Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (44/2025): Night Lights
Table of Contents
This past week: Fairphone 3 camera enablement on postmarketOS, a new mainline driver enabling Night Light on 29 Qualcomm SoCs, Phosh closes its 1000th bug, FuriLabs release FuriOS 14.0.0 (based on forky), a new release of SailfishOS 5.0 (and SailfishOS for the Volla Tablet), and lots more software news. Enjoy!
Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- Federico Izzo: Night Light: My first mainline driver
- The Privacy Dad: Using Ubuntu Touch on a Pixel 3A Phone
- FuriLabs: Update 14.0.0. It's Forky time!
Worth Watching
- Continuum Gaming: Continuum Gaming E491: SFOS Update - 5.0.0.71 (Connectivity Fix & Factory Reset for C2)
- UBports: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 177
- Alfred Neumayer at OpenAlt: Ubuntu Touch: What is it & Why should you care
- Compilando podcast: # 51 UNav, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Touch y UBPorts con Marcos Costales. Spanish.
- nostalgitech9669: 📱 PostmarketOS with Gnome Mobile UI - Demo 2
- Scientific Perspective: Waydroid choppy/laggy audio fix | postmarketOS
- Poczciwy: postmarketOS + Plasma Mobile on OnePlus 6 — turning this phone into a real Linux machine
Worth Noting
- bradlinder: "This handheld Linux PC combines a 5.5 inch 720p LCD display with a thumb keyboard, a clamshell case, a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, an 8,000 mAh battery, and a 4G LTE modem. The design is a work in progress, but the developer eventually hopes to launch a crowdfunding campaign. #HandheldPC #UMPC #Crowdfunding #RaspberryPi https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/1ohr3p9/handheld_device_with_raspberry_pi_zero_2_w/"
- cas: we're up to 4 systemd service subpackages in #AlpineLinux now \o/hopefully that list is gonna keep growing ^^https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=*-systemd&branch=edge&repo=&arch=x86_64&origin=&flagged=&maintainer=
- z3ntu: "Well, I'm on a camera bringup streak it seems! 🚀As of tonight the Fairphone 3 cameras (front and rear) are working on postmarketOS with mainline Linux!And if you saw, only last week I got the Fairphone 4 cameras to work.A bright future is ahead for mobile Linux! 📸(Brought to you by a night train 🚂)#postmarketOS #LinuxMobile #MobileLinux #libcamera #Fairphone #Fairphone3"
- Purism community: Librem5 v2 design opinion on headphone jack
- @dos@librem.one: Lens corrections are all wrong when zoomed in, which makes it much noisier than it should be at the edges - would have looked better if I had started hacking it up an hour earlier 🤪
- Lemmy.ml - linuxphones: SoTU: Linux phones available for the US
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: An overclock for the pinephone if anyone is interested.
- @luigi311: Just a heads up some, some carriers instantly flag the #pinephone and #pinephonepro as routers probably due to the EG25-G in them. Had my primary line on #USMobile suspended and required me to reinsert my Sim on a supported device, pixel 6, and tons of back and forth to get it reactivated. It trigger due to being on the unlimited plan so now I'm on their cheapest by the gig plan with only 2GB. Jokes on them I never leave the house/WiFi so I'll never pass 2GB and it'd $44 -> $10
- jmlich: "Mobile Linux Stand at #OpenAlt#postmarketOS, #NemoMobile, #Droidian"
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #223 Spooky Updates
- gnome: "As we continue to grow the Foundation’s donations, we look forward to being able to focus on additional ways to directly support the community and the development of GNOME itself.Thank you again to all 500 of you Friends of GNOME! To everyone else, we’d love for you to consider joining today: https://donate.gnome.org#GNOME #FriendsOfGNOME #GNOMEfoundation #FOSS #FLOSS #Linux #OpenSource #Flathub"
Phosh
- Phosh.mobi Blog: Audio Roles, Volumes and Routes
- phosh: Two new (hopefully) useful additions to #Phosh's quick settings: There's now a (optional) location service toggle to enable / disable location services (contributed by @gauthamx) and the caffeine quick setting can now automatically disable itself after a given period of time (contributed by @rudraps). The possible timer intervals will become configurable in mobile settings at some point.#LinuxMobile
- phosh: "We closed the 1000th bug in #phosh today (and that's only counting the issues in the shell itself, not the other parts of the stack):#LinuxMobile"
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: control of frame intensity and image sharpening
- Carl Schwan et al.: This Week in KDE Apps
- KDE Announcements: KDE Plasma 6.5.1, Bugfix Release for October
- KDE e.V. News: KDE e.V. elects new board members
- Volker Krause: CAP Implementation Workshop 2025
- #plasmamobile: Just an random FYI: some streaming services like dropout.tv don't require any kind of #DRM to play. As a matter of fact, you can watch episodes from Dropout on a #Librem5 using #PlasmaMobile 's #angelfish browser. (Not officially endorsement of Dropout, just stating that not all streaming services require proprietary apps / DRM)
Sxmo
Sailfish OS
- Community News - Sailfish OS Forum: Sailfish Community News, 30th October 2025 - NextCloud
- jolla: "The latest release, Tampella 5.0.0.71, is now available. This update brings improved AppSupport connectivity, especially for Jolla C2, improved compatibility with popular microG services, along with various stability fixes and enhancements.Check the full release notes here: https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/release-notes-tampella-5-0-0-71/25257"
- adampigg: User flashable download of #SailfishOS 5.0 for the @volla Tablet is now available. See here https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/the-single-volla-thread/22553
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 181
