Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (40/2025): Ubuntu Touch 24.04 1.0, Phosh 0.50.0 and more numbers
Table of Contents
Ubuntu Touch 24.04 lands and seriously modernizes Ubuntu Touch (and supports the Fairphone 5), Phosh sees some more polish and niceties with 0.50, another quarterly Update on LinuxPhoneApps.org, new things in the 6.17 kernel, and more! Enjoy!
Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- Jozef Mlich: Fairphone 5 with Ubuntu Touch: First Impressions
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 release
- Liliputing: Ubuntu Touch mobile Linux distro is now based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- 9to5linux: Ubuntu Touch Mobile Linux OS Is Now Finally Based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. 'Finally' is a word only people use that have forgotten the long and painful road to Ubuntu Touch 20.04. Comparatively, this was quite quick!
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 Release
- fossphones.com: Linux Phone News - September 30, 2025
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Linux Phone News - September 30, 2025
- LinuxPhoneApps.org Blog: Q3/2025 Progress: Over 30 apps added, again
- CNX Software: Linux 6.17 release - Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures. Nice to see PinePhone Pro mentioned, and so many improvements for Qualcomm and Mediatek, too.
- xnux.eu: End new donations
Worth Watching
- UBports: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 175. Good one! I like the focus on fixing user issues!
- DistroTester: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 Released Based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- ExplainingComputers: Cyberdeck Musings: The Ultimate Portable PC?
- Nostalgitech: Qwerty keyboard case for PinePhone | PINE64 stand
- Kapper1224ガジェットハッキングユーザーグループ（Kapper1224）: Install Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 on Google Pixel3a.
- Laura Malvoyante: Using Google Apps on a Linux Phone | How to use microG on Sailfish OS
- Continuum Gaming: Continuum Gaming E489: SFOS – Apokalypse, the warn app for SFOS
Worth Noting
- NekoCWD: 🐱 Yet another step to package my camera-related stuff in @alpinelinux@fosstodon.org / @postmarketOS@social.treehouse.systems.Now it's cosmetic change to #wireplumber package that enables gobject introspection.Now I can build #pipetap without hardcoded bindingsMRs: alpine postmarket
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: We Must Break The Chains
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: F-Droid warns Google’s sideloading rules will kill the project & several open-source apps
- eloquence: "For many years, activists and the annoying free software people in your area have warned that the power of app stores enables turnkey censorship. And of course there have been many examples of this, especially with repressive non-US governments getting apps removed from app stores.This is why alternative "stores" like https://f-droid.org/ are essential for free expression - and Google may soon make it impossible to meaningfully operate those, as well:https://f-droid.org/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html"
Events
Hardware (enablement)
- piggz: #SailfishOS port first steps on the @volla tablet
- justsoup: "Day 1 of trying to port mainline Linux postmarketOS to the Unihertz Jelly Pro (unihertz-jellypro). Currently trying to write a dts that the device will accept. Probably am going to have to get UART on this thing.I wish OEMs would release kernel sources so I wouldn't have to decompile the dtb from the boot image, but oh well...(Ignore the really high glare on the screen, I couldn't find a way to lower it. Its supposed to be displaying TWRP.)#Linux #PostMarketOS #MobileLinux #UniHertz"
- elly: "Started making backups before helping with GS101 and I noticed that modem partition on Pixel 6 is 200MB... so it caught my interest.As it turns out, modem on GS101 (Tensor 1) is a Samsung A5123. Connected over PCIe bus, running RTOS ("ShannonOS") on Cortex-R7. BootROM built on Feb 14 2022, 10:20:38.No wonder this thing gets so bloody hot when you enable 5G :blobcat_bonk_googly_large_trout:"
- danctnix: "Bluetooth driver for @pine64 #PineTab2 is now available on the latest kernel (6.16.9-danctnix1).To test it out, you need to enable the bluetooth service on your ALARM install and install the latest kernel from danctnix-testing repository."
- senderolinux: "Sendero Linux now offers refurbished OnePlus 6T smartphones pre-installed with postmarketOS.Intended for enthusiasts and tinkerers, these devices are not meant to be a daily driver.The pmOS goal of reducing e-waste with #Linux fits nicely with our existing business selling refurbished laptops with Linux.We offer free shipping within the USA. Check out the shop for more details: https://senderolinux.com/shop/@postmarketOS @linmob #MobileLinux #postmarketos #LinuxOnMobile #phosh"
- mntmn: "yay, it's that time again, MNT September 2025 Update is out, written by @holo_memory. lots of fun stuff, check it out: https://mntre.com/media/reform_md/2025-09-30-september-update.html"
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #219 Deciphering Hieroglyphs
- Allan Day: GNOME Foundation Update, 2025-10-03
- Ignacio Casal Quinteiro: Servo GTK
- Hans de Goede: Fedora 43 will ship with FOSS Meteor, Lunar and Arrow Lake MIPI camera support
- Victoria Lacroix: How to write a complete GNOME application in Lua
Phosh
- phosh: "phosh 0.50.0 is out 🚀📱:We have some new features, quality of life improvements, (a bit more than usual) under the hood work and 🐛 fixes, check out the full release notes at https://phosh.mobi/releases/rel-0.50.0/ for details or see 👇 for a short 🧵🙏 to everyone who contributed to this release.#phosh #Librem5 #PinePhone #gtk #wlroots #gnome #linux #mobile #LinuxMobile"
- Phosh: Phosh 0.50.0
- agx: My #FreeSoftware Activities for September 2025:Mostly #phosh/ #LinuxMobile related maintenance but I do enjoy the OSK improvements: See https://honk.sigxcpu.org/con/Free_Software_Activities_September_2025.html details🙏 to everyone supporting this!
