LINux on MOBile

The Free Software Foundation announced a Librephone project (which remains guesswork, as their's no public recording), a project to build a smartphone based on RaspBerry Pi Compute Modules, postmarketOS report September accomplishments, and way, way more! Enjoy!

Commentary in italics.

Worth Reading

• postmarketOS Blog: postmarketOS in 2025-09: PCB v0.2, Tauchgang, immutable, cellbroadcastd, pmb 3.6.0, ppc64le, SM7150 overhaul
• FSF turns forty with a groundbreaking new project and a new president — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software
  • FSF turns forty with a groundbreaking new project and a new president | Hacker News
  • eliasr: … "Attendees say that the project was presented as an effort focused on reverse-engineering some of the blobs which stay in the way of using phones with only libre software. It is not a new OS or a new product. A website is expected soon with more details. So, we may have to wait a little for precise information about the project’s objective."
  • Free Software Foundation announces a Librephone initiative to develop a fully free and open source smartphone - Liliputing
  • At 40 Years, Free Software Foundation Now Wants to 'Free Your Phone'
  • FSF’s Librephone Targets Absolute Digital Autonomy In Mobile Tech - Open Source For You
• David Hamner: FLX1s: A New Contender in the Linux Phone Arena
• Neil Brown: Notes on running postmarketOS on a OnePlus 6 Nice report!
• Purism: Purism Defends the Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age

Worth Watching

• V electronics: Can I build a BETTER smartphone from scratch?
• V electronics: SPIRIT Smartphone Development 14
• Nostalgitech: Gnome Shell on Mobile Linux postmarketOS on OnePlus
• CodeInc: "Ubuntu Touch 24.04 LTS Released – Major Update, New Features & Encryption Support!"
• عبدالله درويش: ubuntu touch - linux os for mobile #ubuntu #ubuntu_touch #google #nexus #pixel
• security: Ubuntu touch 💻🗿 #ubuntu #linux #windows10 #hack
• 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.
• mutantCybernetics: Assembling mutantC v5.1
• David Hamner: Wow! A New Linux Phone! FLX1s

Worth Noting

• fsf: "If you missed Rob Savoye and #FSF executive director Zoë Kooyman's announcement of the LibrePhone Project, fear not! More info is coming soon. https://www.fsf.org/live"
• Purism community: T-Mobile 4G (!) shutdown beginning in 2026
  • me: …let's see where this leads… #shotonlibrem5
• Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Free Software Foundation announces a Librephone initiative to develop a fully free and open source smartphone

Event retrospectives

• cas: "really enjoyed hanging out with folks at #BoilingTheOcean , lots of exciting things to come!In case you missed it, all the notes and agenda can be found here https://pad.gnome.org/1EIXiLe8Ri2St_ayB8uRHgfeel like i could sleep for a week"
• Phosh e.V.: A short look back to #LinuxDayAT in Dornbirn: https://ev.phosh.mobi/blog/linuxday-2025-xp/ - hope to see you all next year again!#Phosh #LinuxMobile

Hardware

• V3lectronics/SPIRIT: Smartphone based on the Raspberry Pi CM 5.
• mntmn: yooo we got debian 13 iso installed and booting on MNT Quasar prototype! @cas did most of the work and tina was barking and demanding snacks
• mntmn: "absolutely incredible detailed data collection and visualization of the (potential) runtimes of 4 different MNT Reform processor modules, by @josch https://community.mnt.re/t/comparing-battery-runtime-of-rk3588-a311d-i-mx8mq-and-ls1028a/3917"

More Software News

Distributions

• Mobian mobian-recipes Issues: Please consider installing Recommends by default for forky
• postmarketOS Blog: postmarketOS in 2025-09: PCB v0.2, Tauchgang, immutable, cellbroadcastd, pmb 3.6.0, ppc64le, SM7150 overhaul
• Breaking updates in pmOS edge: Issue with Ctrl-& Alt-keys in GNOME 49 OSK
• Lemmy - postmarketOS: Is there any way to dual-boot Ubuntu Touch and PostmarketOS on the same phone?

Apps

• LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Euphonica
• LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Exhibit
• LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Powersupply
• LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Energize
• LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: TriPeaks NEUE
• peja: Gradia is perfect for annotating screenshots and images on Linux smartphones!https://flathub.org/en/apps/be.alexandervanhee.gradia#postmarketos #phosh #gnomemobile #linuxphones
  • LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Gradia
• Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Q3/2025 Progress: Over 30 apps added, again
• daniel: @joshua @rmader @dino We might be able to help with the App availability problem. Android has a great ecosystem of fantastic FLOSS apps made by a community of very talented developers. A lot of those developers are currently fed up with the bullshit Google is pulling off.
• pastelsolitude: Update on that bunny who appeared in my house and started compiling Godot templates for mobile Linux :bunhdthinking: 📱:Apparently their name is Raincloud🌧️ (they/them) and now they made a "prototype game"! It's running on PinePhone(3GB) with postmarketOS 25.06 but should work on any device that supports GLES2.It's just a proof of concept but maybe this could be turned into a proper game? #linux #mobilelinux #godot #godotengine #postmarketos #pinephone #cute #bunny #plushie

Gnome Ecosystem

• This Week in GNOME: #220 Exemplary Snake
• Planet GNOME: Allan Day: GNOME Foundation Update, 2025-10-10
  • gnome: "If you have considered applying for GNOME Foundation membership but were discouraged by our asking for a “full name,” we have news: we’ve updated our process and docs to clarify we don’t require members to submit a “legal name.”As a diverse and global community, we know that the concept of names is far more complex than many realize. What’s important is that your Foundation membership reflects who you are and how people will recognize you in our community—that’s it.https://foundation.gnome.org/membership"
• Phoronix: Phosh 0.50 Released, GNOME App Aims To Help You Learn Assembly

