run Android apps on SailfishOS (with some limits here and there) and so you can use it in everyday life ... with some trade-offs.As a colleague of mine put it: using SailfishOS today is like being vegan in the 90s. 😂I don't own the Jolla C2, so I can't say anything about it.
Ubuntu Touch
- #UbuntuTouch: Do you want to work on open source #Odoo #OCA apps? or develop an #UbuntuTouch app. Maybe our Hackathon is something for you? Join FossFEST which 326 participants already have done. Meet us online or live in Berlin on 21-22 Feb. Are you a #foss company and want to work on a project during the #Hackathon, contact us for sponsorship options. https://os-sci.com/event/foss-fest-2025-international-hackathon-14/register
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 156
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 156 blog and audio now available
- UBports - Development - Issues: Camera is, for the moment, not working in 24.04
- fredldotme: Coming down the pipe: box64 in a Snap. Showing here, running on Ubuntu Asahi on an M1 MacBook Air as OpenArena. x86_64 in disguise.
- #UbuntuTouch: Ubuntu Touch up and running on Fairphone 5
- #UbuntuTouch: Remote desktop to Ubuntu PC from Ubuntu Touch #ubuntutouch #remotedesktop #vnc #remminahttps://askubuntu.com/q/1541170/612
Distributions
- postmarketOS Blog: FOSDEM 2025 + Hackathon
- Lemmy - postmarketOS: FOSDEM 2025 + Hackathon
- postmarketOS Wiki New Pages: ODYS Thor 10 +3G (odys-sofia3gr)
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Sticky Notes
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: FuriOS Gallery
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Merging sections: Games now part of apps. Once again: Thank you so much, Max, for making this happen!
- afranke: "#Fractal 10 had a couple regressions. We didn’t want our users to wait until Fractal 11 to get the fixes in their favorite #GNOME #Matrix client, so here is Fractal 10.1:https://discourse.gnome.org/t/fractal-10-1-released/26983"
- Kaidan blog: Kaidan 0.11.0: Qt 6
- CalcProgrammer1: "Working on an improvement to @piggz's Supersonik music player/Subsonic client for #LinuxMobile. I'm adding support for automatic album artwork fetching from Last.fm, a feature I had in my old CalcTunes Android app. I got the file handling cleaned up so Last.fm images are cached in the app's .local folder and loaded when the Subsonic server itself has no art for a given album. Turned a blank white page into something nice to look at!Some of these are from the server, some from Last.fm!"
- rmader: "Just played around with audiobooks on my #oneplus6 with #postmarketos. There doesn't seem to be a nice Audible client atm., even though it might be possible to make one. Then I learned about https://librivox.org/ which has several thousands Public Domain audiobooks - awesome!So first I tried Cozy - pretty nice app but it requires downloading things first. Then I figured that the page also has RSS feeds - just like most podcasts. So I tried the Podcasts app:#linuxmobile #gnome"
- Jozef Mlich on Fosstodon: Hello from #Amazfish sent to Kospet DK08
Kernel
- phone-devel: [PATCH 0/4] media: i2c: imx214: Add support for 23.88MHz clock
- phone-devel: [PATCH v2 0/2] Add Goodix Berlin-A series support
- phone-devel: [PATCH v3 0/2] media: i2c: dw9719: Add device tree bindings for the VCM
- Phoronix: Linux 6.15 To Ensure PlayStation 5 Controllers Use The Correct Driver
- Phoronix: Hector Martin Resigns From The Asahi Linux Project
Stack
- dcz: "77 commits later, and #libobscura has a scripting system good enough to initialize a #USB #Camera So it's back to the same functionality, except with extra complexity, lol.Next up: organize the commits (don't leave a mess if you want contributors) and make sure #librem5 works the same way."
- Phoronix: Wayland Color Management & HDR Protocol Support Merged
- Phoronix: Wayland Color Management & HDR Protocols Expected To Be Merged Imminently
- lima: ppir: handle FFMA in backend (!33313) · Merge requests · Mesa / mesa · GitLab lima is the graphics driver older ARM Mali GPUs, e.g., Mali 400, which is used in the Allwinner A64 in the PinePhone. (Thanks Danct12 for the ping!)
- lima: ppir: various fixes and improvements to debug output (!33540) · Merge requests · Mesa / mesa · GitLab
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2025-02-14
- Matrix.org: Building a Safer Matrix
- Matrix.org: FOSDEM 2025 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 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!