Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (42/2026): Divine D MVP + Plasma turning 6.8 and also 30
Table of Contents
Plasma 6.8 is out, the dawndrums Divine D has reached MVP running Plasma Mobile, Ubuntu Touch OTA 2.1 adds Volla Tablet support, and more!
Collected on Sunday, October 18th 2026, 16:31 UTC and finished on very late Monday, October 19th; Reason. Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.1 and 24.04-1.5 release
- NLnet: 47 Open Source Projects Receive NLnet Grants to Boost Digital Autonomy
- GNU/Linux.ch: Vom Handy zum PC - ein PinePhone als Mini-Laptop. German.
Worth Watching
- Continuum Gaming: VideoWorks – Native Video Editor on Sailfish OS (Continuum Gaming E544)
- Tomás: Jolla news, Analogue cameras and Desktop secrets.
- dawndrums: Divine D.: DawnOS with Plasma Mobile. Nice!
- CultRepo and The KDE Community: KDE: The Documentary — The Story of Free Software Underdogs
Worth Noting
- gabrielesvelto: A new time needs new terms, and I find both free software and open source terms that I don't get along with anymore. Free software is sadly tainted with the libertarian ethos that fueled so many toxic egos, and open source has always been an exquisitely corporate affair.We need new terms for software that is free to use, free to change and serves the user. Something that is intrinsecaly non-corporate, as the needs of a corporation are diametrically opposed to the needs of a human being.
- r/MobileLinux: Luma Mobile (Alpha 1) is officially available!. Quoting from simplyluma.com: "We recommend letting an AI agent do the install." Ok.
- oleksii: @alaraajavamma @zetabeta @phosh @agx @janvlug @jolla Thank you for the link.It works. Now I can login into Finnish governmental and municipal services, insurance matters, health care, and many others exept banking with #mobileCertificate on #linuxMobile #mobileLinuxhttps://codeberg.org/oleksiidn/mobile-certificateNext step to find proper desktop integration and upstream it.
- Sans_Google: Remember Windows Phone and its iconic Live Tiles? Now imagine that interface… running on Linux instead of Windows.That’s the idea behind ztOS, a mobile Linux project based on Arch Linux ARM, featuring ztMETRO, an interface inspired by Windows Phone 8.1, and native Linux applications.It runs on the Samsung Galaxy S9 with a mainline Linux kernel. Wi-Fi, 4G and the touchscreen are already working, but the camera, Bluetooth and call audio still need work.It’s still in alpha, so it’s nowhere near ready for daily use. But it’s an interesting alternative vision for Linux on smartphones.https://github.com/z3r0n3br4instorm/ztOSWould you try a Linux phone with a Windows Phone-inspired interface, or do you prefer the Android experience?#LinuxMobile #OpenSource #Linux
- knievelcat: Does anybody know how I can use qcom diag to get logs from the modem or other remote processors on mainline linux?#nuraeco #postmarketos #mobilelinux
- marcus: Screenshots for my #linuxmobile Wayland compositor Springchick were getting out of date, so now they are auto-generated using the #nix test driver - Think I'm getting quite close to a 0.1 release. There's nightly package repos for nura/arch/mobian in addition to the nixos flake https://marcus.means.no/springchick/
Events
- omasanori: 準備完了！#osc26tk #nuraeco
- FrOSCon: Save the Date! 📅Die 22. #FrOSCon findet am 4. + 5. September 2027 an der Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg in Sankt Augustin statt!Freut euch auf spannende Vorträge, Workshops und Austausch rund um freie und quelloffene Software.Damit die ehrenamtlich organisierte Konferenz wieder ein voller Erfolg wird, suchen wir schon jetzt Partner und Unterstützer!Ihr möchtet uns unterstützen oder kennt jemanden, der Interesse haben könnte? Schreibt an partner@froscon.org oder teilt diesen Beitrag!#FrOSCon22
- jolla: Jolla Phone Roadshow Stockholm is on: the Stockholm community event takes place on Thursday, 22 October at 19:00 at The Flying Horse (Odengatan 44, 113 51 Stockholm).Sailors from the Jolla team will be present, and questions and feedback about the Jolla Phone and Sailfish OS are welcome. The event is open to everyone. No advance registration is required. Discussion and details on the forum: https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/roadshow-community-meeting-stockholm-oct-22/34246/#Jolla #SailfishOS #DigitalSovereignty #PrivacyFirst #CommunityPowered
