Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (41/2026): Fairphone 5 Calling
Table of Contents
Phosh 0.58.0 is out, Fairphone 5 now has calls and cameras working on Nura edge, and Jolla won the Open World Hero 2026 award, and more!
Collected on Sunday, October 11th 2026, 16:12 UTC and finished on the same day. Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- amosbbatto: Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?. Looooooong. Apologies to everybody reading this for me missing this post on Purism forums.
- Nura: Nura in 2026-09: FP5, ME30 Call Audio Routing
- etbe – Russell Coker: A Power Case for a FOSS Phone. Remember this? These days I just use a Pixel 3a and its fine.
- etbe – Russell Coker: Kdeconnect DBUS
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.
- Continuum Gaming: WhatsUp – Native App for WhatsApp on Sailfish OS (Continuum Gaming E543)
- Tomás: Addressing YouTube comments, more Jolla, more camera talk.
- Jolla: Jolla Phone 2026 - SailfishOS 5.2.0.18 upgrade, impressions and more features of Sailfish https://friprogramvarusyndikatet.tv/w/dj9VcqTe7cgUCfBiee8vuj
Worth Noting
- valpackett: at #ekoparty today because I was invited to present about the #nuraeco #p2panda "free software iPhone" vision and stuff. among all the vendorslop in the main hall, this watch_dogs ass mock surveillance camera was a highlight i guess, it accidentally referenced my name even??#shotonnura
- pine64: Yeah, it runs DOOM. There is no release time-frame right now for the PineTime Pro as general pre-production issues are still being ironed out (improved boards are being sent out as we speak). We are all crossing our fingers for it to be available sometime before FOSDEM 2027! Thanks to @JF for getting this to work and sharing the video!#pine64 #pinetime #doom
- dos: I wonder: will Android or iOS ever become a viable alternative to Linux phones?Apple started quick and announced the iPhone just a few months after a GNU/Linux smartphone. Google took a bit longer with Android - but now they both had nearly 20 years, and yet they're still nowhere close to being able to replace GNU/Linux phones. Will they ever up their game and finally create a device worth switching to? I have my doubts, but we’ll see.#linuxphones #linuxmobile #mobilelinux
- r/MobileLinux: Jolla Phone 2026 Review
- r/MobileLinux: Do established mobile linux projects benefit from AI-supported ports?
Events
Hardware (enablement)
- David Heidelberg: Since Friday, BengalOS gained support for DisplayPort on SHIFT 6MQ.This is a new addition to the recently added USB-C role switching (OTG).Kernel support included from the
sdm845-next-20260820-15tag, if you want to integrate it into your project!#SHIFT #BengalOS #SHIFT6mq #DisplayPort #sdm845 #LinuxMobile #MobileLinux. Great work! That said: Selling my Shift6mq in March 2026 because I felt "nah, this thing won't ever get the attention it should have in #LinuxMobile, giving up" must be one of my worst decisions ever. So stupid. - wrenix: First version of Calling is supported on Edge with systemd on @postmarketOS / @nura for the #fairphone5 and some more devices and distros based on the sc7280-mainline kernel.a big thank to @z3ntu , @bshah , @valpackett, @UndeadLeech and many more. starting from here https://social.treehouse.systems/@postmarketOS/116007536246724076PS: It is the first #fairphone which supports calls on a mainline-kernel. But i see work for the #FP4 too#FP5 #nuraEco #linuxonmoble #postmarkeros
- oleksii: I didn't know, but main camera just works on #fairphine5 @nura edge #postmarketos, #phosh #linuxmobile #mobilelinux
- isyourbrainFOSS: Finally got the finger print sensor working on the #Fairphone5 with #nura (#postmarketos) edge and #phosh #mobilelinux !In the video, I first try to unlock with unregistered finger, and then switch to the index finger which is registered.Same disclaimer as other bring ups: I have not written any code by hand. However this has been more painful to get working than other HW as it has required a lot of finger presses and my presence.https://github.com/isyourbrainfoss/fp5-qtee
