Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (47/2025): Duranium enters the chat
Table of Contents
This past week: Waydroid 1.6.0 adds native Android notification forwarding to the host, FEX makes running x86 Steam games on ARM phones remarkably easy, the farphone project shows how to repurpose smartphones as tiny web servers, postmarketOS calls for immutable Duranium testers, Fairphone 4 camera produces "90s-style" photos with mainline kernel, Ubuntu Touch working on move to Qt6, and a new mainlining community launches on the threadiverse. Enjoy!
Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- Bobby Borisov for linuxiac: Marathon OS Promises BlackBerry 10-Like Fluidity on a Pure Linux Base. The last Weekly has a short video on a RPi CM5, and it seems quite fluid. Wish I had the time for a hands-on.
- far.computer: farphone how to
- CNX Software: The Librephone project aims to remove proprietary blobs from smartphones running an open-source OS
- aclu: Your Smartphone, Their Rules: How App Stores Enable Corporate-Government Censorship. Huh, so Phosh is an OS now? (Just kidding.)
Worth Listening
- gnulinux.ch: Captain it's Wednesday - Folge 160 - Linux Phones. German, with yours truly, sadly with connectivity issues - hope it's still okay.
Worth Watching
- Continuum Gaming: Continuum Gaming E495: SFOS Update - 5.0.0.72 (small update + more info on C3 & my new C2 case)
- leepspvideo: KDE Plasma Mobile. Raspberry Pi5. Debian 13 Trixie
- leepspvideo: Chuwi Hi10 X1 KDE Neon Plasma mobile. With Waydroid
- The Linux For Everyone Podcast: Episode 8: Purism & The Alternative Mobile OS | The Linux For Everyone Podcast - YouTube. Re-upload, originally from 2019.
- Helpdroid: Upgrade your Google Pixel smartphone to Ubuntu Touch (Linux) instead of Android
- Techlore: Google's Android Sideloading: More Friction Than Freedom. If you are on Android, and like F-Droid / FOSS, this is one video you should watch.
AI Slop I usually remove these, but since one of this videos has a surprsising number of views, I wanted to share the pain.
- HTech: Linux on Phones: The Future of Smartphones Has Already Begun (Full Documentary-Style Breakdown)
- VS Tech: Linux Phones in 2025 — The Future of Privacy & Freedom
- RM Tech: Linux on Phones: The Future of Smartphones Has Already Begun (Full Documentary-Style Breakdown)
Worth Noting
- robho: "I took my #Fairphone4 out for a test drive at #dufferinmall with its new mainline kernel camera support in #postmarketos conjured up by @z3ntu. Yay!My son's discerning opinion was that the photos look like the 90s. Definitely reminds me of 4x6" prints from a disposable camera with perhaps a little CCTV to spice things up.Anyways, I'd love to help troubleshoot if someone could point me in the right direction. I don't have much programming experience, but I could be considered linux poweruser."
- erebion: "I've just set up a threadiverse community, compatible with Piefed and Lemmy, for talking about mainlining. I think a lot of the questions asked could benefit a lot from the thread format, as it can be quite hard to follow the conversation and find info in a Matrix chat.Community:: !mainlining@news.erebion.eu https://news.erebion.eu/c/mainlining Come and join the conversation! #LinuxOnMobile #MobileLinux #mainlining"
- Charlie: "Someone on the Steam subreddit was asking for Valve to make a #SteamOS phone (seeing how the new VR headset is Arm but also playes x86 steam games). And I thought "Hey, I've already got #PostmarketOS on a phone. We know Valve is using some 'FEX' library. How hard could it be?"As it turned out, remarkably easy. (Though, it helps that someone already wrote a guide for it: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Steam )Pretty sure it's a YMMV situation, but my milage was pretty good.#FEX_Emu"
- austriancoder: "This is what happens when you just want to fix a NIR validation in a gles3 CTS 😅- hack on the NIR pass → give up- wonder why it even exists- check the blob cmdstream- “why are we doing it this way?”- rip the whole path out: 7 files, +11/-74- fix an st/mesa bug- glmark2-es2-wayland --off-screen jumps ~835 → ~874 🚀→ fewer shader variants + fewer instructions.#etnaviv #mesa3d #librem5 #mntreform"
