Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (38/2026): Two Releases and a Conference
Table of Contents
Maemo Leste's 2026 "Excalibur" released, GNOME 51 including Libadwaita 1.10, too; with KDE Akademy currently happening. Sailfish OS 5.2 is nearly ready, good news with regard to the Pixel 9a, and more!
Collected on Sunday, September 20th 2026, 10:36 UTC and finished on the same day. Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- FuriLabs: Vulkan Cross-Platform 3D Graphics
- FuriLabs: Face Unlock Arrives on FuriOS for the FLX Range
- Maemo Leste: Maemo Leste - 2026 Excalibur release. Impressive!
- GamingOnLinux: Lepton from Valve to run Android games on Linux is now open source
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Lepton from Valve to run Android games on Linux is now open source
- Knievelcat at Datenspuren 2026: How-To: Mainline Linux auf dein Handy porten. German.
- LINux on MOBile: MCF20: Flatpak support, sorta, kinda
Worth Watching
Note: This video section is based on select feeds and fediverse accounts and thus very likely incomplete. See the "Personal Note" in 25/2026 for reasons - please help out and add relevant videos you enjoy to the pad.
- Luca Weiss: FrOSCon 2026 - Automated testing of a phone operating system
- Linux Stuff: Juno Tab 4 (Wifi) - Drawing Tablet
- Continuum Gaming: Using a VPN-Connection on SFOS (Continuum Gaming E540)
- UBports: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 199
Worth Noting
- turbobob: "RE: https://mastodon.social/@aboutsignal/117280361670776781 Coming at last? Hopefully."Signal Desktop currently has no standalone registration process, but Signal is working on making Desktop available as a primary, standalone device."— https://aboutsignal.com/news/signal-desktop-without-a-mobile-phone-standalone-version-in-development/Signal without requiring an iOS or Android smartphone would indeed be a much welcome development!@signalapp #Signal #Linux #LinuxPhone #PC #Desktop #UserFreedom #Privacy #PostmarketOS #PinePhone #Librem5"
- r/MobileLinux: NixOS on Google Pixel 4
- r/MobileLinux: Nothing phone 1 Spacewar (another update)
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Are there any small linux phones?. No, not really, also because there are so few new phones that deserve to be called small. The smallest post 2010 devices I have are the Droid 4 (no LTE IIRC), and the rabbit r1 (not really a phone). That aside, there's appears to be only niche stuff that's either Mediatek or quite pricey, like the Qualcomm SM 4450 powered Light Phone III.
Hardware (enablement)
- dawndrums: "A look beneath the surface of Divine D.The mechanical design is coming together, with the AMOLED display, MainPCB, cameras, frames and internal components.#dawndrums #OpenHardware #LinuxMobile #FOSS #DivineD"
- dawndrums (Mastodon): @hrast The screen has rounded corners, yes.
- marcus: Let’s go! First successful dp alt mode connection with mainline Pixel 9 pro #nixos #linuxmobile
- sd: DisplayPort Alt-Mode works! Big thank you to @marcus for the groundwork #mobilelinux #pixel9a
- sd: The good news is that I fixed the WiFi to still be powered in suspend and now it does not crash shortly after waking any more. So after the night everything still runs smoothly. There are still other non frequent WiFi crashes (about once in 24h idle), but other than that things are quite stable #mobilelinux #pixel9a
- marcus: Let’s go! First successful dp alt mode connection with mainline Pixel 9 pro #nixos #linuxmobile
Events
- me: "Next #GoeLinuxOnMobile #meeting is Monday 21st of September 19:30.+We'll meet at the Strandhaus37 in #Göttingen/#Weende. If you'd like to join us for talk about #LinuxOnMobile, digtial #souvereignity, #FLOSS you can easily find us by looking for a table with phones scattered about :)."
- Phosh e.V.: Our next online community get together is in a little more than a week on 2026-09-22 19:00 CEST: https://ev.phosh.mobi/gettogether/ .Join us! Everyone interested in Phosh is welcome.#LinuxMobile #Phosh #phoshev
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #266 Fifty One!