- austriancoder: For some time, I have been working to support GPU timestamps in etnaviv. With recent GPUs it is possible to read out performance related counter values directly in the command stream - no mmio magic in the kernel needed 😃 There are still some rough edges to fix and investigate, but it's great to see how long different GPU operations take.Also it opens the door to support extensions like ARB_timer_query.#etnaviv #mesa
- UndeadLeech: Just updated my alsa-ucm-conf-qcom-sc7280 ArchLinux package for the #Fairphone 5; dropping the last remaining custom call audio patch. So happy to finally see this working so well without any custom patches.Really looking forward to more people getting to benefit from this once it lands in #nura.#linuxmobile
- marcus: TIL about system.replaceDependencies (https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=unstable&query=replaceDependencies&type=options#show=option%253Asystem.replaceDependencies.replacements) which is brilliant for my #nixos libcamera hacking #linuxmobile Captured my first frame of the moto g17 I picked up last week on Linux mainline #mobilelinux #abstractart Tap to focus on the moto g17 with cosmic camera #linuxmobile
- sv1sjp: Native Linux on old phones is getting much easier. My dead 10-year-old Xiaomi Mi Max 2 (oxygen, MSM8953) now runs Nura (postmarketOS) with working camera, torch, SIM, calls and SMS. AI sped up the manual work, plus my own knowledge. Only the loudspeaker is left.Drivers and research are up for anyone who wants to install them, or study them and write the patches by hand for mainline:Link:https://github.com/sv1sjp/mi-max2-oxygen-msm8953-nura-drivers#nura #postmarketOS #Linux #LinuxMobile #OpenSource #Xiaomi #MiMax2 #oxygen
- Lemmy - Nura: Xiaomi Mi Max 2 (oxygen, MSM8953) now has working camera and calls on Nura
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #269 Permission Admission
- GNOME Internationalization & Localization: GNOME 51 localization & news about Damned Lies
- Sophie Herold: GNOME Fellowship September 2026
- Philipp Sauberzweig: Fellowship Update, 2026-10-07
- Peter Eisenmann: Fellowship Report September 2026 (Moria)
Phosh
- Phosh Releases: Phosh 0.58.0
- Phosh (gotosocial): Forgot that in the release notes yesterday: Our video player livi has been released too. 0.6.0 brings A reworked playback speed menu Improved MPRIS interface Loading of external subtitle files Avoiding of glsinkbin Thanks @tpikonen @rmader Already available as "Light Video" on flathub: https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.sigxcpu.Livi #phosh #livi #LinuxMobile
- Phosh (gotosocial): phosh 0.58.0 is out 🚀📱: It's mostly 🐛 fixes this time around but also some quality of life improvements and more hardware support in BengalOS: Check out the full release notes at https://phosh.mobi/releases/rel-0.58.0/ for details or see 👇 for a short 🧵 🙏 to everyone who contributed to this release. #phosh #gtk #wlroots #gnome #linux #mobile #LinuxMobile #Librem5 #PinePhone #BengalOS
- jbz: 🐧 Phosh 0.58 mejora Wayland, Flatpak y el teclado https://www.linuxadictos.com/phosh-0-58-mejora-wayland-flatpak-el-teclado-y-las-capturas-de-pantalla.html#phosh #wayland #mobilelinux
- phosh: Some changes in other components:phosh-first-boot now uses systemd-homed's LUKS backend by default so users get an encrypted home directory without by default, we also add the user to the sudo group by default. Distributions can override the systemd-homed backend and the initial groups when needed.Phosh file selector allows one to mount network volumes and SD-cards now too:xgmobile now has support for the Google Pixel 3XL (crosshatch), the Pixel 9 works now and the cutout data for the Fairphone 5 was improved (by redburn).5/x #systemd #firstboot #phosh #gmobile
- phosh: Phosh's startup tracking improved considerably so that apps that take longer to start (e.g. Flatpaks on devices with slow I/O) no longer produce "Application is slow or failed to start" notifications. The ticket-box plugin got several issues fixed too (by Sparkd).3/x #phosh