- craftyguy: "If you're a developer / tinkerer who wants to try out #immutable #postmarketOS, I made a wiki page to hopefully get you started! https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Duranium_(Immutable_postmarketOS) Come help test, debug, and fix issues! It'll be fun! (note: currently only building images for limited x86_64 and aarch64 laptops)"
Events
- #sailfishOS: I'm super-excited that the #LinuxOnMobile stand will be returning to #FOSDEM in 2026!Last year we had an amazing experience meeting fellow enthusiasts and newcomers alike.This year we plan to have even more phones, devices and distros for you to play with.We're not the only FOSS/mobile stand and with any luck we'll be close together like last year. https://fosdem.org/2026/news/2025-11-16-accepted-stands/#FOSDEM26 #FossOnMobile #MobileLinux #Mobian #SailfishOS #Linmob #NemoMobile #postmarketOs #AsteroidOS
- sovtechfund: "We are pleased to announce the Call for Participation for the second "Funding the FOSS Ecosystem" devroom at FOSDEM 2026, along with @fsfe, @linuxfoundation @nlnet, and @PrototypeFund 🥳This devroom is for developers to gain insights into funding strategies, and encourages funders to better understand and support developer needs in FOSS projects.Call for participation is open until December 1, 2025!➡️ https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2026/cfp"
- tbernard: "The last edition of #BoilingTheOcean for 2025 is happening next weekend! If you're in Berlin on November 29 and 30th, join us at Cultivation Space 🪴✨We'll have the full p2panda/Reflection crew joining, including Sam and @jsparber, so get ready for lots of fun peer-to-peer discussions! Of course, all the other usual topics (Linux Mobile, GNOME UX, security etc.) are also welcome :)Sign up and add your topics and lightning talks here: https://pad.gnome.org/SkiIvfFxTUiTW-ppZNR3Tw#localfirst #gnome #postmarketOS". Wish I could go!
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- This Week in GNOME: #226 Exporting Events
- Philip Withnall: Parental controls screen time limits backend
- Lennart Poettering: Mastodon Stories for systemd v258
- Christian Hergert: Status Week 46
Phosh
- Phosh Releases: Phosh 0.51.0
- Phosh (gotosocial): Wow, #phosh got a mention from #ACLU . Thanks @nikodunk@mastodon.social for letting us know: https://www.aclu.org/news/free-s...
- #phosh: Lilbits: iPad-style multitasking on iPhones, and maybe Lenovo didn’t leak any Android PC plans after allLast week news started to make the rounds that Lenovo has published a web page spelling out the pros (and many cons) of PCs running Android. But Lenovo has since removed that website and claimed that it had nothing to do with Google’s plans to bring Android to PCs in the future… although it’s unclear why Lenovo published that page in the first place.In other recent tech news from around the […]#androidPc #exploit #fosdem #furilabsflx1 #ipados #iphone #iphoneos #jolla #lenovo #lilbits #linuxmobile #linuxphoneapps #linuxsmartphones #marathonos #megapixels #mobileLinux #mobilelinux #phosh #pinephone #plasmamobile #postmarketos #pureos #sailfishos #ubuntutouchRead more: https://liliputing.com/lilbits-ipad-style-multitasking-on-iphones-and-maybe-lenovo-didnt-leak-any-android-pc-plans-after-all/
- #phosh: The FOSS on Mobile devroom is returning to FOSDEM in 2026! Always an amazing experience: great talks and a brilliant audience.This year it's grown to a full day and all FOSS on Mobile topics, including AOSP.Got an interesting mobile project or topic? It's a great place to share. Submission deadline 1st December.https://lists.fosdem.org/pipermail/fosdem/2025q4/003687.html#fosdem #fosdem26 #FossOnMobile #LinuxOnMoble #MobileLinux #AsteroidOS #postmarketOS #nemomobile #aosp #pureos #phosh #mobian #calyxos #SailfishOS #ubports
- #phosh: Thumbnailer Demo
- #phosh: Location and caffeine quick setting in Phosh
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: UI and performance improvements
- Carl Schwan et al.: This Week in KDE Apps
- KDE Announcements: KDE Plasma 6.5.3, Bugfix Release for November
- anditosan: Design System Progress – November 2025
- Phoronix: KDE Plasma 6.6 Will Provide A Much Better Experience For High Refresh Rate Displays
Sailfish OS
- #sailfishOS: Cool. @flypig released a beta of his #newpipe port for #Sailfishos https://openrepos.net/content/flypig/sailpipe looking good!
