Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (19/2026): Voices and Splashes
Table of Contents
This past week: postmarketOS is funding q6voiced and released a monthly report, Sailfish OS 5.1 hits developer early access, Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.3 is out, and more!
Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.3 release, and updates on Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.0
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: Sailfish OS 5.1 developer early access
- postmarketOS Blog: postmarketOS in 2026-04: new boot splash
- postmarketOS Blog: New financed postmarketOS project: q6voice(d)
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: A Personal Note - Farewell
- Phoronix: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.3 Improves Handling Of Desktop Apps, Other Fixes
- Phoronix: Dirty Frag Vulnerability Made Public Early: Root Privilege On All Distributions
Worth Watching
- devrtz: Phosh: "Dispelling illusions" edition; or how I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Debian on my mobile device{,s}, MiniDebConf schedule entry
- Techlore: Google's New CAPTCHA Locks Out De-Googled Phones. And not just those.
- Techist: Jolla Phone | Full Specifications & Details!
- SSTec Tutorials: Run Desktop Apps on Ubuntu Touch Linux Phone!
- SSTec Tutorials: Ubuntu Touch Linux OS For Phone - The Future of Linux Phone?
- Continuum Gaming: Messengers (Wire, Signal, Threema etc): Which to use as an European citizen? (Continuum Gaming E520)
Worth Noting
- bradlinder: "The Typeframe PS-85 is an open source cyberdeck with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, a 40% keyboard, and a retro-futuristic look (and keycap stickers) inspired by the Alien movies. Designed by the same person as the Typeframe PX-88 portable computer. https://www.typeframe.net/docs/ps-85 #TypeFrame #TypeFramePS85 #CyberDeck #Alien #JeffMerrick"
- hn100: Removable batteries in smartphones will be mandatory in the EU starting in 2027Link: https://www.ecopv-eu.com/en/blog-en/replaceable-smartphone-batteries-2027-eu-regulation/Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48009697
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: [Smartphone] Linux in your smartphone: where do we stand?
- #MobileLinux: @superblox If it works in the browser, it works on #MobileLinux.Wero works totally fine in the browser without an app for me, as long as I stay below €5000.#appgap
Events
- LAS: Hello Community! 👋 The wait is over!! Here is the published conference schedule - https://conf.linuxappsummit.org/event/9/timetable/#20260516 😍Please join us either in person or online and enjoy the sessions. We'll be highlighting each of the speakers on this account. So hope you'll give us a follow. :-)#kde #gnome #opensource #linux #berlin #germany #events #conference
- chris: "Am 19.05. um 19:30 Uhr ist es wieder so weit: #GoeLinuxOnMobile-Treffen im Strandhaus in #Göttingen/#Weende.Wie auch beim letzten Termin werde ich #Mobiltelefone mit #Linux zum Ausprobieren mitbringen.Mitunter ein #Shift6mq aus Falkenberg , auf dem sowohl #Android/#ShiftOS als auch alternativ #Linux gestartet werden kann.#postmarketOS #mobian #phosh https://hallo.ween.de/@chris/statuses/01KNS4DYAFP57BRVFKKT0S99CK "
- FrOSCon: "Your hardware, their cloud. What happens when the vendor pulls the plug? Smart devices, solar inverters, cameras, cars… so much hardware depends on vendor clouds that can vanish overnight. Right to repair matters more than ever, and the FLOSS community has both the tools and the mindset to push back.Share your story or solution at #FrOSCon2026.Submit your talk: https://froscon.org/cfp/cfpapers/Note: this year, we are short on partners. Consider donations https://froscon.org/en/cfp/cfpartners/"
- postmarketOS: Registrations for the postmarketOS conference are now open! 👀 Register here: https://pretix.postmarketos.org/postmarketos-conference/2026/Call for Participation:https://pretalx.postmarketos.org/postmarketos-conference-2026/cfpMore information about the event:https://postmarketos.org/conference/#postmarketos #linuxmobile
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #248 Tracking Performance
- Steven Deobald: Apologies
- Jc00qe: How do I remove the close button for all gnome 'info cards'?I'm using a touch device and I can just swipe down to close.#gnome #mobile #linuxmobile #linux
Phosh
- agx: "Anything special about this lockscreen of #phosh? It's rendered with #gtk4 🥳 (I didn't do much here, this builds on the GTK work of Matthias Clasen for making GtkRoot a lot easier to implement and @arunmani 's Phosh porting work):#LinuxMobile #gtk"
- #phosh: Slightly unsure of how to get home after going out on Friday night with friends and a couple of beers?Have no fear! #gnome #maps to the rescue, to help you find your way home!Gnome maps on a #mobian Pixel 3A device with working GPS to help us get home. After going out in Hamburg(And the dot on the map moved accurately the whole way)#shotonmobian (under really bad light conditions)CC: @madmojo @devrtz @manut #minidebconfhamburg2026#mobian #phosh #linuxonmobile #gps #gnome #maps
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: ICC profiles ❤️ HDR
- KDE Announcements: KDE Ships Frameworks 6.26.0
- KDE Announcements: KDE Gear 26.04.1
- KDE e.V. News: KDE e.V. is looking for a software engineer
- Volker Krause: FOSSGIS Community Meeting May 2026
- tsdgeos: Send your talks for Akademy NOW!