- Planet GNOME: Aryan Kaushik: GUADEC 2026 Experience
- Michael Catanzaro: Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilities in NetworkManager Plugins
- Carlos Garnacho: On mobile and peer pressure
- Jakub Steiner: GNOME 51 Wallpapers
- Alice Mikhaylenko: Libadwaita 1.10
- Allan Day: GNOME Foundation Update, September 2026
- Jakub Steiner: Building Flatpaks Locally
- Phoronix: GNOME OS Turns To Zswap To Deal With OOM Issues, Progress On Geary Email Client Fork
Phosh
- agx: "@phosh users: There are some regressions regarding OSK input (like the keyboard showing too often or text prediction not working) when using #Phosh with apps using #gtk 4.24. So if possible please stick to 4.22 just a bit longer, until these are resolved. Note that this also applies to Flatpaks using the GNOME 51 runtime. Maybe #Flatpak maintainers that want to help mobile users could stick to the 50 runtime just a little bit longer too.#LinuxMobile"
- #phosh: @agx @hugoposnic Managed to unlock the screen from ssh. The typing input is now bonkers, see video. I have the impression that there are two touch keyboards active simultaneously, maybe the emergency debug keyboard is invisible but active?https://bpa.st/RUTQ#postmarketos #phosh
- me: "#PostmarketOS allows to have multiple users. If automatic login is disabled on start a login screen is shown presented by #greetd typically running as the system user greetd. … "
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: Let the Polishing Begin
- KDE e.V. News: KDE e.V. is looking for a Software Infrastructure and Continuous Delivery Engineer
- Carl Schwan: Imprint 1.0 and Kirigami Addons 1.14.0
- Volker Krause: Support for the xx-cutouts-v1 #Wayland protocol landed in #Qt yesterday, which means Qt's SafeArea API will then also work with Wayland compositors supporting this protocol.So far only @phosh implements this on the compositor side, now #KDE apps will have the means to stay away from display cutouts/notches there automatically, reusing all the work we have done for this on the app and framework level for Android already.#LinuxMobile
- ervin: KDE at 30: What Are the Colored Blobs Telling Us?
- Qt blog: Canvas2D: New QML canvas element using Qt Canvas Painter
- Phoronix: KDE Plasma 6.8 Seeing More Polishing & Fixes, Plasma 6.9 Begins Seeing More Activity
- VolkerKrause: "#Akademy2026 starts today! At 17:55 I'll talk about how we use continuous delivery (CD) builds for Itinerary, and show a way how we could potentially reduce the entry barrier for contributing to #KDE applications - https://conf.kde.org/event/11/contributions/319/"
Sailfish OS
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: Community meeting on October 1, 2026
- The Official Jolla Blog: Greetings from Kaupinoja hackday
- adampigg: You can now update your #fxtec #pro1x to #sailfish 5.1. Just make sure your /usr/share/ssu/adaptation-community.ini looks like the following, then ssu ur, zypper ref, zypper dup.[adaptation-community]repos = adaptation-communitypattern = Feature community adaptationdescription = Enable ssu for community ports[repositories]adaptation-community = https://repo.sailfishos.org/obs/nemo:/testing:/hw:/fxtec:/halium-qx1050:/%(releaseMajorMinor)/sailfishos_%(releaseMajorMinor)%(arch)adaptation-halium = https://repo.sailfishos.org/obs/nemo:/testing:/hw:/halium:/11:/%(releaseMajorMinor)/sailfishos%(releaseMajorMinor)_%(arch)
- jolla: "Yesterday, we gathered at Kaupinoja Sauna in Tampere for a planning day that turned into a hackday as the evening rolled in. 🔧🔥 Update to Sailfish OS 5.2 is coming soon. We’re putting the finishing touches on the release and working through the last few fixes. Once they’re sorted and integrated, we’ll be ready to roll it out to all supported devices. Want a glimpse of the day? Check out behind-the-scenes video and join discussion in Sailfish Forum https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/33686 Filmed with a Jolla Phone, of course 🫶 #Jolla #SailfishOS #DigitalSovereignty #PrivacyFirst #CommunityPowered #European"
- jolla: We’re updating the Jolla Phone memory configurations and pricing going forward. If you haven’t completed your order yet, complete your final payment by September 20 to take advantage of this benefit before the new pricing takes effect. A reminder for our October batch pre-order customers: your final payment will be automatically charged to your selected payment method. 👉 Read the full details from the Official Jolla Blog: https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/33141 #Jolla #SailfishOS #DigitalSovereignty #PrivacyFirst #CommunityPowered #European
- frankps: Piirit is a beautiful designed Delta Chat client for Sailfish OS. A native Delta Chat client has been high on the Community’s wishlist and now it’s here! Please give the developer feedback.Piirit is perhaps the first “Gnome app” running on Sailfish OS!https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/piirit-a-native-sailfish-os-client-for-delta-chat/33806?u=frankps#SailfishOS #DeltaChat #Gnome Nah, looks native, I don't see anything looking GTK there..