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 200 and it's a wrap
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 200
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 199
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 198
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 198
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 197
- flypig's NewPipe log: Day 196
- #sailfishOS: RE: https://mastodon.social/@flypig/115572768067398253Me taking part in yet another translation project!#SailfishOS
- #sailfishOS: well, this is good to see. jolla now plans to release a new community phone. designed after specs from an online questionnaire.the xperia 10v version never seemed to be fully functional, and the battery in my xperia 10iii is slowly going down and can not be replaced, as far as i know. so a new community phone by jolla would come in handy during the next year.#jolla #SailfishOS #smartphone #handy #noAndroid #deGoogle #^Next gen Jolla Phone update - 11/25Greetings, This announcement starts an update sequence where we provide information on how the Next gen Jolla Phone planning progresses. As we’re doing this together with you and for you, Sailfish Community, we want to be transparent on the progress of realising this unique European project. This would be truly a Do-It-Together (DIT) Linux smartphone which would be defined together with you all! Maybe this is even the first truly community specified Linux smartphone in the world? First of all,...
Ubuntu Touch
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 178
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 177
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 176
- UBports - Development - Issues: Issues about packaging into Fedora
- UBports - Development - Issues: LUITK / Qt 6: Port the tests to CMake
- UBports - Development - Issues: telepathy-ofono: Port from libofono-qt (dead upstream) to libqofono (maintained by SailfishOS)
- UBports - Development - Issues: telepathy-ofono: port to libqofono
- UBports - Development - Issues: qqc2-style-suru: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: [Qt 6 UT only] on Ubuntu Touch, liblomiri-content-hub-qt6 -> liblomiri-app-launch -> liblibertine -> Qt 5
- UBports - Development - Issues: libqofono: Port from qmake to CMake
- UBports - Development - Issues: buteo-sync-plugin-caldav: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: buteo-sync-plugins-carddav: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: lomiri-online-accounts-caldav: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: lomiri-online-accounts-plugins-carddav: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: qtorganizer-mkcal: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: signond: Vendor latest signond from Debian unstable (support Qt5 + Qt6)
- UBports - Development - Issues: lomiri-online-accounts-plugins: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: libsocialcache: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: libqofonoext: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: libmlocale: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: qtcontacts-sqlite: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: nemo-qml-module-contacts: Port to Qt6
- UBports - Development - Issues: contactsd: Port to Qt6
- #UbuntuTouch: Last night I was invited to the #UbuntuTouch Q&A 178 episode to share our plans for #Lomiri in upcoming #Debian 14 and the work on Lomiri upstream required for this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0HGPUCXBTA0
Distributions
- danctnix: If you're getting errors such as:error: failed retrieving file 'danctnix-testing.db' from p64.arikawa-hi.me : The requested URL returned error: 403error: failed retrieving file 'danctnix.db' from p64.arikawa-hi.me : The requested URL returned error: 403error: failed to synchronize all databases (failed to retrieve some files)You need to update your /etc/pacman.conf.Replace all instances of "p64.arikawa-hi.me" with "archmobile.mirror.danctnix.org"Newer images (and the current factory image for PineTab 2) does not have this issue.#PinePhone #PinePhonePro #PineTab2
- Breaking updates in pmOS edge: APQ8064 Kernel Removed - Shifting to Mainline
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): postmarketOS is the work of thousands of people from all walks of life and with all sorts of backgrounds, including our trans users and developers. Previous efforts of transgender computer scientists, including Lynn Conway, the inventor of generalized dynamic instruction handling, Sophie Wilson, who invented the ARM Instruction Set that powers most of our devices, or maybe even you reading this, made us possible.We believe that human rights are universal and that trans people are just as deserving of compassion, love, and justice as everyone else.If you haven't already, take some time this week to give your trans friends a hug and maybe a cookie.~The postmarketOS team 🏳️⚧️#TransgenderAwarenessWeek
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): We managed to get a stand again at @fosdem next year, 2026! Come visit us and get the latest news about mainlining devices, progress on systemd and immutablity, try out demos of the various UI's we ship, and of course stickers!We'd love to see you all there
- postmarketOS Wiki New Pages: Duranium (Immutable postmarketOS)
- postmarketOS pmaports issues: systemd-services Alpine upstreaming
- postmarketOS pmaports issues: librem5 on edge: several severe regressions (openrc)
- postmarketOS Wiki New Pages: Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra (sony-redwood) Included because Mediatek.
- Mobian mobian-recipes Issues: Missing simg2img does not cause a build error
- David Heidelberg: postmarketOS gave me a one month BAN! What have I done?