- phosh: Make sure to check out the full release notes and our June progress reports.7/7 #phosh
- phosh: For the ☕ quick setting one can now select what to inhibit: idle, suspend or both. This is useful on Qualcomm phones that are often configured to not wake up from suspend on phone calls:2/x #phosh
- phosh: Sparkd made the notification that is shown after taking a screenshot actually useful. You can either open the screenshot in an image viewer or open the screenshot folder (video runs at 2x speed)1/x #phosh
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: Finishing Touches on 6.8
- KDE Announcements: KDE Ships Frameworks 6.31.0
- KDE Announcements: KDE Gear 26.08.2
- renaudguezennec: QML Quick Editor: my QtCreator extension has been integrated
- Qt blog: Celebrating 30 years of KDE at Akademy 2026
- Sotch_Nam: I made a KDE dialler that answers my phone calls
Sxmo
- ifreund: River 0.5.0 is released!Now there's nothing stopping you from writing a river window manager for your mainline Linux phone!https://codeberg.org/river/river/releases/tag/v0.5.0
- Lioh: Zur Entspannung nutze ich einen Tiling-Windowmanager auf meinem Handy. Was das genau ist und wie das geht, habe ich hier im Podcast einmal erklärt: https://gnulinux.ch/ciw089-podcastDamit ich nicht jedes Mal nach der Installation von Nura alles manuell einrichten muss, habe ich ein Post-Install-Script geschrieben, das ich gerne mit euch teilen möchte: https://gnulinux.ch/nura-mit-sxmo-einrichten#sxmo #nura #postmarketos #linuxmobile
- gnulinux: Nura mit SXMO einrichtenMit diesem Post-Install-Skript richtest du Nura mit Sxmo schnell und nachvollziehbar nach den eigenen Vorlieben ein. https://gnulinux.ch/nura-mit-sxmo-einrichten#linux #sxmo #nura #linuxmobile
Sailfish OS
- Community News - Sailfish OS Forum: Sailfish Community News, October 8, 2026 - Open World Hero award
- @jolla@techhub.social: Jolla received the Open World Hero 2026 recognition from COSS today at MindTrek in Tampere. This is great recognition, not only of our work but of the whole open Sailfish community.To everyone who has built, ported, tested and believed in Sailfish OS over the years: this one belongs to you ❤️Link to the news: https://coss.fi/open-world-hero/sailfish-osn-kehittaja-jolla-palkittiin-open-world-hero-2026-tunnustuksella/ (In Finnish 🇫🇮)(Photo: Konsta Lattu)#Jolla #SailfishOS #DigitalSovereignty #PrivacyFirst #CommunityPowered #European #COSSFI #OpenWorldHero #Mindtrek26
- timojyrinki: I got my hands on #Commodore #SailfishOS device - #Callback 8020. Damn cool device, and good looking too!#Mindtrek #Mindtrek26 #Linux #Linuxphone
- scops: To get into Sailfish OS again after roughly 3 years android is hard. Many things must be set up, transferred and man is it a fuckup to get OTP tokens out of FreeOTP for example. Nevertheless, the Jolla Phone 2026 is a nice device. The vibe, the design - besides the notch... wtf, jolla?! - is sooo nice. I love the glowing jolla logo xD nevertheless, the build quality of my shiftphone is better. But the Jolla can be a daily driver for me when I set up all I need. Main problems are the shutter time on the cam - the quality is fully ok for me - matrix, xmpp and otp, atm.@shiftphones what about partnering with jolla to get Sailfish OS on the Shiftphone officially? :)#sailfishos #jollaphone2026 #jolla #shift #shifthappens
- frankps: It is fun to use mobile phones again! Every day I check the Sailfish OS forum for new apps and try them out…Today I came over the first test build of the unofficial Organic Maps port to Sailfish OS (Silica UI on top of the Organic Maps core).https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/organic-maps-port-for-sailfish-os/34577?u=frankps#SailfishOS #OrganicMaps #LinuxMobile #JollaPhone2026
- RandySimons: For the Dutch #sailfishos users: a sneak preview of my new neerslagradar app. A port (and upgrade) of the old Buienradar app for the Nokia N9, but now using #KNMI maps and data.