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 180
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 179
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 178
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 177
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 176
- #sailfishOS: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes https://sailfishos.org/info/#HackerNews #SailfishOS #Linux #mobile #alternative #European #tech #innovation
Ubuntu Touch
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Lomiri Operating Environment Opportunities
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Call for testing 24.04-1.1 and 20.04 OTA11
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A177 call for questions
- UBports - Development - Issues: Unable to login at boot/restart, unable to select numeric pad as have flashing keyboard
- UBports - Development - Issues: Tracking issue for minor release: 24.04-1.1
- UBports - Development - Issues: Tracking issue for minor release: 20.04 OTA-11
- fredldotme: "So I decided to step up and help the Ubuntu Unity folks with their preparations for a good 26.04 release. Let's see what we can achieve this cycle.If you want to motivate me, please send some coffee towards https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/beidl@ubuntu"
Distributions
- FuriLabs: Update 14.0.0
- postmarketOS Wiki New Pages: OS Installer
- Phoronix: Debian's APT Will Soon Begin Requiring Rust: Debian Ports Need To Adapt Or Be Sunset
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Bazaar
- fossapps: I finally implemented optimizations that allow the game to run with shaders while maintaining good performance. In the video, you can see a comparison of before and after.There are several improvements in the shader pipeline, but the most significant one is that the game is now rendered at 20% of the screen resolution and then scaled up.It doesn’t look as high-res, but all effects remain active and the framerate is much smoother.
- fossapps: It turns out the game is actually playable with shaders enabled, For those who prefer better quality to performance, you can still enable them — for now, this requires manually setting shaders = false in the code. I’m sharing a video so you can compare how it looks and performs with and without shaders.
- fossapps: Another game you can now play on PostmarketOS: "Flash-blip" by plinkr(https://plinkr.itch.io/flash-blip) (https://github.com/plinkr/flash-blip)I’ve tweaked the game to better fit a portrait mobile layout and disabled shaders that don’t perform well on ARM devices.Performance is excellent — which is crucial for a fast-paced game like this.Video recorded on a phone with Postmarket Os .Music track by vitalezzz ("Specular City")
- fossapps: “Picolove” — a PICO-8 reimplementation built with LÖVE2D (https://github.com/picolove/picolove) now includes touch controls, a pull-down menu, and full landscape mode support!It can now be played seamlessly on PostmarketOS and other Linux mobile environments.Please note: this is not the official PICO-8 engine, and not all games may run perfectly.In the demo video, you can see “Newleste”, a full recreation of Celeste for PICO-8 (https://github.com/CelesteClassic/newleste.p8)
- fossapps: Introducing “Tux’s New Adventures” — another game that now supports landscape mode on PostmarketOS!This project is essentially a mod of “Spinny the Runner”, reusing assets from “SuperTux” and built on the same "Boxclip" engine. Currently, it includes one playable level, originally designed to showcase the engine’s versatility with new themes.The game comes with a built-in level editor, allowing anyone to easily create and share their own levels.
- fossapps: another game gained Landscape mode on Postmarket Os: "Gorge".Please note that the landscape mode is not fully optimized this time. As shown in the screenshot, the score, pause text, and lives indicators are not rotated correctly. There are also a few minor issues with the thumbstick, but the game remains playable in landscape mode.
- fossapps: "Pacpac" now supports landscape mode and a pull-out menu that unlocks previously inaccessible options for touchscreen users on Postmarket Os!You can now rotate the screen, play in both portrait and landscape modes, restart the game, return to the main menu, and even exit directly from the pull-out menu!"
- fossapps: "Match4Gravity" (formerly known as "Block Drop") just got even better! The game now features a convenient pull-down menu and is fully playable in both portrait and landscape modes on PostmarketOS.Switch between orientations effortlessly using the pull-down menu, and enjoy access to additional game options that were previously unavailable on touch screens!
Kernel
- Phoronix: PCI Resizable BAR Improvements Heading To Linux 6.19
- Phoronix: Linux 6.18-rc4 Fixes Another Performance Regression In The Power Management Code
- Phoronix: Genode-Powered Sculpt OS 25.10 Brings Performance Improvements & Better Drivers
- phone-devel: [PATCH v8 0/4] Add CAMSS support for MSM8939
- phone-devel: [PATCH v2 0/2] Add support for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL
- phone-devel: Re: (subset) [PATCH v2 0/7] Camera I2C (CCI) enablement on MSM8953 and Fairphone 3
- Phoronix: Linux Kernel Ported To WebAssembly - Demo Lets You Run It In Your Web Browser
- Phoronix: Linux 6.18 Kernel Happenings, Python 3.14, NTFSPLUS & Other October Highlights
Releases
- Phoronix: Archinstall 3.0.12 & Pacman 7.1 Released For Arch Linux Users
- Phoronix: Qt Creator 18 Released With Experimental Support For Development Containers
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2025-10-31
- Matrix.org: Matrix Conf 2025 was a blast!
- Matrix.org: Post-mortem of the September 2 outage
- Matrix.org: A fond farewell from Managing Director Robin Riley
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!