- knievelcat: Nach Ankündigung auf den #Datenspuren gibt es nun endlich auch einen Linux-Mobile-Mainlining Themenabend im C3D2. Kommt vorbei am 28.10. um 19 Uhr!c3d2.de/news/ta-smartphone-linux-mainlining_2610.html#nuraeco #mobilelinux #linux #dresden #c3d2
Hardware (enablement)
- dawndrums: Divine D. is now an MVP, powered by the Rockchip RK3588S and runs dawnos with close-to-mainline Linux kernel. Watch it navigating on Plasma Mobile: https://youtu.be/G_B7cwbMqq8
- ayakael: I've finally got mainline Linux support for the uConsole w/ Radxa CM5 module ready for merge on #Nuraeco (previously #postmarketOS). Next step is getting u-boot mainline working on this little device :)See it here https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/merge_requests/8285
- Sans_Google: What if your Google Pixel 6 could run mainline Linux instead of Android?The pixel6-mainline-nura project is an unofficial port of postmarketOS (now Nura) targeting the Pixel 6, with calls, SMS/MMS, mobile data, GPS, Bluetooth audio and even Waydroid with hardware graphics acceleration.It's still experimental: rear cameras don't work, battery drain is high, and mobile network support is currently limited to T-Mobile US configurations. Emergency calls are untested.Not a daily-driver replacement just yet, but an interesting step toward running Linux on Google's hardware.Would you try it on your own Pixel 6, even in its current experimental state?https://github.com/TheNoswad/pixel6-mainline-nura#Linux #Pixel6 #Nura #OpenSource
- Sans_Google: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS on a Xiaomi 12T Pro, running on the mainline Linux kernel.The developer reports that most functions are working, including calls, navigation and YouTube. After a day of use and a few reboots, the battery was still at 50%.The project also targets the Redmi K50 Ultra and provides the sources needed to build your own image.It's an interesting experiment in bringing native Linux to smartphone hardware, beyond the usual Android-based alternatives.https://github.com/royka1/diting-ubuntu/Would you try Linux on a spare smartphone just to explore what's possible?#Linux #Ubuntu #MobileLinux. Scaling like this hurts my eyes. There's so many nice mobile shells, why do this? Why?
- r/MobileLinux: Xiaomi 12t pro Mainline Linux 7.2.10 - call, 5G data, camera, GPU, audio, hw decoding chromium/Firefox, sensors
- r/MobileLinux: Ubuntu 24.04 arm running on Xiaomi 11 Lite NE 5g (Lisa)
- r/MobileLinux: [A Nothing Phone (1) on mainline Linux, built with Claude](https://www.reddit.com/r/mobilelinux/comments/1x8c0jo/a_nothing_phone_1_on_mainline_linux_built_wit- r/MobileLinux: Nothing Phone (1) (SM7325) on mainline 7.2 + Phosh: calls, speaker, USB-C DAC, IMX766 camera and sleep now work. Nothing Phone (1) (SM7325) on mainline 7.2 + Phosh: calls, speaker, USB-C DAC, IMX766 camera and sleep now work.
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #270 Visualized Community
- Javad Rahmatzadeh: Call for Volunteers to Help GNOME Extensions Team
- Juan Pablo Ugarte: Cambalache 1.2 Released
- Adrian Vovk: Introducing GNOME OS Preview
Phosh
- e.V.: Phosh.mobi @ the Fair Tech Summit Europe
- Phosh (gotosocial): This is a great opportunity to help out in small, bite sized bits and it can be done with all levels of technical knowledge: https://linuxmobile.social/@linuxphoneapps/statuses/01M4P6RP9D30G97DSGA38Z5JFP
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: New Weather Widget and On-Screen Keyboard
- KDE Announcements: KDE Plasma 6.6.7, Bugfix Release for October
- KDE Announcements: Plasma 6.8
- Volker Krause: Open Transport Community Conference 2026
- TSDgeos: KDE Gear 26.12 release schedule
- vizZzion: KDE Documentary
- Cornelius Schumacher: Thirty Years of KDE
- Planet KDE: This Quarter in KDE Digital Sovereignty: Q3 2026
- Phoronix: KDE Plasma 6.9 To Debut New Weather Widget & On-Screen Keyboard
Sxmo
- Lioh: Vom Handy zum Mini-PC. Wie ich das PinePhone Pro in einen Laptop verwandelt habe:https://gnulinux.ch/pinephone-mini-laptop#pinephone #linuxmobile #sxmo #nura German. Brings back memories.