- frankps: Piirit - The native Delta Chat client is out in a new version with more functionality, fixes and changes:https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/piirit-a-native-sailfish-os-client-for-delta-chat/33806/37?u=frankps#Piirit #DeltaChat #SailfishOS #LinuxMobile #JollaPhone2026 #OpenSource
- jasperamorgan: If you own a Jolla C2 and are struggling with the Portrait/Landscape rotation, you can fix it this way:https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/c2-orientation-fixed-to-landscape-after-reboot/20750/11?u=jasperamorganIt's a manual fix so won't survive if you flash your phone.#sailfishos #jolla
- Jourei: Would be nice if I could reach some Jolla 2026 or SailfishOS UI people with this message:The mastodon feed under the calendar, notifications etc. It should blur/hide posts marked as NSFW.#Jolla #sailfishos
- Mehrad: Does anyone know a way to install Flatpak software on #SailfishOS?I only found this thread:https://together.jolla.com/question/225265/installing-flatpak-app/And this abandoned project:https://github.com/sailfishos-flatpak#jollaphone2026 #Jolla
- frankps: The app SailCat is a frontend for AI and LLMs. It is out in a new version and works really well with on-prem AI infrastructure.I'm using it with the open-weight reasoning model get-oss-120b LLM model by OpenAI.https://openrepos.net/content/nicosouv/sailcat#AI #SailCat #SailfishOS #JollaPhone2026
Ubuntu Touch
- UBports Forums OS: Issues with MMS sending/receiving, reporting behavior
- Visionaire: The future is today! 🤟 😎 #UBPorts #MobileLinux #LinuxMobile #Linux #UbuntuTouch #ViernesdeEscritorio
- leanderlindahl: There seems to be absolutely nothing for this device 😢 #eos #LineageOS, #UbuntuTouch, #GrapheneOS, #postmarketos nothingIf I understand this now after searching, you need a "build" specifically for Lenovo TAB M8 TB300FU and then, if you have that, you're to "flash it" (whatever that means, hopefully it doesn't involve a trench coat)
- leanderlindahl: I wanted to install /e/OS or Ubuntu Touch on my old Lenovo Tab M8 (4th gen), but it seems not to be possible. Any tips for an easy installer to put a nice OS on it and avoid the clutches of Google? ...without killing myself in the process, i.e. without having to spend many hours of trial and error. I want something that's easy to install. #eos #lineageos #grapheneos #ubuntutouch(I already put it in dev mode and enabled USB transfer)Edit: Apparently the device model is TB300FU
- Lioh: My host based AdBlocker uAdBlockNG has been updated to support /etc/hosts writable paths. This change was necessary in order to make it work on the latest Ubuntu Touch release. Thanks to @fredldotme for the help https://open-store.io/app/uadblockng.liohmoeller/#ubuntutouch #ubtouch #linuxmobile
- Lioh: I have managed to make a Video call with DeltaChat on Ubuntu touch on a Redmi Note 9 Pro
Distributions
- Nura: Nura in 2026-09: FP5, ME30 Call Audio Routing
- Breaking updates in Nura edge: System may not boot after postmarketos-base upgrade
- Breaking updates in Nura edge: System may not boot on kernels older than 7.2 with systemd 262
- Nura pmaports Merge Requests: Draft: Fairphone 4 microphone support
- Nura Wiki New Pages: Security
- Nura pmbootstrap tags: 3.12.0
- Mobian mobian-recipes Merge Requests: Draft: Improve devices/qcom/bootloader.sh by making sure BASE and a complete set of bootimg parameters is passed to mkbootimg
- Mobian Wiki: Mobian
- FuriLabs: FuriOS Glass Theme. Can't innovate any more my ass ;-)
- FuriLabs: GOSIM Open Source Talk 2026
- LiquidParasyte: Huh, it's out now, and is apparently written from scratch, with an original compositor, available on phones, tablets, and computers. How is that possible? "Luma uses AI. Lots of it!" Oh, that's how, lmao #straight-to-ignore #SimplyLuma #LinuxMobile