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: 6.5 beta 2
- KDE Announcements: KDE Plasma 6.5 Beta Release
- Carl Schwan: This Week in KDE Apps
- Volker Krause: August/September in KDE Itinerary
- Yelsin 'yorisoft' Sepulveda: GSoC'25 KWin Project Blog Post: Week 5-6
- Qt.io: OpenAI Users Can Now Enjoy Better QML Coding Performance – Qt AI Assistant v0.9.6 Released!
- George Florea Bănuș: Haruna 1.5
- Phoronix: KDE Plasma 6.5 Sees More Fixes & More Early Feature Work For Plasma 6.6
Sxmo
Sailfish OS
- Community News - Sailfish OS Forum: Sailfish Community News, 2nd October 2025 - GCC 13
- #sailfishOS: #NewPipe #SailfishOS dev diary day 153. I'm back writing daily dev diaries again! ✍️Today I'm returning to QtMultimedia and GStreamer.https://www.flypig.co.uk/newpipe?&list_id=1390&list=newpipe
Ubuntu Touch
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 release
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 released.
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 175 call for questions.
- ubports: We are very pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0. This is the first Stable release of Ubuntu Touch based on 24.04 Noble Numbat.Full details can be found in the following blog:https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/ubuntu-touch-24-04-1-0-release-3973#UbuntuTouch #UBports #Noble #Ubuntu #linux
- UBports - Development - Issues: [FEATURE REQUEST?] Pass gps data to gpsd or /dev/stdin
- UBports - Development - Issues: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 release update Google Pixel 3a
- Lioh: I have updated uAdBlockNG to support the latest Ubuntu Touch release based on Ubuntu 24.04 (noble) https://next.open-store.io/app/uadblockng.liohmoeller/#adblock #ubtouch #ubuntutouch #linuxmobile
Kernel
- CNX Software: Linux 6.17 release - Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures
- Phoronix: F2FS Lands Performance Improvements In Linux 6.18
- Phoronix: Linux 6.18 Will Be A Big Improvement For Servers Encountering DDoS Attacks
- Phoronix: Linux 6.18 Lands Compress-Offload API For Opus Audio Codec
- Phoronix: Linux 6.18 Device Tree Prepares For Arm C1 Nano / Pro / Premium / Ultra CPUs
- Phoronix: Sheaves Merged For Linux 6.18 - Can Help With Better Performance
- Phoronix: Linus Torvalds Vents Over "Completely Crazy Rust Format Checking"
- phone-devel: [PATCH] arm64: dts: qcom: msm8916-samsung-rossa: Move touchscreen to common device tree
- phone-devel: Re: [PATCH 4/5] arm64: dts: qcom: qcm6490-shift-otter: Use correct compatible for audiocc
- phone-devel: Re: [PATCH v3 00/11] arm64: dts: qcom: sdm845-lg-{common, judyln}: Improve HW support in dts
Distributions
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): @sajattack had fun with an old Commodore floppy drive 💾 💾 "The old floppy drive is plugged into a Google Pixel 3 running Postmarket OS. Sure, you could do this on Android, but a fully open Linux system is obviously the hacker’s choice. As a bonus, it makes the whole endeavor almost trivial."https://hackaday.com/2025/09/27/how-many-phones-sport-a-5-and-1-4-diskette-drive-this-one/
- ollieparanoid: ":terminal: 3.5 months after 3.5.0, I'm happy to announce that pmbootstrap 3.6.0 is tagged with tons of improvements and fixes, thanks to everybody who contributed! ❤️Highlights:* pmbootstrap init --shallow-initial-clone* kconfig: support tristate values* envkernel: build u-boot too* ppc64le, loongarch64* 32-bit capable CPU check for aarch64 (not all can do 32-bit arm!)* bootimg v3/v4 support* performance: finding pmaports pkgs is faster* systemd kernel checkshttps://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmbootstrap/-/tags/3.6.0"
- ncopa: Alpine Linux is moving to a /usr-merged filesystem layout.https://alpinelinux.org/posts/2025-10-01-usr-merge.html#AlpineLinux #usrmerge
- Phoronix: Ubuntu 25.10 Ready With "Stubble" For Better ARM64 Experience
Apps
- Carl Schwan: This Week in KDE Apps
- Drew Naylor: Turns out there's a program to import Android messages to Linux phones: https://gitlab.com/l2385/AndroidImpEx This was mentioned in the latest FOSSPhones post.#MobileLinux #LinuxMobile #LinuxPhones
- LinuxPhoneApps.org Blog: Q3/2025 Progress: Over 30 apps added, again
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Hieroglyphic
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Public Alerts
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Damask
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Organic Maps
- vtrlx: Want to write a #GNOME app in #Lua? My new guide is the definitive tutorial for doing so.https://www.vtrlx.ca/posts/2025/howto-complete-lua-gnome-app/#LuaGObject
Stack
- Phoronix: Cairo-Dock 3.6 Released With Wayland Support & HiDPI
- Phoronix: ISD 0.6 Released For Interactive Systemd Management
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2025-10-03
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!