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org Blog: Mid Q4 Progress Report: 15 apps added, not much else
- Phoronix: Firefox 147 Will Support The XDG Base Directory Specification
- Oliver Smith: "Congratulations to everybody who worked on the recently tagged megapixels 2 release! 🎉 Is anybody interested in taking over maintainership of the Alpine Linux package, packaging libmegapixels as well and upgrading Megapixels to version 2?…". Please help Ollie out, this (without the patches) may be a good starting point.
- thealexstewart: Question for #flatpak users: would there be any interest in a #mobile repository, where software is confirmed to work well on #linuxmobile and be compiled with mobile hardware limitations in mind? (No, not saying I could do this. I'm not equipped to setup something like that 😅)
- alatiera: "If you like and are excited about Bazaar, consider donating to support Kolunmi! it would help them a lot!https://github.com/sponsors/kolunmihttps://flathub.org/en/apps/io.github.kolunmi.Bazaar#gnome #linux #gtk #flatpak #flathub"
- anderslund: "It is now possible for #linux users to download a #flatpak to test #pumoku. Get it from https://invent.kde.org/alund/pumoku/-/jobs/3622425/artifacts/downloadWhat you get is a zip file, so unzip it, open the pumoku.flatpak with whateveryouuseforthat (like kde discover) and install it.Let me know how it went, and if you like pumoku, which today got a nice tablet mode that is also quite usefull on deskop.This is a amd64 package, so not suitable for most #linux_on_mobile users - yet. The kde/qt runtime flatpak will be downloaded as well, if not present.#kde #plasma_mobile"
- TheEvilSkeleton: "After two long and painful years, several design iterations, and more than 50 rebases later, we finally merged the infamous, trauma-inducing merge request !362 on GNOME Calendar.The calendars list in the quick-add popover has undergone accessibility improvements, providing a better experience for assistive technologies and keyboard users (to a limited extent). Specifically: tabbing from outside the list will focus the selected calendar in the list; tabbing from inside the list will skip the entire list; arrow keys automatically select the focused calendar; and finally, assistive technologies now inform the user of the checked/selected state.Admittedly, the quick-add popover is currently unreachable via keyboard because we lack the resources to implement keyboard focus for month and week cells. We are currently trying to address this issue in merge request !564 , and hope to get it merged for GNOME 50, but it's a significant undertaking for a single unpaid developer. If it is not too much trouble, I would really appreciate some donations, to keep me motivated to improve accessibility throughout GNOME and sustain myself: https://tesk.page/#donateFor non-accessibility-related details about this merge request, feel free to check out https://mastodon.social/@nekohayo/115571375702642784#GNOMECalendar #GNOME #GTK4 #libadwaita #accessibility #a11y #calendar #FOSS #OpenSource"
Kernel
- okias: "I should mention we’re adding new bug-fix patches, but as upstreaming continues, we expect the number of downstream-carried patches to drop significantly with each new -next tree tag.https://gitlab.com/sdm845/sdm845-next/-/commits/sdm845-next#MobileLinux #Upstreaming #MainlineLinux #LinuxKernel #SDM845"
- phone-devel: [PATCH v2 0/2] Asus ZenFone 2 Laser/Selfie includes a battery measured by voltage mode BMS and a simple GPIO hall effect sensor. The following commits include support for these components.
- phone-devel: [PATCH v3 00/12] Make Samsung SOFEF00 DDIC and panel work
- Phoronix: Linux 6.18 To Enable Both Touchscreens On The AYANEO Flip DS Dual-Screen Handheld
Stack
- Linux: Waydroid 1.6.0 released 🤖Waydroid? It is a container-based compatibility layer to boot a full Android system on a regular desktop Linux operating system such as Linux Mint.Waydroid keeps Android isolated from the rest of the system yet allows access to the local system's hardware.https://github.com/waydroid/waydroid/releases/tag/1.6.0#Android #Linux #desktop #mobile #Waydroid #releases
- Phoronix: Steam Frame Using Mesa's Turnip Vulkan Open-Source Driver
- Phoronix: Servo Announces Sponsorship Tiers To Get More Organizations Backing This Browser Engine
- Phoronix: VKD3D 1.18 Released With Numerous Improvements For Direct3D 12 On Vulkan
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2025-11-21
- Matrix.org: Matrix Governing Board report, November 2025
- Matrix.org: "Exclude insecure devices" is coming
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!
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