- notmart: KeepSecret 1.1
- quantumproductions: Union: Spring 2026 Update
- Prayag Jain: Meet Drawy
- kde: "Union, KDE's new style engine, will be released with Plasma 6.7.Check out how it works and what changes it introduces to styling and theming for Plasma.https://quantumproductions.info/articles/2026-05/union-spring-2026-updateAre you into theming? Take it for a spin and share what you build with Union!#theming #design #desktop #FreeSoftware #OpenSource"
Sailfish OS
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: Sailfish OS 5.1 developer early access
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: Community meeting on 21st May 2026
- adampigg: #SailfishOS on the @pine64 #Pinephone, #PinephonePro and #Pinetab2 are all updated to kernel 7.0, and improved USB config. Just zypper ref/dup.
- #sailfishOS: I have become to love #SailfishOS more and more. Just recently there was first #Lemmy client made by great dev @ilpianista named #Dee. I got so excited I first made my first ever translation to it. Well, with growing excitment from this, I created my first ever small PR (with heavy lifting done with MistralAI)! Spoiler alert, it didn't quite work, but Ilpianista made it work :)Just created my second small PR! Trying to learn coding stuff so I can contribute more. #DeGoogle
- #sailfishOS: Everyone seems to be getting their new #pebble except me. So Rockpool for #sailfishos is going to have to wait until I do, especially as the official app has stopped even trying to use BLE with the og watches. I guess the more stable they get that, the less work I have to do to replicate it on a proper operating system.
- #sailfishOS: The point of no return. About to find out if #Jolla phone will work for me... #sailfishos #linux
- #sailfishOS: @Setok good, smart move, I believe Nextcloud and davx5 contacts is also integrated. #jolla #sailfishos
- #sailfishOS: @imikotoba you are going to be a free man #jolla #sailfishos
- #sailfishOS: @ams @collabora collabora office suite will be ported to Sailfish by @fps_gbg . We need more European software to be brought over to #sailfishos. Shout-out to @Tutanota @aliasvault come to #jolla!
Ubuntu Touch
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.3 release, and updates on Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.0
- Phoronix: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.3 Improves Handling Of Desktop Apps, Other Fixes
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 188
- meanmicio: Testing ubuntu touch encryption on @volla tablet. Key feature for upcoming MyGNUhealth 3.0 ❤️ 🧬 🔐 #privacy #GNUHealth #GNU #UbuntuTouch #Volla
- sd: "USB-C display out works after some changes, but HWC seems to gets stuck when unplugging #ubuntutouch #ubports #pixel9a #mobilelinux"
- sd: I made the initial code for #ubuntutouch for the Pixel 9a public now: https://git.deusch.me/ubports/device-google-teguThe repository has instructions for flashing. But be aware that this is very experimental and not ready for daily use. Also again the disclaimer that AI was involved and a lot of the patches are for sure not done the proper way. You’ve been warned!#mobilelinux #ubports
Distributions
- postmarketOS Blog: postmarketOS in 2026-04: new boot splash
- postmarketOS Blog: New financed postmarketOS project: q6voice(d)
- postmarketOS edge: Switching from pbsplash to Plymouth
- Lemmy - postmarketOS: postmarketOS conference registrations are now open!
- postmarketOS Wiki New Pages: Plymouth
- postmarketOS pmbootstrap tags: 3.10.2
- Mobian Wiki: Mobian
- DanctNIX (Mastodon): You might want to upgrade danctnix-tweaks package to 0.3-5. It contains a workaround for the latest Linux vulnerability. Actual fix coming soon once the kernel compilation finishes.
- DanctNIX: "Expect a new release this month, along with new factory images."
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: A Personal Note - Farewell
- kramo: "Sly is looking for a maintainer. Please boost!https://kramo.page/sly/I had bigger ambitions with the project than I could fulfill without a more powerful Dart image library, and I do not have a personal use-case for it anymore. The code is well-architected and documented (from what I can remember), without any bugs that I am aware of.https://codeberg.org/kramo/slyIf you’re interested, please reply!"
- allpurposemat: Trying out #Gelly to listen to my self-hosted #Navidrome collection.Looks & feels pretty great on Linux mobile!
- meshy: Keep forgetting to start #Meshy? You can now enable autostart. You get also let Meshy run in the background and notify you about incoming messages.
- UndeadLeech: Kumo 1.8.1 fixes a couple bugs that probably went unnoticed by everyone but me. Baby steps.https://git.sr.ht/~undeadleech/kumo/log/v1.8.1Maybe it's time to get calls working on my Fairphone 5…#linuxmobile #catacomb #rust
- UndeadLeech: Charon 1.7.0 brings idle inhibition while the GPS is locked and fixes issues with startup on some compositors:https://git.sr.ht/~undeadleech/charon/refs/v1.7.0First time doing a release through SourceHut, seems like I should put the changelog in the tag's message.#linuxmobile #catacomb #rust #wayland
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Camera
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Parchment
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Defuse
- Phoronix: Nocturne Is The Latest Music Player For GNOME To Hit v1.0
Kernel
- phone-devel: Re: [PATCH v5 5/8] clk: qcom: gcc-msm8939: mark Venus core GDSCs as hardware controlled
- phone-devel: Re: [PATCH 1/4] dt-bindings: display: panel: Add Novatek NT37705
Stack
- Phoronix: Flattened Image Tree 1.0 Specification For Embedded Linux Systems
- Phoronix: D7VK 1.9 Brings Some Hefty Performance Improvements
- Richard Hughes: LVFS Sponsorship Announcement
- erebion: This just in:The XMPP Newsletter April 2026https://xmpp.org/2026/05/the-xmpp-newsletter-april-2026/#XMPP #Jabber #LinuxonMobile #DI_day #diday
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2026-05-08
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2026-05-04
- Matrix.org: Starting the tickets sale for The Matrix Conference
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!