Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (13/2026): Spring Cleaning
Table of Contents
This past week: A PINE64 Community Update with (no actual?) news on a PinePhone 2, Phosh 0.54 release candidate tagged at Chemnitzer Linux-Tage 2026, postmarketOS announces archival of unmaintained devices after v26.06, first batch of Jolla Phone preorders ready to be completed, and way more. Collected in a city known for a famous tragedy. Enjoy!
Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- PINE64: FOSDEM 2026 Update
- PINE64official (Reddit): FOSDEM 2026 Blog Post
- PINE64: Introduction to the PineTime Pro. Even Apple did not go so far to sell a 'Pro' watch.
- Chris Down: Debunking zswap and zram myths
- LibreNews: The political use of operating systems
Worth Listening
- postmarketOS Podcast: #47 FOSDEM 2026 Special. Nice one!
Worth Watching
- Clava: "Install Linux di Xiaomi redmi note 4x(mido) , PostmarketOs, simple x mobile (sxmo)"
- Clava: "Sxmo simple x mobile (sxmo-de-sway), postmarketOS redmi note 4 x mido"
- Donny K.: Interview with Sami Pienimäki - CEO of Jolla at #mwc2026
- Jelly Terra λ: Flash postmarketOS / Phosh the Alpine Linux on Redmi 2 wt88047 in 5 minutes
- Continuum Gaming: Sailcards – Native Sailfish OS App for Reward cards (Continuum Gaming E514)
- Bard Of All Trades Podcast: REVIEW - Daily Driving a Pine Phone Pro at DefCon (Hilarity Ensues)
- InstallFest: TuxDoctor - Mobilní diagnostika pro Linux do kapsy (Petr Hodina). Czech.
Worth Noting
- elly: "How it started: "I want to have a phone running Linux"How it's going (in 2026): "Got a pile of 5 phones and a clock on my desk. One of them runs Linux decently well, one runs Android because it has working (good) camera and third is used to have working calls. The alarm clock is bricked... again, and I will soon receive another two phones for mainline SoC bringups".I wonder where does it end... I need a stand for all those phones :neocat_shocked:"
- @dos@librem.one: The #Librem5 has properly detected chargers using BC1.2, Type-C and PD signaling for years now, but it struggled with sources that couldn't actually provide the advertised current (which could happen with buggy chargers/docks, broken or poorly made cables etc.). It would attempt to draw power, drop below voltage threshold, disconnect, and then do it all again once the voltage went back up to a good level in an endless loop. Good news: this behavior is about to be gone 😁 #mobilelinux #linuxmobile
- r/MobileLinux: Phone with hardware keyboard for mobile Linux
Events
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #242 Shuffling Cards
- Christian Schaller: Using AI to create some hardware tools and bring back the past
- GNOME Foundation News: Introducing the GNOME Fellowship program
Phosh
- phosh: Directly from #clt2026 comes our release candidate for #phosh 0.54 and related components: 🎉 📱 .The release is planned 2026-04-05: https://phosh.mobi/releases/calendar/ We've also tagged the companion releases for gmobile 0.7.0 and pfs 0.0.8.#LinuxMobile
- #phosh: @Ertain If you're looking for something close to mainilne with modern #phosh then there's https://senderolinux.com/product/oneplus-6t-postmarketos/ from @senderolinux and we're working on simplifying the setup on #postmarketos and other distros basically as we speak (hopefully with an initial version in 0.55).