Phosh

• Phosh.mobi Blog: Hello from Phosh.mobi e.V.
• phosh: In case you wonder why there are no more updates coming in: The nightly package builds mentioned in https://phosh.mobi/posts/phosh-nightly/ switched from being Debian Trixie based to Debian Forky. The new suite is called forky-nightly.#Phosh
• Phosh (gotosocial): #Phosh spotted at Viscon: https://mastodon.social/@fsfe/115354797939630316 #PhoshSpotting
• Phosh (gotosocial): What kind of keyboard completion / correction are you using with #Phosh? Please boost so we hopefully get some feedback. #fe...
• agx: I keep posting these until it gets boring: #Cellbroadcast received yesterday on a #OnePlus6t running #Phosh , #cellbroadcastd and #ModemManager . Just showed up, no fiddling, just using distro packages.Although the project finished some months ago: Thanks to @NGIZero for funding work on this.

Plasma Ecosystem

• Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: a massive amount of stability work for Plasma 6.5
• Carl Schwan: This Week in KDE Apps. Nice!
• KDE Announcements: KDE Ships Frameworks 6.19.0
• KDE Announcements: KDE Gear 25.08.2
• Srisharan V S: GSoC Phase 2
• Qt blog: Qt for Python release: 6.10 is here!
• Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Qt 6.10 Released With Flexbox Layout, New SearchField
• anditosan: First Commit – Ocean Style Elements
• anditosan: Button Anatomy in the Plasma Design System
• Seshpenguin: Introducing KRetro: a Libretro game emulator from KDE! (Alpha Release)
• Phoronix: KDE Plasma 6.5 Fixing Some Of The Most Common Crashes, Other Bugs Fixed Too

Sxmo

• khobochka: "Does anyone know why would the LED of #librem5 running #pmos #sxmo blink pink non-stop when the screen is locked? This happens at any charge (25% or 87%, doesn't matter) and the blinking only stops when the screen is unlocked. There's nothing in #sxmo logs (only messages about lock), and I failed to find anything relevant at the #postmarketos wiki(This is my quarterly attempt at getting used to #sxmo in some functional way, and this is a blocker, ridiculous as it may sound 😊)#linuxmobile"
• #sxmo: @khobochka Good to hear, that's precisely the 'hackable' spirit #sxmo is designed for 😉 My own solution was to put the phone blinker-down on the nightstand so it didn't bother me at night.. (the pinephone's led was bright, oneplus 6 not so much)
• @pocketvj@fosstodon.org: @fsfe @fsf why do you not partner up with #postmarketOS for your LibrePhone Project?if you start building something on android, it will never be free as in freedom.i am honestly very disappointed and it would be nice to get a statement for the whole #linuxmobile community.thank you!

Sailfish OS

• flypig's NewPipe log: Day 160
• flypig's NewPipe log: Day 159
• flypig's NewPipe log: Day 158
• flypig's NewPipe log: Day 157
• flypig's NewPipe log: Day 156
• flypig's NewPipe log: Day 155
• #sailfishOS: @Turre @tinker @whvholst I can thoroughly recommend Whisperfish. I've used it for several years on #SailfishOS (alongside the official Electron app on Linux desktop) and it's brilliant. The developers are also amazing. I've never used the Android version.
• #sailfishOS: @Daojoan How about today??!? I'm on #SailfishOS and I love it. You need a Sony Xperia (I have 10iii) in the USA and TMobile service (can be pay as you go). f you're curious about setting one up or wanna see a demo let me know -- I am very happy to help!

Ubuntu Touch

• UBports - Development - Issues: Nix packages support, how to expose to users.. This is really cool... Nix has way more up-to-date apps than Snapcraft can offer!
• UBports - Development - Issues: Port lomiri-ui-extras to Qt 6
• UBports - Development - Issues: Port LUITK to Qt 6
• UBports - Development - Issues: Port QtUbuntu to Qt 6
• UBports - Development - Issues: Wireless display not showing any devices on 24.04-1.x via FLX1
• UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 175
• UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 174
• UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 173

Kernel

• fizzo: I just completed my first mainline driver! My goal was to enable night light on OnePlus 6 using #phosh on #postmarketos.It was a missing DRM GAMMA_LUT support in the Qualcomm Display Engine (DPU) driver.I used the downstream kernel as a reference and found the LUT format by trial and error on the phone. It was a difficult but very rewarding experience.I pushed the code here https://gitlab.com/sdm845-mainline/linux/-/merge_requests/137#note_2807562800 #linuxmobile #mainline
• phone-devel: [PATCH] ARM: dts: qcom: qcom-msm8226-samsung-ms013g: add simple-framebuffer
• phone-devel: [PATCH RFC 0/6] Battery temperature ADC plumbing on Qualcomm platforms
• igalia: "Linux v6.17 has been announced, here's what Igalia contributed to it...https://www.igalia.com/2025/10/07/Linux-617-Released.html"
• Phoronix: New Input Drivers Merged For Linux 6.18

Stack

• lwn: U-Boot v2025.10 released https://lwn.net/Articles/1041023/ #LWN
• Phoronix: Vulkan 1.4.329 Released With New Fused-Multiply Add Extension

Matrix

• Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2025-10-10

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!