- hadrianweb.net: Phosh 0.58.0 now building on openSUSE OBS for mobile 📱• phosh, phoc, xdg-desktop-portal-phosh, phosh-mobile-settings → 0.58.0• wlroots: + text-input-v3 v2 patches• Regenerated Rust vendorAll green on aarch64 ✅@phosh@social.phosh.mobi @opensuse.org@bsky.brid.gy
- ncopa: @alpinelinux now has a new "Documentation Team" lead: @whynothugo https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/council/-/work_items/710#AlpineLinux #FOSS
- craftyguy: The first #duranium images for the fairphone 6 are now up!https://duranium.nura.eco/Thank you @gingermusketeer and @z3ntu for lending me devices last week when I was in the EU!And HUGE thank you to @mariob@liberdon.com for helping painstakingly me debug issues remotely. Your patience is legendary 🤣#nuraeco
Apps
- mlundblad: Nice that we now have timetable data for Chinese railways in Transitous (and thus in Maps and other apps using it).#transitous #ChinaRailway #gnomemaps #mapstodon #PublicTransit
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Drizzle
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Keycord | LinuxPhoneApps.org
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Era
- CAIS: misc-de App für das FLX1
- gdr: I need ideas for a name for an Audiobookshelf client for the mobile Linux I'm about to release soon. GTK/Phosh.Caveat is, it can't have "Audiobookshelf" in its name as per https://audiobookshelf.org/docs/faq/app#i-want-to-build-a-client-app-what-are-the-rules#linuxmobile #phosh #librem5 #audiobookshelf #selfhosting
- lobsters: Making a GTK application in Haskell, part 1 https://lobste.rs/s/xmir2s #graphics #haskellhttps://floreal.tech/blog/2026/making-a-gtk-app-in-haskell-part-1/
- Nura mobile-config-firefox tags: 5.5.1. This one supports both Firefox ESR 140 AND Firefox ESR 153. Future ESR transitions are going to be soo much smoother, now that we can do this.
- oleksii: I made and publish my first #flatpak. I hooked up raspberry pi as runner to my #codeberg repository.https://codeberg.org/oleksiidn/bitritter/actions/runs/15/jobs/0/attempt/1It was never so easy implement, build and distribute your own apps. Finally I'm more satisfied with password manager apps on #mobileLinux #LinuxMobilehttps://codeberg.org/oleksiidn/bitritterhttps://codeberg.org/oleksiidn/keysmith
- oleksii: I've added copy to clipboard button and compiled last version of #Dino #xmpp #mobileLinux #LinuxMobile.https://codeberg.org/oleksiidn/dino/actions/runs/3/jobs/0/attempt/1I hope the main repo has this feature and push last updates.
- oleksii: You can install/update #flatpak apps from any repository without touching terminal. Repository has to have build actions aka CI/CD.It's really make life on #mobileLinux #linuxMobile so easy. Here is my example.
Kernel
- Phoronix: Many Laptop & Gaming Handheld Support Improvements Coming For Linux 7.4
- Phoronix: Faster Zswap With Patches To Batch The Writeback I/O
- Phoronix: Linux Patches Finally Make Hibernation Possible In Secure Boot / Lockdown Mode
- Phoronix: HDR Support Coming For Qualcomm MSM Driver To Benefit Snapdragon X Laptops On Linux
- phone-devel: [PATCH] ASoC: codecs: aw88261: expose hardware mute control
- phone-devel: [PATCH v4 0/4] Add Novatek NT37705 panel driver for Fairphone (Gen. 6)
Stack
- Phoronix: SQLite 3.54 Released With Faster Performance, Drops Windows XP Support
- Phoronix: Python 3.15 Released With Experimental JIT Compiler Running Faster
- Phoronix: COSMIC Epoch 1.10 Released With Launcher Now Using GPU Accelerated Rendering
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2026-10-09
- Matrix.org: Matrix at DWebCamp 2026
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!