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: Easier Microphone Sensitivity Adjustment
- KDE e.V. News: Framework Becomes a KDE Patron
- Volker Krause: February/March in KDE Itinerary
- Phoronix: KDE Plasma 6.7 Addresses 5 Year Old Request For Easier Microphone Testing
- Phoronix: Framework Computer Steps Up Their Support For KDE
- Phoronix: KDE's KWin Compositor Lands First Step Toward Vulkan Support
Sailfish OS
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: Jolla Phone update - Final payment and towards mass production :rocket:
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: Community meeting on 9th April 2026
- jolla: "It's time. The Jolla Phone pre-orders are now ready to complete and we've rolled out the Batch #1 emails to pre-orderers. Choose your colour, complete your order by April 30, and lock in your delivery.⚡ Day1 spots are limited — hurry up and claim yours before they're gone!📧 Important: your personal voucher code is in the email — please make sure to use it at checkout! ❤️#Jolla #SailfishOS #DigitalSovereignty #PrivacyFirst #CommunityPowered #European"
- frankps: A new version of #Immich app for #SailfishOS has just been released with lots of new functionality and improvements - go grab it!https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/immich-a-native-immich-application-for-sailfish-os/28066/12?u=frankps #Photograhphy #Immichapp #OpenSource #LinuxMobile
- abranson: "Updated my #sailfishos port of the #FOSSASIA Badge Magic app to support sending multiple badges. You can either let them play in a slideshow, or cycle through them with the second button on the badge. Rudimentary animation!https://openrepos.net/content/abranson/badge-magicIt's harbour compliant so hopefully it'll be in the Jolla store at some point.If you don't have one of their nifty badges, they usually sell them here, though it looks like there are SSL issues over there right now: https://fossasia.com/"
- poetaster: Announcing version 1.3.3. of #tooter your friendly neighbourhood #SailfishOs mastodon client. This version contains fixes for poll views (again) preview cards and updates Italian, Swedish and French translations. Slowly getting all the bugs out.Up on https://github.com/poetaster/harbour-tooter/releases/tag/1.3.3 coming to chum, openrepos and harbour .... ping @molan
- fitheach: "A new release of #SailfishOS has been made. Amongst other things, the release notes mention that Android App Support for the Sony Xperia 10 III has been updated to version 13. AAS not starting has been fixed, according to the release notes. I'm wondering if AAS crashing has also been fixed.This latest release of SailfishOS is 5.0.0.76. I'm going to install this version, and see how AAS behaves. 🤞"
Ubuntu Touch
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Installfest Czech Republic 28-29th March
- UBports Forums OS: lets talk about the phasing out of halium
- fredldotme: "Due to various barriers I've changed my mind and I'm in the process of porting the trusty Pixel 3a to Halium 12. Not only am I working towards a larger system partition size, I also will help folks with VoLTE enablement, which I can't test with my carrier.This is a little side gig but if you want to vote for higher priorization, I'll happily accept donations to let me know that you really want this. Further links at https://fredl.me"
- fredldotme: "Why Halium 12? Android 12 was the last version supported by Google and shipped with a roaming enhancement specifically for VoLTE. I'm basically betting on better chances for VoLTE support. Also it allows for a dynamically resizeable system partition, exceeding the storage limits of the current Halium 9 port.Of course it will be a long road because so much has changed between H9 and H12, and there is a lot to forward-port in terms of features and improvements from H9."
- fredldotme: Btw, minus the SSH connection to my build server I'm doing this off my NexDocked Fairphone 5, including flashing and debugging the Pixel 3a.
- UBports - Development - Issues: lomiri-url-dispatcher-gui needs adjustments to work with Qt6 LUITK
Distributions
- News for developers of postmarketOS: Unmaintained devices to be archived after v26.06
- Breaking updates in pmOS edge: Python 3.14 update breaking apk upgrade
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: DistroShelf
- valpackett: In preparation for daily driving #MobileLinux I've been thinking a lot about what must be done for reliable and power-efficient push notifications. Spoiler alert: while UnifiedPush may be a relevant service for some apps, it's not where platform dev focus should be.…
- fdlamotte: #linuxmobile + #meshcore get along well together, aiming for digital sovereignty Thanks @sesivany for permitting that
- kolunmi: "Thanks to @AlexanderVanhee , bazaar now has a website!!! Take a look at https://usebazaar.org/ 😎"
- fdlamotte: Cool @sesivany works great on my phone !#postmarketos and #meshcore rox ;)
- mlundblad: Started implementing support for public transit delays in Mapshttps://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-maps/-/issues/917https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-maps/-/merge_requests/619#gnomemaps #transitous #mapstodon #PublicTransport #PublicTransit #realtimedata #motis #GtfsRT
- valpackett: "Halftone (the dithering app) makes mobile linux photos look so good. This is like the early days of mobile apps again, except built to last and without any ads#postmarketOS #shotonpmos"
- Phoronix: Gedit Aims For More Frequent Releases, Bans AI / LLM Contributions
Kernel
- Phoronix: Linux 7.0-rc6 Bringing A Lot Of Audio Quirks / Fixes
- phone-devel: [PATCH] backlight: ktd2801: enable BL_CORE_SUSPENDRESUME
- phone-devel: Re: [PATCH v4 3/6] arm64: dts: qcom: msm8953-flipkart-rimob: Enable display and GPU
- phone-devel: Re: [PATCH v4 1/6] dt-bindings: display: panel: Add Novatek NT35532 LCD DSI
Stack
- emersion: wlroots v0.20 has been released!https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/releases/0.20.0
- Lennart Poettering: Mastodon Stories for systemd v260
- Phoronix: wlroots 0.20 Released,Sway 1.12-rc1 Available For Testing With Color Management
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2026-03-27
- Matrix.org: The first Public Annual Report is out!
- Matrix.org: Matrix v1.18 release
- Matrix.org: Solidarity Social operates a Bluesky PDS and uses Matrix for private DMs
Thanks
Huge thanks to Plata for the nifty set of Python scripts that speed up collecting links from feeds by a lot.
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