Catacomb
Sailfish OS
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: Community meeting on October 29, 2026
- Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum: [Release notes] Finlayson 5.2.0.20 - Jolla Phone first
- chrastecky: Creating Apps in SailfishOS using Golang: Daemons and stuff
- chillypenguin: @matrix @hywan Sounds great!How about this an an opportunity to kick start the creation of an official Matrix/Element client for Sailfish OS?#sailfishos #digitalsovereignty
- rikles: Il est arrivé mercredi ☺️ #jolla #sailfishos
- NickAnEngineer: First toot from #SailfishOS on my new @jolla. First impressions are good, but there's going to be a bit of a learning curve!
- kolev: @jolla Make #SailfishOS completely #FreeSoftware.
- morc: The three ol' mighty Jollyboys! Including one of my new ports. All phones actually have 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage.OnePlus 7T Pro on #Jolla #SailfishOS 5.0.0.68Motorola Moto G84 on #SFOS 5.1.0.11 (my new port)Jolla Phone (2026) on SFOS 5.2.0.20
- tomasmckenna: Another week, another ten minutes waxing lyrical on the new Jolla and cameras 📱📷 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqi-jACreuw#sailfishos #jolla #linux #mobilelinux
Ubuntu Touch
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.1 and 24.04-1.5 release
- UBports Forums OS: Vertical edge drag areas width on Nothing Phone 1
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 201 call for questions
- askubuntu: Redmi Note 7 Pro (violet) completely dead after UBports Installer crash #softwareinstallation #ubuntutouch #android #hardware #phonehttps://askubuntu.com/q/1570371/612
- Batcastle: Hello from #UbuntuTouch on Nothing Phone(1)!
- mmmikhael: One thing I've wanted to improve in the next Seabass version was handling both on-screen and physical keyboards.So... this week in Seabass3 for @ubports #ubuntutouch:* A dedicated button to show/hide OSK, so that the keyboard doesn't popup accidentally when reading the files* Keyboard extension with Esc/Tab/Ctrl/Arrows* Editor now automatically focuses when switching between opened tabs, so you can start typing right away, something I personally was missing in seabass2 😃
- Lioh: I have managed to make a Video call with DeltaChat on Ubuntu touch. There was some hacking necessary to make it work on the device @lk108 gave to me and I have documented it here: https://codeberg.org/lk108/deltatouch/issues/366#deltatouch #deltachat #ubuntutouch
- Phoronix: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.1 Brings New Hardware Support & Important Security Fix
Distributions
- Nura Blog: Nura in 2026-09: FP5, ME30 Call Audio Routing
- Lemmy - Nura: Nura in 2026-09: FP5, ME30 Call Audio Routing
- Breaking updates in Nura edge: Boot failure on devices using initramfs-extra
- Breaking updates in Nura edge: Boot failure on F2FS installations
- Nura pmaports Merge Requests: Duranium in issue template
- Nura pmbootstrap tags: 3.12.1
- Mobian mobian-recipes Merge Requests: New graphical shell Lomiri
- Phoronix: Fedora 46 Looking At Moving To RPM v6 Package Format
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Filelight
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Reinschrift
- Purism community: Linal (Native Signal Client)
- krille: #FluffyChat 2.11.0 will be the first complete automated release.After a lot of work, I literally only need to start the workflow and it will be deployed everywhere. That is really satisfying to watch. :Dhttps://github.com/krille-chan/fluffychat/actions/runs/39113276807