- pancake: Wanna port or run #gnome software in your #sailfishos phone? I just packaged some of the gtk stack in here so you can reuse it like i do for Parla (the deltachat client) https://trufae.github.io/sailfishos-gnome/. Cool! I was under the impression that parts of the Sailfish OS stack lacked features necessary to use GTK, but I may have been misinformed there. Looks like I need to dust of my Xperia 10 III and check if this actually works..
- sn: Hauler - Mastodon client for #sailfishos v0.6.0 just dropped, today something special:- add masto.kukei.eu integration making it the best native client for this website on the market (and only)- unread notification badgesWhy it's so significant to me with that masto.kukei.eu integration?, read more, first screenshots.https://openrepos.net/content/sznowicki/hauler-mastodon-client
Ubuntu Touch
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 199
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 198
- UBports Forums OS: Call for testing: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.5
- UBports Forums OS: Call for testing: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.1
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 199 call for questions
- arubislander: I did a thing 😅#ubports #ubuntutouch #mobilelinux
- openvibes: Today I released version 1.1.0 of vibeSounds.The vibeSounds project includes two apps for Ubuntu Touch: a music player and an audiobook player. … https://codefloe.com/OpenVibes/vibeSoundsDownloads: https://codefloe.com/OpenVibes/vibeSounds/releases#opensource #ubuntutouch #Ubuntu_Touch #linux #ubuntu #smartphone #app #music #audiobooks #vibecoding #ai
- cibersheep: "Ja disponible a s'OpenStore #PodCat v1.5 i què he oblidat? Canviar el nombre de versió i afegir els crèdits... Aaaai.Mida de l'aplicació? 273Kb, ~1mb instal·lada.Donacions rebudes enguany? 3.Salut@ubports @ubportsnews"
- fredldotme: "Okay, to keep it short and clear:Google Pixel 9a is now in the UBports InstallerUses our generic Halium kernel (based on android14-6.1) and halium-16.0."
- fredldotme: "Ok, a more in-depth explanation: The Pixel 9a already supports Snaps like LXD or Docker, has reliable Aethercast sessions working (that means connection attempts work every time, all the time), and should provide a good base to support with regular updates.It still lacks a VoLTE plugin (ie ofono-binder-plugin-whatever-ext), so if anybody want to be a hero for Ubuntu Touch: this is it."
Maemo Leste
- Maemo Leste: Maemo Leste - 2026 Excalibur release. Impressive! And... how was that post not get collected when it was new? Or is the date just misleading?
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Maemo Leste - 2026 Excalibur release
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Charon
- UndeadLeech: "Charon 1.10.0 brings several significant changes, some highlights including: - Travel speed indicator - Map rotation - Prioritization of area in the direction of travelFull Changelog:https://git.sr.ht/~undeadleech/charon/refs/v1.10.0#linuxmobile #catacomb #maps"
- etbe – Russell Coker: Nheko DBUS
- CoMaps: "@janvlug There aren't concrete plans for that currently - having some active Mobile Linux developers is probably the main bottleneck. One of the talk presenters recently got a Linux phone, but I think it would need more people.In other words, we're not intentionally not improving it but would need some more folks interested & able to work on that!". IMHO, a few small fixes to the Qt-based desktop client and it's dialogues (e.g., reordering the buttons in the one that pops up when you tap something) would go a long way - but then I use CoMaps Desktop on mobile in the state it is to look at local maps, so ... maybe I am just not the sane person to ask here.
Kernel
- phone-devel: [PATCH v4 00/23] dmaengine: ste_dma40: Fix numerous accumulated bugs
- Phoronix: Apple Video Decode Driver Posted For Upstream Linux Kernel Review
- Phoronix: Linux Kernel Build Times Ready To Be Significantly Reduced With Latest Patches
- Phoronix: Simple Optimization For Linux 7.4 Can Open Files For Reading ~39% Faster
- Phoronix: Google's "Painful To Maintain" Binder C Linux Driver Being Removed In Favor Of Rust
- Phoronix: New Linux Driver Coming To Improve ASUS Zenbook Snapdragon X2 Support
Stack
- Phoronix: Jemalloc 5.4 Released With Portability Improvements, Code Cleanups
- Phoronix: Mojo 1.1 Released, Now Accepting Community Contributions To The Compiler
- Phoronix: Rust Coreutils 0.12 Released With Fixes Sought By Ubuntu
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2026-09-18
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!