- linuxphoneapps: Aside from the three apps added today, Peter has been looking at two other apps from #Flathub's Mobile Collection. Both were far too wide to work on mobile.In a way, this shows that a project like LinuxPhoneApps.org, dead as it may seem, is still very much needed. Unfortunately, keeping it alive is ... overwhelming, and especially, if you want to work with upstream respectfully, really time-consuming. It's an effort that needs more people. Maybe you can help out :-). Or, from todays point, maybe not. People will just
slopcreate what they need, whether it already exists or not, anyway. - oleksii: #XMPP client @dino is the best messenger! Give it a try! I’d love to see it work well with screen readers like #Orca, so blind and visually impaired people can use it too. #Accessibility #a11y#mobilelinux #linuxmobile
- oleksii: I just made a video about how to use #bitritter for #flathub submission. Maybe it would be useful for anyone who is looking for password manager on #mobileLinux #linuxmobile https://codeberg.org/Chfkch/bitritter/issues/67#issuecomment-25280770
- peja: Quadrapassel is a great little Tetris game you can play on your Linux phone! I really like how it pauses in GNOME Mobile when you switch to another app or open the Overview. You can take a call, reply to a message, or install an app, then pick up right where you left off.https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.gnome.Quadrapassel#gnomemobile #gnome #nura #oneplus6t #mobilelinux #linux #gnu #gnulinux
- QuadRadical: Nexus v1.0.0-alpha1 is out! 🎉Nexus is a simple, user-friendly Matrix client for Linux, Android, Windows, macOS and iOS, built with Flutter and powered by Gomuks.This first alpha brings room and DM creation, invites, space browsing, push notifications via UnifiedPush, and lots more.It's an alpha, so expect bugs, and please report them!Release: https://git.federated.nexus/Nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v1.0.0-alpha1Support room: #nexus:federated.nexus #Matrix #Flutter #FOSS #OpenSource Now v1.0.0-alpha4, with support for AVIF images, swipe to reply, and a fix for old encrypted messages not decrypting until tapping off and on a room: https://git.federated.nexus/Nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v1.0.0-alpha4
- Oleksii: Banking app #mobilelinux #linuxmobile #wise #yubikey
Kernel
- Phoronix: Linux 7.3 Lands Last-Minute Fixes For Samsung 990 PRO & 990 EVO Plus SSDs
- Phoronix: Claude Code / AI Shows Potential For Reverse-Engineering Hardware For Linux Support
- phone-devel: [PATCH v3 0/3] Add OnePlus 8T
- phone-devel: [PATCH v2] ASoC: codecs: aw88261: complete the start at trigger time
- phone-devel: [PATCH v6 0/2] Speakers for Pixel 3 / 3 XL
- phone-devel: [PATCH] arm64: dts: qcom: sdm845-google: Configure qup_i2c2 pins
- phone-devel: [PATCH] arm64: dts: qcom: sdm845-xiaomi-beryllium: Enable gpi_dma0
- phone-devel: [PATCH v6 1/3] dt-bindings: media: i2c: dongwoon,dw9714: Document DW9714A and V variant
- Phoronix: Linux Lands Fix for Rare, Varying SMP Boot Hangs Affecting Kernels Since 2024
Stack
- Matthew Garrett: Linux Lockdown and Hibernation (again)
- Matthew Garrett: Epic's EAC2 v2 seems fairly easily bypassable
- Lennart Poettering: Mastodon Stories for systemd v262
- Phoronix: AI Resurrects AVX-512 Support For Mesa's LLVMpipe Software Driver
- Phoronix: Mesa's Zink Now Offers VA-API Video Acceleration Atop Vulkan Video
- Phoronix: 17 More Security Vulnerabilities Made Public For X.Org Libraries
- Phoronix: Fedora 45 Will Not Be Released Next Week
- Phoronix: Memtest86+ v9.00 Released With Support For ARM64 Memory Testing
- Phoronix: 3mdeb Releases Updated Dasharo/Coreboot Firmware For ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2026-10-16
- Matrix.org: What will it take to build an open source Europe and how the Digital Commons EDIC can help
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!